You lucky thing. The summer’s over, or nearly over, and you’re already planning on heading back to school. Just like last year, you will begin this year fresh and full of energy and enthusiasm, only to be ground down by the man. Luckily, we’re here to help with advice on the best apps and gear to get you through the year and into next year’s summer vacation with the least effort possible.
So sit back, relax and take a look at the Cult of Mac back to school/college superguide.
Here’s a great freebie for all you Cult of Mac fans. We have a slick looking WordPress theme designed to show off your new iOS app idea. Simple as that. A premium theme usually $37 now FREE for you for just a short time. So, go check out the theme for yourself and then come back and download it. Why? Because it’s free and I’m sure there is always a project that you can find a great theme for.
Speaking of free, our Retina MacBook Pro Giveaway is also ending soon! Better check that one out ASAP.
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Social bookmarking service Pinterest today announced a new app for Android and iOS in a move to appeal to an even larger audience. If you’ve not used the service, it’s like a image-based social bookmarking system. You “pin” websites to your own Pinterest account, then share the pinned bookmarks via categorical lists. It has a heavy Facebook and Twitter integration as well, and last week it opened the doors to the general public, not requiring an invite any longer.
Wood is, indeed, awesome. Speaker makers have been using wood for years to wrap high-end speakers in, utilizing the highly resonant natural properties of wood for sound reproduction. Now, with the all the rage for tiny bluetooth speakers like the Jambox and the Logitech Mini Boombox, perhaps it’s time for something just a bit more, well, woody.
We told you last week that Sprint was selling iPhone 4S models for discounted prices, and that Apple had quietly authorized its retail employees to match discounts from other carriers as well as from Sprint.
Well, in a second surprise move, Sprint has started selling new iPhone 4S devices for $50, which represents a huge discount even on top of the $150 it started selling them for the last time we reported on it.
Earlier this morning Cult of Mac reported that 35-year-old homeless man, Kariem McFarlin, broke into Steve Jobs’ house and stole more than $60,000 worth of computers and personal items.
We now have a list of items McFarlin stole, which includes a lot of Apple hardware, and some personal items, like Steve Jobs’ wallet, that still had his license, credit card, and the $1 annual salary he earned as CEO of Apple.
NFL teams may be embracing the iPad, but the league seems a bit mixed in its approach to fans carrying iPhones, iPads, and other mobile devices. Despite a plan announced earlier this summer that NFL stadiums would be equipped with large-scale Wi-Fi access along with mobile apps for fans to use while at a game, the NFL has decided to take a much more cautious approach to game-day technology.
Earlier this year, amid reports that tickets sales for NFL had fallen for a fifth straight year in a row, the league announced free Wi-Fi and some ambitious in-stadium perks for fans willing to put down the money to see their favorite team play in person. Unfortunately for most fans, only five stadiums will be offering these features during the 2012 season.
In a somewhat surprising turn of events in the Apple-Samsung trial, the Korean electronics company claimed today that Apple products infringe on its own software patents. Harvard EECS professor Woodward Yang testified that three different functions in Apple products appeared to be based on those found in earlier Samsung patents.
Another study of the bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon concludes that the trend of employees bringing the personal iPhones, iPads, and other devices into the office shows no sign of slowing down. It also confirms previous reports that indicate many personal devices being used in the workplace don’t have even basic security features enabled.
The study by Coalfire, a company the specializes in IT risk management services, paints a particularly grim picture of the lack of security for iOS and Android devices in the workplace. With the BYOD trend show no signs of slowing or ending, Coalfire CEO Rick Dakin, notes that companies cannot afford to keep ignoring mobile security concerns.
If you’re a fan of the new Notes app in OS X Mountain Lion as I am, you’re probably annoyed by the sparse list of three default fonts included with the app, just like in iOS. Sure, you can choose a different, note-specific font with a little work, but until now, there’s been no easy way to set a good default font for all of your notes. Luckily, it’s now possible to add fonts to iPad to customize your notes just the way you want.
Thanks to the easy little workaround I’ll show you in this video, you’ll finally be able to ditch Marker Felt once and for all, and choose the font of your choice within Notes.
Earlier today, EA issued a press release for its upcoming SimCity. Within the release, it was revealed that both the game and EA’s Origin client would be making its way to Mac. This news not only signified the return of Sims to Mac, but also that EA was becoming more serious about getting its Steam competitor out to other platforms. I say platforms because later on during the company’s GamesCom press conference, they announced their plans to also bring Origin to Android, Facebook, and SmartTVs.
As we mentioned in yesterday’s tip, sometimes you need to just clear out some space from your iPhone or iPad to make room for new photos as they come in, whether you’re taking them on the device itself or using PhotoStream. As one commenter mentioned yesterday, all these different sources of photos tend to make the number of them add up.
But what if you just want to dump a bunch of photos at once, say, while you’re away from the computer? Turns out, it’s just as easy as pie. Or cake. Whatever.
