The Apple Music Festival is totally free. Provided you can get a ticket, that is! Photo: Apple
Apple has announced the lineup for its upcoming Apple Music Festival, which will feature performances by Pharrell Williams, One Direction, Florence + The Machine and others.
The concerts take place in London over 10 days from September 19 to September 28.
Did iPhones change the way Samsung handsets looked? Yes. Case closed. Oh wait, there are lawyers involved... Photo: Apple/USPTO
One of Apple’s key iPhone patents has been given a non-final rejection in the still-dragging-on Apple vs. Samsung lawsuit.
The reason? According to a new report, it should never have been granted in the first place, due to an issue with prior art and apparent “obviousness.”
Yet another way to access Google Hangouts. Photo: Jordanna Chord/Google
Google’s chat and video messaging service, Hangouts, got a whole new standalone web app on Monday afternoon.
“We are launching another way to use Hangouts today,” writes Google’s Jordanna Chord on Google Plus. “From our new site you’ll be able to take advantage of the best of Hangouts in the browser, along with an inspiring image to get you through the day.”
Now you’ll be able to keep in touch with all your Hangouts-using buddies in any web broswer, including Safari, without having to run Gmail or Google Plus (or the Chrome app).
Do you hear that, Apple Watch? Your primary interface is a fool! Photo: Apple
We have a bit of a digital-assistant war brewing in the tech world. In addition to Apple’s Siri, we have Google Now, Microsoft’s Cortana and, eventually, Facebook’s MoneyPenny. Everybody’s out to provide users with the most helpful fake secretaries imaginable, and even productivity app Slack is getting in on the action.
But while touting upcoming improvements to the chat platform’s helper, Slackbot, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield had some strong words about its rival in your iPhone or Apple Watch.
You can now own Steve Jobs' BMW. Photo: Julius Winegar
Steve Jobs was notorious for cruising around Silicon Valley in a Mercedes without a license plate during his last decade at Apple, but before El Jobso upgraded to the SL55 AMG, he and his wife Laurene owned a BMW 325i convertible.
That convertible can be yours, now that its third owner is placing the unique bimmer up for sale.
Google's robots are starting to look more an more like the Terminator. Photo: Boston Dynamics
Google-owned Boston Dynamics scared the bejesus out of us earlier this year with its hive-mind 160-pound robot dogs that can run on almost any terrain. Now the company is taking things to an all-new level with new video of its humanoid robot, which is the closest thing to a real-life Terminator we’ve ever seen.
Need a cheap Mac? Look no further than the MacBook Air. Photo: Apple
Just a week after Apple patch several OS X vulnerabilities, a security researcher has already discovered two new exploits that could allow an attacker to remotely gain access to your Mac.
The Bling helmet by LIVALL features LED lights for turn signals and night riding along with Bluetooth speakers for safe phone calls and music listening. Photo: LIVALL
The cycling helmet is often referred to as a brain bucket. It has kept many a melon in one piece after falls and collisions and there’s no smarter wearable for your ride.
One helmet promises to offer more smarts. It’s called the Bling Helmet by LIVALL and it is aptly named because of how it flashes.
Jimmy Iovine, Bono, Steve Jobs and The Edge Photo: Apple
With the purchase of Beats Electronics and the subsequent launch of Apple Music, Jimmy Iovine quickly became Apple’s best hope for saving the music industry. But in a new interview, the Beats co-founder says it’s just not cool to be into music anymore.
To help ignite the scene, Iovine and Dre created an Academy for Arts Technology and the Business of Innovation at USC, and while the music and tech mogul says the program has already become ultra-competitive to get into, it might not be enough to change young people’s minds from wanting to become the next Larry Page instead of the next Jimmy Page.
When it comes out, Brikk will have an opulent iPhone 6s just for you. Photo: Brikk
We don’t even know for sure what the unrevealed iPhone 6s is going to look like, but that isn’t stopping one company from opening up preorders for ridiculously expensive and extravagant custom versions of Apple’s upcoming handset.
Luxury design company Brikk will pre-sell you blinged-up versions of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, and if you have $206,000 or so lying around that you’d love to spend on a phone you haven’t even seen yet, they have a model for you.
Upgrade to the latest iPhone whenever you want. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
We’re less than one month away from the iPhone 6s being announced, and carriers are tripping over themselves and each other trying to offer the best terms for customer upgrades.
The latest carrier to throw its name in the ring is Sprint, which has just launched its new iPhone Forever plan, which lets users upgrade to the latest iPhone any time they want — without having to pay an upfront fee or experience a hike in rates.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wouldn’t want to toil in the dehumanizing hellhole described in a recent report about work conditions at his company. In a memo to employees responding to the allegations, Bezos painted a picture of caring Amazonians who are “fun” and “brilliant” and “helping to invent the future, and laughing along the way.”
