Good news for lovers of extremely light, slim and functional iPad cases: Lioncase’s Folio Shield has been updated to fit the extremely light, slim and functional iPad Air. Regular readers will recall that the Lioncase cases are some of my favorite iPad cases of all.
Twitterrific 5 for iOS has received a nice new update that adds a number of new features and user interface improvements. In addition to a redesigned profile layout, there’s a new pull-to-refresh animation, and users now have the ability to view profile banners by tapping on them.
Before I got lazy and did everything in Snapseed and Instagram, Filterstorm was one of my favorite iOS apps, and now it’s back, bigger, faster and, uh, neuer than before. Developer Tai Shimizu started over and came up with a whole new take on his powerful photo-editing app, which is appropriately called Filterstorm Neue.
Here comes wearable computing, and Android and the Googleverse have a huge head start. But will the Android devices lose the lead because they fail to target the women’s market?
If you’ve been hunting for a flawless solution to mirror your gameplay, videos, photos, presentations, and so much more right to your Mac then the application Cult of Mac Deals is currently offering will bring value to your life.
With X-Mirage you can wirelessly mirror your iOS device’s display to your Mac to take advantage of the big screen, and record everything onscreen with one click. This is a simple solution for showing off your iOS devices on a bigger screen. And the price is one that simply can’t beat – just $8.99 for a limited time.
Apple is currently developing multiple iPhone models with larger screens and curved displays for release later in 2014, according to a new report from Bloomberg. While reports from other publications have previously said that Apple is working on larger screen sizes, this is the first report that says Apple is working on curved glass displays for the iPhone.
Not only are new display designs in the works, but the company is developing “enhanced sensors that can detect different levels of pressure,” according to the report.
In the past three years, Apple has dared to be dull.
During Apple’s best years, between 2007 and 2010, Apple introduced the first iPhone and the first iPad, two world-changing products that now define the company (and bring in most of its revenue). These products, along with their touch interfaces and apps stores, were a shock to the industry.
That’s great, Apple. But what have you done for me lately?
Here’s one theory about how Apple works: The company finds a horrible content consumption experience. They figure out how the experience can be made wonderful. They work on the products until they’re ready, both from product quality and price perspectives. Then they ship it and spend the next few years refining and perfecting the original vision.
If that oversimplification about how Apple works is accurate, then Apple isn’t really in full control of when its groundbreaking new products ship. They have to wait for technology, such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), or for various industries to come around to making a critical mass of content deals.
In the past three years, every Apple announcement has been preceded by speculation and rumor that Apple would at long last announce an iWatch, an iTV set and other products that would signal a radical new product category for Apple. And every announcement ended in disappointment. Every announcement was about refinement of old products, rather than bold launches of new products.
Will Apple ever enter new markets again, including the ones perennially rumored?
I say they will. The fact that they haven’t shipped the long-rumored iWatch or iTV, for example, makes perfect sense from a readiness perspective.
In fact, I think the next three years will be twice as awesome as the iPhone-iPad years, in the sense that Apple will break into four new businesses. Why? Because the technology and content deals will fall into place during this time.
Here’s what I think is going to happen.
Jony Ive. He’s the private man who some say is Apple’s own heart… and on our newest CultCast, our own Leander Kahney, with his new book Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products hitting stores Nov. 14th, reveals inside information about the design icon, and how he and his teams create the world-renowned products we all use every day. Plus, J.D. Power says, for the first time ever, Samsung tabs are better than iPads… we’ll debunk!
Have a few laughs and get 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 baseline roll!
Nothing gets us through a day at the office quite like some brand-spankin’ new music. And Grooveshark is one of the best places to discover what’s on the cutting edge.
Cult of Mac Deals has teamed up with Grooveshark to bring you a premium one-year subscription to Grooveshark Anywhere. This gives you unlimited commercial-free streaming of their on-demand music service on your desktop, tablet, and smartphone browsers. Enjoy over 15 million tunes, easy music curation, and online radio from the largest community of music lovers on the web. And do so for 50% off the regular price – just $49.
Apple’s new proposal for the giant spaceship campus, originally envisioned by co-founder and rockstar, Steve Jobs, has gotten the go ahead from the Cupertino City Council. It’s on track to get built by 2016, and we’ve got a ton of inside info on the new building.
In this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine, reporter Luke Dormehl talks to a few architectural experts to fully understand how this new building is really just the largest Apple product ever built.
