Beats 1 will be your only free Apple Music option next month. Photo: Apple
Apple Music is shutting down its ad-supported radio as of January 28, pushing Beats 1 as the premier free “broadcast” for Apple. Apple sent the news out in an email to subscribers and free listeners today.
You’ll still be able to listen to all the Apple Music radio as an Apple Music member, but not as a free listener.
Sometimes a deal too good to be true actually works out in the customer's favor. Photo: Baoxing Trading (via Amazon)
An accidentally deep discount on Apple Watch bands has the seller reaching out for positive reviews on Amazon.
Baoxing Trading mistakenly marked down some of the accessories in its store to too-good-to-be-true levels, and while they were, in fact, that, the company decided to honor the prices and ship the items at a loss. And that’s pretty nice and honorable of them, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t asking for a small favor in return via a note included in the packages buyers are receiving.
You probably won't need to worry about this smartwatch hack affecting your Apple Watch anytime soon. Photo: Apple
We’ve seen a clever smartwatch hack or two, but this is not one of them.
A University of Cophenhagen student found a way to infiltrate smartwatches and trick them into giving up sensitive data like passcodes and personal identification numbers by accessing their motion data and offloading it to a secure server. And if that sounds completely terrifying, that’s because we haven’t told you how it works.
So many new betas! Cover Design: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
We’re back from CES and rounding up everything from the show, checking out the new operating system betas for your iPhone, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV, proposing ways to fix Apple’s fitness apps, and taking a little time to mourn David Bowie and play some retro-tastic games on Apple TV.
Apple's Mac business is still growing... but how? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple was the only computer maker that didn’t endure a blue Christmas, with Mac sales up 3 percent year-over-year as worldwide PC shipments declined. But for how long can the Mac business continue to fight on, immune to the growing thread from other industries?
Smartphones and tablets are now capable at handling many of our daily tasks, and every year they get better. Will the iPad Pro ever be powerful enough to replace your iMac, or will we forever be reliant on powerful processors and dedicated GPUs?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Macas we battle it out over these questions and more!
Cybersecurity and civilian data become a hot topic at the end of last night’s GOP debate with Apple getting caught in the crossfire. Candidates criticized the company for its decision to keep customer data private, but Apple fanboy Jeb Bush revealed he has a radical strategy that will get Tim Cook to change his stance on encryption: ask really nicely.
Get an Apple Watch Sport plus a bunch of free accessories. Photo: Groupon
Looking to pick up an Apple Watch but don’t want to spend extra on watch bands or a charging stand?
Groupon has your dream bundle, then, with a Sport edition of Apple’s famous wearable, along with third-party knockoffs of the Milanese Loop and leather strap and a charging stand all for the price of the actual Apple Watch.
Google’s answer to Apple Pay may have been late to the game, but it’s already leading the way with a new rewards program — and it’s awesome.
Dubbed “Tap 10,” the program offers up free Google Play content simply for using Android Pay on a regular basis, and there’s even a mention of Chromecast giveaways.
Players have spent more than $1 billion on Nintendo's mobile games Photo: NintendoWill it be these two? Photo: Nintendo
Nintendo’s first smartphone game was nowhere near as exciting as we all expected it to be, but the Japanese company promises it has greater things up its sleeve for 2016.
Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima has confirmed plans to bring the characters we know and love to mobile titles this year, but we’ll have to wait to find out which faces we will see.
Patrick Skluzacek, an Iraq war veteran who suffers from PTSD, shows off the app that is helping him sleep. It was developed by his son. Photo: Patrick Skluzacek
Army Sgt. 1st Class Patrick Skluzacek was taking heavy fire from a relentless enemy.
He shot back with everything he had – counseling, psychiatric drugs and lots of alcohol – but felt defenseless against the post-traumatic stress disorder that followed him home to Minnesota.
He lost friends, jobs, and his marriage. But Skluzacek is reclaiming his life for the first time in the eight years since he returned from Iraq.
This is thanks to a surprise ally in his son Tyler and the weapon he invented for his father – a smartwatch app that helps him sleep.
The makers of F.lux are taking Apple stealing their thunder in stride. Photo: F.lux
When iOS 9.3 announced Night Shift, a new mode that makes it less likely for your device’s light temperature to disturb your sleep schedule, many noted that it was virtually a carbon copy of F.lux, a Mac and jailbreak iOS app that we’ve previously called a Mac essential.
Now, the developer of F.lux is commenting on Night Shift, and while he’s broadly supportive of Apple’s move, he still wants Apple to allow F.lux on the App Store.