He also said anybody who gets treated badly by Amazon should snitch to HR — or email him directly to air their grievances.
Yep, that's ludicrous. Oh, and the guy's name is Ludacris. Photo: Ludacris
Some stars are just too big for the 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition. One of them is rapper and The Fast and the Furious actor Ludacris, who rocked up at the Teen Choice Awards on Sunday night sporting a custom Apple Watch studded with diamonds.
Australian banks wish Apple Pay would make like a boomerang and go home. Photo: Cult of Mac / Picturesofmoney
Apple Pay might be a while arriving in Australia according to a new report, which claims that the country’s four largest banks are stalling negotiations with Apple so as to hold on to $2 billion per year they earn from merchants for interchange fees.
Dr. Dre's third album was one of the most anticipated hip-hop albums in years. Photo: Apple
Dr. Dre’s long-awaited third album, Compton, was streamed a massive 25 million times on Apple Music, and had half a million iTunes downloads in its first week, according to new figures released by Apple.
Apple is dead set on showing how much it values artists. Photo: Apple
Three new Apple Music ads show off Cupertino’s creative cool, highlighting musical acts and touting the tagline, “All the artists you love and are about to love, all in one place.”
Imagine getting paid to Instagram... Photo: @withhearts
This week on The Cultcast: Ever wonder what it’s like to have companies pay you to travel the world snapping their Instagram photos? Professional Instagrammer Cory Staudacher shares his workflows and favorite iOS photo apps — and you won’t believe how much some companies will pay you to make them look cool.
Plus: Neat new features coming to iOS 9; Apple quietly beefs up the iPhone 6s to prevent another #Bendgate; and don’t miss our list of new favorite apps.
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Build a beautiful new website quick with Squarespace’s drag-and-drop interface. Start a free trial and save 10 percent off any first order with code “CultCast.”
Catch our favorite new apps in the show notes below.
This honeycombed disk may help Siri understand you better someday. Photo: Steve Cummer, Duke University
Siri typically works pretty well when you’re just sitting around at home — or at least, it can usually hear you just fine. Whether or not you get the results you need is another question, but a prototype device created by engineers at Duke University could one day help Apple’s digital assistant understand you just as well if you’re in a crowded room or a car.
More updates than you can shake a selfie stick at. Cover Design: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac
This week, Apple has released a ton of new updates into the wild, including better-and-better versions of iOS 8, an iTunes that does Apple Music a bit better, and a Boot Camp that will let you run Windows 10 on your Mac. Try that on your Chromebook.
We’ve got a ton more, too, like killer tips and tricks for the public beta of iOS 9, a slick feature on trailblazer photographers who took selfies back in the day, and some ideas on how Apple Watch should track weightlifting sessions at your local gym.
(Note: Because of Cult of Mac’s recent redesign, some images are not displaying properly in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. We apologize in advance — and we’re working on it.)
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti worked with iPad during a recent mission on the International Space Station. NASA wants astronauts to start using smartwatches for some of their tasks.
Photo: NASA
There’s a smartwatch app for almost everything, but very few are useful to the men and women who work in microgravity.
So NASA is asking the pubic to design a smartwatch app for its astronauts to do everything from keeping them organized during science experiments to alerting them to space debris approaching.
Apple Car might be coming, but will it be special? Image: Aristomenis Tsirbas/Freelancer
Apple is definitely working on a self-driving car project, and according to some new documents, Project Titan appears to be further along than anyone thought.
Rumors of Apple’s car project first starting surfacing at the beginning of this year, with an announcement not expected until 2020 at the earliest, but the Guardian reports that Apple is already trying to secure a super-secret Bay Area test facility for the electric car.
Apple Watch bands now come in XL. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple Watch owners with gigantic wrists are getting some relief today from Apple with a new set of extra-long bands that that can wrap around wrists up to 245mm.
The Apple Store is now stocking a new Link Bracelet Kit that can an add up to six additional stainless steel links to the 42mm Link bracelet. Apple is also introducing some new XL Sport bands for those using the cheaper model.
Who is your money on? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Like every other company, Apple and Google have had their share of highs and lows in the past — but one thing that’s for sure is that neither of them can keep going from strength-to-strength indefinitely; they’ll both stumble at some point in the future.
But which will be the first to take a tumble?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Androidand Cult of Mac as we battle it out over that very question!
Maybe the coolest, most tech savvy president ever. Photo: The White House
“Welcome to Spotify, Mr. President,” tweeted the streaming music giant Friday morning. That’s right: The president of the United States just shared two vacation playlists — and he didn’t use Apple Music.
The two music lists, titled “The President’s Summer Playlist: Day” and “The President’s Summer Playlist: Night,” contain 20 songs each, showing an eclectic taste with a diverse artist representation, including the Isley Brothers, Bob Dylan, Otis Redding and (ugh) Coldplay.