Cult of Mac

Just to let everyone know, this deal is ending in 16 hours, so if you’ve been debating whether you should buckle down and buy it, now is the time for action.

Admit it. Sometimes when you see people’s photos online your body tingles with jealousy. You probably think, “If only I knew Photoshop I could do that too!” Well, Cult of Mac is here to help you on your quest to join the ranks of great photographers on the internet. And while our newest deal won’t buy you any actual skill with a camera, it will make your pictures look awesome. This week we’re offering a discounted Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Beginners Course. Normally this package would cost $150, but Udemy is hooking us up and giving it to us for $49. This killer online video course comes with over 230 videos and 13.5 hours of one-on-one training for 67% off the retail price.

Anyone will tell you that Photoshop CS5 is the definitive tool for photographers or web designers…but that doesn’t really mean much if you don’t know how to take advantage of what it offers!

Apple could offer three versions of its popular tablet in 2012 by repeating a tactic seen with the iPhone. The tech giant may introduce the iPad 3 with a high resolution screen, while also unveiling the iPad 2S for customers wanting more speed, and converting the iPad 2 into a lower-cost entry-level model.

Apple’s release of Final Cut Pro X earlier this year was controversial, to say the least. While the update finally brought 64-bit support to the flagship video editing application, it left behind loads of functionality that users of Final Cut Pro 7 and Final Cut Pro 8 had come to depend upon.

In fact, the debacle was so bad that except for the speed increases that came from Final Cut Pro X’s 64-bit support, many video professionals thought the update was effectively a downgrade from FCP8. Which makes today’s report even more incredible, because a prominent Final Cut expert is now asserting that Apple killed off a completed 64-bit version of Final Cut Pro 8 at the last minute. What?

Apple and Google have chosen to opt out of a new industry-sponsored app ratings system developed by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) in favor of their own internal systems. CTIA-The Wireless Association and ESRB issued a press release announcing the new system today, but both companies were absent from the list of adoptees.

I’ve had a few friends experience a problem with their Spotlight search results after upgrading to Mac OS X Lion and at other times for other reasons. They claimed to search for items that they knew were somewhere on their computer, but Spotlight wasn’t able to find them in both cases.

Here’s a down and dirty fix for Spotlight that is useful when Spotlight seems to stop providing the results you expect. It is also useful when you just want Spotlight to re-index your system.

Sometimes when moving to a newer computer, you realize only after the old system is gone that you’re missing some data. With the proliferation of iPhones and iPads, cloud based services can help transfer things like Contacts and Calendars if incomplete:

My old Mac Pro was running OS X 10.4.11 and my new MacBook Pro came with Snow Leopard. Using Migration assistant just about everything except Contacts transferred correctly. Now the Mac Pro is across the country in NV and I am near DC. The only thing that has my old Contacts is my iPad. How do I transfer my old Contacts from the iPad to the new MacBook Pro without losing them when I sync?

Clint

Gameloft is famous for producing terrific iOS games that are inspired by hit releases on consoles like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Its upcoming release, Six Guns, will appeal to those who are fans of Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption.This trailer shows off the wild west gun slinger in all its glory, and it looks pretty darn awesome.

An Australian court has lifted the ban placed on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 allowing the Korean company to sell its Android-powered iPad rival down under. However, it had better start shifting them quick, because Apple is preparing to appeal the decision to the High Court.

Alfred is a relatively new launcher app for the Mac, and the tool has received a warm welcome from the Apple community since it launched in beta form last year. Today the development company behind Alfred, Running with Crayons, has launched Alfred 1.0, and the update brings with it many new features.

While Alfred offers many of the same launching abilities as other apps, like Quicksilver and LaunchBar, version 1.0 reinforces that Alfred is way more than your typical launcher tool for the Mac.

Multiple tricks for gaining quick access to settings toggles on the iPhone’s Home screen have been making the news lately, and many rejoiced that such a thing could be accomplished without needing to jailbreak.

In the iOS 5.1 beta, it’s been discovered that Apple has blocked access to these settings shortcuts. How lame!

Apple has released an update to Safari on the desktop. Safari 5.1.2 is now available in Software Update with multiple bug fixes.

An issue that has been plaguing many users involving webpages flashing white has been corrected, and PDFs can now be viewed within web content. A number of stability and memory issues have also been addressed, so Safari should work faster now.

