Leander Kahney's Blog, page 47

iPhone user Donald Trump calls for Apple boycott

Donald Trump has threaten to permanently switch to Samsung if Apple doesn’t give in to the federal government’s demands, and he’s calling on all his followers to do the same. At a rally in South Carolina this morning the US presidential candidate says that citizens should boycott Apple products until the company hands over the […]

(via Cult of Mac - Tech and culture through an Apple lens)

Amazon Echo keeps you up on the times while spitting mad rhymes

The latest update to the Amazon Echo adds a host of new news sources to the smart speaker’s Flash Briefing feature — and also gives it some mad rhyming skills. With today’s update, the Echo will read news from the likes of CNN, NPR and Discovery. Bloomberg, ESPN Radio and The Economist are also now on […]

(via Cult of Mac - Tech and culture through an Apple lens)

Best text editor apps for Mac OS X

One thing I do on my Mac more than anything else is write. On average I write about 10,000 words a week, and some weeks, I double that. And that isn’t even counting email and other kinds of communication. That’s why a great text editor app is imperative to my every day workflow. Without it, […]

(via Cult of Mac - Tech and culture through an Apple lens)

Our Android guy says Apple should help the FBI [Friday Night Fight]

Apple’s fight against the FBI continues to dominate headlines, with the company standing firm to protect its beliefs and the privacy of its users. But should it really be doing more to help law enforcement agencies? No one who uses Apple products wants it to compromise the security of iOS by creating dangerous backdoors, but should it be working […]

(via Cult of Mac - Tech and culture through an Apple lens)

Why John Sculley doesn’t wear an Apple Watch (and regrets booting Steve Jobs)

John Sculley may be best known to a generation of Apple fans as the CEO who made the company choose between him and Steve Jobs. But he’s also a successful investor, mentor and entrepreneur — as well as the person who increased Apple’s sales from $800 million to $8 billion during his decade at the top. In […]

(via Cult of Mac - Tech and culture through an Apple lens)

New browser brings picture-in-picture to Mac [Reviews]

With iOS 9, Apple introduced a whole slew of multitasking features including picture-in-picture, so I can watch a video while using another app. Even though this was technically already possible on the Mac, there hasn’t been an easy way to get a video to overlay another window so I can focus on both at the same […]

(via Cult of Mac - Tech and culture through an Apple lens)

Famed iPhone hacker explains why FBI’s backdoor request is such a bad idea

When it comes to hacking the iPhone, it’s hard to find anyone with more experience breaking into Apple’s software than Will Strafach, aka Chronic. The legendary hacker has spent years reverse engineering each version of iOS to give jailbreakers full control of the iPhone and he’s got some very important insight into the FBI’s demands […]

(via Cult of Mac - Tech and culture through an Apple lens)

Online petitions universally support Apple encryption stance

Online petitions can seem like screaming into a hole sometimes, but that isn’t stopping a crop of them from emerging in support of Apple’s stance on phone encryption. In fact, our survey of signature-calls about Apple’s current refusal to provide the FBI a way to access the data on a locked phone belonging to one […]

(via Cult of Mac - Tech and culture through an Apple lens)

Want people to read your emails? Keep ‘em short and not so sweet

If you want people to read–and hopefully respond–to your emails, you should really pay attention to the data. Email service Boomerang, which lets you schedule emails into the future as well as find out who’s read them, did a little research into its own customers to find out what, exactly, will get recipients to read […]

(via Cult of Mac - Tech and culture through an Apple lens)

Kick or Die makes kung-fu fighting look easy [Review]

Super-elaborate, open-world games with stats, exploration, or an engrossing storyline are great, but sometimes you just want to put your foot in some ninjas’ faces. And that’s where Kick or Die really delivers. This mobile title has been out for a couple months, but it’s just received an update that adds some new challenges and […]

(via Cult of Mac - Tech and culture through an Apple lens)