If you want to play music on your iPhone 6, this accessory offers easy music streaming and room-filling sound. This wireless, Bluetooth-capable speaker plays nice with your iPhone 6, as well as your iPod Touch or an iPad. If you don’t have a receiver that supports AirPlay or Bluetooth, this speaker fits the bill nicely (and at the fraction of the cost of a full TV audio receiver.)
Are you an active type, always running, skiing, rock climbing, fishing, running through airports? Yeah, me either. However I am a fumble fingered son of a gun. So, I was extremely pleased when I was asked to review the Kenu Highline Casefor the iPhone 6 Plus.
Overview
The Kenu Highline is a combination case/security leash that allows you to use your iPhone 6 Plus in all sorts of precarious situations without worrying if you’ll drop it and never see it again. (Think “Ski Lift…”)
The Kenu Highline case is a thin snap on case that doesn’t add much in the way of bulk to your iPhone. While thin, the Highline is made out of an impact-resistant polycarbonate that stood up to everything I put it against. (See “fumble fingered” above…)
As well as being impact-resistant, the case is also textured, which improves your grip on your iPhone 6 Plus, which users know is not only huge, but slippery. The texture aids in the grip, which helps keep you from dropping it while in use. The case wraps around your iPhone, and has a raised edge to keep the screen of your device from making contact with any surfaces.
Speaking of drops, the other half of the Highline system helps avoid tragedy if you do indeed drop your iPhone. The Kenu Highline also includes an elastic leash, which snaps securely to both your iPhone and the case, allowing you to drop your precious device without fear of it crashing to the floor. (Or the mountainside below.)
The elastic leash has a Kevlar core, so it should stand up to a great deal of punishment. The leash attaches on one end to your iPhone and the Highline case. The “Lightning Lock” latch slides into the Lightning port on your iPhone, while a snap latch clicks onto the case itself. The connection snaps in place, making a firm connection, keeping your iPhone attached to the elastic leash.
The other end of the leash consists of an attachment loop, which allows you to loop through zippers, belt loops, purse handles and more. Kenu says the attachment loop is also made of kevlar, so the loop should also stand up to wear and tear.
I’ve used the Highline for about 2 weeks, and I have to say it has come in handy. I’ve always had a tendency to drop my iPhones, and the large size of the iPhone 6 Plus has only added to that possibility. While I’ve only used the leash when I’m out and about, connected to my jacket’s zipper, I’ve used the case itself continuously,and the case has protected my precious handset the few times I’ve dropped it.
Verdict
The Kenu Highline is a must have accessory for active users, or for folks like myself who just tend to drop their iPhone. The case does a good job of protecting the handset, while the elastic leash gives added peace of mind when using it anywhere there’s the possibility of dropping, and possibly losing the device.
The elastic leash also gives added peace of mind when in crowds, giving a bit of insurance against a bad guy possibly slipping the device out of your pocket. The snap in feature of the leash would at the least likely cause a pickpocket to fumble a bit, hopefully alerting the user that someone was attempting to make off with their iPhone.
The Kenu Highline is available for the iPhone 6 ($29.95), iPhone 6 Plus ($34.95), iPhone 5/5s ($24.95), and iPhone 4/4s ($19.95). Extra elastic leashes are also available for $14.95 so you can have spares for jackets, purses, etc.
Rating:
Rating: 4/5
Pricing: iPhone 6 ($29.95), iPhone 6 Plus ($34.95), iPhone 5/5s ($24.95), and iPhone 4/4s ($19.95). Available at the Kenu website.
What I liked:
The combination of a case and a leash help avoid tragic falls for the iPhone.
I like the elasticity of the leash, allowing me to have my jacket zippered, while still keeping my iPhone in my jacket pocket.
The textured surface of the case helps prevent your iPhone 6 Plus from slipping out of your hands.
What I’d like to see:
A fully-enclosed waterproof version. My wife works around water, and while she liked the idea of the leash, she noted that the case itself would need to waterproof the iPhone as well for it to be of value to her.
Perhaps a layer of a more tactile material on the case to give an even better grip.
For more information about the Kenu Highline, as well as Kenu’s other products such as the soon to be reviewed Airframe+ Car Mount, visit the Kenu website.
Apple made its WatchKit SDK available alongside the release of iOS 8.2 and Xcode 6.2 beta in November, enabling developers to begin creating apps and software for the wrist-worn device. Looking beyond mockups and conceptual apps, however, a new third-party Tesla app designed by Eleks Labs offers insight into both the opportunities and limitations that developers face with the first-generation Apple Watch.
According to Eleks Lab mobility business developer Markiyan Matsekh, the technical capabilities of WatchKit do not match the expectations set during the Apple Watch keynote. In developing a prototype Tesla app that allows users to control a Model S over the Internet using a web-service API, the team of software engineers found a lot of functionality to be unavailable to developers at this time.
“If you look at the opportunities available for smart watch application development, you’ll also see a quite pessimistic picture,” wrote Matsekh. “Apple does not indulge developers with an abundance of functionality and tools. However, we can hope that the available functions are limited because this is only the first beta version and it will get much better towards the release.”
Matsekh claims that developers do not have access to the Apple Watch’s gyroscope, accelerometer, built-in speaker and microphone or Taptic Engine system of tactile notifications for development. Additionally, despite the Apple Watch display being touch sensitive, he claims that only Force Touch, which displays the shortcut menu, is available for developers, while GPS is restricted to a paired iPhone.
Even with its current limitations, this Tesla app provides an early look at the opportunities that Apple Watch apps make possible. The multipurpose software brings a lot of Tesla car control functionality to the wrist, such as an overview of the car’s battery, temperature and mileage, a controls menu for opening or closing the car and activating the headlights, and various screens related to charging, climate, location and the car’s condition.
Despite claiming that the Apple Watch has “weak potential for programmers” based on its current emulator-only development environment, Matsekh recognizes that his assumptions are based off of the first WatchKit SDK available to developers. As with the iPhone and iPad, the first-generation Apple Watch will inevitability have some developmental hiccups that are ironed out over the years.
Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed at the company’s quarterly earnings call on Tuesday that the Apple Watch is on schedule to ship in April, likely alongside a new version of WatchKit. We learned that Apple has asked some developers to have Apple Watch apps ready for mid-February. In a short few months, a clearer picture should emerge of just how much potential Apple’s first wearable device has for developers.
Here are some of the best free apps, app updates and new apps that have landed in the App Store recently. All app prices are USD and subject to change. Some deals may expire quickly, so grab them while you can.
Apps Now Free
App for Instagram – InstaFeed [OS X; Now free, down from $4.99] Experience the best of Instagram today with InstaFeed! Engineered from the ground up, InstaFeed was designed exclusively for Mac OSX. Enjoy the sleek user interface, seamless browsing, quick loading, and its suite of Instagram tools.
DragonLair [iOS Universal; Now free, down from $0.99] [DragonLair] has 60 floors, numerous dungeons, puzzles in each dungeon, and missions will entertain you.
Axe in Face [iPhone; Now free, down from $0.99] Axe in Face – Defense of the Daffodils.
Memly [iOS Universal; Now free, down from $0.99] Put Your Mind to the Test.
KnockClock Alarm [iPhone; Now free, down from $1.99] KnockClock is an innovative alarm clock that lets you snooze/stop the alarm by simply knocking either on the phone or on the surface where it is placed.
Cloud Knights [iOS Universal; Now free, down from $1.99] Cloud Knights is a physics-based action game with an epic fantasy adventure style.
YouPlayer – Playlist Manager for YouTube. [iOS Universal; Now free, down from $1.99] Watch videos like you are used to! Access all videos with YouPlayer – Playlist Manager for YouTube, powered by YouTube!
New and Notable Apps
Hydra – Amazing Photography [iOS Universal; $2.99]Hydra offers innovative photo capture technology, and lets you take beautiful pictures even in the most difficult lighting conditions.
BlitzKeep [iOS Universal; $3.99] BlitzKeep, where pinball meets an RPG!
Updates you don’t want to miss
Fantastical 2 for iPhone – Calendar and Reminders [iPhone; $1.99] The award-winning, best-selling calendar app has been redesigned and reimagined for iOS 8, including new features such as reminders, a new week view, and much more! Version 2.2.3 brings the following changes:
Improved search to reduce the chance of unexpected matches
Added support for Opera Mini
Fixed a problem when editing detached recurring events
Fixed an issue where alerts could disappear from the lock screen
Before and After videos: Show the original photo and the result with an awesome video that you can share everywhere!
Intensity controls: You can now adjust the intensity of each effect, giving even more control over your final photo.
New Effects: Old School, Valentine and HDR.
New Texture Effects: You can apply textures to part of your photos: Fur, Film, Letterpress, Paper, Concrete, Puzzle, Old Map, Tree, Fabric, Clouds, Rust and Leaf.
Pico projectors – projectors that are so small that they can be slipped into a pocket on a backpack or in a briefcase. Designed to make presentations on the road less burdensome, pico projectors have always had one Achilles Heel – the visual quality of the image they project. A new projector from Celluon called the PicoPro (US$279) aims to bring high resolution and contrast, long battery life, and noise-free operation to tiny projects.
The PicoPro was introduced to the world at CES 2015.
Specifications
Dimensions: 6 x 3 x .5 inches (152.4 x 76.2 x 12.7 mm)
Weight: 6.7 ounces (189.9 grams)
Resolution: 1920 x 720p (16:9 aspect ratio)
Interface: HDMI/Miracast/DLNA
Battery life: 2 hours for wireless, 3+ hours for cabled
Contrast Ratio: 80,000 to 1
Design
Design-wise, the PicoPro is a tiny box that’s smaller in length and width than an iPhone 6 Plus. It’s divided into two “sections”, one that contains the actual projector and the other containing the various ports (HDMI, micro-USB for charging, headphone).
There’s no need to focus the PicoPro, as it uses lasers to project the image and has infinite focus. It focuses as sharply an arms-length away from a wall as it does from 10 feet away.
The PicoPro comes with a small carrying pouch, and with iOS devices you’ll need to supply your own digital AV adapter to connect to the HDMI cable. Unfortunately, PicoPro doesn’t support AirPlay, so all iOS and Mac connections will be through the HDMI cable. For those who are fans of this site who use other mobile platforms, a slightly less expensive version called PicoAir is available for $299 that works only with the wireless Miracast and DLNA interfaces.
It’s a stylish little device, and one you won’t be embarrassed to pull out of your briefcase.
Function
With any projector, the proof is in the viewing. Just how bright is the image, and is it easily readable? Can the projector be used in a bright room, or does it require near-darkness. How much noise does it make? And does it do a good job of projecting Keynote and PowerPoint presentations?
To test the PicoPro, I connected it to an iPhone 6 Plus using the Apple Lightning to HDMI connector and an included HDMI cable. My test documents were a number of Keynote presentations that I use while teaching an iOS class.
Holding the PicoPro in my hand and wandering around my home office to find “targets”, I was able to clearly see the bright image from the projector on a variety of surfaces. Your best bet will probably still be to project onto a reflective screen in a slightly-darkened room, but I was able to project slides onto a textured ceiling in daylight and clearly read all of the text. Even on a very saturated blue wall with some daylight coming through windows, the text on my slides was very readable.
The color reproduction of the PicoPro is incredibly good, and the image is sharp from edge to edge. The fact that you never have to focus is worth the price of admission. I don’t know how many times I’ve watched as a hot projector has slowly gone out of focus. There are some additional positives – it’s absolutely cool in operation and creates no sound at all. No more raising your voice to be heard over the scream of a cooling fan!
Following is a video of the PicoPro from “Eli the Computer Guy” at CES; note that the flickering is due to filming the projection with a digital camera – in reality, the image shows virtually no flicker unless you’re moving it around.
Conclusion
Up to this point, I haven’t been impressed with any of the pico projectors I’ve seen. However, that has changed with the Celluon PicoPro. The image quality and brightness out of this tiny box is stellar, and to think that it does it all without making a sound or getting hot. There are no expensive bulbs to burn out (those often cost just as much as the PicoPro itself!), and using an iPhone, an adapter, and this projector makes for a featherweight presentation tool.
My only negative is that the device doesn’t support AirPlay. The non-HDMI, wireless-only version of this project will sell for $299, and it would be awesome if Celluon would support iOS – the choice of enterprises everywhere. We were also unable to get word on a shipping date and retail outlets for the PicoPro.
I don’t care who you are. I don’t care if you don’t even like Batman. This beautiful, remote-controlled, iPhone-compatible Batmobile? It’s the toy that Gotham — hell, everybody! — deserves.
Created by Soap Studio, the remote-controlled vehicle is a 1:12 scale recreation of the Tumblr from Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. Not only can you control it directly from your iPhone over WiFi, it even comes with a tiny little Batman figurine!
Here’s how Soap Studio describes it:
Our Tumbler is fully controlled by the most advanced mobile app which capable to not only making the car run but also cockpit and spoiler movements, 16 super bright LEDs, Power-Jet mode plus special engine sound and visual effects, night vision camera for video and photo shooting,voice intercom, a 1:12 Batman which features 26 points of articulations, remote control LED display platform…etc. As a collective item or simply a playing toy,the Tumbler also reaches the highest degree of product furnishing.
Naturally, a 1:12 scale Tumbler with this many features doesn’t come cheap. A Soap Studios Tumblr costs $569 each. So yes, maybe it’s the Tumbler every hero deserves… but definitely not the one every hero can afford.
As China continues its march to become one of Apple’s most important markets, the country’s press have been given a special advance preview of the company’s forthcoming second Chongqing Apple Store, set to open at 10am local time this Saturday, January 31.
Not dissimilar to the concept behind Apple’s Fifth Avenue flagship store in New York, the new Chongqing Apple Store features a stunning glass structure emblazoned with the Apple logo, leading to an underground shopping area. In doing so, the store recycles the design Apple first created for its Pudong retail store in Shanghai.
Check out some some other beautiful inside images after the jump.
To build anticipation for the store’s opening, Apple previously commissioned a giant mural from international photographer Navid Baraty and Chinese artist Yangyang Pan — which was used to cover the outside of the glass design ahead of its official unveiling.
Tim Cook has stated that Apple will open a total of 25 new retail stores in China over the next two years. By doing this, Apple will greatly increase its retail presence in the country from 15 stores to 40 by 2016.
If you live in China (or are visiting), and plan to attend the opening of the new store this weekend, drop us some photos here at Cult of Mac.
Everyone gamer over a certain age has a fondness for the 8- and 16-bit titles they grew up on. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that developers born in the 1980s are now creating nostalgia-infused iOS games harking back to the glory days of the Genesis and S.N.E.S. But which of these should you be playing? Fortunately Cult of Mac can be your guide.
Pop in another quarter, click the button below, and find out what you need to download to truly be down with the kids thirty-somethings.
Docking Sequence ($0.99)
Even today, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey looks positively futuristic — which is why it’s such an hilarious concept to take a genuinely futuristic device like the iPhone and use it to make a retro game loosely based on Kubrick’s classic sci-fi.
As you can see from the above trailer, Docking Sequence is a fun, slightly Asteroids-style game, which asks the player to dock their spaceship on a revolving space station — all without hitting any obstacles in the process.
Star Marine: Infinite Ammo ($1.99)
If you’re a fan of Contra-style run-and-gun action, you’ll love Star Marine: Infinite Ammo. The plot (as far as it matters) concerns a lone human who crash lands on a planet filled with battle robots, flying worm-bots and assorted other mechanized nasties. It’s your job to lead your character through ten gruelling levels, mowing down baddies and upgrading your weapons along the way.
There are some great boss battles, some gorgeously inventive levels along the way, and some fun retro touches like the ability to shoot in 8 directions. Oh, and don’t forget the pulsating 80s-inspired soundtrack either. Sadly, Star Marine hasn’t been updated since 2012 and there’s no sign of a sequel on the horizon — but that in no way diminishes how much fun you’ll get from this iOS blaster.
Tiny Dice Dungeon (free)
With a dice-based battling concept, Tiny Dice Dungeon is the Dungeons & Dragons game we never got in the 8-bit era. And, boy, is it making up for it now! Add in a great chiptune soundtrack and an addictive gameplay dynamic that will have constantly justifying one more battle and what you have is a delightfully retro iOS game.
Pizza Boy ($1.99)
There’s still no Mario on the iPhone, but Pizza Boy will make up for Nintendo’s refusal to cater for iOS gamers with a title that recalls the best bits of not only the original Super Mario Bros. but also Donkey Kong Country. You play the titular Pizza Boy, whose joy it is to recover his pizza pie from a villainous thief—traveling through a variety of colorful worlds in the process.
While the developers have been great at keeping this game optimized for the latest iOS devices, however, it’s worth noting that at five years old, this game’s pushing retro-status on its own.
Super Scrapped Robot (free)
When I was growing up, one of my video game dreams was for a full-color handheld device to replace the 4-shade green monochrome GameBoy I owned. Of course, now that such a device exists and is called the iPhone, what do we do? We long for the limited color palette of our youth, of course.
