| Cult of Mac

5 ways iCloud Drive will upgrade your life

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While iCloud has been a trusty storage companion for photos and documents, Apple’s recently announced iCloud Drive upgrades what we already know and love about the service. In today’s video, we take a look at five ways iCloud Drive will upgrade your life when Apple rolls out the enhanced service alongside iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite.

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See how third-party keyboards will ease typing in iOS 8

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iOS 8 introduces many convenient features and enhancements designed to make your iPhone even easier to use. Among these is keyboard update QuickType and support for installing third-party keyboards on iPhones, iPads and iPod touches. In today’s video, we’ll show you exactly how third-party keyboards work — and how they will change your interactions with your device for the better.

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Google reveals its real face: unfocused, unoriginal and a little bit evil

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Photo: Roberto Baldwin/The Next Web
Wednesday's Google I/O keynote offers a window into the search giant's world. Photo: Roberto Baldwin/The Next Web

Google’s keynote presentation at its I/O developer’s conference today offered a revealing picture of the company itself: meandering, unfocused, copycat and just a little bit evil.

The two-hours-plus keynote had a lot of everything, from a new version of Android to new phones, smartwatches, TVs, cars, Chromebooks and big data — but much of it was deja vu from Apple’s WWDC two weeks ago.

Copy this please: 9 things Apple can teach Google about keynotes

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Photo: Roberto Baldwin/The Next Web
Photo: Roberto Baldwin/The Next Web

Siri: “How long should a keynote last?”

As anyone who watched Wednesday’s nearly three-hour livestream of the Google I/O kickoff, the answer to that question should be 90 minutes or less.

As the event dragged on, the tone on Twitter went from restrained interest about Google’s somewhat underwhelming announcements to reports of sleeping reporters and jabs at the ponderous presentation’s length. “Apple just launched a keynote shortener,” tweeted Dave Pell.

Killer instincts hide behind Apple’s friendly new face

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Time Cook onstage at WWDC 2014.
Apple seems friendlier these days. But at what cost? Photo: Roberto Baldwin/The Next Web
Photo: Roberto Baldwin/The Next Web

Apple sure is looking friendlier these days.

This year’s Worldwide Developers Conference was geekier, more welcoming and less locked-down than any in recent history. Apple also bid farewell to Katie Cotton — the much-feared queen of PR, whose frosty relations with journalists made her only slightly less terrifying than an angry Steve Jobs — with a call for a “friendlier, more approachable” public relations face to warm up the company’s relationship with the press.

“For the past few years it’s felt like Apple’s only goal was to put us in our place,” Panic’s Cabel Sasser recently tweeted. “Now it feels like they might want to be friends.”

These recent moves represent a major change in the way Apple does business, even as the company sits atop a $150 billion war chest amassed thanks to innovative products, ruthless leadership and heavy-handed policies that fostered a culture of secrecy and utter domination. But in a world where it’s drummed into our heads that nice guys finish last, does Apple’s approach risk killing the company with kindness?

CEO Tim Cook certainly doesn’t seem to think so.

Apple just obsoleted the Mac and nobody noticed

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Photo: Roberto Baldwin/The Next Web
Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, unveils OS X Yosemite to the world at WWDC 2014. Photo: Roberto Baldwin/The Next Web

With iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, Apple is finally showing us its idea of how we’ll compute in the future. Perhaps not surprisingly, this pristine vision of our computing destiny — unveiled after years of secret, patient and painstaking development — aligns perfectly with how we currently use our computers and mobile devices.

The keynote at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month not only showed off a new way to think about computing, based on data not devices, but also silenced pretty much every criticism leveled at the company over the past few years.

Let’s take a look at Apple’s new way of doing things, which fulfills Steve Jobs’ post-PC plan by minimizing the importance of the Mac.

Hands on: See how iOS 8 transforms Mail into a speedy messaging tool

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With so many emails to send in a day, having an application that meets all your requirements is critical. Though Apple’s native email client might not always have been the fastest means of delivering messages, iOS 8 aims to fix that. In today’s hands-on video, we’ll give you a look at the new and improved Mail application, which comes equipped with quick tricks to speed up common activities.

For instance, you can swipe across emails in the enhanced Mail app to quickly access functions or go back and forth between your inbox and drafts. See how it all works in the video above.

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Devs dish on what’s hot about iOS 8, OS X Yosemite and Swift

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SAN FRANCISCO -- While Apple watchers tuned into last week's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote for a look at where the company might be headed, coders at the annual convention were getting a look at the current state of the art when it comes to the company's software.

Cult of Mac asked developers from around the world who were in town for WWDC (or its indie sibling, AltConf) what they thought about changes coming in iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. We also asked them about their favorite apps as well as their views on Swift, the new programming language Apple introduced at WWDC. Get their takes in the gallery above.

Aaron Hillegass, CEO of Big Nerd Ranch, wrote the Bible of OS X programming.

What he does: Developer for IBM India who works on enterprise apps for automobile industry clients.

On iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Most excited about Continuity, which will offer "seamless integration between devices," and the awesome SDKs for HealthKit, CloudKit, Swift, Xcode enhancements, Playgrounds, 3-D view hierarchy interface builder, Camera and Touch ID.

On Swift: "Loved it -- much easier than Objective-C."

Favorite app: Flipboard and Monument Valley -- "a very peaceful game" that is completely different.

What he does: Developer for mobile games company Plain Vanilla. Worked on QuizUp.

On iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: OS X's new Spotlight search; in iOS 8, "a lot of stuff looks promising, especially from a developer standpoint: Swift Playgrounds, TestFlight integration, etc."

On Swift: See above.

Favorite app: Foursquare, Facebook Messenger, Uber, RunKeeper.

What he does: App entrepreneur, developer and mentor. Worked on apps for Chipotle, Zinio.

On iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Most interesting part? Handover and Extensions. Also interested in all of Apple's new frameworks for developers. "We won't see the results of this for many months or years," he said.

On Swift: "Always good for the brain cells to learn a new language."

Favorite app: Odyssey Translator, which helps you learn foreign languages. "It gives you a feel for the language and guides you to learn it."

What he does: iOS developer and co-founder of Slight. He's worked on Slight, Grandview and Launchwrite (for Mac).

On iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Yosemite is "absolutely beautiful on a Retina display." When it comes to iOS 8, he's "extremely pleased that group chats in iMessage are being more considered."

On Swift: "I wasn't planning on learning another language this year but I'm stoked. Apple is going full-court-press on the platform."

Favorite app: Tinder. "They cracked social discovery. It validates a new behavior."

What he does: iPhone and iPad developer and trainer who publishes IOS Dev Weekly.

On iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Extensibility and sharing changes are "quote long-awaited!"

On Swift: Apple's new programming language lowers the barrier to entry for new iOS developers. "Building a platform for the next 10 years!"

Favorite app: Echofon – a "simple and reliable Twitter client."

What he does: iOS developer at Simple. Worked on Japanese vocabulary app Goi.

On iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: CloudKit "lowers barrier to entry to server-backed app" and touch ID for third-party apps. "If I never have to login again I'd be super-happy."

On Swift: "Brings us all (sort of) back to the same level" and offers an "opportunity to develop new conventions with [an] understanding of mobile that wasn't available when Objective-C was created."

Favorite app: "Active diary" app Moves – "simple interface to very useful and 'delightful' app."

What he does: Founder and chief software engineer at Stone Design. Worked on music app Bandojo, Twitter client Twittelator and page-layout app Create.

On iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Best new feature? Swift! "I hate emailing myself."

On Swift: See above.

Favorite app: Words With Friends – "a game that requires the brain!"

What he does: CEO of Olloclip, maker of macro and telephoto lenses for iPhone and iPad.

On iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Manual control of camera, which lets iPhoneographers set things like exposure, shutter speed and focus, is "going to give the user a lot more fine control over how their pictures look."

Favorite app: Instagram – "so easy to use."

What he does: Developer at Gridstone. Worked on Vulhunter, an iOS app that checks for security vulnerabilities.

On iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: The new Playgrounds functionality in Swift will make it much easier to test programming logic. "Build, run, build, run – that process will take you hours," he said, but Playgrounds will cut that time.

On Swift: See above.

Favorite app: Flipboard is a "great place to get all the news."

What he does: Founder and CEO of Coppertino, maker of Mac music player Vox.

On iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite: Handoff is a "cool feature to sync between iOS and Mac."

On Swift: Not excited -- it's "just another language."

Favorite app: HyperDock, a Mac utility that expands functionality of OS X's Dock.

What’s your take on iOS 8, Swift and OS X Yosemite?

Got your own favorite features in Apple’s latest releases? Let us know in the comments below.

Photos: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Roll your own WWDC with these 107 free Apple videos

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Don't miss a minute of WWDC now that all the sessions are online. Photo: Roberto Baldwin, The Next Web

The code was written. The world (possibly) changed. The banners are gone and Apple is nowhere to be seen at Moscone West after a marathon week of coding and partying with the top software engineers in the world.

If you weren’t lucky enough to make it to this year’s WWDC you can still enjoy all the coding education that came with the show now that all 107 video sessions have been posted on Apple’s developer site. It’s a world class coding education that rivals anything you can pay for at university.

Here are some notable session to get you primed for iOS 8 and Yosemite: