This week we calm ourself with Looom’s animations, get glitchy with the GlitchCore music chopper, capture time-lapses with Moment, and more.
The best time-lapse, learn-to-read, and chilled animation apps this week

Photo: Cult of Mac
This week we calm ourself with Looom’s animations, get glitchy with the GlitchCore music chopper, capture time-lapses with Moment, and more.
Learning a language takes discipline, time, and quality instruction. It’s hard to find better instruction than what you’ll get from Rosetta Stone, often called the gold standard. So if you’re looking to speak new tongues, these massively discounted subscriptions to Rosetta Stone language courses is a can’t-miss opportunity.
One of the most useful travel features from Google Assistant is ready for the iPhone.
After bringing its real-time translation feature to Assistant-enabled smart displays and speakers earlier this year, Google is finally adding to the feature to the Google Assistant app on Android and iOS today.
When you compare the iPhone 4 to the iPhone XS, virtually everything has changed. All except the script Apple uses when introducing its new handsets to the public.
This is the tongue-in-cheek observation of James Brown, a YouTuber and Reddit user who posted a video comparing the use of adjectives from Steve Jobs in 2010 with Apple executives talking about the iPhones XS and XS Max at last week’s new product showcase.
With the new year comes a renewed energy to improve ourselves. But new year or not, it’s always the right time to expand your world by learning a new language.
For its next act with Siri, Apple is taking some cues from one of the tech world’s biggest sources of inspiration: Hollywood.
With the release of iOS 11 later this month, Siri is set to get some big upgrades. The most notable will be the AI helper’s silky-smooth voice. And according to one Apple exec, the movie Her played a big role in helping the company figure out the changes they should make.
It’s getting hot out there. But it’s still nowhere near as hot as the new deals coming into the Cult of Mac Store. This week we’ve added an app that’ll change how you work with PDFs, and a set of future-ready Bluetooth earbuds. There’s also a comprehensive set of courses in Apple’s Swift coding language, and an app that turns your phone into a mindfulness tool. Most are discounted by half or more, read on for more details:
If you’ve ever tried to learn a new language, you’ll know it’s a hard and incredibly time-consuming process. It’s not much easier for virtual assistants like Siri.
Here are the mind-blowing steps Apple goes through to teach Siri new languages and dialects that help it stay one step ahead of the competition.
Google’s awesome Gboard keyboard for iPhone finally supports voice dictation. The feature is powered by Google’s own voice recognition technology, and you can access it quickly by holding down the space bar.
This update also brings new emoji, Google Doodles, and support for 15 additional languages.
Instagram is going to make it easier to understand posts in foreign languages. In the coming months, the service will rollout a new translate button that will help you understand the full story, no matter which language it was posted in.