Samsung has merged its digital imaging and mobile communications businesses in a bid to create better smartphones. The South Korean company hopes that the reshuffle will lead to better collaboration between the two teams as consumers become increasingly concerned about camera performance when buying a new handset.
As you can see, it’s snowing in the Terminal.
This bit of fun is seriously easy to make happen, and it looks super cool when you maximize the Terminal window to full screen. Here’s how to make it snow on your own Mac.
It’s not just the incredible graphics and great gameplay that keeps people coming back to Chair Entertainment’s Infinity Blade games, it’s the constant updates, and hot on the heels of the announcement of a weird Keanu Reeves-centric game event comes word of a big new update.
Coming on December 19th, the ‘Ausar Rising’ update will explore the origins of the Infinity Blade protagonist, as well as allow you to revisit the original Infinity Blade castle.
Pebble has rolled out a new update to its hugely popular smartwatch, finally adding a Do Not Disturb mode, multiple alarms, better performance on iOS, and numerous new features and improvements.
Mojang’s Minecraft is one of the best games on the Mac, but the iPhone and iPad version has always been slightly behind when it comes to features. But with its latest update, the biggest yet, Minecraft – Pocket Edition is catching up, adding some of Minecraft’s best features, including the ability to make roller coasters with minecars and rails!
Next year, Apple will release the eighth-generation iPhone, the iPhone 6 (yes, it’s weird), and if Appke has shown us anything in the past, we can expect it to be even thinner than the iPhone 5-series of devices, especially now that Apple has finally mastered IGZO display technology with the new iPad mini and iPad Air.
So what will the iPhone 6 look like? The designers at SET Solution wanted to know, so they imagined an iPhone Air that is just 1.5mm thin and 70 grams in weight, with an edge-to-edge display and a slightly larger screen size. It’s an improbable design, but interesting to see what people are expecting.
At the same time, they imagined an iPhone 6c where the ‘C’ stands for curve, not color. It looks a bit silly, but we know Apple is working on curved displays for future iPhones.
Check out those videos after the jump.
A 1978 legal agreement between Steve Jobs and future mining tycoon billionaire Robert Friedland has fetched $40,000 at auction. The eight-page legal document set up an investment business, and carries the signatures of both men.
“In 30 years of business we have only offered one other Jobs item — a signature,” RR Auction Vice President Bobby Livingston noted in a statement. “[T]his document, incredibly substantial and significant in its connection to a major figure in his life, is of the utmost rarity.”
With not a word of warning, at a time of year known for its poverty of new releases, hipshaking R&B super-princess Beyoncé released her fifth studio albuma as a “Mastered for iTunes” joint. And even though no one knew it was coming, it still managed to crash iTunes for a spell. Thanks, Beyoncé.
With the news of the 15-year-old worker dying at the Pegatron factory which makes the iPhone 5c, attention is once again turning to worker treatment at Apple’s suppliers/contract manufacturers.
The news in this case is that Foxconn Technology Group — while making progress improving factory working conditions — is still failing to limit the number of overtime hours its Chinese workers carry out.
“Glue of the Internet” service IFTTT (If This Then That) is one of the most useful services around. Now a new app from developer Visual Candy is giving users the ability to add “location” to their IFTTT recipes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5bzDQMUG00
Kids manufacturer Fisher-Price has been delving into the world of tech peripherals for some time now (they even came out with an e-Reader a couple of years ago). Their latest venture, however — a baby bouncy seat with iPad attachment — has stirred up controversy like nothing else the company has done.
Would Carl Icahn’s memoirs be titled How To Lose Friends And Influence People?
Activist investor Icahn has been proving divisive in recent months by spearheading a campaign to get Apple to carry out a $150 billion stock buyback (which he later dropped to “just” $50 billion).
Well, it’s difficult to be as outspoken as Icahn without certain other investors speaking out about you — and that’s exactly what Anne Simpson, head of corporate governance at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, has done.
Here’s a funny idea with a high potential to go wrong: bake a batch of cookies in the shape of iPhones, drive around pretending to talk on them, and then when you inevitably get pulled over, take a bite, look the law enforcement official straight in the eye, and say, “Are cookies against the law, officer?”
This bold (although possibly ill-advised) plan was the recent brainchild of Los Angeles comedian Randy Liedtke. Thanks to Twitter, followers were able to see how the dicey scenario played out in more-or-less real time. Here’s what happened:
Instapaper, the first service of its kind for saving articles to read later, has gone free in the App Store for the first time ever. It has been discounted before, but this is the first time it has gone completely free.
Why? Apple has named it “App of the Week,” an honor bestowed upon popular apps—you guessed it—once a week. It normally costs $4.
Today Apple updated its Remote app with the ability to control iTunes Radio on a Mac or PC. Previously, you could only control music in an iTunes Library. A new “Radio” window has been added in the app like the official Music app.
Remote was just recently updated with a big iOS 7 redesign, and it’s available for free in the App Store.
Source: App Store
Everything Thing Is A Remix Filmmaker Kirby Ferguson just released a new case study for his popular series that tackles whether the iPhone is a truly original idea, or just a hodgepodge of copying and improvements like pretty much everything else. The case study starts by contesting Steve Jobs’ claim that Apple invented Multi-Touch – when really the technology was being developed for years by many companies – before strolling through some of Apple’s other inspirations.
The video does give Apple credit for creating a device that the entire mobile industry copied, while also providing a great survey of the real world objects Apple used as inspiration in Apple’s UI designs that helped make the iPhone and iOS so revolutionary. Ultimately the film turns to iOS 7 and the ideas Apple borrowed copied remixed from Windows Phone and Android.
Watch the video below and tell us in the comments whether you think the iPhone got a fair treatment:
As we draw closer to the end of the holiday shopping season, we could all use a little distraction from the day to day. Gaming offers that – and a great game can bring us back over and over again. The BioShock Bundle) offers two great games that will keep you gaming for hours at the low price of $15.99 – a savings of 60%!
If you’ve never given the classic Fallout games a try, now’s your chance. GoG.com is giving three of them away for free for 48 hours, as part of the classic games digital distributor’s Winter Sale for 2013.
You can get the Mac version of Fallout 1, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics for free until Friday, December 12, so get on it now.
There are tons of solutions to get iOS photos from your device to some sort of backup system, from Dropbox to iPhoto. Backing up your photos is imperative, especially on iOS, as the iCloud backup system doesn’t back up photos, and PhotoStream only keeps the last 1,000 photos on your phone synced to all your enabled devices.
Backing up to cloud services is extremely convenient, but what happens when you no longer want to pay for the storage, or would rather hang on to your digital memories on your own computer? Sure, you can connect to your Mac with a cable, but then you’ve got to do the hard work of figuring out which photos you’ve already backed up.
Sync Photos To Storage, a new app from developer Simplex Solutions, aims to make this process much, much easier.
We’ve seen a bunch of “OS X meets iOS” concepts for the Mac over the last few years, most of which have been pretty meh, but this recent submission to us is the first one I wouldn’t mind using if OS X 11 absolutely has to take all of its design cues from iOS 7.
Created by Andrew Ambrosino, the OS X 11 concept is dripping in translucent blurs with flatness and minimalism spread all over. I really like the transparent menu bar with the expandable menu, though I’m not a fan of forcing OS X app icons to be rounded squares just like in iOS.
Take a look at what the Mail app could look like if given the iOS 7 treatment:
Today Twitter updated its official Mac app (yes, it still has one) with a number of new features, including a tweet detail pane, profile header images, and image previews in the timeline.
Here’s the full list of changes:
If This, Then That (IFTTT) is a system by which you can create amazing workflow recipes. There’s also an app in the App Store that lets you use the incredibly powerful recipes right on your iPhone. Send all your Instagram photos to Dropbox, for example, or email all your Photos to a specific address. There are tons of recipes you can browse and steal use, plus making your own custom recipes is a snap.
Since emails can often contain things you have to make reminders for follow-up, let’s take a look at turning our emails into reminders using the IFTTT app right on your iPhone.
Rather than slogging through a lake of reviews to find something you’re just going to put down after 30 minutes, Cult of Mac has once again waded through the iTunes store to compile a list of the best new movies, albums and books to come out this week.
Enjoy!
Childish Gambino – Because The Internet
It’s been a few weeks since anyone’s released a rap album worth getting excited about, but Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino, breaks the cold streak this week with his second album, Because the Internet. The album is soaked with bouncy energetic beats as Gambino ruminations on celebrity and fame spread throughout the 19 tracks.
The album is slim on super-star appearances which is all the better, leaving Glover plenty of opportunity to show off his colorful wordplay and rhyming, proving Childish Gambino is the best rapper you’ve never heard even though you’ve probably seen his face.
