About 95 percent of the coffee shops and stores I frequent in the Phoenix area use a Square reader or terminal to process payments, and virtually none of them support Apple Pay. That could soon change, though, thanks to a new contactless payments terminal from Square that will bring Apple Pay to businesses small and large this fall.
Tim Cook said the iPhone 6 would trigger an avalanche of Android users to switch to iPhone and so far he’s been right. Previous iPhone owners have been slow to upgrade to the newer, bigger iPhones, but Apple is coming out with a new tool that will make it even easier for Android users to switch to iOS.
Apple Watch apps have been ridiculously slow ever since Jony Ive’s timepiece started slapping itself onto wrists in April, but that could change by this fall thanks to the introduction of watchOS 2.0.
The next generation of Apple Watch’s software and apps was unveiled today at WWDC in San Francisco by Apple VP Kevin Lynch, who showed off a number of new features that probably should have been included on the device at launch. As we predicted, third-party apps will finally be able to run natively on the Apple Watch and there are a bunch of smaller improvements coming to the timepiece as well.
Here’s everything you need to know about watchOS 2.0.
After getting an ear-full from Eddy Cue during Game 1 of the NBA Finals, LeBron James single handedly carried his team to a win last night to even the series at game a piece.
LeBron’s leadership has been unparalleled this season, and that extends on and off the court. Before the Cavs vs Warriors series kicked off last week, insiders revealed that LeBron gathered his teammates at the Four Seasons in downtown San Francisco for a bonding session and presented everyone with their own Apple Watch.
Before Craig Federighi and Apple’s other software gurus unveil the future of iOS and OS X, let’s take a minute to appreciate Scott Forstall. If Scott hadn’t been kicked out of the company three years ago we would probably still be stuck with leather and felt interfaces.
Getting removed from Apple has paid off for Scott too. He’s helping Snapchat suck less, and last night, he won an award Tim Cook and Jony Ive will never be nominated for: The Tony award for Best Musical.
Forstall has been serving as a producer on the Broadway musical “Fun Home” the past year and last night the effort paid off big time, with ‘Fun Home’ sweeping up and taking home a whopping five awards, including best new musical, best book, best original score, best direction, and best leading actor.
Check out Scott with the rest of the team on scooping up an award:
We’re eagerly counting down the last hour until Apple unveils its new lineup of magical software and other goodies, but Simon Pierro is ready to reveal some of the magic that’s already inside your Apple Watch.
The iOS magician released a new video for WWDC fans that goes through the features of the Apple Watch by bending reality with the same type of clever tricks that landed him on The Ellen Show earlier this year.
Watch his new Apple Watch routine below:
Attendees of WWDC 2015 have started picking up the jackets and backpacks that Apple gives out to developers ahead of the event. This year’s black jackets look quite similar to ones distributed last year, except Apple made an interesting change to the font.
With San Francisco expected to replace Helvetica Neue as the default typeface of iOS and OS X, Apple has hinted at the change by using the font on the front of the jackets. The company also added a little Swift joke on the inside of the garments.
Take a look at the size tag:
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is ready to kick off and Cult of Mac will be here ready to liveblog all the action and glory as it happens.
We’re expected to get our first glimpses of the new and improved iOS 9 and OS X 10.11, both of which will supposedly feature a bunch of performance improvements, but could some major new features surprise us? Apple’s new music streaming service will also premiere at the event, and Apple Watch apps are about to get their own SDK.
Come enjoy the show with us as we break down all the awesome new features and products Tim, Craig, Jony and the rest of Apple’s team drop on us. The action starts at 10 a.m. Pacific, but we’ll be cranking up the liveblog around 9:30 a.m.
With the Worldwide Developers Conference less than a week away, we’ve already got a pretty good idea about what Apple will reveal at this year’s conference.
The company focuses on developer-related products at the conference, but there are plenty of goodies that normals will go crazy for too, like the bevy of improvements coming to iOS 9, a new Apple TV and maybe even a new music streaming service.
Here’s what to expect from WWDC 2015, which runs June 8 to 12 at Moscone Center in San Francisco. (Cult of Mac will be liveblogging the Apple keynote, which starts at 10 a.m. Pacific next Monday, so be sure to check back then for news and instant analysis.)
Pebble Watch fans have been absolutely freaking out on Twitter the last few days due to a delay with the Pebble Time app for iOS getting delayed in the App Store approval process.
After sitting in ‘pending approval’ since May 22nd, Pebble fans rallied around the #FreeOurPebbleTime hashtag to get their voices heard by Apple, but everyone can stop their whining, because the Pebble Time app for iPhone is finally available for download.
Apple and Google boasted that they paid over $17 billion to app developers over the last year. What they left out is that they also made a tidy $7.3 billion off those sales, thanks to the 30/70 split pioneered by Steve Jobs with the launch of iTunes in 2003.
That split could coming to an end soon, though, according to a new report claiming Apple plans to make a departure from its old pricing formula in an effort to make Cupertino’s devices more appealing to media companies.
During his January conference call with investors, Tim Cook said that 2015 would be ‘the year of Apple Pay’, and while Apple’s mobile wallet has already leapfrogged rivals like Google Wallet, a new survey of the top 100 retailers in the country found that Apple Pay still faces a long uphill battle.
We’re just three days away from Tim Cook and the gang taking over San Francisco’s Moscone Center for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference. Preparations for the big event have been underway all week, but crews are starting to wrap up pre-production — and the final WWDC 2015 banners are being unfurled.
Take a look:
The NBA Finals started last night, with LeBron James taking to the court in search of yet another championship ring. His team is taking on the Silicon Valley Golden State Warriors and, while Apple Senior VP Eddy Cue was all too happy to cheer on LeBron during the last two NBA championships, this year he’s defected to the home team — and giving King James hell.
Apple is planning to use WWDC to spotlight the new streaming music service its been working on for year. It could be Apple’s biggest play in the music industry since the launch of iTunes, but according to a new report, Apple is still struggling to ink its deal with record labels.
Looking to buy a new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus from Apple on AT&T but don’t want to sign up for the carrier’s Next plan? Too damn bad.
Just days after AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega promised subsidized phones are going away, the company has completely removed subsidized options for the iPhone from the Apple Store as well.
Ahead of WWDC 2015, Apple’s lawyers have demanded AltConf organizers refrain from streaming or displaying any video or display any video content from WWDC. As a result, the conference has decided to cancel its annual viewing of the Keynote and State of the Union stream on Monday that has been a staple of the event for the past few years.
In a letter to AltConf, Apple’s lawyers maintain that the company has the right to “exercises control over not only the content of its messaging, but also the manner in which those messages are packaged, distributed and delivered,” and that the AltConf’s big party of developers watching the keynote together “would strip Apple of exclusive control over one of the most anticipated events of the year, and could deprive Apple of potential revenue generated from its exclusive rights.”
After climbing up the Fortune 500 rankings the past few years, Apple is standing firm in the No. 5 spot it reached last year.
Walmart grabbed the top spot, followed by oil giants Exxon and Chevron, with Apple hanging in thanks to strong iPhone and Mac sales, although
Fortune noted slumping iPad sales are a point of concern.
Apple’s new spaceship campus is scheduled to be completed late next year, but before 12,000 employees take over the new mothership, you can take a guided tour of Apple’s current headquarters, if you’ve got enough funds.
Cleveland Indians outfielder Brandon Moss hit his 100th home run in the major leagues yesterday against the Kansas City Royals. The ball representing his career milestone landed in his own team’s bullpen, but unfortunately for Moss, his teammates are holding the it ransom. And all they want is a few grand worth of Apple products.
After catching Moss’ home run, the bullpen’s pitchers scribbled down a ransom note, telling Moss “you get the ball when we get these items.” Take a look at their list of ransom items and try to find something not made by Apple:
Apple fans that were hoping a new Apple TV set top box would debut next week at WWDC are in for some bad news today. According to the New York Times, Apple is postponing its plans to debut the device next weeks because it’s just not quite ready.
The Apple TV has remained relatively unchanged since its second generation upgrade in 2010, but Apple’s team is still having problems getting the final product polished after already suffering major setbacks for content deals.
Notorious Apple fanboy Stephen Colbert is taking over The Late Show from David Letterman in September, and while he’s not bringing his ultra-conservative persona, his love of Apple products is still burning bright.
In the first promotional video for his new show, Colbert is seen wearing a white Apple Watch to go with his new white Colbeard. As he gears up for his new hosting duties, he decided to test a few different facial hairstyles before the show’s premiere.
Check out the funny promo:
The redesign and relaunch of Beats Music is one of the most anticipated announcements Apple fans are expecting to hear about next week at WWDC. Apple spent $3 billion on Beats in an effort to take on the likes of Spotify and Pandora, but according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, all that effort won’t make Apple a ton of money.
Beats currently has about 300,000 paid subscribers while Spotify has 15 million. According to Munster’s math, even if Apple matched Spotify’s subscriber base the profits will be weak.
HBO made a splash with its streaming service HBO Now, and now its cheaper rival Showtime is ready to get in on the action too with its own streaming service that’s also launching exclusively with Apple.
Starting in July, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV users will be able to purchase a stand-alone subscription to Showtime through the Showtime app to stream all of the company’s original programming. It’s just like HBO Now, only a little bit cheaper.
Apple takes over San Francisco’s Moscone Center next week for the Worldwide Developers Conference, and preparations for the annual invasion have already begun. More than 5,000 developers will descend on the conference center for a week of coding and a little bit of partying.
This year’s signage on the outside of the Moscone Center looks pretty much just like last year’s. Here’s a closer look: