Samsung’s Gear S2 smartwatch will get an update that adds iPhone compatibility by the end of this month, according to a new report.
The move will allow Samsung to compete with the Apple Watch in its own backyard, but some features — such as Samsung Pay — will be lost when the wearable is connected to iOS.
Encryption researchers at John Hopkins University have found a serious flaw in the encryption of Apple’s iMessage platform that shatters the FBI’s stance that encryption on devices like the iPhone is unhackable.
The group of researchers discovered a bug that would allow attackers to decrypt pictures and video sent over iMessage. The flaw wouldn’t help the FBI in its investigation of the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone, but it shows just how hard it is to get air-tight encryption right, even for a company with as much talent and resources as Apple.
Monday, March 21, will be a big day for Apple, with possible reveals of a budget 4-inch iPhone SE, a 9.7-inch iPad Pro and maybe even some new Apple Watch bands ahead of the second iteration of Apple’s wrist computer.
Want to watch the Apple event live? Here’s how you do it on any of your Apple devices (and even a PC).
Note: Monday’s Apple event starts at 10 a.m. Pacific. Cult of Mac’s liveblog will start serving up color commentary an hour before that, so don’t be late!
Apple is planning a major flagship retail store in India, with a design reminiscent of its Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York, according to a new report.
The FBI was reportedly “stunned” when it first got to see what Apple had planned for iPhone encryption, after it received early access to iOS 8 (where Apple introduced its new, stronger iPhone encryption) so that it could examine how its evidence-gathering techniques would have to change.
Twitter turns 10 years old today — with the company having been founded back in the halcyon days of March 2006, when V For Vendetta had just arrived in theaters, James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” was being played on repeat by every radio station, and the iPhone was still an excited rumor on tech sites.
#ManyHappyReturnsOnYourBirthday.
The Apple Online Store has temporarily gone down in advance of today’s Apple keynote.
When it returns, we’re expecting to see a new 4-inch iPhone SE, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, additional Apple Watch straps, and more — although you probably won’t be able to order them right away.
Steve Wozniak sure likes to wax lyrical about the Apple II, and now he can do so with his very own wax figure (sorry for the awful pun!) — which was unveiled over the weekend at the first ever Silicon Valley Comic Con at the San Jose Convention Center.
“I am so honored. I have always wanted to be in a wax museum due to characters we idolize like our superheroes. You live on forever,” said Woz.
There are plenty of rumors that Apple plans to ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack connector for the iPhone 7 — and now we’ve got our first (possible) photo of the company’s next-gen EarPods, complete with Lightning connector.
The picture first appeared on Chinese social network Weibo over the weekend. Check it out below.
Happy Sunday everyone!
If you’re looking to kick back and relax, we’ve got you covered when it comes to the apps you need to download to enjoy the rest of your hard-earned weekend — and the 7 days to come.
From nifty adventure games for your iPhone to a great music app for Apple Watch, check out our picks for awesome apps of the week below.
This week on The CultCast: Will we see new Macs? Perhaps the elusive “One more thing”? Don’t miss our March 21 Apple event predictions and expectations. Plus: How Instagram is about to be ruined; reports of an Apple Car price and ship date surface; why pirates are excited for the AyeCar; and some new iPhone 7 leaks echo familiar rumors.
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to build a website that looks beautiful on any device at Squarespace.com. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off.
Apple’s set to bring the noise at an exciting new keynote event March 21, full of iPad Air 3 and iPhone SE news, and we’re sure you’re ready to hear it.
While you wait for Apple’s big event, though, we’ve gathered together all the things we think you need to know about the upcoming Apple-fest and put them into this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine.
Enjoy the noise, and check out this week’s top stories.
We’d play this game in a heartbeat, especially if it can bust video games into our living rooms in such a realistic way.
Putting on a typical virtual reality (VR) headset like an Oculus Rift can be disorienting at first, as VR tends to shut you out of the real world and into a, well, virtual one. Augmented reality, like you might find with Google Glass, for example, tends to place the digital world into the real one.
This Sulon Q looks like a VR rig, but lets you see the real world through it, with some digital overlay to make the fantasy of a video game look like it’s in the same place as you are.
In the video below, you’ll see a demo of a Jack and the Beanstalk game which starts out in the Sulon offices, but then things get fantastic fast as the giant beanstalk finds its way upward to the sky.
Check it out and thrill along with us.
Silicon Valley, the HBO comedy about the hard knocks of startup life, is coming back for its third season this April, and based on the first trailer that was released today, it’s going to be every bit as whacky as the first two seasons, if not more.
The Pied Piper gang gets a new CEO to kick things off, after last season ended with founder and CEO Richard Hendricks getting booted from his top spot by the board. It appears that Richard hasn’t completely left the company despite getting fired, while Gavin Belson and the Piper’s other rivals are still trying to kill the nerdy compression company.
Watch the first trailer below:
Tim Cook will take to the stage to host another Apple keynote on Monday, but who cares?
It seems only a small percentage of Apple fans are interested in a 4-inch iPhone, and although the rumored iPad upgrade will be a big one, interest in tablets is falling like Jennifer Lawrence at big events. So that leaves… Apple Watch straps? Please!
Without a major unveiling, is Monday’s keynote really worth getting excited for? Or will it be another disappointment, with interest quickly turning to Eddy Cue’s colorful shirts and Craig Federighi’s impeccable hair instead?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over those very questions!
Countless YouTube videos and reviews have demonstrated just how impressive Samsung’s new smartphone camera is in Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, but just how good is it compared to the rest of them?
According to the experts at DxOMark, it’s the best you can get right now.
The Department of Justice has pulled another surprise on Apple this week by making a last minute request to turn the company’s court appearance on March 22nd with the FBI into an evidentiary hearing.
Apple lawyers told reporters this morning that they were caught-off guard by the last minute request which should have been submitted weeks ago.
GT Advanced Technologies — a.k.a. the disastrous sapphire supplier which was hired by Apple to build iPhone displays, before collapsing into bankruptcy — has announced that it has reemerged from Chapter 11 as a newly-reorganized company with a “solid balance sheet,” and “renewed strategy focused on growth in the solar and sapphire industries.”
Fancy being its first new client?
Steve Jobs was such a perfectionist that, for years, he didn’t fill his house with furniture simply because he couldn’t find items that measured up to his high standards.
Which is why it is oddly fitting that only now — approaching five years after the former Apple CEO’s death — is work finally set to begin on building Steve Jobs’ dream family house on land he bought way back in 1984.
In terms of marketshare, the Apple Watch’s watchOS compared to Google’s Android Wear is likely to follow a similar trajectory to iOS and Android.
In other words, while Apple is dominating right now in smartwatch shipments, that balance promises to shift somewhat over the coming years as new low-cost competitors enter the market.
Just like its iPhone-building rival Foxconn, Apple manufacturer Pegatron is reportedly planning to build factories in India, taking advantage of the cheap labor opportunities in the country compared to China.
Will tomorrow’s iPhones be “designed in California, built in India?” Signs are increasingly pointing to yes.
Apple is looking to decrease its reliance on data infrastructure that it currently outsources to Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
Dubbed “Project McQueen,” the new project is meant to speed up Apple’s cloud services, like moving photos and videos onto your iOS devices.
Talking to your iPhone is commonplace these days, but getting Siri on your MacBook or iMac might seem like something out of a near-future like the one shown in Her by Spike Jones.
Siri on the desktop might not be as far out as it seems, though, if a new partnership between speech recognition company Sensory and Intel works out.
Apple’s own engineers may be the company’s last line of defense if it loses its case against the FBI and receives final orders to create “GovtOS,” a less secure version of the iPhone’s mobile operating system.
In fact, some reports say that even if legal proceedings go in the government’s favor, and Apple is compelled to create the software authorities are requesting, certain employees may simply quit to avoid having to make what CEO Tim Cook has called “the software equivalent of cancer.”
Barring unemployment, some encryption engineers may have a variety of other options to stick it to the man.
Maybe you’ve heard of a little sportsball contest that’s starting this week, and maybe you haven’t. If you haven’t, just know that that’s why your neighbors are going to be shouting like maniacs for the next few weeks.
My loud, a-hole neighbors aren’t the only ones excited about March Madness; Facebook’s Messenger app is also getting into the spirit with a hidden game that will test your skill, precision, and tolerance of emojis.
Here’s how to play.