Cult of Mac

Two of the versions are on sale till the end of the week: The most basic version, DataMan Next, is free (from a buck); and DataMan Pro is on sale at $5, which is half off its regular $10 price. The Pro version also now reports hourly data usage by app, which pretty much makes it the most detailed data-tracking app out there.

Perhaps it’s more of a gold trickle than an actual bona fide rush, but we’ve already found two just-released gold versions of previously un-gilded gadgets: the Kickstarted eleMount iPhone stand, and Parrot’s luxury Zik headphones (above).

The Mac has been aluded as a machine that can really help you get things done. As a convert from a Windows machine to a Mac, I can attest that I am definitely more efficient and effective with my work – and life. The Mac platform has a number of apps that are solid choices to help you get more productive, and Cult of Mac Deals has an offer that contains a few of them this time around. Now, you can get 16 mac apps for 90% off at Cult of Mac Deals.

President Obama announced today that he has tapped Catherine Novelli, VP of Worldwide Government Affaris for Apple to fill a position in the State Department. Novelli has been Apple’s top lobbyist since 2007 but is set to serve as Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment.

Although the nomination still has to be approved, it sounds like the president is confident Novelli and the other nominees will be joining his administration his soon:

“It gives me great confidence that such dedicated and capable individuals have agreed to join this Administration to serve the American people. I look forward to working with them in the months and years to come.”

With last week’s iOS 7 launch, Apple also released iTunes Radio, its long-awaited internet radio service that’s available for free on all iOS devices and iTunes on the desktop. While iTunes Radio was thought to be a Spotify-killer before Apple’s Eddy Cue unveiled it at WWDC in June, how it works is more similar to Pandora. You listen to stations based on artists or genres you like, and more importantly to Apple, you can quickly buy played songs through iTunes.

I’ve had access to iTunes Radio all summer through the iOS 7 beta, and I maybe used it for a total of 10 minutes. Since everyone got access last week, I’ve tried using it more to see how well it works post beta. My experience was largely one of frustration. It’s obvious that iTunes Radio still has a lot of growing up to do.

Good thing you listened to us this morning when we posted about a new Google Play app that seemed to let you send Apple iMessages via an Android app.

When something seems to good to be true, it usually is.

In this instance, Google agrees, and has pulled the app from the Google Play Store for violating its terms of use. A spokesperson emailed ComputerWorld, saying, “We remove apps from Google Play that violate our policies.”

Fairly clear, right? As we pointed out this morning, the iMessage Chat app for Android devices turned out to be sending data, including users’ Apple IDs, through another server in China, which is kind of an easy way to steal people’s sensitive information. Apple IDs and passwords can be used to purchase apps, books, and music from the App Store, as well as connect to iCloud data, which can have addresses and more personal info.

Apple announced a new iMac this morning, and now a software update has already been pushed out for the new hardware.

EFI Update 2.1 was released today for Apple’s late 2013 iMac. It “addresses an issue which may cause a black screen to appear when installing Windows 7 or Windows 8 using Boot Camp Assistant if both an external optical drive and USB thumb drive are connected to the system.”  The update “also ensures that the system will boot by default into OS X after installation of Windows 8.”

Source: Apple

Pixelmator, a popular photo editor on the Mac, was updated today to version 2.2.1. Don’t let the number fool you; the new version packs some big improvements. Most notably, the app’s overall speed has been increased twofold and edits are now automatically saved in the background.

Getting a gold iPhone 5s has become nearly impossible the last few days – unless you’re willing to shell out some cash on eBay. As demand has ramped up to a fever pitch, online shipping estimates have slipped deep into October. To keep track of all the changing shipping estimates Walter Piecyk at BTIG shared the following chart on Twitter this afternoon.

All carriers and the Online Apple Store are now estimating that new iPhone 5s orders won’t ship until October regardless of color, so if you’re wanting an iPhone 5s before the holidays you better jump on it. Keep in mind that even though the online shipping estimates appear dire, if you want to get an iPhone 5s sooner you can still check for stock at your local Apple Store which should be receiving new iPhone 5s shipments nearly every day.

Source: Walter Piecyk

It used to be simple to delete text messages from your iPhone (or, I suppose, your iPad if you use iMessages), but with iOS 7, the cute little Edit button has gone away from the upper right corner. Instead, there’s a Contact button up there, which–while useful–used up the space where the Edit button used to be.

You can still delete entire message conversations by swiping to the left in the list of all your text messages, but how do you delete specific messages within a conversation? Swiping to the left just shows you the timestamps of the messages.

Never fear, we’ve got the answer.

An early teardown of the iPhone 5s by research firm IHS found that even though Apple has added a new A7 processor, fingerprint sensor and improved camera to its high-end iPhone, the company pays less for the components of the iPhone 5s than it did for the iPhone 5.

The new teardown revealed that Apple pays about $191 on the components to build one 16GB iPhone 5s unit. Add in an extra eight bucks to assemble all the parts, and the $199 total it costs to build the iPhone 5s is six dollars cheaper than the $205 build price IHS estimated for the iPhone 5 last year. The teardown didn’t stop with the iPhone 5s though, as the company put the 5c under the knife as well and estimated it costs about $173 to build a 16GB iPhone 5c.

When our own Rob LeFevre reviewed the Earskins, he was surprised to find them to be an “essential accessory” for his EarPods. I decided to give them a go too. And guess what? They really are essential: I actually have a spare set, because now I can’t imagine using my EarPods without them.

I have a confession to make: I was probably the only human being on the planet not playing the original Angry Birds when it came out all the way back in 2009. As much as I love both birds and giant slingshots, I never really saw the appeal. I played for about five minutes, shot some birds into some things, and then shrugged and gave up.

Apparently, the game’s developer, Rovio Entertainment, saw this happen and did not approve, so it spent the next few years trying to come up with a way to get holdouts like me to buy in to its anti-pig propaganda machine. And so we received Angry Birds Star Wars, a dangerous cocktail of addictive, deceptively simple, physics-driven gameplay and just straight-up, unabashed nerditude. It was in many ways the perfect mobile game: accessible to everyone and irresistible to giant geeks like myself. But still, I resisted.

Now Angry Birds Star Wars II is out, however, I’m totally in.

You’ve got to admire a game that matches its own intent so perfectly that you suddenly can’t visualize how else the genre should be done. That’s certainly the case here with Zynga’s Solstice Arena. It’s currently my favorite MOBA game on any platform, which is great, since it plays well on both iOS and the Mac. I’m reviewing the Mac version here, but assume that–aside from touch controls–the game plays exactly the same on iOS. This is a good thing.

As a genre, the action real-time strategy (ARTS), or multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), has a history reaching back to modified RTS game maps for Starcraft and Warcraft. Recently, League of Legends from Riot Games has taken on the mantle as the most well-known game of its type, moving into the lucrative world of eSports, as well.

Zynga may be more known for Farmville and other Facebook games, but the San Francisco games publisher has delivered a much more midcore game than I expected. Developer A Bit Lucky has created a streamlined, compelling take on the ARTS genre, and while the game may not surpass more traditional entries in the field, Solstice Arena still engages players of all levels without sacrificing too much of the strategic depth of the game type.

Apple made the iPhone 5s available for in-store pickup on Monday, allowing customers to order their new device online, then collect it from their local Apple retail store later the same day. But just a day later, the option has already been pulled — probably due to the incredible demand Apple seen for the device since it launched last Friday.

With all the excitement over the recent release of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 7, it’s easy to forget that the Cupertino-based company has another OS in the works, OS X Mavericks Beta. Currently at version 8 of the Developer Preview, or beta, OS X Mavericks continues to quietly update in the background, with more refinements over time.

One of these improvements is the ability to delete tags from the sidebar. As you may recall, we showed you how to add and modify tags to the list in the Finder sidebar, as well as how to drag and drop files to tag them.

It turns out, though, that now you can actually delete tags as well, completing the tag circle of life. Here’s how.

Apple has today announced a new iMac update which sees the latest fourth-generation Intel quad-core Haswell processors, new graphics, next-generation Wi-Fi, and faster PCIe flash storage options added to the popular all-in-one desktop.

As you guys probably know, I’m a sucker for wood on my iGadgets. My MacBook keyboard is covered in wood. My iPhone has wood paneling. Even my iPad is swatched from power button to Lightning port in a wooden smart cover and case.

Given the borderline hysteria I feel for love, it should come as no surprise that I want some wood in my iPhone dock… and Grove is about to make it happen for me.

If you were a MobileMe customer enticed to join the iCloud by Apple’s offer of 20GB of free storage, get ready to pony up for more: Apple is emailing people telling them to prepare to start paying for iCloud storage come September 20th.

Less than a week after Apple released iOS 7 to the world, the majority of iPhone and iPad owners around the world are using the operating system, and if the past is anything to go by, that adoption rate won’t slacken until only a tiny sub-fraction of users are left boasting out-of-date versions of Apple’s mobile operating system.

It’s ironic, then, that a week after iOS 7 was released, the iOS 6.1.4 jailbreak is almost done.

Apple’s iMessage service is pretty terrific, but it has one big limitation, and that is that it’s only available on Macs and iOS devices. At least officially. But there is an unofficial app that brings iMessage to your Android-powered smartphone. It works just as advertised, but we strongly advise you not to use it.

Oh, ignoble irony, how bitter your sting. A new bug in iOS 7 that is striking some iWork users is crashing their devices with the fabled Blue Screen of Death.

BBM’s cross-platform launch failed miserably this weekend. The app made its way to the iPhone in a small few countries, but the rollout was halted before it could reach the United States — or Google Play.

BlackBerry’s excuse for the catastrophic failure was that a leaked BBM APK for Android was causing some server troubles, and now the Canadian company has told fans that it will “take some time” to fix the problem, and that we should not expect to see the app this week.

There’s one feature in Adobe’s new Photoshop Elements 12 which demonstrates exactly the market that the app is aimed at: Pet Eye Correction. That’s right: if you’re the kind of person who takes flash photos of their pets with a shitty compact camera, and yet is willing to spend around $100 on an application which will help organize and edit your photos, then Elements 12 is for you.

Maybe I’m a big dummy, but I always thought that the whole point of “read later” apps was that you could shunt long-form articles off the desktop and onto a device that was better suited for reading for extended periods. After all, on the desktop a combination of bookmarks and Safari’s Reader view takes care of things.

But what do I know? Clearly there’s a place for reader apps on the Mac, and the $10 Words looks to be a very nice example.