Square, the Apple-like mobile payment service that’s all the rage right now, just integrated with Passbook in iOS 6. Before you get too excited, the integration only allows iPhone users to store and use the new gift cards that can be sent via the Square iOS app. Square lets you pay for your stuff with your bank credentials while Passbook still does not.
Now you can send a digital gift card from any merchant that partners with Square, and the recipient can choose to open the gift card in Square’s Wallet app, print it off, or use it in Apple’s Passbook.
This is the original Parrot Asteroid Classic car stereo head-unit ($349), and it made quite a splash when it launched last year. The single-DIN, 4×55 watt receiver boasts a formidable array of features: Bluetooth connectivity, powerfully accurate voice recognition for both calls and music, a GPS receiver, a bright, 3.2-inch LED screen and a quiver of apps that run off its customized, upgradeable, early-vintage Android 1.5 OS (all of which require a data connection via a dongle).
Though this model was originally called the the Asteroid (no Classic), the Classic nomen was added to lessen confusion as three new models were announced a few months ago. However, the Asteroid Classic still very much in play; in fact, as this review goes live, the Classic is the only member of the Asteroid family currently available, as its new siblings haven’t shipped yet.
With its Android-based OS, you’d be forgiven if you thought the Asteroid Classic was more friendly to Android phones than the iPhone. In fact, the opposite is true, as I’ll explain later. And while it suffers from something that can probably be described as teething trouble, it’s still a lust-worthy system.
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!
The all-new Twitterrific 5 is kicking off this week’s must-have apps roundup, with a brand new look and a whole host of new features. It’s joined by the official YouTube client, which now supports iPad; an all-new Instacast; and a redesigned Gmail app.
iTunes 11 just came out, and if you’ve upgraded, you know that it has changed many of the familiar features and moved many of them to different places. Let’s take a look at the different ways to use iTunes 11 the right way, with the following tips and tricks.
Speaking to NBC talking head Brian Williams this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook said: “When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years.”
Cook went on to upgrade Apple’s efforts in television from a “hobby” to “an area of intense interest.”
These cryptic comments support what Steve Jobs’s biographer, Walter Isaacson, told an interviewer, which is that Jobs said off the record that he wanted to “reinvent” TV, that Apple had “licked” the problems associated with said reinvention, and that Apple’s solution would liberate TV viewers once and for all from “all these complicated remote controls.”
If you want to tease predictive meaning out of these two Apple CEO statements, the key is in what each of them said and to whom and why.
The iStack Mac Bundle won’t be around forever — in fact, it’s ending soon! In this worthy sequel to the original bundle, we’ve got 10 killer apps (and a bonus e-course for the first 3000 buyers) lined up at a massive savings of 93% off the regular price you’d pay for them separately.
That’s right…you’ll get this Cult of Mac Deals offer for only $49!
Apple and Google joining forces? Welcome to the Cold War (patent pending).
Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in January, and since then the photography pioneer has been trying to sell off its many patents. Over the summer it was reported that Apple and Google were leading separate groups in a bidding war for the valuable portfolio. Now a new report says that Apple and Google have teamed up to place a $500 million bid.
Since the iPhone 5 was released in late September, Apple’s online shipping estimates have had trouble catching up with demand. Earlier this week, Apple’s online store started giving an estimate of 2-4 business for new orders, and now Apple is finally showing the iPhone 5 as being in stock.
As the iPhone 5 expands to more than 50 new countries in the month of December, Apple has managed to stabilize supplies just in time for the holidays. Customers in several countries around the world, including the United States and Canada, will now have their iPhone 5 orders shipped immediately. Notably, the U.K. Apple online store is still showing a 1-3 business day estimate. Unlocked models in the U.S. are shipping in 1-3 business days as well.
This week’s must-have games roundup is by far one of our best yet; it’s filled with five awesome titles that you won’t want to miss. Three of those titles are classic games reborn on iOS, including Grand Theft Auto: Vice City — my personal favorite, Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, and Mutant Mudds.
