Cult of Mac

Walk the halls of Macworld or the Consumer Electronics Show for too long, and the sheer googolplex of injection-molded iCases hanging all around can actually make you go cross-eyed. The bedazzled ones are especially dangerous—that’s a medical fact.

Bucking that trend, the Zattere from Papernomad is a naturally-crafted iPad sleeve you’ll enjoy looking upon as much as using. No, paper, wool, cotton, and thread might not sound like the materials that belong in a protective iPad sleeve, but they do work well, and then there’s this: in five years, a plastic case will look positively forlorn; paper though, artfully aged with your doodles and sketches, becomes an artifact you may wish to keep even after its utility has long gone astray.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wHwKGw0Yno

With features like Easy Mode, Smart Switch and that hand-waving feature thing, you’ll totally ditch your “simple” iPhone after spending a three hour flight crammed next to a hipster with a Samsung Galaxy S4.

At least, that’s what Samsung wants you to think with their new ad that shows a bunch of nerdy middle-aged iPhone users instantly converting to the Galaxy S4 after some hip dudes start showing off Samsung’s gimmicky features.

Source: YouTube

Via: MacGasm

Today the GoPro iOS app hit version 2.0, and the update includes several additions that make it easier to interface with the GoPro camera from an iPhone or iPad. The app is way more than a remote control now.

The biggest feature is the ability to wirelessly transfer photo and video from the camera to a dedicated album in an iOS device’s camera roll. Once the you download version 2.0 of the iOS app and the most recent software update for the camera itself, you can browse, view, and delete media right from the camera’s memory card. Photos and videos that have been wirelessly synced over to your iOS device from the camera can be shared through email, text, or other apps like Instagram and Facebook.

GoPro users are going to love today’s update, so grab it now.

Source: App Store

Afterlight is one of the most popular photography apps in the App Store, but until now it’s only been optimized for the iPhone. Today’s update brings full support for the iPad, meaning you can edit in a native interface for the iPad’s larger display.

If you’ve seen pics in your Instagram feed that are framed creatively or look like they aren’t filtered in Instagram itself, chances are they were probably edited in Afterlight. It’s nice that the app officially supports the iPad now, but the interface is basically just a blown up version of the iPhone app. Some iPad-only UI tweaks or features would be nice for future updates.

Afterlight costs $1 as a universal download in the App Store.

Source: App Store

Apple and Motorola are set to do battle in a Miami courtroom in August 2014, but before the fight can begin, the two companies have decided to drop 14 patents from litigation.

At the behest of Federal Judge Robert N. Scola, the two companies are starting narrow down the list of patents they want to sue each other over. The trial originally started with 24 patents under review, but Apple dropped six patents yesterday and Motorola dropped eight. 

Yesterday, I told you how to delete podcast episodes from your iOS device, which lets you manage how much stuff you’re carrying around on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

Today, I got an email from Justin P, who said,

Thanks for the tips on deleting individual episodes of a podcast. However how do you remove the entire podcast icon from ‘my podcasts’ ? Tried unsubscribe but that doesn’t work. If you could let me know that would be great.

It’s a good point, Justin, so I did a little poking around in the Podcast app and figured it out.

Amazon updated Kindle for iOS today with a new feature that will make purchasing Amazon e-books through your iPhone a bit feature.

The new ‘Free Sample’ feature in Kindle for iOS 3.9 lets users search through Amazon’s catalog of Kindle books, download free samples, and if you like it you can email yourself a link to purchase it from Amazon’s website later.

There’s also a new Bring Your Own Dictionary feature so you add medical, legal, or other translation references to define words while you’re reading. Here are the full notes:

Cult of Mac Deals is offering an elegant, simple solution to put an end to “station frustration” once and for all, courtesy of the team at Bazaared. This device allows you to share any audio output (including Pandora and Spotify) from your iPhone, iPod, or any other device with a 3.5mm audio socket by simply tuning in your car radio to the frequency you choose on the transmitter.

With the Universal Hands Free Car Kit, if it’s playing through your device it’s playing in your car and Cult of Mac Deals has it for just $19 for a limited time!

Providing access to old episodes just isn’t enough for cable channels to be competitive on iOS anymore. The latest trend is to allow users to tune into live TV if they have a cable subscription. ABC, Time Warner, and ESPN are all doing it, and now Showtime is jumping in too.

Showtime Anytime 2.0 hit the App Store this morning with a new feature that lets you tune into Showtime’s live programming. Now you can ride around town and not miss a second of Homeland season 3.

Here are the release notes:

Planning to get the new “iPhone 5C” when it goes on sale this fall? Well, you’ll want a good case to protect its smooth, plastic back from getting all scratched up, and Amazon already has you covered. Elago Design has begun taking pre-orders for its $24.99 slim fit case, which will ship on August 23.

