Apple needs to help consumers find quality apps, and developers to sell them. Photo: Parampreet Chanana/Pixabay
Apple seems to be looking to improve the way people find apps in the App Store. According to unnamed sources, paid search is one way Apple might both improve discoverability as well as make some money off the feature, like Google does on its own Google Play store.
Paid search would let developers pay Apple to more prominently display their apps in the App Store.
Best of luck, ma'am. Photo: U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan
A Michigan woman is suing Apple and Nike for a combined $5 billion over claims that the two companies stole her concept for a device called a “Detachable Beeper Disc Digital Gym Shoe with Sensor.” She states that she filed a patent for her invention 20 years ago, well before the companies came up with their own, similar products — namely, the Apple Watch and the Nike+ smart running system.
While she’s seeking $3 billion from Nike, she’s only looking for $2 billion from Apple, so Cupertino’s getting off relatively light on this one.
Typing on your iPhone with one hand is about to get a whole lot easier thanks to good samaritans at Microsoft that have invented a custom keyboard for iOS.
Microsoft revealed today that its latest iOS app, Word Flow, just entered the beta testing phase. The new keyboard (which is different than the Hub keyboard introduced last week) brings some of Windows 10’s best typing to iOS users like the ability to swipe out words, and intelligent word prediction to go with its dead simple one-handed mode.
The various auto designers and experts interviewed by Motor Trend speculate that Apple will try to redefine the car “experience.” They talk about stuff like acoustics, and look and feel, rather than specs like miles per gallon or engine torque.
They predict that Apple will bring a better “user experience” to the car of the future, not just a better physical product.
This reminded me of interviewing Apple’s designers for my Jony Ive book. They explained that the design group takes exactly this approach when thinking about new Apple products. Instead of starting with chip speeds or screen resolutions, they begin by asking each other how the new product should make the user feel.
And thinking about this made me realize why Jony Ive has a chauffeur. It’s not because he’s a one percenter. It’s about Project Titan, Apple’s future car.
Find more of what you like in new Instagram video section. Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac
Instagram gets personal in hopes of helping you find interesting shared videos much more easily with a new feature in the Explore area of its popular photo sharing service.
Called “Videos You Might Like,” the new personalized channel can be found in the Explore grid within the mobile app. Now you can spend less time slogging through the junk and get right to the good stuff.
Raheem Sterling of Manchester City. Photo: JoshJDSS/FlickR
Apple is planning to make a big advertising push during the 2016 UEFA European Championship football tournament, and Raheem Sterling could be the star of the company’s ads.
Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling is reportedly close to signing a deal with Apple to become its first ever global sports ambassador from England, but the entire deal hinges on whether the 21-year-old phenom actually makes the team.
Wouldn't a new iMac look great on your desk? Photo: Luke Chesser/Unsplash
While the anticipated MacBook Pro revamp is grabbing all the headlines, we’ve got an iMac deal that should be getting your attention.
Get the details on this hot buy, plus the lowest prices we’ve ever seen on a premium MacBook and a handy iPad accessory, in this week’s roundup of the best Apple deals.
As Apple continues to be embroiled in ongoing encryption drama, the company has hired a former NFL lobbyist and former aide to Vice President Joe Biden to head up its new Washington office.
iTunes Allowance let parents set a monthly spending limit for their iTunes-loving kids. Photo: Jason Cipriani/Apple
Apple has announced that it is dropping its iTunes Allowance feature, which allowed users to limit the amount of money that could be spent by their kids (or themselves!) on iTunes games, apps, movies and music.
Apple's diversifying its supplier base for the next-gen wearable. Photo: Eric Heisuman
There may be disagreement over when exactly Apple Watch 2 will arrive, but Cupertino is confident enough about its plans to start divvying up component orders among companies in its supply chain.
In keeping with its recent strategy, Apple is looking to diversify its supply chain for the second-gen wearable by taking on additional manufacturers.
Anti-encryption bill has received mixed reactions. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
A bill that would force companies to help law enforcers decrypt private communication is one step closer to becoming a reality, after a draft was published this week.
Called the Compliance with Court Orders Act of 2016, the bill would stop companies including Apple refusing to help organizations like the FBI, provided that proper court orders are given.
And — no surprises here! — it’s already proving controversial.
What will the Apple Car look like? And, more importantly, what will it do? Image: Motor Trend
Even if Apple is not furiously trying to figure out how to make an Apple Car, the rest of the world is furiously trying to figure out what the Apple Car would look like.
And, perhaps more importantly, what the Apple Car would do.
