Yesterday Apple announced CarPlay, and we’ve already seen the software working in Volvo and Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Apple’s head of iOS marketing, Greg Joswiak, took the stage with Ferrari at the Geneva Motor Show to unveil CarPlay in the Ferrari FF, the world’s fastest four-seater.
CarPlay is launching this week with Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, and Volvo on board. Apple says more partners are coming later this year, including BMW, Ford, Kia, Land Rover, Nissan, and Toyota.
This post first appeared in Cult of Mac Magazine’s “No Fail iPhone Photography” Issue.
Let’s just first say that you all are awesome. We had over 300 entries in last week’s Cult of Mac Magazine photo contest, in which we asked for photos taken with an iPhone that exemplified the topic word, “silver.”
Y’all filled up our Twitter and Instagram feed in spades. Well done!
We don’t have space to print all gajillion photos here in Cult of Mac Magazine, though, so we narrowed things down to our favorite ten submitted photos, with the top three there at the end of our list.
Here’s the top seven, in no particular order:
A waterproof case for your iPhone is more fun than you might think – especially one that is designed to fit onto any of a zillion different action mounts. And a waterproof case for your iPhone that also comes with a box of interchangeable lenses is even better.
Last summer I used a Griffin case to take photos in the pool, kayaking at the lake and in many other places I would never usually take a phone, let alone a camera. That case broke (thankfully not when it was submerged), and also took bad pictures thanks to the cheap plastic window over the iPhone lens.
The Optrix PhotoProX has no such problem, thanks to the proper, screw-on lenses. And its no slouch as a case, either. In fact, I’d say that not only is it the best waterproof iPhone case I’ve tested, it’s the best rugged iPhone case I’ve tried, too.
iOS 7.1 has already been expected to drop this month, and now a more specific timeframe has been given by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber. According to Gruber’s source, iOS 7.1 will be required to stream Apple’s SXSW iTunes Festival from its dedicated app.
Since the festival begins in a week on March 11th, that means iOS 7.1 should be released “any day now.”
The fifth developer beta of 7.1 was seeded a month ago, and Apple released iOS 7.0.6 with bug fixes a couple of weeks ago.
Source: Daring Fireball
Apple finally revealed its CarPlay system yesterday that brings iOS access to your car’s dashboard. Some suburbanites rejoiced at a new rush-hour-infotainment center – especially those who can afford a Ferrari or Benz — but if you’re a car-less city slicker iOS in the elevator would be a hell of a lot more useful.
This ‘iOS in the Lift’ mockup was created as a joke by a Behance user, but after thinking about it, a dash of iOS would go great in tons of other things too, like showers, the subway, a hotdog stand, you name it.
Here’s a closer look at the interface:
GyroScan is a little intimidating.
It works a lot like the panorama function on your iPhone’s camera, but you can capture a complete 360-degree image either horizontally or vertically by spinning in a circle or rotating your phone up or down. When you look at the instructions, it all gets very technical, but once you work with it for a little while — and maybe rig something up to keep your phone still — you can get some really good results.
You can also scan in “stereo mode” and make 3D pictures, but that’s just showing off, GyroScan.
This week Apple announced CarPlay, a rebranding of ‘iOS in the Car’ from WWDC last summer. The software is an extension of iOS that is designed for hands-free use of Siri, Apple Maps, Phone, Messages, and services like iTunes Radio.
While Apple’s focus with CarPlay is clearly on its own apps and services, the company has chosen to launch with four “select third-party audio apps.” It’s good news for the chosen four, but how Apple plans to work with other developers on CarPlay integration in the future remains unclear.
God of Light has a simple, fun concept. It has pretty graphics and some cool music by British electronica outfit Unkle. And it has realistic light physics. And all of these are great, but a lot of games look and sound good.
But God of Light is special because in addition to all of these good qualities, it also offers something else: a meditation on what puzzle games are, what they do, and how and why we play them.
And the best part is that the developer accomplishes this not by telling us, but by building all of these qualities into the gameplay and mechanics.
Assassin’s Creed has become a successful game franchise for good reason. It features a free-flowing, ninja-style parkour and open-world environment that is exectued expertly and privdes hours of gaming fun for players. And Cult of Mac Deals has an offer that’s going to satisy the most ardent of fans.
The Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Mac Bundle gives you two installmetns of the popular franchise, sporting the incredible graphics and free-flowing gameplay you know and love…and all for just $14.99!
Apple has today announced that Peter Oppenheimer Apple, its senior vice president and chief financial officer, will retire at the end of September after 18 years with the Cupertino company. Oppenheimer will transition the role of CFO to Luca Maestri, Apple’s current vice president of finance and corporate controller. If you’re wondering about Peter Oppenheimer now, you can learn more about his career and contributions to Apple.
Flappy Bird may be gone from the App Store, but that’s not to say it’s been forgotten.
French urban artist Invader — whose work appropriates the pixelated look of 8-bit video games — just unveiled a giant piece of street art in Paris depicting the iconic pipe-dodging avian itself.
For readers in France, the piece can be checked out at 81 Rue De La Boetie.
Are people not buying the iPhone 5c because its colorful exterior selling point is rendered useless by the fact that most people keep their iPhones in cases?
That’s one of two theories put forward by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who is the latest person to suggest that the iPhone 5c isn’t doing too well in the marketplace.
According to 1,003 consumers polled last week by Munster, just 6% of smartphone buyers plan to pick up an iPhone 5c — down from 9% in December.
Developers Tabasco Interactive have released the trailer to their new game Star Horizon.
A gorgeous on-rails shooter, with a $3.99 asking price and no IAP, Tabasco has submitted the game to Apple, and is hoping to launch it on March 20.
You play as John, a disenfranchised human pilot whose ship is controlled by Ellie, an Artificial Intelligence which is programmed to help pilots stay mentally strong throughout combat and and which cannot kill human beings. After being placed into hibernation for 1,000 years John must discover what has happened to the galaxy and try his best to save it.
Intel has reportedly acquired wristwatch health tracking company Basis Science for between $100 – $150 million.
Basis — which was allegedly shopping itself around to potential buyers including Apple, Google, and Microsoft — currently occupies around 7% of the market with its Basis Health Tracker Watch, versus competitor Jawbone’s 21%.
Brett Terpstra’s Marked app started out as a quick way to preview any Markdown file as it would appear when rendered into rich text or HTML. It still does that as well as any of the apps that have their own built-in Markdown preview, but Marked is now arguably something else entirely. It analyzes your text and gives detailed statistics, as well as suggestions on how to improve your prose.
The latest version detects the passive voice.
One month after being launched, Paper – stories from Facebook has received its first significant update.
The addition allows users to share articles via Facebook Messages, text message, or email, as well as create stories in languages that use multi-stage input, including Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
There’s also the possibility of turning off sound effects to “enjoy the silence,” alongside a variety of other improvements designed to make Paper more reliable.
Back in the 1980s, and probably continuing into the 1990s, every neat gadget was shoehorned into a credit-card-shaped form factor. Magnifying glass? Credit-card-sized. Vinyl record de-duster? Credit-card-sized. And so on.
The Jumper Card continues this excellent heritage by putting a Lightning charger, a 30-pin dock connector and a microUSB charger into the same credit-card-sized package, ready to be slipped into your pocket. But not your wallet, because, like all “credit-card-sized” gadgets, this one is way too thick.
Arguably the App Store needs another ninja game like it needs another Flappy Bird clone. So what does the boldly-titled Epic Ninja Game offer that you don’t get from, say, Clumsy Ninja or Ninja Chaos?
To start answering that, let me explain a bit about the retro-styled platformer that is Epic Ninja Game. You play an unnamed ninjitsu who, waking up in a mysterious laboratory stripped of his magical ninja powers (!), has to travel through multiple stages to regain them.
At your disposal from the start are jumps and an endless supply of shurikens, but as you make your way through the game this expands to include an unlikely assortment of jet packs, invincibility power-ups, and laser eyes.
This very clever trick from Poor Signal lets you add anything you like to your Mac’s Day One journal app using IFTTT (It This Then That), Hazel and – of course – Day one. And becasue Day One syncs with your iPad, it’s available there, too.
What can you do with this? You could automatically add all your Instagram photos to your journal, pipe in a weather forecast (although Day One does that by itself these days), items from an RSS feed, your heart rate (via Withings’s IFTTT channel), or anything else.
What? Yes. AnyFont is a proper, available-in-the-App-Store iOS app that lets you install fonts system-wide, for use by any app that allows access to the full list of iOS system fonts. How does it manage this sandbox-skipping magic? Installation profiles.
What comes first, the iOS or the car? It’ll be a toss up to see what turns more heads when Ferrari debuts Apple’s new CarPlay system tomorrow at the Geneva motor show.
The drool-worthy demo of the new iOS pairs it with the Italian carmaker’s much-anticipated California T, a 3.9-liter, direct-injected V8 convertible. Apple’s new Siri-controlled system will also be in play on the Ferrari FF, aka the Ferrari Four, a four-wheel drive, four seater, pictured above.
Maranello announced as of tomorrow, March 4, Ferrari drivers can benefit from a “simpler and safer” system to use their iPhones behind the wheel.
Stay tuned!
Via Ferrari
Months of iOS in the Car leaks finally culminated this morning with Apple revealing its new CarPlay system. It’s not quite the name we were expecting, but automakers like Ferrari, Volvo and Mercedes have already integrated Apple’s system into future cars.
Volvo showcased CarPlay in its new XC90 SUV this morning, but here’s what CarPlay will like like for those rolling in a Benz:
Jony Ive takes extra pains to keep his personal life private, but Leander’s book Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products shines a light in corners of Jony’s life and at Apple HQ that few have ever seen, especially when it comes to Apple’s design processes.
The book garnered praise from readers during its release last Fall, but we were super-giddy this afternoon to see that the world’s leading Apple analyst, Horace Dediu, just plowed through all 320 pages and says it’s the best book about Apple so far.
Jony Ive by Leander Kahney @lkahney The best book about Apple so far.
— Horace Dediu (@asymco) March 3, 2014
Over the last few years we’ve devoured Dediu’s insightful and intriguing Apple analysis on his site Asymco, but here’s what he had to say about the book:
Ridiculous Fishing had a good 2013. The breakout game from the Dutch developers at Vlambeer was Apple’s best iOS game of the year. It also won a coveted Apple Design Award. We called it “stellar” and “addictive” in our roundup of the best iOS games of the year, and it spawned countless clones in the App Store.
Now the same two-man studio is at it again with a new game that’s coming out on March 18th, Luftrausers.
Peter Oppenheimer doesn’t get a lot of the spotlight at Apple – unless you’re tuning into a quarterly earnings report – but the Apple CFO plays a huge role in Apple’s profitability and now he’ll be lending his talents to Wall Street by joining Goldman Sachs Board of Directors. If you’d like to know more about his career and impact at Apple, check out this article.
Goldman Sachs announced this morning that Oppenheimer will join the board immediately as an independent director of the firm: