Cult of Mac

Feeling a bit secret agent lately, and looking for the ultimate in protection for your Macbook Pro or Macbook Air? The folks over at ViVAX think they have the solution, with their completely sealed, impact-proof laptop case using a variety of cutting edge technologies. Made completely in Italy, the developers behind the project claim this is the first Italian-based Kickstarter project of its kind, and they’d like you to help fund their dream goal of producing and eventually selling this amazing case.

Got that? The latest Apple ad in which a young girl plays “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” to her grandfather via FaceTime on an iPad mini has been one-upped. This video shows a young woman playing and singing the same tune on an iPad mini. Only this time, she’s using the iPad app, Futulele, to play the song right on her magical device.

Ever wanted to check your email in your car, or while cooking? Running? Eating? Now you can with Talkler, a new app from Talkler Labs LLC. Talkler is out now in the App Store, ready to get you checking and sending email without using your hands or even your eyes.

All you need to do once you’ve installed the app is say, “Hey Talkler,” and you’ll be able to listen to your email, and reply using your voice. You can navigate through all your email with your voice, as well.

Apple and Samsung have been raging a legal war against each other across the globe. While Apple won a $1 billion lawsuit against Samsung in the U.S. earlier this year, the two giants have exchanged blows in Europe as well, but neither side has come out on top yet.

However, a new report claims that Samsung might be facing a serious blow from the European commission that is seeking to impose some huge fines on Samsung for trying to get Apple products banned in Europe.

We’re all concerned about online privacy issues in some form or another. Some of us are obsessive about it while others are a bit more cavalier. Regardless of how you feel about online privacy, there are tons of websites that have your personal information.

Why? Because of data brokers.

Data brokers collect your personal information and sell it online for background checks and marketing. Even social networks can expose sensitive details about your life that you thought you were only sharing with friends and family – and many of them can because of what their terms of service allow.

With today’s Cult of Mac Deals offer, you can finally fight back – with a one year subscription of Safe Shepherd for just $29!

There have been a ton of great tweaks released for jailbroken iOS devices in 2012. Innovation in the jailbreak community is far from dead, and ideas are continuing to evolve alongside iOS itself. What makes jailbreaking great is the sheer amount of customizability it unlocks. Sometimes a simple idea gives way to a crazy amount of potential.

That’s what this top 10 list of 2012 jailbreak tweaks is about: pushing the limits of what your iOS device can do. Here are the very best quality jailbreak tweaks from the past year:

There were a lot of happy people in the world on Christmas Day. Millions of lucky people received and activated a record number of smartphones and tablets on Christmas Day this year.

According to Flurry, more than 17.4 million iOS and Android devices were activated on Christmas Day, which was a 332% increase above average.

For the last few decades, developers have always flocked to Microsoft’s operating system while Apple’s Mac OS X has been an afterthought. In the post-PC world though the tables have turned.

Apple’s App Store has the highest quality apps for iPhones and iPads while Microsoft has been struggling to get developers to come over and make apps for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. In an effort to sway the tide of the battle, Microsoft is now trying to woo popular iOS developers over to Microsoft.

On our brand new CultCast, we talk rumors of a new iPad 5 and mini in March and the features we think Apple needs to build into iOS 7, but we couldn’t help wrap the show with our favorite movies of 2012. Why? Cause it’s just that slow of a news week! What better time to have an episode where anything goes?

So we get crazy on this week’s CultCast, even talking about burlesque dancing and whether Xbox or Playstation is the right system for you.

It’s an all-new Mad-Maxian new episode of CultCast! Subscribe to on iTunes or easily stream new and previous episodes via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

Games! They’re awesome. There are a ton of them released every year, making best of lists like this one fairly difficult. In the interest of our space and your time, we’ve narrowed the field down to ten, with what we feel are the best of the best games out there for Mac as well as for iOS. All of these games were released this year, and while all of them may not be blockbusters you’ve seen on other end of year roundups (this is on purpose), they’re all of them worth your time and money.

So, sit back, relax, and enjoy the following top ten games for iOS and Mac.

Over at DesignBoom, they’ve put up an incredible gallery of early Apple II and Macintosh product designs that never saw the light of day by Hartmut Esslinger, a designer who founded Frog Design, the company that Apple partnered with through the 1980s and 1990s. There are even some products that Apple never made, like a stylus-controlled smartphone from the early 80s called the “MacPhone,” a precursor to the MacMini called the Baby Mac, and what appears to be a Mac with dual flatscreens.

We’ve picked some of our favorite designs and put them after the jump, but by all means, head to Designboom for more.

Want to know an easy way to predict a new Apple product release? Follow Digitimes‘s winning formula!

Australian earphone-maker Audiofly was just a fledgling outfit with scarcely a handful of models and a shaky toehold in the earphone market when I first encountered a year ago at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show. After I had a chance to spend some quality time with what was then the company’s flagship set, the fantastic AF78s, I was pretty certain that, if the company did eventually fail, it would be in spite of the brand’s quality — not because of it.

But they didn’t fail. Now here they are, a year after debuting at CES, with a trio of new, more expensive additions — all decadently equipped with multiple drivers and balanced armatures — that shove the AF78 into the middle of their lineup.

Apple has been having problems with Chinese writers suing for unlicensed eBook distribution in the App Store. After a group of writers asked Apple for 10 million yuan in damages for unlawfully distributing copyrighted works in certain Chinese apps, the court has forced Apple to pay a smaller settlement fee of 1.03 million yuan, which is only about $165,000.

Designer and photographer Andrew Kim runs a great blog called Minimally Minimal, and he recently posted a gallery of fantastic photos after one month with the iPad mini.

I love Kim’s product shots, and he graciously gave me permission to share them with Cult of Mac readers. Check out the gallery below:

Apple’s iOS devices have always been hot Christmas gifts, especially for young folks. This year was no exception. Mobile app analytics firm Distimo is reporting that App Store downloads spiked a staggering 87% on Christmas Day, and revenues went up 70%.

The New York Times raised quite a stink at the beginning of this year with its provocative ‘iEconomy’ series on the poor working conditions at Foxconn, Apple’s largest manufacturing partner in China. After running headlines like “In China, human costs are built into an iPad,” the Times has published a new report that more positively portrays Apple’s recent efforts to improve working conditions in the supply chain.

After the mainstream media turned its attention to Apple and Foxconn, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) got involved to help ensure quality factory life for Chinese workers. For years, Apple has also been performing detailed audits of over 800 facilities where parts for its products are made and assembled. The Cupertino company has been beefing up its requirements in order to set the bar even higher in the supply chain. All of the combined efforts have resulted in better overall working conditions and pay raises for Foxconn employees. But that doesn’t mean there’s no more progress to be made.

I’ve barely met a person or two who love Macs but prefers to run with an Android handset instead of an iPhone. They’re a rare breed, but they’re out there, supposedly. And if you’re a Mac user who has ever been curious about the Google Play store, you’re about to be able to sample the entire buffet thanks to Bluestacks.

This morning Bluestacks announced that the latest version of the Bluestacks mobile app player will support OS X, meaning Mac users will be able to play with almost every Android app available.

My hands shake worse than a crack addict when I take video. I’m too cheap to go buy a tripod, so I just don’t try and take video anymore. There’s a new app that’s ready to cure some of my problems though. It’s called Cycloramatic and it’s the most amazing app you’re going to see today.

Rather than forcing you to buy a tripod to take perfect 360º videos, Cycloramic uses the vibrations of your iPhone 5 to swivel around and get a clean shot every time.

Are you a designer? Do you want to become a designer? Have you ever thought about bringing out the creative in you? Well, Cult of Mac Deals has an incredible offer that’s tailor-made for someone just like you – allowing you to feed your inner design spirit with over 3,000 creative items! That’s right…The Mega Design Bundle is here and is stronger than ever!

In the future you’ll never have to worry about taking blurry pictures whenever you go out on the town and get drunk. No matter how crappy your photography skills are future cameras will have infinite focus just like the Lytro camera that let’s you choose which objects to put in focus after you’ve taken a picture.

According to a new rumor, Toshiba is working hard on a chip that will bring perfectly focused pictures to your smartphone really soon. Their new sensor is a lot like the Lytro, except it’s small enough to fit in an iPhone.

Nearing the end of 2012, Cult of Mac has peered through the clouds of 2012 to take a look back at the best Mac Apps of 2012. While most of the popular Mac Apps continued to evolve and refine their features, a number of newcomers have sprouted up with new features and even better designs. There were some terrific releases this year that were are well worth your money, but here are the 10 best Mac Apps of 2012.

Apple has a reputation of excellent customer service. You can walk into an Apple Store and get your device fixed. You can play with an iMac or iPad in the store for an hour without a salesman trying to push you into buying.

Apple usually dominates customer satisfaction polls for physical retail locations, but their Apple Store website may need some help. Even though Apple is the most popular tech company in the world, in 2012 Apple’s ForeSee satisfaction score actually dropped.

If you sliced apart the average Mac user into separate parts and pieced her together, Frankenstein-style, what would you get? According to research from BlueStacks, the average Mac user is probably an American woman with freckles, long black hair, wearing a t-shirt and sneakers.

“We’ve created a monster,” said BlueStacks marketing VP John Gargiulo. “But she is a very cute monster.”

Sounds like my kind of girl. Sadly, she’s also probably seeing someone already. Sorry, fellas.

Via: All Things D

Want to see Steve Jobs’s new super-yacht up close and live in the riveted flesh? Well, here’s the next best thing: a vdeo taken by Amsterdam-best investor Michiel Frackers of the Venus, a vessel which will soon be leaving port after a misunderstanding about the terms of payment between Jobs’s family and the ship’s designer Phillipe Starck was resolved.