Cult of Mac

Google Reader’s execution date is set for June 30th, so the team at Digg has been busy working on build a replacement as fast as possible. Digg Reader isn’t ready to go quite yet, but the company has started testing its new app and  announced that it will be ready to go live on June 26th.

Digg posted an update on its progress to replacing Google Reader this morning and stated that the team’s initial launch goals are to satisfy power-users with easy onboarding from Google Reader, a clean reading experience, and useful mobile apps.

Here’s what Digg had to say on its site about the upcoming launch:

With all the new changes coming to iOS 7 there are still a ton of little details to discover while Apple continues to put the finishing touches on it. While  iOS 7 does feature a completely revamped UI, its the little changes that make everything really come together.

One redditor put together this handy info graphic that compares some of the smallest iOS 7 UI elements with their iOS 6 counterparts.

Take a look:

Skype for iOS and Skype for Machas been updated today with support for a new feature: video messaging. But don’t think video chat. Skype’s new video messaging is all about recording brief, meaningful moments and sending them to other Skype users, not as a stream, but as a self-contained message that will reach them, even if they aren’t online.

Apple is building a massive new store at the Stanford shopping center in Palo Alto to replace its smaller, more modest retail location a few hundred yards away. The new Apple Store is going up just a stones throw away from a big Microsoft Store that opened last spring.

The new flagship store is expected to be one of Apple’s largest ever, as it will enough extra floor space to test new product ideas. Designs for the store were completed  and approved in 2011 by Steve Jobs, just six months before Tim Cook took over as CEO.

According to the Palo Alto Online, construction on the new store is happening seven days a week as contractors hurry to finish the 12,000 square-feet store. The store was supposed to officially open in November 2012, but the sensitive glass design of the building has caused delays.

Here are a couple photos of the store currently under construction:

Famed iOS jailbreak hacker Pod2g hates the redesign of iOS 7 so much he might abandon Apple’s operating system all together… for Android.

Japanese part firms Mounantai has turned up three photos of what they’re emphatically claiming is the logic board for the iPhone 5S. There’s nothing soldered or plugged into this part, meaning no early peek at the iPhone 5S’s (presumed) A7 chip.

There’s not much to go on here, except that it looks like the iPhone 5S circuit board might be slightly narrower than that in the iPhone 5, and that while the iPhone 5S might just be a small speed-bump before the debut of the iPhone 6 next year, it’s still gotten a major overhaul on the inside.

Source: Electronista

Gameloft has today released a new teaser trailer for Modern Combat 4’s upcoming Meltdown update, which brings new maps, new weapons, new game modes, and more to the company’s popular first-person shooter. The update is coming to both Android and iOS, and it could be the last before Modern Combat 5 makes its debut.

Poster, a wonderful WordPress client for iOS, which we’ve written about many times here on Cult of Mac, has been acquired by WordPress creator Automattic.

The app has since been pulled from the App Store and will no longer be available in its current form, but developer Tom Witkin, who announced the acquisition on his blog, insists he will continue to provide support for existing users.

Do you enjoy problem-solving games on iOS whereby the only thing you think you understand as you get started playing is that tapping objects on your touchscreen does something? Splatz is one of those games. Despite its deceptively simple graphics and fairground music soundtrack, Splatz is really absorbing and taxes your memory. Patterns start to emerge….

Simon & Schuster has confirmed it will be launching a paperback edition of Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography on Steve Jobs this fall, featuring a younger Jobs on its cover. The book, which will also be updated with a new afterword, will be available on September 10.

There are several truths about cables:

1. Despite having a rats nest of cables in the back of your closet, you can never find the one you actually want.
2. All cables – ALL OF THEM – are self-tangling. And “tangle-free” cables are the worst.
3. Try as you might, you have never managed to come up with a good way to organize cables and have them look good.

This is one reason I like the look of Brit Morin’s cool DIY project. The other reason is that it’s not just for cables but for several other things I have too many of: sunglasses, neckties, straps (just kidding about the neckties).

This somewhat blurry image of a game controller built by Logitech is believed to be one of the first Apple-approved controllers for iOS 7 that will join the “Made for iPhone” program. It’s built for the iPhone 5, and it’s been designed to meet Apple’s new guidelines for Mac and iOS game controllers.

OS X Mavericks (named after a hot surfing spot in California) was released last week, and even though it may have been overshadowed by the iOS 7 announcement at the same time, there are bound to be some new things in the operating system we can tip you about.

Remember, though, that as with all beta software, OS X Mavericks isn’t a final version–it’s meant to be used by developers to ensure that when it’s released this fall, all the devs with apps on OS X will have had time to make tweaks to their current Mac software, and start integrating Mavericks stuff into their next bits of software.

