Luke Dormehl is a UK-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems, And Create More and The Apple Revolution, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme, and other publications. He'd like you a lot if you followed him on Twitter.
Apple's not given up on HomePod it seems. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
A proposed HomePod speaker with a built-in screen, and another device combining HomePod, FaceTime camera, and Apple TV, remain in “early development” at Apple, a Bloomberg report Friday states.
The report, which also includes details of Apple’s AirPods roadmap, describes the pair of devices as being part of Apple’s “broader home, audio and accessories strategy.” Unfortunately, there’s no word on when either might arrive.
Vietnam is currently facing production challenges due to coronavirus. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The coronavirus pandemic might be winding down in the United States, but it’s still wreaking havoc in other parts of the world. And that includes hammering Apple’s supply chain.
But you'll have to wait until 2022 to get your hands on them. Photo: Apple
Apple’s next-gen AirPods Pro will feature updated motion sensors for fitness tracking and arrive in 2022, according to a Bloomberg report Friday.
This would be in keeping with Apple’s increasing focus on the fitness and wellness field, both with Apple Watch and its Fitness+ subscription service. AirPods Pro made their debut in October 2019, and have not been updated since.
Question: When is the front-facing FaceTime camera on an iPhone more trouble than it’s worth? Answer: When you’re a thief who has just stolen an iPhone and, by using it, you’re recording video evidence against yourself.
This is one of the presumably many mistakes made by 21-year-old Kairo Theophilus-Reid. Theophilus-Reid recently appeared in the UK’s Swindon Crown Court, charged with a 2019 mugging of a younger teen’s iPhone 7.
He was arrested alongside fellow mugger Charlie Graham, and was found to have used the iPhone to record video of the pair in a restaurant hours after the incident.
Another set of nominations for Apple TV+. Image: The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences/Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
For the second year in a row, Apple TV+ kids’ shows Helpsters and Ghostwriter have racked up a slew of Daytime Emmy award nominations. While not quite the collective 13 nominations the two shows received last year (of which Ghostwriterwound up winning one), they nonetheless picked up an impressive six noms between them.
Ghostwriter — now in its second season — received five nominations, including outstanding sound mixing and editing, lighting direction, music direction and composition, art direction, and hairstyling. Helpsters — also having finished season two — picked up a nomination for outstanding costume design.
The Apple Watch continues to triumph. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
The Apple Watch is not slowing down when it comes to its dominance of the smartwatch market. According to a new report by Counterpoint Research, Apple Watch recorded an impressive 50% annual growth in Q1, claiming an impressive 33% of the overall global smartwatch industry.
Meanwhile, a separate report from the International Data Corporation said Apple shipped 30.1 million Apple Watches for the quarter, representing an almost 29% share of the market. While the reports differ slightly on the numbers, the take-home message is that Apple is killing it when it comes to smartwatches.
May not have been totally transparent about Apple TV+ show. Apparently. Photo: E. J. Hersom/Wikipedia CC
Queen Elizabeth II may not be the biggest fan of Apple TV+. According to a report from the U.K.’s Daily Mail, the queen signed off on her grandson, Prince Harry, doing a show for the streaming service — but was possibly misled about its contents.
The report claims the queen believed the show, The Me You Can’t See, was “about veterans’ mental health – not to air his dirty emotional laundry and launch a ‘personal attack’ on the royal family.”
Is Apple weaponizing privacy to increase its advantage? Screenshot: Apple
Facebook isn’t backing down in its battle against Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature. And it’s seemingly got a couple of heavy hitter researchers in its corner.
In a Facebook-funded paper published Wednesday, Feng Zhu, an associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, and D. Daniel Sokol, a professor of law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, take issue with Apple’s new privacy features — referring to them as “an anticompetitive strategy disguised as a privacy-protecting measure.”
Stick with your job and get an iPhone doesn't sound like a bad deal. Photo: A Befendo/Flickr CC
The fast food industry doesn’t just produce on-demand fries and burgers quickly, it’s also classically had a rapid turnover of employees. That’s a headache during normal times, but with the current post-COVID staffing shortage, it’s proving to be more of a migraine.
One McDonald’s restaurant in Altamont, Illinois, has a bright idea to get staff to hang around, though: Offer free iPhones for those who stay in the job for at least six months.
NBA superstar LeBron James shared an image of himself on Instagram wearing what could *just possibly* be the as-yet-unannounced Beats Studio Buds in white. The new, wireless Beats earbuds sound like they’re Beats’ version of Apple’s AirPods.
Beats is, of course, owned by Apple — thanks to Cupertino’s massive $3 billion acquisition in 2014. For whatever reason, it seems Apple will continue to release Beats-branded earbuds, despite the fact they stray into AirPods territory.
Because 2021 hasn't had enough Zoom calls. Photo: Apple
Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry’s Apple TV+ show, The Me You Can’t See, apparently became a big hit for the streaming service.
According to Deadline, insiders call the series the most-watched program worldwide on Apple TV+ since premiering earlier this month. It also drew 25% new viewers to the service, and a “more than 40% increase” in average weekend viewership in Harry’s homeland.
It's a big improvement from its predecessor. But not easy to open up. Photo: Apple
Most people haven’t gotten their hands on the 2021 Apple TV 4K yet. The good folks at iFixit have not only picked one up, but they’ve also stripped it down to peer inside.
A new teardown video suggests that the next-gen set-top box could be fairly straightforward to fix. However, don’t expect that same repair ease to apply to the upgraded Siri Remote.
How do you follow up a monster like the A14 chip? With the A15, of course! Concept: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor maker, has reportedly commenced production on the next-gen A15 chip for the iPhone 13.
It seems that Apple’s expecting to have a big hit on its hands, too. Digitimes reported Wednesday that “demand for the chip surpass that for its predecessor last year in scale, according to industry sources.”
Peek inside Rome's gorgeous new Apple Via del Corso store. Photo: Apple
As impressive as the sleekly minimalist, modernist Apple Stores are when they’re built from the ground up, there’s something dazzling about the company’s retail outlets that take over and restore classic buildings.
That second category certainly applies to Apple Via del Corso, which opens Thursday in the historic city of Rome. The 17th Apple Store in Italy, the new (well, old) structure is described by Apple as one of its “most significant restoration projects.”
That may be understating its appeal, too. Judging by the images, this could be the most spectacular Apple Store yet.
The iPhone 12 featured OLED displays on every model. Photo: Apple
Apple will become the world’s leading purchaser of OLED smartphone displays in 2021, snapping up an enormous 169 million panels for use in its iPhones. That’s considerably up for the 114.5 million it bought last year. It also puts Apple ahead of Samsung when it comes to buying these displays.
Get your gaming fill with Apple Arcade. Graphic: Cult of Mac
Commencing May 25, both new and existing Verizon unlimited plan subscribers can get up to a year of free Apple Arcade, along with the other goodies already offered.
Customers on the $90 per month Get More Unlimited or $80 per month Play More Unlimited plans will receive the full year of free access. Meanwhile, those on other unlimited plans will get six months.
Is there a fault with Apple's most expensive AirTags accessories? Photo: Apple
Apple products have always cost a premium, but they’re also some of the best-made devices and products that you’ll find. Most of the time, at least.
9to5Mac points out that all three of Apple’s Hermès AirTag Key Rings and Luggage Tags are listed as “Currently Unavailable” on Apple’s website, regardless of which option users try to select. It also cites a reader who suggests a quality issue could be to blame.
Wouldn't it have been great if the Siri Remote featured some of Apple's smart AirTag tracking tech? Photo: Apple
Of all the items that get misplaced regularly in my home, the TV remote has got to rank up there as number one. Other items, such as keys and wallet, may have a smaller footprint, but for whatever reason it’s the TV remote which constantly winds up going MIA.
