The end of the year is fast approaching, and that means it’s time to start thinking about levelling up for the year ahead. Their are several apps available for the Mac that can help you do that, and Cult of Mac Deals has put together a bundle that takes some of these apps and packages them together at a very attractive price.
With The New Year’s Mac Bundle, you’ll get 9 helpful apps for one incredibly low price of $14.99. That’s 90% off – which works out to just over a dollar per app!
Yesterday the White House announced that President Obama would be meeting with a number of tech executives today about HealthCare.gov, the NSA, and how tech is converging the public and private sectors. Another topic of discussion ended up being Netflix’s popular House of Cards series, and apparently Obama is a fan.
While leaving the panel with the President and 14 other American executives, Tim Cook told a reporter that they had “a great meeting.”
Apple TV owners across the pond have received an early Christmas gift, a dedicated channel for Sky Sports through Now TV. Live sports can be viewed without an existing cable subscription, and Sky Sports is offering day passes that offer unlimited access to six sports channels. Pocket-lint explains:
Apple’s new tear-jerking Christmas commercial Misunderstood has quickly been lauded as one of the company’s best iPhone commercials in years. The syrupy-sweet ad pays homage to the holiday season with a medley of cliché family Christmas scenes while a sullen teenage boy sits in the background nose deep into his iPhone, only to find that the sad teen was really filming a beautiful family movie the entire time.
The ad is heartwarming, maybe even horrible, but also completely unrealistic as the teen shot vertical videos that magically switched to portrait orientation.
Business Insider and others have already pointed out the huge flaw in Apple’s commercial, but Youtuber Andy Nyugen has taken it a step further by making a parody of what Apple’s commercial would look like if it were real-life.
Take a look:
You might not know this, but when you’re on public Wi-Fi – at coffee shops, airports, hotels, or conferences – anybody can see what you’re doing online. If you visit sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon.com, and thousands of others, your privacy may be at risk.
How do you protect yourself? With Cloak. And right now Cult of Mac Deals has it for only $59 – that’s 38% off the regular retail price!
Today the Dropbox-owned Mailbox app was updated with support for iCloud and Yahoo mail accounts. The popular email client for the iPhone was previously only compabile with Gmail, and it stills lacks support for a number of other services, namely Exchange. Mailbox tells us that Exchange “is a huge priority” for the app’s development.
The update also includes background syncing in iOS 7, the options to disable the “help me get to zero” banner and swipe to open drawer gesture, and bug fixes.
Mailbox is a completely redesigned inbox that makes email light, fast, and mobile-friendly. Quickly swipe messages to your archive or trash. Scan an entire conversation at once with chat-like organization. Snooze emails until later with the tap of a button — they’ll return to your inbox automatically so you can focus on what’s important now.
You can download Mailbox in the App Store for free.
Source: App Store
The iPhone has already been named Yahoo’s top ranked search in tech for the year, and now Google has released its top 10 searches for 2013. It’s no surprise that the iPhone was part of the list, coming in at third under Nelson Mandela and Paul Walker. The poor Samsung Galaxy S4 snagged the number 8 spot.
Here’s the full list of Google’s “global trending searches” for the year:
Chances are you are looking at apps for your kids during this holiday season, or you will be shortly. You don’t want to do this willy-nilly, as not all apps are made for kids, and searching for any apps from the big list is just too much.
Whether you need to find an appropriate gaming app for your child to keep them busy while you’re carting them around your local department store, or you want to fill their iPod up with great new apps for the holiday, Apple has got you covered with its own dedicated Kids section.
Lollipod by Lollipod
Category: Tripods
Works With:iPhone, cameras
Price: $50
The Lollipod is a lightweight lighting stand masquerading as a camera and iPhone tripod. And this is – in almost every way – a good thing. A light stand isn’t nearly as sturdy as a camera tripod, but it is a lot lighter, a lot more likely to be in your bag when you need it, and is roughly 1,000% better than no tripod at all, aka a sharp rock propping up your delicate iPhone.
Google Glass isn’t expected to hit the market until sometime next year , but if you just can’t wait another minute to feel the tingle of the futuristic spectacles on your face you can at least set a placeholder in your heart and on your iPhone with the companion app that just hit iTunes.
MyGlass, the official Google Glass companion app for iPhone, was just released on the App Store today for free. The app delivers better compatibility between iOS and Glass by letting users configure and manage Glass devices from the app.
Unless you already won a pair of Google Glass there’s not much to see, but the app does finally give iOS users the ability to screencast what you see on Glass to your iPhone – something Android users have enjoyed for a while now – as well as option to add Glassware and contacts.
Here are the release notes:
I’ve been a fan of Apple products from way back. As I left for college, my dad bought an Apple IIGS for the home. All I remember was a ton of boxes and a computer that came with big, fat manuals.
When I got my first Mac, it was a Performa 638CD. It was a beige box contained in (I think) white boxes. It wasn’t very exciting.
Then, back in 2008, I bought the very first model iPhone, the one with a silver back and a black plastic area on the bottom to let the signal in. The box was delightful.
Everything was sensual, from the solid rigidity of the glossy cardboard box to the way each piece nestled gently, safely, inside its own separate section. The iPhone was the first thing I saw when I opened the box.
This first iPhone iteration was a brand new object of desire. I’d never seen such a device, let alone the kind of phone that would all but become ubiquitous over the next five years. If the choirs of angels didn’t sing when I lifted the rectangle of glass and plastic from its carefully molded resting place inside the packaging, but they should have.
Underneath the iPhone were three separate sections: one for the headphones, one for the iPhone dock and a final one for the charging brick. Under those glorious white accessories was the 30-pin connecting USB cable.
What an achievement of design, this box. The packaging alone proved that Apple was making this iPhone for people like me. This wasn’t just messing around; this device was worth some seriously put together casing.
When I was the tech guy for a small non-profit in Alaska a few years back, we used to order new Macbooks every few years to replace the ones that were obsolete or end of life. We’d purchase a dozen or more, depending on the budget.
Opening the boxes to set the MacBooks up became a ritual: I knew exactly what I would find in each box. Every piece had its special place inside the package, which itself had a foam piece glued to the inner top of the flip-up lid to help cushion the MacBook from any inadvertent harm when being transported in the retail carton. There was a handle built in to each container, and everything just, well, fit.
That’s the thing about every product Apple designs these days: the stuff each device comes in is as much an object of attention as the actual iPhone or Mac that it comes in.
It says to purchasers: “Yes, your device is special. It is made just for you (in California).”
It’s yet one more thing that Apple gets right: the box that brings your new miracle of technology into your life makes you feel good even before you use the device itself.
So as you open that shiny new iOS or Mac that came from under the tree in brightly wrapped paper, pause a moment to notice the attention to detail heaped upon the lowly packaging.
You’ll feel good, and be glad you did. Happy Holidays!
Rob LeFebvre is Cult of Mac’s Games Editor.
This post is brought to you by Digiarty Software, creator of MacX DVD Ripper Pro.
Got a long trip to see the folks this holiday season, or gonna be spending a few days stuck inside the house? So why not rip some festive movies to your mobile device for watching on the plane, in the bus, or in the family log cabin in the middle of nowhere?
From now till December 31st, Digiarty Software is giving away free its MacX DVD Ripper 1000 copies per day in a holiday giveaway. Find out how to win here….
As part of the ongoing legal saga with Apple, Samsung’s lawyers have filed a request with Judge Lucy Koh requesting a retrial of November’s case, which Samsung says Apple only won because it totally race baited the jury to get sympathy.
Two juries have already slammed Samsung with astronomical fines during its patent trials with Apple in the U.S., but the South Korean handset maker says it’s not ready to stop the fight yet and is asking for Judge Koh to award them with a judgment as matter of law in its favor, or a massive adjustment of the damages Apple was rewarded.
Here’s Samsungs’ explanation why the court should let them off the hook for the $379 million in fees Apple was just awarded :
Thyme — Utilities — Free
Here’s an app that might come in useful for any big meals you might be planning.
Thyme lets you set individual timers for each burner of your stove and your oven so that you can see at a glance how much longer everything has to go. It sure beats my usual method of setting one timer on the microwave, one on my phone, one on the back of the stove (which never works, anyway), and then just watching the clock.
We’re all about simplifying here, people.
Alright, so they’re the “AntiSquad” because they’re a ragtag bunch of misfits with little in common who still manage to pull together and get the job done when it counts. But sometimes headlines are hard.
AntiSquad is a new tactical game with a cartoonish art style and a whole lot of things to tap on. If you’ve played games like Breach & Clear or Final Fantasy Tactics, you get the general idea: Your group and the enemy take turns moving across a map trying to get into position to attack or outmaneuver each other. You have grids and buffs and cooldowns and all that other genre-standard stuff.
