Meet Ming-Chi Kuo, the best Apple analyst on the planet

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KGI Securities analyst Ming Chi Kuo has become the most accurate Apple seer around.
KGI Securities analyst Ming Chi Kuo has become the most accurate Apple seer around.
Photo: Digitmes

Over the past several years, one analyst has risen above the rest to become the most reliable voice on all things Apple. His name is Ming-Chi Kuo, and his ability to accurately prophesy Apple’s future product plans is unparalleled. Fittingly, he is also incredibly mysterious.

Kuo is back in the news with a report that the iPhone 6s — due in the fall — will have a new stronger case to make it less ‘bendable.’ The iPhone 6s will be made from the same tough-but-light 7000 series aluminum used in the Apple Watch (it’s also used to make bikes and planes). Kuo also predicts the 6s will come Rose Gold and a darker space grey, again, matching the near-black Apple Watch.

Last month, Kuo reported a long list of features coming to the 6s, including a better, faster A9 processor, a Force Touch screen, a 12-megapixel camera, better Touch ID, new gestures and more.

Kuo’s track record has elevated his Apple predictions to the level of gospel. He’s been called “the most accurate Apple analyst in the world” by Business Insider; and the “most reliable industry watcher on the planet when it comes to Apple” by BGR.

How did he become so good at knowing what Apple is going to do next?

Photoshop Touch gets axed on iOS as Adobe preps new retouching app

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Bye-bye, Photoshop Touch.
Bye-bye, Photoshop Touch.
Photo: Adobe

Adobe is killing off its mobile version of Photoshop, doubling down on its strategy of creating simpler photo apps focused on specific tasks rather than all-in-one photo-editing software.

In a blog post detailing its strategy for mobile apps, Adobe said Photoshop Touch will be taken off the App Store on May 28. A new retouching app codenamed “Project Rigel” is in the works and will be released later this year.

Will Apple really make a TV set? Depends on who you ask

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The Loch Ness monster of Apple rumors isn't completely dead yet.
The Loch Ness monster of Apple rumors isn't completely dead yet.

Rumors surrounding Apple’s plans for TV have been picking up considerably as its Worldwide Developers Conference draws near in June.

But the idea of a standalone Apple TV set (not the little hockey puck that exists already) eventually becoming a reality is starting to look pretty bleak. Not everyone has given up hope, though. As the biggest proponent of the Apple HDTV rumor throws in the towel, one of the world’s most powerful investors remains convinced that it will happen.

The scientifically perfect way to organize your Apple Watch apps

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Is Apple Watch demand waning?
You're probably not organizing your Apple Watch efficiently, according to science. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The Apple Watch’s tiny screen has already proven to be a boundless landscape for creatively organizing app icons, but one obsessive reddit user has created the most scientifically convenient app layout we’ve seen yet.

A few awesome apps you might have missed last week

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Awesome-apps-you-might-have-missed

The App Store is a busy place, and it’s easy to miss an awesome new release, an update that makes an old app worthy of re-downloading, or a hidden gem you didn’t even know you even wanted.

That’s why we’ve done the work for you and collected the most awesome new apps for iOS and the Mac from the past week. We’ve got brand new Mac and iOS apps along with some killer updates this go around.


Awesome Apps

How third-party bands are allowed to work with Apple Watch

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Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

One of the biggest questions surrounding the Apple Watch has been what kind of accessories will be allowed to work with the device. Several third-party companies have already started advertising their own bands and cases, but Apple has yet to introduce any kind of formal guidelines.

Until now.

Like its iPhone counterpart, the new “Made for Apple Watch” program outlines how third-party manufacturers can make their own bands. Here are some of the key takeaways:

Samsung’s smart home platform beats HomeKit to Apple Watch

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Control your smart home from your Apple Watch, courtesy of... Samsung? Photo: SmartThings
Control your smart home from your Apple Watch, courtesy of... Samsung? Photo: SmartThings

Although it’s poised to win the smart home war eventually, Apple’s HomeKit is still half-baked. Case in point: hardly any smart home accessories officially integrate with it yet, let alone Apple’s own products.

Despite its parent company’s rivalry with Apple in the smartphone race, the SmartThings platform has beat HomeKit to the Apple Watch, and it makes the idea of controlling your home from your wrist look pretty useful.

Apple Watch has as much RAM as iPhone 4

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Apple Watch back
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Now that the Apple Watch is out in the wild, we’re starting to see teardowns of its internals. iFixit has shown us the Taptic Engine, Digital Crown and tiny battery, but it wasn’t able to pry open the little computer that runs the entire device, the S1.

It turns out that the Watch’s system-on-a-chip is truly the feat of engineering Apple made it out to be. It also reveals a couple of tidbits about the Apple Watch we didn’t know yet, like that it packs the same amount of RAM as the iPhone 4.

Pixelmator integrates with new MacBook’s Force Touch trackpad

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A staple Mac app now supports Apple's new trackpad. Photo: Pixelmator
A staple Mac app now supports Apple's new trackpad. Photo: Pixelmator

The new MacBook has been out for a couple of weeks, and OS X apps are starting to take advantage of its Force Touch trackpad.

Pixelmator, a popular photo editor and Photoshop alternative on the Mac, is an early example of how third-party developers are utilizing Force Touch. The app recently added support for the pressure sensitive trackpad along with a number of other improvements.

The best Apple Watch apps you probably haven’t heard of

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Time to download some apps. Photo: Apple

There are already more than 3,000 apps for the Apple Watch, which makes it difficult to find all of the hidden gems. How do you find the best Apple Watch apps?

Luckily, there are plenty of third-party Watch apps that deserve attention, whether they tell you when it’s going to rain or help you get stuff done. Apple is promoting Watch apps heavily in the App Store, and while the big players (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) are obvious downloads, we’ve been on the lookout for some of the other apps for the Apple Watch you might not know about.

Here are some of the best Apple Watch apps to trick out your wrist.

Your Apple Watch may arrive earlier than expected

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Photo: Apple

When shipping estimates for the Apple Watch fell to June in only a matter of minutes, many preorder customers were left frustrated and in despair.

But there’s hope yet: Apple is already preparing to ship Watch orders that originally weren’t slated to arrive for over a month.