Cables wear out, get lost, and you never know when you’ll need another, so grab one of these to keep in the car, at the office, or tightly wound in its packaging until you call it up from the reserves.
Cult of Mac Deals has another great deal lined up for those of you who have been looking for that extra cable for your iPhone. And this Apple-approved Lightning cable is available at an amazing price…just $17.99!
Everyone knows that there’s a lucrative black market in iPhones, particularly in Asia, but did you know that iPhones are increasingly being used as currency? That’s the case in Rome, at least, where at least one journalist is using iPhones as a way to pay his bills.
Samsung is trying to weasel out of paying up to Apple, asking Judge Lucy Koh for a mistrial based upon the supposedly “racist” remarks of Cupertino’s attorneys. But Judge Lucy Koh was having none of it.
The other day, our Google-loving friends over at Cult of Android breathlessly hopped on a story suggesting that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak wanted Apple to make an Android smartphone.
It was always a bizarre story — what could Apple possibly have to gain from that, when it is already has the best-selling smartphone in the world — but it certainly made for a good headline. The only problem? Woz says he never meant it.
In a tweet earlier in the day on Saturday, Dong Nguyen–developer of the wildly popular iOS and Android game, Flappy Bird–apologized to fans while simultaneously promising to take his game down, assumedly from the various app stores it’s been selling like crazy on.
Like, $50,000 per day crazy.
His tweet hints at the insanity of success, and we can only assume that a shy, retiring game developer might have a hard time with the kind of success Flappy Bird has seen.
I am sorry 'Flappy Bird' users, 22 hours from now, I will take 'Flappy Bird' down. I cannot take this anymore.
— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) February 8, 2014
No matter if you’re a beginner, have a basic understanding of web design or fundamental programming skills, or simply want to learn how to build a website from scratch, this Cult of Mac Deals offer is worth exploring. After all, the web really is at your fingertips when coding with Python.
Infinite Skills offers an ever growing range of high quality eLearning solutions that teach using studio quality narrated videos backed-up with practical hands-on examples. The emphasis is on teaching real life skills that are essential in today’s commercial environment. And that credo is on full display in The Ultimate Python Programming Course For Beginners, which Cult of Mac Deals has available for 60% off the regular price right now…only $39!
Evidence that Apple is going big with sapphire is overwhelming. But the reasons for Apple’s sapphire obsession range from scratch-resistant screens to solar-charging screens.
I have another theory: Apple wants to eliminate both the need and the desire for an iPhone case, cover or sleeve. There’s a lot more to this idea than simple scratch resistance.
Here’s my case for Apple’s case against cases.
The Cable Key is a seamless solution to all your power needs. This lightweight charger cable is there when you need it and out of the way when you don’t. The high-speed USB 2.0 connection ensures a quick charging session while allowing you to enjoy your device, uninterrupted.
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This week, Cult of Mac Magazine is all about the Olympics.
Whether you’re a cord cutter or just like to slack off at work, our ever-resourceful reviews editor Charlie Sorrel has compiled all the tips you need to watch without a traditional TV – from streaming services to apps and, like any good British expat, he’s also given a thought to beverages – so you can get more Sochi action across all your Apple devices.
The 2014 Winter Olympics may also be the first quantified games in history. Sure, coaches have been standing by with stopwatches and clipboards since, well, some dude sprinted down dusty roads in sandals, probably. But now, there’s an app for that. To find out more about what the teams are using (and how you can improve your form on the slopes) we talked to the people behind some those performance apps.
We’re also featuring the winners of our epic Selfie Olympics contest. But just so you know: you’re all winners in our book!
With rumors of a new Apple-made “fitness app” coming to iOS 8, secret meetings with the FDA, and murmurs of more sleep and fitness experts joining the Apple ranks, the iWatch rumors are heating up on this week’s CultCast! Plus, a classic Nintendo game makes its way to iOS; Microsoft says goodbye to the one and only Steve Ballmer; and new job openings in Cupertino could mean big upgrades in battery life for future MacBooks…
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Softly giggle 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.
Until Apple finally comes out with its eagerly anticipated iWatch, Nike — at least in terms of style — is perhaps the closest thing to Apple in the wearable computing space (Tim Cook does, after all, sit on its board). I resisted picking up the original 2012 Fuelband but, motivated by a desire to get fit for the new year, bought its sequel, the Fuelband SE, earlier this year. Having had a bit of time to try it out, here’s what I make of it. (Thoughts registered between exercise-related wheezes.)
With teens and young adults leaving Facebook in droves, it’s up to social networks like We Heart It to pick up the slack.
The new image-centric app is gaining a ton of traction with this highly-coveted target demographic, breaking the 25 million user mark and pulling in over a million new users monthly.
CEO Ranah Edelin spoke with Cult of Mac on the phone, and attributes this incredible growth to one thing: We Heart It is a safe space.
“Social networks mimic what happens in the real world,” he said. “There is a ton of bullying on them and they mimic popularity contests. Our users tell us they love We heart It because they can express themselves authentically without having to brag or worry about getting bullied.”
Did you watch that? It’s total crap.
The security expert quoted in the piece, Kyle Wilhoit, has just written a blog post that calls out the report, essentially saying that the hacks shown in the video can happen anywhere, and require some risky user behavior to even happen.
That’s a long way from “if [tourists] fire up their phones at baggage claim, it’s probably too late to save the integrity of their electronics,” as Brian Williams claims in the clip above.
Talk about fear-mongering.
Mark Smith’s Spell Quest: Grimm’s Journey is this week’s iOS Game of the Week, and it’s a fun one.
You’ll need to spell words to move Grimm from left to right, with longer words causing more damage to the baddies you encounter. You’ll pull letter tiles from a grid below, and some tiles will give you power ups, others will poison you. It’s a fun mix.
Check out our video below for some gameplay footage.
No one but actual, honest-to-God bicycle messengers had the authority to wield a Timbuk2 messenger bag. If you were an iron-assed hard case living life on a bike, you’d probably earned the right; though you might still have found yourself the target of diluted messenger disgust.
That was the pervading vibe 15 years ago when I bought my first Timbuk2 bag, a Bolo (back then, each size had a name; the Bolo was the large version). Make no mistake, these were Messenger Bags: simple, voluminous, virtually indestructible black holes, able to swallow an inordinate amount of awkwardly dimensioned deliverables, specially stabilized for use on the bike exclusively. The only grudging nods to civility were a couple of pockets sown onto the outside of the bag and an optional padded shoulder strap.
And apart from a few minor changes, it’s stayed that way. Like the coelacanth, the Classic Messenger has remained a living fossil, unchanged, while other Timbuk2 species have evolved and developed around it. Until now.
While iPhone calls these days are vastly better than those of iPhone models in the past, let a lone calls made on those old flip phones, they can still be pretty cruddy, depending on your service coverage and location within that area.
If you’re at home (or at a place with WiFi) and in a bad location for cell tower reception but still need to make a voice call, you can do one thing to immediately improve the audio fidelity of your iPhone to iPhone calls: use FaceTime Audio.
Getting Apple to dish on secrets is practically impossible, but if you’re looking for an inside line to one of the most powerful CEOs in tech, the house next door to Tim Cook just went on the market.
That’s right, even you could become Tim Cook’s neighbor, as long as you got a cool $2.8 million in the bank to drop on a condo.
The capabilities of today’s are so incredible, a few weeks ago we came across a 20-year old RadioShack ad and everything you could buy has already been made obsolete by the iPhone. Still, the iPhone’s powers are so much greater than those products it doesn’t do justice to compare it to a $29.99 speed dial phone, so Bret Swanson at Tech Policy Daily decided to find out how much an iPhone would really cost in 1991.
Swanson’s back-of-the-envelope math estimates it would have cost Apple over $3 million to make a machine with comparable powers to the iPhone back in 1991, and that’s only counting some of the hardware.
Even though it feels like the iPhone 5s just came out, the rumor mill is already churning out little bits on the iPhone 6: a supercharged camera, a bigger display and a ton of sapphire crystal glass.
A number of designers have presented both wacky and plausible mockups for what the iPhone 6 might look like, but our concept designer friend Federico Ciccarese just sent us his rendition of what the iPhone 6 might look like. While it doesn’t have any wild design changes, it still has my pockets lusting after a 4.7-inch iPhone 6.
Check it out:
Bed Bug Proof — Utilities — Free
America is seeing a resurgence in bed-bug infestations, and here’s an app to help you screen a room and identify the little biters before they introduce themselves.
