Black Friday isn’t for a few more days, but that isn’t stopping Cult of Mac Deals from kicking things off early. First up is a utility bundle packaged to “supercharge” your Mac.
Parallels 8 was recently revamped to not only be faster and more powerful, but more importantly, now it plays nice with both Mountain Lion and Windows 8. If you’ve ever wanted to run Windows on your Mac, this is the way to go.
If you’re looking to pick up a few of Gameloft’s hit titles at a fraction of the cost, you might want to check out the holiday sale they have going on right now. Starting today and running throughout the weekend, Gameloft is offering up a few hit titles for $0.99 each. Titles include The Amazing Spider-Man, BackStab, and more. Gameloft is certainly among the top publishers of console quality mobile games, so don’t miss out on this great deal.
Apple TV is just a hobby, but it’s still a pretty great product that beats most of the other low-cost entertainment service set-top boxes on the market. It turns out that Microsoft may want in on the action and is building there own Apple TV type of device to compete with Apple.
Sources at Microsoft have confirmed to The Verge that the Redmond company has plans to introduce a low-cost alternative to its Xbox console that will compete more directly with the Apple TV.
When Apple announced iTunes 11, they told us that they would totally get it launched by the end of October. Then, at the end of October, they said they’re gonna need more time, but they pinky-promised they would get it out in November. For real.
Based on the history of Apple’s software releases, we estimated that the most likely date for Apple to release iTunes 11 would be November 16th, but that date has obviously passed. However, it sounds like Apple is finally ready to release iTunes 11 in the next few days, because artists are getting emails telling them to get ready.
I didn’t expect Card Now to actually make me laugh, but it did. The idea of a business card-conjuring trick app made me shiver with horror – why would I inflict such a thing on other people?
But the reality, when I tried it out, was hilarious. When I “magically” pulled a freshly-printed business card off of my phone’s screen and into the real world, people’s reactions were delightful. I ended up laughing out loud.
If you’re really into investing and the stock market and all that fun, heart-wrenching stuff, then now might be a great time to buy some Apple stock if you believe Disney’s CEO Bob Iger knows what he’s doing.
On Monday, Iger bought $1 million worth of Apple shares, according to documents filed with the SEC. Along with being the CEO of Disney, Iger is also on Apple’s board of Directors. But he’s not just buying Apple stock; he’s ditching his Disney stock while he’s at it.
Despite taking control of Apple just 18 months ago, Tim Cook has been named by CNBC as the highest paid CEO in America. With an average annual compensation of around $95 million, Cook beats Oracle’s Larry Ellison and JC Penney’s Ron Johnson to the top spot.
Apple Stores usually have some pretty neat display art at the front of all their stores, but this year’s holiday display is probably one of their coolest ever. We’re calling it the iWreath (for obvious reasons). It’s a holiday wreath comprised of iPod touches, Smart Covers, and an iPhone.
Okay, so they didn’t use real Apple products to form the iWreath, but it’s still pretty amazing even if it’s just a cardboard printout. If you head over to your local Apple Store sometime between now and Christmas you’ll be able to see the wonder of the iWreath for yourself.
Source: Twitter
Back in February, I told you about an awesome iPhone 4S case called the Cellhelmet, which comes with one year of accidental damage cover absolutely free. If your iPhone gets damaged while inside the case, Cellhelmet will get it repaired or replaced — all you pay is the handling charge.
Now Cellhelmet’s coming to your iPhone 5.
Want an iPad? Best Buy has a great deal on the still-perfectly-excellent-and-less-than-a-year-old, third-gen model with Retina display: not only are they charging $50 less per iPad today only, but you’ll also walk away with a $75 gift card.
The deal is good today only, one iPad per customer, and you can only choose between a $649 64GB iPad WiFi in black or a $549 32GB iPad WiFi in black or white. After the discount is applied, you’re talking about $599 and $499 respectively. Shipping is free, but you have to order online.
Even so, that’s a heck of a deal: if you don’t have an iPad or have considered getting one for a loved one, you’re not going to beat this savings before the holiday.
A hacker has been found guilty of a massive security breach that exposed the emails of more than 114,000 iPad owners back in 2010. Andrew Auernheimer was one of two Goatse Security members who were arrested for exposing the major flaw in AT&T’s database, and he now faces two five-year charges.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is saying that Apple has basically solved their iPhone 5 supply issues in the United States, and that in a couple weeks, anyone who wants an iPhone will be able to just walk into a store and buy the one they want without any chance of leaving empty handed. Just in time for the holidays!