It’s widely know that that the MagSafe 2 connector found on the new Retina MacBook Pro likes to sever its connection at the slightest chance. But who cares, right? After all, if it comes loose, you just plug it back in – it’s not like it’s the cable to your boot drive or anything.
I’ll tell you who cares: Lukas Mathis. Lukas didn’t notice his weak Mag”Safe” connector disconnecting, and the result was a cracked and ruined Retina screen.
For years, Growl was the good old, third-party standby when it came to OS X notifications, but with Mountan Lion, Apple’s ported Notification Center to OS X, giving everyone a built-in drawer for keeping up with all the little messages their apps send burbling up for attention. Unfortunately, while a lot of apps still use Growl for notifications, these don’t show up in Notification Center.
Growl will eventually be updated with Notification Center support, solving the problem, but in the meantime, here’s another great way to do the same thing: Mountain Growl. Not only will it push all your Growl notifications to Notification Center, but you keep full Growl support, allowing you to continue using remote notifications or Prowl, as well as a lot of granularity of control over the notifications you see.
If you’ve been having a hard time waiting for Growl to get proper Mountain Lion support, this is a good app to try.
Source: Mountain Growl
Via: Lifehacker
Image: Lifehacker
Apple rested its case yesterday late in the afternoon but its work proving its patents were seriously infringed upon is just getting started. Today marks the first full day of Samsung witnesses and we expect to hear testimony tailored to break down patent claims related to touch screen technology, UI design, and maybe even hardware manufacturing.
What resolution is Retina resolution? 220 ppi (like the new MacBook Pro)? 264 ppi (like the iPad 3)? Or the amazing 326 ppi found on the iPhone?
What about 10,000 ppi? That’s the resolution of an image printed by researchers at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore. It’s the picture you see above which, at just 50 x 50 microns, is the same size as a single pixel on an Apple Retina display.
By huge coincidence, I downloaded the brand new Withings app moments after its launch, almost by accident. The new app, which is iPhone-only (or pixel-doubled on the iPad) until a future update arrives), does a much nicer job than the old one of tying together the data from Withings’ various health devices, and remains completely free.
Dark Sky started as a Kickstarter project and turned into a gorgeous, functional iOS weather app. Cult of Mac’s Charlie Sorrel praised the app when it launched back in April, and Dark Sky has since seen great success.
The key feature of Dark Sky is its ability to quickly tell you when it’s going to storm. In a huge 2.0 update, Dark Sky has gotten even better with several improvements, including the ability to send you a push notification before it starts raining.
For any fantasy football fan, draft day can be filled with mixed emotions – excitement at the impending start of the season, hope that you’ll get to build your dream team, and nervousness about where you’ll be in the draft order and whether or not you’ll get your top picks before someone else does.
Predicting the outcome of any fantasy draft is hard to do because there are so many variables in terms of drafting order, draft type, the team that you want to build, and the choices that other members of your league will make. That said, solid research and preparation can go a long way to helping you build a winning team and there are some great iPhone and iPad apps out there to help you before and during your draft.
EA has announced that the next major installment of SimCity will be headed to the Mac in February, 2013. The game will debut on both the PC and Mac, but PC users have access to an early beta starting tomorrow.
The Mac version of the new SimCity will be available as a digital download through EA’s Origin. Pricing has not yet been announced.
My contract with AT&T is finally up, which might be the most glorious moment of my smartphone owning days. I’ve been jealous of my friend’s using their iPhones on Verizon for over a year, and now I can join them and maybe get some better service. Or go to Sprint. Hell, I might even go to Virgin Mobile and save some fat stacks of cheddar on their pre-paid plans.
I don’t know exactly what I’ll do, but I’m free, and that’s the important part. But what about you guys? Do you plan to switch carriers when the new iPhone comes out? Is the grass really greener in other cellular pastures? Or is it pretty much all the same? I’d love to hear your thoughts or stories about switching carriers in the comments.
Pop quiz: what color is the mirror inside your camera? If you answered “No color. It’s a mirror. What the hell are you on about this time, Sorrel?” then you’re dead wrong. Kinda. It turns out that mirrors are ever-so-slightly green.
Here’s a handy feature in Apple’s new Maps app in iOS 6: When you’re traveling and you get near to roadworks, or there are roadworks ahead of you, Maps will throw up a new roadworks icon to alert you to them. What’s makes this feature really awesome is that you can then tap on that icon to find out more about the construction, including its start and description.
Rumors surrounding Apple’s next iPhone have reached a fever pitch in the weeks leading up to the expected announcement date, September 12th. With pre-orders rumored to begin on the same day, Apple is expected to see record sales this holiday season. Anticipation for the next iPhone is higher than it’s ever been, and smartphone sales from the past quarter reflect that fact.
Gartner’s results for Q2 show slowed iPhone growth, with Apple sitting behind Samsung and Nokia in worldwide smartphone sales.
IM+ and IM+ Pro, two hugely popular messaging apps from Shape Services, have been updated today to introduce a new feature dubbed “Off-the-Record” messaging. It’s a $4.99 in-app purchase that allows users to have secret, encrypted conversations with other IM+ users.