Cult of Mac

I’m writing this review on a regular, full-size USB keyboard plugged into the Mac. That should be a warning sign right there — after all, this is a review of an iPad keyboard case. But that’s not the whole story. For instance, the case part of the Moshi VersaKeyboard is fantastic — so good that I’ve been using it as my main iPad case since it turned up for testing.

They keyboard is good, too, with keys as responsive as those on Logitech’s Ultrathin keyboard covers. So what’s the problem? Why am I not typing this review on the Moshi? Size.

Apple is busy putting the finishing touches on WWDC before the invasion of 5,000 developers destroy the corridors of Moscone West, but even if you didn’t get a ticket to the hottest developer event in the world, you can still enjoy WWDC like you’re actually there by sporting some of this gear from the comfort of your couch.

Tim Cook and the rest of the Apple gang are coming straight out of Cupertino on June 2nd to kick off WWDC with the first keynote of the year. iOS 8, OS X 10.10, a home automation platform, new iMacs and possibly even an 8GB iPhone 5s are rumored to make an appearance.

We’ll be covering the action on our liveblog starting at 10AM PDT, Monday June 2nd and won’t let up until WWDC finishes on June 6th, but to get yourself ready for the assault, here are eight things you should buy to get your WWDC on.

With Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy in the bag, hits like X-Men: Days of Future Past ruling the box office, and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy surfacing on the horizon, we’re living in a Golden Age for comic book movies.

But even with Hollywood seemingly buying up the rights to anything it can get its hands on, there are still some fantastic comic book series yet to make the transition to the silver screen.

Which comic book adaptations would we put down our hard-earned bucks to enjoy at the multiplex? Read on to find out…

Write, the distraction-free note-taking tool that’s been a great success on iOS, is ready to make writing easier on your Mac.

Whether you’re a student, a blogger, a novelist, or simply too forgetful to remember what you need to pack your holiday, Write’s incredibly simple design and clutter-free user interface can make writing a more enjoyable experience. But don’t let its minimal beauty fool you — Write is packed with handy features.

The Guardian — a.k.a. the British newspaper known for breaking news of the Edward Snowden leaks in 2013 — has just launched its new and improved iOS app.

The upgrade adds a cleaner design, alongside a more personalized user experience for iOS users. What this means is ramped-up interactivity, thanks to the integration with GuardianWitness, the newspaper’s user-generated content platform which allows readers to contribute comments, photos, and videos.

From a rare Apple Lisa computer to the original rainbow-colored signs from the Cupertino offices there have been some great Apple items up for auction as of late. Now you can add “rare Mac prototype” to that list.

A prototype model made out of painted foam, this alternate Macintosh LC model was built in 1989 by Apple’s Industrial Design Group and Matrix Product Design (which later became IDEO). Unlike the actual Mac LC that shipped it has a vertically-oriented screen: possibly targeted toward the business world, rather than the artistic, publishing and educational markets that the Mac traditionally sold to at the time.

I’m a streaming music junkie. I’ve subscribed to Rdio, Spotify and Slacker to rein in my tendency to hoard (and then not back up) music.  Putting a tenner on monthly subscriptions for an all-you-can-listen auditory buffet model appealed to me more than an album-binging approach, too.

Still, the Apple and Beats acquisition rumors (now fact) struck me as tone deaf – what does Beats bring that the other services don’t? So I decided to take the Beats app on my iPhone for good long spin.

Anyone who read my review of Jurassic Park Builder for iOS knows that I’m a fan of the Jurassic Park franchise — and like a lot of fans of the series I’m eagerly awaiting Jurassic World, the forthcoming movie sequel set to stomp into movie theatres June 12, 2015.

For those of us craving plot details like a t-rex craves human-sized snacks, director Colin Trevorrow recently shed some light in an interview for SlashFilm.

Despite the fact that Steve Jobs didn’t want Apple to become a company in which people were constantly asking themselves “What Would Steve Do?” after his death, it was inevitable that people would compare Apple under Tim Cook to Apple under its legendary co-founder.

Asked about that topic during an interview with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at yesterday’s Re/code Code Conference — and specifically whether there had been a “reset” period following Jobs’ death —  Eddy Cue commented that:

If you’re a fan of RPGs you’ll be instantly familiar with Square Enix’s superb series of Dragon Quest games. Among those games, the most famous is Dragon Quest VIII — a game which has sold 4.9 million units (and counting) worldwide since its launch in 2005.

Close to a decade after landing on video game consoles, an iOS port of Dragon Quest VIII was given a soft-launch in Japan five months ago, and now it’s available internationally via the App Store.

If you love Reeder 2 on your iPhone or iPad, great news: the best news reading app out there has come back to the Mac, after almost a year being MIA.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is usually as reliable a source as it gets when it comes to what’s in the works with Apple’s supply chain. The analyst has correctly predicted countless major new Apple products months in advance, just by tracing the threads in the supply chain spider web.

But not even Kuo is infallible. Notable Apple journalist Jim Dalrymple has shot down Kuo’s latest report, suggesting that Apple will introduce a new iMac and a lower-capacity 8GB iPhone at its Worldwide Developers Conference, with just a single word: “Nope.”

Now that Apple’s acquisition of Beats has finally been made official, Eddy Cue and Jimmy Iovine took the stage at the the inaugural Code Conference tonight to give a peak behind the scenes of deal, as well as glimpse at what’s to come in 2014 – including the best product pipeline the company has seen in 25 years.

The interview comes as Apple is preparing for its annual developer’s conference in San Francisco next week where it’s expected to announce new versions of iOS and OS X, and while will have to wait to see if any hardware will come out as well, Eddy Cue is already hard at work hyping Apple’s upcoming products.

Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg led the conversation with Eddy Cue starting things off by parroting Tim Cook’s statements that Apple acquired Beats for three reasons: Talent, Headphones, and a Music Subscription Service, before revealing these eight new tidbits on the deal as well as the future of Apple:

Three weeks of speculation and rumors have led to this. Apple is finally buying Beats for $3 billion.

News of the deal broke weeks ago but the tech world is still scratching its head, wondering why Apple decided to buy a company that peddles overpriced plastic headphones and is co-anchored by one of hip-hop’s most notorious MCs.

Forgetting the fact the fact that Beats has captured 60% of its market, makes over $1 billion in sales and has one of the fastest growing music subscription service in the U.S., the acquisition is the most perplexing Apple purchase since NeXT, but now that Tim Cook has broken the silence on why Apple bought Beats we finally answers you wanted to know but were afraid to ask.

Beats Music is now officially being bought by Apple, and to celebrate, the streaming-music service is extending its free trial and lowering the cost of a yearly subscription by $20.

Apple’s acquisition of Beats is official, and it’s clear that the move is more about the talent Apple is getting than anything else.

After the buyout was announced this afternoon, Apple CEO Tim Cook explained the reasoning behind the company’s decision. “What Beats brings to Apple are guys with very rare skills,” he said in an interview with Re/code. “People like this aren’t born every day. They’re very rare. They really get music deeply. So we get infusion in Apple of some great talent.”

So it’s obvious that Apple thinks very highly of the people at Beats. But who exactly are they getting as part of the deal?

Two weeks after the news of the deal was first reported, Apple has officially announced its buyout of Beats Electronics for $3 billion.

Apple will keep the Beats headphone and Beats Music brands separate as part of the deal. As previously reported, Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine will join Apple full time.

“Music is such an important part of all of our lives and holds a special place within our hearts at Apple,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “That’s why we have kept investing in music and are bringing together these extraordinary teams so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world.”

An analyst has traveled to Apple’s supply chain in Taiwan, and he claims to have learned about the rumored iWatch.

While the design of Apple’s upcoming wearable has been a point of contention so far, Brian Blair of Rosenblatt Securities claims that it will feature a round face. He also backs up previous reports that the device will go into production this summer. Based on the increasing frequency of such claims, we may see an actual iWatch materialize by the end of this year.

And that’s not all Blair has learned from supply chain sources.

There is a ton of competition in the external battery pack space. You can get a ruggedized brick for your Xtreme adventures, a cute little pocket-sized charger for a quick hit of juice in the car or on the go, and even an iPhone-wrapping battery pack that gives you even more storage space than you might need.

I live a portable, electronic-powered life, carrying iPhones, iPads, e-Readers, and portable gaming devices with me at all times. Most of these things are power-hungry, forcing me to keep my eye open for wall plugs, or to carry external power packs that can handle the energy load.

So what does a battery pack need to do to set itself apart from the crowd, claiming the scarce space in my backpack or messenger bag? It has to be quick to charge, easy to use, small, light and pretty to look at, for starters. And it really should have a lot of spare power to keep all my devices rolling.

Your Ouya just got a little creepier thanks to the developer of creepy platforming game, Whispering Willows. The trailer (below) shows protagonist Elena as she searches for her missing father through innovative environmental puzzles and supernatural obstacles.

“[Elena] must harness the powers of her heritage,” writes developer David Logan on the Kickstarter page, “utilizing astral projection and other ethereal abilities to find her father before he, too becomes lost to the hopeless morass of the Willows estate.”

If that (and the trailer below) doesn’t have you dusting off your tiny Android-powered gaming cube, we don’t know what will.

One of the best perks about having an iPhone is that it naturally does a pretty good job at running well. Although, after time many users have found that their iPhone runs slower and doesn’t perform as well as it used to. In today’s how-to find out how to help your iPhone run smoother in just five quick tips.

Take a look at the video to see what to do.

FaceFilter3 Pro is a versatile photo retouching and beautifying toolkit makes it easy to apply natural skin smoothing and blemish removal tools, or—if you’re feeling creative—go all out with the comprehensive multi-layer makeup system to really make your features pop.

As photo-editing software goes, the editing environment is very easy to use – and along with the included makeup templates – makes applying effects as easy as clicking a button. And Cult of Mac Deals has FaceFilter3 Pro available for only $49 during this limited time offer.

The Opinel No8 is hardly a new gadget, but when something is this good, why change it? I’ve been using the wood-handled French pocket knives for around 12 years since I was given a carbon steel No8 as a gift. That knife is still in daily use, and has since been joined by several others, including one made for children (more on that in a bit). I even have a tiny No3 that I use for sharpening pencils.

Why am I writing about a 120-year-old knife on the Cult of Mac? Because age doesn’t matter when something is this well-designed. Also, I figure if you’re a fan of Apple gear you will appreciate good design wherever you find it.

Coming up with a slogan can be tricky business. Although Apple has a history of thinking different about its catchphrases, when the Cupertino company unfurled the banners for WWDC 2014 this week, we were unimpressed.

This year’s slogan — “Write the Code. Change the world.” — sounds like it came straight from Mike Judge’s hit comedy show Silicon Valley. In the HBO series, every half-baked startup either wants to “revolutionize” or “make the world a better place” through things like “software-defined data centers” or “scalable, fault-tolerant, distributed data bases with ACID transactions.”  Code Flappy Bird, save the world!

Here are some of Apple’s WWDC hits and misses from over the years.

Think we’re off the mark? Let us know in the comments!

Coding marathons, packed parties and more fanboys than should be legally permissible in one building await developers when Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off in San Francisco next week, and while the conference is serious business for most devs, who says you can’t have a little bit of fun too?

WWDC rips into high gear with a keynote on June 2nd followed by days of coding sessions, high-profile speakers, hands-on labs and tons of get togethers for developers of all sizes and backgrounds.

Sneaking in time to tour San Francisco is nearly impossible thanks to the stuffed scheduled at WWDC and nearby AltConf, but whether you’re coming to WWDC as a first timer or a seasoned vet, here are nine things every Apple fan must do at least once while visiting the Bay Area.