With Apple redesigning the hated Siri Remote for its 2021 Apple TV 4K, you’d think it would be the perfect time to add some kind of tracking functionality to the device. After all, Apple’s just introduced AirTag, its location-tracking smart tech which promises to help you locate those hard-to-find with impressive accuracy.
Surely Apple could have squeezed its U1 Precision Tracking tech into the revamped Siri Remote? Apparently not. And according to a somewhat cryptic comment by Tim Twerdahl, Apple’s vice president of product marketing for home and audio, it’s to do with it being too thick. Or something.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak faces a million-dollar lawsuit for allegedly stealing the concept for his Woz U tech schools.
According to Connecticut business professor Ralph Reilly, he and Woz came up with the idea and participated in (among other things) an on-camera handshake a decade ago.
A Macintosh signed by Apple's co-founder is like the Mac fan's Holy Grail. Photo: MacPaw
Fancy seeing an original Macintosh 128k, signed by Steve Wozniak? Want to feast your eyes on Apple’s first “portable” computer, which tipped the scales at nearly 16 pounds? How about eyeballing a rare Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh, the only computer Cupertino ever made that was delivered to customers in a limo, and installed by Apple employees wearing tuxedos?
If you answered “yes” to all these questions, then there’s one more to ask: Are you willing to catch a flight to Kyiv, Ukraine — approximately 6,000 miles from Apple’s home in Cupertino — to look at them in person?
Antonio García Martínez, a former Facebook product manager, was recently hired and fired by Apple within the space of a few weeks. In a recent Twitter Space chat with journalists Kara Swisher and Casey Newton, Martínez opened up regarding the specific writing from his book that was widely circulated before his Apple departure. The book describes San Francisco Bay Area women as “soft and weak, cosseted and naive despite their claims of worldliness, and generally full of sh*t.”
"Good morning. I've got some great testimony to share with you today." Photo: Apple
You don’t get bigger witnesses when it comes to an Apple trial than Tim Cook. Cook, the 10-year CEO of Apple, will today take the stand in the ongoing court case pitting Apple against Fortnite maker Epic.
With the trial expected to end Monday, Cook’s Friday testimony will be a “One more thing” event as Apple’s lawyers attempt to dismantle Epic’s case (and vice versa on the part of Epic’s legal team).
Blue bubbles good. Green bubbles bad. Or something. Photo: Killian Bell's Peartree Productions/Cult of Mac
Considering that blue and green aren’t too far apart on the color spectrum, the difference between sending blue bubble messages and green bubble messages is pretty stark. The former, of course, means that the user is sending an iMessage, while the latter is a generic SMS, probably from an Android device.
For years, a certain segment of the population have mocked the green bubble crowd — with the gist being that a green bubble sender must have something wrong with them if they don’t own an iPhone. In a recent tweet, the CEO of a popular startup noted something else: That green bubble startup founders may have a tougher time landing investment.
“Unfortunate reality: if you don’t have iMessage, you are less likely to succeed at work,” Joshua Browder, the CEO of legal tech firm DoNotPay, tweeted this week. “The blue bubbles build trust!”
Apple once labelled the Apple TV a “hobby.” Now, six generations down the line, it’s proven it’s longevity as an interest for Apple. But is it the “must-have” streaming box the company has long promised?
With the review embargoes having lifted for the 2021 Apple TV 4K, it seems like Apple may have finally cracked the formula. And all it took were some neat upgrades and switching out that darn Siri Remote for something a whole lot better.
5G has been a killer feature in Japan. Photo: Apple
The iPhone 12 series has led a massive boom in smartphone shipments, particularly 5G models, in Japan.
According to a new report, Japan was the recipient of a 17% boost in smartphone shipments over the past 12 months. There was also a massive 40-fold increase in 5G handset shipments. Of the 5G smartphones, the iPhone 12 series made up almost half.