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Yosemite, iOS 8 and the new features we love most on this week’s CultCast

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Wow! This year’s WWDC keynote was one of the most important in years, and on this week’s CultCast, we unpack all the new features announced for Yosemite and iOS 8, and tell you which ones we can’t believe we ever lived without. Plus, with so many new developer APIs and a whole new programming language, we think Apple in on the verge of something big, and if you thought they had cool products before… well, hold on to your butts.

Snicker 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.

And thanks to Lynda.com for supporting this episode! Learn at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials at Lynda.com.


Click on for the show notes.

Keep Dad connected with Karma Hotspot [Deals]

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With Father’s Day right around the corner, Cult of Mac Deals has some offers that are bound to surprise your father — and pleasantly so — and save you some money in the process.

The gift of a lightning-fast 4G connection is exactly what Dad needs for Father’s Day. The Karma Hotspot provides Dad with the tool to work and check in with the family from where ever and whenever. Traveling adds all kinds of headaches and not being able to contact family or work remotely can seriously cramp Dad’s style. Whether it is traveling or just taking a weekend trip, Karma is a must-have gift that Dad won’t leave home without. And Cult of Mac Deals has it for 30% off — just $69 — for a limited time.

Crystal Baller: Killing the headphone jack and other stupid Apple rumors

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The Rumor: Apple's chief of software Craig Federighi joined Twitter just before WWDC with the new @Craig_Apple handle.

The Verdict:Don't be fooled. After CNBC tweeted that they confirmed with Apple the account really is Craig's, we did a little digging of our own and concluded there's just no way any Apple SVP would be tweeting the stuff the account was spiting out, even though we really wish it were him.
Federighi was the fan favorite at WWDC this year, with lines for pictures with him wrapping around the conference center. He's got the sharp wit and charm to kill it on Twitter, unfortunately, Craig himself has verified it's not his account.

The Rumor: Apple's chief of software Craig Federighi joined Twitter just before WWDC with the new @Craig_Apple handle.

The Verdict:Don't be fooled. After CNBC tweeted that they confirmed with Apple the account really is Craig's, we did a little digging of our own and concluded there's just no way any Apple SVP would be tweeting the stuff the account was spiting out, even though we really wish it were him.

Federighi was the fan favorite at WWDC this year, with lines for pictures with him wrapping around the conference center. He's got the sharp wit and charm to kill it on Twitter, unfortunately, Craig himself has verified it's not his account.


Virtual reality is going to make everyone sick — including companies that dump billions into it

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The awe you feel will be cut fairly short. Photo: Sergey Galyonkin/CC
The awe you feel will be cut fairly short. Photo: Sergey Galyonkin/CC

When my kids and I walked into a coffee shop one sunny day last month, we were greeted by a row of tables holding laptops with gaming demos.

My son gravitated toward the biggest display, a huge TV screen with a giant, face-obscuring set of goggles set in front of it. This was the Oculus Rift, the latest fad gaming device that places two stereoscopic images in front of your eyes to simulate virtual reality.

He slid the massive black eyewear onto his face, picked up the connected Xbox controller, and started moving his head around. The rest of us could see the game on the TV — an abstract shooting gallery in three dimensions, with my boy at the center, first-person style.

After about five minutes of waving his head around and pressing buttons on the controller, my son pushed the goggles up and off his head and said, “Dad, I think I’m going to be sick.”

Gadget Watch: Planes with iPad holders, bike-chain keychains and a $340 tote bag

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Braven makes some of my favorite Bluetooth speakers, and the Mira looks like another winner – 10-hour battery, built-in speakerphone, proper control buttons for play/pause and volume, and splashproof. But the really neat part is the fold-out hook for hanging it up in kitchens, bathroom, gardens and workshops. The hook also doubles as a kickstand for safer spaces. $99

Braven makes some of my favorite Bluetooth speakers, and the Mira looks like another winner – 10-hour battery, built-in speakerphone, proper control buttons for play/pause and volume, and splashproof. But the really neat part is the fold-out hook for hanging it up in kitchens, bathroom, gardens and workshops. The hook also doubles as a kickstand for safer spaces. $99


Spider-Man Unlimited will swing into the App Store this year

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Gameloft’s previous Spider-Man games have been pretty fun, even if they’ve also been plagued by enough in-app purchases to well and truly set off our spider-sense (or, at least, overdraft fee alerts). With E3 coming up next week, Gameloft and Marvel have announced a brand new Spider-Man game called Spider-Man Unlimited, based on the Marvel comic of the same name.

This game is set to take the character of Spider-Man and place him into an endless runner scenario, with the developers promising that:

Woz was just too damn good at Tetris

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Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was almost better at Tetris than building computers. Photo: Leonora Giovanazzi

Before fingers throbbed from marathon Candy Crush sagas, before Flappy Bird zoomed across iPad screens from Palo Alto to Manila, there was Tetris — and Stephen Gary Wozniak was its king.

Thirty years ago today, a Russian programmer named Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov created the massively popular and horrifically addictive game that became the first U.S.S.R. video game export to the United States. In a recent Gizmodo article celebrating Tetris’ popularity, Woz jumped into the comments to wax nostalgic about his love for Game Boy Tetris and shot of a little brag on his wizard-like skills at the game.

Just how damn good was he? I’ll let the champ speak for himself:

How minimalist puzzler Blek turned two brothers into millionaires

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Photo credit: Apple
Blek combines pop art stylings with super-addictive gameplay. Photo: Kunabi Brother

Brothers Denis and Davor Mikan make it look easy. They created a memorable and graphically beautiful puzzler called Blek that rocketed to the top of the paid game chart in the iOS App Store, making them millions in the process. Deceptively simple — with a nod to 60s pop art — the game caught the attention of Apple, too, which recently handed them a Design Award in recognition.

“It may sound simple, but it’s the Apple kind of simplicity that actually takes a lot of work,” Denis Mikan says of the game he co-created.

“It may sound simple, but it’s the Apple kind of simplicity that actually takes a lot of work.”

The idea behind Blek is ingeniously straightforward. At its simplest you draw a line on screen, and then this line repeats itself over and over until it encounters a black dot, or goes outside of the screen borders and resets. Draw the line slowly and it moves slowly, draw it fast and it moves fast. Your aim is to clear the screen of colored dots without accidentally touching a black one. But from small acorns grow mighty oaks, and since Blek arrived in the App Store a few months ago it has received close to a million downloads at $2.99 each.

Still reeling from their breakout success, Mikan told us about Blek‘s unlikely odyssey from the brothers’ hometown of Vienna, Austria, into the hearts of iOS gamers around the world. Befitting the game they brought into the world, their journey was hardly a straight line.

The complete video guide to WWDC 2014

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As months have passed since Apple’s last keynote revealing any official news to look forward to, this week they’ve broken their silence. Apple CEO, Tim Cook, and many other official representatives revealed details on upcoming software, in the forms of OS X Yosemite and iOS 8. Take a look at the video to see a complete guide to of all of this week’s news and be sure to return next week for another.

Subscribe to CultOfMacTV on youtube.com to catch new episodes of the roundup and other great video reviews, how-to’s and more.

Sony floods show floor at E3 with supersized launch titles

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The sad part of buying a new console is not having enough games to play on it. That’s been the case with all three new next generation gaming machines released recently, but the trend is perhaps most noticeable with Sony’s new box, the PlayStation 4.

I purchased Sony’s hot new console on the day it came out, but the number of big new games I can run on it can easily be counted on one hand.

Sony looks to fill this gap next week at the Electronics Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, and it’s just released a staggeringly huge list of games (much bigger than the usual console-style announcement we’ve seen in years past) that we can look forward to seeing at their booth on the show floor, including over 40 games for the PlayStation 4 console itself.

Caption contest: Tim Cook walks into an AppleCare center in Texas…

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Tim Cook tweeted this photo today of his visit to the new Apple campus in Austin, Texas. Can you read his lips?

Imagine calling into AppleCare, pissed off that your iPad’s display is freezing, again. You’re ready to obliterate the schmucks at the call center with a hadouken ball of fury, but when the line is finally answered, you’re disarmed by the sweet southern charm of Apple’s lovable CEO.

