Cult of Mac

HBO Go and ESPN recently got added to the Apple TV, but only if you pay a hefty, monthly sum to a cable or satellite company for a bunch of other channels you never watch. The TV industry is evidently broken. You can have unlimited access to stream HD content for the price of a couple cups of coffee each month, but you can’t pay for HBO a la carte.

The Apple TV is slowly but surely becoming a more formidable media player with the addition of apps like HBO Go. But developers still can’t create apps and submit them to an Apple TV App Store; Apple handpicks partners to work with.

For the past few weeks, Apple has been battling the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over e-book pricing. The federal antitrust trial revolves around the DOJ’s accusation that Apple conspired with the country’s five biggest publishers to raise prices on e-books and stifle competition with Amazon.

Apple’s face for the trial has been its head of software and services, Eddy Cue. The trial has revealed some tidbits concerning Steve Jobs and the early negotiations surrounding the iBookstore. The trial ends today, but the court’s sentence for Apple has yet to be decided.

If you’re dying for AT&T to roll out more bars into your area – so you can actually use the LTE on your iPhone 5 – then you’ll be happy to know that AT&T is activating its 4G LTE services in four new markets across the U.S. today.

According to AT&T’s New Room, the following areas are now covered by AT&T 4G LTE:

Jony Ive’s new vision for iOS 7 is simple and parallax’d and all that, but it’s also completely devoid of the linen backgrounds Scott Forstall championed in earlier versions of iOS and OS X.

The loss of Forstall’s linens is one of the best improvements to iOS, but if you find yourself craving some fabric inspired backgrounds again, here are 8 linen wallpapers to bring Forstall’s linens back to iOS 7:

A lot of people were saddened when the new iPod Nano sported a design that was no longer “watch-like”. That meant that the idea of making a watch out of the device was no longer an option. But with this Cult of Mac Deals offer, iPod Generation 6 owners get a stylish, hands-free solution in Nanox. And it can be had for just $34.99 – and this sale price includes the cost of shipping anywhere in the continental USA.

Remember that any of the iOS 7 beta features and tips we share with you could change before the latest mobile operating system from Apple hits the streets this coming fall.

Also, be sure that you’re not using a beta iOS 7 on an iPhone you need to get work done on–-Apple has provided it without guarantee for developers to start working with, not for you to use on any mission critical tasks.

Another of the most exciting new features coming to iOS 7 is call blocking, in my opinion. To be able to keep folks from texting or calling has got to be one of the more requested features on the iPhone, since the beginning.

iOS 7 beta has two places to block numbers. Here’s where they are, and how to add numbers to your blocked list.

When I wrote up the Kubxlab Ultra Thin iPhone Case a short while back, I liked the look of it but figured that it would be yet another iPhone shell case to add to my stack of potential gifts (I’m serious – if you visit my home you won;t be allowed to leave without an iPhone or iPad case in your hands).

Then one arrived. Or rather three arrived, one in each color (dark, light and brown). I carelessly ripped open the packaging, picked one of the three (dark, I think) and pressed it onto my naked iPhone 4, still warm from my damp front pocket.

And I was so surprised that I actually put down my coffee.

Today Instagram announced its rumored video feature at a press event in Southern California. Instagram’s 100,000,000 active members can now shoot 15-second video clips and apply filters.

Rumors leading up to the event claimed that Instagram would launch a competitor to Vine, Twitter’s video network that lets you quickly share six-second clips with the world. After seeing what Instagram unveiled today, it looks like Vine has been leapfrogged.

Looking for a cheaper way to upgrade to the iPhone 5 without having to pay the full price? Best Buy announced this morning that it is relaunching its  program that allows customers to trade-in an iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S to get a “free” iPhone 5.

The trade-in program is set to launch this Friday, June 21st, and will run for 9 days. Customers can bring in a working model iPhone 4 or 4S and get up to $150 in credit back, which can then be used to purchase a 16GB iPhone 5 for $149.99.

Apple’s clever iPad mini ads that have been featured on the back covers of Time, Wired, the New Yorker, and Surfer, were just awarded one of the most prestigious advertising award in the world today.

The Apple iPad mini campaign by TBWA Media Arts Lab won the Grand Prix in press even though the iPad mini has been viewed by many as the device that will eventually kill newspapers and magazine. To get the top prize, Apple beat out strong competition from Dove and Beijing Sports.

Marcello Serpa, chief creative officer at Almap BBDO presided over the judging and had the following explanation for why Apple won:

We were surprised that a new MacBook Pro wasn’t part of Apple’s Mac refreshes at WWDC earlier this month, but if new benchmark tests are anything to go by, it shouldn’t be too long before they’re made available. A new 13-inch model with the latest Intel “Haswell” processor has appeared in Geekbench tests showing slight performance gains over the current generation.

The new Mac Pro has been benchmarked ahead of its release, too.

It’s not uncommon for new Macs to have issues that require a firmware upgrade down the line to fix, and it looks like that’s true of the new Haswell-boasting MacBook Airs, which are reportedly having a lot of problems with their new 802.11ac WiFi chips.

Earlier this year, one of the best computer RPGs of all time, Baldur’s Gate, came to the Mac and iOS. And it was an awesome, awesome, awesome port, with tons of enhanced content and a new iPad-friendly control scheme.

Even better? Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition did well enough that the guys who handled the port, Beamdog, said they were working on a port of Baldur’s Gate II… a game which (and this is saying something) is about ten times better than Baldur’s Gate!

Fast forward to today. Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition has been yanked from all e-tailers, including the App Store. Why? Contractual crapulence.

Sonic fan? Well now’s a great time to load up your iOS device with new Sonic games, because Sega has made each and every one just 99¢ for a limited time. That includes Sonic CD, Sonic The Hedgehog 4 episodes one and two, Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing, and the original Sonic The Hedgehog.

Basically, if it has Sonic in it, you won’t pay more than 99¢ for it.

We’ve been talking a lot recently about the so-called “budget iPhone” that Apple will in all probability announce in September, but exactly how “budget” are we talking about here?

Now, the CEO of the rumored manufacturer of the budget iPhone is speaking up, and telling shareholders not to expect it to be cheap.

Don’t forget that the OS X Mavericks beta isn’t a final version—it’s meant to be used by developers to ensure that their software will work with Apple’s latest and greatest. With that disclaimer in mind, let’s check out a new little feature in the beta.

Many apps have had access to special characters before, like iChat and Messages. You’d simply click the little smiley face, for example, and get all the fun emoticons Apple has provided.

If you wanted to type a special character in a text document, though, you’d have to remember that Option-8 is a text bullet, and Option-K is the degrees symbol, and Option-2 gives you the Trademark symbol.

Now, though, in OS X Mavericks beta, you can see visually what special characters are available to you across all applications. Here’s how.

Here’s a great story: Every morning I browse through the news to find stuff to write about. One of my feeds is from the useful but flawed prMac, a site which lists new products and apps in a particularly annoying way. I found an app called Sunscreen Reapplying Reminder, which is little more than a timer app (hint: use Siri to set your reminders without having to gum up your screen with grassy sunblock).

I Tweeted about it:

Just what the world needs: Sunscreen Reapplying Reminder app https://t.co/UhmJsOy6b9

— Charlie Sorrel (@mistercharlie) June 20, 2013

And then the replies started coming. Why? The app, by developer Tania Moise, has a peculiar copyright claim…

Adobe’s entire new Creative Cloud suite has already been cracked, and it appears to be just as easy to do as it was for the old non-cloud version. Crackers have already made the tools available, just days after the official release.

If you haven’t already watched Apple’s WWDC keynote, it’s probably because you just haven’t found the time. At just under two hours long, it’s not something you can just slip into your day. But you can now watch it at your leisure on any of your electronics devices because Apple just uploaded the entire thing to YouTube.

Hazel, the must-have Mac file-wrangling utility, has just been updated to v3.1. That doesn’t sound like much, but there are some real big new features in here. for instance, it can now match dates typed inside your files, as well as upload files and more. Check it out:

"“Morning!”" That’s what this new app will say to you when you fire up your iPad at the start of the day. Only instead of bringing you bacon, pancakes and coffee it’ll put you on a more slimming diet of information: Weather, calendar, news and so on, right there on a big iPad-sized dashboard.

Not to be outdone by Instagram’s reported video product that’s set to debut tomorrow, Vine has started teasing upcoming features and design tweaks. Co-founders Dom Hofmann and Rus Yusupov have posted a couple of Vines that seem to point towards some pretty big additions, like the ability to record multiple Vines at once and save drafts.

Special video categories also seem to be in the works, allowing users to browser content based on different genres that would assumedly be curated by Vine/Twitter staff. Instead of letterboxed videos within the Vine app, a future version will likely bring make videos fill the full width of the iPhone’s screen to create a more immersive experience.

Take a look at the Vines below and use your detective skills to uncover what’s coming:

Seriously, I’m kind of tired of playing the typical RPG in which I take on the role of the savior of the world. This kind of power fantasy, wish fulfillment story has its place, but boy would it be nice if we could see some different stories out there.

The developers behind Kickstarter project, Unrest, must have felt the same way, as their new online RPG is set in ancient India, for one thing (not a Tolkeinesque forest complete with Orcs and Elves), and will let you play as the ordinary folk struggling to maintain their freedom, safety, peace, and keep their children fed and happy.

World of Warcraft, this isn’t.

Over at The Atlantic, a fascinating study has been published that connects location data from smartphones with the layout of a heavily populated city. The findings are that the most iPhone activity is coming from wealthier areas, while Android usually dominates lower income districts. 

After a string of reports that MacBook replacement batteries have caught fire, Best Buy has decided to recall 5,100 units.

AP first reported news of the recall this afternoon and said Best Buy is contacting customers individually to see if they would like a battery replacement, or a Best Buy giftcard for the value of the replacement battery.

Here’s which MacBook replacement batteries are being recalled: