Cult of Mac

OMG y’all, it’s CultCast time. This week we bring to thee some more cool iOS 8 features you didn’t hear about at WWDC, plus we’ll tell you all about the new time-lapse video feature we’ve been playing with. Then, with rumors swirling that fall will bring us an iWatch, we have to wonder what features and price point would make us want one adorning our wrists. All that plus Apple’s marketing arm gets major renovations, and in honor of this week’s E3, we say why Nintendo absolutely needs to bring Mario to iOS to survive!

Cheerfully guffaw your way through each week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the uproarious good time commence.

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You know those cheapo gadgets you pick up at the dime store or from the racks by supermarket checkouts? That’s the kind of throwaway gadget you think you’ve got when you pick up the Clamplight MINI from Blackfire. Which is a shame, because it’s actually pretty good.

What’s your take on iOS 8, Swift and OS X Yosemite?

Got your own favorite features in Apple’s latest releases? Let us know in the comments below.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

If you use Twitter a lot on your iPhone, you’ve probably heard of the Tweetbot app, a popular iOS Twitter client that was recently redesigned from the ground up for iOS 7.

Now in its third incarnation, Tweetbot 3 has just received a big update, adding a fistful of handy new features — including support for posting and viewing multiple images (although Tweetbot’s creators point out that these won’t show up on streaming timelines until Twitter adds support).

The app update also means that image detail views show the corresponding tweet when relevant, while Instagram videos are marked with a new “play” icon to make the user interface clearer.

Elizabeth O’Connell is waging war on Apple from an iPhone 5C with a cracked screen.

O’Connell, campaigns director for Green America, is part of an 80-strong group of environmental and human rights groups that recently fired off a 17-page letter to Apple’s vice president of environmental affairs Lisa Jackson. At the core of the question are known carcinogens, benzene and n-hexane, the chemicals that make your iPhone screen so shiny.

As former head of the Environmental Protection Agency Jackson, protest organizers say, should know better. The effort is part of Green America’s “Bad Apple” campaign, which features a mock app. At this writing, over 2,000 people have signed up for the “app,” which sends an email to Apple asking to cut the noxious chemicals. Organizers say another 20,000 people have signed a traditional online petition.

Apple has launched an exchange program in 36 countries for certain models of its 5W European USB power adapter, saying that there is a risk that they might overheat and pose a safety risk.

Identified as Model A1300, the affected adapters originally came packaged with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4s models which shipped between October 2009 and September 2012. Apple is letting owners of these chargers replace them with new adapters in participating Apple Authorized Service Providers. Replacements will be made so long as the corresponding iPhone serial number is verified.

Pikichat could be the next Snapchat. The idea behind the new photo app is ingeniously straightforward: Simply take a picture and then share it among a group of family members or friends. Like Snapchat, the picture will only stay up for a limited amount of time, but unlike Snapchat it will remain there until it is replaced by a new image.

Every time a person sends a new photo, it replaces the existing one. Group conversations take the form of the most recent photo added, with everyone possessing the ability to draw on the photo or add comments.

Apple may have bought Beats, but that’s apparently not enough to stop Beats cutting support for its Beats Music Android app, which just received a notable update.

The update adds a new landscape mode, as well as the ability to save offline downloads to an external SD card, and transfer offline downloads between an SD card and internal device storage.

You can now share your crazy World Cup goal celebrations with your friends via Facebook Messenger for iPhone. A new update rolling out today introduces the ability to record and send 15-second video clips without ever having to leave the app.

SVP of Retail Angela Ahrendts made her first official public appearance as an Apple executive at the Friday opening of Apple’s tony new store in Tokyo, Japan.

Ahrendts posed for photos with fans who had turned up to see the opening of the upscale Omotesando Apple Store. Other Apple execs at the event included Retail Real Estate and Development Vice President Bob Bridger, Worldwide Apple Retail International sales VP Steve Cano and Online Stores VPs Jennifer Bailey and Bob Kupbens.

Purchasing media across iTunes accounts can fuel household arguments. Add in parents having to share their Apple IDs and passwords with children, and you’ve got a perfect recipe for irritation. In today’s hands-on video, we’ll give you a look at a new iOS 8 feature called Family Sharing, which remedies these common problems.

Family Sharing lets up to six people share movies, music, TV shows, books and apps purchased from iTunes, iBooks and the App Store. It also offers other useful features, like photo and calendar sharing. See how it all works in the video above.

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When browsing the App Store, it’s easy to get lost in an endless sea of apps. Apple tries to make it easier to find the best apps with a team of editors that handpick the best options in different categories, like productivity and health.

In Europe, Apple now has editors curating seven more categories of the App Store, reports The Guardian. Adding more kinds of apps that are curated puts European App Stores on a closer level to the U.S. and Canada, where every category has human editors.

We’ve been seeing reports on Twitter of the iTunes Store not working, and it does indeed seem that Apple’s cloud servers are acting up. Both the App Store and iTunes Store are having trouble loading for a lot of people.

Cult of Mac Deals has cooked up great savings on a slew of killer Mac apps – apps that will foster the writer in you, bring out the best in your photos, and compress files like a champ.

