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7 amazing extensions we want to see in iOS 8

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A new iOS 8 update is here.
We can't wait for iOS 8 to supercharge our trusty iPhones with Extensions. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

iOS 8 will bring Extensions to your iPhone and iPad. Extensions are essentially miniature versions of apps that can be run inside other apps. For instance, if you have Evernote installed on your iPhone, you could pop up the Evernote Extension when you’re running the Mail app, and save a snippet of that email to your Evernote account.

Clearly this is huge. It’s something that Android and Windows Phone users have enjoyed for a while, but Apple has – typically – taken its time to get it right. In fact, you have probably used Apple’s own “test” Extensions already: Whenever you see the Mail sheet roll down inside another app, or you access the built-in Twitter sharing box, you’re using an Extension.

But what kind of things can Extensions do for us? I’ve been thinking about that, and here’s a wish list of Extensions I’d love to see.

Xiaomi takes copying Apple to the next level with blatant iOS ripoff

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By now, it’s obvious that Xiaomi is heavily inspired by Apple’s product design. The Chinese company’s founder even dresses up like Steve Jobs at events and uses the “One More Thing” presentation gimmick.

Now we’ve been given a look at MIUI 6, the software for Xiaomi’s new Mi 4 smartphone. It’s the most blatant ripoff of Apple to date.

See how iOS 8 lets you connect with friends faster than ever

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The upcoming release of iOS 8 brings many new features that will dramatically improve everyday use of iPhones and iPads. While currently contacting your friends can be an annoyingly long process because you must open apps and search through contact after contact, a new feature in iOS 8 eliminates this common hassle.

In today’s video we show how iOS 8’s new quick contacts feature will make contacting your most recent friends much easier. After you update to iOS 8, simply double-click the home button to enjoy this new functionality.

Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to catch all our latest videos.

Flappy Bird creator previews ridiculously addictive new game

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Flappy Bird developer Dong Nguyen has a new game coming out this Thursday, and it looks to be as brutally difficult and addictive as his original viral hit.

According to Eli Hodapp over at TouchArcade, Swing Copters contains the same one-tap gameplay as Flappy Bird, only this time you’re guiding a little character up through platforms that have swinging hammers on them, rather than horizontally through Mario-esque pipes.

Here’s a video to give you an idea:

All the new wallpapers and changes in OS X Yosemite Preview 6

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Yosemite preview 6

The sixth developer preview of OS X Yosemite is upon us, and like always, Apple has made some noticeable and not-so-noticeable changes. This time around, there are some new wallpapers included alongside general design tweaks.

So in no particular order, here’s what’s new in OS X Yosemite Developer Preview 6:

April Zero and the quest to become the world’s most transparent human

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Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
San Francisco designer Anand Sharma shares endless private details about his life on his April Zero website. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Anand Sharma has eaten 17 burritos in the last 141 days. An avid runner and rock climber, the San Francisco-based designer has visited parks seven times this month. He weighed 153.9 pounds and was at 18.4% bodyfat after his 5.5-mile run yesterday. He burned 688 calories during that run.

He gets around a lot, too: On July 15, he flew from Hong Kong to Changi, Singapore. Then he grabbed a bite at the Kampong Glam Cafe. He also spent 94 minutes in a car and 70 minutes on the Lomprayah high-speed ferry that day. During his long day of travel, his heart rate hit a high of 94 and a low of 66 (averaging a slightly higher than usual 79). He didn’t share any photos on Instagram, but he pushed 25 commits to code-sharing site Github.

Sharma, who was 24.382007813 years old as of this writing, is already the most transparent human being on Earth, and he’s just getting started. Fully embracing the data-hungry demands of the quantified-self movement as well as the constant spotlight of social media, he routinely shares every little detail about his life, from his travels and meals to his vital signs and work, on the slickly designed April Zero website he launched last month. Now he wants to invite you to his way of life. He’s working on a new app that will make it easy for anyone to have their own version of April Zero.

Cult of Mac talked with Sharma about April Zero, the benefits of living in public, and the possibilities of Apple’s long-rumored health-centric wearable.

More proof that the iPhone 6 will come with an evolved new Lightning cable

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Last week, we told you about shots that had leaked from within Foxconn, which reportedly showed new Lightning cables developed by Apple that featured fully reversible USB connectors.

We were excited, but there was only one problem: the images seemed a little sketchy. But a new image from reliable leaker Sonny Dickson‘s Twitter feed indicates that the reversible USB plug is indeed coming to new Lightning cables, perhaps as early as the iPhone 6.

Apple wins an Emmy

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Amongst Cupertino’s many other accomplishments, you can now chalk up Emmy Award Winner. Apple has just won the Most Outstanding Commercial of the Year award for its wonderful iPhone 5s ad, “Misunderstood.”

True Blood services fans in penultimate episode, ‘Love Is To Die’

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Seething along with Eric Northman. Photo: John P. Johnson/HBO
Seething along with Eric Northman. Photo: John P. Johnson/HBO

Beginning just moments after the shocking end of last week’s episode of True Blood, the final season’s second-to-last entry tightens down on the remaining relationships: Sookie and Bill. Hoyt and Jessica. Eric and Pam (and Ginger!). Jason and new girl. A little Lafayette and James, a tiny smattering of Arlene and Keith. Couples are the way to go in Bon Temps.

Once again, we’ve got character dialogue that sounds like a love letter to the fans from the writers of this HBO-powered vampire drama that airs Sunday nights.

“As much as I appreciate compelling character drama,” says Pam in full sarcasm mode, “but the Yakuza are upstairs, so need I remind you to keep it the f*ck down, volume-wise?”

Spoilers below, so don’t say we didn’t warn you.

The best new books, music and movies to amp up your weekend

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So you don't have to slog through a lake of reviews to find something you’re just going to put down after 10 minutes, Cult of Mac has waded through the iTunes Store to compile a list of the best new books, movies and music to come out this week.
This week we've found a documentary one of the world’s most iconic bearded faces, an other-worldly album from Fka Twigs, a book about the birth of Korea’s cool pop culture, the funniest summer comedy of the year and much more.  
Enjoy!

So you don't have to slog through a lake of reviews to find something you’re just going to put down after 10 minutes, Cult of Mac has waded through the iTunes Store to compile a list of the best new books, movies and music to come out this week.

This week we've found a documentary one of the world’s most iconic bearded faces, an other-worldly album from Fka Twigs, a book about the birth of Korea’s cool pop culture, the funniest summer comedy of the year and much more.

Enjoy!


Plane plunges 5,000 feet while co-pilot plays with her iPad

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iPads have quickly replaced gigantic flight manuals in cockpits across the globe, but all that easy access to information, photos and loads of games nearly proved fatal on a recent Jet Airways flight that took an unexpected dip over a busy air route to Europe .

The two Jet Airways pilots were suspended after the plane they were flying from Mumbai to Brussels plunged 5,000 as the pilot dozed off while the co-pilot was busy playing on her iPad.

Vietnam War photos leave haunting impressions on artist’s unlikely canvas

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Binh Danh
Binh Danh

The coiled hose left a mark on the grass, a fading of color where the sun could not shine.

From this moment on his front lawn, Binh Danh realized he could create a photographic process using sunlight, leaves and grass. He had no idea his method would develop into an organic process of self-discovery.

On leaves from his family’s garden, Danh brings fresh examination to an old war, printing haunted faces and horrific scenes from the Vietnam conflict with light and chlorophyll.

Crystal Baller: iPad Air gets anti-reflection coating and iPhone 6 rumors galore

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We get slammed 24/7 with new Apple rumors. Some are accurate, most are not. To give you a clue about what’s really coming out of Cupertino in the future, we’re busting out our rumor debunker each week to blow up the nonsense.

The iPhone 6 is nearly here and the rumor mill has ramped into overdrive with new details leaking about the iPhone 6’s True Tone flash module, rumblings that sapphire might not make the cut this year, and possibly a hint that the next iPhone won’t even be called the iPhone 6.

We’re ready to give you the full reading on what the future holds for these rumors and more, just click through the gallery to find out what the future holds.


Scenes from a pivot: Making lemonade when your first app turns sour

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Sweetch's home/office.Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Inside the Sweetch home office, where five French entrepreneurs did an about-face after their parking app drew the ire of San Francisco officials. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s every entrepreneur’s worst nightmare: The app you’ve spent hours developing gets shut down before it even really launches.

It’s been a rocky road for four young French entrepreneurs who hoped to make their mark with a parking app called Sweetch. Their idea was to alert prospective parkers that spots on the street were freeing up, exchanging a nominal fee between drivers that could be donated to local charities. But instead of paving the road to fame by clearing the city’s congested streets, they ended up pulling their app from the Apple store under threat of litigation from San Francisco’s City Attorney.

“We helped five or 10 people a day, we brought value to them, but the city didn’t even try to understand that,” co-founder Hamza Ouazzani Chahdi says, speaking to Cult of Mac in the sunny, immaculate and modern apartment the guys call both home and office in the city’s Mission District. “We were lumped in with the other apps that definitely had a predatory model and it was toxic for us.”

He says that despite a meeting with San Francisco officials, the entrepreneurs weren’t really give a chance: “It was just, ‘Here’s your deadline.’”

Tim Cook takes ice bucket challenge at Apple HQ beer bash

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Bring on the ice, ice baby!

Tim Cook has gladly accepted Phil Schiller’s challenge to douse himself with a bucket of ice in order to get out of a $100 donation to ALS charities. Only instead of doing ice bucket challenge from the comfort of a beach chair, Cook made a party of it while Apple employees got turnt up with at the beer bash celebration for Diversity week.

Take a look:

Minecraft lures kids to museums like nothing else

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Playtime at the Anchorage Museum. Photo: Rob LeFebvre, Cult of Mac
Playtime at the Anchorage Museum. Photo: Rob LeFebvre, Cult of Mac

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — 12-year-old Josh couldn’t wait to get to the museum. For once, the visit wouldn’t be about “boring” old artwork or educational science, but something he really loves — Minecraft.

“This is great,” he said while tapping and mousing his way through a multiplayer Minecraft landscape that was part of an activity at The Anchorage Museum. “My friend told me about this and it’s way better than staying at home doing this in my bedroom.”

Angry Apple tells Thai officials next phone may not be called ‘iPhone 6’

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Apple is livid that a Thai government official spilled the beans on its pending launch of two new iPhone models and requested a meeting with officials at the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) to talk about a little thing called doubling down on secrecy.

Reports from Thailand indicate Apple’s top exec from South Asia met with NBTC secretary Takorn Tantasith to discuss his uncharacteristic disclosure of the two iPhone 6 models, but also told him Apple might not even name their next smartphone “iPhone 6.”

Activist vows to keep broken iPhone until Apple cleans up its act

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Cracked iPhone 5C, via GewTV on Flickr.
Cracked iPhone 5C, via GewTV on Flickr.

Although the environmental group she heads up is “pleased” about the improvements Apple announced to protect workers from toxic chemicals, activist Elizabeth O’Connell still won’t buy the Cupertino company’s products.

Even if it means making those phone calls to rally support against Apple on an iPhone with a cracked screen.

“I am very happy that Apple has taken these steps and that the company is listening to its customers,” the campaign director for Green America told Cult of Mac via email. “That said, I’m going to hold on to my cracked 5c for now. I’d like for Apple to deepen its commitment to worker health and safety throughout its supply chain before I consider purchasing any new Apple products.”

Teen’s iPhone photos put vibrant face on homeless population

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"I met a lady and her children who travel to heavily populated areas of St. Louis to play music for tips to buy food each night. The children's broken bikes and few cherished possesions carefully tucked in the run down van they call "home," Tullis says.

Nic Tullis has a summer project that doesn’t involve surfing or working at a frozen-yogurt shop.

The 18-year-old is at the tail end of a Kickstarter campaign to to raise $2,500 that will keep him out photographing with his iPhone 4s. His “Homeless But Not Hopeless” project aims to bring awareness about the homeless population of St. Louis, Missouri, which spiked 12 percent after the economic tsunami hit.

Tullis takes photos of homeless people that show how they live along with normal shots that show off St. Louis. The funding for the project would rent a gallery space to auction off prints as a fundraiser; proceeds would go to two local organizations that help people get back on their feet.

Apple’s Phil Schiller dumps a bucket of ice cold water on his head

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If you’ve been on the Internet at all over the last few days, you’ve probably heard about the Ice Bucket Challenge. The idea is simple. Someone challenges you online to dump a bucket of ice water all over your head. If you choose not to do so within 24 hours, you are asked to donate $100 to a charity to fight Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Speaking as an observer, I can say conclusively that the Ice Bucket Challenge is best when accepted by buxom 19-year-olds in string bikinis. But watching Apple’s Senior Vice President Of Marketing dumping a bucket of ice water on his head? Definitely a close second.

Samsung’s new ads mock iPhone wall huggers in real life

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Samsung is taking its wall hugger shaming marketing campaign to the airport this week, with new ads plastered over electrical outlets that draw in battery-drained iPhone users with the promise to quench their thirst for a little more power.

Touting the Ultra Power Saving Mode on the Galaxy S5, CNET reports that the ads will pop up at JFK International as well as O’Hare and Midway in Chicago, and they’ve included a subtle jab at Apple’s latest ad campaign.