Cult of Mac

Let’s be honest, the fact that you can conduct iMessage conversations across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac is pretty freakin’ cool.

Let’s also be clear, sometimes this very same feature is a pain in the butt. Getting iMessages on all three of my Apple devices in the same room can be a bit daunting, especially when I’m trying to concentrate on, say, writing an iOS Tip for the next day.

What’s a busy, popular, connected person to do? Manage those devices and their iMessage settings a bit better, that’s what. Here’s how.

I don’t really care about measuring the wind – I prepare for a bike trip using WeatherPro, which tells me how bad the wind will be, not how bad it is right now. But the Vaavud wind meter is notable for another reason: it communicates its wind-speed readings to your iPhone wirelessly, yet uses no electronics whatsoever. How? Read on…

Soulver is pretty much the best calculator app on the Mac and iOS, mostly because it doesn’t tie itself to the UI of old pushbutton calculators. But Llumino will probably win the award for the best-looking calculator app in the App Store, coming on like a 1970s flashing disco floor and, uh, a pushbutton calculator.

The Google+ apps for Android and iOS have today been updated with a number of new features and improvements. Both apps get user interface tweaks and the ability to re-share posts to communities, while iOS users will also see a number of Snapseed filters that will allow them to enhance their photos before they post them.

One of the most common complaints that we hear about iOS is that it’s getting boring. We’ve been using practically the same interface for over 5 years and haven’t seen any major changes, so people are hoping for something new and exciting with iOS 7.

Jesse Head’s iOS 7 App Switcher concept comes with the type of UI changes we’re hoping to see. The simple concept makes switching between apps more effective. You wouldn’t have to deal with thumbing through a row of little app icons, but instead would see a bunch of app tiles with live previews. You can swipe to quit, search for apps, and control your music or brightness in a flash.

Here’s a video of the concept in action:

Apple made its iOS 6.1.3 update available to the public last week, quashing a lock screen security flaw that allowed a passcode lock to be bypassed with a few simple taps. But the update also introduced a number of problems of its own. Not only do we now have a new lock screen security flaw, but some users are also suffering battery life issues.

Moshi’s Luna backlit Mac keyboard is a weird device. It’s a desktop device through-and-through, connecting via USB, but doesn’t have any USB ports itself – one of the major advantage of using a wired keyboard.

It also uses scissor-switched chiclet-stlye keys instead of something more substantial like you’d find in the Matias or DAS keyboards.

It does, however, sport Mac-friendly media keys, and packs a numerical keypad, perfect for moving your mouse further to the right and causing extra RSI.

Yahoo! has today announced that it’s acquiring Summly, an iPhone app developed by Nick D’Aloisio when he was just 15, for $30 million. The app is designed to provide users with “pocket sized news” by condensing long articles into just a few paragraphs of text that are easy to consume on the go.

Spotify is already one of the premier sources for streaming a la carte audio on the Internet, but the popular streaming service might have far bolder plans than that, with a new report saying that Spotify intends on going head-to-head with Netflix, HBO, iTunes and Amazon Video by launching a video streaming service. Yowza!

The Nest thermostat isn’t just an incredible next-gen thermostat that allows you to change and program your house’s heating or cooling via an iPhone or iPad: it’s also designed and created by Tony Fadell, the so-called father of the iPod.

It’s also expensive like an iPod, usually retailing for $249.99. But right now, the first-gen model is on sale at Amazon for just $179.00.

If you want to heat your house like a spaceman, get going!

Source: Amazon

Anyone who is serious about taking notes doesn’t use Apple’s Reminders app. Or at least, they don’t use it to store endless snippets of information (Reminder is fantastic for shopping lists, though). Note nerds use nvALT (OS X), the tricked-out version of Notational Velocity customized by Brett “I just built this. Again” Terpstra, in combination with Dropbox or Simplenote (iOS).

And Brett’s latest version, 2.2, is near enough release that you may as well grab it and use it. Hell, Brett himself says that it’s “more stable than 2.1 is right now.”

Stories about kids who gain access to their parents’ iTunes passwords and run up huge bills on apps and in-app purchases are becoming all too common. The latest, concerning 13-year-old Cameron Crossan from the U.K., has an interesting twist.

When Cameron ran up a £3,700 ($5,620) iTunes bill playing iPad games, his father, policeman Doug Crossan, called Apple to get a refund. Apple refused to give the Crossans their money back, so Doug went down a different route. He reported his son for fraud.

