Remember Brett Terpstra’s Total Numbers service from last week? Good, because now it’s available in and even more useful and labor-free form as a PopClip Extension.
Now all you need to do is highlight a bunch of numbers with the mouse, and the new “Sum” extension will add them all up for you.
As the weekend comes to a close and a new week is set to begin, Cult of Mac Deals has two deals that are worth exploring.
Macbooster clears your hard drive of unnecessary files to free RAM space and deliver an instant performance boost. It also cleans out junk and unwanted files to free up more hard drive space. And the course offers you the understanding of how Heroku works while learning how to optimize your app to get the most out of the resources provided. Macbooster is going for $19.99 for a limited time and the Rails course is only $29.
There’s a familiar look you see on the faces of parents at theme parks. It’s a look their children are rarely able to understand — caught as they are in the clutches of school vacations and roller coasters with names like Afterburn and the Dahlonega Mine Train. It’s a look that says, ‘No matter how much fun this is, the credit card bill at the end of the holiday is going to be hell.’
I wanted to be the carefree kid when playing RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile. After all, this is a sequel to a game franchise I loved to death growing up. There are few better things in life than riding roller coasters — but designing them may be one.
When I sat down to play RollerCoaster Tycoon 4 Mobile, however, I quickly found the childlike innocence behind my eyes fading. Not only did I want to put away childish things by the time I stopped playing — I wanted to smash my iPad and send the bill to Atari.
And I would have been entirely justified in doing so.
Parallels Inc. is the leader when it comes to allowing you to be able to view your applications across different operation systems. They specialize in delivering an unmatched experience that emphasizes making your personal and work life simpler and in our eyes, simpler is paramount. Parallels Access ‘applifies’ your Windows and Mac applications, letting you remotely access and experience them as if they were made for iPad.
And Cult of Mac Deals has one year of Parallels Access for iPad available for 70% off the regular price…just $14.99!
Have you played Monument Valley yet? Our previous choice for ‘Game of the Week,’ this surreal, M.C. Escher-inspired puzzle game has proved an absolute phenomenon since its launch in the App Store.
But what if you’ve already finished ustwo’s masterpiece, and are now on the lookout for more of the same?
Never fear, gentle reader — we can help. Although there are precious few games which be described as similar to Monument Valley (some people aren’t even convinced it’s a game to begin with), Cult of Mac spoke with lead designer Ken Wong for his picks of the top games currently available on iOS.
Here’s what he came up with:
It seems that Nintendo has no plans to bring its extensive back catalog of games to the App Store, but fans looking to play Nintendo DS titles on their iOS devices can now pick up a new, jailbreak-free emulator.
Venus — the 256-foot super-yacht, commissioned by Steve Jobs — has been sighted in Ensenada, Baja California.
A coastal city in Mexico, on the Baja California Peninsula, Ensenada is a popular cruise ship destination. Photos of the vessel in dock were sent in by Cult of Mac reader Felipe Cornejo. Cornejo notes that he did not see any of Jobs’ family at the site, and that dock workers he spoke with weren’t aware this was Jobs’ boat.
From the highs of the Steve Jobs portrait made out of 20lbs of electronic waste, to the lows of the hideous statue that looked like a totem from Hellraiser, there have certainly been some “uneven” tributes to Apple’s late co-founder.
So which camp does this creation fall into, then?
Called “Baked Apple,” the fountain-sculpture depicts a deformed Apple II sitting on top of a column (previously the base lamp), adorned with images of Jobs and the Apple logo. It was created by artist Robbie Schoen, who once attended Jobs’ alma mater. Schoen, and made his creation with the aid of a real-life Apple II, formerly belonging to the school’s science department.
Remember when Tim Cook said he wanted Apple to be a “force for good” in the world, in terms of sustainability?
In keeping with Apple’s plans to use 100% renewable energy to power all of its facilities, it has recently taken over a small hydroelectric project at a Central Oregon site, near to the company’s data center in Prineville.
Since these data centers consume massive amounts of electricity (read: the equivalent of a small city), Apple has been keen to explore alternative sources of energy to keep them in clean, renewable energy.
Apple has reportedly hired Karl Heiselman, chief executive officer of branding agency Wolff Olins, to join the company in a new marketing communications role.
The former CEO and branding expert has been with Wolff Olins for a total of 14 years — and during his seven years as chief executive officer has worked with a number of high profile clients, including Apple.
Forged in the fires of Silicon Valley and backed by venture capital power players comes Lyft® – a service revolutionizing public transport. You request a ride through the free iOS or Android app, then watch on a real-time map as your driver approaches.
Lyft drivers are friendly, always available, and cheaper than a cab – why would you ever take a taxi again? And right now Cult of Mac Deals has $30 of Lyft credit available for just $10, meaning you’ll save even more money.
Faster than a speeding bullet,
As one of last year’s top-grossing iPad apps, the digital comics platform has sold an astonishing 6 billion comic book pages since its 2009 debut — 4 billion of those coming in 2013 alone.
In helping revive an industry that was almost dead on its feet, ComiXology has done for comics what iTunes did for legal music downloads.
At the height of its success, it’s now been snatched up by Amazon for an undisclosed amount of money — prompting the question of whether Apple has missed out. (Particularly when taking into accounts the reports that Amazon is reportedly set to debut a smartphone of its own — capable of busting out 3-D.)
After all, ComiXology’s CEO David Steinberger has always had big ambitions. He once wrote that his “crazy goal” was to turn everyone on the planet into a comic reader. Sounds just like Steve Jobs.
Before the acquisition, CEO David Steinberger told Cult of Mac ComiXology’s backstory and its deep ties to Apple. Sometimes the Cupertino company has acted as its Krypton-esque home planet, and other times more like its Lex Luthor-style nemesis.
Ready for ComiXology’s secret origin story?
Need an all-in-one movie player for your Mac? Leawo Blu-ray Player for Mac is exactly what your looking for. This comprehensive Mac media player gives you the ability to play Blu-ray, DVD, HD video, audio and ISO files on your Mac in lossless quality.
Mac Blu-ray playback software allows you to adjust subtitles, audio and video for a high-quality video experience that allows full playback control and detailed navigation that will deliver a better movie-viewing environment. And Cult of Mac Deals has this all-in-one movie watching solution for only $9.95 during this limited time offer.
By now you’ve heard all about the catastrophic Heartbleed bug and how it has siphoned passwords, credit card numbers, emails and other data to the vampires who would drain all of us dry. From your love life (OKCupid) to your tax returns, there’s a lot at stake.
Since 66% of web servers are vulnerable to the bug, that means you’re faced with only task more fun than decluttering the garage: changing your passwords.
To help you on your password resetting chores, we’ve compiled the best tools to make the process as quick and painless as possible. Also, they’ll sync your new passwords to your iPhone — all in under 10 minutes. Leaving you time to watch Silicon Valley again. You’re welcome.
Here’s how:
Elder Scrolls Online is a new massively multiplayer role playing game by Zenimax Studios and Bethesda Game Studios that attempts to compete with the behemoth of the premium subscription MMO, World Of Warcraft, on its own turf in the fantasy genre. While the base gameplay is fairly similar — go on quests, fight bad guys, level up, game with thousands of other players — this new MMO has a lot that’s unique to offer gamers.
What Elder Scrolls Online brings to this competitive gaming genrea is a long history of games set in fantasy world Tamriel, beginning in 1994 with The Elder Scrolls: Arena and continuing through three the present day with four sequels: Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim. There’s a ton of lore and backstory here, as much as any high-fantasy Tolkien-esque novel you might read, and this deep infusion of fictional reality — as well as the action gameplay style of the original single-player games mentioned above — is a solid asset in Bethesda’s favor.
Reviewing any MMO is a massive undertaking itself, and so we decided to dig in deeper than we usually do to give you a better sense of the world of the game, filtered through the eyes of a new Elder Scrolls Online player.
Here’s what we came up with.
Imagine a world where you can summon a drone from your iPhone like an Uber car. Flying minions help you navigate traffic and find where to eat. It’s a futuristic kind of reality that feels pretty cool and scary at the same time.
Gofor was created as a concept to explore what an on-demand drone service would look like for normal people. While the service is obviously not real, the finished product is packaged together so well that it almost seems possible.
It has been months since I opened Reeder, my longtime app of choice for RSS. I don’t have anything personal against Reeder, it’s just that RSS has lost a lot of its appeal for me. Twitter is where I mainly get my news now.
Reeder 2 for Mac, which launches as a public beta today, might just make me give RSS a second chance.
The best online courses are the ones that provide you with all the dirty little details. This HTML5 Crash Course starts with the first principles of HTML and builds your skills as you go through to the end.
Let’s be honest, you’ve come up with a stellar idea but have had no where to take it. So do it yourself! Now you’ll have the skills to take that idea to the next level, bringing it to life for all to marvel at…and for just $29 to boot!
I’m not usually a big fan of the whole “do it over and over until you get it right” genre of games typified by the Trials series of games, but this one has me hooked. Developed by RedLynx and now published by Ubisoft, the latest version of the game is also the first on mobile: Trials Frontier. You can grab it for free now for your iPad or iPhone.
Like all of the other installments in the series, Frontier is all about piloting a motorcycle with a rag-doll rider through increasingly intense tracks with jumps, loops and environmental hazards.
Here’s a quick gameplay video to show you how it works.
A good challenge every now and then is great to keep your mind fresh and alert. While many developers release new games every week, only some are able to give players the difficulty their minds ask for. Sinkers is a new strategy puzzle game where players have 20 moves to try and obtain the highest score removing colored cube like bits from the screen. With bits turning hollow and players having to sink them to keep moving, do you think you can play well enough to top the high-score charts?
Take a look at the video and see what you think.
I know that your iPhone already has a calculator in it, but here’s a specialty app for people who suffer from the curse of Man Thumbs.
SwipyCalc is a basic calculator that gives all the screen space to the numbers. Only the numbers. You enter your basic functions — adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing — with swipes in one of four directions. It’s fast and easy, especially once you realize that the comma in the lower left corner is what you use for a decimal point.
Unless you’re in one of the 60+ countries that uses the decimal comma. That won’t slow you down at all.
Ambition isn’t a bad thing, but it can get in the way.
Time Gap is a free-to-play title that tries to be all free-to-play games at once. It’s mostly a hidden-object game with a plot about the ghosts of famous historical figures guiding you on a mission to discover where all the people of Earth disappeared to, but along the way, you’ll also play minigames like the ones you tab over to during the day instead of working.
It does all of these things capably enough, and it’s an interesting compendium with a lot of variety. But in the end, it’s a free-to-play game, and it is free-to-play as hell.
Sure, a simple passcode with four numbers will keep most casual folks out of your iPhone, but if you want it to be really secure, you should think about using an alphanumeric password, like you would on a website or your Mac.
The idea here is simple, the more characters you have (and the less obvious your password is), the better your security. Balancing a large enough number of characters with ease of recall can still be tricky, but I’d bet you’ve got it fairly worked out on the websites you visit — why not use that same acumen on your iOS devices?
Here’s how to turn off the simple passcode in iOS, and set up a more secure one.
Queue the spy music, cause on this week’s CultCast, our very own Buster Heine sneaks into Apple’s under-construction Arizona Sapphire Crystal factory and reports back what he’s found. Plus, WWDC dishes out golden tickets like they’re Willy Wonka; what you can do about HeartBleed; all that’s been revealed in the ongoing Apple V. Samsung trial; and you asked, so we answer: why we love Apple but would never want to work there.
Hem and haw 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 audio adventure begin!
And our thanks to iFixit for supporting this episode. You’ve seen iFixit’s amazing tear downs of the hottest tech and gadgets, but did you know you can use their free step-by-step repair guides to fix virtually anything? Check them out at iFixit.com/cultcast, and save $10 off their excellent Pro Tech Toolkit with code “CultCast” at checkout.
Click on for the show notes.
Technology group Kudelski has become the latest company to file a patent lawsuit against Apple.
Kudelski’s OpenTV and Nagravision subsidiaries are claiming that Apple is infringing on five of its U.S. patents in pretty much every product under the sun — including iOS devices, Apple TV, the App Store, iTunes, iADS, Safari, and Macs running OS X.