R. Kelly – Black Panties
Honestly, Kells deserves this spot just for his recent resurgence with appearances on Lady Gaga’s “Do What U Want” and Beiber’s “PYD” alone. The 46 year-old crooner has been on a serious tear in 2013 with his 13th album, Black Panties being the ultimate night cap.
Has Kelly relaxed into playing a caricature of himself? Possibly. Black Panties ditches the soul-fused tones of his last two albums in favor of Kelly’s signature raunch. If you were expecting R’s album to be about anything other than what’s inside those panties, hah, what were you thinkin’? And while sex and pornography parade through every track, there’s still an air of indignation for newcomers throughout the record as Kells sets out to show why he will always be our generation’s most prominent sex master.
E-40 – The Block Brochure pts 4, 5, & 6
Childish Gambino and R. Kelly both dropped 19 tracks on their new albums this week, which seems like a ton of extra goodies in this era of singles and EPs, but then E-40 comes to the table and drops 45 tracks on his new album The Block Brochure pts 4, 5, & 6. Who in their right mind does that?
All that music doesn’t that E-40’s latest effort is full of fluff. Far from it. The legendary rapper still lets it fly with the best of them musing about life Northern California in one of the best rap albums this fall with appearances by T.I., 2 Chainz, Gucci Mane, Chris Brown, Juicy J, Young Dro and many more.
Mud
After cementing himself as everyone’s favorite shirtless actor, Matthew McConaughey has undergone one of the most interesting acting renaissances over the last few years thanks to great character roles in movies like Bernie, The Paperboy, and Killer Joe. I just watched his latest movie, Dallas Buyers Club, last week and was blown away how far Matty’s come as a serious actor.
You’ll have to wait a couple more months before Dallas Buyers Club hits iTunes, but in the meantime, check out his critically acclaimed role in Mud where McConaughey plays a fugitive drifter on the Mississippi River who enlists the help of two young boys to reconnect with his estranged girlfriend. Apple even dropped the rental price on Mud down to $0.99 for the week so you can catch his memorable performance on the cheap.
Prisoners
I don’t have any kids and after watching Prisoners, I’m not sure I ever really want any. I mean, sure kids are sweet and cute and great but then what happens when someone snatches up your child and the cops are powerless to do anything?
That’s pretty much what happens to Hugh Jackman in Prisoners as his six-year old daughter comes up missing. The only lead in her disappearance is a dingy RV that was parked on their street earlier, but after the police fail to connect its driver with the crime the investigators are forced to let him go, leading Jackman to take matters into his own hands.
Terrifying, in a prophylactic sort of way.
Elf
As far as I’m concerned, there is no better way to get yourself into the Christmas spirit than curling up on the couch and watching Elf. Even though the movie came out over a decade ago, it’s hard to think of any actor giving a better Christmas performance than Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf.
Despite being a human, Buddy was raised by elves in the North Pole after crawling into Santa’s gift bag as a baby. Now a full-grown adult, Buddy sets off for New York City to find his biological father while spreading Christmas cheer to all the cotton-headed ninny muggins along the way.
The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly
by Sun-mi Hwang
Parents, or anyone who’s a fan of children literature and fables, will probably enjoy this first English translation of Sun-mi Hwang’s fable The Who Dreamed She Could Fly.
The story is about a hen named Sprout who would really hates laying eggs on command. One morning, Sprout gets a view out the barn doors of the other animals grazing the grounds at their leisure and realizes how much she wants to be free. An escape plan is hatched and Sprout seeks out into the wild on her own.
Fans of Charlotte’s Web will enjoy the layers of the themes as well as the array of animal characters in this little window into Korea.
Morrissey
by Morrissey
This slot was originally going to go to some book about gold and the history of why we value it. I don’t really know much about gold so it sounds interesting. Then my editor was raving about Morrissey’s autobiography and I thought, screw it, I know less about Morrissey than I do about gold and he’s way cooler.
As vocalist of The Smiths, Steven Patrick Morrissey rose to fame in the U.K. in 80s before taking off on a highly successful solo career and becoming one of the most iconic stars of our time. Some have called him one of the most influential artists ever while Pitchfork says he’s merely “one of the most singular figures in Western popular culture from the last twenty years.” His autobiography covers his entire life from birth to present and truly is one of the most fascinating biographies you’ll read this winter.
Inside The Dream Palace
by Sherill Tippins
The Chelsea Hotel has become an American icon of art and counterculture ever since it was founded by a visionary French architect in 1884. Over the years a countless number of celebrities and arts have cohabited and created there, including Arthur Miller, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Patti Smith, Andy Warhol and Sid Vicious, making the Chelsea one of the most important artists’ communities in the world.
