This week, on The CultCast: it’s our WWDC 2016 predictions! We’ll tell you what hardware and software to expect. Plus: Apple makes huge changes to the prices you’ll pay for apps; this year’s Back to School specials are some of Apple’s best yet; and Steve Jobs… the opera? Don’t miss more weird and wild stories from the Cult of Mac.
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This week’s links
Intro – Welcome to the App Store
Read all about it! Teen’s news app scores him a WWDC scholarship
5K Thunderbolt Display will be a no-show at WWDC
- Apple will not be updating its old ass Thunderbolt display anytime soon, despite rumors that suggested the company was planning to unveil a new 5K Thunderbolt display with a built-in GPU at this year’s WWDC.
- Apple’s WWDC 2016 keynote will focus mostly on software, according to a new report from 9to5Mac.
- “WWDC this year will be a ‘software year’, indicating the show will be light on new hardware announcements in general.”
- Another report from iMore confirms that the 5K monitor will be a no-show.
Apple is making huge changes to how much you’ll pay for apps
- Starting next week Apple will roll out major changes to the App Store that will effect how, and how much you’ll pay, for your favorite apps.
- Apple plans to open subscriptions to all apps. In the past, the iPhone-maker only allowed apps for news, cloud services, dating and streaming to offer a subscription that’s billed automatically through iTunes.
- When developers are able to maintain a customer for more than 12 months, Apple will drop its take down to 15 percent, giving developers another small pay raise.
- The internally-dubbed “Subscriptions 2.0” model isn’t expected to roll out until this Fall when the company also plans to unleash search ads for apps in App Store search results
Apple kicks off back to school promo with big savings on Beats
- Apple has kicked off its latest back to school promotion.
- Apple is giving away a set of Beats Solo2 headphones ($300 with MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro purchases.
- You can also get free Beats Powerbeats2 wireless headphones worth $200 when you buy an eligible iPad or iPhone.
- Apple’s offer runs through September 5, and you can take advantage of it when purchasing from retail stores throughout the U.S. or from the Apple Online Store.
Read all about it! Teen’s news app scores him a WWDC scholarship
Erfon Elijah is the producer and host of The CultCast. When not editing podcasts or watching Mrs. Doubtfire, you’ll find him on Xbox Live hunting CoD Ghosts foes like the Predator. Here are his tweets…
3 responses to “Catch our WWDC 2016 hardware and software predictions on The CultCast”
As a Utahn, I agree, don’t come here.
I really wish Apple would do one thing in hardware that many users are STILL waiting for. Release a iPad Min Pro. Include 3D Touch, Apple Pencil support, A9X processor, and 256GB storage capacity. The reason I haven’t jumped onto the “Pro” model of iDevices is exactly that reason. Even the 9.7″ iPad is simply too big and bulky to take everywhere. The Plus model iPhones just don’t have the screen real estate for any sort of artistic work, and are too small for reading on a regular basis. The Mini, despite Apple continually treating it like a red head stepchild they are ashamed of. They need to realize there’s a huge market there for a “Pro” version of the Mini. It’s just small enough to be easily carried and taken almost anywhere, but is large enough to use for editing photos, drawing, and a comfortable size for reading books. It is also the perfect size for people that have smaller sized hands, (a truly untapped market Apple keeps ignoring), children. Apple really needs to stop ignoring the Mini like it they have been for years, and give us all a “Pro” mini iPad.
Subs in apps will in the long run not work. I get the adobe pro cloud sub model but even thats a joke unless your a pro using it every day. As a student (even that over 4-5 years is seriously expensive) or light user the sub model isn’t worth it. I pay an annual on the grand designs magazine but that has serious monthly content and its like $17 for a year. For a light app the model is likely to fail as users just switch the sub off and find another source to cater for their needs.
On the back of your pod on the google play music free offering I uploaded my 17K of tracks up to the google cloud & that with a free spotify account works for us. For example the cost of not owning music from Apple Music on a family plan over say 4 years is the cost of a new macbook. No brainer.