Mac - page 20

Awesome Apps is a new series highlighting the best apps around. We will feature our favorite apps as well as new and notable ones. Apps are transformative, and these are the best.

I’ve spent years searching the App Store for the best email app – and in doing so, I’ve tried them all. Spark is my favorite because it equips users with accessible power features, which make wrangling email on iOS, iPadOS and macOS as easy as ABC.

When friends of mine bemoan the limitations of Apple’s built-in Mail app, I point them to Spark, from Ukrainian developer Readdle. Spark is by no means a new addition to the App Store. But over the years, the developer added a strong set of features – many of which found their way into other email clients for iPhone, iPad and Mac.

The first three months of 2022 were good to Apple, with revenue setting a quarterly record. But the company warned on Thursday that problems getting components and assembling products will take a nasty chunk out of revenue for the current quarter. The hit will to be between $4 billion and $8 billion.

But there’s also plenty of good news in from the conference call CEO Tim Cook had with investors after Apple’s March quarter results were announced.

Wall Street analysts harbor modest hopes for Apple’s most-recent financial quarter. They predict the company saw its revenue rise by 5% versus the same quarter of 2021.

The iPhone-maker will announce the results of the January-through-March period ahead of Thursday’s quarterly earnings call. Investors will be looking closely to see how the company is managing the ongoing chip shortage, COVID-19 lockdowns at assembly plants, inflation and other challenges.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: It sounds like Apple is planning nearly a dozen new Macs with a next-gen M2 processor. The question is, just how big of a speed bump will that new chip bring? And then there’s iPhone 14, which sounds like it might come with a very big bump indeed — and not the kind you might be hoping for.

Also on The CultCast:

• The original HomePod never ceases to surprise.
• iPhone 14 could be the ultimate smartphone for narcissists.
• Apple might be prepping an ingenious hybrid device to take over your living room.
• When you’re tired of wearing earbuds, you’ve got options. Very strange options.

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like what you hear.) Or watch the video livestream, embedded below.

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Apple will increase the number of countries where it does an important phase in developing products, according to a industry analyst. Currently, its R&D-oriented New Product Introduction (NPI) sites are in China, but the company plans to build NPI offices in other places as well.

Recent COVID shutdowns — which have disrupted several recent products — are supposedly the reason for the change.

Mac shipments grew 4.3% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2022. But its biggest rivals dropped — HP shipments plunged almost 18%, for example.

The pandemic boom in computer sales is slowing, but it’s affecting Apple less.

There’s one thing you don’t do if you’re on Microsoft’s social media team, and that’s promote Apple products. It seems at least one person forgot that last week when they posted a tweet featuring an image of the M1 iMac.

The post, which was removed after a few hours, was about cleaning Windows machines “safely and smoothly.” Microsoft should know better than anyone that it’s not even possible to run Windows natively on M1 Mac models.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: So, what’ll it be first? Good news or bad news about iPhone 14? We’re talking about Touch ID, a possible Apple hardware subscription service and an even bigger camera bump on the Pro model. Hoo boy!

Also on The CultCast:

• A peek inside Apple’s new Studio Display proves surprising.
• Would a 15-inch MacBook Air by any other name smell as sweet?
• The EU might wreck iMessage.
• We’re giving away five leather crossbody iPhone cases from Noémie.
• What “The Slap” heard ’round the world says about Apple events.

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast 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 livestream, embedded below.

This week’s episode is brought to you by CultCloth. Forget about that overpriced Apple Polishing Cloth. This is the cleaning cloth your Apple devices deserve.

iTunes has become a slow and bloated mess over the years — which is why it no longer exists on Mac. But for those who are stuck with Windows, suffering iTunes is necessary if you want to enjoy Apple Music. Or is it?

There are other ways to take advantage of your Apple Music subscription on third-party machines. You could use the web app in a browser of your choice, or you could download Cider, a new and far greater iTunes alternative.

Cider, which is also available on Mac if you aren’t happy with the default Music app, offers a clean and simple user interface and almost all of the features we’ve come to expect from Apple’s streaming service — plus extras.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: The first Mac Studio benchmarks make Apple’s much-ballyhooed M1 Ultra chip sound less amazing than we hoped. Maybe it’s not the unhinged beast we expected! But then, what do benchmarks really mean, anyway?

Also on The CultCast:

• The new Studio Display suffers due to some odd choices on Apple’s part.
• A software update might fix Studio Display’s tragic webcam.
• A 15-inch MacBook Air would tick a lot of the right boxes.
• And finally, a giveaway for the ladies!

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast 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 livestream, embedded below.

This week’s sponsor is JAMF, an Apple device-management solution that gives individuals and businesses the tools they need to wrangle iPhones, Macs, iPads and more. Register with JAMF now to manage three devices for free.

Apple might soon give customers the option to get a Mac or other device with monthly fees, rather than paying the full cost up front. The company is working on a hardware subscription service, according to a reliable source.

Software subscriptions are common, but hardware is a different business. Even so, Apple has already dipped its toe into this market.

A growing number of Mac users are reporting issues with external monitors and game controllers after updating to macOS Monterey 12.3.