Was all that hard work for nothing? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
It’s been more than two weeks since the FBI was able to gain access to the iPhone belonging to San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, and as per a new report, the FBI has still not found anything of “real significance” on the handset.
The FBI may not legally own the process used to crack the iPhone 5c under investigation. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
We’ve heard plenty of bluster about how the FBI won’t tell Apple how it cracked the iPhone 5c at the heart of the San Bernardino shooting case, but there’s another possibility, too: that the Feds can’t tell Apple how it did it.
Why? Because according to a new report, citing Obama administration sources, it may not actually have legal ownership of the method in question.
Daniel Coster, fourth from left, is leaving Apple's vaunted industrial design team. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
The departure of veteran Apple industrial designer Daniel Coster is significant because, like the Mafia, no one ever leaves Jony Ive’s design studio.
Coster, a core member of Apple’s design team for more than 20 years, is perhaps only the third member of Ive’s tight-knit industrial design group to leave in almost two decades. And one of the others died.
Automatic tagging is coming to video. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Facebook is upping its game with video. Soon, Facebook will be able to automatically identify friends in videos and tag them. Better yet, it’ll store this information so when you want to find that moment again, you could find the video by searching for your friend’s name and then jump straight to when they appear in frame.
Google Calendar gets smarter. Photo: GoogleGoogle Calendar gets smarter. Photo: Google
Finding time in your busy schedule to hit the gym, get through a new book, or start a new hobby can be a task in itself. But now Google Calendar has the power to do it for you.
The new Goals feature lets you tell Google Calendar exactly what you want to do, and it will go ahead and help you find free time in which to do it.
The Meizu Pro 6 boasts 3D Press technology. Photo: MeizuThe Meizu Pro 6 boasts 3D Press technology. Photo: Meizu
Samsung didn’t adopt the iPhone’s pressure-sensitive display for its latest Galaxies as some reports promised it would, but other Android makers are already using it.
The latest is Meizu, which today unveiling its incredibly attractive Pro 6 smartphone with “3D Press” technology, plus a 5.2-inch Super AMOLED display, a ten-core Helio X25 chipset, and a 21.1-megapixel rear-facing Sony camera with 10 LED ring flash.
A new threat targeting iOS devices has been discovered by security researchers Patrick Kelly and Matt Harrigan, promising to “brick” your iPhone or iPad if you happen to log onto malicious Wi-Fi networks.
Why would anyone log onto a malicious Wi-Fi network? Because by exploiting the auto-reconnect feature found on iOS — whereby your Apple device will automatically log into Wi-Fi networks it thinks it’s previously connected to — you might not even realize it’s happening.
The iPhone 7's reception will be anything but frosty. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Forget about the “peak iPhone” problem: Goldman Sachs thinks this year’s iPhone 7 is going to be a big one for Apple.
Coming off the back of Apple selling its billionth iPhone sometime this summer, the bank’s senior equity research analyst Simona Jankowski says the number of people clamoring to get their hands on Apple’s next-gen iPhone will be “remarkably high.”
"Android? Whatever!" Photo: Yoga Hosers/Kevin Smith
iPhone sales may be slowing down, but the popularity level of Apple’s handsets among teenage customers is higher than ever — and increasing all the time.
In an extensive new survey carried out by analysts at Piper Jaffray, entitled “Taking Stock with Teens,” a whopping 69 percent claim to be iPhone owners. Better still, 75 percent of teens say they expect their next phone to be an iPhone.
Miitomo is raking in the cash. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of MacMiitomo is raking in the cash. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
Nintendo fans bemoaned the company’s decision not to use Mario or Link or Donkey Kong in its first smartphone game, but it seems Miitomois doing perfectly well without famous faces.
According to new estimates, the social app is currently raking in a whopping $280,000 every single week.
One of the rarest computers ever assembled. Photo: Bonhams
If you’ve ever wanted to lay your eyes on an original ultra-rare Apple-1 computer — and don’t happen to have a spare six-figures of disposable income lying around — now’s your chance.
That’s because Detroit’s Henry Ford Museum is showing off one of a handful of fully-operation Apple-1 mainboards as a celebration of how far computing (and Apple) has come over the past few decades. You’ll have to be quick, though, as the breakthrough computer is only on display from now until the end of the month.
Somewhere in a garage in... North Korea? Photo: Homefront: The Revolution
From Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle to Mark Millar’s Superman comic Red Son, I’ve always been a massive fan of alternative history stories.
Now, upcoming first-person-shooter game Homefront: The Revolution asks a question as intriguing as any: What would have happened if a technological genius like Steve Jobs came out of North Korea instead of California?
The answer? A trillion-dollar company called APeX, apparently.