Cult of Mac

The rumors swirl that when Apple unveils the next iPhone in September this year, it will boast a much larger screen. But what would a thinner, 4.7-inch iPhone with a 1080p display, upgraded 10-megapixel camera, and a 9% thinner enclosure look like?

According to this concept by designer Sam Beckett, nearly identical to the current iPhone 5s. Yes, it would be bigger, but it would otherwise have the same proportions, short of shaving a millimeter or two off of the side bezels.

If Apple does release a so-called iPhone Air, I bet this is how they will actually do it. It will look like a natural evolution of the iPhone line so far, not a major design shift.

Despite being a world where one-third of new iOS games are Flappy Bird clones, it’s impossible to say that the App Store doesn’t serve up some genuinely original game fare from time to time.

The eccentrically titled Floyd’s Worthwhile Endeavor is one such title. Resembling one of Terry Gilliam’s surreal animated openings to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, this is a 2-D platformer, that borrows its inspiration (and its graphics) from the the 19th century photography of photo-pioneer Eadward Muybridge.

Three new security phones have come into the spotlight recently: The Geeksphone Blackphone, the Boeing Black, and FreedomPop’s Privacy phone.

These phones take similar routes to security, from what we know so far. They’re loaded with encryption, security apps and other features.

But there are two feature on at least one of these phones that should be a standard part of Android.

The $629 Geeksphone Blackphone, made in partnership with Silent Circle, uses a forked version of Android called the PrivatOS. First, the system confronts you with choices when you install an app, enabling you to choose exactly what personal information is available to each app — individual permissions on each source of data that each app requests. And second, after apps have been installed, a “Security Center” lets users enable or disable specific permissions for each app.

Why aren’t these two features built into standard Android?

Today is Daylight Savings Time in the United States, which is always a hazardous time of year for owners of iOS devices. Why? Because try as Apple might they just can’t seem to release a version of iOS that does not have that are triggered by the switch to Daylight Savings Time.

No joke: Apple has had bugs come up in iOS after the switch to Daylight Savings Time in 2010, 2011, and 2012, while 2013 saw a similar New Year’s Bug screw up Do Not Disturb for device owners. Now here we are in 2014. Does iOS 7 contain a Daylight Savings Time bug?

It does! If you open Calendar on your iOS 7 device, you will notice that while the time of your operating system is set correctly, the line marking the time in Calendar is an hour old. It’s a minor bug, but hey, how would we remember Daylight Savings Time at all if our iOS devices didn’t go wonky once a year because of it?

Thanks: Shane C!

In today’s world everyone is looking for a leg up. Train Simple provides you with an opportunity to take your craft to the next level or learn a set of skills that will prove to be invaluable.

This Cult of Mac Deals offer will help you master Adobe and web design with ease anytime and anywhere, courtesy of Train Simple. You’ll get lifetime access…for only $79!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvT0MCugb58

In collaboration with Chaotic Moon Studios, Pizza Hut has unveiled a concept for what it will be like to order a pizza in their stores in the future: on a giant, iPad-like touchscreen table, using an iPhone’s built-in NFC for user identification and payment.

From “no-button” design and multi-touch controls, to wireless technology and laser tracking, Apple mice have seen a lot of changes over the past decade or so.

Although Apple computers have come with mice since the Lisa first shipped in 1983, the company has constantly changed the look and feels of its mice over the intervening years to suit changing tastes — as well as the different ways in which we interact with our machines.

In terms of the biggest changes with Apple mice since 2000, there are few better people to talk to than Abraham Farag, Apple’s former Senior Mechanical Engineer of Product Design.

Today the owner of successful product development consultancy Sparkfactor Design, Faras was part-responsible for many of the big innovations with Apple mice named above — and was able to shed light on how they came about.

When an app reaches the Top Ten Grossing List in the “Graphics and Design” category of the Mac App Store, and remains there since its March 2012 launch, there’s a good reason behind it. The app we’re offering this time around through Cult of Mac Deals fits that description…and then some.

Need to quickly lay out documents and get them ready for publishing? Swift Publisher is a page layout and desktop publishing app that is designed to streamline your workflow – and you can have it for just $9.99.

Corning — or at least a representative executive of said company — did its best this week to shatter excitement around Apple’s Sapphire embrace — or, at least, make the benefits of Apple’s glass strategy less clear.

Corning Glass senior vice president Tony Tripeny laid on the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) pretty thick during a Morgan Stanley conference this week.

Here’s what Corning doesn’t want you to know about sapphire iPhones. 

Hallelujah, iOS has come to the car! And on this week’s CultCast, we’ll tell you what we love and don’t about Apple’s new CarPlay-enabled automobiles. Plus: why Apple’s best years are still to come; why iOS 7.1 could drop at any moment; rumors of new iPhones every six months; and we pitch our favorite tech and apps on an all new Faves ‘N Raves.

Heartily laugh 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 thanks to Backblaze online backup for supporting this episode! Founded by ex-Apple engineers, Backblaze was built to work seamlessly with all the Macs in your life. Get easy-to-use, unlimited backup for your Macs and external hard drives—try it for free at Backblaze.com/cultofmac.

Full show notes up next.

There is nothing worse then being stranded with no charger and no battery power. Life gets dangerous without your lifeline to the digital world.

The TOCCs Ultra Slim 10 Hour Battery Case is a lightweight and seamless solution to the inevitable battery problems of the iPhone 5/5s. Snap it in and you’ll get to continuous use on your device, completely uninterrupted for up to 5 extra hours. And Cult of Mac Deals has it for 68% off the regular price…only $24.99!

What would your desk look like if it were designed with computers — not books, pencils and papers — in mind.

