Cult of Mac

Amazon expanded its digital software marketplace to the United Kingdom today, allowing Brits to download apps and games directly to their Mac or PC—just like U.S. users have been doing for some time. The process for purchasing digital items is no different, but once you’ve paid for your order, you’ll be able to download it right away.

Backing up your Mac via Time Machine is highly recommended, and super easy to do, as well. It’s really the only backup system I’ve ever found myself using on a regular basis, because it’s so simple to use and easy to set up. All you need to do is connect any USB drive to your Mac, head to the Time Machine preferences, and select that USB drive as your Time Machine backup. Mac OS X does the rest.

I was thinking, though, that since I back up my Macbook Air onto a 128 GB flash drive, it’s even more possible than ever that someone might get a hold of the drive and then be able to have all my backed up stuff on it. That’s not a huge deal for me, as I don’t keep much on the Macbook Air in terms of private stuff, but if I did, I’d want to keep those files extra secure.

Encryption could be the answer, and Mac OS X Mountain Lion makes it easy.

We’re living in a post-PC age. You know it. I know it. Steve Jobs knew it when he coined the phrase three years ago at the original iPad launch event, and of course, it was the iPad that was in many ways the final nail in the coffin of decades of PC market growth.

Apple’s still the number one PC maker by unit sales, but even the growth of the Mac has been shrinking, while other PC Makers numbers are in freefall. Analysis firm Canalys, which does a lot of business analyzing PC sales, made a bizarre decision a while back to inflate their numbers by including tablets as PCs.

Even by that measure, though, Apple’s still the number one “PC” maker. But because Apple hasn’t released an iPad or iPad mini so far this year, they find that the “PC” Market was flat in Q2 2013.

What’s everyone’s favorite U.S. streaming service? Netflix? Hulu? Amazon? Angry buzzer sound! You’re wrong! It’s iTunes, natch, at least according to a recent consumer satisfaction survey by ForeSee.

AT&T has yet again expanded its super fast LTE network – by activating 4G in 6 new locations, as well as extending LTE coverage in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. The announcement was made today in a series of sequential press releases on the carrier’s website.

https://youtu.be/i3I_7H1mByA

WhatsApp, one of the most popular univeral messaging apps out there, now has a neat new ability for iPhone users: you can exchange voice messages via push-to-talk, and your message can be received and responded to by any WhatsApp user, whether on Android, Blackberry, Nokia or Windows Phone.

Vodafone U.K. has today announced that it will begin rolling out its new 4G network on August 29 — the same day rival O2 will launch its own 4G service. The company will reach 12 major cities across the country initially, with further expansion planned before the end of this year.

That means that by the end of this month, EE will no longer be the U.K.’s only 4G provider.

If there’s one thing us iPad owners like as much as iPad cases, it’s iPad stands. And no wonder: without such a prop, the iPad can do little more than lay flat on the floor or table like a dead fish. Only unlike the poor fish, it won’t even entertain us by flapping desperately around for a few long seconds as it fruitlessly tries to push a few more drops of nonexistent water through its gills, before slowly expiring and laying eerily still.

The Boomerang case won’t provide the same pizzazz as the last few seconds of a suffocating real-life Big Mouth Billy Bass, but it does bend in the middle, and it does support your iPad.

There’s one safe prediction even prophecy-shy folks can make about the “next” iPhone: It will have a better camera.

But what does “better” mean these days? The 8MP photos from my iPhone 5 are more than big enough for editing, cropping and printing, so where does Apple go with the iPhone 5S?

If it listens to the biased opinions of the nerds who participated in DIY Photography’s latest poll, then the answer is not “more megapixels” but “better low-light performance.”

The FlameStower looks like a clever way to keep your iPhone charged while you’re camping in the wilderness. Just fill its reservoir with water, stick the other end into the flames of your campfire and plug your chosen gadget into the USB port. Relax with the charred meat and beverage of your choice, and—just three hours later—your iPhone will be fully charged.

Bind is one of those ideas that’s so simple that you get the idea you could just go and make it yourself. It’s a wide band of “methacrylate compound” (aka plastic) that has a few slots cut into it to fit the battery chambers of your Apple wireless keyboard and your Magic Trackpad. The idea is that it keeps them next to each other on your desk.

But there’s another trick in there, too.

OmniWeb has just been updated to v6.0. “What?!” I hear you scream? “OmniWeb is still around?” The answer is yes. And it seems like it’s as great as it ever was—in a retro-style kind of way.

Spinlister is like Airbnb for bikes. Instead of renting some piece-of-junk city bike for exorbitant rates while you’re on a city vacation, you can instead rent a hipstermobile from a private individual. For—it seems—equally exorbitant rates. And you can of course make some extra cash in your home town renting out your own spare steed.

Quora is a motherlode of information and often sees top experts answer thoughtful questions posed by its users. Every once in a while, a superstar will step into answer—as Ashton Kutcher himself did, when someone asked “How did Ashton Kutcher prepare for his role as Steve Jobs in the new movie Jobs?”

Here’s a problem: Let’s say you’re a diabolical dictator bent on world domination. You’ve decided to bypass the corporate mass media (which can’t be trusted) and inform the little people of your plans via podcast. You create one—only you don’t have a method of broadcasting the podcast, since you insist on personally playing your message directly onto the iDevices of your soon-to-be thralls.

The answer, of course, is the world-domination tool TuneMob. As long as you can gather everyone in the world into the same room. And by everyone, I mean a maximum of seven people. Who all need to be running TuneMob. And have fairly newish iDevices.

Two dazzling innovations we’re pretty enthused about have melded, as Flowboard becomes one of the first apps to integrate Leap Motion into its Mac platform.

So, the dude who said he’d quit rock and roll when he turned 33 just turned 70. This is a guy that typically covers 12 miles during a Stone’s show as he leaps about the stage, running and dancing. Mick Jagger has been on the cover of Rolling Stone (no relation) twenty times, the first time in 1968.

To celebrate this fairly amazing milestone for the quintessential rock and roll superstar, This Day In Music apps has made its Rolling Stones tribute app, This Day In The Rolling Stones, free.

If you’re a Stones fan, and let’s face it, most of us are in some way, you should check this one out. According to the developers, This Day In The Rolling Stones is going to remain free forever. Bravo!

After using iOS 7 for a couple of months, I’ve been missing some of the gorgeous iPhone themes that are out there for jailbreakers. You may think that theming iOS 6 is pointless when Apple’s next-gen OS is right around the corner, but one of the most prolific designers in the jailbreak community doesn’t agree.

We’ve highlighted Sentry’s work multiple times on Cult of Mac, and he’s most famous for Auxo, a popular app switcher replacement tweak. Aplo is a new Winterboard theme from Sentry that has been in the works for quite some time, and it’s drop-dead gorgeous.

Fitness trackers are a dime a dozen these days. Good fitness trackers are a little harder to find, but they’re out there. With rumors swirling that Apple itself is getting into wearables, everyone is getting into what is quickly becoming a very crowded market.

Shine is a new product from Misfit, a startup co-founded by former Apple CEO John Sculley, that takes a unique approach to monitoring physical activity. It comes with a gorgeous iPhone app, and it’s designed to clip onto more than your wrist.

We’re big fans of the Philips Hue lighting system, which allows you to control your house’s mood and lighting with a slick iOS app. The only problem is that there’s been only one kind of Hue lightbulb until now.

But the Hue lineup is getting more versatile. Philips is set to expand their funky Wi-Fi-controlled lightbulb line with LightStrips and Bloom Bulbs.

Twitter announced today that it is bringing a new verification process to its iOS and Android apps to improve security. The new feature allows you to protect your account with two-factor authentication that can be turned on and managed directly from the app, rather than having to depend on third-party SMS clients.

Along with beefing up security, Twitter also added a new gallery view that can be seen when you tap “view more photos’ from a profile, or by doing a photo search. Lists can be managed from within the app now, too.

You can read about all the engineering details that went into the new two-factor authentication on Twitter’s blog and grab the free update right now on the App Store.

Here are the release notes:

If you have the time and inclination, and a certain sense of daring, you can share your cellular data as a Wi-Fi signal for free, without connecting through your data carrier. I’m not a huge fan of jailbreaking, per se; even the non-jailbreaking solution seems a bit technical, and some folks might see it as borderline unethical.

If you fall into either camp, and want to set up your qualifying iOS device via your cellular data carrier, here’s how.

Twelve South, one of Cult of Mac’s favorite accessory makers, has a new stand out called the HiRise. Announced today, the elegant, metallic device is designed for holding the iPhone 5 and iPad mini. Like most of Twelve South’s products, the HiRise looks right at home amongst your other Apple products.

iOS 7 beta 4 was just released last week, but that hasn’t kept Apple from pumping out another beta to developers faster than you can say “Oppenheimer.” Beta 5 was released today, and like always, there are some subtle and not-so-subtle changes worth noting.

Here are eight changes in iOS 7 beta 5:

Possibly the most ridiculous omission from the iPhone’s camera app is a self-timer. If you want to take a selfie, or a group shot with you in it, or even a shake-free photo in low-light, then you’ll have to download a third-party camera app with a countdown timer built in.

Why is such a simple feature missing? Who knows? My cyclical side says that Apple is avoiding the inevitable lawsuits that would pour in when phones started getting snatched mid-photo whilst propped on the tops of inner-city walls.

Whatever the reason, Shuttr is here to fix the problem.