That’s what happened to a couple of customers calling into AppleCare yesterday in Austin, Texas as Tim Cook and Eddy Cue took a tour of the new facilities, fixed up some Mac Pros, and even fielded a few calls themselves.

Apple plans October event for big iWatch reveal

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(an iWatch concept design)
(an iWatch concept design)

Get ready, because the iWatch is coming this fall—October, to be exact.

Corroborating another report from earlier today, Re/code confirms that Apple’s “first, long-in-the offing foray into wearable devices” is indeed slated for October of this year. The publication’s sources have been spot on with future Apple event dates in the past.

How iOS 8 is going to reinvent what it means to be an app

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Craig Federighi unveiling Extensibility at WWDC on Monday. (Photo: Roberto Baldwin/ The Next Web)
Craig Federighi unveiling Extensibility at WWDC on Monday. (Photo: Roberto Baldwin/ The Next Web)

Six years after Apple pioneered what it means to be a mobile app, the company has reinvented the concept in iOS 8.

Thanks to what the company calls Extensibility, iOS 8 can let apps talk to one another and work together like never before. Once developers figure out how to implement their newfound flexibility, apps won’t just be apps anymore. They will become tools and services. Not just silos that can’t communicate, but pipes feeding into each other.

“Extensibility is tremendously interesting, and it’s fair to say developers have hoped for something like this practically since day one,” said David Chariter of AgileBits, makers of 1Password. Developers like AgileBits see iOS 8 as a sign that mobile apps will become not only smarter, but more powerful in their ability to aid users.

Last Chance: 50% off unlimited storage from Backblaze [Deals]

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Want to keep your data safe and secure? Then this Cult of Mac Deals offer is for you.

With over 5 billion files backed up, Backblaze gives you a trusted and secure system to keep your most important information secure. Whether you’re on the web or using your mobile phone, you can access all your backed up files wherever and whenever you need. And now you can get one year of unlimited cloud storage with Backblaze for only $24.99.

How to enable Yosemite’s hidden dark mode

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Step away from the light with Yosemite's dark mode. Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac
Step away from the light with Yosemite's dark mode, photo Buster Hein

OS X Yosemite is the biggest visual overhaul Apple’s made to the Mac in years, but developers at WWDC seemed most excited about one tiny UI tweak – dark mode.

Beta testers eager to try out the the new OS X 10.10 feature were disappointed to find out it didn’t make it into the first Yosemite beta, but our friend Jean-David Gadina, from the DiskAid developers team, has done some digging into the OS X Yosemite beta and discovered a new file not present in Mavericks that can be manipulated to enable the hidden dark mode feature.

Here’s how to do it:

iWatch will run iOS 8 and launch this October

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Apple’s long awaited and heavily rumored iWatch is set to land in stores and on wrists this October, according to a new report from Japanese business newspaper Nikkei.

Unnamed sources tell the paper that Apple has begun finalizing specs for the device, which will feature a curved OLED touchscreen and run a version of iOS 8. In keeping with Apple’s push into fitness and health tracking, as seen through the announcement of its upcoming Health app and API for iOS 8, the device will allegedly use biometric sensors to collect health-related data such as calorie consumption, sleep activity, blood oxygen levels, and more.

This fake Craig Federighi Twitter account is fooling thousands of Apple fans

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A Twitter account claiming to be run by superstar Apple exec Craig Federighi has been tweeting and retweeting as if it’s run by Hair Force One himself during WWDC. It has amassed more than 14,000 followers in less than two weeks and looks legit at first glance, but don’t be fooled.

We’re pretty sure it’s a fake — and we’ve seen an email that appears to confirm our suspicions.

You’ll need a Yahoo account to use Flickr from June 30

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If you’re a Flickr user you might be annoyed by Yahoo’s latest power play, which removes third party logins — meaning that from June 30 you’ll no longer be able to log in to your account using your Facebook or Google ID.

Yahoo claims that it’s so that the service can offer “the best personalized experience to everyone,” but it seems a pretty shameless way of getting users to sign up for Yahoo accounts (which you’ll now need to sign up to, or keeping using, the service). While Yahoo announced that this would be happening earlier this year, this is the first time we’ve had an actual date to put with the report.

Surreal photos capture Stormtrooper’s life on Earth

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Photo by Darryll Jones
Photo by Darryll Jones

Eric is a Stormtrooper who escaped the exploding Death Star and wound up on Earth.

Now he wears jeans, enjoys lavender-scented bubble baths, drinks Johnnie Walker whisky and sings a song about his tomato allergy.

No longer a member of the Galactic Empire guard, Eric serves as muse to British photographer Darryll Jones, a self-described 39-year-old child who has turned his fondness for toys — especially Star Wars action figures — into a Force on Instagram.

“I have always loved toys,” said Jones, a food and lifestyle photographer who does work for the Tesco supermarket chain when he’s not taking pictures of toys. “I recall quite vividly setting up little dioramas in my room or in the garden and playing out the scenes in my mind, imagining that the little plastic figures could come alive.”

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite is coming to an App Store near you

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Although we’re living through something of a golden age for original iOS games (think Monument Valley and Leo’s Fortune), it’s also a great time for iPhone gamers because we’re seeing ports of so many classic games making their way into the App Store. The latest is Capcom’s tremendous 2008 video game Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, which has just been announced as being set to arrive on iOS in the near future.

Promising a near-exact replica of the PSP title, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite will nonetheless optimize the monster-slaying experience for touch controls, as well as offering support for MFi (Made for iPhone) gamepads and improved graphics. In addition there’s set to be an online multiplayer mode, which is a big part of the game’s appeal.

Apple promises $2 million to help bring Super Bowl 50 to Bay Area

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Since the airing of Apple’s iconic “1984” commercial to launch the Macintosh, tech companies have had a special relationship with the Super Bowl. Now Apple is one of several tech giants — including Google, Yahoo and Intel — which have chipped in $2 million each in cash and services to help offset taxpayer dollars involved with bringing the historic 50th Super Bowl to the San Francisco 49ers stadium in Santa Clara, California.

Mexican carriers ordered to stop using the iPhone name in ads

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Carriers in Mexico are no longer allowed to make use of the word “iPhone,” according to a new report from the Mexican publication El Universal. The news outlet reports that the ruling comes from the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI)and is based on the fact that the phonetically identical sounding “iFone” trademark is already owned by a small call center in Mexico. The trademark has been held since 2003 — four years before Apple released its first generation iPhone.

While Apple was acquitted as being at fault in the case, due to the fact that it is not considered a telecommunication services provider, Mexican carriers did receive blame, on the basis that they do provide such services.

Apple ramps up efforts to woo Chinese app developers

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The impact of coronavirus in China could hurt Apple in 2021.
Illustration: Cult of Mac

China is an important market for Apple, and while the company now has deals like the one with China Mobile that help distribute hardware in the country, that is only half the battle. According to new reports, Apple has recently been focusing on wooing Chinese appmakers to get them to develop for iOS.

“Two years ago there was no developer support in China,” Chinese developer Woody Wan told Bloomberg in a recent interview. “There’s been a significant improvement.”

According to the report, Apple has been taking various steps to win over Chinese app developers — including beefing up developer relations by allowing new apps to be approved in the country, opening up a new office in downtown Beijing where the China App Store is located, and building new Chinese-language-specific software to benefit developers. At WWDC this week, Apple held several sessions and social gatherings for programmers visiting from China.

Square Enix targets fall for upcoming Hitman: Sniper

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Less than two months after reinventing the Hitman franchise with the superb puzzler Hitman GO, developers Square Enix Montreal have announced that they’re set to take another crack at a mobile version of Hitman with the upcoming Hitman: Sniper.

This game will take a more classic approach to the stealth-based murder-heavy series by being a game about sniping, similar to the 2012 console game Hitman: Sniper Challenge, which was tied into the release of Hitman: Absolution. Levels in Hitman: Sniper will reportedly feature multiple solutions, with leaderboards that will make the whole thing “massively competitive.”