Now with the future of the hotel teetering between two futures, author Sherril Tippins new book, Inside The Dream Palace, takes readers behind the scenes at the Chelsea to deliver an entertaining history of the hotel and its famous guests as well as diving into the mystery of why and how did this hotel become the largest and longest-lived artists’ community in the known world?
There’s nothing better than capturing moments as they happen during the holidays season. While your phone’s camera will do a pretty good job of that, wouldn’t it be better if you had a choice of lenses to add some depth and variety to your photos? This Cult of Mac Deals offer bundles three lenses into one package so you cant broaden your artistic range.
The Universal Lens Kit really is the lens trifecta you need to do just that – and Cult of Mac Deals has it for only $23.99. That’s a savings of 65%!
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 some of the most common questions Geniuses get about how to fix iPhone email problems, as well as what to do when your free iCloud storage becomes too full. Also, if you’ve upgraded to iOS 7 recently you may have noticed your iPhone rebooting at random. Our genius will tell you whether it’s a hardware or software issue and how to troubleshoot it before taking you iPhone to the genius bar.
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: My iPhone keeps restarting randomly. Is it a hardware issue, or is there anything I can do to fix it?
Most of the time an iPhone restarting randomly is a software issue. App updates that have bugs can cause this to happen, especially new iOS 7 apps that haven’t worked their bugs out. Or it can even be an operating system issue.
The first step to a solution would be to notice when it usually happens. If it happens during the use of a particular app, you might try removing the app and reinstalling it from the App Store. If it is one of the apps included in iOS or you have tried removing apps and your iPhone continues to restart unexpectedly you should restore your iPhone using iTunes. Make sure to do a backup before proceeding with the restore as it will remove all the content and restore the factory settings.
If after restoring the backup you still encounter the restarting issue you may need to set the phone up as a new device, as the issue may be stored in your backup.
Personally, I have found my iPhone performs much better when I have restored it and set it up as new. This is a good way to clean up your iPhone if you want a fresh start. If it is still restarting randomly, it may need to be replaced so make a reservation at the Genius Bar for service.
Q: I keep getting notifications that my iPhone hasn’t been backed up to iCloud because there is not enough storage. What should I do?
This is probably one of the more commonly asked question in the Apple Store. If you have iCloud backups turned on for your iPhone, it will regularly save your camera roll, accounts, documents and settings.
The free iCloud storage space is 5 GB which is pretty small if you’re trying to store all your photos and documents in the cloud. The warning pops up whenever backups require more space than your storage plan size.
If you look in the Settings app on your iPhone you can view your iCloud backup and storage settings in the iCloud settings.
Here you can view your iCloud storage size. Click into the to “Manage Storage” option to display your backups and see the size of each backup. You can select each one to see how much space is required for the next backup. You can also delete an old backup from inside the backup info at the very bottom of the page.
You might also want to consider whether to upgrade your iCloud storage. Apple makes it easy to upgrade storage right from the backup settings by clicking change storage plan and choosing a storage plan up to 55 GB for $100 a year thats charge annually to your iTunes account.
If you don’t want to upgrade, trimming your backups below your allotted storage plan will get you back up and running. If you want to ditch the service altogether, just disable iCloud backups in the iCloud settings and have fun with iTunes — unless you like living life on the edge without a backup.
Q: My Mail.app suddenly stopped being able to send and receive emails. What should I check?
In most cases, at least cases in the store, mail accounts quit working due to incorrect passwords, however there are other possibilities as well.
Here are a couple steps to follow to get your account working again. While trying these steps, first make sure to confirm you have a good Wi-Fi or 3G/4G connection on your iOS device to ensure a connection to your mail servers.
1. Verify you have the correct password. If you have changed the password recently, you will have to update it in your settings. Go to the Mail, Contacts, Calendars page in the Settings App and update your password for the account login. If your account requires SMTP password authentication, you’ll have to also update the password in your outgoing settings. If it still doesn’t work, try logging on the web to make sure you aren’t trying the wrong password.
2. Verify you have the correct settings for you email provider by going to your web mail. Most providers have an easy-to-follow guide on how to setup their email accounts with iOS devices.
3. If that still doesn’t work, sometimes Account Settings data can get corrupted over time. Try removing the account and adding it back on.
These three steps usually get people back up and running.