No rest for the Hobbit and Dwarf. Photo: Warner Bros.
In this new, three-minute-long trailer, Warner Bros. teases us with the epic conclusion to Peter Jackson’s Hobbit film trilogy.
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies will complete the story of Bilbo Baggins’ journey with Thorin Oakenshield and his company of dwarves as they reclaim the wealth of their homeland. But the heroes also must deal with Smaug (that pesky dragon they unleashed in the last movie) and take care of that badass orc that’s been following them from the get-go.
A strong password means nothing if you're shouting it out. Photo: College Humor
We’re all concerned about our privacy lately. Using a different strong password for all our banking and website activities is the best way to keep malicious hackers from getting all up into our grill.
Rapper MC Safesearch, though, needs to remember not to post his passwords in the music video he’s doing about privacy and security.
Check out how this socially-conscious musician gets totally hacked during his own music video.
First, smooth video came to your iPhone. Now it's arrived on YouTube, too. Photo: Killian Bell
For anyone who shoots a lot of videos, having the option to shoot at 60fps is one of the most satisfying parts of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, making your footage as silky smooth as a Barry White pickup line.
If your aim was to put up those videos online, however, until now there’s an excellent chance you were wasting your time, since YouTube was only equipped to handle 30fps.
Fortunately that’s now changed, courtesy of a YouTube update that brings 1080p 60fps to your monitor — provided that you’re using an appropriate browser, which according to my tests includes Safari and Chrome.
Tim Cook Chairman Honeycrisp took to the stage at yesterday's Apple keynote. Photo: Apple
Tim Cook sure is picking up a lot of nicknames as of late. At the iPhone 6 keynote he was dubbed the “Zen Master of hardware and software” by U2’s Bono, and at yesterday’s iPad event he was given the codename “Chairman Honeycrisp” as part of the entertaining Stephen Colbert secrecy skit.
Taking the latter nickname as his inspiration, YouTube’s resident Apple songsmith Jonathan Mann (whose work we profiled earlier this week) put together his customary post-keynote song, highlighting the October 16 Apple media event.
The result may not quite hit the highs of Mann’s superb WWDC tribute (a song that is still stuck in my head months later), but it’s worth a watch for the repeating “Intergalactic Chancellor Chairman Honeycrisp” chorus alone.
Jonathan Mann turns his fascination with Apple into catchy pop songs. Photo: Funcrunch Photo/Flickr
Steve Jobs wasn’t in the habit of dancing at Apple events. But in 2010, prior to a press conference where he addressed concerns about the new iPhone’s antenna, a song lampooning the controversy got Jobs dancing in the wings before he faced off with journalists.
The song in question, which played on a big screen to kick off the event, was the work of YouTube musician and Apple fan Jonathan Mann, who has spent the past five years composing a new song each day and posting it online.
“I heard later on from an Apple PR person that Steve Jobs was bopping along in the wings as the song was playing” at the Antennagate press conference, says Mann, speaking with Cult of Mac. “It was a surreal moment in my life.”
Antennagate went away, but Mann became the go-to guy for jingles about all things Cupertino. To date he has written 38 songs about Apple, touching on everything from Craig Federighi’s WWDC performance to the unveiling of the Apple Watch. His clever ideas and quick turnaround times have turned him into YouTube’s premier Apple songsmith.
It’s official: kids love the iPad more than they do Oreo cookies. According to the “2014 Young Love” study — an annual survey carried out by leading youth and family research firm Smarty Pants — the iPad beat out 255 other brands (including Disney, Nickelodeon, Toys”R”Us, McDonald’s and YouTube) to be named the #1 brand among children aged 6-12.
The survey was conducted among a representative sample of U.S. households, with a total of 256 consumer brands evaluated as part of a three-month study of 6,661 children and their parents. Scores were based on a composite scale of 0-1,000 based on brand awareness, love, and popularity.
Hit the sweet spot on YouTube with a well-timed video, and you could be rolling in the dough.
Lewis Hilsenteger may have done just that with his iPhone 6 Plus bending video, which has now gathered a jaw-dropping number of hits.
The Ontario-based video blogger has racked up a staggering 36 million views (and climbing!) on his video (posted above), becoming somewhat of a touchstone for the continuing Bendgate saga.
He’s not the only one, however, with folks from around the globe getting tons of traffic (and, we hope, ad revenue) via their gadgety video postings.
Here, then, are a few of the most popular videos that feature Apple’s new products.
American Horror Story: Freak Show is set to premiere this October 8 on FX. As each season of the acclaimed FX series is a self-contained mini-series, this fourth season will focus on a big-top freak show.
Below is the first full reveal of the main cast, which includes a mysterious Jessica Lange (who’s played a different character in each season of this drama), dressed in a circus tent-style dress that just begs to be compared to the tents that fall to the ground at the end of the trailer. Also, as above, Kathy Bates is playing a bearded lady for the win.
Check the trailer out and enjoy the creepy music, courtesy of Melanie Martinez’s haunting “Carousel.”
We’ve all heard it: “Turn that TV off or I’m gonna take it and toss it out the g*dd*mn window.” Chances are, if you’re a parent, you’ve even said such a thing (I know I have).
That’s why after repeated watchings we just had to share this viral video from YouTuber McJuggerNuggets about a crazy family with a dad that resorts to mowing down his layabout son’s video game collection to intimidate the kid into getting a job.
Check out this NSFW video (F-bombs galore) below and you’ll be as hooked on the uncomfortable family drama as we are.
Our ever-popular podcast – The CultCast, hosted by Erfon Elijah – is now on the Cult of Mac TV YouTube channel. It’s a whole new way to digest your favorite 30-minute (-ish!) Apple conversation.
Click the video above to check out the latest podcast, which covers topics like NFC on the iPhone 6, Steve Ballmer landing the perfect job and a mobile payment system for iPhone that will make credit cards obsolete.
Watch the latest episode above and don’t forget to subscribe to Cult of Mac TV to stay up-to-date on all the latest happenings from the world of Apple.
The world already has more music streaming services than any sane person can subscribe to on a monthly basis, but Google is preparing to take on the likes of Spotify, Rdio, Pandora, and Beats Music with a new service of its own called YouTube Music Key.
The Rickrolling meme will never die, and if Dan Petro has his way, you may soon be able to drive down your neighborhood and rickroll every TV on the block in seconds.
After finding a vulnerability in Google’s Chromecast Wifi implementation, Dan Petro built a device for less than $100 out of a Raspberry Pi, a touchscreen, wireless cards and 3D-printed pastic case. It’s name: The Rickmote Controller. It’s superpower: Takes over any Chomecast-equipped TV within Wifi range and plays Rick Astley’s legendary “Never Gonna Give You up.”
Talkin' 'bout my g-g-generation. Photo: Jonas Bengtsson/Flickr CC
When I wanted to learn how to knit, I went to YouTube. Anytime I need to learn a guitar solo for a cover song my band is working on, I head to YouTube. I’m not alone in my use of the video portal, either. According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more U.S. adults in the 18-34 age range than any cable network.
These types of everyday queries have made YouTube the No. 2 search engine in the world, second only to Google (which just happens to be the video site’s parent company). More than 1 billion unique users head to YouTube every month, and more than 6 billion hours of video — almost an hour of video for each person on the planet — get watched in the same time period.
If you’re a new site, trying to capture enough mind share and traffic to create a successful user-created video content business, how could you ever compete with such a giant?
The entire country is busy watching America’s rebels take on the Belgium Red Devils at World Cup, but while everyone else is focused on the football pitch, Google is busy readying its plans to take on Beats Music with a music service acquisition of its own.
Songza, a music streaming service that specializes in finding the right music to fit your mood – kind of like Beats’ Sentence feature – announced that is has been scooped up by the folks at Google.
Video might have killed the radio star, but streaming hasn't killed the record store. Photos: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Stroll into your local record store and you won’t find the dusty-floored wasteland of empty bins you might imagine. Chances are you’ll see something that’s more vibrant, relevant and vital than before.
Like the nerdy know-it-alls at specialty wine stores and comic book shops, today’s typical employee at an indie record store is still a tastemaking wizard — just turned up to 11. Staff picks bear the unerring zeal of the true believer, and staffers are more focused on uncovering stuff that you’ll never find on a Walmart CD shelf.
“Since there’s been a turn to Spotify, Bandcamp and iTunes, we sell way more vinyl,” said Jim Haynes, assistant manager at San Francisco’s Aquarius Records. “We’re at about 75 percent vinyl to 20 percent CD and a smattering of cassettes. People are turning to an even more seemingly obsolete medium.”
Predictions of the end of physical media are as played-out as those reports about the death of rock ‘n’ roll, with everyone and their mother proclaiming that Spotify and other streaming services have killed the local record store. That fear-mongering sounds smart and might even contain a kernel of truth, but the reality is much different.
This video by game video YouTube user NicksplosionFX is perhaps the most awesome thing you’re going to see all day.
It’s a shot by shot recreation of the stunningly fantastic Game of Thrones television show introduction sequence done in the style of Nintendo’s classic Super Mario Brothers video game.
Whether your a Game of Thrones fan, a classic Nintendo nerd, or a combination of the two, you’ll love that the video maker also has a side by side comparison of the two videos (below) so you can critique his recreation with all your righteous nerd fervor.
The icon-tiled interface of iOS could use more than just a flat facelift from Jony Ive to feel more modern and even though jailbreakers have enjoyed widgets for years, maybe it’s time Apple added them in Control Center.
This iOS 8 concept from Ryan Gilsdorf envisions widgets coming to iOS 8 through Control Center where users can swipe between music, calendar, weather and third-party widgets to control apps from the homescreen.
With such a large music library on YouTube it’s an ideal way of listening to your favorite artists. Playing music videos in the native YouTube app is convenient, but playing and leaving the app to still listen to your video’s audio isn’t possible. Luckily thanks to iOS 7 there’s a simple way around this, allowing you to enjoy your music in no time.
The weekend is upon us, and Cult of Mac Deals has a few select offers that you’re going to want to check out while you can.
We’ve got special pricing on Mac Video Converter Ultimate, an app that allows you to easily convert movies and videos for any format or device. You can get it for 66% off – just $19.99. We’ve also got the Essential Shock-Proof Case, a case that will always keep your iPhone 5/5s protected, for only $15.99.
Back in September, popular Youtuber Lewis Hilsenteger released a hands-on video of what he believed to be the outer shell of the iPad 5. The video exploded on the Internet, and six weeks later when Apple announced the iPad Air, it confirmed the parts were spot-on.
So how does someone get their paws on the parts of one of Apple’s most anticipated gadgets weeks before it’s announced? On this week’s CultCast, Hilsentenger is our guest — and he’s going to tell us exactly how he did it.
Seems like all the kids these days are using YouTube to listen to songs. It used to be trivially easy to play videos in the background, though, by just starting a video in the YouTube app or in Safari, and then just switching out to another app.
These days, however, the latest iOS version has changed that, and switching out of the YouTube app or Safari with a video playing stops the playback. Never fear, though, there are a couple of workarounds.
It’s time to bring you another amazing bundle – one that’s stacked with 10 useful apps to give your daily grind a boost in efficiency and effectiveness.
The Mac Productivity Bundle 7.0 has something for everyone. With this exclusive promotion, Cult of Mac Deals has sourced 10 of the hottest apps on the market and negotiated the price down from $363 so that you can get the entire package for just $49.99!
All you comic lovers and designers out there…get ready. Cult of Mac Deals has some software on sale that takes your designs, characters and stories and puts them in motion to create the story you have been visualizing.
We all love having plenty of space to work and learning time-saving cool techniques. With Motion Artist you can layout comic panels and image layers in any way possible using a large, user-friendly workspace and with its dynamic camera action automatically creates a cinematic experience. And Cult of Mac Deals has this killer application for 66% off – just $19.99 – during this limited time offer.
The Flappy Bird saga will not die thanks to one question still on the minds of Flappy Bird fans – how did Flappy Bird’s wild success ruin creator Dong Nguyen’s life?
Nguyen removed the game from the App Store and Google Play on Sunday despite making $50,000 a day off it, saying the game is a success, but it also ruins his simple life.
I can call ‘Flappy Bird’ is a success of mine. But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it.
Theories are boiling as to how the game ruined Dong’s life. Did Nintendo complain? No. Did he sell it? Nope.
Perhap his pockets are simply running out of room for those fat stacks, but a new theory emerged this morning, maybe Dong Nguyen cheated the App Store with bots.
The AppleTV is one of the most underappreciated pieces of technology around, but it can be limiting. If you’re anything like me, you want to get more out of the tech you love. So if you want to get the most out of your AppleTV then aTV Flash from Firecore is the way to go.
