The external monitor support in Mavericks is much improved, as we noted in yesterday’s tip on getting the Dock to show up on your second monitor.

The menu bar itself will dim when you’re not actively on a specific monitor, as well. In other words, if you’re using monitor A, the menu bar will look opaque, as per usual, while it will dim and go see-through on monitor B. When you switch your active focus by using the cursor on monitor B, though, the menu bar will brighten and not let you see through it, while the menubar on monitor A will go semi-transparent and dim.

There is a way, however, to just hide the menu bar altogether on your secondary monitor, if that’s how you want things to work. The preference is in an unintuitive place, though.

The Google Chrome browser for Mac and PC now understands your “Ok Google” voice commands thanks to an official “Voice Search Hotword extension” that’s available to download now from the Chrome Web Store. You can use it to make handsfree web searches, quick conversions, and even to set reminders.

When people talk about Android being bad for developers, this handy chart explains in a nutshell what they’re talking about: across the board, in every metric, Android developers make less money than iOS developers… often by a lot.

Despite some initial rumors that Apple would be opening nearly all of its retail stores on Thanksgiving Day, Apple’s retail outlets will remain open on Turkey Day.

But Apple still wants to get the jump on the holiday shopping season, which is why most Apple Stores this year will open before dawn across the country on the day after Thanksgiving.

2013 has been a rocky year for Apple Stock, but it looks like Wall Street might be ending the year bullish on Wall Street, with shares of AAPL closing at an all-time high last night.

As Black Friday and Cyber Monday come creeping up on us, so do some of the best app deals, as developers slash prices on their software to get us all geared up for the holidays. One of the first great deals of the season is now here: if you love turn-based-strategy and want to help the Earth repel a wave of alien invaders, XCOM: Enemy Unknown has dropped to just $9.99.

Reeder 2– the best RSS reader on iOS — is getting a beefy new update soon, hopefully in time for holidays. The app’s developer has just submitted an update to Apple for approval that adds some big new features — including themes, Safari Reading List support, and more — as well as tweaked features and a load of bug fixes.

Here’s what you can expect when Reeder 2.1 hits the App Store.

Heart not beating quite right? There’s an app for that.

Researchers for medical device company HealthSTATS International — in association with University College London — have patented the software behind what they claim to be the world’s first app to test for erratic heartbeats.

It’s the third most asked question next to “did I make the right choice of next generation iPad?” and “why is it so cold at the moment?” (I’m writing this post from England) — but what exactly does Apple plan to do with PrimeSense?

Having acquired the Israel-based 3D-motion tracking company behind the original Xbox Kinect for an estimated $360 million, most people assumed that Apple would use the technology to incorporate motion tech into its long-awaited television-based hardware.

According to Washington Post tech journalist Jessica Lessin, however, that’s not right at all.

The question of whether she lives up to her enthusiastic advance billing as “the most important hire Tim Cook has ever made” and even the “future Apple CEO” is yet to be answered, but one thing’s for certain: outgoing Burberry CEO (and incoming Apple head of retail and online sales) Angela Ahrendts sure sounded like one of the Apple family when summing up her time with the fashion house recently.

Cult of Mac may have previously reported that Apple manufacturer Foxconn was scaling back on iPhone 5c production — instead focusing its attention on the 5s — but it seems that there is at least one place where the iPhone 5c is finding its audience: and that place is India.

Although actual sales figures aren’t on offer — meaning that this relies on anecdotal evidence — resellers have reported far higher demand for the 5c than the new model Samsung smartphone.

Yesterday we told you that iPhone 5s finally had the supply it needed to match demand as we draw near to the holidays. Today we tell you why.

Having had limited availability in its first weeks, it seems that Foxconn has ramped up production of the iPhone 5s by running its factories around the clock — as well as adding more workers to its production lines.

San Francisco resident and Uber user James Alva has taken to social media to complain that not only did the car and driver he ordered using the app not match the description he was given — but also that the driver became both physically and verbally abusive.

Alva summoned an UberX ride (an app which connects passengers to third-party drivers) using his iPhone after leaving a bar in the early hours of Sunday. At this point the notification on his phone told him that the driver sent would arrive in a silver Toyota Prius.

A short time later, Alva reports that a blue Prius showing a different license plate turned up — along with what he thought to be a different driver.

To mark the release of Fred Vogelstein’s new book “Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went To War And Started A Revolution”, Cult of Mac chatted to the author to gets his thoughts on the iOS vs. Android smartphone wars, writing a book without Apple’s approval, and why both sides could stand to learn a thing or two from their rival.

If Cult of Mac ever created an award for “Most Prolific i-Gadget Maker,” there’s little doubt it would eventually end up in a cabinet at iHome’s headquarters (or possibly more accurately in a cabinet at their parent company, SDI technologies, which also owns New Balance and Timex).

Of the four new gadgets iHome has just revealed, the two we’re highlighting are a set of Bluetooth headphones endowed with the unimaginative moniker of iB85 Bluetooth Wireless Foldable Headphones and the somewhat more interestingly named iB12 Sport Earbuds with LED Safety Flasher — though the latter’s name is perhaps only more interesting simply because it combines the words “Safety Flasher” and “Earbuds.”

Ah, the open road. Nothing like some great tunes, an agreeable companion and endless blacktop to relieve the stress after — or enjoy a little peace before — that remote Thanksgiving gathering (note that I said a companion, as in singular; if you’ve got kids, I’m guessing you’ll probably want to fly).

Before you head out, you might want to do a little planning with something like Roadtrippers, a helpful site and accompanying iOS app that can show you hip, hidden or just plain weird points of interest along your planned route.

Bike2Power has just added an iPhone 5s version to their line of ruggedized, weather-sealed BikeConsole Smart Mounts for bicycles. The lineup already has a version for the 5 and 5c, but the new 5s model allows access to the Touch ID fingerprint sensor.

Microsoft loves to make ads for the Surface that pit it against the iPad. Two new ads for the Surface 2 are perfect examples of how Microsoft can’t effectively market the Surface on its own merits, but must instead compare it to things the iPad can’t do. It’s an incredibly predictable, miserable marketing tactic that Microsoft just can’t seem to let go.

In its two latest ads, Microsoft tries to convince us that the Surface 2 is better because it supports hand gestures and multiple user accounts.

The latest Steve Jobs movie starring Ashton Kutcher that everyone loves to hate is now available in the iTunes Store. You can purchase the movie for $20 in HD or $15 in SD, or rent it for $5 in HD or $3 in SD.

The digital release is accompanying the Blu-ray for $18 and DVD for $23 with deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes commentary. So the digital HD movie costs more than the Blue-ray and less than the regular DVD, which doesn’t make sense at all.

Jobs originally received pretty polarizing reviews, but the public ended up receiving the film pretty poorly—it tanked at the box office. It currently has a 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Source: iTunes Store

Apple has tweaked the App Store’s search engine to help users find the right apps even when they’re misspelled, according to a TechCrunch report. This means that developers with apps that either have tricky spellings or spacings should see a boost in traffic. Previously, misspelled searches were hardly ever leading to users discovering the right apps.

As the holidays draw near, supplies of the iPhone 5s are finally starting to meet demand. When the smartphone first launched in September, it was nearly impossible to find any model in Apple stores and third-party retailers. As the weeks progressed, more and more models starting becoming available, while gold remained the most allusive.

Apple stores in the U.S. now have 90% of iPhone 5s models in stock, according to research from Piper Jaffray analyst and iTV rumormonger Gene Munster.

Time Planner — Productivity — Free

When you need to track stuff you need to do, it’s essential to have an app that can handle tasks and to-do items as well as a robust calendaring system. Time Planner does just that, and does it very well. It also adds a colorful palette, a nicely organized way of creating tasks and reminders, and a list of categories that really helps you focus in on what each task is about.

Choose to add a task to Home, Work, Rest, Lifestyle, and other categories to color the tasks with a visual cue. When you start looking at your schedule for the day, you’ll have a colorful reminder of the things you’ll need to focus on, perhaps noticing that you spend too much time at work, and not enough on restful activities.

You can have Time Planner remind you of stuff you need to do by day, time, or location, which is pretty much what all to-do apps should have these days.

Time Planner

Today Honda announced that it is offering Siri Eyes Free integration with certain 2013-2014 Honda Accord and 2013 Acura vehicles. Honda said that it would be implementing Eyes Free as a dealer installed accessory back in January, and now customers can visit a dealership and have the technology installed.

With the new iOS 7, you’re able to search your iPhone from any icon-bearing home screen. Simply drag downward on the iPhone screen on any page, and you’ll see the Search field. Type in whatever you’re searching for–Contacts, Apps, Music, Messages–and your iPhone will display all of those things in a nice list for you. All you need to do from there is tap the result you want to check out, and iOS 7 will take you to that specific bit of data.

However, maybe you don’t want to search everything on your iOS device. Maybe you don’t keep Music on there, or you don’t want to see a list of Podcasts or Mail when you search your iPad for a specific app.

Lucky you; it’s pretty easy to customize. It might even help you save a bit of battery, too.

Activision announced its new app, released Tuesday to the App Store: Skylanders Collection Vault. With it, collectors of the video game/collectible toy game series can track and manage their collection on the go, or at least on the couch with their iPad in hand.

If you download the app, you’ll be able to share and compare your collection with family and friends for free, and even sign up for a holiday wish list sweepstakes. Even more essentially, you’ll be able to read up on each of the Skylander characters, along with their powers and backstory, browsing your own wish list, images, videos, and unlocking special content.