Apple is changing up its sales strategy. Photo: Apple
Apple is resorting to very un-Apple marketing strategies to try and bolster sales of this year’s new iPhones, a report claims.
These strategies include discount promotions via “generous” device buyback terms. The company is even moving marketing staff from other projects to try and come up with ways to move the iPhone XR and XS off the shelves. This could be proof positive that the new iPhones haven’t been selling as expected.
You kids don’t know how good you have it. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Are you a late-night movie watcher with sensitive neighbors? Do you hate watching your Apple TV with the volume set too low? Then you might love today’s tip. Did you know that you can use your AirPods with your Apple TV? Sure you did. But did you also know that you don’t need to dig around in your Apple TV’s menus to hook them up? There’s a Siri Remote shortcut that makes switching ultra-convenient.
The iPhone X could be making a comeback. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The iPhone X had one of the shortest lifespans of any iPhone Apple has ever made, being cancelled when Apple introduced its next-gen handsets back in September. However, according to a new report, Apple is restarting production on last year’s iPhone model in certain markets.
And it may all have to do with a lack of demand for some of the newer iPhones.
iFixit has finally gotten around to tearing apart the 2018 iPad Pro.
Unsurprisingly, it has discovered lots of big improvements under the hood of Apple’s latest tablet, and more chips than you can shake a stick at. Plus, there’s good news and bad news for DIY repairers.
Pace alerts in watchOS 5 are like having a running coach strapped to your wrist. Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac
Apple made three big strides for runners in watchOS 5, adding Pace Alert, Rolling Mile pace and Cadence features.
In this post, I’ll focus on Pace Alerts, which let you set a specific pace for your run. This handy new feature is not just designed to keep you moving by warning you if you slow down. Pace alerts are ideal for lactic threshold workouts, which will help make you a faster runner. And you can use them to develop your pace awareness — an essential skill if you want to achieve a personal best this marathon season. Here’s how to get up to speed with pace alerts on Apple Watch.
Save on the new Mac mini while you still can. Photo: Apple
After being forgotten for four years, the Mac mini is back with an upgrade that was well worth waiting for.
Apple’s most affordable desktop, which is still small enough to stick anywhere, is vastly more powerful than it’s ever been before. You now get quad-core processors as standard, significantly faster graphics, all the memory you can shake at stick at, and so much more.
How will TouchRetouch manage with this delicious breakfast? Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
We’ve all taken the perfect photo, only to have to have it ruined by some unwanted element. A pole sticking out of someone’s head. A passing car in the background of an otherwise-perfect street scene. Or a political enemy in one of Stalin’s portraits.
But whereas the Soviet regime employed a team of photo retouchers to chop the gulag-bound dissidents from Stalin’s selfies, iPhone apps can remove clutter in seconds. Today we’ll see how to use my favorite: TouchRetouch.
Shoot your own comic-book remake of A Scanner Darkly. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
iOS 12 has a great new camera filter: Comic Book. It turns your selfies and photos into pretty convincing pen-and-ink-style drawings, complete with flat blocks of color. It even works with Animoji selfies.
But hold on one second. You won’t find this filter in your iPhone’s Camera app, or even in the Photos app. Instead, you need to fire up the Messages app and use the camera there.
Strava is ready to play nice with Apple Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac
Your shiny new Apple Watch is great for logging workouts. But it comes up short when you want to review your training progress and share your workout history with friends. Everything gets bundled in the Activity and Health apps on your iPhone, which are pretty basic.
That’s where third-party apps like Strava come in. Strava offers all the essential fitness analytics that Apple overlooks. The trouble is, Strava’s watch app sucks for logging workouts.
If only you could have the best of both worlds: logging your workouts with Apple’s excellent built-in Workout app, then syncing the data automatically to Strava. Well, thanks to a brilliant indie app called HealthFit, you can.
Data privacy comes with the price. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
The iPhone XS Max camera is one of the best mobile cameras ever tested by the digital camera testing lab DxOMark. It’s just not as good as Huawei’s triple-camera P20 Pro, the tests show.
The XS Max scored a 105, four points less than the flagship of its Chinese competitor, a result only wonky photophiles are likely to debate ad nauseam.
The Cult of Mac dress code makes it hard to use Face ID at work. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
In iOS 12, iPhone X owners gain the option of adding an alternate appearance in Face ID. If you’re a drag queen, if you regularly wear protective head and face gear for your job, or if you’re Bono and you’d like to be able to use your iPhone for that one hour a day that your doctor recommends you remove your sunglasses, an alternate appearance will help your iPhone recognize you.
Can you use it to let a second person access your iPhone? Perhaps. Here’s how to set it all up.
watchOS 5's animated faces bring new life to the Apple Watch Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
If you watched last week’s Apple Watch Series 4 unveiling and are dying for those new animated watch faces — but don’t want to buy a new watch — you’ll be happy to know that watchOS 5 brings the best of them to Apple Watch Series 1 and up.
They’re not quite as nice as what you’ll get with the new larger Series 4 watches coming Friday, but they’re still pretty great. Here’s a hands-on look at the new Apple Watch faces.
Phill Schiller showing off pictures from the new iPhone Xs Photo: Apple
Any mobile photographer wearing an Apple Watch likely received a notification about an irregular heartbeat as they watched Phil Schiller talk this morning about the iPhone Xs series’ new camera.
Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, flashed several stunning images on the screen during today’s Gather Round keynote at the Steve Jobs Theater. The images showed depth, detail and colors not seen from previous-gen iPhones, including the current flagship iPhone X.
Learn to master Adobe's Create Cloud with this bundle Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
If you work with visual media, you’ve got to deal with Adobe. The company’s creative applications are fundamental in the world of digital photography, video, web design and more. So getting an affordable education in Adobe’s creative suite is a can’t-miss opportunity.
The Russian Green band is made from embossed calf's leather. The unique crosshatch pattern offers a discreet yet remarkable texture and is highly resistant to wear. Photo: Benjamin McKay/Cult of Mac
Sometimes even an item as mundane as a watch strap tells a story. And the Russian Green Leather Apple Watch Band by Clessant has a cool one.
The band’s design is inspired by leather discovered in a doomed shipwreck more than 200 years ago. Clessant takes this inspiration to new levels and brings this unique discovery to light with its modern-day interpretation of this age-old Russian leather.
This tip will be of interest to our core readers. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
It’s pretty easy to type the Apple logo on any of your Apple devices, although it’s easier on some (like the Mac) than on others (like Apple TV). Below is a quick list that lays out exactly how to type the Apple logo on any Apple device.
The WiDuo is specifically designed to blend in with Apple's minimally-designed products. Photo: Wiplabs
For lovers of versatility, and Apple gear, I bring you a two-in-one charging solution for iPhone and Apple Watch. Who doesn’t enjoy a twofer?
The WiDuo by Wiplabs is a beautifully minimalist charging pad that provides up to 20 percent faster charging that many of its wireless competitors. And, it’s cute and sleek to boot. Pop it in a bag or briefcase for on-the-go charging.
The Proper dock is minimalist, like an Apple Watch charger should be. Photo: Studio Proper
Sadly, most Apple Watch charging stands look like utter crap. For a device beloved by Apple fans — some of the most design-savvy people on the planet — the Apple Watch accessories selection seems strangely miserable.
Some Apple Watch chargers look like old-school joysticks. Others look like Amish craftwork or the kind of 1980s rack you might see in a department store, loaded with ugly shirts nobody wants.
A new “Personal Requests” setup screen now displays an additional icon where the Phone app will sit, and reads “make phone calls” in its list of abilities. It indicates HomePod users will be able to initiate calls for the first time when iOS 12 makes its public debut this fall.
Apple's podcasts app is deeper than you might imagine. Photo: Incase/Flickr CC
Apple’s Podcasts app is now the equal of any third-party podcast, or “podcatcher,” app for iOS. I recently switched to using it as my default podcasts app, and I’ve found it does pretty much everything you could want it to.
In fact, it seems like some developers inside Apple are doing the same. The app really is well-designed and now offers some surprisingly deep “pro” features. And these pro features are what we’re going to look at today.
Look at this blank home screen. Just look at it. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
What’s on your main iPad home screen? Is it organized so that you can find your most-used apps quickly? Or have you decided to arrange the icons by color? Or divided up the grid by adding a row of blank spaces? Those are pretty neat ideas, but today I’m going to suggest you do something even more radical. How about keeping your home screen entirely blank? No icons, no folders, nothing. Just the Dock, Spotlight search, and an easier-to-use iPad.
These bookmark-metaphor photos are going a bit too far. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
If you have a website you visit frequently — and who doesn’t? — then you might like to have quicker access to that site. You might appreciate an icon on your iPhone’s home screen that you can tap to launch that site, just like you’d launch an app.
Today we’ll see how to add a bookmark to your iPhone home screen. And if you already know how to do this, check out the post anyway. There are a couple of neat extra tricks in there.
Siri Shortcuts could become super powerful. Photo: Apple
Siri Shortcuts are the iOS way to automate actions you do over and over. The WWDC 2018 keynote gave an examples of chaining together a bunch of these actions into one shortcut — order your favorite “coffee,” and give you directions to work, or switch on the lights at home one whole hour before you get there in order to, I don’t know, waste electricity? To trigger these little automations, you just tell Siri, using a pre-chosen keyword/name.
However, you don’t alway want to put together lots of steps. Sometimes you just want Siri to carry out a single action with a Shortcut. For instance, opening up your favorite news site in Safari, or sending a message to your spouse, or viewing your most recent photos. The good news is, you can do all of these right now, even without the fancy new Siri Shortcuts app.
Save $300 on an ultralight Apple laptop that's perfect for students. Photo: Apple
In today’s edition of Deals & Steals, we have select models on the latest MacBook Air for a phenomenal deal. Plus, you can get an (ugh) Galaxy S9, FIFA 18 and a pair of Bose wireless earphones — all at neat discounts.