That said, let’s take a look at how to enable the new Do Not Disturb toggle in OS X Mavericks beta.

Bonzart’s Ampel is a cool-looking — and cheap — digital camera styled on the TLR (twin-lens-reflex) cameras of old. But the retro case design isn’t just a gimmick: the Ampel actually packs some great featurres into the old-fashioned shape, including a dedicated tilt-shift lens.

Instagram is gearing up to take on Vine by offering a new video sharing service, according to a source familiar with the plans. The move is expected to be announced on Thursday, June 20, during a mysterious Facebook press event at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California.

It looks like iOS 7 adds a digital zoom to the video-camera app. You’ll need to be running it on an iPhone 5, but if you are, you can zoom in 2–3x as you shoot. Plus, it doesn’t appear to be the crappy digital zoom used for stills.

You know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking it’s been three whole days since I posted about a wooden iPhone case. And since the last one before that was maybe at the beginning of last week, I’m thinking it’s about time for another one. So here it is: The Colors Handcarved Wood iPhone 5 Case.

Lightroom-using, iPad-owning readers might remember an app called Photosmith. It promised to let you sync your photos ’twixt iPad and Lightroom and let you add tags, keywords and metadata, as well as selecting picks and rejecting the crud before syncing everything back again.

The trouble was, it was confusing as hell, and crashed every few button taps. Now we have version 3.0, and it is everything the original tried to be. In fact, it’s pretty great.

Apple has issued a statement which explains its commitment to customer privacy and how it handles government requests for data following the PRISM scandal. The Cupertino company has reiterated that it did not know about the PRISM program until June 6 when it was first contacted by the media, and that it does not provide government agencies with direct access to its servers.

Remember when the iPad first appeared and everyone said “it’s just a big iPhone”? They were right. From the lock screen to the multitasking tray to the awful, awful clock app, the iPad really was running a blown-up version of the iPhone OS.

Now, though, it looks like Apple has finally designed iOS to sit properly on the iPad’s bigger screen. These screenshots, taken from X-Code’s device emulator, show what the iPad looks like when it’s running iOS 7.

Are you looking to up your audio editing game? Then this Cult of Mac Deals offer is definitely going to sound good to you!

DSP-Quattro is the do-it-all audio editing program for Mac. Simple yet powerful, this program is great for novices and professional musicians alike. This most recent version – DSP-Quattro Version 4 – is the best yet. It can handle everything from standard audio editing and recording to more advanced audio mastering. And Cult of Mac Deals has it for a limited time for just $39.99!

Most audio software is either too difficult to use or too weak to enhance the music, but DSP-Quattro is easy to master and yet still packs a powerful punch. It’s the perfect combination of power and ease rolled up in an audio editor.

How cool would it be if some big consumer electronics company that is really great at hardware design sold a smartwatch you could buy for under $100 that was open to any developer’s firmware?

That would be amazing, because as an open platform genius software developers could compete with each other to create the ultimate smartwatch experience, and they wouldn’t need to fuss with designing and manufacturing a physical hardware smartwatch.

Well, it’s happened. Sony this week announced an Open SmartWatch project that invites developers to create and flash their own firmware for the Sony SmartWatch.

This is bigger news than it sounds. 

In May 2012 several U.S. carriers started rolling out a nationwide wireless emergency alerts (WEA) system for wireless subscribers. The free service is intended to share information about natural disasters and other location-centric news, like AMBER alerts.

Over the weekend AT&T announced that it is bringing WEA to its iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S owners across the country. The service will be enabled via a carrier firmware update that has started rolling out to subscribers on iOS 6.1 and higher.

Having the ability to easily edit a PDF is a great thing, especially if you’re trying to go as paperless as possible. This Cult of Mac Deals offer boasts one of the best PDF editors for the Mac on the market in PDF Converter for Mac.

The software’s ease-of-use really sets itself apart from other PDF editors and its powerful features allow you to efficiently edit and share PDFs in a flash. If you’re been hunting for a great piece of software that allows you to simply edit and share PDFs, PDF Converter for Mac is right up your alley – and at the featured price of $49.99 it’s more attractive than ever.

My first impression on seeing iOS 7 on my iPhone was: What is this, a My Little Pony theme?

But after scrutinizing, analyzing, deconstructing and living with the new version, I’m ready to declare iOS 7 an unambiguous masterpiece, a stroke of genius, really.

That may sound like a weird thing to say about a fruity, copycat platform that crashes constantly. But it’s true, and I’ll tell you why.