Cult of Mac

People camped out all night:

There are two secret banners at WWDC  this year, which is supposed to be a celebrate of iOS 7’s departure from the skeuomporphic UI pushed by Scott Forstall. But what if WWDC isn’t about embracing iOS 7 at all. What if the real secret of WWDC is that Scott Forstall is back?

Or maybe it’s just a great prank? Either way, this would be the best WWDC joke ever if it were real.

Source: Steve Streza

WWDC is about to kick off in a little under an hour at the Moscone West in San Francsisco. We’ve seen all the decorum on the outside of the Moscone Center, and the banners in the hallways, but this keynote room is where all the action is going to go down.

Tim Cook and company are set to take the stage in less than an hour. iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 will certainly be introduced, along with some new hardware. Press hasn’t been let in yet, but TNW grabbed this shot of the keynote room before it gets crowded.

Source: Twitter

We’re less than 90 minutes away from Apple’s first keynote of the year. If you’re already salivating with excitement and anticipation about all the goodies that are about to come out then here’s a little iOS 7 wallpaper (based on the WWDC banners on display) that should hold you over until Tim Cook officially unveils the new look of iOS.

Source: Reddit

Apple has already decked out the Moscone center with a ton of banners for WWDC, but like most years, there’s at least one banner that no one has seen yet, hiding in plain sight under a black cloth.

Here’s a shot of this year’s secret banner. What do you guys think it’s for? iRadio? New Mac Pros? We’ll find out as soon as the keynote kicks off in less that two hours.

Update: Matthew Panzarino at TNW spotted another hidden banner above the food line too.

Source: Twitter

With just over two hours to go until Apple kicks off its WWDC 2013 keynote, the Apple online store has gone down. We can’t say we’re hugely surprised, but the move does suggest that we won’t just see software previews today, but also new hardware as well.

We’ve been hearing a ton of leaks and details about Apple’s new iRadio streaming music service lately, enough to get a complete picture of the Pandora-like service, which will not only serve up a streaming music station of music you’ll like based upon your iTunes collection, but allow you to buy any tracks you hear with a single tap. And it’ll all be supported by iAds.

All the music labels are reportedly on board, and so we should hear Tim Cook announce the service in just a few hours. But in case there was any doubt, the Wall Street Journal is now weighing in, confirming that iRadio is a go.

For the past year, Apple’s head of design Jony Ive has reportedly been taking a hatchet to the skeuomorphic design principles of iOS. When iOS 7 is announced later today, it is widely expected that he will show us a much more modern-looking operating system, one emboldened by what is widely called a ‘flat’ design aesthetic.

But let’s keep a little bit of perspective here. Jony Ive isn’t completely overhauling iOS 7 because of some petulant, blind hatred for skeuomorphism. He’s doing so because he’s a pro, and skeuomorphism is solving a problem that iOS no longer has: how to teach people to use devices that, a mere six years ago, seemed impossibly futuristic and sci-fi-like!

YO! Sushi, a chain of Japanese restaurants based all over the globe, has adopted a novel new way of delivering food to its customers: Waiters and waitresses load up flying trays made of lightweight carbon fiber, then guide them to tables using iPads.

Two months ago, Verizon announced that it wouldn’t allow customers to upgrade their iPhones early after twenty months anymore. It was a pretty hostile move: the subsidy you’ve paid for your iPhone has been paid off after twenty months, so Verizon was effectively saying that their new policy was to bleed you dry for an additional four months, no exceptions.

When we wrote about Verizon’s move, we said “And what Verizon tends to do, AT&T can usually be expected to follow. How long until AT&T ends 20 month eligibility for early upgrades too?”

The answer, as it turns out, is a little under two months.

Today’s WWDC, and at the very least, we’re expecting new Macbooks based off of Intel’s new Haswell processors. But whither iMac, and when will Apple’s line of desktops be upgraded? It looks like Haswell-based iMacs could be announced today as well.

If there’s one note that’s almost guaranteed not to be in any of the zillions of to-do apps spread across your devices, it’s “Find new to-do list app.” However, should you actually have that entry scribbled down somewhere that you can actually find, then you can now cross it off the list: The app in question is called Silo, and it’s pretty slick stuff.

By far the best way to keep up with an Apple keynote when you’re not attending is to watch it live, but that’s a treat Apple doesn’t offer all that often. Fortunately, it will be at WWDC 2013 today. You can watch the company’s grand unveiling of iOS 7 and OS X 10.9 live through your Apple TV.