Nobody likes speaking to an automated phone system — they’re more unreliable than Siri — but a lot of companies use them, including Apple. You don’t necessarily have to speak to them for very long, however. Simply say the F-word next time you phone AppleCare and straight away you’ll be transferred to a human being — though your problem may not get solved any quicker.
Keyboard shortcuts are great. They let you do things on your Mac faster, letting you get to more stuff in less time. In Safari, for example, Command-1, -2, -3, and so on will open the sites in the Bookmarks Bar in order, from left to right.
There’s a Favorites Bar in the OS X Mail app that works similarly. You can drag Mailboxes that you use often to it. To show it, go to the View menu in Mail and choose Show Favorites Bar.
AT&T has notoriously been stingy, which made it no surprise back in August when they announced that they would only allow subscribers on Shared data plans — and not grandfathered plans — to utilize the new FaceTime over Cellular feature in 2016.
Call it an early Christmas present, call it a change of heart, but AT&T has now opened up FaceTime over Cellular to grandfathered unlimited data plans.
Apple’s upcoming Spaceship campus, which was presented to the city of Cupertino by Steve Jobs shortly before he passed away last year, has been delayed until mid-2016. Bloomberg reports the new building won’t be finished until later than previously projected, but insists there have been no major changes to the plans that were originally unveiled.
“Clementine, are you alright? Where are you!?”
These whispered words, uttered by series protagonist Lee Everett to his lost young friend, Clementine, begin the trailer for the final episode of Walking Dead The Game, available for iOS and Mac starting tomorrow. Of course, if you’re a PlayStation Network member, you can get the game today.
I’ve seen the iPad morph into a lot of things, but the press release for this little trick definitely slackened my jaw: It’s an appcessory that turns the iPad into a miniature foosball table.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xHquhlr45w
The golden tones of Jeff Daniels once again grace Apple’s iPhone 5 ad campaign in two new commercials on the official Apple YouTube channel tonight.
The first ad, titled Turkey, is all about Photo Streams and how they’re easily shared with just the people you want to. It’s a fun little commercial, just in time for the US holiday of Thanksgiving, with plenty of puns and, of course, pie.
The second video takes a different tack.
After months of silence, big accessory makers are finally starting to rollout products for Apple’s Lightning dock connector just in time for the holidays. One such example is Griffin’s new PowerJolt SE car charger. The cord plugs into your car’s 12 volt power outlet and channels 10 watts of juice to your Lightning-equipped iOS device.
My iPhone would die if I couldn’t charge it in the car. I’ve been using a 30-pin Belkin charger with Apple’s Lightning adapter since I got my iPhone 5, but Griffin sent me the new PowerJolt SE last week.
Sometimes, discovering a free app is like finding gold; other times, it’s more like finding a rock covered in gold paint. Case in point: While we really dig the free version of HoursTracker HD for iPad, the freebie of the iPhone version is severely hobbled — and not nearly as useful.
But just for today, the superb full version of the HoursTracker iPhone app is free.
A couple weeks ago we told you that Borderlands 2 was coming to the Mac this month. Fast forward to today, and the highly-anticipated shooter has hit OS X only two months after it debuted on the PC.
And who said Macs couldn’t be gaming consoles?
Amazon’s popular mobile app for iOS received a significant update today. Version 2.3.1 brings the ability to receive push notifications when a package has shipped and been delivered. Amazon can also send daily alerts for its “Lightning Deals.”
The app’s iPad interface has also been updated with pinch/double-tap-to-zoom for product images and descriptions.
I have always believed that if Apple designed a Photoshop competitor, it would be something like Pixelmator: clean, powerful, and intuitive. While Photoshop will set you back hundreds of dollars, Pixelmator can normally be purchased for only $30 in the Mac App Store.
Not only is price a huge factor, but Pixelmator is also updated more aggressively than Photoshop. For example, Pixelmator looks great on the new MacBook Pro’s amazing Retina display, but Adobe still hasn’t Retina-ized most of its Creative Suite.
The folks who make Pixelmator have announced a special holiday discount. For a limited time, the image editor is being sold for 50% off!
For developers, distributing promo codes can be a pain in the neck. Apple gives its third-party devs the ability to share an app with a limited number of users—a feature that is often used to give bloggers like myself early access to software before it comes out. That way we can test and get familiar with a certain app in order to provide helpful feedback and possibly write a review.
A new Mac app called Tokens offers developers a drastically improved method for generating and distributing their app promo codes.