To quote Lutricia McNeal, ain’t that just the way that life goes down? All of this preamble brings us around to Super Scrapped Robot: a zany, action twin-stick shooter with a retro four shades of green aesthetic. With eleven randomly generated levels, five boss battles, and plenty of fun weaponry, this will take you back to the GameBoy games of your youth. Mercifully without having to change the batteries what felt like ever hour.
2-Bit Cowboy ($0.99)
Have you ever looked at a great Western game Red Dead Redemption and thought, wow, I wish they would strip away those gorgeous 3-D graphics, add a few more coins to collect, and possibly a MIDI score? If you’re just such a retro gunslinger then you’ll find plenty to enjoy in 2-Bit Cowboy: a rootin’ tootin’ gun-shootin’ kind of a game that borrows much of its inspiration from the… Castlevania and Metroid games?
As an added bonus there’s a character customization mode, along with the chance to get drunk on pixellated moonshine at the game’s Old West saloon.
Dungeons of Chaos ($1.99)
From its name alone, Dungeons of Chaos perfectly evokes the feeling of a late 1980s CRPG: the kind of title you’d burn the midnight oil playing on your Apple IIGS. That’s before you even so much as look at the gorgeously-realized retro graphics, and set about exploring a world filled with dark dungeons, Tolkien-style villages, all-powerful wizards, and some of the best battles this side of the Ultima series.
Deeply immersive and a whole lot of fun, Dungeons of Chaos belongs on the iPad (note: it’s not available for any other device) of any self-respecting 1980s role-playing fan.
Just in time for TUAW parent company Aol to migrate all of its employees from Microsoft Outlook to Gmail this weekend, Microsoft today launched Outlook for iOS (free). The universal app is essentially a scaled-down version of the desktop Outlook application, providing compatibility with Exchange servers, Outlook.com and Office 365 services. If you have other mail accounts, such as iCloud, Gmail and Yahoo Mail, you’ll be happy to know that the Outlook app also supports those services.
Of course, Outlook has always been more than just email. The app makes it simple to view or organize the email inbox, check and update calendars, handle attachments, and more — all in one app. The Outlook app is an outcome of December’s acquisition of email startup Accompli, which had previously created email apps for iOS and Android. Microsoft has been aggressively developing mobile versions of its flagship applications for the two popular mobile platforms, with the Office suite making it to iOS last March followed by updates to add printing and third-party font support.
And now, for the details, straight from Microsoft’s App Store description:
Why use Outlook?
Manage your inbox
• Outlook automatically triages your inbox for you, surfacing your most important email. Less relevant email is placed in your “Other” inbox.
• Swipe to quickly delete, archive, or schedule messages.
• Schedule emails and they will return to your inbox at a later time.
Your calendar built-in
• Switching between your email and calendar apps is a thing of the past. Outlook includes your calendar and notifies you with appointment reminders.
• Find available meeting times and share them in email or schedule a meeting.
Attachments made easy
• View and attach any file from your email, OneDrive, Dropbox, and other accounts with just a few taps.
• Send large files even if you haven’t downloaded them to your phone.
Find anything fast
• Filter your inbox to only show messages that are unread, flagged, or have attachments, with a single tap.
• Quickly find the right messages, people and files by typing just a few letters.
• Outlook shows people you communicate with most often, and lets you conveniently drill down to see all related emails, meetings and files.
Apple just had a killer quarter. In fact, it was the most profitable quarter for any company in history. As such, Apple stock is up 5 percent since Wednesday trading.
But has Apple peaked? Not according to legendary investor Carl Icahn, who recently told CNBC that he was not only raising his own Apple stock price target, but called buying AAPL a “no-brainer.”
“I don’t recommend too many stocks, I don’t like to do that unless I think it’s a no-brainer,” Icahn said in the CNBC interview. “And this one is sort of amazing to me, because you know every decade you get one of these — maybe two or three…. I guess we’re going to have to revise our guidance.”
Icahn is a mega-investor in Apple, owning more than $4.4 billion in Apple shares. His relationship with Apple is a complicated one, though: Other Apple investors have called him a Johnny Come Lately as Icahn rallied shareholders to (successfully) demand a stock buyback.
It’s also been said that Icahn might have an ulterior motive in all of his plotting within Apple: He might want Apple to buy Nuance.
So it’s possible this is just the latest iteration of Icahn’s plotting. But at least he believes in Apple … for now.
iRumors Now 