The Moscone Center is ready for WWDC. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
We’re just three days away from Tim Cook and the gang taking over San Francisco’s Moscone Center for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference. Preparations for the big event have been underway all week, but crews are starting to wrap up pre-production — and the final WWDC 2015 banners are being unfurled.
Eddy Cue isn't cheering for Lebron this year. Photo: USA Today
The NBA Finals started last night, with LeBron James taking to the court in search of yet another championship ring. His team is taking on the Silicon Valley Golden State Warriors and, while Apple Senior VP Eddy Cue was all too happy to cheer on LeBron during the last two NBA championships, this year he’s defected to the home team — and giving King James hell.
Will Beats redesign be ready for WWDC? Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple is planning to use WWDC to spotlight the new streaming music service its been working on for year. It could be Apple’s biggest play in the music industry since the launch of iTunes, but according to a new report, Apple is still struggling to ink its deal with record labels.
The next iPhone is getting some big upgrades. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Looking to buy a new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus from Apple on AT&T but don’t want to sign up for the carrier’s Next plan? Too damn bad.
Just days after AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega promised subsidized phones are going away, the company has completely removed subsidized options for the iPhone from the Apple Store as well.
Now's the time to order your new Watch band. Photo: Apple
Already bored of the band that came with your Apple Watch? Now’s the time to get a new one, because almost every band available from the Apple Online Store is now shipping in just one business day.
There really is a good reason that AltConf 2014 looked like Jurassic Park. Photo: AltConf
You’ve probably heard — repeatedly, from us — that Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is happening in San Francisco next week. But that’s not the only show in town. The Alternative Developer Conference, aka AltConf, is running at the same time, right around the corner from the Moscone Center at the AMC Metreon.
It’s a more open and accessible convention than Apple’s, and that’s not just because it’s free.
“Alt has great information, but it has a lot more community feel where it’s not getting talked down to from the lectern and Apple, you’re getting talked to by your peers,” Jeff Kelley, iOS developer for Detroit Labs and author of Developing for Apple Watch, told Cult of Mac. “And everybody there is kind of on the same foot. Especially because it’s free. You can pay to get a reserved ticket this year, but you don’t have to pay to get in. Everybody is there because they love this stuff.”
Angsty Apple geeks everywhere can sing along to the "Apple Watch Song." Photo: Matthew Patrick Davis
A manic new music video called “Apple Watch Song” turns all the anticipation and angst surrounding the hit wearable into a geeky anthem for Apple fans awaiting delivery of their precious wrist gadgets.
From the Apple Watch Edition’s exorbitant price tag to the fabricated health scare of “cancer wrist,” the wacky song turns the dreams and doubts about Apple’s smartwatch into a cavalcade of comedic riffs.
It's beginning to look a lot like WWDC at Moscone Center in San Francisco. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Ahead of WWDC 2015, Apple’s lawyers have demanded AltConf organizers refrain from streaming or displaying any video or display any video content from WWDC. As a result, the conference has decided to cancel its annual viewing of the Keynote and State of the Union stream on Monday that has been a staple of the event for the past few years.
In a letter to AltConf, Apple’s lawyers maintain that the company has the right to “exercises control over not only the content of its messaging, but also the manner in which those messages are packaged, distributed and delivered,” and that the AltConf’s big party of developers watching the keynote together “would strip Apple of exclusive control over one of the most anticipated events of the year, and could deprive Apple of potential revenue generated from its exclusive rights.”
Keyboards are great for typing numbers and letters and stuff, but don’t they seem a little static sometimes?
This awesome-looking Bluetooth peripheral aims to solve that problem you may or may not actually have, and it does so with a lot of style and a crisp, simple design.
You just can't make a Star Wars game without putting Hoth in there. Photo: Kabam
An upcoming mobile game will throw players into the struggle immediately following the death of the Emperor in Return of the Jedi.
Star Wars: Uprising, which is due out later this year for iOS and Android, is a real-time strategy game that picks up after the destruction of the second Death Star at the end of the third film as the decapitated Empire struggles to maintain control over the galaxy.
Tim Cook's got a lot to be happy about. Photo: Apple
After climbing up the Fortune 500 rankings the past few years, Apple is standing firm in the No. 5 spot it reached last year.
Walmart grabbed the top spot, followed by oil giants Exxon and Chevron, with Apple hanging in thanks to strong iPhone and Mac sales, although Fortune noted slumping iPad sales are a point of concern.
Photo books created with apps Mosaic, Cleen and ZOOMBOOK. Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac
There is a slight soapbox on which I stand sometimes when I write about photography. Nothing too high-minded, but when the topic allows, I will gently remind people to print out their pictures from their iPhones and computers.
Today, I stand before you, not on a soapbox, but on a short stack of photo books. The books are designed with iPad apps from pictures I made on my smartphone. I chose three companies I liked for ease of design and the final product.
All three – Cleen, Mosaic and ZOOMBOOK – have apps that allow you to quickly design a 20-page book from your mobile device and have a tracking number for shipping all within 10 minutes. In four to 10 business days, a hardcover book arrives in the mail that you can neatly shelve.
Given how secretive Apple is, it’s no surprise that we know relatively little about the role of Jony Ive’s designer BFF Marc Newson, who works on so-called “special projects” for the company.