Some say their Mac no longer detects connected displays at all, while others are frustrated that their Xbox, PlayStation, and other third-party gamepads are not functioning over Bluetooth — even when the controller is connected.

What makes people start collecting vintage Macs? There are many reasons. Some folks want to play abandoned games or use old software on original hardware. Some simply don’t know how to transfer files, and thus keep their old machines as a giant backup, just in case.

I collect old Macs because I care deeply about history. I want to have an informed perspective on the past so I can better understand trends of user-interface design and the evolution of technology.

My first vintage computer was a Macintosh Classic I bought on eBay for about $80. After lifting it out of its shipping box, I reached around the back to flip on the power switch and watch it boot. I loved hearing the whir of the hard drive, the fans humming and the delightful blip!-blip!-blip! noise the disk drive made when reading a floppy.

Apple computers are highly collectible. They span the entire history of personal computing. The company’s unwavering design philosophy, always pushing ease of use, means even the oldest and weirdest Apple computers are never hard to figure out. The historical lineup spans all different kinds of form factors and designs. Not to mention, they look rad.

So, you want to collect old Apple computers, too? Where do you start, and what do you want? Here’s a quick guide to buying classic Macs. These tips should get you started and help you avoid common pitfalls. (If you want to go even deeper, we also provide some links to further reading on the subject.)

Ukrainian developer MacPaw today released SpyBuster, a new (and completely free!) Mac app that identifies software built by and reporting to “undesirable countries of origin” — such as Russia and Belarus.

SpyBuster also lets you block those connections so that you can prevent additional data being sent to overseas servers, where it may not be protected by the same privacy laws that we’re accustomed to in other countries.

Studio Display’s surprisingly powerful internals allow it to enable “Hey Siri” on a number of older Mac models that don’t usually support the feature — including the 2019 Mac Pro and several Mac mini variants.

Users also discovered that Studio Display has a surprisingly large (64GB) amount of internal storage. We already knew that it runs the same version of iOS 15.4 as iPhone, but still, all that space seems pretty overkill.

The Mac Studio looks just a bit… off. It’s the three front-facing ports. They aren‘t arranged like they should be. The SD card slot makes a horizontal line, but the two USB-C ports are vertical.

It’s an unusual miss for a company that’s typically obsessed with tiny design details.

Apple’s new Mac Studio, Studio Display, iPad Air and iPhone SE officially go on sale today. That means customers who preordered early (before shipping dates slipped) are beginning to receive the first deliveries around the world.

If you, like me, are disappointed not to be reveling in the same delight as they are, here are a whole bunch of photos that highlight what we’re missing out on.

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The powerful Mac Studio desktop first reaches customers on Friday, but the initial reviews are out to answer any lingering questions about Apple’s latest macOS desktop.

This is supposed to be Apple’s new mid-range desktop, but hands-on tests show it beats the 2019 Mac Pro hands down.

The Mac Studio is scheduled to start reaching customers on March 18. But a fortunate Frenchman got his Tuesday, three days early!

Seems a store in France missed the note from Apple about not shipping until later in the week.

Russia is considering nationalizing the assets of companies like Apple that pulled out of the country in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s leader, reportedly endorsed the plan on Thursday. The Mac-maker is just one of hundreds of companies that could be affected, but it’s a prominent one.

It’s not known how much inventory Apple left behind after it pulled out of Russia on March 1.

In 2010, Steve Jobs proudly proclaimed Apple had become a “mobile device company.” Tim Cook went further, dismissing anything that wasn’t a mobile device as a “hobby project.” It sounded like the Mac’s days were numbered. At Cult of Mac, we even ran a story on how to replace your Mac with an iPad.

How things have changed. With Tuesday’s launch of the Mac Studio, Apple completed the best Mac lineup we’ve seen in more than a decade. The new M1 Ultra chip offers unprecedented desktop performance. And longtime Mac fans will welcome the return of Apple’s Studio Display monitors.

The Mac is most definitely back. So what happened? Why did Cupertino fall out of love with the Mac, and what prompted the change of heart?

Configure the new Mac Studio with a super-fast M1 Ultra processor and the weight goes up a full 2 pounds. Weight doesn’t matter for a desktop, but people have been curious what about where all the extra comes from.

Apple has an answer. And it all comes down to heat and heavy metal.

It requires a lot of bandwidth to drive the super-sharp 5K screen in Apple’s new Studio Display, and some devices just don’t cut it. Those hoping to use one with iPad Air will be disappointed to learn that a big upgrade is necessary.

Studio Display is only compatible with the fifth-generation iPad Air, announced during Apple’s big Peek Performance event on Tuesday. The fourth-generation model, released in October 2020, is left out in the cold — like iPad mini.

When CEO Tim Cook left the stage at the end of Apple’s “Peek Performance” event, he took the hopes of many MacBook and iMac users with him. Because there was just one Mac introduced Tuesday, the Mac Studio.

But some of the computers not announced are still expected to launch. Just not now.  Here are the Macs we didn’t get, and which ones to look for from Apple in the coming months.