New leaked images purportedly taken inside a Foxconn plant show the iPhone 6 chassis and a handful of manufacturing molds for Apple’s upcoming smartphone.
The photos, posted on Chinese microblogging website Weibo over the weekend, appear to confirm that Apple will increase the size of the iPhone.
Who wouldn't want the team behind Monument Valley rethinking the way we drive. Photo: Ustwo
Have you played Monument Valley yet? Our previous choice for ‘Game of the Week,’ this surreal, M.C. Escher-inspired puzzle game has proved an absolute phenomenon since its launch in the App Store.
But what if you’ve already finished ustwo’s masterpiece, and are now on the lookout for more of the same?
Never fear, gentle reader — we can help. Although there are precious few games which be described as similar to Monument Valley (some people aren’t even convinced it’s a game to begin with), Cult of Mac spoke with lead designer Ken Wong for his picks of the top games currently available on iOS.
Venus — the 256-foot super-yacht, commissioned by Steve Jobs — has been sighted in Ensenada, Baja California.
A coastal city in Mexico, on the Baja California Peninsula, Ensenada is a popular cruise ship destination. Photos of the vessel in dock were sent in by Cult of Mac reader Felipe Cornejo. Cornejo notes that he did not see any of Jobs’ family at the site, and that dock workers he spoke with weren’t aware this was Jobs’ boat.
Faster than a speeding bullet, ComiXology has scaled the ranks in the App Store in what seems like a single bound.
As one of last year’s top-grossing iPad apps, the digital comics platform has sold an astonishing 6 billion comic book pages since its 2009 debut — 4 billion of those coming in 2013 alone.
In helping revive an industry that was almost dead on its feet, ComiXology has done for comics what iTunes did for legal music downloads.
At the height of its success, it’s now been snatched up by Amazon for an undisclosed amount of money — prompting the question of whether Apple has missed out. (Particularly when taking into accounts the reports that Amazon is reportedly set to debut a smartphone of its own — capable of busting out 3-D.)
After all, ComiXology’s CEO David Steinberger has always had big ambitions. He once wrote that his “crazy goal” was to turn everyone on the planet into a comic reader. Sounds just like Steve Jobs.
Before the acquisition, CEO David Steinberger told Cult of Mac ComiXology’s backstory and its deep ties to Apple. Sometimes the Cupertino company has acted as its Krypton-esque home planet, and other times more like its Lex Luthor-style nemesis.
By now you’ve heard all about the catastrophic Heartbleed bug and how it has siphoned passwords, credit card numbers, emails and other data to the vampires who would drain all of us dry. From your love life (OKCupid) to your tax returns, there’s a lot at stake.
Since 66% of web servers are vulnerable to the bug, that means you’re faced with only task more fun than decluttering the garage: changing your passwords.
To help you on your password resetting chores, we’ve compiled the best tools to make the process as quick and painless as possible. Also, they’ll sync your new passwords to your iPhone — all in under 10 minutes. Leaving you time to watch Silicon Valley again. You’re welcome.
Elder Scrolls Online is a new massively multiplayer role playing game by Zenimax Studios and Bethesda Game Studios that attempts to compete with the behemoth of the premium subscription MMO, World Of Warcraft, on its own turf in the fantasy genre. While the base gameplay is fairly similar — go on quests, fight bad guys, level up, game with thousands of other players — this new MMO has a lot that’s unique to offer gamers.
What Elder Scrolls Online brings to this competitive gaming genrea is a long history of games set in fantasy world Tamriel, beginning in 1994 with The Elder Scrolls: Arena and continuing through three the present day with four sequels: Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim. There’s a ton of lore and backstory here, as much as any high-fantasy Tolkien-esque novel you might read, and this deep infusion of fictional reality — as well as the action gameplay style of the original single-player games mentioned above — is a solid asset in Bethesda’s favor.
Reviewing any MMO is a massive undertaking itself, and so we decided to dig in deeper than we usually do to give you a better sense of the world of the game, filtered through the eyes of a new Elder Scrolls Online player.
Apple has confirmed that none of its products, including web services like iCloud.com, are vulnerable to the nasty Heartbleed web bug that was recently uncovered.
Heartbleed allows hackers to intercept sensitive traffic and steal information like logins from websites using OpenSSL encryption. So when you visit a website with a little padlock in the address bar and think you’re safe, you maybe aren’t.
Family Guy is one of the most popular comedy shows on television nowadays. While people everywhere can watch the show, the creators behind the show have made games for fans to enjoy as well. The new app Family Guy: The Quest For Stuff is an interactive touch based game full of fun quests, funny dialogue and much more. After Peter fights the giant chicken and accidentally destroys Quahog it’s your job to help build it back up to what it once was. Do you think you have the skills to help restore Quahog?
Designer Ken Wong's sketchbooks show how Monument Valley evolved into the finished product. Photo: ustwo/Cult of Mac
Monument Valley is one of the most original iOS games ever. A triumph of isometric design, it’s a trippy puzzle game in which you guide a white-clad princess through a series of twisting, turning structures, inspired by the mind-bending art of M.C. Escher.
Creating a world of this complexity might sound like a nightmare project, but for the UK-based game developers at ustwo, coming up with such an audacious creation was something of a dream.
“One of the first things we did when designing Monument Valley were to try and come up with images that seemed impossible,” says lead designer Ken Wong.
Still reeling from the success of the game — priced at $3.99, it was the top paid iPad app in its first week of release — Wong cracked open his sketchbooks to give Cult of Mac readers a glimpse at how Monument Valley‘s breathtaking designs came to be.
Could Apple’s revolutionary re-imagining of Apple TV not be a set-top box at all, but rather an Oculus Rift style headset?
A patent published Thursday hints that this might be the case, as it refers to a head mounted display (HMD) capable of providing a personal media viewing experience for users.
The patent describes how data processing circuitry could feature optical component capable of adjusting left and right images to display 3-D media, or else to account for a user’s eyesight limitations.
But while Apple is beating rival Samsung on both the quality of its products and adverts, it is perhaps losing out when it comes to the kind of big digital media strategies that really attract attention (and customers) — like Ellen DeGeneres’ famous Oscars selfie which Publicis CEO Maurice Levy recently valued at between $800 million and $1 billion.
With that in mind, Apple is reportedly changing up its marketing approach to invest more in digital marketing and social media support — adding four new digital agencies to its roster.
A key executive within Apple is reportedly leaving the company due to a fallout with design chief Jony Ive. The result is that Ive will directly control even more of how Apple designs its software.
Greg Christie has been getting a lot of attention lately in the Apple vs. Samsung patent trial for his role as an engineer for the original iPhone. And that’s not all he’s known for; the guy has also patented nearly a hundred ideas for Apple, including the iconic “Slide to unlock” patent Apple is using as evidence in the ongoing case with Samsung.
Christie has been heading up Apple’s software design under Craig Federighi. But according to a new report, Ive is basically pushing Christie out because the two haven’t been getting along.
At an event today in San Francisco, Dropbox made several announcements about Mailbox, the popular email app for iOS that it bought a little over a year ago. Things have been busy around Dropbox since then, because Mailbox is coming to not one, but two new platforms.
Mailbox for Mac was unveiled today alongside an Android app, the latter of which is out now in Google Play. But that’s not what we’re really interested in. What’s important is that Mac users can now sign up to get access to the private beta of Mailbox on the desktop. There are some new Mailbox features that should also get you excited.
The discovery of the Heartbleed security bug sent the web into a panic with it’s devastating OpenSSL vulnerability.
On a scale of 1 to 10 of Internet catastrophes this one goes all the way to 11, according to respected security analyst Bruce Schneier, who isn’t prone to manic exaggeration.
A shriek of “CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS” has erupted from the throats of sitesissuing evasivemaneuvers, but you might want to hold off on going password-reset-crazy for just a few days.
Tim Cook, Phil Schiller and others sold Apple stock at a time when it was hitting record highs.
How do you convince a jury you’re owed $2 billion in damages? If you’re Apple you hire an MIT-trained economist to do it for you.
