WaterField's Tech Rolltop mixes good looks and utility. Photo: WaterField Designs
I love rolltop backpacks, both for their flexibility and because they keep the rain out. WaterField Designs’ new Tech Rolltop is a cool-looking waxed-canvas bag, with some typically smart WaterField details.
The new Buchla Thunder layout for the Sensel Morph. Photo: Sensel
The Sensel Morph is a different kind of “keyboard” for the iPad or Mac. It’s a pressure-sensitive panel onto which you can slap various silicone overlays, turning it from a QWERTY keyboard into a piano, a movie-editing controller or many other specialized interfaces.
It’s a customizable, wildly imaginative input device designed for musicians, video editors, illustrators, writers and other creative types.
Sound Check evens out the volume of Apple Music songs. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
The song you’re listening to on your iPhone is a bit too quiet, so you adjust the volume. Perfect. Then the song ends, and the next one blasts your ears. You fumble your iPhone from your pocket and tap the volume down a notch or two.
Thanks, Apple Music. Why can’t you just play all the songs at the same volume? Obviously that’s what everyone wants.
European Commission could get even tougher on tech in 2020 Image: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Wall Street received surprisingly better-than-expected news from Apple’s Q2 2019 earnings report today — and the stock is soaring in after-hours trading.
iPhone sales remain down, but pretty much every other facet of the company’s business is firing on all cylinders. Customers are falling in love with the iPad all over again. Services are booming. And Apple’s wearables business is now the size of a Fortune 200 company.
Despite plenty of doom and gloom from analysts over the last 12 months, Apple’s future is looking bright again.
Even if you don't need all the power of this iPad Pro, you can still save loads of cash. Photo: Apple
Amazon is serving up sweet deals on iPads right now. You can grab the latest entry-level model for just $249. Or, if you can’t put that sweet 11-inch iPad Pro out of your mind, you can make the purchase price a lot less painful with today’s $300 discounts.
Also in today’s Deals & Steals roundup: Inexpensive HomeKit-compatible light bulbs and amazing deals on wireless chargers and USB-C cables!
The Apple TV app gets a raft of new features in iOS 12.3. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Apple seeded the fourth beta of iOS 12.3 to developers this morning, just one week after the last beta was released. iOS 12.3 beta 4 brings with it a number of changes for iPhone and iPad, including changes to the Apple TV app, Wallet app tweaks and tons of bug fixes.
Update: The public can now also download iOS 12.3 beta 4, allowing anyone to test out the new features.
Who wouldn't want their iPad experience to be a bit Mightier? Photo: Feureau/Wikipedia CC
Among its other new features, iOS 13 could bring USB-C mouse support to the iPad, a new report claims.
The rumor comes courtesy of MacStories editor Federico Viticci, who revealed it on the latest episode of his podcast. While he didn’t (unsurprisingly) single out names, he mentioned that he had heard it from a “couple of people.”
Turning a tablet into an external display for your laptop isn't totally unheard of, but Slope makes it look oh so good. Photo: Wiplabs
Slope, a beautifully designed minimalist tablet stand, transforms your iPad into a second Mac screen or even a mini iMac.
Whether you’re pairing iPad with Apple Pencil, Smart Keyboard, or using it as an external display for MacBook or iMac, Slope positions and displays your tablet with utmost style and security.
It’s the perfect way to integrate your new iPad Pro into your desktop setup and Apple ecosystem. This is especially significant with the rumored macOS 10.15 update, code-named “Sidecar,” enabling an iPad to act as a second screen for running macOS software.
A perfect music-making combo. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
At first glance, the decade-old OP-1 synthesizer from Swedish musical instrument makers Teenage Engineering looks about as standalone as it gets.
The tiny device couples a short, piano-style keyboard with a screen. And it contains a drum machine, several synthesizers, a sampler, a handful of sequencers, a virtual four-track tape recorder and even an FM radio. You can create entire tracks on it with no other gear, or you can hook it up to electric guitars and microphones and bring the outside world in.
But it also pairs surprisingly well with an iPad. You can record audio back and forth, but things go much deeper than that. You also can use the OP-1’s hardware keyboard to play instruments on the iPad, and use iPad MIDI apps to control the synthesizers on the OP-1.
Making music with an iPad and a synth
If you own both pieces of gear already, hopefully this how-to will give you some new ideas about making music with an iPad. But if you only own an iPad, this in-depth article will provide tips for using your tablet with other music gear.
And if you know nothing about the OP-1, or about Teenage Engineering’s work in general, you’ll learn why the company is kind of the Apple of the synth world. Teenage Engineering is known for its incredible interface design — and for having a quirky personality similar to 1984-era Apple, when the brand-new Mac was making waves.
Cult of Mac offers real cash for your old Apple devices, and we typically pay more than anyone else. What’s more, it’s incredibly quick and simple, and we will even buy back battered tech in need of repair.
iPhone 11 will do little to reverse falling shipments. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Huawei says it has had no contact with Apple regarding the supply of 5G chips for a future iPhone lineup.
The Chinese smartphone-maker has previously stated it would be willing to work with its rival on a 5G iPhone. However, Apple has not been in touch — despite its struggle to obtain chips elsewhere.
