Cult of Mac

I’ve got a confession to make. I don’t like iOS 7’s new app switcher. Sure, it looks pretty, but the screenshots it provides are functionally useless, and closing apps is a much finnickier and hit-or-miss proposition than in iOS 6. It’s one of my least favorite changes in iOS 7.

But now that we’ve got a proper jailbreak thanks to Team Evasi0n, there’s no reason to live with any aspect of iOS 7 you don’t like. So I’m delighted to know that a new jailbreak tweak by iOS Developer Thomas Finch called ClassicSwitcher has brought the good old iOS 6 app switcher back, without its useless screenshots and “swipe up to close” functionality.

Days is a free iPhone app that uses your photos to create a journal of your adventures. The twist is that it takes your pictures and turns them into animated GIFs.

A new Kickstarter project aims to solve the annoying problem of running out of smartphone charge. The solution? A pocket-size USB charger called the Popcord.

Youtopia is a new YouTube app for the iPhone, from serial entrepreneur and friend of Cult of Mac Dotan Saguy. It lets you browse for more videos even as the current video is playing on your tiny iPhone screen.

Have you decided that 2014 is the year in which you finally quit the job you hate and move on to greener pastures? Well, as with so many other things, it seems that there’s an app designed to help with just that.

Recently launched in the App Store, the Quit Your Job app takes users through a series of questions to determine why they are thinking of quitting, before crafting a bespoke text message to be sent directly to their boss.

If you thought that turning the iPad into a laptop by putting it in a case with a hinged keyboard on the bottom was ridiculous, then you’re going to love/hate the ClamCase Pro mini, which turns Apple’s littlest iPad into a tiny MacBook Air. Because why not right?

A new patent filing suggests that Apple might be looking to integrate optical image stablization into its new iPhones.

The feature would help improve overall camera performance by allowing for better low-light imaging, while also stablilizing the image to avoid shaking.

What if your iPhone charging cable could charge your phone even when it wasn’t plugged into a charger? It’d be pretty neat, right? Well, that’s what Native Union’s Jump does, and it does it all while being the best-looking Lightning cable yet.

We know how to grab our location in plain text on the iPad, using Editorial and some Python voodoo (Python Voodoo could be a great name for a band). But what about the Mac? Easy. Using TexExpander and some AppleScript, you can easily turn a few keystrokes into longitude and latitude, without too much attitude (Python Voodoo will be a and 8-bit rap band).

Cult of Mac has reported on Xiaomi — the multi-billion dollar tech company commonly referred to by the Chinese media as “the Apple of the East” — before.

I just got through uploading every last one of my photos to Flickr over the weekend, with an Ethernet cable snaking across the floor from the router to my iMac, and a new app on that iMac to do the work. The app is called F-Stop, and while it’s a little glitchy in its UI, it was rock solid where it counted: pushing around 22,000 JPG files up to Flickr.

Have too much stuff on your computer and don’t know what to do with all of it? Now you can backup 100GB of your files for one year in a secure online backup application so you can share, access, and maintain all of your important files right in one place.

SOS Online Backup is an award-winning automatic backup web application that will have you covered on an unlimited number of PCs, Macs, Android devices, iPhones, and iPads. And Cult of Mac Deals has one year of 100GB storage on SOS Online Backup for only $19.99 – a savings of 80%!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiyIcz7wUH0

During the NFL playoff game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Carolina Panthers today, Apple has posted a new advertisement for the iPad, emphasing their tablet’s creative powers and the iPad’s ability to inspire and create.

The tagline is “What will your verse be?” The notion is that all of human life is a poem, and our individual lines are a verse in that poem. Depending on your own predisposition, you’ll likely either find it a little sappy and breathless or moving, but either way, Apple is right that far from just being for media consumers, the iPad is a profound creator’s device which can be used for filming, writing, 3D prototyping, and more.

There’s also a new Your Verse microsite, explaining the uses depicted in the commercial in greater detail. What do you think? How are you using your iPad to write your verse?

When the first series of benchmarks for the new Mac Pro popped up on Geekbench in early 2013, people were initially disappointed that Apple’s Vader helmet of a desktop didn’t have benchmarks that were much better than a top-of-the-line 2012 Mac Pro.

But as we cautioned at the time, the benchmarks reflected the performance of a prototype Mac that was still six months from release, and the version of Geekbench being run against it was 32-bit, not 64-bit, all of which could result in lowered performance. In fact, we said it was likely that when the new Mac Pro was actually released, it would break 30,000 on Geekbench’s benchmarks… making it a staggeringly fast machine almost 25% faster than the previous generation was capable of.

Over the weekend, the late 2013 12-core Mac Pro popped up on Geekbench, and what do you know: it comes in at an impressive 32,912 in Primate Labs’ metrics. To clarify, that means that the new Mac Pro is over six-and-a-half times faster than the latest MacBook Air. Not shabby.

Source: Geekbench

Between iTunes Radio, Pandora, Spotify, and Rdio, do you feel as if you don’t have enough options for streaming music? Well, good news: Beats Music — the new streaming service previously known as “Project Daisy” by the most overrated headphone manufacturer out there — will reportedly launch on January 21st.

Speaking of jailbreaks, the Evasi0n jailbreak allows any device running iOS 7 to crack open Apple’s stronghold and tweak any aspect of the system.

Unfortunately, when the Evasi0n jailbreak was released, the team behind it didn’t reach out to members of the jailbreak community, leading to an initial release that didn’t support Cydia, Mobile Substrate, and had a number of bugs that could cause unfortunate boot loops, especially on the iPad mini with Retina Display.

Yesterday, Team Evasi0n released a new version of their jailbreak that not only includes an updated Cydia bundle and fixes the iPad mini boot loop, but also makes the tool compatible with iOS 7.1 beta 3 so that Apple’s latest iOS beta can be jailbroken. That probably won’t last for long — Apple is likely to close the hole that makes the Evasi0n jailbreak possible when iOS 7.1 is released to the masses — but it’s nice for the time being.

Source: Evasi0n

The Evasi0n jailbreak may have opened up iOS 7 devices to Cydia tweaks, but due to the fact that Apple’s new A7 chip is 64-bit, many of the most popular tweaks have needed to be upgraded to support devices like the iPhone 5s, iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina Display.

One of the more popular reasons to jailbreak your device is Winterboard, a jailbreak tweak that makes you change the way iOS looks. For example, you can use Winterboard to make iOS look and feel like Windows Phone, Android, or even your Mac. But because of the aforementioned lack of 64-bit support, Winterboard didn’t work on the newest (jailbroken) iOS devices.

According to Cydia gatekeeper Jay Freeman, otherwise known as Saurik, the newest version of Winterboard is compatabile with 64-bit ARM processors, and should allow you to reskin any device with an A7 chip. You can download the update on Cydia.

Via: Redmond Pie

The future looks grim for Microsoft. The world is quickly turning mobile and post-PC, two categories Microsoft hasn’t succeeded in.

Recent reports from Gartner and IDC show just how dire the situation is. PC sales, which are directly tied to sales of Microsoft Windows, are in a free fall. Between 2012 and 2013, PC sales dropped by 10% (that’s 35 million fewer PCs).

Gartner says only 15% of Internet-connected devices sold in 2014 will run Windows.

That’s Windows’ real market share: 15%.

Having tried everything else, maybe the solution for Microsoft is to be a software company. That would mean embracing Android with everything they’ve got. 

Early in 2013, the old aluminum Mac Pro was pulled from sale in the European Union due to the fact that their pro-level desktop fell afoul of new E.U. regulations that prohibit computers from having fans that spin so fast they can cut off your fingers. Really!

Instead of opting to redesign the old Mac Pro, Apple decided to pull it from sale for a few months until the new models made their debut. Since the new Mac Pro doesn’t have exposed fans, customers in Europe can now order Apple’s super-powerful trashcan Mac through Apple’s online store, and will start receiving their units in February. Neat!

Via: MacGeneration

If you’re an iPhone convert and have ever complained about your iPhone’s touchscreen keyboard not being “user-friendly” enough, are tired of fighting with autocorrect, or simply think the lack of physical keys are seriously hindering your cellular typing skills – then this Cult of Mac Deals offer is going to be right up your alley.

This sleek iPhone 5 Keyboard Case is available for a limited time for just $39 – a savings of 43%!

Apple products are usually over-hyped. But there’s one that’s radically under-hyped: Apple’s iBeacon positioning system.

So I’m here to turn up the noise on this quiet revolution. You really need to know more about this, because it’s going to change everything.

This time on The CultCast: we’re live from Las Vegas and ready to report the best and worst tech from the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show! We’ll call out some of our favorite Apple accessories too, and some will surprise you. Plus, did you hear about the Michael Bay meltdown at the Samsung keynote? Well we were in the room when things got weird… let us regale you with the whole story.

Thanks to FreshBooks for supporting this episode! FreshBooks is the simple cloud accounting solution that’s helping thousands of new entrepreneurs and small business owners save time billing and get paid faster. Sign up free today.

Enjoy a few laughs whilst getting caught up on 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.

A good, strong password may be the only thing standing between your identity and some cyber criminal lurking in the shadows of the web. With mSecure you can be sure your information is 100% safe from hackers and identity thieves.

Right now you can get mSecure for 55% off the regular price – just $9 – courtesy of Cult of Mac Deals.

LAS VEGAS — Audiofly has been busy since we last visited the company at CES two years ago. This year, Audiofly is finally ready to ship its long-promised AF140, albeit with a radical redesign, and are introducing the quad-driver AF180.

The Aussie crew also showed us the over-the-ear set of cans they’ve been working on.

LAS VEGAS — You know those convertible, touchscreen Windows laptops with screens that flip around and do all kinds of twisty tricks? iHome has a new keyboard case that turns the iPad Air and Retina iPad Mini into one of those.