Rob LeFebvre looks at some area residents’ complaints about the construction and impact of the new campus, while also talking to an expert who thinks that the impact will be more good than bad, and we’ve got a pretty slick 3D video render of what the campus will look like.
Our exclusive Ask a Genius column lets you in on how those intrepid Apple employees deal with customer temper tantrums, a bit about the recent AppleCare+ price hikes, and how folks might have to act to get fired from the retailer’s employ.
Of course we’ll also have our signature roundups of all the best iTunes books, movies, music, and app, ready for your perusal.
The latest issue is available in the App Store.
We hope you’ll dig it – and keep in touch with comments, questions, shout-outs.
This is one of Cult of Mac Deals’ biggest bundles yet.
This one is a little less consumer focused, as the emphasis is on entrepreneurs, designers, and developers. But it’s stacked with apps, web services, and design elements that are worth over $3000. And this bundle – aptly named The SuperStacked Mac Bundle – is just $49!
One of the better ways to compose better pictures when taking them with your iPhone is to turn on the grid lines built into the iOS camera.
Back in iOS 6, you could tap on the options button at the top, and toggle the grid lines on or off. Simple, right? That ease of use is no longer in iOS 7.
Where did the grid lines go?
I have one of Doxie’s neat candybar-shaped paper scanners, and it’s great for getting through piles of paper. I can scan bills, flyers, photos and even whole books – I ripped all the pages from a beloved but falling-apart cookbook and scanned the pages one at a time to make a PDF.
But for anything less sheet-shaped, it’s useless. And often the next best option – your iPhone’s camera – isn’t much better. You have to focus it, hold it steady, and somehow wedge the pages of your Moleskine notebook open with one hand while lining up your scanning app with the other
That’s the slot that Doxie’s Flip wants to fill. It anything that’s not a big sheet of paper. Although it can kinda do that too.
If you’ve ever wanted to make viruses fight, Pathogen will help you realize your dreams. Pathogen is a board game that has you infecting tiles to eventually take over the entire playing field. You can play versus the computer in an increasingly difficult campaign mode or challenge your friends.
Perhaps I’m not quite as good at “Go” as I thought I was, but Pathogen’s difficulty is undoubtedly the first thing you’ll notice. The computer in the campaign is prepared to take advantage of your mistakes at every turn.
I’ve frequently been so close to winning a match only to have the computer claim victory because I forgot to take over one of its pieces butting up against my wall of viruses.
I’ve been to Apple’s current campus a few times, mostly for product presentations at a modest theater Apple calls the Town Hall.
When I went down to see the introduction of the iPod Hi-Fi, Apple’s attempt at a boombox, Steve Jobs had had a warren of nearby offices transformed into an Ideal Home exhibition.
It was February 2006, a couple of years after Jobs’ first treatment for cancer but before his liver transplant. He tried his best to get through the presentation with his characteristic charisma and energy, but he seemed to tire quickly and towards the end he obviously just wanted to get it over.
However, after introducing the iPod Hi-Fi and some other products, everyone was herded across the hall. Jobs wanted to showcase the iPod Hi-Fi in its “natural” surroundings and some offices had been dressed up to look like your typical living room, bedroom and den.
The iPod Hi-Fi was a $350 white plastic boombox — Apple’s attempt at replacing customer’s home stereos. During his presentation, Jobs said he’d spent small fortunes over the years on audiophile gear, but the iPod Hi-Fi sounded so good, he was now he was replacing his home stereo with one.
As we trooped from one room to the next, I found myself beside him. Ever the intrepid reporter, I introduced myself, thrust out my hand and asked him if really had replaced his Marantz stereo with a boombox? As he towered over me, he just looked down contemptuously at my outstretched hand, and said one word: “Yes!”
Of course, there was no way to use this in my story. But I was impressed with his antisocial nerve. Many people buckle in the face of social niceties like shaking hands: not Jobs.
Apple’s HQ isn’t exactly Grand Central Station, open to all. I’ve never eaten at Caffè Macs or played foosball on the grass in the middle of campus. I did get a walkthrough once, when I visited someone’s office, but was told to keep looking straight ahead and not snoop into anything.
You can drive around the campus on Infinite Loop, the ring road surrounding the nerve center of Apple operations, but the only place for the public to visit is the Company Store in the first building: One Infinite Loop.
Here you can pick up Apple-branded pens, mouse pads and T-Shirts. I bought a shirt that said, “I visited the Mothership.” Apparently, the most popular shirt says “I visited the Apple campus. But that’s all I’m allowed to say.”
It’s unclear what public access anyone will have to the new spaceship Apple Campus 2. The theater, where Tim Cook will presumably preside over future product presentations, is outside the main donut (and underground to boot!).
Let’s hope there are opportunities to visit, even if it’s only to shop at a small company store.
Before he died, Steve Jobs said architecture students would be able to marvel at the huge headquarters, which he envisioned as the best in the world.
Let’s hope Apple honors this, and doesn’t close off access to outsiders like a glass prison you can’t break into. We all deserve to spend some time in the fantastic space that Jobs envisioned.
Leander’s new book about Jony Ive and the Apple design studio is out in November. Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products is available for pre-order on Amazon.
Apple Campus 2 isn’t set to open for a couple of more years, but once Tim Cook and his merry band of Apple fellows finally cut the red ribbon, Cupertino’s skyline will forever be changed by the Apple’s giant loop of circle and steel.
Rather than wait for the mothership to land in 2016, we’ve created this 3D-rendering of Apple Campus 2 based on proposals presented by Foster & Associates. The video begins with an aerial view of the entire campus before slowly rotating while zooming in on the exterior details of the building before finally dropping you off with all the iPod people at the main entrance.
The Apple Campus 2 project has received its fair share of criticism, and the complaints run the gamut: some small and petty, some erudite and long-winded, and still others self-aware.
The traffic is going to get too heavy. The bike lanes are going to go away. The pollution will be too high. All in all, complainants say, there goes the neighborhood!
A couple of weeks ago, the Cupertino City Council approved the massive Apple Campus 2 project after a long meeting that included final environmental impact studies and overwhelmingly positive live public comment, lots of it from local business owners, like the one who owns a coffee shop and hopes to sell lattes to the thousands of workers headed off to Apple’s proposed new campus.
Not everyone is super happy about the mega-campus coming to small-town Cupertino and its surrounding bedroom communities. Many of the concerns deal with the already slow-as-a-modem Silicon Valley traffic, others are about designs of the campus that effectively cordon off the tech giant from regular residents.
Sunnyvale resident Yair Barniv is really upset that his residential neighborhood will be disrupted in character.
“I STRONGLY object to Apple’s plans affecting my Sunnyvale neighborhood!!!” he shouted in a public comment email.
“I don’t want them to convert my quiet Sunnyvale residential area into—effectively—an Industrial area! Playing with words isn’t going to change reality. I chose to live in a RESIDENTIAL area—not in an INDUSTRIAL one!”
Other residents echo similar sentiments, all accessible on the Cupertino City Council website, archived as part of the public comment process.
Another Sunnyvale resident, Stephen Rohde, is concerned about the median planned to run down Homestead Road, near the building site.
“Now, a tree line median may look nice,” he writes, “but did anyone consider the inconvenience to the Sunnyvale homeowners being able to get in or out of their own driveways? It you want to head east toward Lawrence Expressway you would have to go up to Wolfe to make the U-turn. And each time to turn into your driveway you would have to go down to Tantau to make the U-turn. This is absurd, and I am totally opposed to removing the turn lanes.”
There are pages upon pages of concerns of increased and re-routed traffic in the public comment section, and even some proposed alternatives.
Cupertino resident Wahila Wilkie writes, “As mitigation for the traffic issue I suggest having Apple pay for electric school buses to serve all schools in the affected areas to reduce the number of cars on Wolfe and Tantau and compensate for the increased air pollution from addition Apple commuters.”
Robert Neff from Palo Alto worries about bike lanes along streets Tantau and Pruneridge, which he uses to commute to work daily. His concern is that the bike lane allows cyclists to cross the busy 280 freeway without an interchange.
“The plan suggests removing bike lanes where Tantau crosses Calabazas Creek,” writes Neff, “replacing them with a shared bike/ped facility at that point. This is a bad idea, and a definite downgrade for the bike facility.”
Still other residents worry about potential issues to local healthcare facilities. One anonymous poster, known only as Ann, wrote a letter to express her concern for the potential air quality issues resulting from construction of the facility, as well as its operation soon after.
“Which way would prevailing winds blow that excess emission,” she asked, “i.e. toward the Hospital or towards Cupertino High School or towards Birdland or Portal neighborhoods?”
