Cult of Mac

Isn’t it frustrating when you spend your whole weekend trying to reach the top of the Game Center leaderboard in your favorite game just to find that the top spot has already been claimed by a cheat, whose score couldn’t possibly be beaten by playing the game properly?

Unfortunately, it’s a common problem because Game Center has long been far too easy to hack. But Apple has finally done something about it. Developers now have the power to delete fake Game Center scores and block gamers who persistently cheat.

Back in 2010, when the idea of the iPhone as a great gaming device was generally scoffed at, the game developer dudes at One Man Left offered up an instant classic called Tilt To Live. It didn’t try to minimize the iPhone’s weaknesses; instead, this brilliant little gem seemed like it was built specifically for the iPhone, and perfectly harnessed its strengths. The result was a beautifully addictive game that had the player frantically twisting and tilting the iPhone in order to both survive and destroy a horde of menacing…dots. Yes, dots.

Now, over three years and one strategy game later, One man Left is finally revealing details, in the form of a short video, about their the ridiculously titled Tilt To Live sequel — Tilt To Live 2: Redonkulous.

We’ve all been there: Some mornings simply aren’t compatible with a task as sophisticated as groping for an iPhone and then pawing at the screen or volume button to activate the snooze.

And for those especially drooly mornings when even smacking a massive rubber button is too much of a challenge, there’s the wobL: a stand-app alarm combo for iPhone that works simply by  — you guessed it — wobbling it.

As you may have seen in our previous post on Apple’s fourth quarter (Q4) financial report, the Cupertino company has beat out Wall Street expectations this quarter, showing off a revenue of $37.5 billion with a hefty 7.5 billion profit to go along with it.

To help you make sense of Apple’s business this quarter, as well as some general trends of the last five years, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to put together some charts in an easy-to-read format to show you how the numbers break down, from revenue and profit margins to how many devices Apple is selling, to how much money it’s making from those sales.

Let’s take a look at some of the numbers in visual form, and see what we can take from it.

During this afternoon’s earning call, Tim Cook was asked about the iPhone 5c and whether the company is disappointed with sales after customers were expecting Apple’s plastic iPhone to be significantly cheaper than its $99 price tag on-contract.

Before diving into iPhone 5c expectations, Cook clarified that even though customers may have expected the iPhone 5c to be Apple’s entry level phone, the company has never considered it to be its cheapest model. That honor goes to Apple’s other cheap phone – the iPhone 4s.

Tim stated that the iPhone 4s is priced as a entry-level offering to giving customers full-access to iOS at a cheap price, while the iPhone 5c is being sold as a mid-tier offer with the 5s of course at the top. Cook elaborated the the iPhone 5c was a good way for Apple to enter the mid-tier market and expand sales in the category. With a record number of iPhones being sold last quarter Tim says he’s pretty pleased with the results so far.

The arrival of iOS 7 has not only demonstrated a whole new look to Apple’s mobile platforms, but also new opportunities for exceptional design. So if you’ve got a great app idea for this beautiful new platform, but your design skills leave a lot to be desired then Cult of Mac Deals a deal for you.

This deal is for some stellar templates that will give even the most aesthetically challenged app creator the ability to make a great-looking iOS 7 app. And you can get your hands on these 7 templates for only $29.99 – a savings of 94%!

We’re still waiting for Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer to start today’s earnings call, but now that the closing bell has rung Apple just released its official financial results for Q4 2013. So far the numbers look pretty good with Apple beating analyst estimations for revenue and profit with $37.5 billion and $7.5 billion respectively.

Sorting through the pile of information and numbers Apple just gave us can make your head spin, so we’ve broken it down for you. Here are the most important numbers you need to know from today’s earnings:

Apple just announced its earning for the final fiscal quarter of 2014 and compared to the year-ago quarter the results are pretty good. The company reports that it made $36 billion in revenue with $8.2 billion the net profit. Along with the 9 million iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c units it sold during launch weekend, Apple says it sold 33.8 million iPhones, along with 14.1 million iPads – both an improvement from the same quarter last year.

Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer will hold an earnings call with investors at 5PM EST to discuss its results, until then dive right into the full press release below:

One of the great things about Messages, for me, is the “read receipt.” I know if my child has seen my messages to them, of if they’ve just been “delivered” but not read. I like it.

Some folks, though, might want to turn off this feature so they don’t give off the signal that they’ve actually seen a message. it goes a long way towards plausible deniability when things go wrong.

If you’re one of those folks, though, you might have noticed that when you upgraded to iOS 7 that–even if you have the preference for receipts toggled to OFF, you might still be sending out read receipts.

Luckily, there’s an easy fix.

Apple is set to announce its earnings in just a couple hours and while the company probably won’t say how many iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c units it sold specifically, research firm Localytics just released a report this morning claiming the iPhone 5s and 5c already account for  5.5% of all global active iPhones.

On Friday, we caught an early glimpse at MOGA’s upcoming iPhone control pad, the Ace Power, thanks to leaked photos that were published ahead of its official debut. And now we have a leaked trailer, too. The 30-second clip shows off the Ace Power’s features, including that neat portable design.