Rotating advertiser IDs make a lot of sense. Photo: Apple
Mozilla, the company behind Firefox, is calling for Apple to boost user privacy on iOS by introducing rotating advertiser IDs.
Most iPhone and iPad users don’t know that they can block access to their unique ID, Mozilla says. Regularly rotating IDs would make it harder for companies “to build profiles of us over time.”
Sign the petition to pressure Apple into making a change today.
Apple's market share climbed 4% last quarter. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
iOS 13 will bring big improvements and a whole bunch of new features to iPhone and iPad users this fall.
Many of the changes have been spilled in a new report that cites people familiar with the update. You can look forward to a real dark mode, better multitasking, a font manager, and more.
Apple's first 5nm chips are expected to ship in iPhone and iPad this year. Photo: iFixit
Apple chip-maker TSMC is almost ready to start mass-producing next-generation A13 chips for this year’s new iPhone lineup.
The A13 will employ an “enhanced version” of TSMC’s N7+ fabrication process, according to a new report. It is likely to be Apple’s last 7-nanometer chip following the launch of TSMC’s new 5nm foundry at the Southern Taiwan Science Park.
How low can you go? Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
The quick answer is “Yes, of course you should.” The more complex answer is “But only if you need it.” Your iPhone has an equalizer built in, although it’s not exactly easy to find. Annoyingly-hidden-yet-essential interface elements aside, there’s usually not much point in tweaking the EQ of your Apple Music library unless you have a problem in your setup.
The crime went unnoticed for several years. Photo: Jim Merithew
There have, unfortunately, been plenty of scams involving stolen or misappropriated Apple products due to their high resale value.
However, few clock up the kind of quantities revealed in a report about a five-year scam. It involved an accounting manager for a software company. Over several years, Nadia Minetto spent upward of $6 million on iPhones and iPads using a company credit card. These Apple devices were then sold, before Minetto was ultimately caught.
Apple’s efforts to make the iPad as thin as possible mean that their fragile aluminum frames have been known to bend easily. But the new iPad mini holds up surprisingly well in a brutal bend test.
Unlike its larger siblings, the fifth-generation slate remains perfectly intact when shaped to look like a banana.
Your new iPad pro has some neat tricks up its sleeves. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Are you thinking of switching from the Mac to the iPad? Maybe you’re sick of your MacBook’s glitchy keyboard, or you would prefer to be able to remove the keyboard altogether when you don’t want it, and use touch instead?
Or perhaps you’re tempted by the cheaper pro apps on iOS, or the portability, or you just can’t see the point of a 27-inch iMac on your desk when all you do is read and write.
Whatever your excuse, switching from macOS to iOS is easier than ever. Thanks to iCloud, and a host of great apps and accessories, switching can be almost seamless. Let’s see what you need.
Wait a second, that doesn't look like Apple branding! Photo: ipadtoday
Apple has emerged triumphant in a seven-year legal battle with the company RXD Media over who owns the name “iPad.”
RXD had claimed that it owned the rights to the name based on its ipad.mobi platform, which launched two years before Apple debuted the iPad. The resolution to the case, which backs up a 2018 trademark hearing, finally brings an end to the saga.
Apple’s entire line of products are on full display in the company’s brilliant new ad that also features a patented Apple pizza box.
The new video, which clocks in at just over three minutes long, shows a team of low-level corporate workers using Macs, iPads, iPhones and Apple Watch to execute a moonshot idea that could get them the promotions they’ve been dreaming off. Apple’s software shines just as bright as the hardware while the team races to finish their project ahead of schedule.
Pixelmator’s new photo editing app will finally arrive on iPad next week.
Pixelmator Photo offers a collection of nondestructive, desktop-class editing tools with RAW photo support. It also boasts artificial intelligence that makes adjusting things like white balance, exposure, and color a breeze.
The easiest way to create local backups. Image: DigiDNA
Backing up your devices can save you a world of pain when things go wrong. And yet, so many people still don’t back up on a regular basis. If you’re one of them, you should change that for World Backup Day 2019 on March 31.
World Backup Day encourages everyone to back up their most important data. To make it as simple and as cheap as possible for you, we’re giving away ten copies of the excellent iMazing app for Mac and PC. It’s the best way to create local backups that prevent your precious memories from getting lost.
It’s been about 1.5 years since Apple titillated fans by revealing a wireless charging mat that supposedly would charge not one, not two, but three Apple devices at the same time.
Frankly, it looked too good to be true at the time. And after a year of avoiding the subject, Apple confirmed today that AirPower will never caress the backside of your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods at the same time.
This is an unofficial guide to why AirPower failed.
Audio and USB, together again. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Did you know that you can send the audio from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac via the Lightning cable? That audio stays in pristine digital ones and zeros, and can be recorded (or otherwise used) anywhere you can edit audio on your Mac.
For musicians, this turns your iPad and all its music apps into a plugin for your Mac. And for anyone else, it could just be a neat way to route audio into your Mac’s speakers. The feature is called iDAM, and it’s built into your Apple devices. Oh, and it works with MIDI too.