The last thing I want to do as I stumble into my bed through a bourbon-soaked fog is to set up my sleep-tracking device. It’s nice to have an app tell me how fitful is my kip, but the pre-sleep perambulations are a pain: you have to slip your Fitbit into a wrist strap, or plug in your iPhone and launch the sleep-tracking app.
Beddit takes a different approach. It’s a strap that stays permanently wrapped around your mattress, ready to record your snoozes.
Ever wondered why you can’t pick up a cheap used Mac Mini? No, me either—I always figured the new ones were already cheap enough.
But the answer is both interesting and unsurprising. Unsurprising, because it’s just down to supply and demand. Interesting because—well, let’s ask some people who really know about selling used Mac Minis: Macminicolo.
Instapaper has a new beta website, and it’s the biggest change to the whole read-it-later Instaverse since the app was bought by Betaworks. In short, it’s gorgeous for reading, and makes the management of your account quite a lot better.
The rumor mill is starting to kick into full gear when it comes to Apple’s plans for the iPhone lineup in 2013. Over the weekend, it was reported that Apple would be holding an iPhone event on September 10th, and the company is widely expected to unveil not one, but two new models: the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. The 5S will be the successor to the flagship iPhone 5 and sport upgraded specs, while the 5C will have a plastic back and come in multiple colors.
When it comes to the iPhone 5S, this year’s upgrade could be pretty predictable—A7 chip, better cameras, etc. But then there’s the bet that Apple will do something radically different with the hardware and add a fingerprint sensor. Now the 5S could feature a redesigned home button made of sapphire. And we can’t forget about the iPhone 5C…
Yeah, I said it. Google should — and probably will — sell an Android TV.
No, not a dongle. And I’m not talking about a Google TV of the kind you can buy today in which Google technology puts the “smart” in the smart TV feature.
I’m talking about a full-blown, Android-based, big-screen, high-def TV set.
I’m going to tell you why, but first: Let’s understand why Google sells hardware at all.
The Disney Legends Award is presented annually to a person who has left a significant impact on The Walt Disney Corporation. This year, the late Steve Jobs received the honor, and last night John Lasseter accepted the award on Jobs’s behalf at the D23 Expo. Lasseter is the Chief Creative Officer at Pixar, a studio Jobs co-founded, and Walt Disney Animation Studios. He created Toy Story and is arguably the most influential and iconic storyteller in the history of animation.
Disney CEO Bob Iger announced the award before bringing Lasseter onstage to accept. Both men were friends with Jobs, and Lasseter got choked up a few times while sharing stories about Jobs’s influence on the early days of Pixar.
Thanks: Ricky
The final season of Breaking Bad begins tonight on AMC, and if you’re like me, you can’t get enough of the show. Fans like myself need to check out Breaking Bad: Alchemy, an awesome book from the show’s creators. It was my pick on Faves n’ Raves during the last CultCast.
Smartphone technology gives us a whole lot to have at our fingertips in terms of innovation. Things like being able to scan things using the phone’s camera (which Prizmo 2 takes advantage of) and being able to use it as an all-in-one inbox with an app like Drafts demonstrate how more productive our iPhones can help us be.
But this particular Kickstarter success story has me very intrigued.
It’s called Hone, and it uses your iPhone (along with other iOS devices) and allows you to locate valuables that you may have misplaced.
Apple will hold its next iPhone event on Tuesday, September 10th, according to AllThingsD, a site that has a spotless track record when it comes to predicting these dates. Last year’s event for the iPhone 5 was held on Wednesday, September 12th.
Never heard of the British Oreo? You will on this week’s CultCast! Of course we’ll also cover the week’s best Apple stories, including what’s new in iOS 7 beta 5; our own Leander Kahney’s new book about Jony Ive; the strange new buzz around the upcoming Jobs movie; plus we pitch our favorite tech and apps in a little segment we call Faves ‘N Raves.
Have a few chortles whilst getting caught up on this week’s best Apple stories. Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the audio adventure begin.
Show notes up next!
The new Jobs movie hits Friday, August 16th in theaters. And it’s not going to be pretty.
The movie covers the life of the late Apple co-founder and CEO from 1971, before the founding of Apple, to 2001, when Jobs announces the iPod, thus setting the company on the path to glory and dominance.
You’re going to hate the movie. Here’s why.
Gone are the days when you absolutely needed a scanner to deal with document scanning. With the emergence of smartphones, we’ve seen a ton of new applications hit the market that allow you to do things that were unheard of before. Scanning documents is one of those things – and Prizmo 2 is just one of the apps that gives you that ability.
If you don’t have an app that handles scanning right from your phone, then now would be the time to take advantage of the pricing at Cult of Mac Deals. Because Prizmo 2 is only $24.99 during this limited time offer.
Apple just sent developers an email stating all developer program services are finally back online.
The developer center went down on July 18th, which prevented developers from accessing documentation need to code apps for iOS and OS X, as well as beta builds for Apple’s platforms.
A Turkish security researcher by the name of Ibrahim Balic came forward shortly after the outage and claimed responsibility as the intruder that breached the Dev Center’s database. No personal data was stolen from users, but Apple decided the breach warranted a complete rebuild of the backend.
I love my pets, I do. I have two stubborn, cute, snorty little pugs and I consider them part of the family. That’s why I sort of snorted myself when I saw the IndieGogo project page for Petzila, an odd little videoconferencing gadget that purports to let you connect to your pampered pooch via the magic of the internet and your iPhone.
The Petzila lets you see and talk to your doggy friend, and even dispense a treat with a tap on your iPhone screen. How fun is that? It’s odd, is what it is, and while I’m sure my pugs would love a magical treat from the new box on the wall, I doubt they’d know what to do with the disembodied sound of my voice coming from the speaker on the thing.
Well, that’s not true. They’d probably end up doing what they do when I stick my head out the window to call them in. They’ll look around, not see me, and then ignore the heck out of me.
T-Mobile is abruptly ending its ‘$0 Down Summer Sale’ on the iPhone 5 and 4S tomorrow. The promotion allowed customers to walk out of a store with a new iPhone and no upfront charges. The cost of the phone was then recouped through smaller, monthly payments.
As of Saturday, newer iPhones can only be bought on T-Mobile with a larger upfront payment that more closely matches the subsidized retail cost at other carriers.
Apple names a new and noteworthy app each week as its App of the Week. This week, it’s Simplebot’s Rise Alarm Clock, a universal alarm clock that’s getting quite a bit of buzz in the tech sector.
Let’s face it, alarm clocks are a dime nickel a dozen, so it’s ironic to see one hit the top spot on the App Store. The app evokes another big buzz app, Clear: it’s well-designed, looks great, and works with simple swipes and taps; what’s not to love?
In the ongoing antitrust case regarding e-book price fixing, the presiding judge has denied Apple’s plea for mercy over the Department of Justice’s ruling proposal. The DoJ found Apple guilty of conspiring with publishers to raise prices on e-books with the iBookstore, and Apple continues to plead not guilty despite the fact that all of the publishers have settled outside of court.
The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) has ruled in favor of Apple today by finding Samsung guilty of patent infringement in two cases. This marks the ITC’s final ruling from the original complaint Apple filed against Samsung back in 2011, reports FOSS Patents. Apple won a decisive victory against Samsung last year that involved over a half billion dollars in damages, and President Obama recently vetoed a sales ban on older Apple products that the ITC had awarded Samsung.
KeyMe is a New York-based startup that has released an iPhone app for storing and and securely sharing digital copies of physical keys. Yes, you read that right. Instead of going completely digital and abandoning the concept of a traditional lock and key altogether, KeyMe is blending the analog with the digital.
The app stores pictures you take on your iPhone of your key, and in the event of a lockout, the digital copy can be given to a locksmith.
Getting into the psyche of any major historical figure is a difficult task, especially when you’ve never even met them, so to sympathize with Steve Jobs’ dick-ish behavior for his role in JOBS, Ashton Kutchers says he thought of Steve as kind of like a great football coach.
During an appearance on The Colbert Report, Kutcher says he can totally relate to why Steve Jobs berated people, because his high school football coach/uncle used to throw temper tantrums to make the team better too.
Kutcher told Colbert that he also thinks the way Steve sought love and appreciation from people was by obsessing about making perfect products for them, so that kind of justified being an asshole to people.
Here’s the full interview:
Remember Twitter’s #music app for the iPhone? No? Well you’re not alone. The app has only been around since April and it has already faded into the App Store’s deep recess of obscurity. It hasn’t stayed on any of the top charts while apps like Spotify and Rdio continue to gain in popularity.
But Twitter isn’t giving up just yet. Today an update was released to #music that brings more tools for discovering music, including the ability to scan an iPhone’s music library.
Take a moment and breathe. That’s what new, meditative space building sim rymdkapsel wants us to do. The concept here is to create and expand a space station (rymdkapsel means “space capsule” in Swedish), defending against waves of ever tougher alien spaceships. The goal is to survive as long as possible, reaching up to four monolith structures.
The game itself–originally released on Sony’s PlayStation Vita handheld–is hypnotic, slow-paced, and calming. There’s a strange sense of joy and peace that descends as players build their space station using Tetris-shaped block pieces, sending Pong-shaped minions to build new corridors, gather resources, research the monoliths, and take up arms to defend against the incoming waves of alien shooter ships.
Looks like the venerable video game company is looking to get in on some of GungHo’s Puzzle & Dragons action with Taito’s own arcade-music mashup iOS game, Groove Coaster Zero.
The two companies have just announced a new collaboration in which Groove Coaster Zero gets original and remixed background music from breakout hit Puzzle & Dragons as playable levels in Groove Coaster Zero. In addition, Puzzle & Dragons will get some special Groove Coaster Zero-themed dungeons along with classic Space Invader characters. That’s a mouthful, but super exciting, and it’s coming August 12.
Apple’s Passbook feature in iOS hasn’t really taken off as quickly as people thought it would, but that hasn’t prevented Samsung from throwing developers into making its own Passbook clone. We first got our first look at Samsung Wallet back in February at MWC, but the the app is finally ready for primetime and available on Google Play.
The app is only supported on the Galaxy S3, S4, Note 1 and Note 2, and you have to sign-in with one of those silly Samsung accounts, but if you’re already nose deep in S Health, S Beam, Samsung Link and all the other half-baked Samsung apps you’ll feel right at home.
Here are the release notes:
Beaver Tap Games, comprised of Mike Meade and Mike Gaughen, has polished the speedrun hook game to a fine sheen. Echoing Rocketcat Games’ Hook Champ and Super QuickHook, the team’s first game, Mikey Shorts, garnered a ton of praise from critics and fans alike.
With this second release, Mikey Hooks, the team has again raised the bar for well designed levels, a whimsical art style, and a solid control scheme that works surprisingly well on the touch screen. Fans of the genre and newcomers alike will find plenty to love in this leveled speedrun platforming game.