Rumors surrounding iOS 8 and the iWatch are starting to heat up, including details of a new “Healthbook” app. Apple is particularly focused on fitness for its smartwatch, according to a pair of reports from yesterday.
This week in Cult of Mac Magazine: drive smarter, with a little help from the app store.
Your iPhone. Great apps. Your car. What could be better? Well, maybe an Apple-designed driving system.
We’re all eagerly awaiting for release of iOS 7 In the Car, you know, what Apple is calling the “best passenger ever.” (We bet it won’t need to pull over for the pit stop. Or tell you to stop and ask for directions, either.)
Until then, you may find yourself like our games editor Rob LeFebvre with a clunker that could use a bit of future-proofing. Rob discovers out the joys – and limits – of what you can do with about $20 and the best the iTunes store has to offer. Turns out, your old ride may be more of a smart car than you think. The mag also brings you the best from the apps store, books, movies and music in iTunes plus advice from an actual Apple retail Genius.
As always, if you hit any speed bumps with the app, please write to me directly or hit the “send” tab top right. We’ll fix it!
This time on The CultCast: iBras make the world a better place; Apple TV is your tele’s next gaming console; iPhone 6’s get huger screens; Net Neutrality and why you should care; and Erfon pitches the best Fave N Rave pick EVER…
Chuckle your way through this 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.
Thanks to Ting for sponsoring this episode! Ahh, Ting, the straight forward wireless carrier who doesn’t overcharge. With Ting, you only pay for the data, minutes, and text messages you use. Plus, no contracts! See how much could be saving on your wireless bill at cultcast.ting.com.
When should you take your iPad and when should you take your MacBook?
If you use your iOS devices for work on the move, and often find yourself wishing that your tablet came with a built-in physical keyboard so you didn’t have to haul your laptop everywhere, you’re most likely the perfect target audience for M-Edge’s nifty keyboard case — the 10-inch Tablet Universal Stealth Pro Keyboard Case (to use its full and slightly Tom Clancy-sounding name).
Want more details? Read on.
Daniel Hjelm has a pretty nifty game on his hands here: Loot Hero.
It’s the essence of RPG games, distilled down for the mobile platform. You tap on the left and right sides of the screen, and mow down enemy bad guys with your upgradeable weapon.
Here’s a quick video of my impressions and play through.
Tyler Fisher is not an Apple employee. In fact, I’m pretty sure the guy doesn’t know the difference between an iPad and an iPod Shuffle, but that didn’t stop him from dressing up as an Apple Specialist, going to work at his local Apple Store, and recording the entire prank as he sprayed customers with misinformation on everything from iPhones having retina scanners, to MacBooks with so much cloud it melted into a puddle that’s perfect for storing your naughty pics.
Not only did Tyler educate Apple Store customers to the “fact” that polio, lyme disease, and syphilis were invented by Apple thanks to the chemical mishmash that goes into MacBooks, but he also offered customers a 75% discount if they knew someone that had the diseases – an apology on Apple’s behalf.
Check out the reactions in the video below:
If your iPhone takes a beating, you’ll want to invest in a product that’s designed with the worst case pun intended scenario in mind.
The team at Spigen thought outside the box and created the first case to introduce Air Cushion Technology – pockets of air in the corners reduce the thickness of the case while providing optimal drop protection. And Cult of Mac Deals has The iPhone 5/5s Tough Armor Protection Kit at a savings of 50% off – just $39.99 – as part of our ongoing Black Friday promotional offers.
You know those times when you are just about to head out of the house, and you grab your iPhone, only to notice that you’ve got hardly any juice left? Yeah, me too.
When you need a quick charge on your iPhone or iPad, there’s a chimp-simple way to get it charged faster than usual, and it’s available with a quick tap or two.
Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson ruffled some fanboys’ feathers earlier this month when he said Google is outpacing Apple on the innovation front. Pointing to the Nest acquisition as evidence, Isaacson says the greatest innovation is coming out of Google.
During an appearance on Bloomberg TV this morning Isaacson stood by his comments but clarified that while innovation is great, the most important trait for tech companies to acquire is the ability to execute, and no one executes better than Apple.
Asked about Apple’s problems coming out with a great low-end device, Isaacson responded that Apple won’t ever be good at low-end because it makes “insanely great products” so it will have to come out with a new disruptive device.
Listen to Walter’s full comments in the video below:
Tim Cook has made a journey over to Ireland this week to visit with staff at the company’s Cork offices. Along with addressing the 4,000 employees responsible for assembling the MacBook Pro, Cook also met up with the country’s prime minister, Taoiseach Enda Kenny today to talk about Apple’s presence in the country, and the Irish tax laws that help it avoid paying billions extra.
The Irish Prime Minister denied claims that the Irish government courts multinational companies like Apple to give them special deals on their corporate tax rate. According to a report from theJournal.ie, Edna Kenny said the tax issue came up during his conversation with Cook and told him they’re in discussions with the OECD about an international response, but the country’s statutory rate of 12.5% applies to all companies.
We’ve all done it, sent that nasty email to a boss, co-worker, spouse. That email that we really wish we hadn’t sent? You know the one.
If only we could go back in time, we could un-send that email and save the hard apology we’ll have to go through.