Similarly, Ann wants the council to consider the impact the extra traffic might have on, say, a vehicle attempting to get to the emergency room during peak traffic hours. “Already Homestead frequently experiences gridlock,” she said. “What would be the extra time required to arrive at Kaiser starting from the intersection of Homestead/Hollenbeck? What would be the extra time required starting from Wolfe/Iris? These inquiries should be modeled explicitly.”
All of these concerns are valid, of course, as a project of this size can in no way fail to disrupt the lives of the people that live nearby.
Berkely economics professor Enrico Moretti, however, feels that there is an upside to such a large undertaking.
Moretti is the author of “The New Geography of Jobs,” a book about the positive impact gentrification and development can have on communities.
“I think Apple in Cupertino brings jobs and salaries to the local community outside the constructive workforce,” he told Cult of Mac in a phone interview. “By my own estimate, one job in a high tech company can support five local services in the same metropolitan area–jobs outside the company.”
Moretti says that a company like Apple brings both specialized positions like IP lawyers to the community, as well as more generalized jobs, like taxi drivers and cafe workers.
The professor is excited about the new Apple campus, saying that the proposed Apple Campus 2 “fits in with the Apple vision of environmental responsibility.”
Moretti believes that the rooftop solar panels and other environmental features are the most positive feature of the new campus. “Frankly,” he said, “it’s going to be an improvement over what is there now.”
The issue Moretti has concerns about, however, have more to do with the disconnect of the campus from the local community.
“I’m a little surprised they are so isolated,” he said. “I don’ t think they’re thinking of the future. The more modern approach to corporate integrated with the city, can actually walk outside and go to local shops, restaurants, etc.”
That’s not to say the old Cupertino campus is integrated, either, but Moretti feels like current and future employees in the high tech sector will continue to ask for more connected work places. “You see this need for a better connection with the local community,” he said. “They are all demanding campuses that are downtown, near stores, walking environments.”
Bottom line, the Apple Campus 2 is getting built. It’s on delayed schedule to finish up by 2016, so any concerns the residents may have will play out during the construction and beyond. If Moretti is correct, though, the city should see more benefit than cost as Apple brings in more jobs and more income to the local area.
Did you know that the new Apple Campus 2 “spaceship” is wider across than the Empire State Building is tall? It’s going to cost 60 times more than the Pentagon did back in 1943, too. Heck, you’ll be able to cram up to 35 jetliners full of passengers in its rounded confines without breaking a sweat.
The Cupertino City Council unanimously approved Apple’s plans for the tech company’s a couple of weeks ago, after a long, heartfelt public comment session.
We thought it would be great, then, to take a look at some of the details of the new campus, set to finish construction in 2016.
The proposed Apple Campus 2 is huge. Apple plans to put a 100,000-square-foot fitness center, 11,000 parking spaces, 2,000 bike parking spaces, 2.8 million square feet of office space, and a 100,000-square-foot lab. Oh, and a restaurant. All of this in four stories, housing 12,000 employees.
The Pentagon, in contrast, which itself was completed in 1943, has 3.7 million square feet of office space, is seven floors tall, and houses 25,000 people.
The Apple Campus 2 will have a 1,522 foot diameter, which means the Empire State Building could comfortably lie down somewhere inside its massive circular footprint. Heck, a T1-class Supertanker could fit in there, as well, with its 1,246 foot length, and you’d have to get somewhere around seven or eight blue whales–the largest known mammal on Earth–just to get across half of the diameter of the new Apple Campus. That’s a lot of krill.
The spaceship campus has plans to hold 12,000 employees within it’s solar-panel-using, green technology hallowed halls, which would fill something like 160 double-decker buses, or 35 Boeing 747 jets. The Apple folks will have it easier, as they’ll at least be able to get nice food there, and a much less foggy view in Cupertino than in London.
Of course, no look at anything tech-related is complete without a comparison to a fictional starship, and since we’ve been calling this the spaceship campus since Steve Jobs unveiled the design two years ago, it seemed fitting to see how it stacks up against the USS Enterprise. Unfortunately for trekkies, the new Apple Campus 2 has a diameter quite a bit larger than the original Gene Roddenberry creation.
The city of Cupertino itself, home not only to Apple founders Woz and Jobs but also author Raymond Carver and actor Aaron Eckhart, only has around five times the population as will work in the Apple Campus 2. Interestingly, the median income of Cupertino-based Apple employees is a bit lower than that of Cupertino in general, but perhaps that’s just a function of how much larger the city is than the building. Which, to be honest, doesn’t seem to be that much of a news item. It is, however, funny that a .27 square mile building can cause the kind of traffic jams that the city of 11.26 square miles seems to be mostly worried about.
