Cult of Mac

Meet Sharleen – the terrifying quadrocopter that you’ll want on your side during Armageddon or the impending zombie apocalypse. Made by the guys at FPSRussia, Sharleen is a modified quadrocopter that has been equipped with a submachine and a 100-round magazine. Sharleen is built to thrill and kill, and it’s also completely controlled with an iPad so you can squash your enemies from the comfort of your lazy boy while mayhem spreads on your city streets. Just check out how insane this robot is in the video below.

The term iSheep has been around for quite some time to describe those who purchase Apple products for no other reason than the fact that they’re Apple products and to denote that they all look the same. While I believe every facet of life has its “sheep,” Samsung makes an obvious reference to these iSheep in its latest Samsung Unpacked teaser video where they use sheep to depict “everyone else.”

The Flashback saga has yet to reach its end, as a recent report debunks earlier claims that the number of infected Macs had fallen from 600,000 to 140,000 over a matter of a few days. Apple released a security tool to combat Flashback last week, and Norton Symantec reported that the number of infected machines had fallen to 140,000 shortly after. That number has been proven to be inaccurate.

In an interesting turn of events, the original Flashback whistleblower, Russian security firm Dr. Web, has revealed that around 650,000 Macs are still infected with the notorious trojan. Not only are there many Macs connected to the botnet that were previously unaccounted for, but more OS X computers are added every day.

Microsoft’s online file storage service SkyDrive, got a boost today with the announcement of some new features, including a native Mac client app for OS X Lion. While SkyDrive might lack some of Dropbox’s more advanced features on OS X, it does offer something only a giant like Microsoft can afford: 7 GB of free space for everyone, and up to 25 GB if you already have a Windows Live ID and sign up fast enough.

Mobile purchasing systems based on NFC have a way to go before they become ubiquitous, but other types of mobile payments already here. A great example is the Starbucks app that can be used as a virtual reload-able gift card. When you want to pay with the card, a barista scans a code on your iPhone’s screen.

Starbucks may have made this technology a part of every day life for millions of people, but it isn’t the only company to do. Some airlines offer a virtual boarding pass as part of mobile check-in features.

The same iPhone/smartphone screen as digital token approach may soon extend to your commute as well as your morning coffee or air travel. A pilot project in Boston plans to bring the same NFC-less mobile payment technology to the city’s commuter rail service.

If you don’t think that your Mac is susceptible to a virus, then you couldn’t be more wrong. With the popularity of the Mac growing every day, they are becoming more of a target. If you want to protect your computer – and speed it up at the same time, the latest Cult of Mac Deals offer is just for you!

With this killer bundle you’ll get 1 year of ultimate protection against all known malware and viruses, like the one that recently made the news: Flashback. With VirusBarrier X6 you’ll be able to protect your Mac from network threats, viruses, trojan horses and all other malware. Washing Machine 2 enables you to clean up web files that compromise your privacy and slow down your Mac in the process.

And this deal is only $36 for a limited time. When you think about it, the only thing you have to lose by not taking advantage of this Cult of Mac Deals bundle is your Mac. Don’t let that happen.

Everyone knows that Research In Motion has been on a downward spiral into destruction over the last few years. Sales and profits are plummeting, and the company’s corporate structure is falling apart. The end may be near for the once-popular Blackberry maker.

Recent stats from online trade-in site Gazelle.com reveal that Blackberry trade-ins have increased by 80% over the last month.

Oh, hey there. Remember that computer app we showed you last week that helps you figure out what’s taking up a lot of space on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad? Well, it turns out that lots of folks have burgeoning Other categories, as well. The fine (and ruggedly handsome) folks at OS X Daily have found a couple of solutions to fixing this problem, and we figured we’d share them with you, as well, in today’s tip.

Over the past two years, the iPad has shown up in a wide variety of workplaces. Some of those iPad at work are areas the come immediately to mind like salespeople using iPads to demo solutions and prepare quotes on the fly. Other places are ones that you might never expect like large combines in industrial agriculture.

One of the most recent employers to embrace the iPad is the Denver Broncos. The football team will replace its existing paper playbooks with iPads.

We’ve all seen the ridiculous Samsung videos where they pit some clueless iPhone users against one of their experienced gurus in an attempt to show how you can do more with a Samsung Android device. Well, one Android user decided to switch over to the iPhone to see for himself which of the operating systems was truly easier or “simpler” to use. After 30 days of using an iPhone, he finds iOS to be much more frustrating and actually more difficult to use. Well, not so much “difficult” as cumbersome.

If Kickstarter were a forest, you wouldn’t be able to see it for all the iPhone camera adapter cases littering its leafy, money-begging hummocks. And here we bring you another photo-friendly sapling of an invention, only this one is a little different. It’s called the Magnifi, and it works with pretty much any piece of imaging equipment that ends with “-scope” (or “-lars, as we shall see in a second).

Boy, can press releases be deceptive. When we recieved the email and photos from Logitech earlier this year unveiling the outfit’s cool new mouse/presentation device, we had the impression the little brick was much bigger than it actually is. In fact, the $70, wireless Cube is tiny — so tiny that it almost seems designed for the hands of a five-year-old.

Note: Since posting this article we received the following sound advice from app designer Propellerhead regarding the issue of latency we experienced with this app: “Try re-booting your iPad!” And it worked! The time delay reported herein seemed like a fun dimension intrinsic to the app, but this is not the case. My bad.

Figure is a new music-making app for iOS that allows users with a few minutes to spare to come up with electro / synth-pop grooves quickly while on the go. It’s a load of fun and sounds great, and you will never know what you are going to create next… really.

Everyone is hoping that the next generation iPhone will be unveiled with significant design changes. Maybe an aluminum backing, a bigger screen, or even a haptic home button will make an appearance on a redesigned iPhone. Details are scant on what the “iPhone 5” will look like, but if these newest leaks are to be believed it looks like the next iPhone will still have a home button.

New part leaks were spotted today on TVC Mall that show black and white home buttons for the iPhone 5. At first glance the buttons look like those found on the newest iPhone 4S, but closer inspection shows a few differences.

You have a camera, and maybe you have an old flashgun lying around the place. Problem: while you know what to do with the camera, even in all-manual mode, you are terrified of that flash. Used on top the camera it washes everything out and makes it look like a drunken birthday party photo taken in a bar. Used off the camera… well, in that direction there be dragons.

You really should learn to use off-camera flash. But seeing as you never will, Photojojo’s neat set of flash-filters will at least give that old strobe something to do.

Minimalism is a fascinating thing. Our world is getting increasingly loud and busy, yet many are starting to want more minimal and distraction-free experiences. Apps specifically are another way that the minimalism trend can be observed; more and more applications are getting back to the roots by cutting away superfluous effects and features.

Pop is a perfect example of how minimalism manifests itself in a basic iOS app. Unlike other writing apps for the iPhone and iPad, Pop is just a blank pad to jot down text. Nothing else. Nothing at all… But really, that’s all there is.

Sony has announced two new all-in-one speaker docks for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod today, which claim to be the world’s first speakers to use magnetic fluid for dampening. Both devices also feature built-in DAB radios and CD players, while one also offers wireless Bluetooth connectivity and your own light show.

There have been a handful of technologies touted over the past few years that would remove (or dramatically reduce) the need to carry our credit/debit cards, loyalty cards, and even cash. For the past couple of years, NFC has been the technology of choice for turning our phones into digital wallets. Google and RIM have built NFC support into their respective mobile OSes and a handful of manufacturers have built NFC phones, but the technology hasn’t lived up to the hype.

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera is calling itself a “digital film” camera, and with a 2.5K sensor and a 13-stop dynamic range, that description mightn’t be far off the mark. Amazingly, it’s also cheap — in the relative terms of movie cameras, that it. The Blackmagic comes in at “just” $3,000.

Another day, another cool thing you can do with Alfred. This time it’s updating a text file of your choice, without having to leave Alfred’s friendly text input window.

Over the past few months, we’ve heard some delusional things from RIM executives, some sober assessments of its dire straights, and even the story of RIM execs being kicked off a plane for being too drunk and unruly. With that gamut of events, it shouldn’t be too shocking that RIM’s VP of developer relations Alec Saunders recently resorted to a public temper tantrum, complete with condescending personal insults, when the development team behind YouMail announced plans to abandon the BlackBerry platform.

The ability to share my documents across all of my devices and have them with me wherever I go is indispensable to me, and so Dropbox is one service I couldn’t be without. However, one of its biggest flaws has always been the difficulty in sharing documents.

That’s no longer the case with Dropbox’s latest update, which makes it super simple to share your files with your friends, family, and colleagues.

AT&T is finally unlocking iPhones at the end of a completed contract, but if you bought the new iPhone 4S you’re going to be waiting another 18 months or so until your phone is eligible for an official carrier unlock. What if you want to use your iPhone on T-Mobile, or maybe go overseas and use a local carrier rather than pay for some crazy out of coverage fees? Fortunately, hacker Loktar_Sun has discovered an incredibly easy way to unlock your iPhone 4S or any other iPhone. The process is super easy – all you need is a jailbroken iPhone, and these 13 easy-to-follow steps.

Time Warner recently added the ability to live stream national and regional sports networks from the TWC TV app for the iPad, iPhone, Android 4.0 smartphones and tablets, and TWCTV.com. Any Time Warner Cable video subscriber living in New York, Dallas, or Charlotte will now have the ability to live stream their favorite sports channels at no extra cost by using the TWC TV app.

Just as expected, Intel launched its first crop of quad-core Ivy Bridge processors today. This is the chip that will replace the company’s Sandy Bridge CPUs in Apple’s next-generation of Macs. They’re the world’s first processors to use a 22-nanometer manufacturing process and feature Intel’s “Tri-Gate” 3D transistor technology.