The iPhone 7 is on its way. But a major redesign apparently isn't. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The iPhone 7 is still four months away from debuting, but a new picture “leaked” online appears to give us another early glimpse of the next-gen handset — suggesting once again that this might not be a significant redesign from the current iPhone 6s.
Oracle's founder says Steve Jobs didn't re-join Apple for the cash. Photo: Ben Stanfield/Flickr CC
Oracle Chairman and CTO Larry Ellison gave the commencement speech at the University of Southern California late last week, and among other things he talked about a plan with his best friend, Steve Jobs, concerning a mid-1990s bid to stage a takeover of Apple.
Tim Cook during a previous visit to China. Photo: Apple
Tim Cook is in China again, and he marked the occasion by paying a visit to an Apple Store in Beijing on Monday — in the company of Liu Qing, a.k.a. the president of Didi Chuxing, the Chinese Uber rival Apple just invested a staggering $1 billion in.
More than 8 out of 10 users are now running iOS 9. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
With WWDC (and, presumably, iOS 10’s debut) weeks away, Apple has revealed that 84 percent of possible users are now upgraded to iOS 9, currently the latest version of its mobile OS.
For those keeping track at home, not only is that an extra 4 percent increase from the numbers announced at Apple’s iPhone SE launch event in March, but it also puts Android’s fragmented adoption figures to shame.
Appy weekend everyone! Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
In the same week that Apple cut App Store approval wait times to just one day, here are the apps Cult of Mac was focused on. If you’re looking to find out what was rocking the App Store over the past seven days, check out our picks below.
Want to trade your iPod for a sports car? Photo: Listener @YSR50
This week, on The CultCast: Apple aims to end music downloads; you can now live stream your aerial drone flights to iDevices worldwide; staggering facts about who’s making money in the app store; creators of Siri demo an even smarter AI; the ridiculous resale value of old Apple tech; and we reveal our Best List of the gadgets we’re currently coveting.
Our thanks to Freshbooks for supporting this episode. FreshBooks is the easy-to-use invoicing software designed to help small business owners get organized, save time invoicing and get paid faster. Get started now with a 30-day free trial.
Art comes in many forms. Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac
But is it art? There’s a whole new way of looking at these works, in the form Steve P Jobs himself–or at least his likeness.
Learn all about these odd yet interesting portraits of the late Apple co-founder, including tattoos, technology-art, and the bubble wrap portrait you see above, as you browse this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine.
Inside this deliciously digital magazine-style app, you’ll find out more about possibilities for the new Apple Watch OS, how to retrain Siri to make better sense of your verbalizations, inside the weird world of iPod collectors, and all the reviews and how-tos you need to stay up to date on tech through an Apple lens.
Is it a good idea for Apple to boot such a popular service in the same way it massacred floppy discs and FireWire, forcing users to stream all their music? Or should it keep iTunes alive until downloads die out naturally?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we battle it out over the future of the world’s most popular music store.
If you’re an iPhone user who loves Google, or you just like to keep up with the competition, then you’ll be pleased to know there’s now an official iPhone app for next week’s Google I/O conference.
You can use it to keep track of events, navigate your way around if you’re going to be there, and to watch the keynote and sessions live if you’ve been following from home.
You're nothing on Twitter without the sacred blue tick. Photo: Twitter
A strange bug in Twitter’s official iOS app is allowing verified users to give other people blue ticks. The phenomenon occurs with a simple retweet, but unfortunately for those who aren’t official VIPs, the status is short-lived.
A familiar face to Apple fans made from familiar technology. Photo: Jason Mercier
Apple fans felt a deep sense of mourning in 2011 when Apple founder Steve Jobs succumbed to cancer. With the fifth anniversary of his passing approaching, Cult of Mac looks at the artistic tributes that followed.
Artist Jason Mercier is yet another creative person to use Apple devices — and maybe the only one to literally break them into pieces for his work.
Mercier has made a name for himself around the San Francisco Bay Area by creating mosaics with trash befitting his celebrity subjects. So when his cousin commissioned him to do a portrait of the late Apple founder, Mercier knew he had to construct it with the very products and components Jobs had a hand in creating.
