Cult of Mac

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.

Holy crap, right? Robert Suarez dropped this amazing video up on YouTube, showing him beating the entire tower in under three minutes (2:58, to be exact), a full 32 seconds faster than the game developer’s own Game Center achievement.

There are some slight spoilers in the video, as it shows the entirety of the tower, from the bottom to the top level, with some cool avatars, power ups and the final boss. If you don’t want to see these things, preferring to work your own way up to the top, don’t watch the video.

For the rest of us, who know we’ll never be as good as this guy, it offers an incentive to keep plugging away at the game, which we reviewed favorably here.

We’ve contacted Robert via Twitter to find out how he got to this feat of Knightmare Tower awesomeness, and will update as we hear more.

Via: TouchArcade

Along with the new beta for iOS 7, Apple has also seeded a new beta version of Apple TV 5.4 to developers.

Developers can download the new beta from the iOS Dev Center or via the direct links below:

It’s only been a week since the last iOS 7 beta came out, but Apple just seeded the fifth beta to developers this morning. The new update can be downloaded over the air, or directly through the iOS Dev Center.

Here are the direct download links:

I remember trying to wrap my head around the Adobe suite a few years ago, and at first I used trial and error to make things happen. Needless to say, things didn’t happen. Then I picked up several books on the software suite, but they only provided some marginal help… at best.

I’ve given up on learning Adobe’s stuff (mainly because I don’t believe I can give learning it the attention it deserves), but if you’ve been wanting to get a solid grasp on Adobe’s new Creative Cloud then there’s no time like the present. Cult of Mac Deals is offering a video course—called The Adobe Authorized Creative Cloud Bundle—for only $79 that will help you get a leg up on this powerful software suite.

Those still rocking an iPad 2 may have been disappointed to see that it wasn’t supported by Deus Ex: The Fall when the title made its debut on iOS last month, but a new update out today fixes that problem. It also brings major improvements to enemy artificial intelligence, and addresses some bugs.

Apple rejects a lot of iOS apps and games, but Send Me To Heaven has to be the first that was turned away due to the way in which it is played. The aim of the game is to throw your $700 smartphone up into the air as high as you can, but rather unsurprisingly, Apple thinks that this behavior “could result in damage to the user’s device.”

Fortunately, those who enjoy smashing up expensive items can get it on Android instead.

Jobs, the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic starring Ashton Kutcher and Josh Gad, gets its second official teaser trailer today, ahead of the much-anticipated cinema debut August 16. It’s entitled “American Legend,” and you can check it out below.

We’ve already seen a whole bunch of iPhone 5S components over the past few months—they’ve even been shown off in hands-on videos—but these high quality images show the changes Apple has made to its Retina display when compared to the iPhone 5 model.

It looks like this has been possible since, oh, Mac OS X 10.5 or so, but I hadn’t come across it before. I’m guessing that might mean some of you haven’t, either.

If you’re one of those amazing folks who have seen this already, then feel free to check out all our other OS X tips; it’s possible there’s something in the list you didn’t know about already.

For the rest of you, if you want to disable the translucent menu bar on your Mac, it’s relatively simple. Check it out.

Remember Draw Something? It was this wonderful, flash-in-the-pan game by the utterly charming developer OMGPOP, and had the misfortune of being such a success that it caught the evil overlord attentions of Zynga, who promptly bought the company, killed a game an ex-OMGPOP had privately made for his wife, and then ran the company into the ground, laying off the vast majority of the team.

OMGPOP’s practically dead now, and the only purpose the shell of the company serves is as a cautionary tale not to let Zynga touch anything good or wholesome, ever. There’s still more OMGPOP assets Zynga can kill, though: next up on the chopping block, Zynga plans to behad OMGPOP’s popular gaming portal website.

Apple’s earbud redesign year was a contentious thing. I thought the new EarPods sounded as crummy as the old ones, but unlike the old ones, at least they weren’t like shoving pieces of glass into your cochleas. On the other hand, our supreme commander, Leander, thought they sounded as good as $150 dollar Beats. Which, come to think of it, might mean that we were agreeing.

Either way, the EarPods are the earbuds most people stick with when listening to their iDevice. But if you jog or are active, the EarPods have one big flaw: they fall out of your ears at just the hint of perspiration. But a new, $10 accessory solves that deficiency for good.

When iOS 7 launches in the fall, iTunes Radio will give millions of users the ability to listen to a Pandora-like station of streaming music an algorithm thinks they’ll like, with each track available for purchase with just a tap. Yet despite the name, iTunes Radio isn’t really radio, because radio with its DJs imply human curation.

But that might change before launch. Word has it that Apple is now approaching real radio stations to be included in iTunes Radio.

We all hate iTunes—it’s the fashionable thing to do. The smarter amongst us have switched over to Rdio and Spotify or another streaming service, and use iTunes solely as a way to sync our iDevices.

But Vox is a new app (launching today) which will give you access to your iTunes library without all the cruft that makes it almost impossible to use for, you know, tunes. It’s pretty sweet.

Meet the eleMount, a poseable aluminum mount for your iPhone or—if you’re feeling adventurous—the iPad mini. It’s like a little angle poise elbow for your phone, letting you set it at almost any angle you like.

Tasket is a service that syncs your Google Tasks list with your iOS Reminders list. It performs this magical feat pretty much flawlessly, using a Microsoft Exchange server to do the syncing, and letting you add and remove tasks from pretty much anywhere.

Apple has uploaded a new iPhone 5 ad today to its YouTube channel that showcases FaceTime video calling. Entitled “FaceTime Every Day,” the one-minute clip continues the “Every Day” series which began earlier this year, promoting features that are more popular on the iPhone than on any other smartphone.

Nikon’s new SB–300 is an entry-level speed light that you probably shouldn’t buy. It’s a tilting, non-swivel model that runs off two AA batteries, costs $150 and has pretty much zero off-camera manual control.

You should be careful when using third-party chargers for Apple devices. Multiple reports have surfaced recently of iPhone owners being electrocuted by malfunctioning chargers in China.

Apple has announced a new USB Power Adapter Takeback Program for those who wish to swap out their third-party chargers for official ones. The program begins August 16.

Originally planned as a June 11 release, Sim City is now going to release on August 29, 2013, according to a tweet today from EA’s official SimCity Twitter account.

Joining another hotly-anticipated game release for the Mac, Bioshock Infinite, SimCity will hopefully be ready for prime time and not delayed again.

My kids and I have been watching episodes of Adventure Time, Cartoon Network’s disturbingly funny cartoon show. The adventures of Finn, Jake and a cast of crazy characters is compelling television, and hilarious on many different levels.

Legends of Ooo – Adventure Time originally launched for iOS last year in June, and while it provided some of the same fun and voiceover work as the cartoon show in a goofy little iOS package, it only came with one episode, “The Big Hollow Princess.”

This oversight has been corrected this past weekend with the release of the second episode, “The Library of Doom,” an all-new story and adventure game with new voice overs for the characters within. Even better, Episode 2 is absolutely free for a limited time as an in-app purchase. Shmow-zow!

If you haven’t gotten to check out The World Ends With You: Solo Remix yet, it’s completely understandable. Publisher Square Enix has a reputation for charging much more than the typical iOS game when it releases its popular games onto Apple’s touchscreen platform. It totally makes sense you might not want to pick it up for $17.99 for your iPhone, let alone $19.99 for your iPad.

If I said that the game, originally released to the dual-screen Nintendo DS, is completely worth every penny of the asking price, would you pick it up? Probably not.

But what if I said that both versions are now much less expensive, with the iPhone version in the App Store at $9.99 and the iPad version at $10.99? If you love innovative, brilliant gaming on the go, you’ll go grab a copy right now. Who knows how long the sale will last?

The number one rule when it comes to stealing an iPhone is to turn off Find My iPhone and restore iOS to factory settings. Every good thief knows this, but there are so many clueless ones who don’t; the latest of whom is a charming douchebag from Dubai named Hafid.

Hafid likes to cruise around various locales of the UAE and pose the shit out of them. What he doesn’t know is all his profound selfies and other photos on his stolen iPhone are being uploaded to the original owner’s Dropbox account. And she’s posting them all on Tumblr:

We’ve all been there: out of juice on the road and with no charging cable on hand. You can, of course, carry around a 30-pin or Lightning charging cable with you, but that takes up space. There’s something to be said for a small footprint and peace-of-mind.

Enter the Kii by Bluelounge. It’s sync-and-charge piece of mind on a keychain, in a very convenient form factor.

UPDATE: As Cult of Mac reader lepht points out below, there are contrasting opinions on whether push actually saves battery life. Check out his post here to see a different point of view. Also note tordofm’s comment below, and the original article I linked below, both of which support the push as battery saver idea.

You have a couple of options when setting up your email accounts on an iPhone or iPad: Fetch and Push. While Push is only available to more modern email accounts like Gmail, most of us have at least one account that can utilize this email service.

But what’s the difference, really? And how do you set it up on your iOS device? That’s why we’re here.