Every once in a while, an alien threat arises that is so malevolent and so heinous that the only thing to do is send a one-man ship out into space to take them all on singlehandedly.

Alright, so that’s never happened in the history of ever, but in video games, it’s been going on at least since Space Invaders in 1978. And it is in this fine tradition of lonely, foolish heroism that we have Space Qube, a new shooter for the iPhone and iPad. If you’ve played any “One ship vs. all aliens” game before, you know what to expect here: The ship goes back and forth; the aliens fly in distinct patterns and shoot at you; you pick up powerups; and every once in a while, you fight a boss.

And if that’s all it did, I would say that Space Qube is very capable and leave it at that. But it has one extra feature that makes it stand out.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has confirmed that Microsoft Office will come to the iPad just as soon as it’s ready for devices with a touchscreen. Speaking at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Florida today, Ballmer said, “iPad will be picked up when there’s a touch first user interface.”

That user interface is “in progress” Ballmer added, but it’s likely to come to the Windows version of Office first.

AT&T has updated its U-verse apps for Android and iOS to add live streaming for over 100 channels, more than 20 of which can be enjoyed “outside the home.” The service is available at no extra cost for AT&T subscribers as part of their existing U-family or U-verse TV package.

Nest Labs, the company that was founded by “father of the iPod” Tony Fadell, is famous for reinventing the home thermostat with the pretty little Nest device launched in 2011. But now the company is hoping to expand its presence in your home with a new, $130 smoke and carbon monoxide detector called Nest Protect.

Instead of just beeping at you, Nest Protect provides vocal alerts that will inform you just how dangerous the conditions in your home may be. And if it goes off accidentally — as ours often does when my wife is cooking — you can silence it just by waving at it.

If you want to get all Ansel Adams and start exploring black and white photography, you could go out and buy a fancy photo editing program like Adobe Photoshop, you could go see if anyone still makes film cameras with black and white film, or you could go the super easy and cheap route and just use Preview, an app that’s already on your Mac.

Your call, of course, but here’s how to get Preview to make your photos all arty and stuff.

Admit it. There’s two major things you still want from OS X: multitouch support, and 4K support. 4K support would make the Retina iMac finally possible, and as for multitouch, this is where the laptop and desktop market is heading despite Steve Jobs’s protestations about “gorilla arm.”

It’s taking Apple its sweet time to deliver the above, but you don’t have to wait. Sharp has just announced OS X compatibility for their 32-inch 4K touchscreen monitor.

How good is the iPhone 5s camera? Good enough for National Geographic. And Apple’s own Phil Schiller is getting braggy about it on Twitter.

Everyone knows that listening to podcasts is one of the most computationally complicated tasks you can possibly do. In fact, it was only a few years ago that anyone who wanted to listen to some anonymous Internet dork mouthbreathing his thoughts into a mic in low-fidelity audio had to purchase themselves a veritable supercomputer to accomplish the feat.

I kid, of course, but even in podcasting, every bit of performance helps. Which is why we’re happy to report that our favorite podcasting app, Instacast, has just hit version 4.1, adding support for the iPhone 5s’s 64-bit processor.

Former Apple CEO John Sculley believes Tim Cook is doing a “terrific job” at leading Apple after taking over from Steve Jobs two years ago. Cooks is “continuing the Apple philosophy of no compromise and quality of their products and great styling,” Sculley said, and he commends Cook for “not trying to be Steve Jobs.”

I think I might finally have found a screenshot app for OS X which is simple enough to replace the built-in screen-capture tools. It’s called Inboard, and it further distinguishes itself by having one of the best app icons ever.

Imagine that you had a stick of gum that could be bent into any shape. OK, that part was easy – all you had to do was imagine a normal stick of gum. Now imagine that that stick is weight-bearing, and that it would actually stay in the shape you gave it.

If you were doing it properly, then you just imagined the Gumstick, a rubbery, pose-able stick of gadget goodness.

Camera+, one of the best third-party camera apps for iOS — and one of the most supported — has today received its fourth update since Apple released iOS 7. This one delivers full resolution burst mode on devices that are capable of supporting it, plus all of the photo filters you’ll find in iOS 7’s built-in Camera app.

Sadly, the “Mobislyder” isn’t a way to make delicious, tiny steamed hamburgers with your cellphone, but it’s almost as good: It’s an aluminum track rail for your mobile phone, letting you make amazing tracking shots when shooting video with your iPhone.

Apparently Nikon’s D600 was already pretty much perfect, because the new D610 that replaces it is little more than a tweak. Let me put it this way: If Apple released a “new” iPhone with such a minor spec bump, the company would be “finished.”

Google chairman Eric Schmidt has dismissed claims that Android is insecure by claiming “it’s more secure than the iPhone.” The platform, which has more than a billion users worldwide, goes through rigorous real-world testing, Schmidt said, before promising consumers would be happier with Android “more than you can possibly imagine.”

iTunes Radio is currently limited to the United States, but according to a report from Bloomberg, Apple is gearing up to expand the service internationally in the coming months. The U.K, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are all reportedly set to gain access by “early 2014.”

Offering iTunes Radio outside of the U.S. is complicated because Apple has to get separate licensing rights for each country. Apple is using a combination of luring big advertisers and aggressively negotiating with labels to build its iTunes Radio empire.

Source: Bloomberg

Apple announced today that its financial earnings call with investors for Q4 2013 will be held on October 28th at 2PM PT.

AAPL shares have been slowly recovering from a recent slump after hitting a high of over $700 per share in 2012. The recent announcement that iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c sales shattered past iPhone sales records with 9 million units sold should portend good things for Apple’s earnings and the share price, but Wall Street is always pretty fickle with AAPL, so we’ll have to wait and see if the good news will be enough to get more of Wall Street on board.

Like its previous earnings calls, Apple is allowing the press and its shareholders to listen in to a live audio webcast, which is available via its website and can be accessed on iOS devices. Cult of Mac will be on hand to liveblog the results as they come in, along with any commentary from Tim and the gang.

Evernote announced Monday the availability of Two-Step Verification for all its users, increasing security for everyone, instead of just the premium members.

In a blog post, Evernote’s Andrew Sinkov said that the software company values its users’ data security. The feature was introduced with a few other security measures last month, including Access History and Authorized Applications, but was only available for Evernote Premium and Evernote Business users.

These extra security features are now available to all Evernote users.

I’ve done my share of presentations over the years, and nothing really beats Keynote when it comes to assembling a quality slidedeck. When done right, the look and feel of a presentation done in Keynote can really elevate the overall impact of what you’re saying. Sure, using tactics that are explored by professionals such as Nancy Duarte and Gar Reynolds are also great resources to have in your pocket, but if your slides don’t stand out when applying such tactics (and yet don’t overshadow your words), then you’re already working from a disadvantage.

Keynote has plenty of stock templates, but if you want to get something will stand out from the crowd then Slidevana may just be what you’ve been looking for. And Cult of Mac Deals has it for just $69 during this limited time offer.

File this one under, “huh?”

CNBC reported Monday that billionaire hedge-fund investor Julian Robertson sold all of his shares in Apple because he’d recently read a biography of founder Steve Jobs, and found the former CEO of Apple to be a “really awful person.”

Robertson admits that the stock did very well for him, but would rather “let someone else make the money from now on,” as he said on CNBC’s investment show, Closing Bell.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has officially closed its review of Apple’s 2012 tax disclosures after finding that the company complies with the letter of the law. Apple’s practice of routing cash through international subsidiaries to avoid paying U.S. taxes, or the “Double Irish With a Dutch Sandwich,” was called into question this summer by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee.

After being accused of implementing the “holy grail of tax avoidance” by Senator Carl Levin, Apple has been cleared of any current investigation by the SEC.

Tim Cook and other Apple executives testified at the Senate hearing this summer. “We pay all the taxes we owe,” said Cook at the hearing. “Every single dollar. We not only comply with the laws, but we comply with the spirit of the laws.” For now, the government agrees.

Source: AllThingsD

Image: Reuters

Music lovers rejoice! Capo, the Apple Design Award-winning app that teaches you how to play your favorite tunes, has been updated to version 3.0 today.

Developed by indie dev Chris Liscio of SuperMegaUltraGroovy, Capo 3 is a major redesign that packs several new features. The coolest addition of them all is automatic chord and beat detection that instantly analyzes a song loaded from iTunes and adjusts as you tune, change key, or start using a.. er.. capo.

Jonathan Zufi is an expert at taking beautiful photos of Apple products. He’s been doing it at the Shrine of Apple for years, and now he has a new book out called Iconic: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.

For an extensive, professional gallery of every Apple product imaginable, look no further. Zufi has assembled an immense tribute to Apple’s legacy that every fan of the company will appreciate.

Apple and Samsung are headed back to San Jose on November 12 to clash again over the retrial of their billion-dollar patent lawsuit that Apple won in 2012, and it looks like Scott Forstall might be coming back to testify as a witness for Apple.

The jury originally rewarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages, but after finding some errors in the awards, Judge Lucy Koh has cut $450 million from Apple’s award. Samsung and Apple filed a joint pretrail statement that listed the potential witnesses that might be called and both Scott Forstall and Apple’s marketing chief, Phil Schiller appeared on the list after both were witnesses at the orignal trial, before Forstall was fired. 

Fox News unveiled a first glimpse at its new studio for the Fox News Deck that features some insanely gigantic tablets  that will be used by Fox’s Information Specialist while the Shepard Smith serves up the hottest topics of interest.

The 55-inch Windows-based touchscreens will be used by the crew to sift through rumors on Twitter (four tweets at a time), confirm reports, and spin through Google Earth to deliver an entirely new experience, for better or worse. While the studio could easily morph into an arena for the world’s first televised Angry Birds tournament, Fox says the news deck is designed to appeal to viewers who are “non linear” and sift through news all day on their phones.

Check out this video of Sheppard showing off the new tablets and his Minority Report style 38-foot display.

Source: Fox News

Image: Gizmodo