Are you still excited by PCs? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
As a pioneer of personal computing, Apple’s first machines changed the way we looked at computers. In the years that followed, the company broke new ground with incredible innovations that its rivals couldn’t have dreamed of.
Things have been a little different over the past decade or so. Apple’s innovations haven’t been quite as forthcoming, and while some would say its rivals are catching up, others would argue that the PC industry as a whole has become somewhat boring.
So, why has personal computing gone stagnant? Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we battle it out!
Safari will be kinder to MacBook Pro battery life. Photo: Apple
A Safari Technology Preview rolled out this week brings changes that make battery life even better on the MacBook Pro.
Release 23 of Apple’s web browser is better at switching between GPUs for WebGL content, which means your MacBook’s dedicated graphics chip carries out less work.
Beware bogus Word macros. Screenshot: Patrick Wardle.
After spreading viruses among Windows PCs for years, malicious Microsoft Word documents are now infecting Macs.
The files contain a macro that silently executes in the background and downloads an application that can monitor webcams, steal passwords, read browser history and more.
All Office users will be able to enjoy it soon. Photo: Microsoft
Microsoft has started testing support for the MacBook Pro’s new Touch Bar in Office. Preview testers can enjoy it in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook starting this week — and it’s scheduled to rollout to everyone in the coming months.
Will 2017 be a big year for Apple? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple impressed us all with its Q1 2017 earnings earlier this week. Is it the start of something spectacular?
iPhone sales beat expectations, and though things may look bad for the iPad business, there’s strong demand for Apple Watch, the Mac lineup is raking in more than ever, and services will be big enough to be its own Fortune 100 company by the end of the year.
Is Apple headed for another boom period? Or does it need more than just the iPhone 8 in 2017 to keep up this trend? Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we battle it out over Apple’s year ahead.
The new MacBook Pro already uses a secondary ARM chip. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple is developing a custom ARM chip for future Macs, but it won’t replace the Intel processors that have been powering its computers since 2005, according to a new report.
Instead, the chip is expected to work alongside a machine’s primary CPU, handling “low-power mode functionality.”
There was good news all around as iPhone sales, services and even the Mac all performed better than predicted. During today’s earnings call, Tim Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri revealed some of the secret sauce that made Apple’s earnings one for the history books.
Apple may be more of a smartphone company these days, but its legacy product, the personal computer, continues to be popular.
In an upbeat Q1 earnings report with investors Tuesday, Apple said it sold 5.4 million Macs en route to an all-time quarterly revenue record of $78.4 billion dollars.
The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus helped Apple reverse a three-quarter sales decline. Photo: Apple
The number 7 was lucky for Apple, as worldwide sales of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus hit a quarterly record and put the breaks on a three-quarter revenue skid, the company said in today’s first quarter earnings report.
Apple saw a 5 percent revenue increase ($54.3 million) with more than 78 million iPhones sold. It was the first full quarter of the iPhone 7, delivered during a time of year that typically generates the best sales figures for Apple because of the holiday shopping season.
Get ready for Apple's most exciting earnings call of 2017. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple is set to reveal its first quarterly earnings report of 2017 and, if Wall Street’s estimates are any indicator, it could be Apple’s biggest quarter ever.
After multiple quarters of declining revenues, today’s call could see the company return to growth, lifted by strong iPhone sales over the holidays and a burgeoning services business that has quickly become Apple’s second-biggest moneymaker.
Tim Cook and Luca Maestri are scheduled to hold an open call with investors today at 2 p.m. Pacific. As usual, Cult of Mac will be here liveblogging and analyzing all the action. Get prepped for the call with our guide on what to expect, and join the fun in the liveblog below.
AAPL was up almost 3 percent in after-hours trading to $124.50. Apple stock has been climbing recently but was depressed in anticipation of today’s results.
Tim Cook is thrilled with Apple's Q1 2017 results. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple sold more iPhone units than ever before last quarter, a spasm of sales that finally returned the company to growth, as revealed today in Cupertino’s first earnings report of 2017.
With total revenues of $78.4 billion bringing in a profit of $17.9 billion, Apple CEO Tim Cook said he is “thrilled” with the results. Wall Street is happy, too: AAPL shares are trading up significantly in after-hours trading.
SiriKit is one of the biggest features in watchOS 3.2. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The first beta build of watchOS 3.2 has finally been made available to developers today, less than a week after iOS 10.3 beta 1 and macOS 10.12.4 beta 1 came out.
Among the new features in watchOS 3.2 beta 1 is a new Theater Mode that makes wearing an Apple Watch in movie theaters a little less annoying for fellow film watchers.
Satechi's Power Meter makes it easier to trust USB-C. Photo: Satechi
Satechi hopes to prevent dodgy USB-C accessories from causing damage to your MacBook with its new USB-C Power Meter, which shows you exactly how much power is being pulled from and passed into your machine in real-time.
Surface Studio is a Windows all-in-one that finally gives the iMac a run for its money. Photo: Microsoft
Microsoft’s decision to wage a new war against Macs with premium Windows PCs is paying off, the company says. Thanks to high-end devices like the Surface Book and Surface Studio, Microsoft managed to steal market share from Apple last quarter.
Grab iOS 10.3 beta 1 while it's hot. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Starting today, all public testers can get in on the new iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.12.4 betas released to developers earlier this week.
If you’re already a member of the Apple Beta Software Program, you can grab iOS 10.3 beta 1 and macOS 10.12.4 beta 1 immediately. If not, just sign up if you want to get early access to upcoming iOS features like Find My AirPods and the new Night Shift mode for Macs.
Quadro does more than the Touch Bar, and works with Windows, too. Photo: Quadro
You don’t have to break the bank on a new MacBook Pro to get Touch Bar functionality. Thanks to an app called Quadro, you can add a super-powered Touch Bar with even more features than the real thing to any Mac or Windows PC.
Wine just got a whole lot better. Photo: Cult of Mac
Wine, the app that lets you run Windows programs inside macOS, just got a massive update that brings a whopping 6,600 changes — including support for 64-bit applications (finally!) and high-resolution Retina displays.
Setapp is like Netflix for Mac apps. Photo: MacPaw
The way Mac users get apps is about to become a lot more like Netflix, thanks to a service launching today called Setapp.
Created by the folks at MacPaw, Setapp is a new app subscription service that provides Mac users with an alternative way to try and buy apps instead of going through the Mac App Store.
Its not filled with loads of crap either. Top apps like Ulysses, Blogo, CleanMyMac, iMazing, Pixa, Polarr and Flume are all included. Instead of buying apps individually though, Setapp lets users pay a flat fee for access to hundreds of popular apps.
You'll soon be able to turn off app review requests. Photo: Apple
Apple is planning to make big changes to the way iOS and Mac users leave reviews for developers.
With the release of iOS 10.3 beta 1 and macOS 10.12.4 beta 1 this morning, Apple introduced two highly requested features for the developer community: a standardized method to ask for reviews, and a way for developers to reply to individual reviews.
Can you think of anything more important to Apple? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The iPhone celebrated its tenth anniversary this week, and it’s hard to imagine where Apple would be today without it. It is by far the company’s most successful product, but is it also its most significant to date?
Apple revolutionized a number of product industries with the Mac, iPod, iTunes, and iPad — all of which have been incredibly successful at some point. It also pioneered new concepts with products like the Newton. Were any of these things more important to Apple than iPhone?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we relive our first experiences with iPhone and discuss Apple’s most significant product releases.
A new iOS beta is now available. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple seeded two new beta builds to developers today, bringing a host of bug fixes and improvements to iOS 10.2.1 and macOS 10.12.3.
The new builds come just three days after Apple dropped its first batch of betas for 2017. Registered developers can now download iOS 10.2.1 beta 4 and macOS 10.12.3 beta 4 from Apple’s developer portal to take advantage of all the new features.
The new MacBook Pro has great battery life. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The new MacBook Pro is set to receive a “recommended” rating from Consumer Reports after working with Apple to discover why tests showed the laptops suffered from unreliable battery performance.
The culprits? A hidden Safari setting and “an obscure and intermittent” bug.
Get ready to start spending on your Mac! (Even more, we mean.) Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
With macOS Sierra, Apple Pay finally comes to Macs so you can use the mobile payment service to buy stuff online. The feature works best on the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, but don’t worry Pad if you own an older Apple computer: You can still use Apple Pay if you’ve got a 2012 or newer Mac, as long as you have the latest software and an iPhone or Apple Watch with Apple Pay enabled.
To get started, just follow our handy guide on how to use Apple Pay on Mac. You’ll be spending money online in no time!