The United Kingdom is lucky enough to be one of just 10 markets that will be getting the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus next Friday, September 19 — the same day it goes on sale in the U.S. But not everyone in the U.K. who pre-ordered their new phone this morning will have it delivered on launch day; those in certain parts will be forced to wait.
Apple’s new iPhones went up for pre-order this morning, and for those who stayed up late to get their order in, it turned out to be a very long night. The vast majority had to wait until past 12:30 a.m. before the had any joy loading the Apple Online Store, and when it finally went live, many iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus options were “currently unavailable.”
Decision time: Which iPhone 6 is right for you? We’ll walk you though the features of both new iPhones to help you make that very decision in time for the Sept. 12th pre-order. Plus, will Apple Pay be replacing our wallets? We’ll tell you our thoughts and musings. And of course, the Apple Watch—we’ll review its features and reveal our initial impressions. And finally… he did it… Tim Cook brought back the One. More. Thing. Some of us are thrilled. Some of us aren’t. Hit play for all that and more.
Titter your way through each week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the chuckles begin.
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Hey, at least give Samsung credit for being quick off the mark.
Apple’s Tuesday keynote is only days old and already professional Apple spoofer Samsung has released a new series of ads skewering Cupertino’s latest developments — from its Apple Watch to its problematic live feed.
There are six ads in total, all designed to advertize the Galaxy Note 4, although barely any time is given to talking up Samsung’s own products, since the company clearly feels it’s better off trying to tear down its leading competitor.
According to sources in the Taiwan-based iPhone supply chain, Apple is preparing the parts and components to manufacture up to 80 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices before the end of 2014.
Barring unexpected component shortages or low yield rates (thought to have been responsible for Apple abandoning its use of sapphire for the iPhone 6-series devices), sources estimated that shipments of the iPhone 6 family will reach 10 million units by the end of September, with the remaining units shipping over the subsequent three months.
Two things strike me about the camera in the new iPhone 6 models. One is that you can take better pictures; the other is that the iPhone is now a much better place for viewing those pictures.
With their bigger, brighter screens — and iCloud’s new Photo Albums feature (which stores all your photos, ready to view, in iCloud) — the iPhone 6 and its larger sibling, the iPhone 6 Plus, are looking to be the best smartphones yet, from a photographic point of view.
With its latest iOS 8 beta, Apple added a bunch of gorgeous new wallpapers. Some of them appeared on stage during the company’s special event on Tuesday, and others can be seen on the its website decorating the home screens of the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus.
But you don’t need to wait until iOS 8 goes public next week to get your hands on them, because they’re all available to download right here.
One of the biggest disappointments from Apple’s announcements yesterday was the lack of a sapphire screen for the iPhone 6. A seemingly-neverending string of part leaks and rumors indicated that 2014 would be the year the iPhone got a nearly indestructible sapphire display cover.
And while sapphire is used for the Apple Watch’s display, Apple made no mention of sapphire for the iPhone 6 or 6 Plus.
What happened?
With all the livestream trouble Apple had during its iPhone 6 and Apple Watch unveiling, it’s likely you missed at least part of the big reveals.
Cult of Mac is here to help with this 90-second version of the Apple keynote that will show you all the most important highlights.
There’s tons more that Tim Cook and Co. announced but it’s impossible to cram it all into a minute and a half. Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to keep up-to-date with all the latest Apple news, reviews and more.
There are a lot of Apple skeptics out there. CNBC thinks the new iPhone 6 models are nothing special, and dis the Apple Watch because it doesn’t work with Android. Watch Cult of Mac editor and publisher Leander Kahney set them straight in the video above. See also our report card for Tim Cook’s first three years as CEO.
Apple is growing like wildfire in China, and Tim Cook expects the country to eventually overtake the US as his company’s largest market.
That’s why it’s a big deal that Apple has delayed the launch of its new iPhones in China. No explanation has been provided to carriers, although it’s suspected that there are still hurdles to overcome in gaining regulatory approval from the government.
The Apple Watch and iPhone 6 event yesterday in Cupertino may have been Apple’s most fashion-forward event ever. In addition to the usual schlubby tech journalists, there was Vogue editrix Anna Wintour leading a pack of fashionable scribes into the squat Flint Center as if it were a runway show in Paris or Milan.
It was Tommy Krul, however, who stole the show. He took the stage during the glitchy keynote to demo his company’s latest game Vainglory. Standing off to one side of the stage, his role was just to play the game on an iPhone 6 while co-founder Stephan Sherman of Super Evil Megacorp talked it up behind a huge video screen showing the action.
But Krul, the company’s CTO — sporting a chunky purple infinity scarf that brushed against a collar-length pageboy haircut — quickly became all anyone talked about.
Apple is going big with the iPhone this year. Two million photo-aligned pixels big!
The sight of Apple’s new mammoth iPhone 6 Plus might inspire a lot of witty genitalia jokes thanks to its 5.5-inch display, but Apple will be laughing all the way to the bank, as the iPhone 6 Plus has the potential to be Apple’s biggest seller of the year, and I’m not talking screen size.
Yes, the iPhone 6 Plus has display so huge you’ll need to buy an entirely new wardrobe to fit it in your clothes, but it also packs all-new features we weren’t expecting, some of which didn’t even make it onto the iPhone 6. Despite costing an extra $100, the iPhone 6 Plus is will hit shelves right as the phablet fad is booming, and its armed with features that make it not just bigger than the iPhone 6, but better too.
Here are eight reasons why the iPhone 6 Plus tops the iPhone 6:
For the second consecutive year, Apple has delivered not one but two new iPhones. Unlike the iPhone 5c, however, the slightly cheaper model this time around isn’t just an old iPhone inside a new shell. The iPhone 6 has the same A8 processor, the same Touch ID fingerprint scanner, and the same improved iSight camera as the iPhone 6 Plus.
So, is size the only difference, and how do you choose which model is right for you? Our in-depth comparison below will help you compare each device — spec for spec, feature for feature — and decide which one most deserves a place in your pocket for the next 12 months.
We love it when Apple live-streams its keynotes so that we can watch along with those lucky enough to have gotten an invite, but yesterday’s was nothing short of a disaster. It was down more than it was up, and it made Tim Cook and Phil Schiller sound like Chinese girls. But if you missed anything, you can now catch up on-demand and uninterrupted.
Apple Stores across the globe will have plenty of new big-ass iPhones on display tables in less than 10 days, but if you can’t wait to see how well the gigantic iPhone 6 Plus will fit in your hand, you can print out these printable scale models of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to get a feel for the device ahead of next week’s launch.
All you have to do is download the models here, print at 100% scale, cut them out, and you’ll be ready to create your own “hands-on” demo, no Flint Center invite required.
Here’s CultCast host Erfon Elijah taking his paper-thin iPhone 6 and 6 Plus out for a spin:
Dragging U2 onstage to end Apple’s big iPhone 6 event was more than a disappointing denouement to an otherwise solid piece of marketing theater: It was a tacit admission that the recorded music industry is gasping for its last breath.
During his peculiar onstage banter with Bono, Apple CEO Tim Cook called the iTunes-exclusive release of U2’s new album, Songs of Innocence, “the largest album release of all time.” He also crowed that dumping the record for free on iTunes’ half-billion users would make music history.
It did, but for all the wrong reasons.
CUPERTINO, Calif. — The iPhone 6 is about the only phone that can make your iPhone 5 look fat and schlumpy.
The first thing you notice when you get your hands on one is that the iPhone 6 is pleasing to the touch: The aluminum feels great, the screen is big, bright and beautiful. This is the total package, possibly the best smartphone ever made, and definitely the best in class. I’m not ashamed to say I tried to sneak out of Apple’s demo tent with one.
During today’s mega keynote, Tim Cook enthusiastically showed two new ads for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Both feature Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake narrating.
Apple has posted the new spots to its YouTube channel, and you can expect to start seeing them on TV tonight.
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus take everyone’s favorite smartphone to the next level. They are bigger, faster and thinner than their predecessors, with better battery life to boot.
In the videos below, you’ll get Cult of Mac leader Leander Kahney’s first hands-on impressions, straight and unfiltered from the demo room after Apple’s big press event in Cupertino, California.
Tim Cook and company brought down the house at the Flint Center in Cupertino, and while investors haven’t reacted positively, Apple fanboys are still trying to recover from the hurricane of incredible new products Apple just announced.
The Apple Watch, big iPhones, Apple Pay and even some new software features were previewed at Apple’s first fashion-forward event. But there were a couple of disappointments hiding in the dark corners of the Flint Center as well. Like, where was the talk about the Apple Watch’s battery life? And why is there no sapphire glass on the iPhone 6?
Here are the biggest disappointments from today’s Apple keynote:
The new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have bigger screens, badder cameras and you can use them in place of your wallet.
Apple just took the wraps off Apple Pay, its much-rumored mobile payments service. CEO Tim Cook is so excited about it that he looped the demo over and over during the keynote. It’s being touted as an “easy, secure and private” way to get your caffe latte on the run.
One thing’s for sure: this is a massive shift in the payments industry.
As expected, the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus offer more screen space, with 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens respectively.
The exciting thing?
Apple has pulled off a major engineering miracle: they’re also thinner, faster and smarter than their older cousins — and you don’t have to be richer to get your hands on one. You’ll also be able to use these phones as wallets and health trackers, marking a huge advance in how smart our phones really are.
When Tim Cook started off the keynote by saying “Today, we are pleased to announce the biggest advancement in iPhone,” we were slightly wary of the hyperbole as journalists should be. But after getting a good look at the two new iPhones, we couldn’t agree with him more.
Today Apple unveils the iPhone 6 and mythical iWatch, and Cult of Mac is on the ground in Cupertino, enthusiastically reporting all the action from The Flint Center. Leander will be at the event, elbowing his way to the front of the line for the keynote and hands-on sessions.
This liveblog post is where we’ll cover all the announcements and festivities in Cupertino. We’ll have full updates, analysis and entertainment—everything you could possibly want to know about Apple’s newest, most magical devices.
The event kicks off at 10 a.m. Pacific, but we’ll be firing up the liveblog hours before to give you details from ground zero. What mysteries await us inside Apple’s mysterious white box? You’ll have to come back and find out.
Apple is widely rumored to unveil a new NFC-based mobile payments service tied into the iPhone and iWatch later today.
But there’s a problem. In the aftermath of the Fappening, the massive iCloud breach that leaked nude and pornographic images of Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton and more, it’s bad timing. Apple’s name is synonymous in the news with security breaches right now. People may not want to trust the company with their financial data if Apple can’t even protect the nudes of celebrities.
So maybe Apple shouldn’t push payments during today’s big event. Or at least not at first. Maybe Tim Cook should apologize instead.