Bad news, those who use proxies! Photo: NetflixBad news, those who use proxies! Photo: Netflix
In news that is sure to disappoint some, Netflix is cracking down on customers who use proxies or “unblockers” to trick the streaming video service into thinking they’re in a different country as a way of accessing extra content.
Microsoft wants you to ditch your Apple wearable. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
The Apple Watch may have record high levels of user satisfaction, but Microsoft wants you to throw in the towel and trade it for the second-generation Microsoft Band.
To convince customers, it’s even offering a new trade-in program that, depending on the model, could give you up to $250 for your Apple Watch. For those keeping score, that means you can get your hands on Redmond’s newly-launched wearable sequel without having to pay a single (extra) cent for it.
Presumably he'll have lots of time to play with his iPad in prison. Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac
So you’ve just successfully stolen an iPad and are now pondering your next move. Do you A) Not switch it on and sell it for cash as soon as humanly possible, or B) Play around on it, while making sure to snap a few celebratory selfies to commemorate the occasion?
If you voted “A” then, congratulations, you’re already a smarter class of criminal than 19-year-old Ralphy Olivero of Woonsocket, Rhode Island.
Nothing like that post-Christmas bill, eh? Photo: Universal Pictures
Apple could find itself on the receiving end of a hefty $8 billion bill for back taxes as a result of the current European Commission investigation into its tax policies, according to a new report from Bloomberg Intelligence.
If the Commission decides to enforce a tougher accounting standard on Apple, the company may owe taxes at a 12.5 percent rate on the roughly $64.1 billion in profit it generated from 2004 to 2012.
The one guy in Apple who really didn't need an ID badge. Photo: Ben Stanfield/Flickr CC
From refusing to have a car licence plate to wearing one “uniform” every working day of the last decade of his life, Steve Jobs certainly had his fair share of personal idiosyncrasies.
In a post for Medium, Adobe senior director Arno Gourdol adds one more to the list: that Jobs absolutely refused to carry an Apple ID with him.
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, rivals and friends. Photo: AllThingsD
A new musical comedy coming to Broadway this April will spotlight none other than the two rivals for PC dominance, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.
Rather obviously titled Nerds, the new musical will feature some of the technology the two men helped foster, including onstage holograms, projection mapping and an app that lets audiences decide what ending they’d like to see.
Stolen!, the app that let you buy and sell Twitter users in a fictional exchange, has been taken off the App Store by its developers due to privacy concerns.
“The app is no longer available in the App Store,” the Stolen! team tweeted Thursday afternoon. “We’ve heard everyone’s concerns and have decided the best thing to do is to shut down.”
In iOS 9.3, Wi-Fi Assist will give you more of a heads-up. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Apple is increasing transparency on its Wi-Fi Assist feature in iOS 9.3, which is currently available in public beta. And it’s not just doing it for your sake.
The occasionally controversial iPhone setting is getting a minor but potentially super-useful upgrade that will not only make it more user-friendly, but could also save the company a ton of money in legal costs.
People in New York don’t actually need cell phones, do they? Photo: Dariusz Sankowski/Pixabay
Have you heard the one about the phone encryption bill in New York that will fine retailers $2,500 for each cell phone they sell that can’t be decrypted?
That set-up is its own punchline. This bill is a terrible idea.
Live Photos to appear on new Samsung phones? Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Android
Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S7 will reportedly ship with a new feature called “Vivid Photo,” a clone of the Live Photos function on iPhone 6s that lets users automatically capture images that come alive when they are pressed.
Apple Campus 2 will be one of the "greenest" buildings in Silicon Valley. Photo: Apple
Apple is known as one of the most environmentally conscious companies in the world, but some shareholders think the company needs to to a lot more if it hopes to meet the aggressive goals set by the Paris Agreement last year.
Boston-based investment firm Jantz Management has filed a resolution for Apple shareholders that would request that the Board of Directors reveal on plan to shareholders by June 2016 on how Apple plans to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emission status for its facilities and major suppliers by 2030.
Now the public can try out the new betas, too. Photo: Apple
Now you can try out the latest and greatest operating systems for Apple products, thanks to public betas for iOS 9.3 and OS X El Capitan 10.11.4. Both are now available for testing — even if you don’t have a developer account.
You can grab both updates from Apple’s beta program website for free. Take note, however, that this is trial software — and updating could cause some apps and features on your iOS or Mac devices to go funky or stop working altogether. Use these at your own risk.
There's no reason for your useless old electronics to befoul the planet.
If there’s one thing we know, it’s that technology is continually evolving. This is what we love about it. The excitement of the next Apple product, the newest TV or car. Innumerable websites keep up with rumors and changes, and companies show off their latest and greatest technology and electronics at countless conventions.
But there’s one big problem with this. What happens to our old stuff when we move on to the next thing?