We also have Gameloft’s incredible new first-person shooter, Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour, and Minigore 2: Zombies, another terrific dual-stick shooter from Mountain Sheep.
One of the better Yuletide traditions is the venerable holiday Advent Calendar, in which each day of December leading up to Christmas is marked off on a special calendar by opening its corresponding door to find a small gift, toy or chocolate squirreled away inside.
This year, we here at Cult of Mac decided we wanted to give our readers their very own Apple-themed advent calendar, filled with the year’s best apps, gadgets, stories and other curios. So each day in December, we’re going to lovingly peel back the door on the Cult of Mac 2012 Advent Calendar to reveal another delicious morsel, something really special that came out this year that we think every one of you should enjoy.
So what’s behind the door on Saturday the 8th? Letterpress for iOS, a word game for the rest of us, with a simple, cutthroat strategy and an amazing visual design!
Say you’re out and about and you find a link that you want to remember to download onto your desktop once you get home. You could copy the URL to Notepad, email it to yourself, or add the page to Pocket, but you’re probably going to forget to do it later or lose the info.
A new utility called Transloader, created by Matthias Gansrigler, makes such situations easier to manage by allowing iPhone and iPad users to remotely download URLs to their Mac when they’re away from the house.
Apple is about to lose the most iconic patent in the late Steve Jobs's 300+ portfolio.
One of Apple’s most prized software patents is commonly referred to as simply “the Steve Jobs patent.” The late CEO himself is listed as one of the key inventors in the patent’s documentation, and it was also referred to as “the iPhone patent” when it was approved back in 2009.
Apple has been using this famous patent in courtrooms to sue the likes of Samsung and Google’s Motorola, but now the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has entirely invalidated the patent until further examination.
Apple has released a big update for all OS X Server users on Mountain Lion. Version 2.2 adds a number of notable features, including the ability to cache app and software updates in the Mac App Store for faster downloads. Administrators can also monitor multiple Time Machines connected to different Macs on the same network and see when they last backed up.
Use Instagram much? If you do, you’ll know that the best part about it is the community of users that’s over there. It’s as vibrant and rocking a community as Twitter or Facebook, all wrapped around photos you take, filter, and share. It’s what Flickr wishes it had become. Poor Flickr.
Anyway, you can have followers on Instagram, just like Twitter. And, also just like Twitter, people can unfollow you when you post something obnoxious, post too much, or just post something they don’t agree with. It’s all very democratic.
If you’ve ever wondered who was following you or who was un-following you, Followers+ might be the app for you.
Building an extremely useful and cool app is a start but just because it’s built doesn’t mean the customers will come. In fact, building the app is just the beginning. Now you need to spread the word, and that requires a whole other set of skills – skills you may not have.
We’re here today to help you acquire some of those skills with this free informative video course.
At the end of Chris Nolan’s 2008 movie The Dark Knight there's a scene in which Batman uses Lucius Fox’s sonar concept to turn every cellphone in Gotham City into a huge sonar-based live map in order to find The Joker. Back in 2012 it was rumored that Apple was interested in applying that same technology to its then-a-gleam-in-Apple’s-eye iPhone 6 handset. The tech would allow Apple to integrate audio sensors into its displays, which could detect the proximity of objects to your iPhone: interrupting your podcast app to alert you that a fast-moving large object is approaching you, for example.
Now obviously it’s a bit difficult to disprove this report given that the iPhone 6 itself is still technically a rumor. This one was also based on an Apple patent, which shows that someone in Cupertino at least took it seriously enough to file the necessary paperwork. However, we’ve heard nothing about it since, while more and more details of the iPhone 6 have been leaking on what seems like a daily basis. Maybe one to chalk up for the unsubstantiated rumor pile!
Which is a real shame because if Apple could’ve figured out a way to license Morgan “Lucius Fox” Freeman’s voice for a next generation Siri the combo could have been a total crowd pleaser.
The iPhone 6 probably isn’t going to come out for another 18 months or so, but seems how it’s so far away, now seems like a great time to fantasize about possible features Apple might throw into the device based on patent filings. It’s Friday. I’m tired. So screw it, let’s talk crazy.
Yesterday the US Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that showed Apple is considering adding hidden audio sensors into the displays of the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and maybe even the iTV if they get around to it. What wasn’t detailed was how Apple plans to use those sensors, but one crazy idea is that Apple might use them to create sonar-maps kind of like in the movie The Dark Knight.
I thought I had the whole “paperless” thing under control until Doxie sent over the new, budget-priced Doxie One for me to review. Trust me: If you snap photos of your receipts with your iPhone in an attempt to banish dead trees from your life, you should probably switch to a portable scanner.
One of the best things about Christmas is the endless number of Ugly Sweater Parties during the build up to Santa smothering me with presents. Sure, ugly sweater parties have become cliché, but I’m not bored of them just yet, and using an iPad to create the ultimate ugly christmas sweater sounds awesome.
I pride myself on my ability to dominate the competition at an ugly sweater party, but never before had I thought to integrate an iPad or iPhone into the costume with the elegance Mark Rober pulls of in the video above. Replicating Mark’s sweater is pretty easy. Just download his Digital Dudz – Christmas app, buy a sweater, cut a hole in it, duck-tape your iPad to the back and you’re done.
Rather than going with a simple fireplace though, I’m thinking of displaying an endless collection of the best/worst GIFs, or just this.
One of the better Yuletide traditions is the venerable holiday Advent Calendar, in which each day of December leading up to Christmas is marked off on a special calendar by opening its corresponding door to find a small gift, toy or chocolate squirreled away inside.
This year, we here at Cult of Mac decided we wanted to give our readers their very own Apple-themed advent calendar, filled with the year’s best apps, gadgets, stories and other curios. So each day in December, we’re going to lovingly peel back the door on the Cult of Mac 2012 Advent Calendar to reveal another delicious morsel, something really special that came out this year that we think every one of you should enjoy.
So what’s behind the door on Friday the 7th? Tweetbot for Mac, the best (and most expensive) Twitter client on the Mac App Store!
If you’re a gamer, enjoy yourself this lazy December Friday afternoon through this wonderful, whimsical two-and-a-half minute video — in which Link, the elven, immortal hero of the Legend of Zelda series — travels across a series of Macs and iOS devices in a university computer land in order to rescue Princess Zelda from the evil wizard Gannon.
Just incredibly well done. Makes me want to load Majora’s Mask up in an emulator on my MacBook Air and while the afternoon away.
T-Mobile recently announced that they’ve reached an agreement with Apple to start selling the iPhone in 2013. Coming on the heels of their iPhone announcement, T-Mobile says they plan to stop subsidizing smartphones in 2013 to give customers more freedom.
All four of the major U.S. carriers offer smartphones at a subsidized price, giving subscribers a discount in exchange for tying them to a two-year contract. The contract helps the carriers retain customers, and the lower price point of the smartphone makes customers happy, but it also ramps up costs and restricts customers from upgrades. T-Mobile says they want to get rid of that system entirely.
Catcha Catcha Aliens calls itself “a mission-based catching game”, which in English means it’s an infinite runner in the style of Temple Run. With a bit of a twist, some great music, and celebrity voiceovers. What’s not to like?
Square Enix has announced today that it will be bringing Final Fantasy IV to iOS devices on December 20, and to Android at some point during 2013. The port appears not to be the original, but instead the title’s remake that was brought to the Nintendo DS with 3D graphics among other features and improvements.
Unlike Facebook and Google, when Apple decides to build a huge new data center, they’re not going to let anybody inside to see the technological marvels that they’ve cooked up. Apple just broke ground on a $68 million data center in Prinveville, Oregon, so rather than waiting forever to get an invite to tour the place, Wired sent out their spy plane to get some pictures.
Only a few parts of the data center have been completed, but it is interesting how close Apple is building their data center to Facebook’s gigantic new twin data center. Maybe being neighbors will help the two companies become best friends.
