Four Democratic senators have proposed a federal law that would require all smartphone manufacturers to include a mandatory “kill switch” for their devices in the event that they are stolen.
The bill would give users the ability to remote wipe their personal data from a lost or stolen device.
Today sees the iOS launch of Deadman’s Cross, a zombie-themed collectible card battle RPG from Square Enix, the company behind Final Fantasy and the multimillion-download hit Guardian Cross.
Set sixteen years in the future, the game takes place in a zombie apocalypse in which a rampant virus has turned large numbers of people into the walking dead.
Phil Schiller and possibly Scott Forstall are expected to make witness appearances for the next round of the Apple v. Samsung trial, when the two companies return to court in California in late March.
As Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Schiller was the highest-profile witness to take the stand during the first jury trial in the patent case between Apple and Samsung in August 2012.
Users of Picturelife on iOS can now edit their cloud-stored photos right there in the app, thanks to an update launched yesterday. Picturelife was already one of the most full-featured photo-wrangling services around (it’s my favorite, although I have a bit of a dupe problem at the moment), and now it can serve as a full-on organizing, editing and sharing suite.
Responding to the tech industry’s effect on San Francisco housing, Bay Area artist Alfred Twu has taken it upon himself to show what Silicon Valley tech campuses might look like if they converted their parking lots into accommodation for their employees.
Alongside mini-cities for Facebook and Google, Twu created these designs for iTown — with 13,000 apartments for Apple’s 13,000 Cupertino employees, ajoining the new Apple 2 campus.
IFTTT’s new Evernote action might not seem like much, adding one measly little function, but it’s a biggy. You can take anything, and append it to an Evernote note as to-do item, complete with a checkbox.
Example uses: Send your Foursquare to-dos to an Evernote checklist, or save iOS reminders to Evernote.
Reader 7 is a single-minded app with a single-serve purpose. You know when somebody sends you an MS Word DOC or DOCX file via email and all you want to do is look at it, and maybe track the changes that have been made to it, but then you open in in Pages and all bets are off? That’s what Reader 7 is here to fix.
It’s an app which can accurately display Word documents with complex formatting.
Rapoo’s new E2700 looks to be the perfect companion for my iMac, which is sat on a desk at a suspiciously convenient distance from the sofa in my office, letting me kick back and be amazed by episodes of True Detective and, uh, The Mentalist. Aside from being a regular keyboard with all the usual media keys, it also packs a trackpad on the rightmost end, so you can play/pause those annoying browser video players that don’t respond to the spacebar.
Hey, owners of the Best Camera Ever™ who want to use a 50mm equivalent once in a while – I have some good news for you. Fujifilm is set to release a 50mm adapter for the X100S, letting you use this classic “standard” lens focal length.
Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten has today announced its $900 million acquisition of Viber. The hugely popular messaging and VoIP service will help Rakuten expand its digital ecosystem even further, and it marks its first foray into voice communication.
Keeping photos on Instagram, Facebook, iPhoto, Google Drive, Google+, Flickr, Lightroom, Aperture, Picasa, Dropbox or OneDrive? Then you might like StreamNation, an app and service that collects them all together in one place.
What’s more, it also gives you 20GB of free storage to get started, and the upgrade rates aren’t so bad either.
This is Cult of Mac’s exclusive column written by an actual Apple Store Genius who answers all your questions about working at an Apple Store. Our genius must remain anonymous, but other than “Who are you, anyway?” ask anything you want about what goes on behind that slick store facade.
This week our Genius answers why the iPhone screen can be repaired in stores while the iPad has to be shipped away from special care. We also discuss whether working at the Apple Store can be turned into a solid career, plus the top 5 most annoying things customers do at the Apple Store.
Got a question you want the inside scoop on? Send us your questions and the answers will be published first in Cult of Mac’s Magazine on Newsstand. Send your questions to newsATcultofmac.com with “genius” in the subject line.
Q: On average, how many customers come in to ask for or buy the new Mac Pro?
You’d be surprised how often people ask about it. It’s a brand new product so a lot of people that come into the store are curious what it looks like, want to know the new features and ogle the new design the same way the iPhone and iPad tables are crushed after a launch.
On the other hand, it’s a professional machine with a price tag that would intimidate Bigfoot himself, so I personally haven’t met anyone who has bought one in the store, but we never have any in stock — orders are backed up until April!
Q: Would you leave your job at Apple for a higher-paying job?
Hell yes. Let’s be real, working at the Apple Store is fun but it’s not my dream job. I get to be surrounded by cool tech and great people who are uncontrollably excited about everything Apple. The pay is decent, Apple treats us pretty well, and you could make a career out of it if you want to, but at the end of the day it’s still a retail position.
A few friends that have left Apple told management they got a better offers from another company but management rarely tries to match an outside offer. Once that higher-paying job comes along, a lot of people leave.
The monotony of the job wears you down and it’s not like you’re actually working for Apple corporate, so it doesn’t feel quite as magical or special as I imagine working at HQ in Cupertino would. In the end, it really is just a job and lots of people come and go after finding greener pastures elsewhere.
Q: Is it true you are not allowed to go on rumor sites like Cult of Mac and MacRumors?
You’re not supposed to read them while you’re at Apple, but a lot of us read the rumor sites in our free time. We get just as excited about new iPhones, iPads and the possibility of an iWatch as all the other Apple fanboys, but we’re in the dark as much as regular customers about future products.
We’re not allowed to speculate about future products with customers. If a customer asks whether I’ve heard about X post on Y Apple blog about Z unannounced product, I’m supposed to act clueless, say I’ve never heard of it nor do I know anything about Apple’s plans, but really I’ll be chowing down on the latest iPhone rumors during my lunch break.
Picks of the Week
Glitch Mob – Love Death Immortality
Los Angeles-based three-piece the Glitch Mob drift even further from their name on their second album Love Death Immortality, an album that suggests they be renamed the EDM Mob, the Big Room Mob, the Bass Drop Mob, or maybe even the Totally Accessible Yet Utterly Awesome Mob. Whatever they choose, fans will drink up this meaty and chaotic album.
iTunes – $8.99
Speedy Ortiz – Real Hair
Following up on last year’s well-received LP Major Arcana, Speedy Ortiz is kicking off the year by releasing four new songs on their Real Hair EP. You’ll find the same introspective exuberance and deep lyrics that highlighted the last album, in a more snackable size.
iTunes – $2.99
Sun Kil Moon – Benji
Despite having released six albums as an outfit already, some music critics are calling Benji Sun Kil Moon’s best album to date thanks to Mark Kozelek’s raw, heartbreaking lyrics. Each song focuses around a central character or theme combined with tightly woven narratives and sparse musical arrangements to form a masterpiece of reflection.
iTunes – $9.99
The Book of Jonah
by Joshua Max Feldman
For his literary debut Joshua Max Feldman chose to reimagine the biblical tale of Jonah in a modern setting. As a young Manhattan lawyer, Jonah Jacobstein is a lucky, healthy, and handsome man with two beautiful women ready to spend the rest of their lives with him, but just as he’s celebrating a deal that will make him partner, a bizarre biblical vision at a party changes everything in this funny novel that moves from New York to Amsterdam to Vegas.
iTunes – $14.99
The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America’s First Subway
by Doug Most
Before the convenience of modern mass transportation, the cities of Boston and NYC were suffering from congestion problems at the turn of the 19th century, so two brothers from one of the nation’s great families—Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York— set off on a race to dig America’s first subway. Doug Most’s new book, The Race Underground, relives the competition between Boston and New York played out in an era not unlike our own, one of economic upheaval, life-changing innovations, class warfare, bitter political tensions, and the question of America’s place in the world
iTunes – $14.99
The Martian
by Andy Weir
Sci-fi doesn’t get featured as prominently in our picks, but Andy Weir is here to bust through with his excellent debut novel about a mission to Mars that goes wrong as a dust storm leaves astronaut Mark Watney stranded. Injured, carrying limited supplies and presumed dead, Watney has to use his intelligence and grit to work to stay alive.
iTunes – $11.99
Gravity
Gravity was without a doubt the most visually spectacular movie to watch in 2013. Now that its available to view on your TV screen the enormity of space might not feel quite as vast as in the theater, but Sandra Bullock’s plight from the space shuttle back to Earth is no less captivating. And don’t forget about George Clooney ready to smother you with charm.
iTunes – $19.99
The Summit
On August 1st 2008, 18 mountain climbers reached the summit of K2. Just 48 hours later, all but 7 were dead. The Summit documents the deadliest day on the world’s second tallest mountain, but it’s not all doom and gloom. Expect some incredible mountain cinematography and jaw dropping reenactments based on testimonies from those that survived the horrific climb.
iTunes – $14.99
The Counselor
The Counselor didn’t blow up the box office quite as expected last year, despite boasting a cast that includes Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, but now can judge it for yourself as Fassbender plays a savvy lawyer who gets entangled in a treacherous drug.
iTunes – $14.99
Kitchen Utensil. Mobile Office. Study Stand.
Sure, those don’t all go together, but Twelve South’s new iPad Air and iPad mini stand looks like nothing you’ve seen before. It might as well find a place in a kitchen drawer, next to all the Pampered Chef gizmos you’ve got in there.
This new iPad stand — made for the iPad Air and iPad mini — is foldable, easy to use, and just plain sweet looking.
This poor soul on the Apple discussion forums has just lost his iPhone, in Bangladesh of all places. He’s asking how to block the thieves from accessing his personal data.
Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have Find My Phone enabled on the device. He’s out of luck, in Bangladesh of all places.
You, though, you’re lucky and now have warning: iPhones are among the most stolen items in urban areas. Here’s how to keep your personal data safe on a stolen iPhone or iPad.
How many times have you had to replace an iPod because you dropped it in water? Almost all of us have suffered the agony of liquid damaged devices at least once — but this is something you never have to worry about if you buy your iPod shuffle from Underwater Audio.
Every unit the company sells is protected by an invisible coating that allows you to get your iPod shuffle wet. And we’re not talking about a few splashes here; you can literally take it swimming, wear it in the shower, and forget about having to keep it covered up when you’re out jogging in the rain — and it will continue to work just as it should.
“Our waterproof iPod shuffle will go with you from land to sea and everywhere in between,” Underwater Audio says — so of course, I jumped at the chance to put those claims to the test.
Jelly King ambitiously introduces himself as the king of all jellies…but that’s not quite true. Before he can take his rightful place as gelatinous royalty, he has to bounce his way through a harrowing adventure to collect diamond shards. No problem, right?
Jelly King is the kind of platformer that works well on mobile devices. In his excitement, the jelly you control is constantly bouncing. All you have to do is guide him left or right as you clear obstacles or pick up powerups. Jelly King bounces a certain distance each time you move, so the challenge is to anticipate future moves based off of where you start. If you’re too far away from the edge when Jelly jumps over a gap he might clear the first obstacle, but swiftly fall off the next.
While the smash-hit app Flappy Bird has been removed from the App Store, developer Dong Nguyen has still found success with a few of his other games. Consistently ranking at the top of the app charts how will Nguyen’s new game Shuriken Block rank in your interests?
Take a look at Shuriken Block and see how it compares to the hype and popularity of the late Flappy Bird.
This is a Cult Of Mac video review of the iOS application “Shuriken Block” brought to you by Joshua Smith of “TechBytes W/Jsmith.”
Hypersleep — Health & Fitness — Free ($0.99 for additional sounds)
Developer Fixdit sees no reason why your nerd love should have to stop just because you’re unconscious. So now we have Hypersleep, a space-themed sleep aid that includes white-noise-ified versions of the engine noises of various science-fiction vehicles. You can nod off to the engine idle of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D or the background hum of the 10th Doctor’s TARDIS. Or some other equally dweeby drones.
And that’s where the Nerd Tax comes in: The default noise is free, but additional (read: recognizable) sounds cost $0.99 each. But I’m pretty sure that if the sound of Serenity’s engine will help you nod off, you’re willing to pay that dollar.
Heroes went and got themselves in a big damn hurry.
It’s not enough anymore that they just get through the dungeon and fight the terrifying monster at the end. These days, they feel some strange need to do it all without stopping. It’s escalation, I guess; the new guys want to show off, so they run. Endlessly.
Dungeon Highway is the story of one such valiant champion who runs and shoots and dies a lot. And then you start over, and he runs and shoots and dies some more.
See that? That’s the excellent looking retro action platform from Levels or Lives, Super Fun Games, and Crescent Moon Games. It’s called Crystal Catacombs, and was successfully funded on Kickstarter in July of 2012.
To continue the process, the developers want to get Crystal Catacombs on Steam, which is perhaps the most well-known gaming distribution platform for Mac, Windows, and Linux games. The process there is known as Project Greenlight, and Steam members all vote on the games they’d like to see on Steam.
The first thing you notice about OUYA is that, unlike everything else stacked under your TV, it’s not a massive box that just sits there collecting dust. Rather, the Yves Behar-designed OUYA is a small and elegant piece of hardware that deserves to be on display.
Don’t let OUYA’s small size fool you, though – it was built using technology similar to what powers our smartphones and tablets, (with a bit of tweaking to the quad-core 1.7ghz processor) and is driven by Google’s open-source Android 4.1 Jellybean operating system. And Cult of Mac Deals has the OUYA for 32% off the regular price – only $85.
BlackBerry today announced the arrival of BBM 2.0 for Android and iOS, which brings BBM Channels, BBM Voice, and other new features to the popular cross-platform messaging app. The Canadian company first teased this update back in December, and now it is finally rolling out through the App Store and Google Play.
A patent application published Thursday reveals how Apple could incorporate flexible OLED displays into future devices to improve their function without sacrificing strength. The technology could get Apple closer to producing bezel-less devices in existing product lines such as the iPhone, iPad and MacBook as well as speculative product categories like the iWatch.
The patent refers to a technique for reducing a display border by bending the sides of a display surface in such a way that electrode materials used in the device could be made to stretch rather than break when bent or folded. The application, titled “Flexible Displays” and filed in July 2013, means that future Apple devices need not be limited in size by the requirement that they include metal or plastic housings.
Rovio began teasing its latest Angry Birds spinoff on Wednesday — without actually revealing the name of the new game. But based on the promotional poster above, which was posted on the studio’s new blog this morning, we now know the title will be based around the lovable Stella and her feathered friends.