Takes one to know one, Blackberry. The CEO of the beleaguered Canadian smartphone manufacturer — which recently celebrated achieving its first 0% market share since the smartphone wars started — is now calling iPhone owners “wall huggers.”

Those who live their lives glued to their computers love f.lux, a cone-saving app that automatically adjusts the color balance of your Mac (or jailbroken iPhone or iPad’s) display at sunset or sunrise so it’s easier to read.

For f.lux lovers, though, the app just got a lot better on the Mac. Previously, F.lux’s only consideration was whether the sun had risen or set, but now, it takes into account your body’s circadian rhtyhm. You can actually train f.lux to take into account when you go to sleep and wake up.

If you love the iPhone 5c, here’s a painful chart, courtesy of analytics platform Mixpanel: Growth of the iPhone 5c is pretty much stagnant at just around 6% (roughly where it’s been since Christmas), even as the iPhone 5s has achieved a 20% share of the iPhone market, overtaking the iPhone 4 and approaching the iPhone 4s in popularity.

Feel like smashing some glass? How about throwing pinballs to do it?

Well, you can do both in this week’s pick: Smash Hit by Mediocre Games, a free-to-play glass-shattering endless run through some of the prettiest yet most fragile obstacle courses we’ve ever seen.

Here’s a quick video of our play through, along with our thoughts on the game.

Apple Fanboy One Percenters (if such a thing exists) looking for new real estate might be tempted to scoop up the open condo next to Tim Cook, but if you’re looking for something more high-tech, with a bigger price tag, this iPad-controlled mansion in Newport Beach, California just came on the market, and it’ll only set you back $22 million.

It’s a mansion worthy of Fortune Cookie himself thanks to incredible beachfront views. And it fits in with Apple’s push for green renewable energy as 95% of its electricity is supplied by a gigantic solar panel in the backyard.

Check it out:

So you get a seriously racy iMessage from someone incredibly inappropriate, and you want to send it along to one of your close confidants. What do you do?

It used to be that you’d tap the Edit button in Messages to be able to forward them.

In iOS 7, there is no Edit button. Nor can you swipe to the left, as that just brings up the timestamps.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment have just disclosed that mobile superhero fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us has gotten a big bad exclusively to the Android and iOS versions of the game: Darkseid.

To celebrate, the game will have a special challenge event taking place in game, giving you a chance to compete in battles that will reward you with an exclusive Gold character card. The challenge will run from March 6 through the 24th.

This week Cult of Mac Magazine looks under the hood at Apple’s new CarPlay iOS 7.

Called “smart and seamless” by those lucky enough to test it out behind the wheel of a Ferrari at the International Geneva Motor Show, the system will be coming to a dashboard near you as soon as 2014.

Reporter Luke Dormehl talks to experts about what the impact will be for the rest of us: whether smart driving and whether we’ll all be heading down the road to the quantified ride anytime soon.

There is a lot of misinformation about CarPlay — from Apple’s relationship with automakers to the suggestion that it’s working side-by-side with BlackBerry  — and the analysts we spoke to have an interesting take on what the new system means for Apple and where the Cupertino company might be headed.

As always, we’re here for comments, suggestions and bug fixes, so send ’em to my email below or hit the “send” icon top right.

Cult of Mac Magazine

The House That Mario Built isn’t any closer to bringing Zelda, Mario, Donkey Kong, and the others to iOS anytime soon, but what would Nintendo’s classic games look like if they were originally built for iOS?

Rather than waiting for Flappy Mario to hit the App Store, Red Bull decided to re imagine some of our favorite Nintendo games with a iOS twist that mashes up the likes of Donkey Kong with Angry Birds, Candy Crush Saga with Dr. Mario, and Nintendo’s own Temple Run knock-off starring Link.

Take a look:

Men can be quite particular when it comes to their clothing and with so much being offered in stores, shopping can be nothing more than a headache. Luckily the app Dapper is an application that categorizes clothing for men to check out. Always learning from what you like and dislike, Dapper just may become your new shopping buddy.

Take a look at Dapper and find out what you think.

This is a Cult Of Mac video review of the iOS application Dapper brought to you by Joshua Smith of “TechBytes W/Jsmith.”

We’ve seen so many iWatch concepts that at this point we really just wish would Apple to show their cards, but here’s a concept of a traditional wristwatch we wouldn’t mind them aping a few features from.

Gábor Balogh says he was tired of all the super geeky looking iWatch concepts, so he whipped up this clever beauty that features modern smartwatch features re imagined in a classic, traditional analog watch way.

Check it out:

ETA is all about telling you how far you are from your favorite places. It’ll also point out which direction they’re in, in case you have to know that at all times.

But Maps will do that, too, so to distinguish itself, ETA lets you build up a list of your most-traveled spots, and it’ll tell you at a glance how long it will take to get there in current traffic. And with a couple taps, you can get directions from either your built-in navigator or Google Maps. And that’s really handy because I always like to know how far I am from sandwiches.

Source:ETA – $1.99 | Eastwood

I play a lot of games about getting one thing and maybe getting three other things along the way if I can (or feel like it). I just reviewed one Wednesday, in fact. But it’s a solid premise, and as long as getting all those things isn’t boring, developers can keep making them until everyone’s thumbs fall off.

Developer Klei Entertainment’s first mobile title, Eets Munchies, is another “one and maybe three” game, but it’s also a clever puzzle title that is equal parts Lemmings and Rube Goldberg. It’s the latest in Klei’s debut series, and it’s interesting to see the company go back to the cutes after its recent dalliances with hyperviolence in games like Shank and Mark of the Ninja.

Don’t let the adorable graphics fool you, though; once you really get into it, this game is to difficulty as cake is to delicious flavor.