While Google doesn’t provide a time machine, it does give you a ten second window to rethink your email send. Here’s how to enable it.
Phone Price — Reference — Free
If you’re due for an upgrade to your iPhone, you might be wondering what to do with your current one. You could go to a bunch of different websites and search for buyback values or try to just sell it yourself, but that sounds like a lot of work, and living in the future like we do means things should be easy.
Phone Price is an app that aggregates phone trade-in values from a variety of sources so that you can get the most for your old device. So you’re basically making the phone party to its own rejection and disposal, and that’s pretty cold.
It’s been, like, a whole day since I’ve reviewed an endless game, so it’s a good thing they come out so regularly. I don’t even know how to handle games that don’t constantly scroll anymore.
Marvel Run Jump Smash! features cartoon-styled versions of Marvel Cinematic Universe characters (and some other superpowered guests) who are perpetually sprint after Loki, the adopted brother of Thor and villain from The Avengers, to reclaim the Cosmic Cube, which is what I will always call it because “The Tesseract” makes me cringe, and all of this just makes me sound like a giant nerd, but the point is that it’s an endless runner with superheroes.
It’s not a great one, but hey. Marvel.
At Macworld/iWorld last year, I had the opportunity to get a look at The iSlider by Rain Design. After using it for a bit, the folks at Rain Design decided to let me have one to use for review purposes. And after only a few days of use, The iSlider became my go-to iPad stand.
Cult of Mac has reviewed The iSlider before, and while I’ve used several stands for my iPad in the past (among them are the ZAGGmate and the Kribbit) The iSlider is by far the most versatile and best-designed stand I’ve ever used. It’s made me more efficient and effective when using my iPad, which is exactly the kind of thing I like in my tools. And right now Cult of Mac Deals is offering The iSlider for just $39.99.
I’ve had iPhones for years, but I’ve never really been keen on using one that wasn’t jailbroken. As much as I love iOS, some of Apple’s decisions always kept my iPhone from working exactly how I wanted it to.
Jailbreaking gave me the ability to sidestep those limitations and make iOS my own. I could experience some of the freedom that Android users have grown to love while retaining the reliability, stability and polish of iOS. While I was frustrated that Apple wasn’t making major changes to improve its platform, I was happy that I could make them myself using unauthorized third-party tweaks.
Then I started using iOS 7, and everything changed.
Some gadgets are unique, carving out their own nonpareil niche while eliciting wide-eyed, slack-jawed appreciation. Other gadgets swim in a thick soup of contemporaries, and stand out for their high bang-for-buck score. It’s the latter reason we mention Swann’s new SwannEye HD, a weather-resistant, bell-and-whistle-stuffed outdoor security cam priced at $180.
PlayStation’s official app has received its first update — adding several notable features to the service, which functions as a second-screen app and social networking hub for PS4 players.
Chief among the updates is “Live from PlayStation” integration, which allows users to view live streams from Ustream and Twitch — although it is worth pointing out that this service works by redirecting you to an external Web browser — or corresponding live-steaming service app — to watch the footage, rather than streaming it directly within the PlayStation App.
The New York Times has updated its official apps for iOS.
Both NYTimes for iPhone and NYTimes for iPad now promise complete coverage of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, which will take place from Feb 7 to 23 — including news alerts which can be signed up for once the games begin.
This Sunday is the Super Bowl and, contrary to what Steve Jobs may have thought, yes, people will be watching it — around 108 million, if last year’s numbers are any indication.
The real question is whether Apple will have an ad ready for the event, to commemorate three decades since the company’s iconic Macintosh commercial kicked off an advertising trend that is still followed today.
To celebrate Chinese New Year (that’s the Year of the Horse to you!), 2K Games has launched a massive iOS sale — with reductions on a ton of its titles.
Among them is the popular tactical role-playing game XCOM: Enemy Unknown (down from $19.99 to $9.99) and the much-anticipated racer 2K Drive (going for just 99 cents, compared to its usual $9.99).
The full list can be seen here, alongside their usual prices:
Apple has regained its lead over Android in the battle for U.S. smartphone marketshare, according to the latest report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP).
Going by CIRP’s figures, in the final quarter of 2013 iOS eked out a 2 percent advantage over Android — with Apple capturing 48 percent of the market to Google’s 46 percent.
Arguably, the iPad needs an external camera add-on more than the iPhone, stuck as it is with a previous-gen camera and features. And Sony seems to agree. Now it will sell you an adapter that puts one of its neat QX lens cameras onto any table (or phablet, I guess).
Transloader 2 is an update to the very handy iOS/Mac utility that lets you browse the web on your iPhone or iPad, and have any files you want to grab downloaded to your Mac, automagically. V2.0 gets an overhauled design, but otherwise keeps performing the same useful service as before.
Apple has released the fourth beta of OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 to registered developers — suggesting that the OS update could be made public in the very near future.
The update follows one week after developers received Apple’s OS X 10.9.2 beta 3, and more than five weeks following the launch of the first beta.
Quick! If you want to bake iPhone-shaped cookies, you should grab this i-Cookie Cutter from ThinkGeek before Samsung buys them all up to help it make more iPhone clones.