For a limited time you can get the award-winning Scrivener 2 for just $20, a valuable addition to your photo tools arsenal in FaceFilter3 Pro for only $49, and StuffIt Deluxe, an app that lets you easily compress, secure and send files for the low price of $9.99.

Amazon’s long-rumored music streaming service is finally here. It’s called Amazon Prime Music, and it offers unlimited, ad-free streaming of more than a million songs and hundreds of playlists. And if you’re an Amazon Prime subscriber, you get it completely free on your smartphone, tablet and computer.

Go fly a kite. Marketing exec Pierre Lesage finds the practice relaxing after a busy week overseeing operations at eight hotels. It’s also perfect for shooting photos.

“Since the drones came out a few years ago, kite aerial photography lost interest for a few photographers that are just looking for photographic results,” says Lesage. “I am also looking for results but I need that poetic aspect of doing it with a kite, and as long as there is wind I never have problem with batteries.”

Quadcopters are a thrill but flying kites is the zen alternative — and the photographic results are postcard perfect. It’s a way to mix tinkering with fresh air and can be as easy as picking up a prefab rig or as complicated as diving into the world of schematics and solder.

LOS ANGELES — Drop this tactical-style vest onto your shoulders and fasten it high on your chest, and you’re suddenly feeling the action. Using audio-based haptic technology (the kind of rumbling vibrations that you’ll find in any video gaming controller), the KOR-FX turns the audio in the game into rumbles you can feel.

The makers of this new gaming peripheral have a few prototypes set up on the show floor at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles this week, and they’ll let all comers come and try a demo.

“Some people want to wear this thing lower on their chest, but up high is what stimulates the limbic system,” Seth Fandetti, CEO of Immerz (the makers of the KOR-FX) told us onsite at the expo. “It’s more than just feeling bullets hit you; it’s a whole immersive experience.”

“Meanwhile, back in the dungeons beneath Cult of Mac headquarters, an Apple-loving blogger tested out a new app…”

If you’re a fan of comic books (and, let’s face it, who isn’t?) the idea of transforming your personal photo gallery into a comic strip, complete with captions and onomatopoeic sound effects, is pretty tantalizing.

That’s the concept behind Juicy Bits’ comic-style photo-editing app Halftone 2, which has just received an exciting update, adding support for video that lets you turn your comic into a full-motion slideshow, complete with customized camera movement, sound effects, and music score.

iOS 8 packs in a bunch of great new photo features, in both the Camera app and the Photos app. You now get a lot more control over your photography at the front end, with manual exposure and even a time-lapse mode, and you can edit and find your photos with a little more precision than before.

iOS 8 is still a few months out, but you don’t have to wait: Use these currently available apps to add all these new functions to your iPhone (or iPad) today.

Google is planning to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Virgin Galactic to gain access to satellite launch technology and an equity stake in the company, Sky News reports.

The deal, which is believed to be in its final stages, is thought to be part of Google’s plan to put hundreds of satellites in space that will provide Internet access to billions of people.

Instead of trotting out the cliché question, “Are games art?,” an exhibit at the Electronic Entertainment Expo aims to explore the actual artwork from upcoming and recently announced video games.

Long gone are the pixellated abstracts of yesteryear: these are fully realized, gorgeous works of art in various styles, hung for all to see in the Los Angeles Convention Center, where the Expo takes place this week.

Developing today’s graphics-rich video games –mobile, console, or PC — takes a lot of time, talent, and passion, and the images above show the kind of artistic energy that is put into them. From the painterly styles of artwork from Assassin’s Creed Unity and Destiny to the poster illustration of The Banner Saga and Sunset Overdrive, there’s a lot to like in the images above.

All photos by Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

In four months, Apple will reveal new iPhones. It’s as certain as the changing of summer to fall: Leaves die, kids go back to school, and the world gets a shiny new iPhone, delivered with love from Cupertino.

But when Tim Cook takes the wraps off this year’s version, what’s to become of the poor, sad, unloved iPhone 5c, still begging the world to caress its unapologetically plastic frame?

Will there be a sequel?

Yahoo’s iOS Flickr client got a revamp this morning, adding several handy features — including new options related to sharing, tagging, and describing your photo albums.

Users now have the ability to share their albums via Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter, in addition to Mail and SMS. The update also provides users with the chance to add and edit both tags and descriptions of their photos from inside the app.

Rovio has officially launched its latest Angry Birds game, Angry Birds Epic, for iOS devices worldwide.

Unlike previous Angry Birds sequels which have flapped their wings since the original game flew into the App Store back in 2009, Angry Birds Epic takes the form of a fantasy RPG starring both the Angry Birds and the Bad Piggies. The game soft-launched in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand back in March, but today marks the first time gamers from across the globe can get their hands on it, too.

NBA superstar (and Samsung shill) LeBron James reportedly made some serious bank as a result of Apple’s $3bn Beats acquisition in May — ranking as the largest equity cash payout for a professional athlete in history.

Citing sources close to the issue, ESPN claims that James struck a deal to promote Beats headphones back in 2008, in exchange for a minority interest in the then-new company. Although it’s not known exactly how many shares he owned (Beats has always framed it as a “business relationship” without giving further details), it was enough to earn him a whopping $30 million in both cash and stock when the Beats deal was finally done.