Cult of Mac

There are quite a few apps out there that share your location data and allow you to check in at a place, like Foursquare, Facebook, etc. They’re pretty fantastic, and they let your friends see where you are at, and then come meet you.

But what if you want to share where you are going to be in a little while? What about letting your friends know that you’re on your way, and letting them track where you are, how far away you are, and when you’ll arrive at a certain location? Glympse has got your back for that very thing, and some other great stuff.

Power! It’s the stuff I’m always hunting for in the halls of conventions, like the upcoming 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). For you see, when you’re multi-touching your iPhone 5 morning, noon, and night, a once-a-day charge isn’t going to cut it.

So this year, when I’m gadget-hunting on the floors of CES, in my bag I’ll definitely be carrying the Mophie Juice Pack Powerstation ($79). It’s tiny, looks great (more on that in a sec), and will charge a dying iPhone 5 up to two times. Yes sir, in my short time with it thus far, I reckon it’s already become one of my favorite new iPhone accessories.

There are two sure fire ways to get Apple’s legal team to blitz you with a thunderpunch of litigation: 1) make an action figure doll in the likeness of Steve Jobs and advertise it as a Steve Jobs doll 2) Use the Apple logo, or anything that kind of almost looks like the Apple logo, on a product you’re selling.

Leofrutta, a fruit company in Sicily, is guilty of option number two. They don’t even try to morph the Apple logo into something a little bit different, instead they just use an exact replica of the bitten apple made famous by Steve Jobs. They’re not just using the Apple logo on their truck though, it’s all over their website too.

Here’s a screenshot:

At last! A proper Lightning dock for your iPhone, complete with its own built-in, pivoting Lightning connector. No longer do you need to sacrifice a valuable (read: overpriced) Apple Lightning cable to make a dock work with an iPhone 5.

The world has hated Apple Maps with a fiery passion, and Apple is ready to clean house and get rid of key people who were in charge of the disaster.

According to a tweet by Bloomberg news, Richard Williamson, the executive behind Apple’s new Maps app, just got fired by Eddy Cue. After Scott Forstall was recently fired, Cue was given the reigns on the Maps app and it appears that he’s wasting no time getting things fixed.

Good lord! Where do we even begin with this crazy iPhone case? With the list of its capabilities I guess, and maybe a video of it (literally) screwing around.

Fruitiny is a retro-style memory game for iOS, one of those games that takes about 10 seconds to learn and many hours of tapping to conquer.

The Mac Pro has been sitting in a forgotten corner of the Apple campus, relatively untouched for the last two years. And who can blame Apple for focusing on the iPad and iPhone when the Mac Pro just hasn’t been selling all that well.

Last summer Apple did throw a two year-old Intel Xeon E5645 chip into the monstrous beast, but that just pissed Mac Pro fans off even more, so Tim Cook sent an email out reassuring customers that a new Mac Pro will be coming in 2013. OS X Mountain Lion has a few internal configuration files for the new Mac Pro, and the latest OS X 10.8.3 beta also hints that the AMD Radeon HD 7000 series might be coming to the Mac Pro in 2013 as well.

Australian airline Qantas has announced its support for Apple’s Passbook service, allowing users to checkin using digital boarding passes on their iPhones.

A USB 2.0 Ethernet adapter is a pitiful thing, an ugly workaround only really useful when you find yourself in a Wi-Fi-free hotel room with only your MacBook Air for company.

A USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet adapter, on the other hand, is every bit as good as having a real 10/1000 network connector hole in the side of your machine.

Adobe pushed out a big update to its Ideas app for iOS today, introducing a number of news tools and features that promise to give you “more creative options and control.” There are enhanced tools for drawing, working with color, and managing layers, Adobe says — in addition to support for the iPhone 5, iPad mini, and iOS 6.

The iPhone 5 has become Apple’s fastest-selling iPhone yet, with 5 million units sold during its first three days of availability. More than two months after its debut, the handset is still facing a one-week shipping delay via the Apple online store. In fact, the device is selling so well that it just helped iOS overtake Android’s market share in the United States.

What could be classier than adding a few extra millimeters to the height of your keycaps whilst simultaneously collaborating in the death of a walnut or cherry tree? Nothing, that’s what. Which is why these Lazerwood keys for Apple keyboards are pretty much the best thing ever.

