The iPhone X is almost here. Preorders have been taken, so now it’s time to spend the rest of the week until delivery choosing accessories for your new iPhone X.
Unlike the iPhone 8, which fits perfectly into (most) existing iPhone 7 cases, the iPhone X needs new clothes. Here are the best and/or most interesting iPhone 8 cases so far.
If you have small hands, or a big-screen iPhone, or both, then you may love the new one-handed keyboard in iOS 11. It’s a simple software tweak that squishes the on-screen keyboard horizontally, and slides it to the left or right, so you can more easily reach all the keys with a thumb.
This is great news for folks who like to walk along the street sipping coffee and texting, instead of looking where they’re going. It’s also neat for people trying to get a baby to sleep, so they can tweet about it as they bob the baby into slumber on their hip.
If you want to crush your shoulder, and at the same time have all your gear and gadgets within easy reach, then a messenger bag is the way to go. Less formal than a briefcase, and less sporty than a backpack, a messenger bag is stylish and practical. And Pad & Quill’s Attache messenger bag is more stylish and practical than most. It’s a hand-stitched leather beauty which can swallow most of your Mac and iOS devices and accessories.
Your Mac is a powerful machine, but it’s only as useful as the apps you put on it. This roundup of apps is a mixed bag of top shelf goodies for photo editors and web designers. There are also useful tools for just people who work with Wi-Fi and different a variety of media files. Additionally, everything is discounted by half or more. Read on for more details:
iOS 11 is full of small tweaks that have a big impact. Today’s tip is one of those. In iOS 10, you can customize the double-tap shortcuts on your Apple AirPods to perform various actions — invoke Siri, or play/pause, for example. But the same shortcut would apply to both AirPods. In iOS 11, you can customize each AirPod independently. So, your left ear could be set to call Siri, and your right ear set to play and pause. That’s double the options, with just a software update!
Files is the new Finder app for iOS 11, and it’s already about a million times better than the basic file-picker it replaces — iCloud Drive. Files is a central place from which to access all the files on your iDevice, and in iCloud. You can find, organize, open, and delete all the files on your device, in iCloud, and on 3rd-party storage services like Dropbox. And because this is iOS 11, Files supports all the fancy new multitasking features like drag-and-drop.
So, lets take a look at what it can do:
Tim Cook calls the iPhone X and its Face ID system the “future of the smartphone.” We call it the current face of funny on Twitter.
Here are some of the best Face ID jokes we’ve seen.
The iPhone democratized photography and disrupted the video and camera industry. Now a new product that plugs into the iPhone’s Lightning port aims to replace an important photographer’s tool — the handheld light meter.
The Lumu Power light meter is a small, plug-in photodiode that looks like a pingpong ball cut in half. The light meter, a product of Lumu Labs from Slovenia, rose out of a Kickstarter campaign in 2015. It’s won favorable reviews from photographers and photo websites as the company works to improve the companion app.
If you have a lame password, then your iCloud account will eventually get hacked. You might not think a hacker is interested in you, but you’re wrong. The good news is that there are several easy steps you can take to lock your Apple ID down and make it safe.
If you don’t think it’s important, consider this: Your photos, your email, all your browsing history, your credit card information, all of the files you have in iCloud, your contacts, notes, calendars, and all your personal messages will all be open to anyone that hacks your account. Not only that, but you can then be impersonated on social media, so that all your other accounts can be hacked too.
When we’re traveling, our mobile devices help keep us entertained. But when traveling, taking a proper set of headphones can be a real inconvenience. That’s why so many of us use the tiny, sonically inferior earbuds — it’s just easier.
The Files app is iOS 11’s Finder. You can use it to browse the files in your iCloud Drive, along with files and folders in your Dropbox, and inside other apps that open up their file systems to iOS. Apple has also added some keyboard shortcuts to the Files app. This lets you carry out many common tasks without touching the screen when you have a hardware keyboard attached.
Most of the new keyboard shortcuts are great, and show how serious Apple is about the new user-accessible iOS file system. But some serious limitations mean you’ll still need to reach up and tap the screen to do the most basic things.
Life in the digital age means keeping a bunch of devices charged. Between our homes, workplaces, cars, and travel destinations, that can become a complicated task. We’ve rounded up a set of charging accessories to handle any personal power shortage. We’ve got a 6-port modular surge protector, a smart power strip with USB outlets, a car charger with four ports, and a super thin, massively powerful portable battery. Read on for more details:
It used to be that when you got back from vacation, you’d drop your film off at the lab and cross your fingers. You hoped you’d get some half-decent photos back a week later, while memories of that cool restaurant you liked faded with your tan.
Now we share our photos with friends and family while we’re still on the beach, then forget about them. But we can, and probably should, make a little effort to preserve our vacation memories. And — you guessed it — there are apps for that.
By Chris Brantner
The Tour de France is the premier cycling race in the world. Anyone can enjoy watching the event as the cyclists put themselves through one of the most grueling physical tests in all of sports. If you want to watch during the three-week race, you can easily stream the Tour de France on Apple devices, with or without cable.
The Tour de France starts Saturday, July 1, and finishes on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Sunday, July 23. Throughout the race, NBCSN will air live coverage on a daily basis. Thankfully, there are some great ways for you to stream the race on any of your Apple devices.
When Apple launched the iPhone in 2007, no one imagined that in 10 short years it would become the world’s most popular camera and herald a new era of visual communication.
Yet we are witnessing the death of point-and-shoots, the explosion of massive social networks devoted to pics and videos, and the rise of perhaps the most popular photo style of all time — the selfie.
Just consider that we are expected to take 1 trillion pictures this year alone. That’s a million million photos.
Here’s a brief overview of some of the ways the iPhone was transformed photography forever.
You can’t yet automatically save incoming photos and videos from the Messages app in iOS, but there is a way to quickly select a whole bunch of iMessage pictures and movies, and save them all to your Camera Roll.
Why would you want to do this? The main reason is search. Once your media gets inside the Photos app, it can be searched and included in Memories. Plus, all the pictures of people will get scanned and recognized. In short, right now some of your most valued pictures don’t show up in the place you keep all your pictures. Let’s change that.
Lightning cables are the lifelines for our most used mobile devices. Without them, we can’t charge or sync the data on our iPhones, iPads or iPods. And if you buy a wonky third party alternative, you’re often going to get a lot of buzzing and failed connections thrown into the mix. These ultra tough, MFi-Certified Lightning cables address all of the above. Worthy of any Apple device, they’re built to Tony Stark standards of toughness so that they’ll outlast the devices you connect them to. And right now, you can get a two pack of Toughlink MFi-Certified Metal Braided Lightning Cables for just $29.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.
Twitter has followed Facebook’s lead by filtering out direct messages from users you aren’t already connected with.
Direct messages from accounts you don’t follow will now end up in their own inbox as message “requests.”
It’s been some time since Apple delivered something really revolutionary. Every product in its stores looks just like it did last year… and the year before that… and the year before that.
Fans will pin most of the blame on chief design officer Jony Ive. After more than two decades of spectacular and unparalleled ideas, it seems Steve Jobs’s best friend is running on empty. Is it time for him to go to make room for fresh blood and new ideas?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we battle it out over whether Apple’s design team needs significant change.
The coming internet of things is going to require a lot of, well, things. If you’ve got an interest in building physical devices that run on digital DNA, the best place to start is with Arduino. With their simple electronics platform, you can bring almost anything your mind imagines into the real world. From games, gadgets and toys to sensors, robotics and way beyond, Arduino is the ideal canvas for any mechanically-inclined creative. If you’re interested and not sure where to start, or a seasoned builder looking to sharpen your skills, you’ll want to see this pair of can’t-miss deals on a top shelf Arduino board and a set of eight instructional e-books. Read on for more details:
Mobile is the platform of the future, and learning to build apps for mobile devices is where the work is for developers. In a vast and fast-changing field, you’ll want a leg up to get started. That’s exactly what this massive bundle of nine iOS coding courses offers.
Clocking in at more than 100 hours of lesson content, it will teach you a wide range of tools, techniques and languages to build scalable mobile apps. The best part? Right now you can name your price for the entire Mobile Cross Platform Development Bundle at Cult of Mac Deals.
Another week, another round of great new deals at the Cult of Mac Store. This go-round, we’ve got a voltage converter that’ll keep you charged all over the world, a powerful mind-mapping tool for more productive studying and reading, a bundle of a dozen top-shelf Mac apps, and an extra-long, extra-tough Lightning cable that’ll outlive us all.
And everything’s going for a fraction of the usual price!
If you’ve ever lost a wallet, you’ll know it’s one of the most frustrating experiences. You have to cancel your cards, order a new driver’s license, and sometimes you’ll lose precious memories — like photos that can’t be replaced. But you’ll never have to go through that again with Woolet.
Woolet is a smart wallet that connects to your smartphone over Bluetooth. Every time you leave it behind, it sends an alert to your iPhone to remind you to go back and pick it up. It looks good and has plenty of space for cards and cash.
It’s also available in a travel size that’s big enough to carry your passport.
Last chance! We’ve extended our special Earth Day buyback bonus until Monday.
Americans throw away 9.4 million tons of electronics each year, according to Earth 911. That’s roughly equivalent to the weight of 1.88 million elephants — way more elephants than are even alive today.
Fight that e-waste nightmare by trading in your old Apple gear, and you can take advantage of our Earth Day bonus: You’ll get an extra $10 on every trade-in — just use the coupon code “earthday”!
Now’s the time for an excellent deal on Just Mobile’s design-award-winning accessories for Apple Watch. For the month of December, you’ll receive a $20 AluCable Flat lightning cable for free with the purchase of two ($50 worth of) Just Mobile accessories.
Cult of Mac has reviewed and recommends Just Mobile’s offerings, whether you choose the HoverDock, TimeStand or Lounge Dock. Check them out below, pick a few up for the holidays and receive your free Just Mobile AluCable Flat lightning cable this month only.