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.

Apple has released its latest commercial, and it’s a doozy.

Called “Better,” the ad (which is narrated by Tim Cook) refers to Apple’s work in terms of its environmental efforts — describing the company’s push to reduce its carbon footprint, conserve resources, and inspire others to follow suit.

Wouldn’t it be great to have everything you need in one package to learn about the elements of design? Further to that, wouldn’t it be great if you could name your own price for that package? Well, Cult of Mac Deals has both of those covered with The Name Your Own Price Learn To Design 2.0 Bundle!

With this bundle, you’ll get 8 courses and over 80 hours of professional instruction – and all for a price you’re willing to pay! We’ve also chosen three charities (Child’s Play Charity, World Wildlife Fund, and Creative Commons) that we believe make a significant, positive impact across the globe. 10% of your entire purchase will go to help whichever of those three charities you choose!

Come July 1, Mac users running various older versions of OS X won’t have the ability to use their mac.com and me.com addresses to log into the AOL Instant Messaging service via iChat.

Apple says that users who want to take advantage of the service must upgrade to at least OS X Lion 10.7.2.

iOS devices might be ruining your child’s ability to play with building blocks, according to a recent report.

Members of the UK’s Association of Teachers and Lecturers claim that addiction to iPad and iPhones mean that children aged between 3 and 4 have no problem swiping a screen, but have difficulty understanding real space, and possess “little or no” dexterity in their fingers.

“I have spoken to a number of nursery teachers who have concerns over the increasing numbers of young pupils who can swipe a screen but have little or no manipulative skills to play with building blocks or the like, or the pupils who cannot socialize with other pupils but whose parents talk proudly of their ability to use a tablet or smartphone,” says teacher Colin Kinner.

Sometimes, you’re just typing an e-mail or note on your iPhone, and you realize that you have no idea how to spell the next word you want to use. It could be genuine ignorance, it could be a brain fart, but the person on the other end isn’t going to care why; they’ll just notice the mistake.

Spell Checker wants to help you out. It accesses your onboard dictionary to keep you from looking dumb. And because it uses the built-in resources, it even works offline.

You know, in case you’re writing an e-mail in a cave that you would want to send after you left the cave. It could happen.

Source:Spell Checker – Free | Paradigm Agnostic

If you couldn’t tell by now, I’m a sucker for a good word game, and here’s a new multiplayer offering with an interesting idea behind it.

Catena is all about you and your opponent making a chain of words. One player starts, and then the other has to come up with another word that uses one or more of the last letters of the previous entry. For example, if I played “wholesome,” my opponent could play “somewhat” or “metric” or anything else that continues the chain.

It has a few hiccups along the way, but it’s mostly a good time.

If you’re the owner of a jailbroken iOS device, a new tweak can give you a wealth of better power down options… and even graft iOS 7.1’s new power down slider onto stock iOS 7, or give you back iOS 6’s power-off slider. Keen!

This week we get ready for springtime excursions with three portable speakers that shrug off splashes and are happy to be used in the shower. Which one will you take to the lake, pool or beach? Let’s take a look.

Apple has turned even the most modest weekend strummer into a guitar hero.
This week in Cult of Mac Magazine, our games editor and disco band frontman (!) Rob LeFebvre takes you on a magical mystery tour of Garageband’s latest and greatest features. He’ll walk you through a shiny new piece of kit called Drummer, plus get you ringtone making and learning from the pros in the Lessons store.

Rob has also kept his ear to the ground for all the other great gear you need to make your homegrown music making hit the right notes and, well, sound better. And definitely louder. Whether you’re rocking at home or taking your iPad with you on stage.

So. The beat goes on with Charlie Sorrel sifting through MacBook stands to single out the best, plus his picks for the best Apple-related gear and Buster Hein’s top choices from iTunes for music, books and movies you’ll be grooving to all week.

Cult of Mac Magazine

First unveiled in iOS 6, Apple Maps has been known to distort reality before, but can it conjure a mythical prehistoric beast from the waters of Loch Ness?

Cryptozoologists are saying yes. They are claiming that Apple Maps has finally located the elusive Loch Ness Monster!

Wall Street consensus is that when Apple announces its Q2 2014 quarterly earnings on Wednesday, Apple’s year-over-year iPad numbers won’t look good. On the low end, at least one Wall Street analyst says that Apple will have sold 23% fewer iPads this year than last year in the same quarter; on average, Wall Street expects Apple’s iPad sales to have declined 0.7% year-over-year.

How can this be? This is the year that Apple unveiled the Retina iPad mini and the beautifully redesigned iPad Air, after all. How is it possible that these iPads can be selling worse than the inferior iPads a year ago?

Ex-Apple exec Jean-Louie Gassée has a theory, and it’s not one that Apple fans are going to be happy to hear: the iPad is a big tease, and fundamentally less useful than both a smartphone or a laptop.

Every aspect of Facebook’s entire business is essentially designed to target ads. Is anyone surprised, then, that the social networking giant intends on launching its own mobile ad network, similar to Apple’s iAds?

One more way that Apple is challenging Google is by pushing for exclusive games on iOS, claims a new report.

The Wall Street Journal reports that as Android’s influence has grown, Apple has been offering games developers promotional perks — such as premium placement on their app store home pages — in exchange for first rights to particular titles.

Last August, Apple struck a deal with EA to receive a two-month exclusivity window for Plants vs. Zombies 2, which did not arrive on Android until November.

A similar deal saw the popular sequel to ZeptoLab’s puzzle game Cut the Rope arrive on iOS in December — but not make it to Android until late March this year.

Cloud computing is quickly becoming the standard method of creating scalable, manageable Web Application Services. Today Cult of Mac Deals is offering a course that will give you an in-depth walkthrough on how to utilize the wide range of cloud computing services that Amazon provides.

You’ll learn what is available in AWS, and how to use it effectively for your own needs. After you start by learning exactly what cloud computing is, and why you should be using it, you will be shown all the wonderful features that AWS brings to your digital life. And Cult of Mac Deals has this course for only $19 – a savings of 61%!