Is iCloud down for you this morning? Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple’s service status page confirms an issue with iCloud Mail and Notes that is rendering the services unavailable for some users. The outage has been ongoing for two hours now, and there’s currently no word on when we should expect it to be fixed.
WhatsApp on the web. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
You can now share PDF documents with friends and colleagues using the WhatsApp web client in your browser. The feature was previously only available on mobile, and inside WhatsApp’s new desktop app for Mac and PC.
Apple is continuing with its Apple Store refresh. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The Penn Square Mall Apple Store in Oklahoma City is set to become the next brick-and-mortar Apple retail store to receive a “next-gen” makeover.
Planning documents suggest that Apple is spending upwards of $2.5 million on the renovation, which saw the Penn Square Mall site close its doors on April 18.
Apple just made a big investment in China. Photo: Cult of Mac
Apple has invested $1 billion in Chinese Uber rival Didi Chuxing in a move that continues Apple’s push into China and confirms the company’s interest in shaking up the automotive industry.
According to Tim Cook, the deal “reflects our excitement about their growing business … and also our continued confidence in the long term in China’s economy.” Perhaps more importantly, it could give Apple strategic insights and competitive advantages when it comes to Apple Pay and a possible Apple Car.
Walter Isaacson doesn't much like the Apple Watch either. Photo: Bloomberg
Walter Isaacson, a.k.a the author of the gajillion-selling 2011 Steve Jobs biography, says that Apple is “long overdue” coming out with its next great innovation; speaking at a time when Apple stock continues to fall in the wake of declining iPhone sales.
“I got the [Apple Watch], but I don’t use it that much,” Isaacson told CNBC. “I don’t think the watch is the next big thing.”
Looking for hot deals on Apple gear? You found 'em! Photos: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac, Apple, Logitech
Micro Center comes out swinging this week with a pair of all-time lows on Apple devices (although you’ll need to find them at a store near you). Or, you could grab the best price we’ve ever seen for a new, unlocked iPhone 6s.
See these hot Apple deals and more in this week’s roundup of the best bargains on Apple gear.
If you could design your own iPhone 7, without compromises and limitations, it would probably look a little something like this insane concept. It doesn’t just look amazing; it’s also packing out-of-this-world features that make your existing model look like a relic.
Apple isn't the only one suffering due to weak iPhone sales. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Weak demand for the iPhone is causing earnings to fall for a number of suppliers in Asia, and few of them are hopeful that the situation is going to change.
Foxconn, the biggest assembly partner for the iPhone, saw its profit fall 9.2 percent last quarter, while Pegatron’s nosedived a whopping 35.1 percent.
Bradley Hart injects paint into bubble wrap for photo-realistic portraits, like this one of Steve Jobs. Photo: Deukyun Hwang/Arte Fuse
Apple fans felt a deep sense of mourning in 2011 when Apple founder Steve Jobs succumbed to cancer. With the fifth anniversary of his passing approaching, Cult of Mac looks at the artistic tributes that followed.
From afar, the colorful portrait of a smiling Steve Jobs looks like a pixilated portrait made with an early digital camera. Get closer and those pixels take on a shape familiar to your thumb and forefinger — bubble wrap.
Jobs would appreciate Bradley Hart’s “Think Different” approach to bubble wrap as well as the hyper-focus attention Hart pays to inject each bubble with a different color of acrylic paint to form a famous face.
Cola is getting even smarter with help from third parties. Photo: Cola
We could all use a personal assistant who’s there to make life that little bit easier, and thanks to Cola, the world’s first smart messaging OS, we can all have one.
Cola is designed to take care of all the small but important things you have to do throughout your day, like arranging meetings and managing to-do lists. And for the first time, it’s opening up to third-party services to become even more powerful.
You can get your hands on Gboard today if you live in the U.S. Photo: Google
Google just launched its very first keyboard for iPhone and iPad — and it’s awesome.
Called Gboard, and designed to look a lot like the default iOS keyboard at first glance, it’s jam-packed with useful features, including the ability to type with glide gestures, send GIFs, and search Google from almost anywhere.