Cult of Mac

Anyone — even a fat plumber — can run around and jump on things. But what if progress depends on being in two places simultaneously? Or three? Or five? Mario can’t even handle that. Unless we’re talking about the Mario vs. Donkey Kong games with all the mini-Marios.

Which we’re not.

Anyway, the hero of Instantion can be all those places. Let’s focus on that. Because it’s a fun game.

Pretty much every Apple product has cannibalized sales from another one: the MacBook cannibalized the Mac, the iPhone cannibalized the iPod, the iPad cannibalized the MacBook, and the iPad mini cannibalized the iPad Air.

On its part, though, Apple has always been cavalier about cannibalizing its own sales. In February, 2013, Tim Cook told investors that “if we don’t cannibalize, someone else will.” Which is why Cupertino is unlikely to be worried about analyst concerns that a larger iPhone 6 could cannibalize sales of the iPad mini.

When the developers at AgileBits showed me 1Password’s highly anticipated iOS 7 redesign at Macworld last month, I naturally asked when it would come out. They were cagey, but I was told to expect some “interesting things soon.” The day has finally arrived, and 1Password’s biggest update since version 4.0 is out in the App Store.

Redesigned to match the cleaner aesthetics of iOS 7, 1Password 4.5 finally brings support for switching between multiple vaults. The feature was previously limited to the Mac, but now the iOS app can switch between vaults from within its settings.

1Password 4.5 also includes notable improvements to its built-in browser, better integration with its desktop counterpart (which has also been updated), and some other welcomed features.

Streaming media services that want to sell subscriptions to users of their apps on the iPhone or iPad have to make a deal with the proverbial devil: if they want to sign up customers on an iOS device, they have to give Apple a 30% cut of the sale.

For music subscription services like Rdio and Spotify, where the margins are razor thin, giving up that 30% cut is enough to turn a subscription from a profit to a break-even proposition. So when a company goes this route, it’s easy to assume they are hurting.

By this logic, Beats Music — the new subscription music service launched in January — is hurting.

So far, the consensus is that while we will see a 4.7-inch iPhone 6 in September, we will have to wait until the holidays, or even later, to see the rumored 5.5-inch model. The culprit, claim reports, are those ever pesky “yields,” but what does that mean? Why is a 5.5-inch iPhone 6 so much harder to make than a 4.7-inch one?

A new report out of Taiwan sheds some light on the matter. The issue apparently is that the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 is meant to be super thin… even thinner than the 4.7-inch. And that requires perfecting a very special kind of battery.

Do you have an ancient first-gen iPod lying around? A candy-shelled iMac G3? An iPhone 2g? Heck, even a vintage Macintosh SE, or working Apple I?

Good news. Starting today, Apple’s retail stores will accept any of its old products for recycling, and if they think they can resell it, you’ll even get some store credit (although you may want to hold off on trading in that Apple I).

Back in the early 80s Apple greeted the arrival of IBM PCs with a snarky full page newspaper ad reading, “Welcome, IBM. Seriously.”

In the past few years, however, Apple’s claws haven’t come out all that often when it comes to taking rivals down a peg or two.

In fact, most of the recent sideways swipes involving Apple tend to be other companies (normally Samsung) taking shots at Apple, rather than the other way around.

Well, the tables have turned in a new print ad which appeared in the UK’s Guardian and free commuter paper Metro today.

Like any good Apple product, there isn’t too much publicly confirmed about Jobs — the forthcoming movie about Apple’s late CEO, penned by Social Network screenwriter Aaron Sorkin.

However, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter did take a moment on Monday to shed a bit more light on the project, while answering questions at New York City’s School of Visual Arts for the Tribeca Film Festival.

Describing the script as “one of the very few times I ended up writing what I set out to write,” Sorkin noted that it will reveal both the positive and negative aspects of Jobs’ persona, as detailed in the 2011 Walter Isaacson biography, of which this is a (loose) adaptation.

To celebrate the fact that April 22 is Earth Day, Apple has updated its logo to include a green leaf, as seen in the above picture of Apple’s giant Nanjing East retail store in Shanghai.

2014 is the first time in eight years that Apple has celebrated Earth Day. In addition to the revised logo, Apple will also give employes at selected stores special Earth Day shirts to wear. A special event is additionally planned to take place in Cupertino.

Is Nike going to be teaming with Apple for the iWatch?

Ever since Nike announced the surprising news that it was scrapping its rival fitness-tracking FuelBand line of wearables — including a new, slimmer device planned for this fall — the rumor mill has been buzzing with suggestions that Nike is now positioned perfectly to partner Apple for its long-awaited iWatch.

Here’s why it makes sense:

CloudConvert, the web-app that lets you convert almost any file format to any other file format, now comes as an iOS app. It still uses CloudConvert’s great web service as its engine, but adds a native iOS interface.

You know what that means? It means you can send any file to CloudConvert using the standards iOS “Open In…” dialog. Got a Word DOCX file in your webmail and need to send it to someone else as a PDF? No problem.

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Evernote’s new Business Notebook (made my Moleskine) lets you share just a part of your handwritten notes with other businessy-type folks, and it also lets you check a box on each page to set a reminder. And of course it does this in concert with the Evernote suite of apps.

Eye-Fi – the company that makes the Wi-Fi-enabled SD cards we use for covering trade-shows – has launched a Eye-Fi Cloud, a new app and service that stores all your photos in the cloud, whether you took them on your iPhone or a big fancy camera.

