The new trailer for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, starring Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana, has us chomping at the galactic bit for the full movie, due out in theaters August 1. There’s plenty of action in this new preview, along with some fantastic moments between our protagonists.

With Bradley Cooper as wisecracking badass raccoon Rocket and Vin Diesel as giant, flower-giving tree-thug Groot, the upcoming flick from the makers of Thor, Iron Man and The Avengers is promising a lot to moviegoers; let’s hope it’s worth the wait.

Snapchat’s pivot from a sleazy app for naughty pics to an actual messaging platform to rival WhatsApp is happening faster than its scandalous photos can disappear and its newest feature is going to make the party even bigger.

Today Snapchat announced its adding a new “Our Story” feature that will allow users who are at the same location to share snaps with each other, or view an event from afar so you can feel like you were totally there with your friends, 10 seconds at a time.

If you aren’t already using Sunrise to manage your calendars on Android and iOS, then you’re doing something wrong. It’s the prettiest (certainly on Android) and most impressive calendar app, and it just got even better.

A new update that’s rolling out today lets you connect to services like Songkick, Evernote, Tripit and more to automatically add upcoming tasks and events to your schedule.

Along with this morning’s release of iOS 8 beta 2, Apple is throwing some love to Mac users as well by releasing the second preview of the OS X Yosemite beta.

Apple has promised to open the OS X Yosemite beta to the public but it looks like you still need to be a developer to grab Cupertino’s newest update which can be can be downloaded directly from the Mac Dev Center or via a software update in your Apple menu.

Apple also released a new beta for Xcode 6 this morning as well as a new developer preview for OS X Server 4.0.

Yosemite brings a revamped UI to OS X along with a host of new features aimed at making your iPhone and Mac work smarter together. No official word from Apple on what’s inside the new preview but we’ll let you know what we find as soon as its installed.

We’re still crawling through the myriad of new features Apple added to the first beta of iOS 8, but now we’re about to dive back in. Apple just released iOS 8 beta 2 to developers this morning a mere 15 days after dropping the new OS on devs at WWDC.

According to the iOS 8 beta 2 release notes Apple’s mostly filled it with a ton of bug fixes, but we’ll update you on all the new features, big and small, once we’ve got it on our test devices.

Developers can pick up the new beta as an OTA update, from the iOS Dev Center or from the direct download links below:

Your smartphone is an increasingly important battlefield in the ongoing war of the gaming consoles. Companion iOS apps for Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One aim to enhance the way you interact with your gaming system. These apps let you access your gaming achievements on the go, communicate with friends and even use your iOS device as a remote for your console.

In today’s video, we’ll give you a look at how the PlayStation and Xbox One SmartGlass apps compare.

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We’ve been waiting years for Amazon’s challenger to the iPhone to finally surface, but unless you’re on AT&T you’ll have to wait a while to get Amazon’s crazy 3D phone in your pocket.

Like the original iPhone before it, Amazon plans to launch its first smartphone as an AT&T exclusive, reports the Wall Street Journal who has talked to “people familiar with the plans.”

Do you ever wonder how some of the world’s top internet retailers store merchandise information? Or how service agencies store their user data online? They do it with PHP and MySQL.

Now, thanks to Cult of Mac Deals, you can become an instant expert in PHP & MySQL. The Backend Hacker Bundle: Master PHP & MySQL gives you these popular courses for just $69. That’s a savings of 84% off the regular price!

If you’re ready to play big-name triple-A PC games on a mobile tablet, gaming companies WikiPad and OnLive have you covered.

Using game-streaming technologies from OnLive’s CloudLift service, the Wikipad 7 will allow you to play full high-end PC games, both single and multiplayer from any digital download service like Steam. The service will extend to the just announced Wikipad Gamevice controller, which will give you the same controller system for Apple’s iPad mini, letting you play games you never thought you’d be able to on a smaller mobile device.

This post is brought to you by Eltima Software, creator of SyncMate.

Do you have more than one Mac and a bunch of devices running iOS or Android, use cloud storage or mp3 players/cameras that support MTP and want to sync all your files across your computers? Now you can with a single app: SyncMate.

SyncMate is probably the only Mac sync software that allows syncing Mac with multiple devices simultaneously (Android devices, unlimited quantity of iOS devices, other Macs, any MTP devices, and mounted storages). No need to purchase several sync solutions in order to sync your Mac with each device – just download SyncMate and all supported devices will be synced within one application.

Check out the SyncMate video review and find out how Cult of Mac readers can get an exclusive 25% discount for SyncMate Expert edition here.

A simple glance at the stunning games perched atop the App Store game lists reveals we are experiencing a golden age for mobile gaming.

From the surreal, mind-bending Monument Valley to the Pixar movie brought to life that is Leo’s Fortune, 2014 has seen some of the most startlingly original gaming experiences in years arrive on iOS.

“I do feel like we are in a boom period,” says John Comes, design director at Uber Entertainment, the company behind games like the newly released Toy Rush.

Although Apple has been a hub of gaming going back to the glory days of the Apple II, today’s crop of hot titles are reshaping the landscape like never before. The present explosion of innovative iOS games results from several fortuitous factors coming together. Here’s why there’s never been a better time to be a gamer.

Samsung’s scattershot business plan of trying to come out with its own version of whatever tech other companies are working on meant that it was only ever going to be so long before Samsung announced its entry into the virtual reality headset market.

Sure enough, last month we reported that the South Korean company is in the process of developing VR technology that will work alongside Galaxy devices — and how it is desperate to get the product to market before Facebook and Sony launch their Oculus Rift and Project Morpheus headsets. Now it seems that Samsung’s plans are taking shape, as the company has filed an application to trademark the name “Gear VR.”

Apple is looking to hire a thought leader. While the actual job listing — blah blah blah “execution of critical sale reporting projects” blah blah blah — sounds about as exciting as a new ink cartridge, the idea of a thought leader role at a company like Apple is worth pondering.

Ever since the death of co-founder Steve Jobs, there’s been much speculation and hand-wringing over who could assume his role as Apple’s foremost visionary. Although no one can ever fill his New Balances, we’ve rounded up a short list of leaders who might kick the Cupertino company in a new direction.

Who do you think should drive Apple’s big ideas? Check out our picks in the gallery above, then nominate yours in the comments below.

Apple has multiple new stores planned to open over the second half of 2014 and first quarter of 2015. Among these is one planned for Marlborough, Mass, as revealed through job postings listed by Apple over the past 10 days.

Up until now, however, the store’s future location hasn’t been known. Fortunately a tipster has pointed out the exact location where the retail outlet — Apple’s 11th in the state — will be set to open.

If you’re anything like me it can be difficult to stay on top of all of your different social media accounts, which is why Buffer is so useful as a tool — since it allows you to share to Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and App.net all from inside one place. In addition it lets you control the scheduling of these posts, while getting analytics for each social update you share, whether this means clicks, retweets, likes, shares, mentions, and so on.

Buffer received its last refresh just one month ago — adding support for two-factor authentication and improved accessibility — but its latest update is well worth a look, adding “feeds” and “groups” features, along with improved navigation.

As one of the best-known remote-desktop clients for the iPad, Parallels Access has now expanded into the iPhone and Android space with Parallels Access 2.0.

Described by Parallels president Yakov “Jack” Zubarev as “the most reliable way to to remotely access all Windows and Mac applications from your phone or tablet,” apps accessed via Parallels Access should provide the same experience as a desktop computer — only on a smaller screen and using the taps, swipes and pinch-to-zoom gestures you’re used to dealing with on mobile.

Nest Labs’ smoke and carbon monoxide detector, Nest Protect, was recently recalled due to a potential safety issue which meant that the alarm could be unintentionally deactivated.

Jump forward a few months and Nest has resumed sales of the device — fixing the problematic feature via both a hardware and software update. Even better, the units now cost just $99, down from the previous price point of $129.

Apple has settled out of court in the latest eBooks price fixing suit brought against the company. It was set to go before a jury next month, with potential damages being as much as $840 million.

The terms of the settlement haven’t yet been revealed, and the opposing side now has one month to request formal acceptable of their agreement by the court.

Emojing has already replaced texting as the go-to zero-effort communication tool of youngsters everywhere, and all those emoji version of popular songs and TV shows are about a lot more elaborate thanks to huge unicode update.

250 new emoji have been added to unicode standard 7.0 that is used to standardize the presentation of text across different platforms like iOS, Android, and Windows, and while it’s still up to software makers to actually implement the new standards, you can expect them to land on iOS pretty soon.

Apple’s approach to design is just as healthy as it was under Steve Jobs, according to Jony Ive. Looking ahead, Apple is building upcoming products with “materials we haven’t worked in before.” Let your imagination run wild.

The New York Times has published a follow-up Q&A with Jony Ive following its big weekend profile of Tim Cook.

Ive was quoted in the Cook story, but in this second installment we get more insight into how he sees the current state of Apple. Points of discussion include how Ive approaches product design, working with Cook, the values Steve Jobs instilled in the company, and how Ive doesn’t think “anything’s changed” since Cook became CEO.

If you haven’t gotten enough of disgruntled avians from Rovio’s hit series Angry Birds, what with last week’s Angry Birds Epic or the well-received Angry Birds Star Wars mobile games, then this news is for you.

Rovio has teamed up with Hasbro to mashup its own quirky mobile gaming franchise with yet another pop-culture phenomenon, the Transformers. And not the Michael Bay hyper-CGI movies, either. This looks to be a full-on 1980s cartoon take on the “robots in disguise” theme, complete with birds disguised as robots that can turn into cars and airplanes.

Sigh.

Apple’s Siri feature has been a crown jewel of iOS ever since it launched in 2011, but the company and the tech behind it might fall into the hands of Apple’s number one enemy – Samsung.

Nuance Communications is in discussions with a number of potential suitors looking to buy the company, and Samsung Electronics is at the top of the list, according to Wall Street Journal report that also names a few private-equity firms among the list of possible buyers, but Apple is nowhere to be found.

Most people use Facebook’s official iOS app to obsessively check their news feeds. But there’s another option that has a much better design and no ads. It’s called Paper, and it has been available for the iPhone since January.

Made by a special group within Facebook called Creative Labs, Paper is an experiment in how to use Facebook within a more media-rich, gesture-driven, elegant interface. If you haven’t heard of it yet, then you definitely need to check it out after the huge update it received today in the App Store.

Facebook is trying to transform its News Feed into more than just a hotbed of baby pictures and Buzzfeed quizes and its first move is a new side panel to help users discover more timely content.

To make the app more relevant for the way people use tablets, Facebook for iPad is adding a new channel on the right-hand side of your news feed featuring trending topics, videos and tons of game suggestions to try to get users to read more news, watch more videos and play games in the app. And you can bet there will be plenty of ads to compensate.

Sooner rather than later, Google will be tracking your every move.

The Mountain View search colossus already knows whether you have the flu or are interested in dropping a few pounds, thanks to its mining of your search data and Gmail missives.

Thanks to Google’s recent bargain buy of tiny satellite company Skybox Imaging — a purchase that cost Google just $500 million, or 1/38 what Facebook shelled out for WhatsApp — by 2016, Google may be able to predict market-moving factors like consumer spending and oil prices.

That means Google might be able to foretell when you’ll be waiting in line for the latest iPhone.