To be perfectly clear, Bed Bug Proof is an app created in part to sell an anti-bed-bug spray. But the practical information and tools it provides, like the inspection guide, comparison photographs, and a magnifier/light to let you use your phone to search for eggs and poop, are useful enough to let it stand on its own.
Although it will make you itchy just looking at it. Seriously.
This just in: Someone has made a game about zombies.
You probably weren’t expecting that, huh? A zombie game? It’s crazy on the face of it.
Now, look: I hate zombies as much as the next person. Maybe a bit more, even. Stupid shambling a****les. But that doesn’t mean I want to spend all of my gaming time killing them. I have a lot of other things to pretend to kill, like Nazis and Pokémon. So I’ll admit that I wasn’t immediately sold on Overlive, a new undead-themed gamebook with role-playing-game elements, even though it’s hard to go wrong with me once you start offering choices and stats.
Once I started playing it, though, Overlive won me over.
Ever wanted to dabble in anime? Sure you have.
Anime Studio Debut is fun, easy, and exciting for any age and any skill level. This powerful and comprehensive animation software will help your ideas come to life. Plus, it includes detailed video tutorials and pre-made content to help you get started right away. And now you can get Anime Studio Debut through this special Cult of Mac Deals offer for only $19.99…a savings of 60%!
The best winter athletes across the world are descending on Sochi for eternal glory, but while snowboarders have been preparing their Double McTwist 1260s a different kind of competition erupted on social media early this year – competitive selfie taking.
Yes, the Selfie Olympics were a real thing and took social media by storm with entrants posting their pics with the hashtag #SelfieOlympics. What started off with simple mirror selfies quickly evolved into a competition to see who could cram the most random objects in front of their bathroom mirror.
The results of the Selfie Olympics were so hilarious we asked Cult of Mac readers to submit their best selfies for our own smaller contest, but before we reveal our winners, here are the best selfies from the main event.
Tons of competitors used their door for a prop, but this dude nearly snapped his neck trying to capture this ridiculous selfie.
Taking a selfie with your selfie is so meta we love it, even if he is using an Samsung phone.
Weird contortions on the door only lasted so long before competitors started bringing props into play. This little guy’s Flava Flav mock up is great, but the added foot in the sink brings in a whole other element of incredible.
Eventually the competition graduated from simple selfies and props, to a contest to see who could make the most elaborate backdrop in front of the bathroom mirror.
These guys created an entire Footlocker in their bathroom. And I must say those Kobe 8 “Year or the Snake” shoes are a nice choice.
Even indigenous jungle tribes were getting in on the selfie action.
Flying knives. Fireballs. More seasoning than any cook should have to deal with. The number of things that could have gone wrong in this Habachi selfie are too numerous to count.
King Tut made a late entry into the games, but his treasure trove didn’t disappoint.
The hands down winner for the best Apple-themed selfie. It’s like a selfie, in a selfie, in a selfie, in a selfie. I think we may have been incepted.
Why is a this guy riding a bike through his shower while playing the guitar? Who is he going to blast behind the Christmas tree? Doesn’t he know you’re not supposed to put your Xbox, iron, TV or any other electrical device so close to the shower? Who cares, this guy just won the Selfie Olympics.
Incorporating old camera tech into a modern game of photographic narcissism, Javier Cobas snuck in to grab the Bronze
Silver
This selfie from Namuks comes to us all the way from Kenya. The gorilla pod on top of the head really stands out in contrast to the woman’s niqab.
Gold
I’m 99.7% sure the helicopter in Scott Katz’s photo is fake, but there were no rules against augmenting reality, so for his ingenuity, and the fast that he snapped this at the site where the Legion of Boom just dominated the Super Bowl, he’s this year’s winner of the Cult of Mac Selfie Olympics.
All our winners left the virtual podium with Photoshop Touch for iOS. Thanks for playing!
Popular wine tasting app Wine Spectator WineRatings+ has received a notable upgrade, adding updated content, a new design interface, and a version designed specifically for iPad.
While the mandatory iOS 7 design improves readability and ease of use, the real improvements include an updated Top 100 Wines list for 2013, containing editors’ latest list of the world’s “most exciting” wine.
Google made a surprise announcement at the end of January that confirmed it was selling Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion, but the search giant seemingly forgot to tell us that it made a big investment in the Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer the following day.
Reuters reports that Google will pay Lenovo $750 million for a 5.94 percent stake in the company.