Lewis Wallace

This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: The first iOS 27.3 beta brings some pretty massive changes to the iPhone. The redesigned Health app’s back, Apple Fitness+ finally adds a weightlifting workout, and Siri gets potentially awesome new powers.

Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:

• We go over some of the most mind-blowing numbers from Apple’s latest earnings call.
• A guy’s DIY project that turns an iMac G4 into a homemade HomeView gets us reminiscing about one of Apple’s most iconic computers of all time. (The mod is pretty slick, too.)
• And finally, we go heavy on the new Gym Strength workout in Fitness+ … and Graham breathes a sigh of relief. His strength-training app, Reps & Sets, didn’t get sherlocked after all!

Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in your podcast app of choice. Or watch the video version, embedded below. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!)

November 3, 2017: Apple releases the iPhone X, a sleek device with a futuristic feature called Face ID. The innovative biometric security system lets a user unlock the iPhone X just by looking at it.

Powered by the iPhone X’s new TrueDepth camera system, Face ID also lets users authenticate and pay using their devices. The technology offers a great leap forward over the fingerprint scanner in previous iPhones. It makes using iPhone X feel incredibly seamless.

After posting yet another quarterly revenue record on Monday, Apple provided more insight into the massive scope of its operatings in its quarterly earnings call.

During the live-streamed call, new Apple CEO John Ternus and CFO Kevan Parekh praised the company’s new products and dug into the nitty-gritty about financials. A Q&A session with Wall Street analysts yielded more questions than actual answers, but the numbers Ternus and Parekh tossed around speak volumes.

This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: Apple just released the first touchscreen Mac in history — and totally soft-pedaled the touchy-feely part!

Instead, the company emphasized the screen quality of the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, including showing how great it works from mountaintops and forests.

Color us shocked! There’s plenty to discuss about this momentous Mac. That screen does look gorgeous. And a lighter laptop is always welcome. But that price … ouch!

Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:

• Apple’s chip-and-ship upgrades to the iMac and the entry-level MacBook Pro come with one big surprise (and it’s not the powerful M6 chip).
• The iPhone Duo‘s Crackgate is real. But is it overblown?

Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in your podcast app of choice. Or watch the video version, embedded below. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!)

The latest MacBook Pro comes with an incredible screen that’s bright, easy to see outdoors, and just happens to work as a touchscreen.

Apple’s promo video for the new laptop shows people typing, tapping and swiping in some very outdoorsy settings, like deep in the woods and high atop a mountain. It’s a great way to hammer home the point: The new MacBook Pro’s screen will deliver studio-quality results virtually anywhere.

Photos circulating online Friday show some iPhone Duos with distinctive-looking cracks in their folding screens. It’s too early to call it Crackgate, but the launch-day images might make some people nervous about shelling out $2,000 or more for Apple’s first folding phone.

Most of the pictures lack context. However, one user on Reddit posted an image of a screen that reportedly cracked after very little use.

By Sunday, even more images and videos have been posted online, along with theories about what might be causing the problem. Plus, the inevitable iPhone Duo drop tests showed just how fragile the device’s inner screen is.

This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: The first iPhone Duo reviews are a mixed bag — both the verdicts on Apple’s first foldable and the reviews themselves.

We go over the predictable pros and cons, toss out our own opinions, and highlight some of our favorite reviews.

Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:

• Speaking of great iPhone Duo reviews, Joanna Stern’s was brilliantly creative. She and a hardware expert deviced a device to fold the Duo automatically — more than 32,000 times!
• Surprisingly, some iPhone Duo ship dates are moving in a positive direction, despite continued concerns about availability when the phone launches.
• We’re less than a week away from seeing the first touchscreen MacBook. Let the last-minute speculation begin!
• And finally, Leander and Graham give me a reason to feel bad about not owning an Apple Vision Pro: They watched Remnants, a spooky VR movie from horror master Ti West that arrived just in time for Halloween.

Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in your favorite podcasts app. Or watch the video version, embedded below. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!)

A tech reviewer took a novel approach to testing the iPhone Duo’s hinge, using a custom-made device to automatically fold the phone more than 32,000 times.

The goal was to find out if the Duo’s hinge got loosey-goosey after repeated folds. The result proved pretty shocking.

In iOS 27.2 beta 4, Apple changed the Apple Music app icon from white musical notes on a vibrant red background to similar black notes on a white background.

The reaction was immediate and overwhelmingly negative after the beta came out Tuesday. Apple Music fans slammed the change, with some calling it one of the company’s worst design choices ever.

Apple unveiled its Apple Home Collection, a handful of “recommended” smart home products produced in partnership with LG Electronics and Schneider Electric, during its “Welcome Home” event on Tuesday.

The new gear, including a door lock, temperature sensors and security cameras, work with Apple’s new HomeView smart home hub and give consumers an easy way to outfit their homes with trusted devices. The company played up ease of use and security in a bid to differentiate its products from the sea of similar products.

“Apple Home Collection makes it easy to choose smart home accessories with confidence,” said Matthew Costello, Apple’s vice president of hardardware engineering, in a press release Tuesday. “Working closely with industry leaders LG Electronics and Schneider Electric, we designed every accessory to work seamlessly with Apple Home, so managing your home is simple, reliable, and private.”

This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: Apple’s about to make a big push into the smart home arena. We already knew about the impending launch of an intriguing new smart home hub, but the revelation that Apple is working with at least two other companies to produce new devices takes things to a whole new level.

The big question remains: How will Apple differentiate its smart home platform from everything else on the market? There’s plenty to discuss.

Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:

• Apple will unveil that smart home hub next Tuesday at a special “Apple Experience” for a small group of media and influencers. That likely means no traditional streaming keynote of Apple’s “Welcome Home” event.
• The rumor mill already gave us a pretty thorough idea of what to expect from Apple’s about-to-launch home hub. It sounds like a nice enough device, but software special sauce might make it super-compelling.
• While probably not coming next week, Apple’s also reportedly working on smart cameras you can put in your home. The catch is that they won’t record actual video. Instead, they’ll just gather data for Siri AI to use. Kind of a weird concept … we discuss the pros and cons.
• The first touchscreen MacBook Pro is also rumored to arrive this month. Maybe we should call this wacky month of product launches “Oktoberbest.”

Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in Apple’s Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. Or watch the video version, embedded below. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!)

The new smart home products produced by LG Electronics in partnership with Apple will feature a “tap to set up without power” feature, according to a leaker who spotted the reference in iOS 27.

Also, LG Electronics apparently won’t be the only second-party manufacturer Apple works with to create new smart home products. The same leaker says Schneider Electric, a French company with its North American headquarters in Boston, will produce thermostats, temperature/humidity sensors and possibly more.

Apple partnered with LG Electronics to create an array of smart home devices, including a doorbell, a thermostat, a smart lock and indoor and outdoor security cameras, according to a new report.

The devices will work with Apple’s long-rumored smart home hub, which supposedly will launch next week. Although the LG-produced gear won’t arrive for several months, it should bolster Apple’s attempt to catch up in the smart home game. And new images purport to show what three of the devices will look like and function.

This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: New Apple CEO John Ternus reportedly wants to make Apple lean and agile. He wants to eliminate bloat — and push out more products at a faster tempo.

Is he tamping out his own “bozo explosion” at Apple? Or is the “hardware guy” just bringing a more engineering-focused eye to Cupertino’s top job? There’s plenty to discuss!

Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:

• The long-rumored (and long-delayed) Apple home hub, which reportedly arrives in a couple of weeks, will lean heavily on the new AI-infused Siri. Is the virtual assistant up to the task?
• And finally, it’s official: AirPods 5 are the “least unrepairable AirPods yet,” according to DIY gurus at iFixit.

Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in Apple’s Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. Or watch the video version, embedded below. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!)

This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: That didn’t take long! The iPhone 18 Pro faces more than one problem right out of the gate. First there’s a controversial storage choice that seems to hamper performance of the highest-end models (at least in extreme testing). And then there’s a weird Face ID problem.

So far, no names have stuck for these “-gates” — and maybe there’s not that much to them. The storage problem might be mostly theoretical, and a software fix is on the way for the Face ID glitch. Still, there’s plenty to talk about!

Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:

• Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 face their own reboot problem.
• Apple reportedly built prototypes of a screenless fitness tracker that would compete with Whoop’s fitness tracker and the Oura Ring. We discuss the pros and cons of the approach as well as Apple’s tweaks to its Health app, which is now available in the iOS 27.2 beta.
• The latest Mac mini design makes it harder to upgrade internal storage, and we try to coax a repairability rant out of Charlie.
• And finally, Graham describes the painstaking process of upgrading his strength-training app to get it ready for the iPhone Duo‘s folding screen.

Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. Or watch the video version, embedded below. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!)

If you want to monitor a website for changes, you can do it for free with Apple’s Safari web browser. The new Notify Me feature in iOS 27 and macOS 27 makes it easy to watch a webpage for updates — and receive an alert if and when the content is altered.

Let’s say you want to make sure you never miss an update to your favorite band’s tour schedule. Safari’s new capability lets you watch the group’s website so you don’t need to check it yourself every day. Same goes for a city council website you’re monitoring, a local group you want to keep in touch with, etc. Or you could use it to track price drops on a product you want to buy.

Don’t rely on other people to send you an email update. Here’s how to use Safari’s Notify Me feature to monitor the websites that matter to you.

Apple Music Hall, a new state‑of‑the‑art live music venue in London, will provide high-end experiences for audiences and performers alike. With a wild array of technology built into the 600-seat performance space, it will let musicians perform in Spatial Audio in an intimate space — and capture their shows with multicamera video and high-end audio.

“We care deeply about music, the artists who make it, and their life stories,” said Zane Lowe, Apple Music’s global creative director, in a press release Tuesday. “We’re always looking for new opportunities to connect the artists and the fans because we are fans. What better way to celebrate this relationship than a new music venue where we get to experience amazing music in an amazing space and share it with the world. Great music and memories will be made at Apple Music Hall.”

The first photos of Apple Music Hall reveal a venue that looks typically gorgeous. And Cupertino said it plans to livestream shows from Apple Music Hall so fans around the world can enjoy them.

This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: The iPhone 18 Pro is here, and the iPhone Duo is on the way, but Apple’s far from finished releasing new hardware this year.

There’s plenty of new stuff coming down the pike, and we’re especially excited about a pair of long-rumored additions to the Apple lineup.

Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:

• We reveal our favorite iOS 27 features.
• There are several solid reasons to hang onto your iPhone 17 Pro rather than upgrading to iPhone 18 Pro. It’s kinda depressing, TBH.
• And finally, the prospect of a user-repairable iPhone Duo seems incredibly slim.

Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video version, embedded below.

This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: Apple’s Surprise and Shine event is in the books! The iPhone Duo is real, and it definitely folds. New Apple CEO John Ternus didn’t, though. He acquitted himself admirably as he briefly uncapped Apple’s magic product pipeline.

We discuss how things went down and our reactions to iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro, Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4 and AirPods 5.

Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:

• How does iPhone 18 Pro stack up against iPhone 17 Pro? The new variable-aperture camera sounds impressive, but seriously … how much better do your iPhone pix need to be? And how much are you willing to spend for slightly better snapshots?
• The new Apple Watch models come with a powerful new chip that enables a pair of controversial features: Live Rewind and Siri Recap. Both involve the Apple Watch Series 12 or Ultra 4 quietly listening in the background at all times. And that stirs real privacy concerns.
• Another pair of Apple Watch 12 and Ultra 4 features — your readiness score and Health Age — raise a different kind of question. Namely, just how scientific and useful are they?
• We wrap up the show with a show of hands: Who’s getting what new Apple products? The subject proves dicier than usual.

Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video version, embedded below.

Apple kicked off its Surprise and Shine event Wednesday with a cinematic passing of the torch as former CEO Tim Cook introduced his successor, John Ternus.

Ternus then praised the company’s crown jewel — the iPhone, which he called an “intelligent personal hub” superpowered by artificial intelligence — before unveiling a slew of new products, including the first folding iPhone, known as the iPhone Duo.

Other new and upgraded products included the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch Ultra 4 and AirPods 5. Plus, various Apple execs also showcased new software features coming soon in iOS 27 and the company’s other software platforms.

“iPhone sits at the center of an amazing ecosystem of intelligent features and experiences that work seamlessly across the products you use every day,” Ternus said, before name-checking the new AI-powered Siri and advanced features in the new Apple Watch and AirPods.

“Simply put, iPhone brings powerful AI capabilities together with your personal context on the device you have with you all the time,” Ternus continued. “So today, we’re going to take these experiences even further with the next generation of iPhone.”

• See also: This is when iOS 27, iPadOS 27, watchOS 27 and macOS Golden Gate arrive

When Apple released the cosmic orange iPhone 17 Pro last year, it did the unthinkable: It made the color orange both cool and commonplace.

Since then, a growing number of tech companies have embraced orange, producing a wide range of iPhone accessories and other gear in the surprisingly bold color. Now, the only question is, can Apple do it again … this time with dark cherry?

Even before Apple’s expected unveiling of the iPhone 18 Pro lineup during tomorrow’s Surprise and Shine event, it looks like the company might have another hit color on its hands.

This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: New Apple CEO John Ternus steps into his role with a wealth of hardware experience and a supremely promising product pipeline. And he’ll lead his first Apple event next week.

What will he hit us with during the Surprise and Shine event? And how will he change Apple going forward? There’s lots to ponder.

Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:

• Will the iPhone 18 Pro upgrades be big enough to lure us into upgrading? It looks increasingly unlikely.
• Rumors indicate the first folding iPhone won’t get a certain accessory that practically nobody wanted, but will get a feature that almost everybody loves. So that’s a win.
• What to expect from the next Apple Watch models, which should arrive next week as well.

Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video version, embedded below.

Popular Apple accessories maker Anker Innovations will open its first standalone store this week and pull its five category-based sub-brands under a single banner: Anker.

The idea is to simplify Anker’s product branding and take control of the company’s in-store marketing. It reminds me of what Apple did after Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997.

“Category brands made sense when categories were separate. They no longer are,” said Steven Yang, founder and CEO of Anker Innovations, in a press release Thursday. Instead, Anker will simply things into “one brand, one promise — Ultimate Innovation, now unified across everything we make.”

The first Anker store will open this week in Berlin, not coincidentally the city that hosts the annual IFA tech conference where Anker and others will showcase their latest wares.

This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: Apple sent out invites for its Surprise and Shine event this week, and the big question is, will there actually be any surprises on September 9?

The invite itself doesn’t reveal much, naturally. And a crazy deluge of rumors and leaks already painted a pretty thorough picture of what to expect from the iPhone 18 Pro, the first folding iPhone and more.

Still, it’ll be incoming Apple CEO John Ternus‘ first time running an event, and surely he’ll want to make it special. We discuss how he might make the event shine.

Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:

• This week’s rollout of new Mac mini and Mac Studio models gets us wondering if it’s time to upgrade.
• Apple’s new M6 chip sounds pretty amazing, but what about the M5 Pro?
• And finally, Leander shares a tip that will make charging your AirPods easier.

Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video version, embedded below.

Want to add Touch ID to your Mac without giving up your favorite keyboard? A DIY Touch ID project called the Dashboard Touch shows how you can build your own fingerprint sensor for less than $35.

It’s not as secure as Apple’s own implementation, but Anil Dash’s new DIY Touch ID hack should be safe enough for most users.