Ed Hardy has been writing full-time about tech for 25 years, and using it for much longer than that. His intro to Apple was a Macintosh Classic II (which he still has), but now he uses a 13-inch iPad Pro as his primary computer. He’s written for NotebookReview, TabletPCReview, and Brighthand, as well as other sites.
Apple research and development spends oodles of cash on secret projects. Photo: Pexels
Apple’s spending on research and development of new products keeps growing. The company’s R&D spending increased by hundreds of millions in the second quarter of this year, totaling more than ever before.
But where is all this money going? Some of its R&D projected are obvious, but others the company tries to keep secret.
iOS 12 public beta 4 lets you try out all the new iPhone and iPad features months before the full release, expected this fall. Photo: Apple
You don’t have to wait to get the new features of iOS 12. You could install a pre-release version and start tinkering with Siri Shortcuts or Memoji now.
Apple just introduced iOS 12 public beta 4, hopefully the most stable version yet. There are both iPhone and iPad iterations.
Ken Segall worked in advertising with Steve Jobs for more than a dozen years. Now he'd like CEO Tim Cook to Think Different about marketing. Photo: Doug Schneider Photography
Quick, what’s the advertising slogan Apple uses for the iPhone X? How about for the iPad? What was the theme of the last Apple ad you saw?
If you shrugged your shoulders at all these questions, then you’ll understand why a former Apple ad man sees problems with the company’s current advertising strategy.
An Apple VR headset like this one might be in development. Photo: Cult of Mac
The rumors of an Apple virtual reality headset just got a boost. The company hired the developer of a VR painting application. An app that can’t run on any device Apple currently offers.
It’s not easy to see why Apple would need the talents of the creator of Cyber Paint if it’s not prepping some kind of VR hardware.
The long-delayed wireless AirPods charging case could finally be out soon, along with the AirPower charging mat. Photo: Apple
Last September, Apple unveiled an AirPods case that can be wirelessly charged. We’re still waiting for it almost a year later — but there’s fresh evidence that it’s coming soon.
The Dropbox vs iCloud competition just got tighter now that some plans from Dropbox offer a lot more capacity. Photo: Dropbox
Dropbox just added terabytes of storage to some of its offerings without increasing their cost. This makes its plans stronger competitors against iCloud.
The company is doubling the amount available through a Professional account to 2 TB. Business Standard teams now have 3 TB to share, up from 2 TB.
Because Intel can't get its act together, Apple's apparently going to release a low-cost MacBook that's slower than it should be. Photo: Apple
After waiting years, Apple is reportedly given up on using some of Intel’s long-delayed processors in the budget MacBook expected this fall. Instead, the device will include chips that debuted last year.
Problems like this could be one of the reasons Apple is supposedly going to move macOS onto its own ARM-based processors and away from Intel.
The mophie Charge Stream Travel Kit uses inductive charging to bring your iPhone back to 100 percent, at home or on the go. Photo: mophie
A wireless charger for your iPhone is very convenient, and now you don’t have to miss out when you’re on the road. The mophie Charge Stream Travel Kit includes a travel-size Qi wireless charger and the add-ons to use it in a hotel room or even your car.
This mobile charging kit currently sells for $49.95 on Amazon, and is compatible with the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus. It also works with any Qi-compatible phone or accessory. Don’t miss our hands-on review.
The 2018 iPhone may sport a new type of LCD from Japan Display with thinner screen bezels. Photo: Japan Display
There’s good news and bad news about the more-affordable 6.1-inch iPhone supposedly in development. The good new is it may have bezels almost as thin as the iPhone X. The bad news is it’s not expected until November.
Apple is reportedly turning to a new type of LCD for this upcoming model. This will enable the slim bezels, but the supplier has run into production problems.
Smaller bezels will reportedly be a highlight of the 2018 iPad Pro, but will that make up for a huge drawback? Photo: Álvaro Pabesio
The next-generation iPad Pro is going to have some nice improvements, like smaller screen bezels resulting in an edge-to-edge look.
But not every change is likely to go down well with fans. Apple is also supposedly going to remove the headphone jack, as it has done in its iPhone line. But that’s probably not the move that will draw the most criticism.
The Philips Adore bathroom mirror can be controlled through Apple's HomeKit home automation. Photo: Philips
Think about how nice it would be to have the best lighted bathroom mirror and dim the lights without having to get out of the tub. That’s one of the promises of the Adore Bathroom lighted mirror as it can be controlled from your iPhone or iPad.
The center of this product is a standard mirror that’s about 20 inches across. This is surrounded by a while LED light that can be dim or bright.
Adding wireless chargers to the MacBook Pro seems a no-brainer. Photo: Apple
What if your every Apple device could wirelessly charge almost every other one? Engineers came up with plans to put wireless chargers in MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones so they could charge each other, or an Apple Watch.
Building inductive chargers into macOS laptops is such an obvious idea it’s a bit surprising the 2018 MacBook Pro doesn’t include them. But Apple took this idea to its logical extreme.
The US government may soon be looking over Facebook's shoulder to better protect your privacy. Unless Facebook and Google can prevent it, of course. Photo: Facebook
The Commerce Dept. is reportedly talking to social networking companies and consumer advocates about rules to protect online privacy. Also included are possible protections for companies that have data breeches.
This is supposedly laying the groundwork for legislation that might be proposed this fall.
Wall Street hammered Facebook today. But the privacy concerns that pushed the company's share price down almost 20 percent aren't an issue for Apple. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Facebook lost more value today than any other company in history: $120 billion. The massive selloff came after CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the growing privacy concerns of the public, and the likely response of lawmakers and regulators, will hit the company where it hurts: in the pocketbook.
On the same day Facebook lost 19 percent of its value, Apple’s share price was unaffected. This is because the two companies have diametrically opposing views on the privacy rights of the public. What hurt Facebook so much is actually one of Apple’s strengths.
An improved Samsung RAM will almost certainly make future iPhone models more efficient. Photo: Samsung Electronics
The highlight of Samsung latest mobile RAM chip is power efficiency. The second-generation LPDDR4X uses up to 10 percent less electricity without sacrificing speed. That’s almost certainly going to benefit future iPhone models.
With batteries improving only slowly, the best way to increase the time between charges is for the phone’s components to draw less energy. Hence Samsung’s efforts to make its RAM more efficient.
Someone who has sent you money can potentially get your Apple Pay account locked. Which might be a real problem for some people. Screenshot: Apple
Some people treat Apple Pay like a bank account. They keep a balance of cash on this payment system and use it to pay off debts or accept money from friends.
A Redditor has a story that shows a potential pitfall of this strategy, especially if a large sum of money is involved.
Samsung's ads set at an "Ingenius" bar criticize the iPhone rather than praise the Galaxy S9. Screenshot: Samsung
When a product isn’t doing well, one marketing strategy is to sling mud at the competition. That’s why all Samsung’s latest ads don’t focus on the Galaxy S9, but criticize the iPhone instead.
There are four new ads that target some aspect of Apple’s products, such as the notch, no microSD card slot, and a lack of on-screen multitasking.
Rather than Qualcomm LTE modems, the 2018 iPhone will use chips from other suppliers that aren't as fast. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The Apple vs. Qualcomm battle just escalated to the point where the next iPhones won’t include LTE modems produced by this chipmaker. That means these iOS devices will be slower accessing the Internet.
Apple certainly has other options for LTE chips. But none are as good as Qualcomm’s products.
Alfre Woodward at Global Green USA's 12th Annual Millennium Awards. Photo: Global Green USA/
Flickr CC
Apple’s sci-fi drama See already has Jason Momoa from Aquaman, and now he’s joined by Alfre Woodward, who has no less than four Emmys and an Oscar nomination.
Aside from some of the cast, a director, and the writer, all we know about See is that it will be an “epic, world-building drama set in the future,” according to Variety.
The Apple T2 chip could be the source of mysterious crashes afflicting two of Apple's newest computers. Photo: IFIXIT
Some iMac Pro units are subject to occasional hard crashes. The reasons are hard to pin down, but fingers are starting to point at the Apple T2 chip inside this computer.
There’s also one in the 2018 MacBook Pro, and this new device is seemingly prone to the same problem.
This plastic model of Steve Jobs has a better vision of the future of smartphones than many rival CEOs. Photo: DAM Toys
Ten years ago, Apple co-founder andthen-CEO Steve Jobs understood that smartphones were going to be a big deal. And he realized software would be an important part of that.
With 20/20 hindsight, it’s easy to dismiss that vision. But Jobs was talking in August 2008, a year after the release of the first iPhone, and only a month after the iOS App Store debuted. Most people had flip phones, and PCs dominated the computing landscape.
No more procrastinating. It's necessary to update your iPhone, iPad, or MacBook to remove a Bluetooth security flaw. Photo: Apple
Many people are slow about updating the operating system on their phone or laptop, sometimes from fear of bugs. But a security flaw in Bluetooth requires updating to recent versions of iOS or macOS to fix.
This flaw could allow a hacker to access information exchanged over Bluetooth. And it affects recent and older iPhones and MacBooks.
Verizon is behind arch-rival AT&T in deploying mobile 5G. Sprint and T-Mobile are trailing. Photo: Steve Rhodes/Flickr CC
Verizon just reveled that Houston will be the third city getting its super-speedy 5G service before the end of this year. But there’s huge caveat: this is fixed service, only for homes and businesses.
In contrast, AT&T will launch mobile 5G service in six cities this year. This shows how far ahead it is than the competition.