Image: City Of Cupertino
Boo Halloween — Entertainment — Free
Alright, so today’s app isn’t the most practical one you’ve ever seen. It’s not even the most clever. But it’s fun and easy to use, and it’s Halloween, damn it. Boo Halloween is a quickie photo app that lets you put a variety of spooky faces on pictures of you and your friends using reasonably accurate facial recognition. It comes with six masks — four of which are pumpkins — and you can buy nine more for a dollar if you think your buddy would look better as Batman, a zombie, or Billy, the puppet from Saw. Not much to it, but it’s silly, and it made me chuckle.
BestRoute Free — Navigation — Free
Now that Halloween is over, the rest of the holidays are clamoring for our attention. And some of them require shopping, which can mean a lot of driving all over town. And if you want to make sure you’re taking the most efficient route possible, you might want to plug your stops into BestRoute Free, a new app that lets you quickly and easily mark waypoints (by searching or just a long tap on the screen). It’ll then tell you the best order in which to make your stops.
It would probably also come in handy if you suddenly had to deliver a bunch of pizzas or something.
Coloring Pages for Zane — Education — Free
Coloring Pages for Zane is a simple app that contains coloring-book-style pages you can send to your AirPrint-enabled printer with just a few taps before you let your little ones loose on them with all the crayons. It’s so simple, in fact, that the kids can run it themselves, and that’s by design. The developer made it for their autistic son so that he could easily print out his own pictures and get right to the important business of coloring them in. It launches with a selection of images; additional pictures are available via in-app purchases. But that warm feeling you’re getting in your heart right now is free.
Cocktail Academy — Food & Drink — $3.99
Cocktail Academy is a new app for people who would like to make their favorite drinks themselves or try some new ones without embarrassing themselves in front of their friends. It has directions to create 110 cocktails and even includes video tutorials in which international-award-winning bartender Giancarlo Di Niso shows you exactly what to do (spoiler alert: It involves a lot of measuring and shaking and/or stirring). You can search for drinks several ways including alphabetically and by percentage of alcohol, and the app even lists caloric content for each concoction for your dieting convenience. Grog, for example, has 186 calories, and I never realized I was curious about that until just now.
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 compiled this list of the best new movies, albums and books to come out this week.
Enjoy!
by Nick Bilton
In 2005, Odeo was a struggling podcasting start-up founded by free-range hacker Noah Glass and staffed by a motley crew of anarchists. Less than two years later, its days were numbered and half the staff had been let go. But out of Odeo’s ashes, the remaining employees worked on a little side venture . . . that by 2013 had become an $11.5 billion business – Twitter.
That much is widely known. But the full story of Twitter’s hatching has never been told before. It’s a drama of betrayed friendships and high-stakes power struggles, as the founders went from everyday engineers to wealthy celebrities featured on magazine covers, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Daily Show, and Time’s list of the world’s most influential people.
New York Times columnist and reporter Nick Bilton takes readers behind the scenes as Twitter grew at exponential speeds and gets inside the heads of the four hackers out of whom the company tumbled: Ev Williams, Jack Dorsey, Christopher Stone, and Noah Glass.
by Rob Delaney
Rob Delaney is a father, a husband, a comedian, a writer. He is the author of an endless stream of beautiful, insane jokes on Twitter that force you to pause with their absurdity. He is sober. He is sometimes brave. He speaks French. He has bungee jumped off the Manhattan Bridge. He enjoys antagonizing political figures. He broke into an abandoned mental hospital with his mother.
He’s also one of the funniest stand-up comics I’ve seen in person with a weird cornucopia of recklessly imaginative jokes that are both hilarious and repulsive at once. His new book – Rob Delaney: Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage. – reveals the hilarious and heartbreaking true stories of how Rob came to be the funniest man on Twitter today.
by Rich Cohen
For Rich Cohen and millions of other fans, the 1985 Chicago Bears were more than a football team: they were the greatest football team ever–a gang of colorful nuts, dancing and pounding their way to victory. They won a Super Bowl and saved a city.
In Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football, Rich Cohen tracks down the coaches and players from the team to find out what made the fantastic offense of Walter Payton and QB Jim McMahon work so well. Did they really hate the guys on the other side? Readers who don’t even like sports will still enjoy Cohen’s story about the love of his favorite game. The end result is a portrait of not just a team, but a city and a game: its history, its future, its fallen men, its immortal heroes. But mostly it’s about being a fan, about loving too much.