Remember that cool iOS 7 Control Center port for Android that hit Google Play earlier this month? Well, Apple obviously didn’t like it, and it has contacted Google to have it pulled. Fortunately for us, developer Hi Tools Studio has already released an updated version to Google Play, so go grab it before it disappears again.

Over at Stack Exchange, one intrepid user asks,

I would like to know if there is any way to block Facebook and other sites from being added to Safari’s Top Sites. Someone knows how to do that?

One answer is to completely keep new tabs or windows from showing Top Sites, but that’s not really the best answer. There is an answer, pulled directly from Apple’s own support page for Safari 6, however, that fits the bill.

Apple seeded a new Apple TV beta to registered developers on Monday, and there were a couple of new features that the Cupertino company did not mention in its release notes. One of those features is a new, one-tap setup option for those with iOS devices, and the other is the ability to purchase music from the iTunes Store.

MyShoebox is yet another cloud photo storage service which syncs your pictures between all of your devices. It’s been around for a little longer than newcomer Loom, and also goes up against Everpix.

Here’s a great idea for an iPad accessory – just kidding: it’s terrible! No, just kidding again. The idea is sound, but the implementation doesn’t really get past the lazy-computer-render stage.

It’s called the iBackPack (really) and it’s a way for cyclists to communicate with people behind them.

Foxconn is looking to add another 90,000 people to its workforce as it prepares to take on mass production of the iPhone 5S, Focus Taiwan reports. The Taiwanese publication, citing sources in Apple’s supply chain, claims Foxconn has already completed testing assembly of the next-generation device, and is now gearing up to fill the “massive orders from Apple.”

I’m a sucker for satchels. And with this beautiful canvas Mission Rucksack from Toffee, I can be a seersucker for satchels, because it also has a beautiful blue and white pinstripe lining.

I know what your asking yourself. You’re asking whether I really decided to write up this bag just so I could use that lame, alliterative gag about seersucking satchels. And the answer is yes. But the bag’s pretty cool anyway, right?

IOS7 beta 4 continues to impress, and it seems that Apple has now ironed out a lot of the bigger bugs, leaving time to polish the smaller things. In just a few hours of use I have noticed a couple of very helpful additions: one to Spotlight and one to the snooze function of the alarm clock.

The UK power plug (and its matching socket) is incredibly safe, just as you’d expect from a country that only allows half-voltage sockets in bathrooms (bathrooms also get string-activated light switches lest your wet hands come near dangerous electricity). The problem is that it’s also big and bulky thanks to the mandatory inclusion of a fuse and an earth (ground) prong in every plug, even those meant for low-power use.

The Thin Plug aims to fix that.

Good news for Brits: the new iOS 7 beta 4 has changed the colors of motorways and A-roads to match the long established scheme used in all other UK maps. Now the motorways (freeways) are drawn in blue and the A-roads (main roads, with one or two-lanes) are green.

Is Google ready to give up on Android and make the Chrome platform its new priority? That’s the question posed by AppleInsider’s Daniel Eran Dilger in a new report that suggests the search giant is looking to distance itself from the world’s biggest mobile operating system and all of the intellectual property issues that come with it.

But I wouldn’t worry too much if I were you. Android’s not going anywhere.

If you haven’t gotten enough zombie survival horror action on your iPhone or iPad, here’s some great news for you: 2013 Infected Wars is a new entry to the genre, and it uses Epic’s gorgeous Unreal Engine for mobile to bring you what looks to be a solid 3D third-person zombie shooter with all the trimmings.

In what may be a first for a mobile game, 2013 Infected Wars developer, Action Mobile Games, is promising co-op multiplayer for the full story campaign, which could be a great way to get with your sisters and bros and just mow down the reanimated undead.

Check out the gameplay trailer below to see what we mean.

This frantic, wacky 2D endless runner from Illinois-based development studio High Voltage Games (Zoombies, The Conduit HD) has just been chosen as the iTunes App Store’s Free App of the Week. To celebrate, Le Vamp is now completely free to download and try out for the next few days.

Hurry, though, the special offer only lasts through August 1 at 11 pm Central US time.

The budget iPhone 5 is definitely happening, and with the seemingly infinite amount of rear–case leaks we pretty much already know what it’s going to look like before Apple even announces it. But, what if those questionable ‘iPhone 5C’ cases weren’t just packaging?

Introducing the iPhone 5’s obese evil twin: the iPhone 5C.

The screen is definitely an upgrade from the original iPhone 5C prototype.

Source: Ferry Passchier

Apple released the fourth beta for iOS 7 to developers today, and there are quite a few UI tweaks and additions that have been made under the hood. We’ll probably see a couple more beta releases before Apple ships the final version of iOS 7 in September, so the OS is starting to mature quite a bit at this point.

This list doesn’t include everything that’s new, but we’ve collected 11 notable changes Apple made in iOS 7 beta 4: