You need to know two things before you read this review. One is that Pad&Quill’s The Field is one of the best-made bags I’ve ever tried. It’s solid, tough, and will ages way more gracefully than I will.

The second is that it’s exactly the kind of bag I will never use: heavy, full of handy pockets and able to put enough weight onto that one strap to crush your shoulder. So bear both these points in mind as we continue.

Checkmark was already the best app for location-based reminders, but with today’s 2.0 update, it has become one of the most sleek and powerful to-do apps for iPhone, period.

Snowman has rebuilt Checkmark for iOS 7, and version 2 includes a host of new features.

Writing a book about any technology company is hard. Books take a long time to write, and a longer time to make it into print and arrive in stores. Technology, on the other hand, moves quickly. As a tech author, you have two options. One is to write a book that tries its best to be timely by making it to market as soon as possible. The other is to wait until a book-length narrative has unfolded, and then to write about it. Tech writers, I suggest, would typically prefer the latter. Book publishers prefer the former.

Bind is kind of a weird idea for an app, but then again, I know people who watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials. So if you want big companies to try to sell you things without all that pesky programming getting in the way, here’s where you should go.

It collects ads. Just ads. Do you want to watch ads? Bind has all the ads including movie trailers and those ones people at work were attempting to describe (poorly) the day after the Big Game. And you can rate and share your favorites with your friends.

So at the very least, it’ll save you a trip to YouTube.

Source:Bind – Free | Bind Group LTD.

You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who would argue that Apple’s Lightning connector isn’t superior to the old 30-pin connector in every way. That’s why it’s surprising that it has taken Apple so long to phase 30-pin out of its product lineup.

Today Apple brought back the fourth-gen iPad to replace the non-Retina iPad 2. While the press release focuses on the obvious display upgrade, discontinuing the iPad 2 means something else that’s important: another nail in the coffin for 30-pin.

Alright, so I don’t know for sure that it’s a colon, but you’re definitely inside something’s guts.

And you’ll never get out because Microtrip is an endless faller in which you guide a blob down into the bowels of the bowels of a creature. It’s more pleasant than you think, though, because everything’s all cute-ified and cartoonish.

It’s also a lot of fun, provided you don’t crave variety

Google today announced Android Wear, a new version of its popular mobile operating system that’s designed exclusively for wearables. The search giant says it is working with consumer electronics manufacturers, chipmakers, and fashion brands to bring the technology to life in “an ecosystem of watches in a variety of styles, shapes, and sizes.”

There’s a lot to Microsoft Office, and many of us are expected to dive right in and be competent with the software suite with little to no training. That’s where this Cult of Mac Deals promotion can help.

With this actionable course, you’ll learn be able to mater MS Office and take your skills to the next level (while impressing your co-workers and superiors in the process) with The Microsoft Office 2011 Course Bundle. And Cult of Mac Deals has this package available for only $39 for a limited time.

For many people, their iPhone has long cemented its place as their primary camera.

A newly granted patent, published Tuesday, looks to build on that reputation by adding a remote control capable of operating the iPhone camera.

The “Systems and Methods for Remote Camera Control” patent describes a wireless iOS attachment, featuring a built-in display for both previewing and reviewing photos. The accessory would let users to remotely switch between different typing types of recording (both stills and movies), and also between camera and playback mode.

Apple launched its new 8GB iPhone 5c in Europe this morning, but the cheaper handset is yet to reach the U.S. online store. That’s because it isn’t going to. The Cupertino company has confirmed that the device will only be available in a select few countries, and the U.S. isn’t one of them.

We’re pleased to bring you the finalists in the 6 About to Break contest that SF New Tech and Macworld held to find the next big thing in Apple-related tech.

The finalists demonstrate just how the Cupertino company inspires people to think different, spanning the gamut from wearables and facial recognition software to the well-entertained pet.

Cult of Mac is chuffed to be a media partner; our own Leander Kahney will be on the panel of judges when the demos battle it out at Macworld/iWorld’s Second Stage on March 27 from 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm. You’ll be able to see and test them all out, too.

Want to come? We’ve got passes to give away – stayed tuned to Twitter and Facebook for more…

An open letter to the minority of people who oppose the wearing of Google Glass in public.

Dear waiter, Costco cashier, random Whole Foods shopper and angry man on the street and everyone else with the gall to ask me and Glass wearers I know to approach a stranger and insist that we not wear Glass because you don’t want to be photographed:

Hi.

Apple launched its new 8GB iPhone 5c in Europe this morning in an effort to boost disappointing sales figures — but there’s just one problem. At £429 ($712) in the United Kingdom, it’s still far too expensive for budget-conscious smartphone consumers.

In fact, there are a whole bunch of flagship Android-powered handsets with bigger displays and better specifications that you can get significantly cheaper. Here are six of the best.

Rovio Entertainment has soft-launched its latest Angry Birds title.

Named Angry Birds Epic, the turn-based RPG (yes, really!) is available for iPhone and iPad in the New Zealand, Australian and Canadian App Stores now.

Siri didn’t become a feature of iOS until the launch of the iPhone 4s in October 2011.

A patent published Tuesday, however, shows how the idea of the “intelligent automated assistant” that would become Siri was being worked on as far back as 2006 — before the first iPhone was even unveiled.

Amazon’s much-anticipated Apple TV competitor will finally launch next month, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. The device will offer incentives to members of the Amazon Prime subscription service, sources claim, and it will be powered by a custom version of Android.

It’s well known that Apple can be very controlling about what makes it into the App Store — cracking down on everything from Flappy Bird clones to games which feature the word “enemy” in recent times.

But Apple’s latest target might surprise you a bit more: Steve Jobs apps.

The duo who discovered this were sibling developers John and Grant Gill. They created an app called Quoth Steve, which offered daily quotes from Apple’s late CEO on everything from business and design, to love and regrets. The pair submitted the app late in December, hoping to launch it January 1.

Production of the iPhone 6 is set to begin next quarter.

According to a report in the Commercial Times, Taiwan’s Pegatron Corp — which assembles the iPhone and iPad — is opening up new factory space and recruiting new workers in China to meet the orders it has received from Apple for the iPhone 6.

It is not known how many units would be manufactured by Pegatron, although it is suggested that fellow Taiwanese contract assembler Foxconn will be the iPhone 6’s other primary manufacturer.

Jot is an iOS text editor that adds a red trackball nubbin to the iPhone keyboard. No kidding – it’s just like a ThinkPad, only in software not hardware. And it also looks like a fantastic way to solve the frustrations of iPhone text selection.

Apple has re-introduced its fourth-generation iPad, this time with only a 16GB capacity.

The revived model replaces the aging iPad 2 — originally released in early 2011 — in Apple’s lineup. Like the iPad mini with Retina Display, it is priced at $399, making it $100 than the iPad Air. A cellular model is also available for $529.

Photojojo’s Table Dolly is – on the face of things – a super-adjustable way to film professional-looking dolly shots in your kitchen or on your stylish blond-wood parquet floors.

But looked at a different way, it could be a robot dinosaur or a cherry-picker for Lego minifigs.

Ever “hefted” the standard North American iPhone charging cube in your hand and thought, “Boy, this thing would be way better if the prongs would fold up, and maybe if the thing could juice an iPad as well as my iPhone. And hey, why not make it black so I can lose it more easily too?”

Well, you’re not alone, because somebody at Scosche thought the exact same thing, and the superCUBE flip was born.

Just as expected, Apple has today added a cheaper 8GB model to its iPhone 5c lineup. The handset is available to order now from a number of European carriers, and via European Apple Online Stores, where it can be purchased for £429 ($714) off-contract.

IFTTT has added a new Microsoft OneNote channel to its internet automation service, letting you send all manner of things to the newly-launched Mac app. Now, using the new recipes, you can create new OneNote pages with images, text or links.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywqax2f6lCE

OneNote is one of the few Microsoft apps that Mac users seem to have actually been pining for. Like aging pro wrestlers, Excel, Powerpoint and Word have become bloated, slow and boorish over the years, and have been forgotten for more nimble Mac-friendly options like Keynote and Numbers. OneNote, on the other hand, is fairly unique and remains extremely useful and hugely popular — so it was no small thing today when it finally popped up at the Mac App Store (an iOS version has been around for a while).

Apparent, the company behind Doxie scanners, lost no time in partnering up with Microsoft to make their software OneNote compatible — the Doxie desktop software already contains a one-click button that sends any scanned document straight to OneNote.