Cut Copy – Free Your Mind
Melbourne’s Cut Copy came to ether in the early ’00s, when the rediscovery of ’80’s electro and dance pop was in full flower. Yet one of the group’s great strengths is the fact that it is a group, with a flesh-and-blood rhythm section–not just one person behind a bank of gear. The Aussie quartet’s fourth album reinforces that notion, putting crucial yuan muscle behind the sparkling synth riffs. Sure, tunes like “Footsteps” are fueled by an Italo-disco-flavored, club friendly feel. But it’s Ben Browning’s bass guitar lines that lend the greatest gravitas to the elegant synth-pop of “In Memory Capsule,” while Mitchell Scott’s analog drum kit brings a bit of vital rock ballast to “Dark Corners & Mountain Tops” and the luminous, power ballad-esque “Walking in the Sky.” So while there’s little on Free Your Mind that couldn’t drive dancers to exhaustion, the album’s essence is more than just momentum.
M.I.A. – Matangi
“Paper Planes” launched M.I.A. into fame but if you’re not familiar with the singer’s entire musical arsenal, her latest album provides a fun and crazy take on pop culture. Matangi is the fourth studio album by English-Sri Lankan recording artist M.I.A., released on 1 November 2013 on her own label, N.E.E.T. Recordings, through Interscope Records.
The album, which is the follow-up to her 2010 album Maya, features collaborations and production from The Weeknd, Switch, Hit-Boy, Danja, The Partysquad, Surkin and others.It also features songs like “Bad Girls,” “Bring The Noize,” “Come Walk With Me,” and “Y.A.L.A.”
Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP 2
Few figures in hip-hop have changed the game as fundamentally as Marshall Mathers. The Detroit emcee’s cutting wordplay and playfully sadistic wit have earned him fans beyond hip-hop’s borders and made him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. The Marshall Mathers LP 2 –Eminem’s first solo endeavor since 2010’s multiplatinum Recovery–comes charging out of the gate with “Bezerk,” a Rick Rubin-produced track that chopps up the heavy guitars of Billy Squier’s “The Stroke,” name-checks Public Enemy, and delivers a flurry of jabs at celebrities. In short: classic Eminem.
Combining forces with Rubin and longtime collaborator Dr. Dre, The Marshall Mathers LP 2 is gritty, raw, and an appropriately provocative sequel to Eminem’s groundbreaking 2000 release. Huge, hard-hitting singles like “Survival” and “Rap God” make it one of the artist’s most uncompromising albums to date.
Killer whales are beloved, majestic, friendly giants, yet infamous for their capacity to kill viciously. Blackfish unravels the complexities of the dichotomy, employing the story of the notorious performing whale Tilikum, who–unlike any orca in the wild–has taken the lives of several people while in captivity. Blackfish expands on the discussion of whether it’s ethical to keep orcas and other whales in captivity, as well as the consequences of continuing to do so.
David Clark is a small-time pot dealer who likes to keep a low profile. His clientele includes chefs and soccer moms, but no kids. He learns the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished when he tries to help out some local teens and winds up getting jumped by a trio of gutter punks. Stealing his stash and his cash, they leave him in major debt to his supplier, Brad. In order to wipe the slate clean–and maintain a clean bill of health–David agrees to become a big time drug smuggler for Brad and bring a shipment over from Mexico. What could go wrong?
The comedy finds David twisting the arms of his neighbors to create a fake family and roll their RV to the border of Mexico and back during Fourth of July weekend where everything ends with a bang.
Okay get this, there’s a cranky undercover operative who’s a total badass–played by Academy Award winner Denzel Washington–who begrudgingly joins forces with a young, up-and-coming badass undercover operative–played by none of than Mr. Funky Bunch himself, Marky Mark Whalberg.
The two badass undercover operatives then take on a drug cartel but it blows up in their faces. Once they join forces everyone suddenly wants them dead so they have to strip themselves of the hatreds for each other and work together to get out alive. Yes, it’s your buddy-cop action movie with a new twist, but there’s no one funner to watch on the screen than Denzel Washington strutting around like the coolest cop to ever walk the planet.
This is Cult of Mac’s exclusive column written by an actual Apple retail store genius who answers all your questions about what it’s like to work 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 why Apple raised the price of AppleCare+ replacements on the iPhone 5s to $79. They also talk about how hard it is to get fired from the Apple Store and the biggest daily annoyances of the job.
If you’ve 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.
1. Why is the replacement fee for an iPad $50 but the replacement fee for an iPhone 5s is $80? Wouldn’t the iPad cost more to replace?
As crazy as it seems, there is no difference in fees for AppleCare+ replacements between iPad and iPhone. It has always been a $49 fee, up until the release of the iPhone 5s. With its release, Apple changed the fee for AppleCare+ repairs or replacements to $79, whether it be an iPhone, iPad, or the recently added iPod, which was not previously eligible for AppleCare+. If you purchased the AppleCare+ protection plan before the change then you still get the $49 price while any plans purchased after the change will have the new cost of $79.
With the price change, Apple also announced that the protection plan coverage would extend to any of the other countries where it is offered. Keep in mind there are some countries that don’t carry specific models.
I’m not so sure offering the coverage outside of your own country justifies the $30 price change. My guess is manufacturing costs for retina displays and newer silicon chips, like the A7, may explain the cost increase but of course they’d never tell a Retail employee why. The real question is whether the price change is a deal breaker. As for me, I still see it as a great protection from having costly accidents which, for many, happen all too often.
2. What are the most common reasons for getting fired at the Apple Store?
I really haven’t seen very many people get fired. The only guy I ever saw get fired was arguing with management on a regular basis. After he messed up and still argued with managers, he was asked to leave. Apple has many strict policies that result in termination if its policies are not followed. Outside of these policies, management will make every effort to work with individuals who are having any problems at work.
Managers seem to notice the smallest of errors and are sure to let people know when they make mistakes. Constant policy and procedure changes can make it pretty tough to do everything right. Even those who are trying to follow all the rules can feel bombarded by “fearless feedback” as Apple calls it, otherwise known as constructive criticism. Some just can’t take it so they end up leaving to find more suitable employment. You either get with the program or face the music.
3. What’s the most exhausting (or even annoying) situations that a genius has to deal with every once in a time or on daily basis?
The toughest part of my job rarely has anything to do with Macs or iPhones. People seem to be the hardest part about my job. Dealing with a difficult customer while trying to make the experience positive is sometimes impossible. People can be outright rude, impatient, and childlike with temper tantrums and all in order to get things their way. Keeping the “act” of an Apple Genius can be tough.
These situations often involve partnering with a store manager and rarely get resolved quickly. Trying to stay on time with all the appointments while dealing with these issues and other technical issues can be a nightmare. Nothing that a nice bottle of scotch can’t fix, though. It’s all just part of the job after all.
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Apple is still moving forward to build its $5 billion, 176-acre campus Cupertino “spaceship” Campus 2 headquarters, expected to open in three years.
Critics have been attacking it since Steve Jobs first proposed it to the Cupertino City Council.
And since that poignant moment, which was Jobs’s last public appearance, the campus project has evolved and changed and, as I write this, the old HP buildings on the property are being demolished.
Here’s what we know about the spaceship campus so far, and also what the critics have been saying.
The property will be capable of holding 14,200 employees. Some 12,000 of those will be in the circular mothership building, and the rest in 600,000 square feet of office, research and development buildings along one of the adjacent streets. Due to ballooning costs, the extraneous buildings have been delayed for phase 2 of the project, to come later. So the initial project will include only the giant bagel and supporting infrastructure at a cost currently estimated at $5 billion.
The spaceship building will be four stories high, but continue underground. The radius of the underground portion will be much wider than the visible above-ground part. In fact, so much of the campus, parking, underground tunnels and facilities will be underground that trucks will be removing soil 24/7 for six months in order to make space for these structures.
The main building will be a marvel of innovation in heat and energy. The roof will hold 700,000 square feet of roof-mounted solar panels. That energy source, plus a natural gas facility, will provide most of the campus’s electricity. Combined with solar and wind contracts, the building will achieve a net zero energy state, meaning that it will consume the same amount that it produces.
Because the building’s exterior walls will be all glass, a crazy computerized temperature control system will open and close giant shutters and windows. “Solatubes” will pipe sunlight throughout the structure to reduce the need for electric lights.
The campus will have a four-story garage that’s massively larger than the largest parking structure in the city of San Francisco — the one at Moscone Center where Apple will stop holding announcements in favor of an underground 1,000-seat amphitheater at the new campus. The total campus will support 10,980 parking spaces.
The giant spaceship building was originally white. It has since been upgraded to black (no “gold” or “champagne” option has yet been proposed).