It’s hard to come up with a reason you wouldn’t buy the Jimi, a little dongle that plays the hell out of your iMac, then smashes it all over the stage and sets fire to it, all while continuing to kindle sweet electric guitar music from its dying body.

Wait, that’s not the same Jimi? The Bluelounge Jimi is a little j-shaped USB extension that lets you plug your peripherals into your iMac from the front? That sounds pretty cool.

We’ve known that Apple has been interested in mobile payments for some time. Now the company is interviewing potential candidates to lead the initiative, according to a new report from Re/code.

Apple’s head of e-commerce, Jennifer Bailey, has reportedly been meeting with executives in the payments industry “to fill head of product and head of business development positions.”

While Apple’s “ambitions” are described as “very, very serious,” it’s likely that any sort of mobile payment system from Apple won’t come out anytime soon.

As promised, Mailbox has added its intelligent Auto-swipe feature in a new update. Tighter integration with Dropbox, the app’s parent company, has also been added to sync preferences across devices.

Auto-swipe is essentially like a more intelligent version of Gmail’s filters. The feature learns from the user’s choices to snooze and archive certain messages. For example. if you trash the same kind of spam email more than once, Auto-swipe will trash it for you. Parameters Auto-swipe creates based on your behaviors can be edited in Mailbox’s settings.

Dropbox recently previewed Auto-swipe and the upcoming Mac version of Mailbox, which is currently in a private beta. Mailbox for iOS is free in the App Store.

Source: App Store

Image: The Verge

Now that David Fincher isn’t in the running to direct Sony’s Steve Jobs biopic, Christian Bale probably won’t star. As Sony searches for someone else to helm the project, another director and star actor combo have been added to the mix.

Oscar-winnng director Danny Boyle is reportedly in early talks to direct the movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. And he has approached Leonardo DiCaprio to play Jobs.

Google Glass wearers who also use an iPhone will get a convenient update later this week.

As per a new post on the Google+ page for the device, the update will let iPhone users see text messages directly on Glass — without having to take the phone out of their pocket first. In Google’s words:

iOS fans, by popular demand you can now get texts from your friends on Glass. Get started by going to your iPhone’s Bluetooth settings and turning on “Show Notifications” for your paired Glass. When you receive a new text message, it will appear as a notification on Glass. Keep in mind that you won’t be able to reply from Glass due to some limitations with iOS. (Android fans, don’t feel left out – you’ve got SMS on Glass already.)

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Murky water and alligators may not exactly be something you see everyday. While some may live the swamp-life, others can get an entertaining feel of it in the new app Swamp Attack. Protect your home with your trusty weapons, tapping all incoming waves of enemies to progress from level to level. Do you think you can fight off all alligators, raccoons, turtles and more to keep your land safe?

Take a look at the video and see what you think.

Listening to your favorite music through a good pair of stereo headphones can make it sound like you’re hearing it for the first time. With the Bluetooth-enabled Air-Fi Matrix2, take that experience anywhere.

If you’re looking for a rich wireless audio experience with solid bass and treble so smooth it’ll make butter jealous, grab a pair of these bad boys. And Cult of Mac Deals has the Air-Fi Matrix2 headphones for 46% off the regular price during this limited time offer – only $79.99!

If there are two things you’re likely to hear from Monument Valley players it’s this: “Wow, what an incredibly original game” and “That didn’t take long to complete.”

Both statements are totally factual. Ustwo’s puzzle game masterpiece is one of the most original games of the year, but also an experience that flies by all too quickly.

With that in mind, the developers have confirmed that they are, in fact, working on extra levels to bolster the game.

But they’re not just doing this for the sake of doing it. According to Neil McFarland, ustwo’s director of games:

Duck Dynasty fans rejoice, you can now binge on all the splendors America’s favorite hillbilly family has to offer from your Apple TV, but you’ll still need a cable subscription.

An Apple TV update this morning added new channels for the History Channel, Lifetime and A&E offering cable subscribers full access to a catalog of shows from Duck Dynasty, American Pickers, Vikings, Pawn Stars, and yes, even Project Runway.

Along with the new Apple TV app the History Channel and A&E apps for iOS were updated to include live-streaming of TV shows for subscribers, but if you don’t have a cable TV, Verizon FIOS or Direct TV subscription you can still enjoy previews of great hits like Dance Moms.

We’ve all had to do it: make those conference calls to services that require you to enter in a code, or a room number, or what have you.

If you call these numbers frequently and want to save a little time, you can enter in the extensions and codes into your Contacts app, but you’ll want to code in the bit of wait you’ll need for the conference call system to recognize it.

It’s easy to do, and you can do this right on your iPhone.

A video detailing the creation of Apple Campus 2 was released this morning featuring glimpses of the Spaceship’s architectural achievements in natural ventilation, renewable energy, trees regrowth, and other revolutionary tech that’s will make it one of the best office buildings in the world.

The video also features interviews of the people behind the campus, like architect Norman Foster, who tells the story of how Steve Jobs recruited him for the job of building Apple Campus 2 and how the project didn’t start as a circular building but grew into that as the intensive project progressed.

Check out the video below, before Apple takes it down:

Many videos that you purchase these days via iTunes or other sources have subtitles, those little words beneath the screen that were created to help caption videos.

These can be useful for someone with a hearing impairment, or who reads a different language than the one being spoken in the video, to watch these during a movie.

In OS X Mavericks, you can easily get subtitles going in any supported video, and you can customize the way they look, as well. Here’s how to find out if your video supports subtitles, how to turn them on and how to change their look and feel.