Google, Facebook, Snapchat, WhatsApp and other tech giants are reportedly working on their own increased privacy measures, as Apple continues to win over the general public during its encryption standoff with the FBI.
Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates may not be fully in support of Apple in its ongoing privacy battle with the U.S. government, but Microsoft is certainly embracing the importance of security.
In its latest update, the Microsoft Outlook app for iOS adds new support for Apple’s Touch ID sensor — meaning that you can set the app to let you read your messages only if you scan your fingerprint first.
John Oliver took on Apple’s continuing privacy standoff with the FBI during Sunday’s Last Week Tonight — describing how crucial encryption is when it comes to protecting important data such as, “our financial information, health records, dick pics, trade secrets, classified government records, [and] dick pics.”
And you know what? As well as being very funny, it’s actually one of the best mainstream news reports I’ve yet seen on the whole issue.
Check it out below.
Apple’s Chinese retail store will continue this month with the opening of a brand new Apple Store in the port city of Dalian.
The store will be located at 66 Olympia Plaza in a giant complex, and opens at 10.00am local time on Saturday, March 19th.
The iPhone 7, set to arrive this September, is likely to ditch the ugly antenna bands which have hung around since 2014’s iPhone 6 — according to a new leaked image which has appeared online.
Check it out below:
What better way is there to spend a Sunday than by catching up on the latest great iOS apps?
Whether you’re wanting to transform the way you text with a fantastic new messaging tool, or just fancy unwinding with a top-down, open-world driving game that makes Grand Theft Auto look tame by comparison, you’ve come to the right place.
Check out our top picks below.
This week on The CultCast: it’s official, Apple is going to “loop us in” at their March 21 press event. Join us as we decode the mysterious event invitation. Plus: some new leaks give us glimpses at the iPhone SE and iPhone 7 designs; the incredible size and scope of Apple’s new spaceship campus; and don’t miss the stuff we’re embarrassed to secretly love in an all-new Get To Know Ur Cultist.
Our thanks to FreshBooks for supporting this episode, the easy-to-use invoicing software designed to help small business owners get organized, save time invoicing and get paid faster. Get started with a free trial at Freshbooks.com/cultcast.
If the rumor mill is correct, Apple’s releasing a new 4-inch iPhone, possibly dubbed the iPhone SE, at its upcoming keynote in March. What the heck will it look like, what are the specs, and how much will it cost?
We’ve got a look at all the possibilities in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine, plus a look at why your iPhone battery will never last more than a day, Apple’s cryptic “loop you in” invite, a way to lock down your iPhone, and a ton of killer tips and product reviews to keep you informed.
All that, plus a bunch more, in this week’s issue. Here are the top stories for the week:
President Barack Obama was in Austin, Texas, for the opening day of the South by Southwest Interactive festival, and talk turned inevitably to the current tension between law enforcement and tech companies on subjects like security and citizen privacy.
The president couldn’t comment on the specific case that has Apple and the FBI fighting over whether the government can compel a private company to provide access to a locked device (in this case, an iPhone 5c belonging to San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook). But he did provide some insight into the government’s view of the ongoing legal battle.
You can check out the whole conversation in the video below; the session starts about 39 minutes in.
Mac users needn’t bother pre-ordering an Oculus Rift headset because they can’t use it. According to Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, that’s because none of the machines Apple offers are powerful enough to meet its recommended specifications.
They’re not powerful enough to play the latest games at high-settings, either. Even if you spend thousands on a high-end Mac Pro, you’re going to be disappointed with its gaming prowess — especially if you want to drink in some of those sweet, sweet 4K graphics.
So, is it about time Apple built a Mac that’s good for gaming?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over this and more!
Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s bid to make America great again by boycotting its most valuable company has already failed.
Three weeks ago Trump called for a boycott of all Apple products because the company has refused to comply with a federal order to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone 5c, but it looks like his love for iPhone ultimately won.
This morning, Trump unleashed a flurry of tweets. Only instead of going with an Android, his itsy-bitsy hands embraced the iPhone once again:
In a post that surprises no one in the tech community, Adobe needed to fix another Flash security flaw today, rushing out a patch for its web multimedia software.
Adobe is rating the update as a critical vulnerability “that could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.”
Which, of course, sounds like kind of a big deal. Time for yet another security patch for Flash.
If you’ve grown bored of Instagram’s filters, there’s a new option for giving your iPhone photos a little touch of magic.
New image-editing app Glaze is a one-stop-shop for photo tweakers that lets you jazz up still images, videos and — for iPhone 6s users — Live Photos, too.
“When I was looking around for an app to create, I couldn’t find a single image app which was comprehensive across all content types,” says Glaze creator Ryan Stephen. “This was my response.”
Perhaps most impressive of all? Stephen is a 16-year-old from Portland, Oregon, whose self-taught coding skills landed him a place at last year’s Worldwide Developers Conference — on Apple’s dime.
The iPad Air lineup hasn’t been updated since October 2014 but that is finally set to change on March 21st when Apple is expected to unveil a new 9.7-inch iPad that will undoubtedly be the best tablet to ever come out of Cupertino.
Thanks to a flurry of rumors and leaks over the winter we have a pretty solid idea what Tim Cook and company will reveal when Apple loops us in at 1 Infinite Loop. If you want Apple’s first keynote of 2016 to be a surprise, stop reading now.
Here’s everything to expect from Apple’s new iPad:
If you’ve heard about or used the Cult of Mac buyback program, you might be wondering what we do with your old devices — especially if you sent in broken gear. Is your old-but-loved iPad or iPhone in good hands?
There’s some great news for jailbreakers to end the week on, as the Pangu Team has just made its latest iOS 9.1. jailbreak available — offering iPad Pro users (along with the usual iOS suspects) the chance to jailbreak their device for the first time.
Pangu claims that its untethered iOS 9.1 jailbreak works with 64-bit devices including the following:
With a growing number of people siding with Apple in its privacy standoff with the U.S. government, United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch attempted some damage control last night by appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to defend the FBI’s position.
Check out her appearance below.
Toy-making giant Hasbro wants to bring its kiddy-friendly offerings into the twenty-first century with a nifty smartphone accessory, which would let people scan their favorite toys using their iPhone.
Unless their favorite toy happens to be an iPhone, that is. Hey, given Apple’s popularity among youngsters, stranger things have happened!
Eric Schmidt has been outspoken about his belief that Apple’s smartphones are nothing but a Samsung Galaxy clone, that user data is safer with Google than Apple, and that (slightly oddly) jumping ship from iOS to Android is not dissimilar to switching from PC to Mac.
So why wouldn’t Alphabet chairman and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt use an iPhone to document his recent trip to South Korea? Makes perfect sense to us!
Nintendo’s first ever smartphone game will finally land on iOS and Android this month — and we now know when and where it will be making its world debut.
Called Miitomo — and described by its creators as a “smart-device app that sparks one-of-a-kind conversations between you and your friends” — the game will first be available to download in Japan on March 17.
With its massive on-hand cash pile, Apple could easily be mistaken for a bank disguised as a tech firm. Modern hedge funds, on the other hand, are increasingly tech firms disguised as banks.
Which is one reason it kind of makes sense why one of Steve Jobs’ most trusted former lieutenants, ex-Apple exec Jon Rubinstein, has just been announced as the new co-CEO of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund — with a massive $169 billion in assets.
That’s an amount that would even make Apple sit up and pay attention!
We knew we were going to hear back from Apple’s lawyers after the Department of Justice filed another motion in its ongoing struggle to get the company to disable the passcode lock on a terrorist’s iPhone, and we weren’t disappointed.
Apple’s lead counsel Bruce Sewell fired back at the new document in a phone conversation with reporters today, and this whole thing is just one chair-toss away from being a talk-show episode. According to Sewell, the government’s response was “intended to smear [Apple] with false accusations and innuendo,” and he just kept going from there.
Apple’s sent out the invite to its March 21 event, and it’s making everyone crazy. The message contains a single image (one version of which is pictured above) and a message: “Let us loop you in.”
The Internet has been trying to figure out what it all means since it went out.
And some of its guesses are … well, we’ll just say “interesting.” But others might be on to something.
Most iPhone users spend more time texting than in any other app. Everything from scheduling meetings to finding out what your buddies want to eat tonight is done through texting, the only problem is the experience really hasn’t evolved since iOS was first introduced.
Cola is a new messenger app that wants to fix that by streamlining your communication with little bubbles that let you do stuff like create polls, make a to-do list, and much more so you can spend less time texting and more time enjoying life.
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a new motion in court today regarding its battle against Apple to compel the iPhone-maker to unlock the iPhone 5c that belonged to San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook.
In the new filing the feds argue that Apple has “deliberately raised technological barriers” on iOS to make it harder for the government and other attackers to hack Apple devices. They also claim that demanding Apple to unlock one iPhone won’t result in a security vulnerability for all users.