Last week at Apple’s iPad keynote, Phil Schiller finally unveiled the baseline price for the Mac Pro will start at $2999, to the surprise of many. Keep in mind that’s only for a quad-core unit and the six-core units start at $3999. However, Apple announced 12-core units will also be available as a customized option, meaning that baseline price is just the tip of the iceberg for how deep Apple will reach into your pockets for a maxed out Mac Pro.

Apple still hasn’t announced official pricing for those hefty upgrades, but pros should expect to pay upwards of $10,000 for a top notch Mac Pro. According to the estimations of Unbox Therapy, a top-of-the-line Mac Pro with max upgrades will probably cost around $14k!

Watch Unbox Therapy break down the numbers in the video below:

Clear and Clear+, the popular list-keeping apps from Realmac Software, have been updated to take advantage of iOS 7’s new background refresh feature. This allows the apps to update even when they’re closed, ensuring your lists are up-to-date and ready for you when you open them up.

My Mountain of Debt — Finance — $0.99 (50%-off launch sale price)

My Mountain of Debt, a new financial app by developer Fun with Data, believes that paying off your debt is as hard as removing a giant pile of bricks from over the opening to your anthill. At the start, you enter your total debt in up to four categories, and then adjust the amounts as needed. Each time your debt shrinks, the formic hero mounts the pile with his trusty pickaxe and whittles down the stack. It could be a valuable tool to keep your debt in perspective and show your progress — plus that ant looks pretty cute in his little miner’s helmet.

My Mountain of Debt

It’s a little hard to describe what exactly Device 6, the new project from developer Simogo, is, exactly.

It’s kind of a visual novel. It’s also kind of a puzzle/escape game. But it’s also its own unique animal, a challenging artistic experiment unlike anything I’ve seen before. It will confuse you, impress you, and ultimately provide one of the most memorable experiences the App Store has to offer.

So, yeah. It’s pretty good.

Apple has become a master at taking a product and refining it to perfection. The iMac, the MacBook, and now the iPad and iPhone have all went through a series of small changes over their existence, but one product Apple hasn’t changed that much is its logo. After quickly dropping that Isaac Newton logo, the only refinements that have come to Apple’s logo are splashes of color and shadow.

Nick DiLallo  created a series of videos showing how some the logos of the biggest brands in the world have evolved since their original inception. Other than the Apple video – which you can see above in GIF form – Nick also made logo evolution videos for Starbucks, NBC, UPS, GAP and American Airlines, all of which are worth a watch and can be viewed over on his YouTube page.

Source: YouTube

Via: Gizmodo

Pocket Casts, now my favorite podcast management client for iOS, now supports the new 64-bit A7 processor built into the iPhone 5s and the new iPads, thanks to its latest update that’s available to download today. The release also brings back the ability to skip back and forth between podcasts by tapping artwork, unplayed episode counts, podcast sorting, and more.

Apple is yet to confirm its iPhone deal with China Mobile — the one we’ve been waiting for since the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c were unveiled back in September — but that hasn’t stopped some stores from putting their iPhone posters up early. According to the company’s new 4G teasers, the devices could finally go on sale between November 9 and November 11.

Samsung has struck a $100 million deal with the NBA that will see its tablets and televisions used courtside during games. The deal is seen as a strategic move that could expand the global reach of both parties, shoving Samsung’s logo and devices into the faces of NBA fans, and putting NBA content into the hands of Samsung’s customers.

BlackBerry has now done away with its waiting list for BBM on Android and iOS, allowing new users to begin using the messaging service right after they’ve signed up. The Canadian company has also promised new features in future updates, including Channels, BBM Voice, and BBM Video.

Back in OS X Lion and then again in OS X Mountain Lion, Apple hid access to the user Library folder to prevent neophyte OS X users from messing around in the areas of the file system that could cause some damage to their Macs.

That’s fine, of course, but it took a lot of messing around in the Terminal to get that access back, and who remembers Terminal commands from last year? Not us, that’s for sure.

Luckily, Mavericks has a much easier way to turn Library access on.

This Friday, Apple will be launching the iPhone 5s and 5c in sixteen new countries: Albania, Armenia, Bahrain, Colombia, El Salvador, Guam, Guatemala, India, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. But the fun’s not stopping there, with November 15th being pegged as the next launch window for Apple’s latest iPhones.

Last week, we reported that cutesy-wutesy-fuzzy-wuzzy-wumpus-bear (and Apple co-founder) Steve Wozniak was unimpressed with the new iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina Display. His supposed complaint? 128GB just wasn’t enough for a man with a huge media collection like him!

It seemed uncharacteristic for Woz to publicly bash the company he helped create. Woz is an innocent, and usually reacts to every new Apple product with wide-eyed glee, so his complaints seemed strange. For good reason, too, because Woz says he was misquoted, and actually likes the new iPads just fine.

The new MacBook Pros with Retina Display may be Apple’s most powerful laptops yet, but a growing number of users are experiencing issues with both the 13-inch and 15-inch version of the laptop.

Understandably, the latest point-oh release of iOS always ships with quite a few bugs. Hey, it’s complicated making an operating system for millions of devices, things break! Almost invariably, though, there is one particular bug that repeats itself every year: an Daylight Savings Time bug that comes up time after time after time after time.

Guess what? iOS 7 has a Daylight Savings Time bug too.