I remain firmly of the opinion that a driver should drive, and not sip coffee, or listen to the radio, or text his lover, or use cruise-control. As a cyclist, I rely on the pilots of these road-going behemoths to pay attention to the road in order for me to remain alive.

So I have mixed feelings about a gadget which puts a cellphone within such easy reach.

If you’re anything like me, you use the Messages app in OS X Mountain Lion to keep chatting with those iMessage-happy iOS users in your group of friends when you’re at your computer. Nothing’s more annoying than having to pick up my iPhone while I’m on my Mac, just to text someone back.

With the OS X Messages app, I can just chat with them as if they were on any other instant message client, using the full keyboard on my app instead of the tiny one on my iPhone. Sometimes, though, friends might send along a web link. When I don’t want to have to click through to see it in Safari or Chrome, I preview it right in Messages.

Apple promised us that its new 21.5-inch iMac would be available to order before the end of November, and it will be — just about. The Cupertino company has issued a press release confirming that the new all-in-one will be available on Friday, November 30.

Sometimes, you really need to make an important Skype call when you’re on the go. Or you want to use your bike as a giant (and slightly unwieldy) “tripod” for your camera. At these times, what you need is Photojojo’s Bikepod

General Motors has announced that its upcoming Chevrolets will be the world’s first cars to offer “Eyes Free” Siri integration, allowing drivers to use the voice control capabilities of their iPhone without taking their hands off the wheel. The feature will be integrated into GM’s MyLink infotainment system.

Black Friday was just the beginning. Now that Cyber Monday has arrived, there’s plenty to offer our readers here at Cult of Mac. Most notably, we’ve got a pair of killer Cult of Mac Deals offers lined up for you that will net you a whole slew of value for under $100!

To celebrate Cyber Monday, we’re offering two great bundles – The iStack Mac Bundle and The Mac Utility Bundle – that on their own are standout sales – but together they are perhaps the best deal we’ve ever offered.

BetaDwarf definitely walks the walk, instead of just talking the talk. In their Kickstarter video, the indie developer team from Copenhagen, Denmark talk about how sleeping over at the university while learning game development got a bit silly, so they all moved out of their apartments and into a house to finish development on their game, Forced, which will play like a cooperative version of Diablo crossed with Left 4 Dead, according to the developers.

The guys worked and worked on their game, which if funded will be coming soon for Mac, Windows, Linux, Xbox360, PS3 and Ouya. Then they realized they needed some money to finish, so that they could pay, like rent and stuff. The idea for a Kickstarter campaign was born.

With all the junk floating out there at the Apple App Store and Google Play (Android users, you get the nastier end of the shaft in this case), it’s no wonder good apps can often go undiscovered and neglected, withering pitifully under a heap of flashy debris.

One way to find diamond-in-the-rough apps — or apps that actually do what you want them to — is to regularly read blogs like either of the Cult twins. But there’s another way, and it involves using an app discovery tool like Hubbl.

Good news, everyone! Barnes & Noble’s Nook app for iOS has just been updated with support for Apple’s fantastic VoiceOVer accessibility feature, as well as the zoom functionality. This brings the Nook iOS app up to parity with iBooks, the only other iOS e-reader app that can be used by folks with a visual impairment or learning disability to have books read out loud.

Zoom lets those with low vision see the screen at much higher magnification than just increasing the font size, allowing them to use the buttons, icons, and other visual interface systems that they can’t see at the standard size on the iPad or iPhone screen.

The original Air Display is a great way to add a temporary second screen to any laptop or desktop Macintosh. It’s also super easy to set up and use, as we told you in an iOS tip a while back.

Unfortunately, it’s also a bit on the spendy side. While $10 really isn’t that much to spend for quality software that lets your Mac use an iPad as a second monitor, some folks might not want to spend that much without giving it a good try first.

Two months after Apple released the iPhone 5 and iOS 6, Google Voice has finally been updated. Google’s official iOS app received support for the newest iPhone’s taller display and iOS 6 today.

About time.

CultCast listeners know that I have a particular fondness for Christopher Walken. Sometimes he even likes to make an appearance on the podcast. It’s truly magical.

My love for Walken means that I couldn’t be more excited for an upcoming iOS app called Cowbell Hero. With the app, I’ll be able to relive the infamous Saturday Night Live skit in all of its glory. I gotta have more cowbell. I really do.