Email addresses from some of the top tech companies are on the list of outed accounts following a hack on the infidelity site, Ashley Madison. Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac
Some of the tech world’s brightest may have been caught with their hard drives in the wrong place.
Email accounts from some of the biggest technology companies, including Apple and IBM, were among those outed as a result of the recent hack on Ashley Madison, the dating website for infidelity.
Jony Ive doesn't find failure very interesting. Photo: Vanity Fair/YouTube
Jony Ive seemed embarrassed when Vanity Fair’s Graydon Carter started their interview by calling Ive the “greatest industrial designer in the world right now.”
The Apple design guru closed his eyes, rubbed his head, and then provided a soft-spoken but enlightening 25-minute peek inside his head during 2014’s Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit. Wonder what he’ll say this year?
Cover up the logos and you can hardly tell them apart. Photo: Steve HemmerstofferCover up the logos and you can hardly tell them apart. Photo: Steve Hemmerstoffer
HTC appears to have given up on its own design language in an effort to make its next flagship smartphone an iPhone clone. Leaked images of the so-called HTC Aero look almost identical to an iPhone 6, with the same flat form factor and protruding camera.
Which of these smartphones charges fastest? Not the iPhone. Photo: Adrian IsenWhich of these smartphones charges fastest? Not the iPhone. Photo: Adrian Isen
What’s the fastest-charging smartphone? It’s not an iPhone. If you care about how fast your phone goes from 0 percent to fully juiced, you should buy an Asus Zenfone 2 or Samsung Galaxy S6. Here’s why.
Apple may be interested in putting hydrogen-powered batteries in future iPhones, extending battery life up to 7 days per charge. Best of all? You’d charge your iPhone through the headphone jack.
Tons of great stuff this week. Cover: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac
This week we’ve got a magazine positively laden with great stuff: a piece on how great Apple Music actually is, a look at how veteran music service Rhapsody struggles for relevance, a chat with the young hacker who added custom watch faces to Apple Watch, and quite a few helpful how-to tips.
If you want a full-to-the-brim Apple news experience this weekend, be sure to download the latest Cult of Mac Magazine, or subscribe if you’re into that sort of thing!
How deep is your love for Apple? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple fans have good reason to love the Cupertino company, which continues to revolutionize new product categories and deliver hugely successful products year after year. But how far should that love go?
Some might say there is a group of fans who are irrationally loyal to the Apple brand, devoted to buying its latest products just because they sport the Apple logo, and dismissing all competitors just because they don’t. But is there really a “Cult of Apple?”
Join us as we battle it out over that very question in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Androidand Cult of Mac.
Dre's finally apologizing for his misogyny. Photo: Beats
Hip-hop producer and Apple employee Andre Young, aka Dr. Dre, has been all over the news the past week thanks to his hit new album Compton and the movie Straight Outta Compton, which chronicles his rap group NWA’s rise to fame in the late ’80s.
Not all the attention surrounding Dre has been positive though, as critics have lampooned the Dre-produced film for glossing over some of the less-savory bits of NWA’s history, like the time Dre beat up Dee Barnes and a few other women. In an effort to stem the backlash, the first billionaire in hip-hop released a statement this morning, apologizing to the women he’s hurt.
There's got to be more to life than this. Photo: Apple
Call me cynical, but when I saw the latest ad in the “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone” series Thursday afternoon, I felt a little uneasy.
Sure, there’s over a million stores you can use Apple Pay in, but if this ad is to be believed, they’re all the same corporate-owned stores you’ll see in every mall across the US.
Apple Stores are about to look like this inside and out. Photo: Apple
We already knew that Apple has taken an interest in how its third-party partners present their wares in the Apple Store, but a leaked memo is describing just how seriously the company is taking this new initiative.
Other than the clean white background that it’s so fond of, Apple is also asking vendors to pay attention to the typefaces they use and even the angles from which they photograph their products.
So it turns out Apple is controlling and particular. Who knew?
Will the new Apple TV have exclusive shows and movies? Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
It looks like a small number of third-generation Apple TVs, the ones on sale right now, are being quietly recalled by Apple. There hasn’t been a public notice of an Apple TV recall, which could mean only a few units are defective.
If yours is among the faulty Apple TVs, chances are you’ll get an email offering to replace it — and Apple might even drop you an iTunes card for your troubles.
Vulkan will bring better games to Android. Photo: SamsungVulkan is coming to Android. Photo: Samsung
Apple Metal, introduced at last year’s WWDC, gives developers low-level access to the GPU to maximize the graphics and performance potential of their games. Now Android gamers are going to get a taste of that, too.
No, Apple isn’t bringing Metal to Android — but Google is adopting an alternative called Vulkan.
It's that time of the week again! Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
After the discovery of several dangerous flaws in a few short weeks, Android’s security — or lack thereof — has been big news. Google has acted quickly to eliminate the Stagefright flaw that left 95% of Android devices vulnerable to attack, but others have since wormed their way out of the woodwork.
Now fans are asking how these flaws made their way into public Android releases, compromising the security of more than 1 billion users worldwide. Could Google be doing more to prevent it? And are its hardware partners doing all they can to patch holes in their own software?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we fight it out over these questions and more!
Xiaomi is once again China’s top smartphone firm, pushing Apple down to third place despite its immensely strong quarter, and Samsung to either fourth or fifth position.
Huawei and Vivo rounded out the top five, in second and fourth/fifth place respectively.
Apple's shelling out billions to go green. Photo: Apple
Apple executives are joining top brass from 12 other major U.S. corporations at the White House today to announce a $140 billion pledge in new investments to decrease their carbon footprints.
The 13 companies which also includes Microsoft and Google, are joining the Obama Administration’s push to lead the effort against climate change ahead of the the United Nations climate-change summit in Paris later this year by launching the American Business Act on Climate Pledge.
Every mobile platform now ships with its very own virtual assistant, and while they all offer a similar set of basic features, Google Now and Siri are way ahead of their rivals. Google Now knows what you want and when you want it, but Siri has sass and personality, and is about to get a whole lot better with the help of Proactive.
If you were to pit the two against each other in a virtual ring, which one would come out wearing the belt? Join us as we find out in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Androidand Cult of Mac!
This vintage roller skate is one of three photos by Michael Mainenti chosen for Apple's "Shot on iPhone 6" campaign. Photo: Michael Mainenti
Cult of Mac’s Photo Famous series introduces you to the groundbreaking photographers featured in Apple’s “Shot on iPhone 6” ad campaign.
Michael Mainenti is in the developmental stages of a photography career, a point when he should be looking at the works of the established masters and saying, “Some day.”
Mainenti is faithful to this time-honored tradition except that some day is already happening. The 25-year-old college student is among the photographers whose work was selected by Apple for a global advertising campaign to show off the improved camera in the iPhone 6.
“It is a humbling feeling to see my work in the same advertising campaign with photographers I followed even before the launch of the ‘Shot on iPhone 6’ ads,” Mainenti told Cult of Mac. “It’s a boost of confidence and motivation to get better.”
Leander Kahney counts down Apple's greatest hits. Photo: Cult of Mac
What vaulted Apple from its humble Silicon Valley origins to the absolute top of the business world? From its first desktop computer in 1976 to today’s category-crushing Apple Watch, the company is intensely focused on creating technology that will delight the masses.
That vision is best exemplified by Apple’s five most important products, which I’ve rounded up in this week’s edition of Kahney’s Korner. Some made the list for reasons that might surprise you.
Clean up iCloud to make room for bigger backups. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
If you’ve been using iCloud to back up your iOS devices for a while like I have, chances are you’ve got a few older backup files crufting up your iCloud storage space.
If you want to maximize the space on your iCloud account, you might want to delete some of these older iCloud backups to make room for more.
Looks like Samsung and Apple pretty much own the smartphone market, though there are some scrappy contenders starting to make headway.
According to International Data Corporation (IDC), handset makers shipped a total of 337.2 million smartphones worldwide in the last quarter of 2015 (Q2). This is up 11.6 percent from last year, an amazing bit of growth considering how many smartphones are already on the loose.
Photographers assigned to Taylor Swift concerts will be greeted by a friendlier photo contract. Photo: GabboT/Flickr CC
The Bad Blood between singer Taylor Swift and concert photographers is history – unless she writes a song about it.
Swift’s legal team has agreed to revise the photography contact for her 1989 World Tour after a widely reported backlash from photographers and boycotts of some of her shows.
They were reacting to Swift’s open letter to Apple complaining about its initial decision to not pay artists during the trial period of Apple Music. Apple backed down. Photographers, however, called her a hypocrite because of an overreaching photo agreement that gave her unlimited free use of any photos taken at her show, plus the right by members of her team to forcibly remove images from their cameras.
A number of Silicon Valley technology giants have backed Samsung in its legal battle against Apple. Documents confirm Dell, eBay, Facebook, Google, and HP all took the South Korean company’s side in a “friend of the court” brief on July 1.
A kaleidoscope of 1.5 million apps. Photo: Cult of Mac
Apple’s on a roll with new iPhone ads. A little more than a week after debuting a series of news ads as part of their “If it’s not an iPhone” marketing push, Cupertino has supplemented it with a new ad, focused on the kaleidoscope of wonderful apps available for the iPhone 6.