A decade ago, playing a game of Tetris on a flight I was taking to Paris, I remember an irate stewardess telling me quite insistently to stop putting my fellow passengers in danger and turn off my Gameboy. I did, but not before asking her, “Isn’t it time someone Gameboy-proofed these airplanes?” She had nothing to say, because the absurdity was self-evident.

Ten years later, and airplanes still aren’t any more impervious to being taken down by a Gameboy, or an iPhone, or an iPad than they ever were… which is to say, they are just as impervious to being taken down by an electronic device as they ever were, which is technically “not at all” but, as far as the FAA is concerned, “quite likely indeed.”

Luckily, the stupidity may be about to come to an end, at least partially, with a couple of anonymous insiders at the Federal Aviation Administration telling The New York Times that the agency is under tremendous pressure to relax their rules regarding some types of devices during takeoff and landing.

A couple of weeks ago, we reported that Steve Jobs was about to become a manga star, thanks to a new project by Mari Yamazaki (the author of, apparently, a “time travel public bath manga” called Thermae Romae) based upon Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs.

Now a preview of the first chapter of the bio has hit the web, seemingly focusing on the initial meetng between Jobs and Isaacson.

We’ve got the first pages after the jump. If you want to read the whole thing, the first chapter will be published in full in Japan in the April issue of Kiss.

The consensus on Wall Street seems to be unanimous: for the first time in decade, Apple will report lower income this quarter than it did the year before. But don’t panic: even Wall Street doesn’t think Apple’s era of profitability and innovation is at an end.

When the MacBook Pro with Retina Display first came out, it could make a fair claim towards being “the highest-resolution notebook ever.”

Now that Google has unveiled the Pixel, a $1,300 Chromebook that does nothing but run a browser but boasts an even more pixel-dense 12.85-inch display than the MacBook Pro, though, Apple has had to change their slogan.

I’ve been a big fan of Apple’s Stickies app since way back in System 7.5. It’s great to be able to have a little floating place to type notes and keep track of things right on the Mac, without having to resort to anything as mundane as an actual, paper-based sticky note.

The one thing Stickies doesn’t do well is synchronize across devices. With OS X Mountain Lion, however, you can make this happen using Notes and iCloud.

Facebook has today rolled out its new VoIP calling feature to Messenger users in the United Kingdom, following its launch in the United States back in January. Available only on the iPhone, the feature allows users to make free voice calls to their Facebook friends over Wi-Fi and 3G.

We’ve known that T-Mobile was doing away with two-year phone contracts for quite some time, but exact details haven’t been revealed until today. Unlike the other big U.S. carriers (AT&T, Verizon and Sprint), T-Mobile isn’t doing subsidized, two-year contracts for smartphones anymore. Instead, you pay as you go—and the monthly rates look very good.

Apple has purchased a small startup called WiFiSLAM, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. The two-year-old company specializes in indoor mapping, which is something Google has already been doing with Google Maps for some time.

Since Apple debuted its own mapping technology in iOS 6, it’s been working to bring its service up to par with Google Maps. WiFiSLAM’s expertise could very well be used to improve Apple Maps, and the acquisition also bodes well for another Apple service, Passbook.

Google is getting closer to releasing Google Glass into the market. And we learned this week that Google’s Android team is working on a smartwatch. 

Both these products are examples of Android-based wearable computing devices.

A fresh new religious war has broken out on the social networks about whether the watch is better than the glasses, or whether smartphones are better than both the glasses and the watch. “Why would I wear an Android smartwatch when I have an Android phone in my pocket that’s much better?”

These arguments demonstrate that most people don’t get this technology at all.

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The one part of your iPhone or iPad you use the most is the on screen keyboard, a fantastically complex little app in its own right that must meet your needs all the time, across a ton of different situations. Whether you’re typing an iMessage, a Note or Reminder, or an email to your family, you’re using the iOS Keyboard. Why not take the time to get to know it even better?

Here’s a list of five great tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your time with this ubiquitous bit of software at the center of your iOS experience.

Kicking off this week’s must-have apps roundup is EverClip for iPad, a terrific tool that lets you “clip” almost anything to Evernote, so that you can’t forget them. We also have a wonderful new music player for the iPad, the new Star Wars Pinball game, and more.

We learned this week that Google, Samsung and LG are all planning smartwatches. 

Sony, Pebble, Cookoo, I’m Smart, MetaWatch and Martian already have pretty sophisticated smartwatches available, all of which interoperate with the iPhone.

You can be sure that 100 Chinese companies will make inexpensive smartwatches that support either the iPhone or Android or both.

And, of course, Apple is rumored to be working on a curved-glass “iWatch.”

Here’s why I believe Apple’s smartwatch will have a market advantage.