While the patent war between Apple and Samsung continues to rage, Apple on Tuesday called economist Chris Vellturo to spell out exactly why Apple is asking to be paid $2 billion in damages ($2.19B to be exact) from arch-rival Samsung for infringing on five of its utility patents.
Kicking off this Friday, the Coachella Music Festival will become the latest event to use iBeacons to provide proximity-specific information to attendees.
Coachella’s iOS app has been updated with a new Version 3.0 which enables on-site iBeacon notifications for users who enable Location and Bluetooth services.
According to a new report, three Apple suppliers have delivered samples of flexible circuit boards for the iWatch — with the device now expected to be unveiled in September.
Steve Ballmer. A total doofus, right? The man who said the iPhone was destined to be a failure, who thought the iPad was a dud, who stood in the way of Office being released for the iPad long after it was clear that Windows 8 was a total bust.
Okay, sure, Microsoft’s sweatiest ex-CEO was a bit of an idiot. But to be fair to the man, he did make his amends before he was forced out by incumbent CEO Satya Nadella. In fact, Ballmer’s last oleaginous act as CEO appears to have been greenlighting the release of Office for iPad.
The hit game Doodle Jump was one of the first and most popular games to hit iOS in 2009. Since then many updates have been made to the app enhancing and continuing its platform hopping and monster obliterating gameplay. Just recently the very same developers behind the famous Doodle have released a new app for their fans called Doodle Jump Race. Go head-to-head in online races as you help your doodle come across the finish line first. Do you think you have what it takes to win?
Take a look at the video and find out what you think.
Yes, we’re reviewing a paper notebook. The thing is – spoiler – this one is awesome. Forget Moleskine, which is nice marketing wrapped in faux leather wrapped around thin, porous, easy-bleeding pages. The Baron Fig Confidant is what you want.
The Confidant by Baron Fig Category: Notebooks Works With: Pen or pencil Price: $16
It’s packed with clever “features,” and yet you don’t notice the book at all when you’re using it. Does any of that sound familiar to you Apple users?
One way to speed up your Mac startup is to get rid of some of the cruft. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
When you start your Mac up, you may notice the process taking longer and longer over time. One of the reasons may be the sheer number of little menu bar and helper apps that you’ve allowed to creep into your system.
One way to decrease this start up time is to take these items out of the Login Items list, which is in your System Preferences app.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
A massive 87% of iOS users are currently running some version of iOS 7 — according to the latest numbers revealed on Apple’s developer site.
Refreshing its iOS usage numbers on Monday, Apple measured usage of its most recent mobile OS for a seven‑day period ending April 6, 2014.
The figure is up from 85% at the end of March, and 83% one month ago, when Apple introduced iOS 7.1. This update added several new features such as CarPlay, and also tweaked iTunes Radio, the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, and Siri.
A patent, published Tuesday, may solve some of those problems by promising Automatic Avatar Creation for Apple users — literally putting a virtual “you” inside your Apple device.
The patent explains how devices could create three-dimensional avatars that resembles users by first photographing them, and then comparing this image to a database of pre-created facial components which can be fitted together in different combinations. The resulting creation could be used in gaming, social media, and video conferencing.
Want to know what a business lesson about Apple looks like at Harvard Business School?
A whole lot like a comic book, apparently. The publishing arm of Harvard Business School is turning to comics to help tell case studies related to high profile companies. One of these — called “Apple’s Core” — turns the story of Apple’s early days into sequential art, reminiscent of the Steve Jobs manga from last year.
This change was reportedly done to make the story more interesting and palatable to visual and foreign learners, who would prove less inclined to learn about Apple if made to read a printed case study.
Apple is reportedly planning on creating an R&D team to develop baseband chips for future iPhone models, according to a new rumor from Digitimes.
Baseband chips, for those who don’t know, are used to control a device’s radio functions related to modulation, signal generation, and more.
If the rumor is to be believed, these chips could debut with the round of iPhone updates following the iPhone 6 — which would mean they could arrive with the iPhone that, by current naming standards, will be called the iPhone 6s.