There’s a new accessibility feature built into Apple’s already pretty splendid suite of options for people of various abilities. Called Switch Control, it allows those with motor difficulties to connect a switch to their iOS device for better access.

The feature, originally released alongside iOS 7, allows users to connect a switch via cable or Bluetooth as well as setting up the screen itself as one big switch button.

In iOS 7.1, then, Apple added another useful option: to use the Camera itself as a head switch. Here’s how to set it up.

In a plot ripped straight from 2005, Neil Young announced this week that he’s taking on the iPod with his new high-def audio music player, the Pono.

We had a good laugh talking about the Pono on this week’s CultCast, but after checking the Kickstarter page this morning it might be Neil who gets the last laugh as his project has already earned more than $2.5 million in pledges.

Titanfall has been the biggest and best reviewed game to hit the Xbox One in 2014. So many people have been gushing about the gameplay all over Twitter, I nearly rushed out to buy an Xbox One to try it but according to a report from Polygon, it might be coming to the Mac soon.

Apple products have been the go-to brand for creatives for decades, but when Apple was in its infancy Steve Jobs laid the groundwork by heavily investing in a printer of all things.

It was the Laserwriter I that cemented Apple as the hardware supplier of choice for the creative community, but Jobs took some convincing before being sold on the idea of a selling an expensive laser printer.

In the video above, Brady Haran explains how Jobs tried to go with clone fonts to reduce costs, but was ultimately convinced to invest in proper typesetting for the revolutionary Apple Laserwriter I after getting an ultimatum between his prefered Coca-Cola or Pepsi. Brady can be a bit of a rambling charmer, so jump to the 6min mark.

Via: Gizmodo

If you’ve been using OS X for any length of time now, you know the special joy of desktop “spaces,” what Apple calls its virtual desktop system. You can switch between them by hitting Command-Arrow (right or left) on your keyboard, or you can activate Spaces with the F3 key on most modern Macs. You can also reorder these Spaces around fairly easily.

But did you know you could add more Spaces? Delete the ones you have?

Well, you can, and it’s pretty simple.

I know I don’t get enough sleep, but I’m kinda dumb, so sometimes I need to look at pictures to really put things into perspective. That’s where SleepBattery comes in. You tell it how old you are, and it suggests how much sleep you should be getting every night. When you go to bed, you tap a button, and the screen-sized battery begins to fill. When you wake up, you tap the screen again, and the battery begins to drain.

When it’s completely empty, it tells you to go to bed. And I probably won’t, but it’s nice to know the app cares.

Source:SleepBattery – Free | Max Haubold

Faif is a weird game.

It’s kind of like Bejeweled, only you’re not trying to match anything. And it’s kind of like a role-playing game, except you’re not really on a quest (or are you?). It’s sort of like gambling, but you don’t win anything, and it’s a smidge like a free-to-play game, but you don’t have to pay real money for the in-game currency.

All of these kindas and sortas add up to a unique experience that I think I enjoy, but I’m honestly not sure.

Let’s cut to the chase: these In-Ear Headphones from Grain Audio are earbuds redefined.

The In-Ear Headphones from Grain Audio deliver perfect sound and design. Owners of this product can maintain their style without sacrificing any audio quality. Cult of Mac Deals has got these sleek headphones for 15% off the regular price – just $84.99 – during this limited time offer.

For the first time since it was introduced nine years ago, the cost of Amazon Prime is going up. According to Amazon, existing Prime members will pay $99 per year on their annual renewal date, while Amazon Student members will now pay $49.

The Prime Fresh membership fee will remain unchanged at $299.

Microsoft has reportedly made its Windows Phone operating system free to select handset manufacturers in an effort to gain ground on Android and iOS.

Both Xolo and Karbonn — two smartphone makers based in India — recently signed deals with Microsoft that will allow them to launch Windows Phone devices free from license fees, according to sources speaking to The Times of India.

Three out of every four smartphones sold in Japan are reportedly iPhones, but how did the Apple devices get there to start with?

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son shed some light on that question during a television interview with Charlie Rose which aired earlier this week, in which he told the story of how he landed the iPhone back in 2008.

Apple dropped another heavy hint about its interest in the iWatch on Thursday, as it published a patent application relating to a smart watch-mounted pedometer.

The Wrist Pedometer Step Detection patent application is another example of Apple’s interest in health-tracking technology for future devices. The application describes a method for optimally detecting steps, which uses advanced algorithms to filter out much of the “noise” that might lead lead to it missing or inaccurately recording steps.

France’s Opéra de Lyon is set to begin performing its multimedia opera — combining the story of Steve Jobs with that of Henry V, taken from Shakespeare’s 1599 play.

Written by German composer Roland Auzet, “Steve Five (King Different)” explores the supposed similarities between the two rulers (one of Silicon Valley, the other of England) who changed the nature of reality by inventing. The opera features both sung and spoken opera, as well as poetry, rap and orchestral interludes — and will debut on Friday, March 14 at the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Lyon, France. Subsequent showings will follow on March 15, 17, and 18.

Rolling out in April, United Airlines will offer a special personal device entertainment system on-board select aircraft for people using the iPhone and iPad, running iOS 7.

Customers will be able to choose from more than 150 movies, and close to 200 TV shows, which they can access free of charge.

Nikon continues to beat the dead horse that is its tiny-sensor “1” range with the new 18.4 megapixel V3. The Nikon 1 series, for those who still care, is the company’s answer to the mirrorless camera question, if that question was “How can we make it look like we actually care about anything but SLRs?”

InRoute really does look like my new favorite journey planner. It’s a Universal map app with a whole slew of useful extras, including charts for elevation, curviness (!), wind speed, precipitation and more. It looks especially good for folks who understand that a journey and its route aren’t just about the miles.

The iOS 7 update has another nice tweak in the camera app. Just like the iPhone 5S warns you when it decides to automatically engage the HDR mode, it now tells you when it’s going to fire the flash. To be honest, you should probably have the flash turned off all the time, but if you don’t, you at least now get a warning before it powers up and washes out your poor subject’s skin tones.

The Ember bag is a Kickstarter that – at first glance – seems to be a bag out of some first-person-shooter. It’s a modular backpack design, which starts out as a “20-liter urban pack” and can be extended by adding all manner of sleeves and pockets.

If you’re a normal human with normal human needs and desires, I would imagine that you want this bag like now. It’s called the Berlin, and it is a special edition from ONA made to celebrate 100 Years of Leica.

If you’re using the latest Apple devices and all your software is up to date, then your iPhone will now use Bluetooth to search for nearby AppleTVs as well as just searching on the network using Bonjour. The end result is the same – streaming over the local Wi-Fi network – but if you have an odd or non-standard Wi-Fi setup, this might help[,your devices talk to one another.

Today AgileBits released 1Password 4.2 for Mac, a big update to the popular password manager that brings over 30 new features and improvements. The bulk of the additions are actually for 1Password mini, the app’s browser extension for Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.

You can finally edit items directly in 1Password mini, which has been one of the app’s biggest feature requests from users. There are a lot of other improvements included in the update, and AgileBits has commissioned Lonely Sandwich to make an awesome promo:

“My phone just erased everything it had in it and rebooted,” NBA superstar LeBron James tweeted earlier today. “One of the sickest feelings I’ve ever had in my life!!!”

Hey, that does sound frustrating. Who can blame him for tweeting his frustration with his Galaxy Note phablet?

There was only one problem.

Although the iTunes Festival has been a great success in the UK for years, it’s only at this year’s SXSW festival that it’s finally come to the States, with Apple arranging for artists such as Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, and Kendrick Lamar to perform free for five nights in Austin, Texas.

What was the hold up? According to Apple’s Eddy Cue, they just weren’t sure they could reproduce the positive vibe anywhere else. But it looks like they’ve succeeded.

Although 4K Monitors are starting to become affordable, OS X hasn’t up until now supported them with the same sophistication it does a Retina Display. Even under Mavericks, the only readable resolution was 3840 x 2160, with no support for OS X’s Retina scaling options.

According to Anand Lal Shimpi of Anandtech, though, this has all changed, with the latest developer build of OS X 10.9.3 supporting the full range of Retina scaling modes for 4K monitors, allowing you to use those extra pixels to make things crisper instead of just smaller.

That’s good news… and probably a hint that whenever Apple releases the Retina iMac, it’ll boast a 3840 x 2160 display, and not the crazy 5120 x 2880 pixel display that would be called for if Apple just doubled the resolution of the 27-inch, as it has with other Retina Macs.

Source: Anandtech

Rather than slogging through a lake of reviews to find something you’re just going to put down after 10 minutes, Cult of Mac has once again waded through the iTunes store to compile a list of the best new albums, books and movies to come out this week.

Enjoy!