And other than its cool art, “genre-standard” is the best way I can think of to describe this game.
Square Enix announced Tuesday the release of the very first Tomb Raider, the initial game in a long-running franchise that has spawned sequels across console platforms, PC, the Mac, and even a couple of movies.
The release today to the iPhone and iPad is a direct port of the original game, complete with charming old school graphics and gameplay. And buttons. Lots of crappy virtual onscreen buttons.
Even though there are a ton of games out there that have refined this type of gameplay that you can get for a similar price, you’ll surely get to see where this popular genre got its start.
Czech Republic-based Madfinger Games just released a huge update for Dead Trigger 2 on the iTunes App Store and Google Play, just two months after its initial release.
The first person zombie shooter already has over 10 million downloads, and this massive Christmas update, with its new additions and added zombie-killing gadgets, will nearly double the game content for all.
In addition, the Madfinger team has updated the original Dead Trigger with support for new devices so even more folks can join in on the fun.
Amazon is gearing up to finally launch its first Kindle smartphone during the first half of 2014. That’s according to supply chain sources who claim the retail giant has recently struck a deal with Primax Electronics to secure its compact camera modules (CCMs) for the new device.
If you’ve been searching for a less expensive application that’s similar to Adobe Photoshop, then Cult of Mac Deals has found your match.
PhotoDirector 5 Ultra combines all the features you need for photography in a single workflow—efficient photo management, pro-quality adjustments and creative photo editing. With native 64-bit support, non-destructive tools, RAW support for popular DSLRs and Ultra 4K slideshow output, PhotoDirector is all you need to turn your photos into works of art. And Cult of Mac Deals has it for 50% off: only $49.99.
If you’re fortunate enough to receive a new Mac this Holiday season, in addition to graciously thanking whoever gave it to you, you should make some time to take care of a few basic preliminary matters, which will end up saving you time and money in the long-run.
Unboxing. Unbox your Mac while being careful not to rip, tear, destroy, or discard any of the box or accompanying materials. There are a number of reasons why this is a good idea, but here are two of the biggest ones.
First, if something ends up being wrong with your Mac – whether it’s defective or an incorrect model – you’re going to need its original packaging (provided you’re still within Apple’s return policy period). Note here that although Apple’s return policy normally permits returns for up to fourteen days after purchase Apple has extended the deadline for returns on purchases made during the holiday season. This year, any purchases made between November 1, 2013 and December 25, 2013 can be returned through January 8, 2014.
Second, let’s think long-term here. Macs retain their value like no other consumer electronics products and, therefore, there’s a good chance that you may want to resell your Mac at some point in the future. Having your Mac’s original packaging materials always helps make the product look more attractive to potential buyers and will certainly help you sell it faster and for a better price.
Initial Inspection. Conduct a basic inspection of your new Mac. Have a good look at its exterior. Is there any damage? It doesn’t matter how slight because exterior damage may be evidence of a greater issue or defect. Make sure there aren’t any scratches on its body, chips or cracks in its screen, or any other evidence of damage or mishandling.
If your Mac is even slightly damaged you should take advantage of Apple’s extended holiday return policy and exchange it for a new one.
In my experience, Apple permits the return of damaged Macs provided the damage is reported very shortly after purchase. The longer you wait, however, the more likely an Apple representative will assume you caused the damage.
There are at least two reasons why you should do this: first, if your Mac turns out to be defective you’re going to have to take it to Apple for repair. If your Mac has undocumented damage an Apple Genius or repair technician may refuse to honor its One-Year limited Warranty or AppleCare (if you purchased AppleCare) because of the damage. It’s going to be their word against yours and – whether or not you eventually convince Apple honor the warranty or AppleCare – that’s not an argument you ever want to have to make. If Apple doesn’t honor your Mac’s warranty or AppleCare you’re stuck paying for the repair out of pocket.
Second, damage will always reduce the resale value of your Mac. If you ever do decide to resell your Mac you may have a more difficult time getting a good price, or even finding a buyer, if it’s damaged.
Check for Defects. Apple makes great products, but defects are a sad reality of any manufacturing process. You should put your Mac through at least an elementary vetting process where you inspect it for potential defects. Defects are different from physical damage. Unlike physical damage, which is not covered by Apple’s standard One-Year Limited Warranty or standard AppleCare (not to be confused with AppleCare+, which does provide limited coverage for accidental damage on iPhones) defects are fully covered and, therefore, there’s less of a sense of urgency here. That said, without going into all of the reasons, it’s always better to get defects handled sooner than later.
Chances are your Mac will not be defective, but do your due diligence just in case. When I’m checking my Macs for defects, I like to break it down by the various hardware components that make it up and I go through them one-by-one – asking myself whether each component behaves as advertised. For example, does the screen have an unacceptably high number of dead pixels; is my Mac able to connect to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices; does the battery hold a proper charge; etc.?
If something seems to be awry with any part of my Mac – something is visibly broken or a component is just not performing as I think it should – I research the specific symptoms online and make a decision about whether or not I should take it in for further inspection, repair, or replacement.
Save the Date. If, after carefully unpacking and inspecting your new Mac, you’re happy with its condition then it’s time to set a few extremely important reminders. Mark your calendar or, better yet, set an alarm on your Mac’s iCal to notify you of the key dates in your Mac’s life. Determine the relevant dates by going to Apple’s Warranty Status page. This page will tell you when your One-Year Limited Warranty and/or AppleCare (if you purchased AppleCare) are set to expire. Once you have determined these dates, you should proceed to set the appropriate alarms.
First, set one to go off on January 6, 2014. If your Mac was purchased during this holiday season then this is two days before you will have to decide whether or not to return your Mac to Apple. Second, set an alarm for two weeks before your Mac’s One-Year Limited Warranty expires. When it goes off, take some time to give your Mac a thorough inspection for any defects that may have manifested during the first year of its life. Third, if you purchased AppleCare or have any other operative dates (third-party insurance, credit card purchase protection, etc.) set an alarm to go off one to two weeks before those expire and conduct the same type of inspection when the time comes.
Stay Informed & Never Stop Learning. If you’ve followed the our advice, you’ve taken several of the most essential steps towards protecting yourself from the some of the most common issues owners of Apple products experience. Enjoy your new Mac, but also remember that it’s an expensive piece of equipment and worth owning responsibly. It’s up to you to stay informed about the particular model of Mac you now own as well as Apple products in general.
There’s always more to learn and circumstances do change – as time passes defects become more documented and articulated by online communities and Apple periodically implements special repair or replacement programs for its products. Reading sites like Cult of Mac or books like Buying and Owning a Mac: Secrets Apple Doesn’t Want You to Know will help you to become your own consumer advocate, which will help you to save you time and money during the life of your Mac.
With all the RAM we have these days, it’s easy to get some serious screen clutter going on when you have a ton of apps open.
You can hide the current app with Command-H, and you can hide all the other apps except the current app with Command-Option-H.
But did you know you could go to any app that’s currently running, while simultaneously hiding all the other running apps?
Twitter is said to be working on a new feature that will allow users to edit tweets after they are published, The Desk reports. As things stand, the only way to fix typos and other errors is to delete your tweet and publish another one, but sources close to Twitter’s new project say that’s set to change.
The flip-side to the fetishistic hankering over shiny new things is the staggering number of older gadgets that are thrown away each year.
According to new data released by the Solving the E-Waste Problem Initiative (Step), in 2012 this electronic waste added up to a staggering 48.9 million tons.
If someone came up to you on the street and told you that you could make ten dollars for nothing, as long as you gave him forty dollars to get started, you’d rightfully view him as a shifty grifter, yet when a retailer comes along, offering $50 iTunes cards for $10 off, we all shout ‘free money!’ and fork over our cash.
Society’s double standards are a strange thing, but regardless, discounts on iTunes Gift Cards are always a hot deal, and right now, there’s a particularly good deal on $50 gift cards going on at Office Max. For just $40, you can buy yourself credit for $50 worth of apps, movies, games, TV shows or music to purchase from iTunes, and that includes free shipping.
There’s a limit of three per customer, and these deals usually don’t last, so get in on the action now. It’s the perfect stocking stuffer.
Source: OfficeMax
On iOS as on the Mac, there’s only two browsers that most people take seriously: Safari and Chrome. But another browser you should consider is Coast, an iOS browser made by Opera that turns the worldwide web into a sea of apps.
It’s a great browser, one of the few that re-imagines surfing as if it were designed from the ground-up to happen on the iPad, with a primarily gesture driven interface and chrome that stays out of the way until you need it. And now, Coast is getting better, thanks to a beefy 2.0 update.