In a recent interview, however, Newson spilled a few beans about his work at Apple — including the fact that it consumes about 60 percent of his time, and is a job he hopes to hold “indefinitely.”
Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California. Photo: Michael Wyszomierski
Apple’s new spaceship campus is scheduled to be completed late next year, but before 12,000 employees take over the new mothership, you can take a guided tour of Apple’s current headquarters, if you’ve got enough funds.
Adobe reports breaks down why refreshed Apple TV is going to be the biggest thing since sliced bread. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
A new report published today by Adobe demonstrates that, when it comes to both pay TV and the devices people choose for consuming digital media, Apple trounces the competition.
Having once dismissed its own Apple TV offering as just a “hobby,” the powers-that-be in Cupertino are likely to want to rethink that statement following the news that its set-top boxes doubled their share of premium video viewing quarter-over-quarter during the last year — overtaking Roku in the process.
A test of a bulletproof vest in Washington D.C. in 1923. Photo: Wikipedia
Casimir Zeglen was truly a man of the cloth. He was a Catholic priest — with an obsession for silk underwear — but the pleasure he got from silk touching skin was because it stopped bullets.
The Chicago priest is credited with inventing the first bulletproof vest, a calling he answered in 1893 after the city’s mayor was gunned down.
The vests worn today by soldiers, police officers and marked men are made with lightweight armor and sophisticated, bullet-resistant fibers like Kevlar that evolved as weapons got more powerful. Yet they work much the same way as Zeglen’s silk invention: The material catches and deforms slugs, then spreads the force of the strike over a larger area of the vest.
Apple Watch supply is finally catching up with demand. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
Apple has confirmed that the Apple Watch is coming to a slew of new countries, as well as Apple Stores, this month.
Beginning Friday, June 26, customers in Italy, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan will finally be able to throw down their cash for Apple’s debut wearable device by visiting the Apple Online Store or dropping into their local brick-and-mortar Apple retailer.
Jawbone's senior product manager Jason Donahue speaking in Japan. Photo: Macotakara
Jawbone’s fitness-tracking devices were among those booted out of the Apple Store to make room for the Apple Watch, but according to Jawbone’s senior product manager Jason Donahue, they’re about to make a return.
Donahue revealed this tidbit during a presentation in Japan earlier today, during which he told the press that the new UP2 fitness band is expected to hit Japanese Apple Stores in early July — and U.S. Apple Stores even earlier than this.
An artist's rendering shows the wobbble and oblong shape of Pluto's moon, Nix. Illustration: NASA
Just because Pluto lost its planetary status doesn’t mean it’s any less interesting to astronomers.
NASA on Wednesday reported two football-shaped moons that wobble so unpredictably that the sun could rise in a different direction every day from either of the moons.
The Hubble Telescope recorded the oddball orbits of the oblong moons Nix and Hydra, which wobble because they are embedded in a constantly shifting gravitational field created by dwarf planet Pluto and its largest moon, Charon. Pluto and Charon share a common center of gravity.
Give us an Apple Watch, or the baseball get it. Photo: Cleveland Indians/Twitter
Cleveland Indians outfielder Brandon Moss hit his 100th home run in the major leagues yesterday against the Kansas City Royals. The ball representing his career milestone landed in his own team’s bullpen, but unfortunately for Moss, his teammates are holding the it ransom. And all they want is a few grand worth of Apple products.
After catching Moss’ home run, the bullpen’s pitchers scribbled down a ransom note, telling Moss “you get the ball when we get these items.” Take a look at their list of ransom items and try to find something not made by Apple:
Apple's delay may mean no Pebble Time for iPhone users. Photo: Pebble
Pebble Time, the new smartwatch from the Kickstarter superstar, might be headed to wrists soon, but if you own an iPhone, you might be out of luck.
According to an email sent out to Time backers on Kickstarter, the version of the Pebble iOS software needed to connect and use Pebble’s newest iteration is still sitting in the gray no-man’s land of Apple approval; it’s been there for 43 days with no end in sight.
It isn't going to control itself. Well, not before The Singularity, anyway. Photo: Apple
Apple fans that were hoping a new Apple TV set top box would debut next week at WWDC are in for some bad news today. According to the New York Times, Apple is postponing its plans to debut the device next weeks because it’s just not quite ready.
The Apple TV has remained relatively unchanged since its second generation upgrade in 2010, but Apple’s team is still having problems getting the final product polished after already suffering major setbacks for content deals.
Colbert's got a new show, a new beard, and a new watch. Photo: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Notorious Apple fanboy Stephen Colbert is taking over The Late Show from David Letterman in September, and while he’s not bringing his ultra-conservative persona, his love of Apple products is still burning bright.
In the first promotional video for his new show, Colbert is seen wearing a white Apple Watch to go with his new white Colbeard. As he gears up for his new hosting duties, he decided to test a few different facial hairstyles before the show’s premiere.
Bringing one of these into class will get you into more trouble than texting. Photo: Cell Phone Jammers
A high-school science teacher has received a five-day suspension without pay for using a jammer in his classroom to block students’ cell-phone signals.
He can consider himself lucky, however, because he had actually violated federal law.