The eBook publishing price-fixing scandal raised its fugly head again this week when the US Justice Department filed documents in advance of the June 3 trial in New York.

Among those documents was a series of emails and documents in which eBook pricing strategy and tactics are discussed.

An email from late founder and CEO Steve Jobs to New Corporation’s James Murdoch got all the attention. (The email itself was harmless but parts of it printed out of context sounded vaguely conspiratorial and old-boys clubbish.)

To me, the scandal is buried in those emails and testimony records. We learned that Apple used its control over app approvals to exert pressure on companies for reasons totally unrelated to the apps.

Does this bother you? It should.

When Apple was negotiating with Random House and the companies were disagreeing about pricing, Jobs threatened the publisher’s CEO by saying they would “suffer a loss of support from Apple” if the company continued to resist Apple’s terms, according to that CEO. Two months later, the CEO said that Apple threatened to block an eBook application by Random House because they had not reached a deal. (I don’t know if that book was Nigella’s Quick Collection, pictured, but that is a Random House title.)

A subsequent email sent by Eddy Cue to Jobs said that Random House agreed to Apple’s terms in part because Cue “prevented an app from Random House from going live in the app store.”

(Ironically, I believe these emails are part of Apple’s defense, to show that its relationships with publishers was contentious rather than conspiratorial.)

If court documents are portraying this accurately, it means that in 2010, at least, Apple was willing to use its control over the app store to give the company an unfair advantage in unrelated business deals.

Apple’s History of Arbitrary App Store Decisions

Some blocking of apps is more legitimate — or, at least, determined by published rules. For example, Apple banned a DUI checkpoint finding app a couple years ago. This violated a very specific section of the Apple guidelines that flat out say that DUI checkpoint apps will be rejected. Fair enough.

The controversial removal by Apple of T&C’s AppGratis from the App Store last month was also probably justifiable.

(Apple not only removed the app, they also pulled the plug on the app’s push notifications to people who had previously installed the app.)

Though critics accused Apple of stifling an alternative view to the App Store, Apple said the app violated two of its terms of service. For a fee, the company would promote a developer’s app by giving apps free or offering in-app content free. This directly violates the App Store requirements around app promotions and direct-marketing push notifications.

Still, the banning caused an international incident. France’s minister for the digital economy (why does the digital economy need a “minister”?), named Fleur Pellerin, slammed Apple in a tweet that falsely said “plenty of apps similar to AppGratis remain” in the App Store. Her involvement has also been criticized as harmful to the very “digital economy” French taxpayers are paying her to boost.

Other app removals exist in a gray area where it appears that Apple just doesn’t like the sound or intent of apps, and pulls them somewhat arbitrarily.

Apple this week removed the Bang With Friends app, which existed to enable users to proposition people they follow on Facebook to find out if they are “down to bang.”

Essentially, it works like this: You scan your Facebook friends and choose the ones you would like to “bang.” These choices remain private. But when someone on your “down to bang” list puts you on their “down to bang” list, you’re both notified of this mutually assured attraction.

As far as I can tell, the pulling of this app is arbitrary. I’m guessing Apple just doesn’t like the sound of it.

I would be surprised if Apple considered as one of its corporate missions the need to prevent people from having sex with each other, or the use of apps for people to discover that they are attracted to each other.

I suspect that the baby boomers who run Apple just find the language commonly used by millennials in poor taste.

Is a generation gap a good reason to exert their control over an ecosystem?

Apple, in fact, has a long history of banning apps based on them being in poor taste.

An app called iBoobs was banned, even though there was no nudity in it. The app showed a cartoon clothed upper torso of a woman. By shaking the app, the breasts jiggled. So what’s the rule here: You can show female bodies as long as they’re not in motion?

Another banned app showed perfectly static women as Apple prefers, but as part of a strip poker game called Video Strip Poker. They never got naked in the game. Apple doesn’t have a categorical ban on bikinis or underwear. But showing a progression from clothed to underwear was something Apple just didn’t like the idea of, so it was banned.

Another app called I Am Rich was banned by Apple. The app did almost nothing and cost $1,000. The whole point was that the high cost of the app itself was supposed to be a status symbol.

Why Apple Needs Principles and Rules Governing the App Store

Some say Apple’s 30% cut is an outrageously high percentage for apps and content.

Others, such as the Justice Department and the actual eBooks monopoly, Amazon, say Apple’s agency model for books is problematic.

I say both of these charges are baloney. Apple distributes free apps for free and charges what the market will bear for distributing paid apps. The agency model is one in which publishers set the prices and everybody might get paid, including the authors, leading to better books. And it’s a better alternative to Amazon’s outrageous wholesale model, which lets Amazon sell below cost to drive competitors out of the market and take pricing control away from authors and publishers.

I also don’t mind Apple’s strict, somewhat puritanical rules for banning certain apps, because at least they’re published rules which app and content creators can consider in advance before exhausting their resources.

What we should all be bothered by, however, are arbitrary, self-serving abuses of the power Apple wields to pick and choose which apps it likes or doesn’t like or — worst of all — to use its control of the App Store to force business partners to capitulate in negotiations.

If Apple wants to be a standard, global agent for content, we need to trust them. And for us to trust them, they’ve got to earn our trust by creating a rule-governed, level playing field.

In other words, the use of Apple’s platform for content distribution should be a partnership where both parties are bound by agreed-upon rules, not a content dictatorship that functions according to Apple’s whim.

When every other company, such as Google, Facebook or Microsoft publishes policies and user agreements and then violates them, everybody is outraged. So where’s the outrage about Apple’s flagrant and arbitrary control of the App Store?

I think it’s time for Tim Cook to set this right. Yes, the company should make rules for content distribution on its iTunes and iBooks networks.

But just as we content creators follow those rules, so should Apple.

 

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It’s not often that a product stands the test of time, making adjustments when needed to keep up with the speed of the changes that directly impact its use. Roxio Toast 11 Titanium has done just that, and this latest version has been completely redesigned from the ground up.

Roxio Toast 11 Titanium features a new user interface that’s up-to-date, innovative, and intuitive. With newly refined workflows, built-in video tutorials and much more, Toast 11 is the ultimate digital media toolkit for newcomers and experienced users alike – and Cult of Mac Deals has it for a limited time at a price that’s really appealing: only $49.99.

Here are the top features of Roxio Toast 11 Titanium:

• Burn: Toast is the easiest and fastest way to burn your digital media on to CD, DVD or Blu-ray Disc for both Mac and PC.
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• -Copy: Copy CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs – even using multiple drives. Copy dual layer DVD-Video discs on to 4.7 GB single-layer discs.
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From capturing audio and video to converting media to copying, sharing, burning and more, Roxio Toast 11 quickly and easily gets you the media you love…wherever you want it!

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Everyone’s gadgets look the same these days. That’s because they generally look so good out of the box. But why not personalize your gear a little bit? Make it really your own and let your personality come through every time you bring out your smartphone, tablet, computer, or other tech gadgets for all the world to see.

Cult of Mac Deals has an offer that will help you do just that, letting you change add stylish skin(s) to your tech with Slickwraps. We’ve got a deal tjhat gives you $50 of credit with Slickwraps for 50% off the regular price – just $25!

Slickwraps makes amazing skins for these big name brands and more. They make hundreds of sweet skins for just about every tech gadget out there including your iPhone, Android phone, your MacBook, and even the new Pebble watch!

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No, I mean, “Green eggs and ham!”

When Siri was updated along with iOS 6, we showed you a bunch of ways to use Apple’s personal digital assistant the right way, like using punctuation and finding out the weather.

Yet time marches ever onward, and we’ve compiled yet another five tips and tricks to help you master Siri, whether you’re looking to create a secure password or just pass the time with a few laughs. Enjoy!

Easily Correct Siri Input Errors Without Getting Frustrated

Have you ever had one of those Siri moments, where you ask her to search for something, and she interprets your speech incorrectly? I’m guessing all of us have, at one time or another.

One thing Siri doesn’t do very well is provide for “no I meant…” error correction, at least using speech. Next time you use Siri and the result is something you didn’t expect, don’t just press the home button in frustration, but correct Siri using your iPhone or iPad keyboard instead.

Let’s say you’re searching for the location of Costa Rica. YOu might say, “Where is Costa Rica?” and Siri my respond with, “I didn’t fine any places matching ‘coaster Rica’. We could hurl the iPhone or iPad down in disgust at this point, but it cost too much to do that, so let’s just do this:

Tap the bubble with the incorrectly parsed text. In this case, that’s the “Where is coaster Rica” at the top. The bubble will turn into an editable text field, and you can select coaster and replace it with Costa using the iPhone or iPad keyboard. When you’ve made the correction, hit Done on the iOS keyboard, and Siri will then reply with a much better answer. Though, in my case, Siri told me where San Jose, San Jose was. Ah, Siri. Try again.

Via: Reddit

Tell Siri Which Audio Input To Listen To

Hands-free car stereo Siri says HI.

Talking to Siri can be either an exercise in frustration, or a miracle of modern technology, depending on your mood and how successful the Apple digital assistant is at interpreting what it is you’re asking. Typically, when you activate Siri with a long press and hold on the Home button, the input is collected via the microphone built into your iPHone or iPad.

If you have a Bluetooth accessory, though, you might not know that Siri can listen through that device as well. Here’s how to get Siri to do just that.

First, make sure that your Bluetooth accessory is connected to the iOS device you want to use to have Siri listen to for input. Not all external portable speakers, for instance, have a mic or speakerphone capabilities, so be sure you’re using one that does, like a hands-free kit in a car, or a Bluetooth earpiece.

Now, when you press and hold that Home button on your iPhone or iPad, you’ll see a glowing blue speaker icon just to the right of Siri’s typical microphone icon. Tap there, and then choose the Bluetooth device to set it as the input device.

Now Siri will listen to that device to collect your voice commands, and–if the device supports it–will give you back audio feedback (“Would you like me to search the web for coaster Rica?” Sigh.) via that device’s speakers, too.

Though, to be honest, I don’t think I could handle Siri blasting through my car stereo. Thank goodness my car is way older than the iPhone itself.

Source: Macworld

Use Siri To Generate A Super Secure Random Password

As you may know, Siri is backed by the seriously amazing knowledge web site, Wolfram Alpha, which makes dynamic computations about your search terms based on a its own collection of built-in data, special algorithms, and other secret fancy methods. Or, to put it another way: magic.

Anyway, Siri taps into Wolfram Alpha and can come up with some great stuff, like calculating tips for you, for example. Siri’s connection to Wolfram can do even more than that, like generating a secure password for you. Here’s how.

Click and hold the Home button on your Siri-enabled iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, and say, “Wolfram password.” You can also say, “WolframAlpha password,” if that floats your boat. Either way, you’ll get a screen that will show your input to WolframAlpha as, “generate a random password.”

Below that, you’ll see the default password length of eight characters, followed your random password, along with the Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot way of expressing it. YOu’ll then see an additional six other passwords you can use, along with some really cool info about the properties of the given password, along with a measure of your password entropy, a measure of how tricky it will be to guess the password, even with modern computing force.

Interesting tidbit: the eight character password I generated to try this out would take about 229 years to guess, if a brute force attack generated 100,000 passwords per second. Sweet! That’s got to be more secure than the one I have now! And no, I didn’t use the one in the screenshot above for anything. Sheesh.

Via: Everything iCafe

Use Siri To Add Relationships To Your Contacts For More Natural Interactions

If you’ve tried to use Siri to call or text someone, you know it’s pretty simple. Just say, for example, “Call Joe Smith,” and Siri will call the person named Joe Smith in your Contacts App.

But did you know that Siri can also identify people via their relationship to you? You can say, “Call my brother,” or “Text my daughter,” and Siri will call or text that person, provided you’ve done a little set-up in the Contacts app.

You can also use Siri to define these relationships, so you don’t even have to open Contacts. Here’s how.

Tap and hold the Home button to activate Siri, and say something like, “Joe Smith is my boss.” Siri will check your Contacts app to make sure there isn’t more than one Joe Smith. If there is more than one, you’ll have to tap the specific Joe Smith you’re talking about. Then, Siri will ask you to confirm the relationship. “OK, do you want me to remember that Joe Smith is your manager?” she’ll ask. Tap or say “Yes,” and Siri will add that relationship to the Contact you’ve defined as your own.

Go ahead and give it a try; adding relationships to your contacts is a great way to make Siri even more natural. Now all you need to do is say, “Text my boss,” and you’ll be able to tell her that you’re running late. Hooray!

Via: TechRadar

Ask Siri These Questions, Get Some Hilarious Answers

One of my daughter’s favorite things to do with Siri on my iPhone, besides rename me all sorts of ridiculous names, is to ask it questions. “Siri,” she’ll say, “what is your real name?” Siri will reply with how she really doesn’t like talking about herself. Hilarious, right?

I’m almost afraid to show her this tip, then, because she’ll now have a ton of questions to ask Siri, getting truly funny and cute responses along the way. I may never get my iPhone back.

Here is a list of some of the best, but we’ll leave finding out the answers to you, and your own version of Siri.

Ask Siri the following questions and she’ll give you a wry or self-referential answer. The song one is my personal favorite.

* Can you make me a sandwich?
* Take me to your leader
* Sing a song
* Beam me up
* Open the pod bay doors
* I can do this all day long
* I need to hide a body
* Talk dirty to me
* How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
* Who’s on first?
* What’s the answer to the Universe?

The following will get you some interesting, funny answers from Wolfram Alpha, Siri’s data source. Apparently data algorithms have a sense of humor, as well, though it runs toward the geeky, Sheldon variety.

* Where do babies come from?
* When will the world end?
* Is Santa Claus real?
* When will pigs fly?

And for the directly humorous, and down-right groan worthy fans among us, ask Siri the following questions. Be prepared to slap your knee!

* Tell me a joke
* Knock knock
* Testing 1 2 3
* You’re funny
* Set 5 AM alarm followed by Cancel 5 AM alarm

My current rename by my daughter? Siri now calls me “Adora Basil Winterpock.” Thanks, Wreck It Ralph.

Source: About.com
Image: Wired

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Every week Mac Games and More (http://www.macgamesandmore.com/) features a casual, but gripping game just for you to sink your teeth into over the weekend. This week, prepare yourself to speak with ghosts while wandering around a spooky manor but make sure the thief of souls does not get a hold of you. Download it and try the free one hour demo now

Curse at Twilight: Thief of Souls Collector’s Edition (adventure/hidden objects) – Once you step afoot the haunted estates in Curse at Twilight, the gates immediately close behind you. You’re trapped and you’ll need to explore the house and property to solve various mysteries and puzzles to unlock different locations and to discover all of the sordid secrets and details beneath the dark facade. You will not regret launching this eery hidden objects adventure game. Download it now

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Crescent Moon Games, known for its quality iOS gaming work (Aralon: Sword and Shadow, Dig!), has just released it’s well-regarded iOS game, Ravensword: Shadowlands, for Mac OS X.

Apple gave Ravensword: Shadowlands the Editor’s Choice designation for the iPad version, which can still be purchased for $7 on the iTunes App Store. The Mac OS X Version, enhanced with graphical upgrades like realtime shadows, bloom effects, and high resolution textures and environment models, is in the Mac App Store right now for $13, which seems like a pretty decent deal.

This open-world role playing game has been called the Elder Scrolls of mobile gaming, and the full experience is now on the Mac, in addition to the higher end visuals. There’s a huge 3D high-fantasy-themed world to explore, hundreds of items to find and use, and an epic storyline and soundtrack to immerse you in the gameplay. You’ll get to try out various weapon types like bows, crossbows, hammers, swords, and axes, and get places faster on horses and flying mounts, as well. You’ll fight your way past enemies, counting on your armor upgrades and looted items to keep you safe and vanquish your foes across a ton of multi-part quests.

Sounds like a pretty typical Friday night, no?

If this sounds like fun to you, you could do worse than pick up a gorgeous open-world fantasy RPG for $13 on the Mac App Store, right? Ravensword: Shadowlands requires Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later to run on your Mac.

Source: Mac App Store

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Like an odd cross between Sudoku and a collectible card game, Star Trek Rivals, from Elephant Mouse Games, is out for iOS on the App Store to capture your attention today, on the release date of Star Trek: Into Darkness (have you gotten your tickets, yet?).

The game is free, has all your Star Trek reboot characters in it, and is pretty simple to learn, but hard to master. It plays asynchronously, and you can play a bunch of games at once. Did I mention it’s made out of Star Trek? What’s not to like?

At the start of each match, you get five cards, each with a still from one of the movies on it. The cards have a number on each edge. When you place a card down in the three by three grid and hit Submit, your opponent gets a chance to lay a card down. If the number on his card that touches the edge of your card is higher, he’ll capture your card. Then it’s your turn. Lay down a card with a edge number higher than one of hers, and you’ll capture that card, plus any others that it originally captured, like the board game Othello. Simple, right?

You can purchase new cards in the store with credits you earn through matches, or with Latinum you can purchase as well. It’s a pretty typical free-to-play business model, and not too intrusive. The only annoying things, so far, are the full screen ads that pop up randomly after you submit a card for play. Choose either ad supported or in-app purchase supported, Elephant Mouse, not both.

The strategy starts to make sense after only a few games, and it’s a fun, mindful way of spending a few minutes as you wait in line to see the movie tonight, anyway.

If that’s not enough, the developers have dropped some sweet Star Trek Rivals wallpapers on us, just for you Cult of Mac readers, so go ahead and download your favorite from the images posted below.

Universal app Star Trek Rivals is available in the App Store now for free. Beam up a copy today.

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Every year Apple holds its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California. It’s the only time out of the year that third-party App Store developers can meet with Apple engineers face-to-face. For the indie dev making apps out of his home office, WWDC is Mecca. Besides the knowledge that can be gained, the conference holds tremendous networking value for many who make their livings from selling apps on the iPhone and Mac.

WWDC 2013 sold out in under two minutes this year, and about 5,000 developers will be descending upon the Moscone Center in San Francisco for the week-long conference in June. Some new information shows how WWDC attracts quite the international audience.

iOS developer Adam Swinden created a list of hundreds of WWDC 2013 attendees he polled online. “After creating the WWDC 2013 Attendee List I noticed that many of the people introducing themselves on the Glassboard were from all corners of the world,” said Swinden. “So I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see them all plotted on a map.”

The above map shows a small sample of devs who have paid $1600 for a WWDC ticket + airfare to attend next month. Apple will be uploading its session videos for registered developers to watch for free as WWDC is happening, but that hasn’t stopped people from wanting to attend in person.

As you can see, App Store developers are sprinkled throughout pretty much every continent. A larger map is available here.

WWDC isn’t going anywhere soon.

Source: Symbolicating

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Have you used the hot new app “Bang With Friends?” No, don’t answer that. Keep your dignity in tact. You can guess what it does.

Apple has suddenly pulled Bang With Friends from the App Store after it went live last week. The app doesn’t contain any explicit content, but it’s obviously not meant for your kid to check out while searching for the latest Angry Birds game.

No word yet on why BWF has been pulled, but the service’s website says that it’s “working with Apple to get back into the App Store shortly.”

Source: Valleywag

Via: CNET

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Limelight is a new iPhone app for collecting movies and sharing them with friends. Released earlier this week by indie dev studio 9:42 AM, Limelight is pitched as a ”new way to browse and organize your movie library.”

Inspired by Delicious Library on the Mac, Limelight borrows from similar digital bookshelf apps and adds a unique social element.

I’ve been a proponent of an app called TodoMovies for quite some time because I simply can’t keep track of all the movies I want to see. Limelight takes TodoMovies a step farther by separating movies into “To Watch” and “Watched” lists. Sharing is also a crux of the experience; you are encouraged to follow other users within the app and share your library with friends on Twitter and Facebook.

The app is exquisitely designed, and navigating through the various windows feels fluid. Movies are displayed as poster thumbnails, which can make it occasionally tricky to find a specific movie when the poster isn’t easily recognizable. Trailers are available for each movie along with cast and crew info.

Limelight isn’t going to be for everyone, but it’s a well designed app that should appeal to certain movie lovers. Get it now in the App Store for $2.

Source: App Store

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I know what you’re asking: Yet another activity tracker? But LIT tracker from NZN Labs has a big secret ingredient that most others don’t — and that special ingredient makes it perfect for action sports like snowboarding, surfing and mountain biking.

I suppose it’s not actually a secret — or if it is, it’s not a very good one. In any case, here’s the deal:

Most activity trackers — for instance, the Fitbit, Nike+ Fuel Band, Jawbone Up and most others — use an accelerometer to track a user’s movement. That works perfectly well for activities like walking or running, but doesn’t work for activities where steps can’t be measured.

Just like the others, the LIT tracker is equipped with an accelerometer; but NZN Labs paired the accelerometer with a gyroscope, giving the little device the ability to record forces associated with that huge wave you just carved on your surfboard, or the big jump you just landed on your mountain bike.

All that recorded data doesn’t mean much without a useful way to make sense of it, so the outfit has spent much of its time creating and testing data sets for a variety of action sports. They’ve gotten so good at differentiating the different activities from each other that LIT will automatically recognize what sport you’re participating in.

Another really impressive aspect to LIT is that a user can choose to superimpose activity data over video being shot on an iPhone during the activity through a free companion app; data is sent to the iPhone via Bluetooth 4.0.

So far, data sets have been crafted for surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding and motocross, and LIT’s creators are currently working on a mountain biking model next.

The LIT will sell for $149 when it ships, according to NZN Labs, in August. If you want to grab one for considerably less at $99, better hurry — the LIT’s Indiegogo campaign ends in less than twelve hours.

Here’s a video clip of one of what the data looks like when superimposed onto a video clip of the activity.

 

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We’ve shown you plenty of iTV/Apple TV concepts in the past. There are a lot of ideas to improve the TV experience out there, and Apple is working on a solution (if you put some level of faith in the rumor mill, that is).

How would you interact with an Apple TV that replaced your cable box? The above concept video suggests an interface that is controlled entirely with an iOS device. Gestures would be used to swipe through channels and navigate menus. You could use Siri to control the experience and ask questions, which is something that Apple has apparently been experimenting with for years.

These kinds of concepts tend to serve the purpose of getting people thinking, not laying out some detailed model that Apple absolutely needs to follow. There are parts of this video that are well executed, and parts that aren’t. The biggest thing that stands out is the total reliance on software. There’s nothing about the above concept that suggests Apple needing to build a physical television.

Via: iDownloadBlog

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Steve and Laurene Jobs together at the 82nd Academy Awards back in 2010

When Steve Jobs passed away in 2011, he left behind a wife and four children. His widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, has stayed hidden from the public sphere for years, but now she is starting to receive more recognition as an influential philanthropist.

She is passionate about a host of social issues, including education and immigration policy. As the world’s ninth richest woman, her platform to effect society has only grown larger in the wake of Jobs’s death.

The New York Times published a big profile of Laurene today that explains some of her philanthropic efforts:

While some people said Ms. Powell Jobs should have started a foundation in Mr. Jobs’s name after his death, she did not, nor has she increased her public giving.

Instead, she has redoubled her commitment to Emerson Collective, the organization she formed about a decade ago to make grants and investments in education initiatives and, more recently, other areas.

“In the broadest sense, we want to use our knowledge and our network and our relationships to try to affect the greatest amount of good,” Ms. Powell Jobs said in one of a series of interviews with The New York Times.

Jobs was notoriously tight when to came to giving. Current Apple CEO Tim Cook created a matching gift program for charitable donations within the company not long after he got promoted.

After inheriting Job’s fortune, Laurene Powell Jobs has an estimated net worth of $11.5 billion, making her the ninth richest woman in the world. Much of her worth is tied to Apple stock and being the largest single shareholder in Disney.

Laurene recently appeared on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams to talk about a new film she made to promote the DREAM Act, a bill that aims to give the children of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. She created College Track, a big program that helps students from poorer communities get prepared and pay for college.

Make sure to read the whole NYT profile for a closer look at Laurene’s accomplishments.

Source: The New York Times

Image: Alexandra Wyman/Getty Images

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This week on The CultCast: Google Maps gets prettier, smarter, and faster; Hangouts is a new chat app with some innovative features; Google Music is too late to party; Erfon eats H’orderves on a space jet with Tim Cook and Richard Branson; and Leander dons his powdered wig to judge an all new Faves ‘N Raves.

All that and more on this week’s CultCast! Stream or download new and past episodes on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing now on iTunes, or hit play below and let the good times roll.

Show notes up next.

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Episode

CultCast #72 – Order In The Court!

On The CultCast this week

Erfon Elijah – Cult of Mac writer and host of The CultCast
Buster Heine – Cult of Mac writer and community manager
Leander Kahney – Cult of Mac Master Chief

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If you’ve tried to use Siri to call or text someone, you know it’s pretty simple. Just say, for example, “Call Joe Smith,” and Siri will call the person named Joe Smith in your Contacts App.

But did you know that Siri can also identify people via their relationship to you? You can say, “Call my brother,” or “Text my daughter,” and Siri will call or text that person, provided you’ve done a little set-up in the Contacts app.

You can also use Siri to define these relationships, so you don’t even have to open Contacts. Here’s how.

Tap and hold the Home button to activate Siri, and say something like, “Joe Smith is my boss.” Siri will check your Contacts app to make sure there isn’t more than one Joe Smith. If there is more than one, you’ll have to tap the specific Joe Smith you’re talking about. Then, Siri will ask you to confirm the relationship. “OK, do you want me to remember that Joe Smith is your manager?” she’ll ask. Tap or say “Yes,” and Siri will add that relationship to the Contact you’ve defined as your own.

Go ahead and give it a try; adding relationships to your contacts is a great way to make Siri even more natural. Now all you need to do is say, “Text my boss,” and you’ll be able to tell her that you’re running late. Hooray!

Via: TechRadar

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When my fingers are covered in egg, or I want to use my iPad as a second-screen when working at my Mac, or when I’m performing computer surgery and I want to keep iFixIt in the corner of my eye, there’s a lot of situations in which I might want a stand for my iPad.

iOStand by iOMounts
Category: iPhone/iPad Stand
Works With: iPad, iPhone, iPod touch
Price: $100

Unfortunately, of the few I’ve tried, I’ve found most of them only to be good in specific situations: great for, say, using your iPad as second monitor at your computer, but not good for cooking or doing computer surgery.

The iOStand by iOMounts is the first stand I’ve really liked, because sometimes simpler is better. But it’s not perfect.

The Good

All the components to the iOStand system.

The iOStand by iOMounts is about as simple a gadget as you can imagine. It’s essentially a pedestal for your iPad (or iPhone, or any other mobile tablet), made up of a couple of components: a weighted base, a long arm with a ball on it, and a powerful magnet poking itself out of the ball.

This magnet is called the iOCore, and because magnets are both simple and neat, it works exactly like you expect: you affix a small steel washer to the back of your device, and once it’s on, the magnet will stick to your iPad or iPhone (or, indeed, anything else made out of metal).

The iOStand isn’t so much clever as it is effective. Because the iOCore is concave, it can “roll” across the ball at the top of your iOstand at almost any angle you’d like. The iOStand, then, is more adjustable then most iPad stands: if the viewing angle isn’t convenient to you, you just need to nudge it to one that is.

You’ll have to stick one of these on any device you want to use with the iOStand.

The washer system isn’t the most elegant solution to docking your iPad with a stand, but given the alternatives, which usually require you to fit your iPad into some sort of holster so it’s secure on the end of the stand, it’s a pretty good one. The washers — which iOMounts calls “iOAdapts” but are, in fact, just steel rings with some sticky on the back — are only .025 inches thick, so they hardly make much of an impact upon your iPad’s profile.

In use, the iOStand is a very convenient and quick way to use your device with a stand. In fact, I found myself using it a lot more than I expected to, transfering my iOStand from room-to-room as I, say, moved from my work desk at the end of the day to the kitchen to cook dinner, or from dinner to the bedroom to watch a movie. As a stand, it’s just as good for, say, keeping your eye on Twitter throughout the day as it is for watching a movie or consulting a recipe.

So I really like the iOStand. But I have a couple caveats.

The Drawbacks

First of all, conceptually, the truth of the matter is that using an iOStand to hold your iPad about a foot above the surface of your desk, table or countertop, you’re making it vulnerable to falling over. The iOStand has a weighted bottom, and it’s quite solid and rugged, but it can be accidentally knocked over… if it is knocked over, it’s going to tip over, probably face first, with a heavy steel ball pressed against the back of your device, almost guaranteed to shatter your screen.

The same warning goes for accidentally jostling your iPad while it’s on the iOStand arm. It’s not going to be easy to knock your iPad off the magnet base, but it’s certainly possible. Magnets are a very convenient and easy way to dock an iPad to something like a stand, but they are going to inherently be less stable than, say, putting your iPad in a special case to connect it to a stand.

The iOAdapts can also be hit or miss. In my experience, they don’t work at all sticking them to anything that isn’t metal, so you can’t just affix one to the back of your iPad case. If your device isn’t going bareback, the iOAdapt might not stick, and since they cost $10 for three of them, that’s worth considering if you use a case.

Finally, this is a matter of subjective opinion, but the iOStand costs $100. This is a solidly constructed product, but that seems pricy to me for something that is essentally 100% analog, with no moving parts, proprietary systems or revolutionary industrial design.

The Verdict

I really like the iOStand. It’s pretty, it’s portable, it’s solidly constructed, and magnets are always super cool. But it’s also pretty expensive, it requires sticking washers to your device, and these washers make it hard to use a case. I can’t think of an iPad stand I’ve liked more, but there are certainly cheaper ways to prop up your iPad: if you want the iOStand’s elegance, you need to go in being well-aware of what it costs.

Product Name: iOStand

The Good: Magnets are cool! Solidly constructed. Infinitely adjustable. Portable around the house.

The Bad: Expensive. Washers don’t stick on some cases.

The Verdict: The best iPad stand we’ve used, but you pay for elegance.

Buy from: iOMounts

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ 

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Earlier this week, Google beat Apple to the punch by launching a streaming subscription music service before Cuperino could unveil its own offering, iRadio.

How did Google managed to do it? Apple has all the music industry clout, so how could Google swing a deal first? Because Google Play Music All Access is essentially a clone of services like Rdio and Spotify, and the contract terms of services like that are easy to copy.

Apple’s iRadio? It’s a wholly different beast.

The Verge is reporting that the major hold-up for iRadio is just that no one’s ever done anything like it. It’s not an a la carte subscription music service so much as a hybrid web and radio service, and so the industry is being a lot slower in signing up.

Google chose to offer a standard subscription music service very similar to those built by Spotify and Rdio, and that meant the terms had largely been established, according to multiple sources close to the talks. Apple, on the other hand, is pioneering a hybrid web and radio service — one that resembles Pandora but melds it with some on-demand features, the sources said. The licensing agreement had to be created from scratch.

“Of course [Apple's] negotiations were going to take longer,” one of the sources said.

In addition, Google was willing to pay advances to music labels for licensed content, something Apple has historically been unwilling to do. That greased some wheels.

iRadio when it launches is likely to be a music radio station discovery service linked to iTunes, in which anyone with an iPhone or an iPad can access “iRadio” to listen to songs they might like, which will then be purchaseable through iTunes with a single click for unlimited listens. It’ll solve an iTunes discoverability problem while simultaneously supporting Apple’s downloads-based iTunes business, which is a multi-billion dollar business for Apple with no signs of slowing down.

Source: The Verge

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It’s not unusual for an iTunes library to get out of control. Duplicate songs, unnamed tracks, missing album artwork – it’s tough to keep things clean and organized as a music library grows. Chances are, like me, you are another Mac user who has some issue with their iTunes library. But Cult of Mac Deals has an offer that’s going to help.

Leawo Tunes Cleaner for Mac is the intelligent iTunes cleanup tool that will allow you to transform your iTunes to perfection with only a couple of clicks. Cult of Mac Deals has this software solution starting at $5.

(Please note: The price on this deal increases by $1 per day, so act fast to save!)

Here are the top features of Leawo Tunes Cleaner for Mac:

• Delete Duplicates: Duplicates can accumulate easily on iTunes. Now you can clean them up!
• Add Proper Album Covers and Artwork: Artwork adds a dynamic to your library that you will not appreciate until you experience it.
• Add Missing Info Including Artists and Album Titles : Not only does this look great, but increases functionality on iPhones, iPods, and iPads.
• Easy-To-Use Interface with Simple Program Operation: So easy that your iTunes will be cleaned and organize upon installation. Only requires a couple clicks to maintain!

For only $5 (with the price increase of $1 per day for the duration of this deal) this Cult of Mac Deals offer is totally worth it – just for the mere capability of being able to delete duplicate songs alone. It’s an easy-to-use application that any music lover should have. So visit the Deals page now and grab this app while the pricing is at its lowest!

[subscribebutton]deals[/subscribebutton]

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Filippo Bigarella is best known for being the developer of some of the most popular jailbreak tweaks for iOS, including Springtomize, LivelyIcons, and PasswordPilot Pro. But he’s just launched his first official iPhone app through the App Store.

It’s called Balances, and it’s a wonderfully simply finance app with a gorgeous interface that’ll help you keep track of the money you owe and the money owed to you.

When you leave your wallet at home and you have to borrow money from friends to pay for your movie ticket, take a couple of seconds — that’s literally all it takes — to enter it into Balances and you’ll remember to pay it back when you get home.

Do the same for money you lend out and you won’t forget who owes you cash.

When you’ve paid back the money you owe, or received money owed to you, simply swipe the balance off of your list and it’ll be added to your “completed balances” list, where you can keep track of all the money you’ve paid and received.

That’s pretty much all there is to Balances, which is why it’s super simply and easy to use. It also looks great — as you can see from the screenshots above — and it’s completely free. Check it out for yourself by downloading it from the App Store.

Source: App Store

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QuickLock is a terrific little tool from ThinkDev that makes it quick and convenient to lock your Mac when you leave your desk. It sits in your menubar out of your way, and a click (or a keyboard shortcut) is all it takes to keep your Mac safe.

With the latest version of QuickLock, users can enjoy a brand new interface and a number of new features. Best of all, it’s completely free.

QuickLock is a must-have if you use your Mac in an office, a classroom, a library, or another public place where you might leave it unattended for a while. You probably already use a password to ensure no one can gain access to your computer while you’re away from it, and the quickest and easiest way to activate that password and lock your Mac is with QuickLock.

“QuickLock is the absolute best way to lock your Mac,” ThinkDev says. “Unlike OSX’s hot corners, QuickLock works with a simple keyboard shortcut or menubar click, and never gets in the way of your workflow.”

And here’s what’s new in its latest update:

- Completely redesigned user interface
- Revamped user experience
- New icon
- Great new animations for locking/unlocking
- An awesome screen bounce or lock animation when typing
- Upgraded security features
- New display features
- Major bug fixes and improvements

Because QuickLock’s new features are currently in beta testing, you can get a copy of the app and try them out completely free. Just visit the QuickLock website and download it to get started.

ThinkDev has another awesome app that called QuickRes, which has been developed to make it super simply to switch between display resolutions on a Retina MacBook Pro. Like QuickLock, it sits in your menubar.

QuickRes is the best way to switch between screen resolutions on your Mac. With the MacBook Pro with Retina Display, you can set your resolution all the way up to an extreme 3840 x 2400! With other Macs, you can set your resolutions to things you’ve never seen before, including a HiDPI mode, which is as close as you can get to a Retina Display on a standard display.

A free version of QuickRes can be downloaded from the Mac App Store, but due to Apple’s restrictions, it only allows you to switch to one resolution — and you have to go into System Preferences to switch back. The paid version, however, let’s you switch between resolution as much as you like.

It’s just $1.99, but Cult of Mac readers can get 50% off for a limited time.

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