Beats redesign is coming to WWDC 2015. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
We got our first taste of Apple’s updated music app two weeks ago with the release of iOS 8.4 beta 1, but Apple’s already seeding a new update to its mobile operating system.
The iOS 8.4 beta 2 update is available now in the iOS Dev Center as well as via an over-the-air update for all public beta testers. Apple also pushed out Xcode 6.4 beta 2 to developers this morning.
When life gives you an ugly Apple Watch, paint that shit gold. Photo: Casey Neistat Photo: Casey Neistat
Lusting after the gold Apple Watch Edition but don’t have the funds for Jony Ive’s $17,000 timepiece? You could take out a second mortgage on the house, or sell a kidney. Or you could do what artist Casey Neistat did and manually turn an Apple Watch Sport into a golden beauty.
Neistat only had $399, so he decided to preorder the black Sport model and then carefully painted it gold. Sure, his method might void your warrant, and it doesn’t look perfect, but it’s better than spending your kid’s college savings just to be as fly as Drake.
You can do it too, just follow the steps in the video below:
Jony Ive gets animated as he talks about Apple Watch. Photo: Vogue
Jony Ive and his BFF Marc Newson launched Apple into the luxury market this week with the Apple Watch, which expertly straddles the line between gadget and fashion accessory.
Apple’s dynamic designing duo sat down with Vogue’s Suzy Meeks this week to talk about their first foray into the fashion world — as well as what inspired them to create the Apple Watch. We rounded up the top 8 revelations from the pair’s appearance earlier this week, but Vogue just made the full interview available online, and it’s full of juicy insights into Jony and Marc’s thought processes.
Get ready to rock with your Apple Watch. Photo: Apple
Apple’s smartwatch doesn’t come with much onboard storage, but that doesn’t mean you’re screwed when it comes to Apple Watch music. You can add your own playlists and listen to your favorite tunes using Bluetooth headphones or AirPlay speakers.
To get the songs you want, you need to create a playlist on your iPhone or iTunes, then beam it over to your Apple Watch. Here’s how to do it.
Once you get Apple Pay up and running on Apple Watch, you'll be breezing through checkout in no time. Photo: Apple
Using Apple Pay on Apple Watch is ridiculously easy. Once you get everything set up, all you have to do is double-click the side button and then hold the Watch face up to a terminal. Apple’s also made it super-easy to add new cards to your Apple Watch, or create a custom Apple Pay profile just for your wrist.
Here’s how to get started with Apple Pay on your Apple Watch
The first wave of Apple Watch are finally here just in time for Friday’s big release. The Apple Watch App Store went live yesterday with over 3,000 apps that are sure to delight users, as developers try to create the first must-have Apple Watch app.
We rounded up some of our the coolest apps that are ready for your wrist this morning, but we also couldn’t help but notice there were a lot of apps that would be awesome if they were available today.
Here are 7 killer apps Apple Watch should have, but doesn’t:
The Apple Watch next to a classic mechanical watch. Photo: iFixit
The folks at iFixit wasted no time gutting their new Apple timepiece.
Their Apple Watch teardown confirms that the device comes with a hidden diagnostic port. They’ve also exposed the watch’s Taptic Engine, located the tiny battery, and found some gold highlights on the Apple Watch Sport.
The Apple Watch App Store is now live and it’s packed with way more apps than we expected.
Even if you don’t have an Apple Watch yet, you can start exploring the new Apple Watch App Store in the companion iPhone app. The App Store began to roll out this morning, and Apple says it will include over 3,000 apps for users to install when orders deliver tomorrow.
Learn how to use your Apple Watch before you get it. Photo: Apple
Ready to master your Apple Watch before it even lands on your doorstep? We’ve already rounded up Apple’s video tutorials on the Apple Watch, but in case you want to dive deep into all the features the unique timepiece has to offer, the official user guide is now available.
What’s the best way to get a gold Apple Watch early? If you’re Pharrell, the answer is to have a concert at Apple headquarters.
Employees at Apple’s Cupertino campus are being treated to a special performance from the ‘Happy’ singer, who was the first person spotted wearing the gold Apple Watch in the wild.
Natalie Kerris, former senior PR director at Apple. Photo: Apple
Natatlie Kerris has been one of the most prominent figures on Apple’s PR team for the past decade, but today she announced that she’s ready to jettison from the mothership.
In a message posted on Twitter today, Kerris says she’s stepping away from Apple after working at the company for the past 14 years. The former PR director hasn’t said what she’ll be doing next, but based on the Steve Jobs quote she shared in her tweet, she’ll be moving on to a new adventure soon.
Will you get your Apple Watch by Friday? Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
Were you hoping to get your Apple Watch preorder on Friday? We were, but based on the shipment status of our orders here at Cult of Mac HQ, all our watches are still stuck at “Preparing for Shipment” despite the fact we’ve already been charged for the orders.
We asked Apple fans this morning if they’re starting to worry that their preorders might not arrive as quickly as expected and the responses bordered closer to panic than simply worried.
There’s still no sign whether Apple Watch preorders will actually arrive on doorsteps by Friday, but at least one customer has already received an Apple Watch preorder — sort of.
