Focus, an upcoming movie starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie, has become the first Hollywood flick to have been edited entirely in Apple’s Final Cut Pro X software, USA Today reported Wednesday.
In advance of the film’s silver screen debut this coming Friday, Apple set up a dedicated webpage on its website to showcase how the romantic comedy was shot and edited using not just Final Cut Pro X, but other standard software readily available to anyone on the Mac App Store. Read More
An astonishingly detailed profile of Apple’s design head Jony Ive that was published last week by The New Yorker makes an interesting side note about an upcoming Star Wars movie.
According to the article, director J.J. Abrams said Ive made “very specific” suggestions about lightsaber design for Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie.
The quote prompted 3D artist Martin Hajek to come up with a batch of renderings showcasing his amusing depiction of a Jony Ive-fied Star Wars lightsaber. Read More
Ahead of the annual Academy Awards ceremony tonight, Apple has started airing a new television commercial which highlights iPad use in filmmaking.
Titled ‘Make a film with iPad,’ the 30-second spot is narrated by director Martin Scorsese, widely regarded as one of the most significant and influential filmmakers in cinema history.
Unsurprisingly, the Oscars ad has been shot entirely on the iPad Air 2. The video closes with the ‘Everything changes with iPad’ tagline that was also used in Apple’s previous iPad commercial, aired on the day of the Grammy Awards, which highlights how tablet can be used as a music-creation tool. Read More
Folks in the market for a distinctively different iPhone case who don’t mind some bulk should check out a pair of crazy cases hailing from Japan.
As highlighted by TouchArcade, the cases turn your device into a near-perfect replica of Tim Burton’s Batmobile or a Delorean from Back to the Future II, complete with blinking LEDs and sliding plastic doors to reveal the camera lens and the physical buttons.
Though impractical in terms of daily use, these cases will sure turn heads and make you the star of every party. Created by Bandai, they’re available in Japan for 5,940 yen, which works out to approximately $50. Read More
As first noted by Variety, a new Steve Jobs film will be premiering soon. No, not Universal’s ill-fated biopic that started filming last week, based on Walter Isaacson’s biography and starring Michael Fassbender as Apple’s mercurial co-founder.
Titled “Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine,” the new film is basically a 120-minute nonfictional documentary that explores the impact of Steve Jobs’ work on the society and our embrace of computers and technology. Read More
Hey kids, if you loved The LEGO Movie now is your chance to enjoy the same fun characters and environments in an interactive iPhone and iPad game.
Released today in the App Store, the LEGO Movie Video Game contains more than 90 characters from the film and over 40 missions. It’s a classic LEGO fun so you’ll get to build your own virtual LEGO creations using the Master Builders. Read More
As first noted by 9to5Mac, Apple has expanded its social presence with a brand new blog dedicated to iTunes content and hosted on Yahoo-owned Tumblr platform.
Now available at the itunes.tumblr.com URL, the blog highlights a curated selection of movies, television shows, music and books carried on the iTunes Store.
A special emphasis is given to Apple’s Best of 2014 charts that were published on iTunes last week. If memory serves me well, this is Apple’s second official blog on Tumblr following odd iPhone 5c web adds and Tumblr presence which was supposed to resonate with the blog platform’s younger audience. Read More
Welcome to Wednesday. As we prepare for an onslaught of new arrivals that will be hitting the App Store midnight, a number of apps and games have been updated with new features and we’re here to tell you what’s changed.
We also want to make sure you stay on top of recent discounts as some apps get slashed by as much as eighty percent with the others going all the way down to zero bucks.
And it wouldn’t be a roundup without taking a look at some of the forthcoming releases due later this month or sometime next year. This is App Recap, an app-focused column by iDownloadBlog. Read More
Natalie Portman has decided to pass on the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic, according to a new report from Variety. Portman was said to be in talks for a lead female role in the movie, either as Jobs’ daughter Lisa or former Mac marketing chief Joanna Hoffman.
Additionally, The Wrap reports today that Universal Pictures is eyeing Jeff Daniels for the role of former Apple CEO John Sculley. If he signs on to the project, Daniels would join fellow Newsroom alumni in writer Aaron Sorkin and producer Scott Rudin. Read More
App Recap welcomes you to Monday. Our daily column that helps make sense of the latest iPhone, iPad and Mac apps, games and media on iTunes is back with tons of goodies, discounts, software news and more.
We also feature a new Apple Pay television commercial by MasterCard featuring Gwen Stefani and a huge update to Paper by Fifty-Three while casting spotlight on a holiday-themed update to The Sims FreePlay and the latest Star Wars: Commander refresh that features Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Read More
Like in years past, Apple ahead of the holidays published its list of the best and most popular apps, movies, TV shows, music and books available on iTunes. In the category of the top paid iPhone app, Heads Up! came in first. Facebook’s Messenger is Apple’s top free iPhone app and Clash of Clans emerged as the top grossing iPhone app, respectively. On the iPad side, Minecraft, YouTube and Clash of Clans have been rated as the App Store’s top paid, free and grossing apps, respectively.
Without further ado, here’s the rest of Apple’s most popular apps and media in 2014. Read More
As we head into the weekend, spare a few minutes and check out what’s been making round on iTunes today. App Recap, our daily column that highlights new apps, discounts, media and entertainment, is here to help you make sense of it all so you can focus on stuff that matters.
In today’s edition, we bring you a few new apps and games that we think are worth your attention, some notable discounts on popular and lesser known apps and games, some nice Christmas tunes, low-priced iTunes movies and some of the blockbuster flicks hitting the silver screen in the coming months.
And for the first time since its inception, App Recap now features a laundry list of jailbreak tweaks and news. Read More
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, the third and final installment in the “Night at the Museum” movie series, is premiering later this month and an official tie-in iOS game is now available for download in the App Store.
Night at the Museum: Hidden Treasures for the iPhone and iPad is a hidden object adventure game that puts you in the shoes of Larry, a night guard from the movie who gets to explore the museum’s hidden secrets, exhibits from Camelot, ancient Egypt, imperial China and more.
In his quest, Larry will team up with some of the most significant figures in human history such as Teddy Roosevelt, Atilla the Hun and Joan of Arc. If you’re a fan of the movie, this tie-in game should be a no-brainer. Read More
Telltale Games last month posted a teaser trailer and a few scant details about an upcoming game based on HBO’s hugely popular, award-winning fantasy drama television series, itself adapted from of “A Song of Ice and Fire”, George R. R. Martin’s series of epic fantasy novels.
I’m pleased to report that on Thursday, the Game of Thrones interactive action adventure game officially surfaced on the App Store and is now available in an episodic format akin to Telltale’s The Walking Dead – A Telltale Games Series and The Wolf Among Us.
The narratively driven, six-episode game puts you in the shoes of different members of the Forrester household. The decisions you take have consequences and will change the story around you and determine your characters’ fate. Read More
The official teaser trailer for Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens on Black Friday made its debut on iTunes. Lucas film yesterday tweeted that the trailer will hit iTunes after initially saying that it would only be shown in 30 movie theaters across the U.S. Disney in October 2012 acquired Lucasfilm in a transaction valued at a whopping $4 billion.
The acquisition brought Lucasfilm under Disney’s fold and gave the Mickey Mouse house rights to further develop the Star Wars franchise and film new movies in the series in co-operation with George Lucas. The trailer has also hit YouTube and we’ve embedded it for your viewing pleasure right after the break. Read More
It’s official, Universal Studios has adopted Sony’s Steve Jobs biopic. In a late night scoop, The Hollywood Reporter says it has confirmed with a studio spokesman that a deal has been reached, less than a week after Sony put the film in turnaround.
Sony had been shopping the project around for more than $30 million, although it’s still unclear why it decided to back out. Several high profile names are attached to the film, and it has been widely talked about by both tech and Hollywood press. Read More
Sony Pictures has dropped the highly-anticipated Steve Jobs biopic penned by Aaron Sorkin, according to Deadline. The outlet reports tonight that Sony has put the film in turnaround—meaning that another studio can purchase the movie.
It sounds like that studio is going to be Universal. Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr says he is hearing that the Comcast subsidiary is nearing an agreement, and the deal could close by tomorrow, meaning the project should lose little momentum. Read More
The tumultuous casting process of Sony’s Steve Jobs biopic continues, with Michael Fassbender now reportedly in talks to play the Apple co-founder. Variety reports today that following the departure of Christian Bale, the actor has begun “early talks” with director Danny Boyle and Sony execs.
Although not as well known as Bale, Fassbender has starred in a number of high profile movies, including Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds and Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. He also received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor, for his performance in 12 Years a Slave. Read More
In a somewhat ironic twist of fate, Disney is helping blur the lines between Apple’s and Google’s respective ecosystems with Tuesday’s release of its Movies Anywhere app for Android, now available free of charge in the U.S. Google Play Store. That’s right, the app now lets folks buy and enjoy Disney content on both iOS and Android devices.
The movie-curating app debuted as an iOS exclusive in February 2014 with support for free streaming of any Disney, Pixar and Marvel content previously purchased from Apple’s iTunes Store. Any of the 450 Disney movies you bought using the app would immediately register as purchased inside the iTunes Store.
Now that Disney Movies Anywhere is available for both iOS and Android, not only can you watch your Disney movies across Apple’s and Google’s platforms, but also purchase any Disney, Pixar or Marvel Universe movie on Google Play and have it available on iOS and vice versa. Read More
Heads up movie lovers and Batman fans, the iTunes Movie Store is offering a great deal on the popular Dark Knight trilogy. For a limited time, you can get all three movies: Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises in HD for just $14.99.
Given that $15 is typically the standalone price tag for each of these movies, the promotion will net you a savings of $30. The three films, which star Christian Bale, come highly recommended too, with all of them rated an 85% or higher on Rotten Tomatoes. Read More
