Apple has rolled out updates for all of its iWork apps on both OS X and iOS. Earlier this month, Apple revealed features from iWork ’09 it would be adding back to the new suite in the coming months, and today’s updates address some of those features. On iOS, Pages, Keynote and Numbers have received bug fixes and stability improvements.
In the late 90s, Tamagotchi pets were all the rage. The plastic, egg-shaped pocket computers came in bright colors and housed a virtual pet you had to take care of. Fast forward to late 2013, and the only pocket computers people carry around are smartphones and tablets.
Yesterday, the makers of apps like Clear and Heads Up! launched Hatch, a modern-day take on Tamagotchi for the iPhone. It’s a beautifully crafted game that utilizes the iPhone’s internals to make the pet, or Fugu, come to life.
The Inner Balance system pairs a $99 dongle/earclip sensor with an accompanying app with the goal of training its users to de-stress themselves (probably an over-simplification, but that’s the gist of it) through gamified breathing exercises.
To further this goal, HeartMath, the company behind the Inner Balance kit, has just launched a cloud-based service called HeartCloud to further gamify the Inner Balance sessions with the introduction of social aspects. HeartMath has also announced that new Lightning dongles for the earclip sensor will be available at the end of this month.
Leander’s new book “Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products” has debuted on the New York Times Bestseller list. (Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And huzzah!)
If you want to get a feel for the book, check out this excerpt over at Medium, which is richly illustrated with sketches and photographs of some of the prototypes.
The Medium excerpt is how Leander wanted to originally write the book; illustrated with all the images leaked during the initial Samsung vs. Apple trial. We’ve seen the prototypes all over the web. What is missing, though, is the journalist’s most important tool: context. This treatment pairs the pictures with the details of Apple’s design process.
Apple’s re-trial with Samsung over patent infringement has just concluded with the federal jury ruling that Samsung owes Apple an extra $290 million for infringing on the iPhone maker’s patents.
The award is significantly more than the amount Samsung hoped to pay, though Apple’s lawyers didn’t get all the money they wanted either. Including damages awarded from the original trial, Samsung’s bill for Apple now totals $929.83 million worth damages – unless they successfully appeal of course.
This week’s editors choice app in the iOS App Store features the release of Clumsy Ninja, which is notable because for one, it took these guys a really long ass time to get their game into the App Store, and two, Apple’s promoting the app with a special new video trailer in the App Store.
Clumsy Ninja is the first app to get a video trailer in the App Store – a feature long requested by third party developers. Right now it looks like the trailer is only viewable on an iOS device, as the app’s page in iTunes only shows a couple of image previews.
SAN FRANCISCO — It may come as a surprise, but AT&T’s is one of the biggest retailers of Apple accessories. The company has more than 2,200 stores across the country, compared to Apple’s 253 US stores. and they sell a boatload of goodies.
On Thursday night, AT&T showcased some of the hottest iPhone and iPad accessories that will be available this Holiday at it’s retail locations.
Check them out:
This story first appeared in Cult of Mac Magazine.
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!
If I have to put my new iPhone 5s in a case because I forgot to buy AppleCare+ during the first 30 days and I’m terrified I’ll drop it on its face, then I want that case to be sleek and simple and made of leather. The CalypsoCase Loop is all of those things.
Handcrafted by a team of skilled craftsmen in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the Loop is a beautiful slip-on sleeve made of only the finest leather that provides your iPhone with all the protection it needs when it’s not in use. It has laser-cut titanium foundations that retain its shape and offer impact protection, and a soft inner lining that lovingly caresses your iPhone’s aluminum without marking it.
The Loop is available in four colors, and it’s priced at €89 (approx. $120) with free shipping. Let me tell you why it’s worth that price tag.
Crescent Moon Games, the studio behind quite a few amazing mobile iOS games (Siegecraft, Pocket RPG, Paper Monsters), has just released its latest: Space Chicks.
Ignoring the obvious “damsel in distress” trope, this game plays like a spectacular mashup of games like Little Galaxy, Tiny Wings, and Jetpack Joyride, with gravity-affected planet hopping, coin collecting, and space-girl saving that will keep you playing long into the evening.
There’s something here for every one, and it’s all of $0.99.
Tim Cook caused quite a stir in the worlds of both tech and fashion earlier this year when he announced that Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts would be leaving the famous trench-coat maker to head up Apple’s retail divisions.
Ahrendts new position at Apple alone wields great power, but when you combine it with her incredible turn around of the Burberry brand, its no wonder many are starting to consider her one of the most powerful executives in the world, which is exactly why Fortune placed Ahrendts at #4 of its annual list of the top people in business.
She doesn’t take over at Apple until Spring 2014 but Ahrendts received the nod from the business mag for her work redefining Burberry’s brand and the subsequent 29% bump in the company’s stock price.
Here’s Fortune’s praise for Ahrendts:
This is Cult of Mac’s exclusive column written by an actual Apple retail 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 dishes on how to make sure technicians don’t snoop through your personal data when you bring your Mac into the Genius Bar to get fixed. We also talk about the most polite ways to explain to a genius that you’re not an idiot, as well as other secrets the Genius Bar staff won’t tell you.
Got a question you want an 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.
A: I don’t think technicians are accessing people’s data as often as the internet confessions make it sound. Sure, there have been abuses, just as with any other company, people can’t always be trusted to follow policy or respect privacy.
For me and my coworkers, it’s never been a question. We have far too many other repairs and tasks to bother with anybody’s personal data, aside from the many practices and procedures of the store that prevent such abuses like requiring more than one technician in the Genius Room while doing repairs.
If you don’t like the idea of your data possibly being accessed while it’s in for service, you may want to create a Time Machine backup of your Mac and erase its contents for service. For very sensitive information, one might go as far to zero all the data on the disk multiple times, but no one in the Genius Room is going to try to recover data on a disk. Then again, I don’t know what you might be trying to hide.
To erase and reinstall OS X, create a Time Machine or other backup of your preferences on an external hard drive and check to make sure the contents are intact. Afterwards, restart your Mac and hold down the “Command + R” keys to boot to the recovery disk. Then you can go to disk utility and select your startup disk and erase it. Once erased, you can reinstall Mac OS X and set up the Mac so your technician can boot it up. Once service is complete, restore your data to your Mac using Migration Assistant or your method of choice.
Q: What is the least douchey way to explain to an Apple Genius that I know a fair bit about computers to skip past the dumbed-down troubleshooting, questions and explanations?
A: I love it when people come in and they can explain the problem clearly. Tell your technician what troubleshooting steps you have taken to reproduce or fix the issue. Explaining the issue clearly and describing proper steps for determining the need for service tells me you know what you’re talking about. It also helps speed up the process. There may be some required procedures — as in any other warranty or paid service — but hopefully your explanation has answered most of these and will make the process quicker.
Q: What are some of craziest things you seen while working on someone’s computer?
A: I actually haven’t seen anything that ridiculous…There are so many customers to help that most geniuses don’t have time to run through your iPhone or MacBook and see all your naked selfies — but that hasn’t stopped some customer’s private stuff from just popping up. One time I was helping a mom and her 17-year-old son who had a problem with his iPhone.
I had the kid unlock the iPhone and then proceeded to troubleshoot his Wi-Fi issue. Keep in mind that I always make sure to keep the customer’s screen visible to them so they can see what I’m doing on their device. So I opened up Safari to run some diagnostics and the first thing that came up was a big porn site with huge images of the some of the best, most vile debauchery the world has to offer. I closed the tab as quickly as I could, but the damage was done. His mom saw it and just exploded — launching into a loud, anti-porn rant right there in the store.
That was awkward.
Tim Cook admitted that the iPad mini with Retina display will be in short supply for the next few weeks, but while Wifi-only units seem to be in-stock at Apple Stores across the country, it looks like Apple is having a hard time keeping a steady supply of 3G/4G units rolling out to developers.
Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile are all reporting shortages of iPad mini with Retina display stock with most orders being backed up for weeks, according to a report from CNET.
The worldwide leader in sports announced today that it is rebranding its ScoreCenter app for iOS and Android into an all-new, totally supercharged SportsCenter app that comes with a sleek iOS 7 design scheme to go along with some speed enhancements and a host of other new features.
The new SportsCenter app makes it easier than ever to track your favorite teams with the “Clubhouses” feature that brings in content focused for your favorite teams in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA and more. A new Favorites tab also lets you keep tabs on your teams’ scores along with the new Inbox feature that becomes your hub for alerts on personalized news and scores.
Here are the full release notes:
Writedown — Productivity — Free (Pro version: $2.99)
Sometimes, you have to write something really quickly on the go. Like, say, if you were supposed to find an app to write up for your daily post on a tech blog.