Insider sources are telling The Daily that Microsoft is planning to bring its Office suite to the App Store. Specifically, the Redmond company has an Office business app for the iPad in the pipeline.

Apple offers its own iWork productivity suite on iOS, including Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. Microsoft apparently wants a piece of the word processing action, and its sights are set on Office for the iPad.

Outside my local Apple Store in Bath

DerManDar is a cute three-dollar panoramic photography app for iPhone, and it produces some lovely pictures.

It works like this: you hold the phone vertically, and turn slowly on the spot. The app takes snaps for you (you don’t need to hit the shutter button for each one) then stitches them together into an elongated panoramic view.

We told you about iTether last night, a new app in the App Store that let anyone have unlimited tethering from their iPhone’s 3G connection for a one-time purchase of $15.

We were all amazed that iTether made it past Apple’s stringent App Store review process, and no one expected the app to remain available for very long. Apple has since pulled iTether from the App Store, and the developers behind the app have explained why.

The other day a friend and I were discussing the merits of the iPhone 4S camera and the new software features in iOS 5. He was grumbling about not being able to see his camera roll after taking some snapshots. His complaint was that he had to switch between apps and leave the Camera app to go to the Photos app just to see the photos he just took. I explained to him that he didn’t have to launch that app to see his photos. Today I’ll show you how.

It’s probably not very popular to say on a Mac blog, but Windows Phone 7 is actually pretty damn good. Not iOS good, of course, but it does a lot of cool, unique things, and unlike Android, doesn’t just rip off Apple’s ideas wholesale: its tiled Metro UI is very pretty, very informative, very smart and its own thing entirely.

Even so, if you’re on an iPhone, you aren’t likely to envy Windows Phone owners very much, but if you want to see how the other half lives — and find out for yourself that it’s not actually that bad — Microsoft has just posted a WP7 emulator in HTML5 on their official site.

So far, nothing in the iOS 5.1 beta seeded yesterday has supported the rumors that Apple would add new capabilities to Siri with the first official point update, but there is at least one big new addition to Siri with the release of yesterday’s beta: it gives developers limited Siri integration.

The U.S. Government isn’t exactly known for smart spending, but at least that $10,000 hammer actually works. That’s more than the Department of Labor can say after they blew almost $200,000 on an utterly crappy app for the iPhone and Android.

The company making ‘Gorilla Glass,’ the tough material used by iPhones and iPads, today announced a 25 percent drop in sales due to lower demand for tablets. Corning cut its outlook after saying it will increase LCD glass production by just 5% to 10% instead of the expected 20% or more.

Our opinion of the government has never been lower, and every day there is ample proof why. Take the FAA, for example. Despite the absolute lack of evidence that your iPhone can knock a plane from the sky, passengers are still told to turn off their phones. The reason why such a Luddite-like rule exists without any proof? Because there’s no proof iPhones won’t hurt planes, either. Don’t get whiplash shaking your head in utter amazement.

Research in Motion — roundly clobbered in the smartphone and tablet market — is now trying to hang onto its core enterprise customers. It’s formula is to concede defeat by Apple and Android, then sell its rivals’ victory as a reason to stay with the Waterloo, Ont. company.

If you’ve thought about developing apps and tweaks for Apple’s iOS devices, but the idea of the company’s App Store approval process puts you off, then maybe it’s time to avoid that with The iOS Hacker’s Handbook. Written by a team of Mac and iOS security experts — including some prominent members of the jailbreaking community — this book promises to teach you all about the vulnerabilities and exploits in the iOS firmware.

Wenner Media has announced today that it will soon be bringing a digital edition of its Rolling Stone magazine to your iPad, but not before it’s finished with The Beatles. This week, the company is set to launch a port of The Beatles: The Ultimate Album-by-Album Guide for your tablet.

Sometimes an image just speaks for itself.

[via Flickr]

Despite being caught in Apple’s vise-like iPad and MacBook Air grip, Acer continues on with the belief there must be a market somewhere remaining for netbooks – maybe China. Monday, the head of the company’s China operations said “emerging markets” could boost vanishing profits. On Monday, the head of the company’s China operations said “emerging markets” could boost vanishing profits. In other words, everyone else may think netbooks suck, but they’re still good enough for those third-world citizens who don’t know any better.