Some restaurants take pride in offering perfect food and wine pairings. Others think more in terms of food and phone pairings.
Yes, you can blame Instagram if your restaurant is a little brighter and the presentation of the food is a bit fussier. Restauranteurs are trying to cash in on our obsession with photographing our meals by giving Instagram users better lighting and compositional conditions to make more appetizing shots.
Tim Cook just finished a week-long tour of China, complete with stops at new Apple Stores across the country, as well as a visit to the elementary school at Communication University of China, and a meeting with China’s Vice Premier.
Cook created a Weibo account earlier this week to announce Apple’s new green initiatives in China, but the Apple CEO didn’t stop there. Rather than posting to Twitter, Cook stayed active on the Chinese microblogging all week, posting his interactions with customers and colleagues. In just five days, Tim has amassed over half a million Weibo followers (he’s got 1.3 million on Twitter) by keeping Chinese fans updated with seven posts during the trip.
Take a look at Tim’s awesome Weibo travelogue:
Drake and Kanye West have both shown their love for Apple Watch with their custom gold Edition models. Now rapper Wiz Khalifa is getting in the Apple Watch game by rocking one throughout his entire new music video.
Wiz Khalifa’s latest surprise video, “The Play,” features three of Wiz’s greatest loves: his son Bash, weed, and Apple Watch. The video focuses on father-son moments between the rapper and Bash, but his stainless steel Apple Watch Sport with a white sport bands steals the show between blasts of lyrics talking about real guys making it off the streets without help.
Watch the heartwarming video below:
Edward Hornsey has had an impressively long relationship with Apple’s customer service department. The 24 year-old has returned 51 iPhones in the past year, and Apple has replaced them with brand-new units.
The only problem is that none of those phones were his, and he’s now in jail for fraud.
It only took one sentence for the United States Court of Appeals to keep the federal government’s emergency plan to disable cellular service a secret. It was a very long sentence, but it got the job done.
This ruling reinforces the Department of Homeland Security’s attempts to block Freedom of Information Act requests that it feels will endanger public safety.
A new series of retro-futuristic space travel posters from SpaceX is designed to seduce earthlings into a trip beyond the stars.
If your iPhone 3G breaks a month from now, prepare to be mostly out of luck.
Apple has released a list of devices that will stop receiving repair and parts service in Apple Stores on June 9.
Apple’s hot new wrist gadget is pretty fantastic and shiny, but when you trash it, how can you get it fixed? We’ve got the skinny on how to do just that, based on our own run-in with a shattered Apple Watch Sport. Plus? Rob and Evan take on more tips and tricks for the Apple Watch than you can stand, Luke’s got a look at how the next iPhone 6s could be the biggest “incremental” upgrade ever, and Leander has a rant-tastic video on his time with his own Apple Watch.
Get all of this, and lots more, in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine, free to download and subscribe.
Zwift, which calls itself an “online fitness entertainment gaming platform,” has finally opened up its virtual roads for anyone with a bicycle on a trainer to ride.
The virtual bicycle racing platform lets riders hook their two-wheelers up to their computers (Mac or PC). Then they receive real-time data about their ride — including speed, cadence and even power — and can match their performance against another rider who is using Zwift at the same time.
Oculus finally revealed the recommend specs for the Rift system scheduled to launch in early 2016. The good news is that minimum hardware specs will only cost you about $800. The bad news is the company has decided to stop developing for the Mac and focus entirely on PC for the launch.
What happens when you try to get a broken Apple Watch repaired? Not much of anything!
I know this because my Apple Watch broke last week and I have a repair order pending.
Luckily, the watch is covered by Apple’s AppleCare+ extended warranty, which covers accidental damage. It also offers two-day express replacement. No downtime without your new precious.
This would be great, but Apple doesn’t have any watches to replace it with. Apple’s watches are in such short supply, it might be Christmas before a replacement is available.
Quanta’s vice chairman has seemingly denied rumors that the Apple Watch has low yield rates, and that Apple was so upset about it that it’s considered outsourcing orders to other manufacturers.
In fact, according to him, Apple Watch production is no longer a problem “in both technology and quality,” despite a few hiccups early on in the production process.
No gadget ever caused me to lose as much sleep as the Apple Watch.
I wish I could forget about Apple’s shiny new smartwatch, but the damned thing has me under its spell. It’s the curse of Cupertino, and I’m just another hapless a victim.
Everything about your vibe – the earbuds, furiously typing fingers and intense body language – says do not approach. But the steady stream of co-workers stopping by your desk can’t take a hint.
You could tell people “Can’t talk now!” but you’re afraid to come off as rude. Your politeness is killing your productivity.
A Utah startup called Wired In has come up with a simple, sleek desk accessory that does the talking for you. It’s a light-up sign that lets people know you’re in the zone without insult or anxiety.
So here we go. A new video series featuring, of all people, our Editor and Publisher Leander Kahney.
You’ve heard him on the CultCast. You’ve read his books.
You’ve been educated, entertained and occasionally enraged at his stories here on Cult of Mac. And now he is going to come into your lives in talking pictures with his new video series, Kahney’s Korner. The format is pretty loose, but he is never at a loss for words, so this should be pretty fun.
Luxury carmakers Bentley have once again turned to the iPhone to shoot the company’s latest short film: A video showcasing four major designers on London’s Savile Row, each given a commission to create a bespoke “driving jacket” for the high-end auto company.
Check out the short film and a special behind-the-scenes video below:
The iPhone 6s is set to get a considerable camera boost, as per a Weibo posting from Kevin Wang, IHS Technology’s research director in China.
After years of using 8MP cameras in its iPhones, Wang claims the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are likely to boast 12MP cameras — theoretically greatly improving the current standard of iPhone photography, which is already pretty darn high.
But there’s a twist.
Former House Speaker and architect of the “Contract with America” Newt Gingrich has joined Mashable as a tech blogger.
You did not misread that.
The new reviewer took to Twitter this evening to ask for some suggestions for his upcoming coverage of the Apple Watch, and he probably should have suspected he’d get some weird responses.
RadioShack’s bankruptcy proceedings have hit another interesting bump; Apple has joined the states of Texas and Tennessee in trying to prevent the liquidating company from selling off its customers’ data.
The latest complaint is just one more obstacle to RadioShack’s already checkered attempts to go out of business.
Mad Max: Fury Road is crushing it, according to spectacular early reviews all over the ‘net. Review aggregator Metacritic has the apocalyptic film pegged at a 91 out of 100 based on 39 reviews and competitor Rotten Tomatoes has its own aggregate hitting the 99/100 mark, based on 133 reviews.
That’s a lot of awesome right there.
The new post-apocalyptic car-fetish reboot comes to theaters this Friday and if the early reviews of the film, written and directed by original Mad Max creator George Miller, are any indication, it’s one hell of a ride.
Let’s take a look at a few of the better reviews to see what all the fuss is about.
It’s been nearly a year since Apple unveiled the HomeKit platform, and we’re still waiting on an official launch. A report earlier today claimed that Apple is delaying the launch of its home-automation platform until August or September, but an Apple spokesperson has refuted the report, saying everything is ontrack for the June launch.
Legends of Tomorrow is the latest DC Comics-inspired bit of television from The CBS/Warner Television Network (The CW) to get a preview trailer, with quite a lot of awesome packed into its four minutes.
You’ve got a girl with wings and a past-lives complex (Hawkgirl), a deceased assassin (White Canary from Arrow), a pair of criminals (Heatwave and Captain Cold from The Flash), a goofy billionaire a ton of tech (The Atom, also from The Flash, played by Superman Return‘s Brandon Routh) and a combustible half a hero (Firestorm) played by venerable character actor, Victor Garber. Oh, and a Dr. Who favorite (Arthur Darvill) playing a time traveler (Rip Hunter) from the future.
So many variables, it could go either way, of course. Check out the promising trailer to make up your own mind.
Blake Reynolds, lead artist at Dinofarm Games (Auro, 100 Rogues), has come to the conclusion that “pixel art” is over. He’s decided to hang up his digital pencil tool and create art for games that current audiences can understand.
“Auro,” he writes, “is likely to be the last Dinofarm Games title to feature pixel art.”
Francesco Orru has a guitar that would make H.R. Giger proud and put Sigourney Weaver on edge.
The designer used a Delta Wasp 3-D printer to create a guitar with a body shaped like the killer creature from the 1979 sci-fi classic Alien.
Pieces of the guitar could be yours for around $150, but be prepared to also shop for volume and tone pots, a neck and Stratocaster neck plate, humbuckers, tuning pegs, a bridge and, of course, strings. Plans are also available for free download at MyMiniFactory.com to do your own 3-D printing.
Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush hasn’t officially announced that he’s running for office, but he’s already hitting the campaign trail and he’s brining his Apple Watch with him.
In Tempe Arizona today, Jeb held a town hall meeting at the Chamber of Commerce and stopped to rave about his Apple Watch. It’s so amazing, he says he even thinks it should replace Obamacare.