Want to ask Siri what song is playing and get a definitive answer? In iOS 8 you might be able to, according to a new report.
Apple will reportedly partner with Shazam for a song-recognition feature in the next version of its mobile operating system. For those who don’t know, Shazam has been operating its own song-identification app (a personal favorite of mine) for years.
The app pulls in data from an iPhone or iPad’s microphone, sends it to the cloud for processing, and then returns results to users — allowing you to track down those hard-to-find tracks, without having to spend ages googling lyric fragments.
Current iOS 7.1 keyboard - is the Shift key on or off?
Among Jony Ive’s many changes brought to iOS 7 was the tinkering of the keyboard’s Shift key which has inexplicably gotten worse over time.
Streaks of successfully guessing whether the shift key is on or not should be award with showers of iTunes credits, but as designer Geoff Teehan points out, Apple could fix its keyboard woes with one simple change.
Apple has today announced that this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference will kick off on June 2 at Moscone West in San Francisco. The five-day conference will give us a glimpse at “the future of iOS and OS X,” and the star of the show will almost certainly be iOS 8.
Secret sauce—it’s the reason Apple keeps winning where others fail, and on our newest CultCast, we discuss the recipe that keeps Apple ahead of the pack. Plus, iOS 8 rumors detail some powerful new features; whispers of an impossibly thin iPhone 6; A-list musicians praise Pono as the digital music player for audiophiles; iPad 4 makes a comeback; and we reveal our favorite Cult movies on a all-new Get To Know Your Cultist!
Guffaw your way through each week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the uproarious good time commence.
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Show notes up next!
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Episode
CultCast #118 – The Secret Sauce
On The CultCast this week
Leander Kahney – Cult of Mac Editor-in-Chief, loyal subject of the Queen. Erfon Elijah – Cult of Mac writer and host of The CultCast. Buster Heine – Cult of Mac writer and community manager.
This Week’s Stories
iOS 8 Apple considers Notification Center Messages tweaks removing Game Center app (Discussion)
The Settings app in iOS is starting feel a bit crowded as each new update seems to bringing new tweaks and options to the main board and deeper menu. Control Center added quick access to key parts of the Settings maze, but we wouldn’t mind if Apple added this simple ‘Search Settings’ feature to iOS 8.
Rather than plunging multiple steps deep into the Settings app, this concept from Christoph Fahlbusch would bring the pull-down search bar into the Settings app, making it consistent with the ‘Search iPhone’ UI. It’d come in handy for quick tweaks, especially for less advanced users who are still trying to figure out where to turn on emjois.
Do you remember that gorgeous iOS 8 concept from last week that merged multitasking with control center? It’s coming soon to a jailbroken iPhone near you.
Control Center was one of the top touted features added to iOS 7, but while the new swipe up gesture to toggle it is great, you might find yourself using multitask function more, so Bill Labus created a gorgeous iOS 8 concept that merges multitasking with control center to give you quicker access to your most used controls.
“Flicking up from the bottom of the edge allows the multitasking app views to be tied directly to the gesture, which allows for direct manipulation and avoids having to wait for a passive animation to complete before interacting with them.”
Developers can grab the Xcode project and take it for a spin or you can get your fill from the video teaser below:
With rumors of a new Apple-made “fitness app” coming to iOS 8, secret meetings with the FDA, and murmurs of more sleep and fitness experts joining the Apple ranks, the iWatch rumors are heating up on this week’s CultCast! Plus, a classic Nintendo game makes its way to iOS; Microsoft says goodbye to the one and only Steve Ballmer; and new job openings in Cupertino could mean big upgrades in battery life for future MacBooks…
Thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode! Treat yourself to a brand new website with the help of Squarespace – a drag-and-drop, do-it-yourself site builder with everything you need to create an exceptional website. Head to Squarespace.com to try it for free, and use the offer code “CultCast” to save 10% on any order.
Softly giggle your way through each week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the audio adventure begin.
Rumors surrounding iOS 8 and the iWatch are starting to heat up, including details of a new “Healthbook” app. Apple is particularly focused on fitness for its smartwatch, according to a pair of reports from yesterday.
It’s at least six months until Apple reveals iOS 8, and probably nine months until we see the iPhone 6 for the first time, but that hasn’t stopped Eric Vasille of iPhonesoft from imaging what the iPhone 6 and iOS 8 will look like.
We’re still at least six months away from the debut of iOS 8, but designer Sam Beckett has come along already with a very enticing look at one hot feature that could be in store for all of us: interactive notifications. And boy, do they look rad.
iOS 7 was a major reinvention of Apple’s mobile operating system, but despite all of the new colors, animations, and fonts, it’s still just a grid of apps in a day in which every other smartphone OS has moved on.
Nepalese designer Sangam Bhandari thinks Apple can — and should — further. In his latest concept, he imagines a new home screen that is more than just an app launcher, but something like a mash-up between Notification Center and the current Home Screen.
We think it looks great. Check it out after the jump and tell us what you think.
As you may have heard, a lot of users have complained of motion sickness while using their iPhones after upgrading to iOS 7. The new zooming and parallax effects that were added make a lot of people nauseous, but Jimmy Kimmel and his team of researchers have found an amazing new cure for those suffering from iPhone-induced motion sicknesses, it’s called “stop looking at your f**king phone every 5 seconds”
