Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems ... and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
Monica Lozano, the president and CEO of College Futures Foundation, has joined Apple’s board of directors. Lozano is also on the boards of Target and Bank of America Corporation.
The best looking game on iPad just got better. Photo: TipWorks/Giant Network
Want to take iPadOS 14’s keyboard and mouse support for a gaming spin? Pascal’s Wager has you covered.
The dark fantasy action RPG, showcased at Apple’s 2019 iPhone event, is reportedly the first iPad game to benefit from this treatment. Apple said it would bring keyboard and mouse support to iOS devices at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
It's not clear when Apple Stores in the UK will open again. Photo: Richard Shrum for Cult of Mac
Apple temporarily closed all its brick-and-mortar stores in the United Kingdom on Tuesday as a result of new COVID-19 lockdown measures imposed by the government.
Twenty of the 38 U.K. Apple stores were already closed due to coronavirus. However, new national lockdown measures that came into place Tuesday shuttered the other 18.
Could this be the Mac setup of tomorrow? Photo: Dominik Hofacker
A designer’s radical new concept shows what future Macs could look like if augmented reality glasses replaced the computers’ physical screens.
Dominik Hofacker, a 24-year-old designer who just landed a job at Facebook, calls his well-thought-out virtual Mac concept “macOS reality.”
“With AR glasses on the verge of release, and eventually replacing our smartphones for almost all tasks, I asked myself, ‘How does productivity look like in the future?'” he told Cult of Mac. “GlassOS that runs on Apple Glasses is one thing, but nobody has ever thought about the next generation of Macs.”
The Byton M-Byte was publicly unveiled at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show. Photo: Alexander Migl/Wiki CC
Foxconn, Apple’s largest supplier, looks to be getting in on the electric vehicle business. According to a Monday report from Bloomberg, the Taiwanese manufacturer is in talks to invest in Chinese EV startup Byton.
Foxconn reportedly plans to invest around $200 million in the company to begin mass-manufacturing the anticipated Byton M-Byte car by Q1 2022. An announcement could come as early as today.
No, it's not the drug-promoting nightmare app Apple feared. Photo: Amphetamine
A Mac app that raised Apple’s ire with its drug-referencing name won’t be pulled from the Mac App Store, its developer says.
Apple reportedly threatened to remove utility app Amphetamine, which stops your Mac from going to sleep. The reason? Violating rule 1.4.3 of the App Store guidelines, which prohibits apps relating to “consumption of tobacco and vape products, illegal drugs, or excessive amounts of alcohol.”
Tim Cook meeting with a worker in the supply chain. Photo: Apple
Apple can reportedly drag its feet when removing repeat labor violation offenders from its supply chain, a new report from The Information claims.
Cupertino supposedly postpones taking action when it has no other companies lined up to pick up the slack, or in other scenarios that would cause financial damage due to delays or higher costs.
Brave is a speedy browser with a focus on privacy. Photo: Brave
Brave, a privacy-oriented, Chromium-based web browser, has been updated to add native Apple Silicon support for first-gen M1 Macs.
Brave’s big claim to fame is that it blocks ads and website trackers by default. It also lets users compensate creators by sending them cryptocurrency contributions, called Basic Attention Tokens.
The App Store in China had its biggest single-day removal of apps ever — with a massive 39,000 games given the boot by Apple on Thursday alone. This is as a result of Chinese laws stating that all game publishers must obtain a special license in order to distribute their titles.
According to research firm Qimai, only 74 of the top 1,500 games in the App Store survived the massive app bloodbath. Major titles that vanished included the likes of Assassin’s Creed Identity and NBA 2K20.
For many people, Christmas was a bit more of a subdued affair in 2020 than in other years. But things were far from subdued in the App Store. According to new figures published by Sensor Tower, spending on mobile apps hit a big high point on Christmas Day in Europe.
The iOS App Store accounted for 60% of total app spending, adding up to almost $32.7 million on Christmas Day alone. That’s a massive 39% increase year-over-year. Android, by comparison, rose 17.4% year-over-year to hit $22 million on December 25.
It's not quite a New Year party, but it's not bad. Photo: Apple
For obvious reasons, New Year’s Eve plans aren’t quite what they normally are in 2020. But thanks to a new Apple Pay offer, at least you can get 20% off a food delivery from Grubhub.
Provided that you pay using Apple’s payment platform, that is.
Bidding farewell to a terrible year! Photo: Nintendo
Mario Kart Tour is so over 2020, and ready to take on the nothing-can-possibly-go-wrong utopia that is 2021.
With that subtext, the popular Nintendo racing game has released its last update of the year, kicking off the New Year’s 2021 Tour. This tour, which runs through January 12 or 13 (timezone depending), features a plethora of new tracks.
MacBooks are in for a good year in 2021. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
It’s more than 10 years since technology writer Nicholas Carr proclaimed the personal computer dead. But don’t tell Apple — since a new report claims that global MacBook shipments are set to skyrocket next year.
According to data from Finaria, global MacBook shipments are expected to hit 17.1 million units in 2021. That’s a 10% year-on-year increase. The firm claims that global MacBook shipments are likely to hit 15.5 million units this year, a 23% leap during the coronavirus pandemic.
No longer to be found in the App Store. Photo: Vybe Together
Apple has booted an app from the App Store accused of helping promote secret indoor parties during COVID-19 lockdowns.
The Vybe Together app was connected with a TikTok account (also removed) that promoted New York-area parties. While its creators claim that they weren’t encouraging law-breaking behavior, clearly both Apple and TikTok disagreed.
Lens Technology, a Chinese company that makes glass for the iPhone, has allegedly made use of Uighur Muslim forced labor, according to a Tuesday report in The Washington Post.
Documents about the use of alleged forced labor were discovered by the Tech Transparency Project. The research organization detailed how “thousands of Uighur workers from the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang were sent to work for Lens Technology.”
Apple had a gold-plated holiday season. Photo: Apple
It’s been a great, record-busting year for mobile apps — and, unsurprisingly, that translated to a strong Christmas as well.
According to app analytics platform Sensor Tower, customers spent a total of $407.6 million across both the iOS App Store and Google Play over Christmas. This represents a massive 34.5% increase from the $303 million spent this time last year.
Of that, the App Store represented 68.4% of all spending — or $278.6 million in total.
The Apple Watch has come a long way since its early days. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
A Twitter user by the name of @AppleDemoYT has posted images online they claim to be an early Apple Watch prototype, built as part of the pre-production process before Apple introduced the device in 2015.
Such prototypes are very rare, with Apple preferring not to show images that shed light on how it develops products. Somehow this one made it out in one piece — provided it’s legitimate, of course.
Mariah's Christmas special was supposedly a big hit for Apple. Photo: Apple TV+
Apple might make a Mariah Carey Christmas special a regular part of the Apple TV+ holiday slate. A new report suggests Apple and the superstar songstress are already in talks about a 2021 follow-up to the surprisingly popular Mariah Carey’s Magical Christmas Special.
Netflix could spend an estimated $19.03 billion on video content in 2021, data presented by investment bank Bankr suggests.
That would be an increase of 10% from the estimated $17.3 billion it spent this year. It’s also a massive ramp-up from the $2.4 billion Netflix spent in 2013 when it started moving into original productions with shows like House of Cards.
Festive cheer sold separately. Photo: Luke Dormeh/Cult of Mac
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through Apple Park
All the shutters were drawn and the offices dark.
The lunchroom was empty, the desks were all clean
All were working from home due to COVID-19.
"Look what you did, you little Cherk!" Photo: Apple TV+
Among other things, Apple is known for its clear messaging and high level of quality control. Which is why it was slightly strange when a poster for upcoming Apple TV+ movie Cherry failed totally on both these counts. It featured an all-but-illegible title on its “For Your Consideration” campaign poster for Best Picture.
Don’t worry, though. The flick hasn’t been renamed CHERk, 0HER88 or 8HERK in post-production. Nor is this terrible typeface a marketing stunt. Instead, it seems that trade publication Variety just shared the wrong version of the poster.
Apple has significant resources it could use to build an autonomous car. Illustration: Cult of Mac/Wikipedia CC
Volkswagen Chairman of the Board Herbert Diess says he’s excited to see what Apple’s “virtually unlimited” means and resources will mean for the auto industry.
In a German-language post on LinkedIn, Diess wrote: