Samsung is making a last ditch effort to avoid paying Apple. Photo: Jim Merithew / Cult of Mac
They may not have done so well in India, but on Samsung’s home turf, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are doing gangbusters business. In South Korea, in fact, iPhone 6s preorders sold out within minutes of becoming available.
One of these iPhones is jailbroken, the other isn't. Can you guess which one? Screenshot: Cult of Mac
One of the reasons Apple says you shouldn’t jailbreak your iPhone is because doing so will impact performance. But is that actually true, or is that just what Apple wants you to believe? This video holds the answers.
Would iTunes look better like this? Photo: Rethink iTunes
Apple gets a lot of kudos for its design chops, but there’s one product everyone thinks Cupertino can improve: iTunes. The bloated Swiss army knife app for managing everything from your music library to the apps on your iPhone has been begging for a rethink for years. Yet for whatever reason, Apple has yet to deliver a true design overhaul of iTunes.
The situation has gotten so bad, iTunes is now being assigned to college students as a design problem. Students at German college Fachochschule Potsdam were assigned the task of splitting iTunes up into 16 different apps. And the results look pretty good!
Just don't call it a security breach. Apparently. Photo: PhotoAtelier/Flickr
The Chinese mobile ad company responsible for malicious code discovered in 256 iOS apps has come forward and apologized after being named and shamed by Apple.
Like this, except hopefully without the whole Skynet thing. Photo: TriStarLike this, except hopefully without the whole Skynet thing. Photo: TriStar Pictures
Samsung has received a multi-million dollar investment from the South Korean government to develop factory robots to help win manufacturing work currently being lost to cheap human labor in China.
The UE Boom 2's new Block Party feature makes it easier than ever to share music with friends. Photo: Ultimate Ears
SAN FRANCISCO — A slick new feature coming to Ultimate Ears’ Bluetooth speakers will let you stream your friends’ music from the palm of your hand.
Called Block Party, it lets up to three friends connect to the same UE speaker. Then the self-appointed DJ can pick and choose from each person’s tunes, pulled from streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify. The DJ can skip songs and jump from playlist to playlist, and it’s all shockingly smooth and simple.
Luke Skywalker is conspicuously absent from the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens poster. Photo: Lucas Films
The newest trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was finally unveiled tonight, and it absolutely blew us away. Twitter and the rest of the Internet is freaking out over the J.J. Abrams directed movie that will hit theaters on December 17th.
Tickets for the new Star Wars went on sale and we can’t wait to be front-and-center for all the lightsaber action when Han, Chewie, and the new crew touchdown. The movie has reached the kind of hype you only see before an Apple product launch, and we’re ready to obsesses over all the details in the new trailer.
Star Wars has given us our first look at Leia in the new trailer, plus a lot of bad guy Kylo Ren and Daisy Ridley’s character Rey, but most fans just have one question: Where the hell is Luke?
Check out these 25 GIFs from the new trailer and see if you spot any new clues:
The swanky new Apple TV is on the way. Photo: Apple
The eagerly-anticipated Apple TV refresh will be available for pre-orders next Monday, said Tim Cook during his on-stage appearance at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference.
Customers won’t have to hang about, either, as shipments are likely to be sent out by the end of that week.
Apple Music already has around one-third of Spotify's paid subscriber base. Photo: Wall Street Journal Digital Live
Apple Music has 6.5 million paying customers, according to no less an authority than Tim Cook, speaking at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference.
Given that Apple claimed it had 11 million people using its free trial back in August, that’s an impressive free-to-paid conversion rate of almost 60 percent. It’s also around one-third of the paid subscriber base of Spotify, which has 20 million subs.
The Eora 3D scanner wants to leave no dino head undigitized. Photo: Eora 3D
The 3D-printing future is here, but unfortunately it’s still cost-prohibitive for many people who want to get in on the newest making revolution. But an upcoming project just launched on Kickstarter may just have the solution to that problem.
The Eora 3D scanner connects to your smartphone to create precise and accurate models of just about anything you can put in front of it, and it will do it for way less money than you’d expect.
Apple wants to dramatically improve its 2 percent share on the smartphone market in India. Photo: Tim Cook/Twitter
The iPhone 6s hit shelves in India over the weekend – and on the shelves are where most of them stayed.
According to reports in that country, Apple saw lukewarm sales of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus during launch there. With the cost on the entry level 16 GB iPhone 6 at $925, many analysts say Indian consumers may be waiting for prices to drop before upgrading.
Even more magic than you expected, right? Cover Design: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac
Happy weekend, everyone! We’ve got another insane issue of Cult of Mac Magazine for you this week, full of details on Apple’s new iMac, Magic peripherals, the best updates in iWork’s new update, fresh how-tos, product reviews, and a sad goodbye to one of Apple’s ultimate fans.
The Advent iPhone 6 case makes the phone it holds look like cheap garbage. Photo: Gray International
Are you in the market for an iPhone 6 case that makes the money you spend on the phone itself look like pocket change? A limited-edition accessory can help you make that dream come true.
The Advent comes courtesy of Gray International, and it looks like every cent of its $1,500 price point. And that’s probably because it bears more than a passing resemblance to the billion-dollar stealth bomber.
Check out the fancy case in all of its overly dramatic glory in the promotional video below.
Tim Cook takes home $125 million for Apple’s best year since 2009 Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple CEO Tim Cook joined the CEO Council for Sustainable Urbanization this week as part of Apple’s continued fight against global warning and environmental issues.
The council is basically like an Avengers-style group (or Justice League if DC is your preferred flavor) consisting of CEOs and chairmen from the top companies in China and the West, that are hellbent on saving the planet from overpopulation, deforestation, and finite energy resources.
Kate Winslet (left) plays Joanna Hoffman (right) in Steve Jobs. Photo: Apple
Kate Winslet has been earning rave reviews for her performance as Joanna Hoffman in the new Steve Jobs movie. Hoffman was one of the original members of the Macintosh (employee #5 to be exact), and was notorious at Apple as one of the few employees who boss Steve Jobs around.
In a recent interview, Hoffman revealed what it was like coming to Apple as an architect and working with Steve Jobs at the age of 25. She also dished on other doomed projects like the Lisa computer and the Apple 3, and took some questions from the audience at Maker School about Silicon Valley and startup culture.
Watch Joanna tell developers about how she met Steve and other juicy tidbits below:
Amtrak routes are now available in Apple Maps. Screengrab: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac
The next stage of Apple Maps’ Transit roll-out is live today. The latest update includes public transportation in Boston and, more interestingly, select Amtrak train routes in the northeastern U.S.
OK, well it’s all pretty interesting. But, you know. Trains.
Apple responded swiftly to the discovery that over 250 apps collected data with private APIs. Photo: Jason Howie/Flickr CC
Apple banned over 250 apps from the App Store that were using software to access users’ personal information. These apps managed to get through the App Store approval process with private APIs, which are against the rules. Apple took action shortly after news broke this morning that a security firm discovered these apps.
After four unscientific soaks in water, the Loop leather band for Apple Watch showed no visible signs of damage. Photo: atomic delights
Apple doesn’t do a lot of explaining on the website about its watch bands. You get a gallery of styles with mentions of material and a price, all under the headline, “Thoughtfully Designed Bands.” Apparently, great thought goes into water exposure.
Avid Apple product deconstructor Greg Koenig recently put Apple’s quilted Venezia leather Loop band to a soak test for his blog, atomic delights. After four soaks, Koenig was impressed to find no visible damage.
Nexus 5X is insanely fast at reading your prints. Photo: SuperSaf TV
Fingerprint scanners on Android devices have been hit-or-miss (mostly miss) in recent years, but they’re getting a whole lot better. There’s no better example of that than the new Nexus 5X, which is even faster at recognizing your print than the new Touch ID sensor in iPhone 6s.
El Capitan isn't without its problems. Photo: Apple
El Capitan has a ton of neat new features, but no OS ever arrives completely error-free. This year’s OS X update is no different — leading some impatient online types to go so far as to label it “El Crapitan.”
Some of these problems have been solved. Others haven’t. But we’ve compiled a list of some of the most widespread complaints. Check out the hall of shame below.
A wooden Macintosh with gold keys? Yes please. Photo: Love Hultén
Love Hultén has created a beautiful replica of the original 128k Macintosh made almost entirely out of American walnut. Known for his craftsmanship in building replicas and concepts of gaming consoles among other gadgets, Hultén has taken that love and applied it to one of Apple’s most beloved products to date. He calls it the Golden Apple.
Samsung wants Galaxy users to enjoy 3D Touch, too. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
Samsung is expected to follow Apple’s footsteps and build a pressure-sensitive display into next year’s Galaxy S7, according to recent reports — and now a new patent backs up those claims with proof that the South Korean company has been hard at work on a similar technology for over a year.
Shock horror! Kids don't like paying for things. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Older people are more likely to subscribe to Apple Music than their younger counterparts, claims a new survey by Jackdaw Research.
According to Jackdaw’s findings, 62 percent of survey respondents under the age of 35 have already canceled Apple’s streaming music service. However, an impressive 67 percent of respondents aged 35 and up have transitioned to paying subscribers after the three-month trial period.
iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens is the Bernie Sanders of the electronics industry. He doesn't want reform -- he wants wholesale revolution! Photo: iFixit
Kyle Wiens thinks the iPad should be banned. It’s a “highly immoral” product, he says, because it can’t be opened and repaired when the battery dies. It’s a throwaway device, and he wants governments to prohibit it.
“It’s not designed to be long-lasting,” said Wiens, who is the co-founder and CEO of iFixit. “It’s like selling a car that has to be replaced when the tires wear out.”
Wiens is the Bernie Sanders of the electronics industry. He doesn’t just want reform — he wants revolution!
Does Apple need to double up on its security measures for new apps? Photo: PhotoAtelier/Flickr
A security firm claims to have discovered 256 apps that illicitly gather user email addresses, lists of installed apps, serial numbers and other identifying information.
Apple may be obsessed with user privacy, but these apps — which violate App Store policy and have been downloaded by an estimated 1 million people — somehow got by Cupertino’s gatekeepers.