A reddit user in Australia posted pictures this morning of an Apple Watch charging cable that arrived on his doorstep a few days early, despite the package’s status still being set to “Preparing for Shipment” yesterday.
Apple Watch promises to be the most personal device you’ve ever strapped on by keeping track of everything from your movement to your heart rate, 24 hours a day.
Mixing high tech with high fashion can be tricky, but in a new support document, Apple details how it uses what’s known as “photoplethysmography” to track your heart rate by flashing green light at your veins.
Apple Watch preorders are arriving soon. Photo: Apple
Apple Watch preorders are supposed to start delivering on April 24th, but almost everyone we’ve talked to is still seeing a ‘Preparing for shipment’ status on their orders.
Tracking information for Apple Watch orders still haven’t been sent out yet, however, some reddit users have discovered a way to manually pull your tracking info from UPS. The solution is a bit hit or miss, but if you’re desperate for more info about your pre-order it’s worth a try.
Apple Watch might be the most controversial product Cupertino’s ever launched, but according to Jony Ive, Apple’s been on this path since the Jobs and Woz founded the company.
The Apple design boss and Marc Newson opened the inaugural Condé Nast International Luxury Conference today in Florence, Italy, to talk about their smartwatch that’s part fashion item, part tech gadget. Ive and Newson sat down with conference host Suzy Menkes and explained how they approached the development of Apple WAtch.
“We don’t look at the world through predetermined market opportunities,” said Ive. “What we’ve done fairly consistently is try to invest tremendous care in the development of our products.”
Here are the eight most important bits we learned about the Apple Watch’s development:
J.J. Abrams whetted our appetite for more lightsaber dueling action with the first Episode VII teaser last year, but today’s release of a new trailer has got us counting down the days until Christmas.
We’re still eight months away from Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ public release, and while plot details for the highly anticipated movie are being kept under wraps, there’s a ton of fresh info to glean from the new trailer. We’ve diced the entire trailer up into GIFs so you can rewatch each scene to look for new clues.
Here are 18 things we learned from the new trailer:
Apple's new aluminum will kill Bendgate. Photo: Unbox Therapy Photo: Unbox Therapy
It’s been rumored for months that the iPhone 6S might pick up Apple Watch’s Force Touch feature when it’s updated this Fall, but according to the Chinese media Jony Ive is also planning to use the same aluminum used in the Apple Watch Sport.
If Apple pulls it off, it could solve the Bendgate controversy.
Apple's forest in North Carolina - where future iPhone boxes are born. Photo: Whitney Flanagan, The Conservation Fund Photo: Whitney Flanagan, The Conservation Fund
When you’re the richest company in the world you can afford to do crazy things: build a spaceship campus, start secret electric car projects, or buy an entire forest.
Apple announced today that it’s buying up 36,000 acres of private forest land that will be sustainably harvested and used for its packaging.
The land is broken into two tracts in Maine and North Carolina and will be managed by the Conservation Fund. Combined, the two tracts are more that two times the size of Manhattan. The pulp from the trees will go toward Apple’s packaging needs, but other companies will be able to buy fiber from them too.
Apple is starting to toss Apple Watches at celebrities like the wearables are Viagra at the Playboy Mansion. Fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld just flashed his custom gold link bracelet on Instagram, and now Sam Smith is showing off his new timepiece — which was hand-delivered by Jony Ive himself.
With SamMote, your TV controls are just a tap away. Photo: A-watch.fr
Keeping tabs on the TV remote control has been one of the greatest problems to plague man over the last 50 years. Apple Watch is finally solving that issue by slapping all the TV controls you need right on your wrist.
IBM first designed its artificial intelligence computer system, Watson, to dominate humans in Jeopardy. Now before the machine takes over the world, Watson is moving on to the finer things in life by releasing a new cookbook, Cognitive Cooking with Chef Watson.
What tech advances will the next iPhone camera bring? Photo: Apple Photo: Apple
Apple is looking to ramp up its camera technology with the acquisition of Israeli company LinX.
The two companies reached a deal that will see Apple paying about $20 million for the startup, but if the company’s multi-aperture cameras are actually as stunning as advertised, future iPhones could gain SLR-quality images.
Now everyone can be a medical researcher. Photo: Apple Photo: Apple
Apple’s unveiling of ResearchKit was one of the biggest surprises at event in March. The software framework is designed to help doctors and scientists with medical and health research, and starting today, Apple is opening up ResearchKit to everyone.
The first five ResearchKit apps that study asthma, breast cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease already enrolled over 60,000 iPhone users in the first few weeks. Now medical researchers all over the world will be able to tap into the same software that researchers at Stanford and Oxford University used to develop their medical apps.
Apple's Music app is getting a redesign. Photo: Cult of Mac
Rumors of a redesign coming to the iOS Music app have been floating around the rumor mill ever since Apple acquired Beats last year, and today we got our first preview of the future of music.
iOS 8.4 gives developers a look at the redesigned Music app that’s aimed at making it easier, faster, and more fun to listen to music than ever before. Apple has left out the long-rumored streaming-music component of the app, but the redesign is full of other noteworthy features.