| Cult of Mac

Steve Wozniak rockets toward the final frontier

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Steve Wozniak
The Woz says the sky is no longer the limit.
Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr CC

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak’s next venture is a private space company. Details are still scanty about his newly formed company, Privateer Space, other than its goal is to “keep space safe and accessible.”

Additional details are expected soon.

Apollo 11 pictures make great wallpapers [Wallpaper Wednesday]

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Apollo 11 wallpaper
Who wouldn't want this as their wallpaper?
Photo: NASA

Apollo 11 is probably best known for being the first manned mission to successfully land on the surface of the moon. But a little over 50 years later, it should now be known as a seemingness endless source of great wallpaper pictures.

The iconic launch that gave mankind its first collection of moon rocks, invaluable data on tidal currents, and a renewed source of scientific belief that led to hallmark environmental reforms, also makes neat wallpapers for both iPhones and iMacs.

The Rock and Siri team up in new iPhone 7 ads

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siri in space
Siri can help you do everyday things. Like take a selfie in space.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s partnership with the Rock (aka Dwayne Johnson) has spawned three new ads for the iPhone 7 that showcase Siri’s talents at performing everyday tasks.

The Rock cooks up something smelly and takes his selfie talents to space in the colossal ads that are a follow up to the short film Apple released last month starring Johnson and Siri.

Check out all three sequel ads:

Apple celebrates NASA’s Juno mission with hypnotic space video

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Music and space have a lot more in common than you'd think.
Music and space have a lot more in common than you'd think.
Photo: Apple

NASA’s Juno mission is set to arrive at Jupiter on July 4th, so to celebrate the space agency did the most sensible thing it could think of: team up with Apple and Weezer to make awesome videos about space and music.

While Weezer created the patriotic rock anthem “I Love the USA” to mark the occasion, Apple created a hypnotic short film called “Visions of Harmony” that explores the link between space travel and music. The soundtrack for the hypnotic film was created by Nine Inch Nails frontman and Apple VP Trent Reznor and collaborator Atticus Ross.

Watch it below:

Apple TV app will wow you with stunning shots of Earth

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The Aurora Borealis over the Atlantic Ocean as seen from the International Space Station
The Aurora Borealis over the Atlantic Ocean as seen from the International Space Station
Photo: Jetson Creative

I’ve always wanted to go into space. The now-familiar view of our “big blue marble” have always fascinated and entranced me, even as a young boy.

With Earthlapse TV, I can stare out of a virtual window from the International Space Station to watch the coast of Northern Australia spin past my high viewpoint, see the aurora borealis as it shimmers above the northern hemisphere, or watch as the world turns from London to Africa beneath my gaze.

This is a gorgeous app and a perfect fit for the big-screen TV in my living room.

Sisters spend Labor Day weekend launching kids space program

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Kimberly and Rebecca Yeung ready their space craft for flight into near space.
Kimberly and Rebecca Yeung ready their space craft for flight into near space.
Photo: Winston Yeung/YouTube

Ask sisters Kimberly and Rebecca Yeung about their Labor Day weekend and they could legitimately say, It was out of this world.

With a craft they constructed using light-weight wood and arrow shafts, Kimberly, 8, and Rebecca, 10, launched a weather balloon that reached a height of 78,000 feet. How do they know? Other than the two GoPro cameras aboard that recorded the flight, the girls outfitted their craft with a flight computer to record data, such as temperature and distance traveled.

Apple rejected Buzz Aldrin’s space app for having too much Buzz Aldrin

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Photo: Polar Motion
Photo: Polar Motion

Buzz Aldrin was one of the first humans to step foot on the moon. Now he’s trying to make the big leap toward becoming an iOS developer, but Apple keeps rejecting his app, Buzz Aldrin’s Space Program Manager, because of one tiny problem: It features too much Buzz Aldrin.

The App Store admissions team reportedly told Aldrin’s development team that the his game “contains well-known third parties.” What?!

Apollo program inspired Jony Ive to make a ‘spacesuit’

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What would a Jony Ive spacesuit look like? Photo: Sotheby's
What would a Jony Ive spacesuit look like? Photo: Sotheby's

When you’ve designed some of the most successful consumer electronics in modern history, where else can you look but up?

One of the many interesting tidbits in The New Yorker’s 17,000-word profile of Jony Ive surrounds his fascination with the Apollo space program and, yes, designing spacesuits. It doesn’t sound like the spacesuit itself was what inspired Apple’s top designer as much as the process that went into it.

Ive mentions he’s been watching the old Discovery channel series Moon Machine about the challenges facing the Apollo program. NASA designers had no idea what goals they even needed to meet for the suit, but built up to the final design with invention after invention until they got it right.

An anecdote from The New Yorker’s time in Ive’s hallowed design studio (emphasis added):

Flatworms in space might hold key to human immortality

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Flatworms are headed to the International Space Station and their sacrifice in the name of research gets a salute on the Kentucky Space mission patch.
Flatworms are headed to the International Space Station. Their sacrifice in the name of research gets a salute on the Kentucky Space mission patch. Photo: Kentucky Space

Flatworms are the darlings of the molecular biology field. What scientist doesn’t love a species that can lose an organ or body part — even its head — and grow it back?

It’s quite a trick. We’ll see if they can do it in space.

About 150 planarian flatworms, creatures that are happiest living in rivers or under a log, have first-class tickets aboard the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship, which will take them to the International Space Station for an experiment that could unlock the key to human immortality.

Save Space On Your Hard Drive – Check Application Support Folder For Steam Game Files [OS X Tips]

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Application Support Steam

I suppose since I’m a gamer, I assume everyone else is. If you’re not, or you don’t use the fantastic cross-platform digital gaming portal, Steam, this tip won’t apply to you. Check out the last couple of tips for great space saving ideas, instead. Or, heck, read a review or two on Cult of Mac. I hear they’re pretty good.

For you Steam gamers looking to save some space on your hard drive, there’s one place you should really look.