As Jobs emphasized at his City Council product announcement, the building will feature a historically unprecedented use of glass. The building will have nearly 4 miles of curved glass, manufactured and bent in Germany, then shipped to California in 40-feet by 26-feet sheets. These panes are being manufactured with a very sophisticated process that cold-bends them and laminates them to prevent clouding.
In the City Council rollout, Jobs said: “It’s a circle, and so it’s curved all the way around. As you know if you build things, this is not the cheapest way to build something. There’s not a straight piece of glass on this building, it’s all curved. And we’ve used our experience in making retail buildings all over the world now, and we know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use.”
What the Critics Are Saying
The New Yorker suggested Apple’s plans are a sign of “imperial hubris,” a “twenty-first-century version of the Pentagon.”
Gizmodo said it will be “ridiculously lavish.”
And one Apple investor publicly said, “It would take some convincing for me to understand why $5 billion is the right number for a project like this.”
These neatly summarize the criticism. Basically, what they’re saying is that it’s too awesome, too far-reaching, too ambitious and too expensive. It would be better to build another set of cookie-cutter boring buildings that blight the Silicon Valley landscape.
To these critics I say: You’re wrong.
Why the Critics Need To Calm Down
The critics on this project are dead wrong, and for four reasons.
1. Utopia fuels genius. By creating a breathtaking architectural wonder, Apple will inspire its employees. You know, the people who are the sole source of everything that Apple imagines and builds. One good example of this phenomenon is Google, which smartly creates corporate campuses that are equal parts playground, Disneyland and City of Tomorrow.
2. Utopia builds the brand. Apple is an aspirational brand. Apple’s amazing spaceship HQ will become part of the iconic nature of the Apple brand, driving sales just by its very existence. When Apple announces new products, the invited press will gape at the wonder of it all, and this will ignite their worshipful gushing over whatever Apple announces. And good press is good business.
3. The new campus honors Steve Jobs. The spaceship campus was Jobs’s last vision for the company, one meant to last. While his direction and input into the iPad will quickly fade away, to be replaced by democratic decision-making and possibly a slouch toward mediocrity, the campus will serve as a reminder of the uncompromising visionary who made Apple what it is today. Who would deny this to Jobs, really — especially investors, whose wallets are burdened by the man’s vision. Besides, if you don’t want to be involved in a visionary company, sell your Apple stock and buy Exxon Mobile.
4. A visionary campus attracts top talent. It’s really hard to recruit and retain top engineering and design talent in Silicon Valley. Apple’s HQ will provide one additional incentive for the best people to stay with Apple.
Apple’s Campus 2 budget has ballooned from $3 billion to $5 billion and, guess what? It will probably grow to as high as $10 billion.
So what?
This is a company with $150 billion in cash, all of it generated by the executives and employees, many of whom will work at this campus. The new campus is good for Apple’s business, good for the environment and good for Silicon Valley.
It’s time for the critics of Apple’s spaceship Campus 2 to pipe down and marvel at Steve Jobs’s last breathtaking visionary gift.
This story first appeared in Cult of Mac Magazine
Architecture hasn’t really ever been important in the brick and mortar-averse tech industry. It wasn’t all that long ago that digital utopians proclaimed physical geography dead altogether, with a vocal minority apparently pleased to leave the actual world behind them and embrace the cyberspace of William Gibson’s Neuromancer.
It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that the technological breakthroughs of Silicon Valley have advanced almost inversely to the region’s architecture. In a brave new world of lush rolling hills and the always impressive San Francisco Bay, the most that the majority of companies have managed to come up with are drab industrial parks filled with two-story, cubicle-lined buildings.
True Color — Entertainment — $1.99
True Color is one of those apps that definitely has a practical application but is also just fun to mess around with. Its purpose is to create “formulas” for different hues so that artists can properly mix paints to match, and you can easily take samples from your photos. You can also just mess around with the four component colors — red, yellow, blue, and white — to get the tone right before you go wasting all your acrylic on experimenting.
But it’s also good for curiosity. The picture over there, for example, is the exact color of Jake from Adventure Time. Did you know he was 24 percent red? Because I didn’t.
If you’re worried about your iPhone getting damaged the next time you’re involved in a heavy turf war, then check out Proporta’s new case for iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s. It looks like a standard leather folio case from the outside, but it’s lined with carbon fiber that’s so strong, it will comfortably withstand a shotgun blast from 20 yards.