Are you a designer? Do you want to become a designer? Have you ever thought about bringing out the creative in you? Now is a great opportunity for you to stack up on some high quality design resources so you can tackle any design wishes you may have thanks to The Mega Design Bundle and Cult of Mac Deals!

This bundle contains more than 2.5 GB of smooth icons, flashy vector elements, intuitive Photoshop templates, and other essential designer assets for literally pennies on the dollar. Valued at over $1000, you can get it for a limited time for just $49.99!

This all new time-limited design bundle contains HTML5 Templates, Christmas and holiday images, icons and label sets, t-shirt templates, vector elements, and textures and background images with amazing value! Items by Go Media, Ultrashock, FWD, OSTraining, Kirsty Pargeter, Pix Glyphs, MikeMCD, Terrasynth, Solarseven and Glyph Ocean!

Here’s what you’ll get in this bundle:

1. Ultimate Vector Collection 1: The Ultimate Vector Collection 1 contains 800 individual items! Sets 1–6 are all included, it’s an amazing deal! Just some of the included items are Skulls, Splatters, Tech Shapes, Crests, Wings, Architecture, Hooladanders, Paint Splatters, Trees, Spray Paint, Grimey Brush Strokes, Statues, Banners, Halftone Patterns and more.
2. 25 Christmas Backgrounds Set 01: Items included in this set are in hi-resolution JPEG format
   and fully editable EPS files, and ready for your customization. This set includes various Christmas and winter themed holiday backgrounds and elements. Offered as .JPEG / .EPS files.
3. HTML5 Photo Gallery Collection: This collection includes seven newly released HTML5 photo gallery templates optimized for both web and mobile devices. Set also includes Image Zoomer, an HTML5 image zooming and panning plugin tool used for navigating and panning large images. Image Zoomer can also be embedded into WordPress. Instructions and help files included!
4. Vintage Ink Textures: These letterpress-inspired textures by Brandon Herbel create a subtle, dried-ink look ó perfect for giving a painted feel to thick, blocky letters or plain backgrounds. Use these JPGs on event mailers for a hand-crafted charm, or over website images for a unique allure.
5. Ultrashock Backgrounds Collection: 50 assorted HD background images from Ultrashock’s premium photo collection. This set includes abstract, studio shot imagery, winter scenery, fire and water, canyons, HDR images, various nature backgrounds and more. Offered as hi-resolution 8MP .jpg files.
6. Ember Stock Label Collection: Ember Stock is known for a modern clean style with attention to the smallest detail. This label set includes the latest collections as well as a few classics. This set includes Beach Lifestyle, Crossfit and Athletics, Outdoor Adventure, Native American and Vintage. Files are offered as .AI / .EPS format.
7. Vector Holiday Images: Includes fourteen modern Christmas and winter holiday images. This set features seasonal backgrounds, Christmas and holiday elements, and infographics all with a clean modern style. Offered as .JPEG / .EPS files.
8. OS Training Coupon 50% Off: Now with over 900 Training Sessions! Use your membership to gain access to over 900 WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal, and coding training sessions. These high-quality video tutorials cover beginner and intermediate lessons including template designs, security, SEO, organic groups, theme design, HTML, CSS, PHP and more.
9. Vector Special Effects Series: Stunning visual light effects perfect for adding extra flair to any project. Each set is grouped and layered. The items in this set also include transparencies. Each item is on its own layer for ease of use. Offered as .AI files.
10. Organic Noise Texture Pack: The vintage feel continues to dominate today’s design trends, and it’s because of that we’re back with one last pack from Mr. Herbel. Use these texture JPEGs to create noise in your designs, as either a background layer or mask in Photoshop.
11. 25 Christmas Backgrounds Set 02: Items included in this set are in hi-resolution JPEG format and fully editable EPS files, and ready for your customization. Set includes various Christmas and winter themed holiday backgrounds and elements. Offered as .JPEG / .EPS files.
12. iPhone And iPad Mockup Templates: Show off your app and mobile designs! Place your finished work inside the mask layer to see a realistic mockup of how your finished piece will look. Includes 4 high-quality templates, including 2 iPhone views and 2 iPad views. Clipping masks for your art on the iPhone and iPad screens make it smooth and realistic.
13. Assorted Icons Pack: A nice assortment of icons including social media, fuel, web and computer, green and environment, and more. Offered as .AI / .EPS.
14. 50 Assorted Grunge Textures: This HD image set includes stained metal, grunge walls, weathered tanks and military aircraft, hammered and scratched metal, stained concrete and more! Offered as hi-resolution 8MP .jpg files.
15. Ultrashock Aviation Vector Set: This set includes 36 commercial and military helicopters and airplanes in various angles. Files offered as .AI files.
16. Book And Magazine Templates: Show off your print and layout designs! Place your finished work inside the mask layer to see a realistic mockup of how your finished piece will look. Includes 5 high-quality templates, including 2 Book views and 3 Magazine views, and clipping masks for your art on the Book and Magazine pages and covers.
17. Solarseven Label Collection: This collection contains various labels and banners, QR and bar codes, sketchy hand drawn arrows, stickers and text bubbles. Offered as .AI files.
18. Plants and Nature Vector Series: This series includes popular plant flourishes, exotic birds, frogs and fish, butterflies and insects, bonsai trees and more. Offered as .AI files.
19. Go Media Arsenal Coupon: Go Media is a progressive design studio based in Cleveland Ohio, known for creating premium quality design elements such as vector art, textures, fonts, brushes, etc. Apply the included coupon code at checkout in your order to receive 25% off!
20. Holiday Vector Set: The Christmas and holiday season can really sneak up on you, so these images will surely come in handy! Set features various Christmas and holiday themed elements and backgrounds. Offered as .AI files.
21. Vintage Paper and Stamp Set: Assorted vintage and antique paper set including old postcards, blank paper and cards, envelopes and more. Includes two bonus material files (Go Media Vintage stamp effect Photoshop action, and Airmail Postage by Mikemcd. Offered as hi-resolution 8MP .jpg / .AI / .EPS files.
22. Tiled Backgrounds: This seamless HD image set includes cracked paint and mud, metal, rock, wood, concrete, and more! Offered as hi-resolution 8MP .jpg files.

Incredible creative items with a total download size over 2.5GB, all bundled together at an amazing low price! What’s not to love about this bundle? Head over to the Cult of Mac Deals page now and grab it for only $49.99 while you can – which won’t be for long!

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This post was written by Mike Vardy from Cult of Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.

Seth and Mark were traveling back from Google I/O this week, but Scott and Zac sat down to discuss what Google’s announcements mean for Apple and next month’s WWDC.

Subscribe now on iTunes!

This post was written by 9to5 Staff from 9to5Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.

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!

Use your $50 credit on dozens of different skins for your favorite tech gadgets:

• Smartphones (average price is approx. $20)
• iPods (average price is approx. $15)
• iPads and tablets (average price is approx. $25)
• MacBooks (average price is approx. $45)
• Gaming gadgets (average price is approx. $10)
• …and other gear (average price is approx. $20)

There’s much more to this deal than meets the eye, so check out the Deals page to read about all the finer points involved.

So if you’re tired of having the same old look, then head over to the Cult of Mac Deals page and style up your favourite tech gadgets with slick and protective skins from Slickwraps. You’ll get $50 worth of credit for only $25 – which will let you personalize your gear to best suit you. Don’t let this deal pass you by. Get it today!

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This post was written by Mike Vardy from Cult of Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.

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

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

This post was written by Rob LeFebvre from Cult of Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.

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.

This post was written by Rob LeFebvre from Cult of Mac.
You can view the original post by clicking here.