Actually, nevermind that example. It’s crazy and would never happen. But if it did, Writedown might be a good fit. It’s a quick and easy document creation tool that cuts out all the distractions (other than ads, in this Lite version). You just type your thing in a clean interface, and then you can export it to a text, e-mail, social media, or share it with AirDrop.
It’s bare-bones, quick, and easy to use. Not that I’m using it right now.
Crazy.
The Shivah starts with a joke:
“A goy came up to Rabbi Moishe to ask, ‘Why do rabbis always answer with a question?’
To which Rabbi Moise replied, ‘Why not?'”
First released in 2006, The Shivah is a noirish, murder-mystery adventure game centered around a money-deficient New York synagogue. Its hero, Russell Stone, is not a hardbitten private investigator or a disgraced former police officer like the genre typically demands. He’s a cynical rabbi with a heavy conscience who stumbles into the investigation completely by accident. It sounds odd, and it is, but it also totally works.
Now, developer Wadjet Eye Games has released The Shivah: Kosher Edition, an updated iOS and PC version of the original game with all-new graphics and music. If you’ve never played the original and you’re a fan of adventure games and (well-meaning) Jewish humor, it’s a great take on the well-trod genre.
Given that it’s one of the biggest and most successful third-party messaging platforms available on mobile, you might be wondering why WhatsApp still hasn’t been updated for iOS 7 — more than two months after the software’s public release, and over five months after it was first made available to developers. (I certainly am.)
But the update — complete with a fancy redesign — is on its way, and you can get an early glimpse at it in the hands-on video below.
The HBO Go apps for Android and iOS have today been updated with support for Google’s Chromecast. The feature works on Android smartphones and tablets running Android 2.3 Gingerbread and above, and on iPhones and iPads running iOS 6 and above.
Magic Mouse gestures let you use swipes and taps on the mouse itself to do things like go back a page when browsing in Safari.
Unfortunately, some folks who have upgraded to Mavericks may have noticed that their Magic Mouse gestures no longer work.
Luckily, there’s a quick way to re-enable this feature, if you miss it.
With less than a day to wait for the new Xbox One, Microsoft has announced that its new console will have an official YouTube app, after all. What’s more, you’ll be able to send videos to it from your Android and iOS devices.
Smartphone crime is a huge problem. In fact, New York City’s crime rate went up for the first time in twenty years because people are mugged violently so often for their iPhones.
In response to iPhone crime, Apple has made some important improvements to iOS, including requiring users to enter their iCloud password to turn ‘Find my iPhone’ off, and the new ‘Activation Lock’ feature in iOS 7which allows users to disable stolen or lost iPhones remotely.
Apple’s got the right solution, but you know who hates it? The carriers. In fact, as other manufacturers have tried to insert similar cellphone kill switches in their smartphones to Apple’s, the carriers are standing defiant against them. Why? Because they are afraid that it will affect their bottom lines.
Trent Reznor might have a head like a hole, but not a heart like one. During a recent show in Las Vegas, the Nine Inch Nails frontman pulled out his iPhone 5s mid-concert to FaceTime a dying fan and friend on stage.
With the new Mac Pro, Apple has once against shifted manufacturing of one of its products to the United States. Could other products follow? Even, say, the iPhone?
Foxconn chairman and president Terry Gou has hinted yes, saying that the company is actively looking into the possibility of setting up factories for high-end smartphone and tablet production in America. But how likely is it?
If there are two main areas where Microsoft massively lags behind both Android and Apple it is market share and app availability.
Well, Microsoft has copped to its role as a “distant third” in the former capacity (Windows Phones represent less than a 5 percent share of the overall market), but is the latter something more immediately addressable?
Yes, according to a tweet posted by Windows Phone VP Joe Belfiore — the man responsible for the design and software product definition of Microsoft’s smartphones — who enthusiastically claims that the end of 2014 is going to mark the end of the “app-gap” between Windows Phones, and those available for Android and iOS platforms.
Due to a combination of laziness and… actually just laziness, I often use my iPhone to take product shots for the reviews you see here on Cult of Mac. And while my Snapseed usually lets me turn my snaps into usable photos, I could sometimes do with a little help trying to find a spot on my desk that isn’t covered in junk to use as a backdrop.
Yes, I could clean up, but as I mentioned above, I’m terminally lazy. So I might instead adopt Andrew Park’s Foldio, a tiny light tent for iPhone product shots and the like.