The Grablet Nomad is a twist on the iPad case we glimpsed at last year’s Macworld Expo. Essentially, it adds a front cover to the strappy, grabby case, but the folks at Grablet couldn’t stop themselves from making even the front cover into an all-singing gizmo.

People talk a lot of crap about their minimalist apps, promising “distraction-free” interfaces as if distraction had anything to do with how many buttons you can see on the screen. In the future I will send those people a link to download Slicereader, a reading app so truly minimal that it doesn’t even have an open/save dialog.

Launchbar users can enjoy a brand new feature in v5.5 of the find-everything Mac app. Launchbar – if you’re not familiar with it – is an app that you trigger with a shortcut (I use ⌘-Space) and then type into the pop-up window. Launchbar instantly presents results, letting you launch apps, send emails, play music, browse your iPhoto library and a whole lot more. And now it has snippets.

Today’s the day, folks! In just a few hours, Apple will kick off WWDC 2013 with a first look at its next-generation iOS 7 operating system. We’re expecting big changes with this update, and according to sources for The Wall Street Journal, those will include a brand new look, new ways to share your photos and videos, and a new music streaming service.

You can also expect to see a glimpse of OS X 10.9 and new notebooks at the event.

Lightroom 5 is now officially official, and you can grab the final version from Adobe for $150 (there’s a one-month trial built in if you want it). Should you upgrade from v4? Probably. Unlike Photoshop, which adds more and more flashy-but-pointless features just to keep people upgrading, Lightroom is still young enough that the new features are super useful and – ironically – they also make it less and less likely you’ll need to resort to Photoshop to polish and fix your images.

Are you a designer? Do you want to become a designer? Have you ever thought about bringing out the creative in you? Now is a great opportunity for you to stack up on some high quality design resources so you can tackle any design wishes you may have thanks to The Mega Design Bundle and Cult of Mac Deals!

This bundle contains more than 2.5 GB of smooth icons, flashy vector elements, intuitive Photoshop templates, and other essential designer assets for literally pennies on the dollar. Valued at over $1000, you can get it for just $49.99!

Functional iPhone cases are a dime a dozen, but the latest Cult of Mac Deals offer features the Leverage case – a case that is so much more than functional. Sporting a clasp locking system, it not only looks great but it can survive even the clumsiest iPhone owner.

With its understated yet elegant design, this case will make your phone pop. And right now Cult of Mac Deals has it for just $39.99.

Battery life! It’s a thing!

To get the most time out of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch battery, you have to manage it. There’s no substitute for figuring gout how your iPhone uses power, and then optimizing your usage and the enabled services and features on your iPhone to make sure you get the most life out of your battery.

Here are five ways you can stay firmly in charge of your battery.

It all started as a concept in a forum. A designer who goes by the online name of “Sentry” posted mockups of a redesigned app switcher for the iPhone. It was such a unique and innovative take—webOS-like app cards and quick access to Settings toggles—that it got picked up by dozens and dozens of big websites, Cult of Mac included. “This is the awesome, radically redesigned app switcher we want to see in iOS 7,” we said at the time.

iOS 7 is right around the corner, and there’s been no indication that the app switcher will get a significant update.

Several months after the concept was first posted, it became reality in the form of an iPhone jailbreak tweak called Auxo. Now that hundreds of thousands of jailbreakers are using Auxo as a default app switcher replacement on the iPhone, an iPad version has finally been released.

Let’s be honest about what we really want from Apple this week. We all want to know if Apple can still blow us away, or if they’re just a boring company now.

There are two schools of thought.

This is your best chance to grab the best turn-based, world-conquering strategy game on the Mac at the best price.

To coincide with the announced availability date of Civilization 5’s second expansion pack, Brave New World — which will be out Jul 9 — all Civ 5 games and DLC have had their prices cut 75 percent for the weekend. That means the original game is just $10; the Gold Edition game — which includes everything Civ 5 released up to this point including all DLC and the first expansion pack, Gods and Kings — is just $12.50.

In today’s world, most people have more than just one device to charge. But this poses a problem in that cords get tangled, power strips get overcrowded, and USB ports get used up quickly. This Cult of Mac Deals offer aims to solve that problem by streamlining your charging with the 3-in–1 Lightning/30-Pin/Micro USB to USB Charging Cable for the low price of $19 for a limited time.

This handy cable can charge 3 devices simultaneously. Whether you need to juice up an iPhone 5, iPhone 4/4S, 3G/3GS, iPad, iPod, Android, HTC, Samsung, and more – this cable has you covered!