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Ignore Jay-Z more with new Twitter mute button

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Twitter says iOS
Twitter says iOS

If silence is golden then Twitter’s new mute feature is like King Midas, turning every annoying miscreant and troll in your feed into an unseeable nothing.

The new mute feature is rolling out today for people who use Twitter on iPhone, Android, and Twitter.com. Mute let’s you take more control of the content in your feed by completely banning some users from showing up in your timeline.

Square’s new Order app lets you skip the register altogether

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Square has been at the forefront of mobile payments for years now, thanks largely to the popularity of its white card reader that’s used by merchants everywhere.

Now the company is debuting a brand new app called Square Order, and it does away with the need for a cash register completely. The introduction of Square Order also means the death of Square Wallet, a failed experiment that Order hopes to correct.

Build your dream business with The Dream Big Entrepreneur E-Book Bundle [Deals]

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We’re excited to bring you 15 web design and online marketing e-books, written by some of the world’s most respected web designers and entrepreneurs in this packaged of resources we’ve dubbed The Dream Big Entrepreneur E-Book Bundle.

Featuring Digging Into WordPress by WordPress all-stars Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr, plus 3 best selling e-books by SmashingMagazine, 3 e-books by Learnable, Mastering App Presentation, Conversations with Design Entrepreneurs, and more – this is a hand-picked collection of some of the best-selling e-books on the web. This anthology of literary greatness would typically cost over $400, but it’s yours for just $25 during this limited time offer.

Instapaper’s new highlights feature revitalizes the app. Here’s how to make the most of it

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Instapaper v5.2 adds familiar yellow-marker highlights to your saved articles. This doesn’t sound like much, but it will change how you use the read-later service. Instapaper is the O.G read-it-later app, letting you save those longer articles you find on the web, in Twitter, in your RSS reader or anywhere else. You send these articles off to Instapaper via a bookmarklet (or using the third-party integration from many apps), whereupon they are cleaned of clutter and saved for you to read off line.

This seemingly small update changes the game. Before, Instapaper was a transient place for long-form articles — you’d read them and then archive them. Now it’s a place to organize and revisit articles, turning your collection of clippings into a library of annotated notes. And for the makers, it represents a way to make more money for the app, by finally adding a killer reasons for us to buy the $1-per-month subscription.

 

Apple cuts online refund times in half

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Apple Store
Apple's shelling out billions to go green.
Photo: Apple

Apple is making it quicker than ever to return unwanted iPhones and other gadgets purchased online with a new policy that gives customers refunds twice as fast.

In an effort to boost direct sales from its website, Apple has decided to take a big upfront cost on returns, according to Reuters, but the small move could give it the boost it needs to compete with Amazon and Best Buy online.

Kickstart HYPER’s new iStick – a USB stick with a Lightning connector

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HYPER by Sanho – the company behind the Hyperjuice batteries for Macbooks and iPads have just launched their latest creation to the world through Kickstarter.

The iStick is essentially a USB stick with the dual use of connecting it to your iPhone 5, 5s, iPod Touch and iPads with it’s Apple certified lightning connector, which is great if you have a internet connection that is too slow in the office for cloud based storage, or if you’re on the road and want to watch a couple of movies without eating into your data plan.

Countability reduces your entire life to dots on a graph, if you want

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Countability

Maybe you’re trying to quit smoking or drinking, or maybe you’re just curious how much coffee you drink or how often you go to the gym. You have to track all that stuff somewhere, and Countability wants to be that place.

You can add anything you want to keep track of and tick them off with just a swipe and a tap. It’ll handle the graphing and numbers for you, and you can look at daily, monthly, and annual numbers.

I haven’t really had that many bikini waxes, by the way. That’s just the number of times I’ve overheard people discussing them in public.

Source:Countability – $0.99 | Bobinair

Rhythm runner Record Run makes your music collection more fun

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Record Run

If you like rhythm games at all, stop reading right now and go download Record Run.

Record Run by Harmonix
Category: iOS Games
Works With: iPhone, iPad iPod Touch
Price: Free

I can elaborate if you insist, but here’s what you need to know: It’s from the developer of Frequency, Amplitude, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Dance Central. It’s a colorful runner with simple gameplay and personality for days. And with a few taps, the game will make a level from any song stored on your iOS device.

Oh, and it’s free. Just go get it right now.

Machine Crush Monday: 1976 Gibson Explorer

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TheExplorer's
The Explorer's "hockey stick" headstock is a thing of subtle beauty.

To me, the 1976 Gibson Explorer means lust at first sight, love at first feel and that rarest of man-machine crushes: an enduring passion that persists long after I plunked down my hard-earned cash.

Gibson’s luthiers prototyped the Explorer (alongside pointy siblings the Flying V and the apocryphal Moderne) in the ’50s. The space race was on, rock ‘n’ roll was coming into its own and cars boasted bold curves and sci-fi fins. The Explorer and Flying V were released in 1958, a year after the Soviets launched Sputnik 1. (The Moderne didn’t makes its official debut until 1982.)

Like the beautiful but doomed Power Mac G4 Cube, the radically shaped guitars were clearly ahead of their time: These pointy instruments, which years later would become staples of heavy metal and hard-rock style, flopped hard. Gibson discontinued both lines within a few years.

In 1976, spurred by the success of competitors’ Explorer clones, Gibson came to its senses and reissued the Explorer. The natural mahogany finish on the best of these, much like the lighter Korina of the original models, gave the strangely shaped guitars a retro-futuristic look. That marriage of old and new is coming back into fashion now as designers tumble to the innate beauty of natural materials.

5 inventive iOS games that wowed Leo’s Fortune designer

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Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Bouncing, huffing and puffing through a beautifully-rendered cartoon world, avoiding jagged rolling wheels and collecting coins, Leo’s Fortune may just be the year’s most lovable iPhone game. But which games did its creators fall in love with?

Following our exclusive look inside behind the scenes of Apple’s iPhone “game of the month,” we asked Leo’s Fortune designer Anders Hejdenberg to name his current top five iOS games. He said he’s most impressed by titles that pair intriguing artwork with novel gameplay mechanics.

The highly imaginative Monument Valley, for instance, won him over quickly. “It didn’t take long to finish,” says Hejdenberg of his experience playing the game, “but during that time I experienced quite a few moments where I thought to myself, ‘Wow, this is really cool!’ That rarely happens when I play games, so it was definitely worth the price of admission.”

Here are the other iOS games currently taking his breath away. (You’ll find download links available below the gallery.)

Street artist claims that Apple ad stole his slogan

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A New York street artist claims Apple stole his trademark slogan for its latest ad campaign. The line “You’re more powerful than you think” is used in conjunction with shots of people using their iPhone in various different lines of work.

46-year-old James De La Vega says that he’s been using the trademarked line for almost a decade as part of his “Become Your Dream” series. The line has been used in various murals and designs, and was even (by permission) incorporated into a graffiti motif used for a recent line of handbags and accessories.

Apple relies on Samsung more than ever for iPad displays

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Think Apple is free from Samsung after defeating it yet again in court for flat out copying the iPhone infringing on several Apple patents? Think again!

In fact, when it comes to the iPad Apple is more reliant on Samsung than ever, according to a new report which suggests that the South Korean tech giant became the largest supplier of iPad displays in the first quarter of 2014.

Forgotten by Dre: How two Beats founders were cut out of the $3.2 billion deal

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If you’ve read Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography, you possibly know the name Ronald Wayne. That’s the investor who dropped out of Apple 12 days into its existence as a company — losing around $35 billion after selling his shares for just $800.

In the wake of a reported deal with Beats, we have a repeat of that story — courtesy of the one key party that won’t see a scratch from the rumored $3.2 billion acquisition.

Although Iovine and Dre get all the credit for Beats, it was Monster CEOs Noel and Kevin Lee who designed and developed the world’s very first pair of Beats headphones, and did the engineering and technology distribution for the company’s first five years.

These iPhone 6 schematics reportedly come straight from Foxconn

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New images, reportedly showing the new 4.7-inch iPhone, have hit the Web, offering more details about the smaller of Apple’s next generation smartphones.

The images are renders and supposedly hail from parts unknown key Apple supplier Foxconn. They depict a longer, wider 4.7-inch handset with dimensions of 138 by 67 mm. As with recent reports, the pics suggest that the iPhone 6 will feature smoothly rounded corners and a relocated power button. They also makes us think that the iPhone 6 will feature an all-aluminum rear shell.

Samsung chairman suffers major heart attack

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Lee Kun-hee, the 72-year-old chairman of the Samsung Group, is reportedly in stable condition after suffering a heart attack.

Lee is currently at the Samsung Medical Center after undergoing heart surgery following a resuscitation. He is one of the wealthiest men in Korea, having inherited the company from his father but led the transition in turning it into the Samsung of today: a company involved in everything from smartphones to ships. Despite ongoing lawsuits for patent infringements, Apple uses Samsung to manufacture its semiconductors.

Saturday Showdown: Apple TV vs Roku 1

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Since the release of the Apple TV back in 2007, it’s evolved into an essential gadget for all media streamers, and with that, Apple has invented some competition with the likes of Amazon Fire and the Roku. This week Cult of Mac puts the $99 Apple TV against the entry-level $49 Roku 1.

News Roundup: iPhone 6 and Apple buys Beats?

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With yet another week in the past your host Joshua Smith is here to give you a wrap-up on some of the latest and biggest news features. Touch iD coming to the iPad, Apple to buy Beats by Dre and more iPhone 6 rumors are among just some of the featured stories in today’s rundown. Take a look at the video 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.

This Week in Weird: 4 games about gettin’ them dollas

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Photo courtesy of Meghan Stratman

Hundreds of new games come out every week in the App Store. A select few are the next must-play title that everyone will be talking about (and ripping off) for the foreseeable future. Most of them are perfectly decent but may not receive the attention they deserve. And then you have the third group: games so odd, bizarre, and head-scratching that you’re not sure what to make of or do with them.

They aren’t necessarily bad; they’re just confusing and weird. And worst of all, people may never know that they exist. But that’s why we’re here.

Here are some of the strangest games to drop into the App Store this week, and they’re all about playing with fat stacks of cash. Or change. What you do with this information is between you and your iPhone.

The future of headphones — streaming music built right in

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Matthew Paprocki, cofounder of the audio company Soundfreaq, suggests Apple may turn Beats into next-generation, music-everywhere streaming stereos.
Matthew Paprocki, cofounder of the audio company Soundfreaq, suggests Apple may use Beats to create next-generation, music-everywhere streaming stereos.

At the giant Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, the exhibit halls were packed with wireless audio products. It’s all thanks to the mobile revolution. These are the listening devices of the future.

But future speakers and headphones will be quite different, predicted Matthew Paprocki, co-founder of Soundfreaq, a Southern California company that makes a range of critically acclaimed speakers.

Paprocki’s predictions may have implications for Beats, which Apple is rumored to be buying for $3.2 billion. Beats, of course, makes headphones and has a subscription based music streaming service, but Apple’s plans are unclear.

“They could take all the ingredients that Beats has and bake it into a new cake,” Paprocki said.

WWDC hardware expectations plus a big fake Apple rumor on our newest CultCast

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This time on The CultCast: No, those rumored new EarPods won’t measure your pulse. Last week’s biggest Apple rumor was a fake made up by a guy on a toilet! Plus, why you shouldn’t expect new hardware at June’s WWDC; iPhone warns you when the NSA wants you for drug trafficking; Apple’s newest executive gets a HUGE payday; Katie Cotton, Apple’s long time PR lead and Steve Jobs confidant, calls it quits; Cupertino will take on Samsung with more Guerrilla-style marketing; and since you asked, we reveal the jobs we’ve always wanted on an all-new Get To Know Your Cultist.

Have a few LOLs while we catch you up on 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 audio adventure begin!

Our thanks to Smile Software for supporting this episode! If you haven’t tried TextExpander from Smile software, you’re missing out on one of the most useful apps available for the Mac. With TextExpander, you’ll save time and effort by expanding short abbreviations into frequently-used text and pictures. Try it out yourself for free at smilesoftware.com/cultcast.

Click on for the show notes.