This story first appeared in Cult of Mac Magazine.
Want to watch the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, but don’t have a TV? Or do you have a TV but just prefer the coverage given by other countries?
Then you’re in the right place. Today we’re going to take a look at ways to watch the games on your Mac and iDevices, and which apps you might want to use to follow along with the fun.
The famous Macintosh “Picasso” trademark logo was developed for the introduction of the original 128K Mac back in 1984. A minimalist line drawing reminiscent of the style of Pablo Picasso, this whimsical graphic implied the whole of a computer in a few simple strokes. It was an icon of what was inside the box, and became as famous as the computer it represented.
The logo was designed by Tom Hughes and John Casado, art directors on the Macintosh development team. Originally the logo was to be a different concept by artist Jean-Michel Folon, but before launch it was replaced by the colorful line drawing. It’s been famous ever since, and the style has endured across decades.
Casado recently attended the 30th Anniversary of the Mac celebration, and emailed Cult of Mac to shed some light on the history of this famous graphic. It turns out Picasso was not the primary inspiration for this after all – rather, it was Henri Matisse!
Today sees the iOS launch of Deadman’s Cross, a zombie-themed collectible card battle RPG from Square Enix, the company behind Final Fantasy and the multimillion-download hit Guardian Cross.
Set sixteen years in the future, the game takes place in a zombie apocalypse in which a rampant virus has turned large numbers of people into the walking dead.
Users of Picturelife on iOS can now edit their cloud-stored photos right there in the app, thanks to an update launched yesterday. Picturelife was already one of the most full-featured photo-wrangling services around (it’s my favorite, although I have a bit of a dupe problem at the moment), and now it can serve as a full-on organizing, editing and sharing suite.
Keeping photos on Instagram, Facebook, iPhoto, Google Drive, Google+, Flickr, Lightroom, Aperture, Picasa, Dropbox or OneDrive? Then you might like StreamNation, an app and service that collects them all together in one place.
What’s more, it also gives you 20GB of free storage to get started, and the upgrade rates aren’t so bad either.
Picks of the Week
Glitch Mob – Love Death Immortality
Los Angeles-based three-piece the Glitch Mob drift even further from their name on their second album Love Death Immortality, an album that suggests they be renamed the EDM Mob, the Big Room Mob, the Bass Drop Mob, or maybe even the Totally Accessible Yet Utterly Awesome Mob. Whatever they choose, fans will drink up this meaty and chaotic album.
iTunes – $8.99
Speedy Ortiz – Real Hair
Following up on last year’s well-received LP Major Arcana, Speedy Ortiz is kicking off the year by releasing four new songs on their Real Hair EP. You’ll find the same introspective exuberance and deep lyrics that highlighted the last album, in a more snackable size.
iTunes – $2.99
Sun Kil Moon – Benji
Despite having released six albums as an outfit already, some music critics are calling Benji Sun Kil Moon’s best album to date thanks to Mark Kozelek’s raw, heartbreaking lyrics. Each song focuses around a central character or theme combined with tightly woven narratives and sparse musical arrangements to form a masterpiece of reflection.
iTunes – $9.99
The Book of Jonah
by Joshua Max Feldman
For his literary debut Joshua Max Feldman chose to reimagine the biblical tale of Jonah in a modern setting. As a young Manhattan lawyer, Jonah Jacobstein is a lucky, healthy, and handsome man with two beautiful women ready to spend the rest of their lives with him, but just as he’s celebrating a deal that will make him partner, a bizarre biblical vision at a party changes everything in this funny novel that moves from New York to Amsterdam to Vegas.
iTunes – $14.99
The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America’s First Subway
by Doug Most
Before the convenience of modern mass transportation, the cities of Boston and NYC were suffering from congestion problems at the turn of the 19th century, so two brothers from one of the nation’s great families—Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York— set off on a race to dig America’s first subway. Doug Most’s new book, The Race Underground, relives the competition between Boston and New York played out in an era not unlike our own, one of economic upheaval, life-changing innovations, class warfare, bitter political tensions, and the question of America’s place in the world
iTunes – $14.99
The Martian
by Andy Weir
Sci-fi doesn’t get featured as prominently in our picks, but Andy Weir is here to bust through with his excellent debut novel about a mission to Mars that goes wrong as a dust storm leaves astronaut Mark Watney stranded. Injured, carrying limited supplies and presumed dead, Watney has to use his intelligence and grit to work to stay alive.
iTunes – $11.99
Gravity
Gravity was without a doubt the most visually spectacular movie to watch in 2013. Now that its available to view on your TV screen the enormity of space might not feel quite as vast as in the theater, but Sandra Bullock’s plight from the space shuttle back to Earth is no less captivating. And don’t forget about George Clooney ready to smother you with charm.
iTunes – $19.99
The Summit
On August 1st 2008, 18 mountain climbers reached the summit of K2. Just 48 hours later, all but 7 were dead. The Summit documents the deadliest day on the world’s second tallest mountain, but it’s not all doom and gloom. Expect some incredible mountain cinematography and jaw dropping reenactments based on testimonies from those that survived the horrific climb.
iTunes – $14.99
The Counselor
The Counselor didn’t blow up the box office quite as expected last year, despite boasting a cast that includes Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, but now can judge it for yourself as Fassbender plays a savvy lawyer who gets entangled in a treacherous drug.
iTunes – $14.99
Kitchen Utensil. Mobile Office. Study Stand.
Sure, those don’t all go together, but Twelve South’s new iPad Air and iPad mini stand looks like nothing you’ve seen before. It might as well find a place in a kitchen drawer, next to all the Pampered Chef gizmos you’ve got in there.
This new iPad stand — made for the iPad Air and iPad mini — is foldable, easy to use, and just plain sweet looking.
How many times have you had to replace an iPod because you dropped it in water? Almost all of us have suffered the agony of liquid damaged devices at least once — but this is something you never have to worry about if you buy your iPod shuffle from Underwater Audio.
Every unit the company sells is protected by an invisible coating that allows you to get your iPod shuffle wet. And we’re not talking about a few splashes here; you can literally take it swimming, wear it in the shower, and forget about having to keep it covered up when you’re out jogging in the rain — and it will continue to work just as it should.
“Our waterproof iPod shuffle will go with you from land to sea and everywhere in between,” Underwater Audio says — so of course, I jumped at the chance to put those claims to the test.
Jelly King ambitiously introduces himself as the king of all jellies…but that’s not quite true. Before he can take his rightful place as gelatinous royalty, he has to bounce his way through a harrowing adventure to collect diamond shards. No problem, right?
Jelly King is the kind of platformer that works well on mobile devices. In his excitement, the jelly you control is constantly bouncing. All you have to do is guide him left or right as you clear obstacles or pick up powerups. Jelly King bounces a certain distance each time you move, so the challenge is to anticipate future moves based off of where you start. If you’re too far away from the edge when Jelly jumps over a gap he might clear the first obstacle, but swiftly fall off the next.
Hypersleep — Health & Fitness — Free ($0.99 for additional sounds)
Developer Fixdit sees no reason why your nerd love should have to stop just because you’re unconscious. So now we have Hypersleep, a space-themed sleep aid that includes white-noise-ified versions of the engine noises of various science-fiction vehicles. You can nod off to the engine idle of the U.S.S. Enterprise-D or the background hum of the 10th Doctor’s TARDIS. Or some other equally dweeby drones.
And that’s where the Nerd Tax comes in: The default noise is free, but additional (read: recognizable) sounds cost $0.99 each. But I’m pretty sure that if the sound of Serenity’s engine will help you nod off, you’re willing to pay that dollar.