It was only a matter of time before Samsung did something to try and thwart Apple’s unconfirmed automotive aspirations.
The Korean iPhone competitor has bought the battery pack division of a leading automative supplier only a couple of weeks after it was reported that Apple had met with the company.
Apple paved the way for racially diverse emoji to come to the Mac two week ago, and now with the release of iOS 8.3 beta 2, Apple has added access to 300 new emoji for iPad and iPhone users.
With iOS 8.3 beta 2 Apple now allows users to choose between five different skin tones for 60 different emoji. Switching between the different skin tones is just as easy as adding an accent mark to letters: simply press and hold an emoji to reveal the the entire palette of color options.
Here are some of the new emojis in action:
The third season of Netflix’s amazing political drama House of Cards drops on February 27, and our friends at Sesame Street are apparently pretty excited. They put out a parody video today that recasts Kevin Spacey’s conniving, political shark as Frank Underwolf, a drawling villain with eyes on the “White Brick House” currently occupied by one of three pigs. Of course, he has to go through a couple of other little house-hogs first….
Not only does this video perfectly capture the tone and winking evil of the show, but it also will teach you a valuable lesson about counting to three. Check it out below.
When you’re one of the closest things the programming world has to a rock star, you might assume that — when the time comes to pass your godly coding powers onto the next generation — you’d hand your offspring a brand new iPad and a crash course in the likes of Swift: the insanely popular state-of-the-art iOS language unveiled at last year’s WWDC.
Try telling that to John Carmack! The legendary coder behind the smash hit games Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake (today working at Oculus VR) recently shared a picture of his young son’s home computer lessons. Carmack’s choice for suitable hardware and software? BASIC on the 1984-era Apple IIc.
He’s kicking it old-school!
Along with today’s release of iOS 8.3 beta 2 to developers, Apple has also seeded a new version of OS X 10.10.3 on the Mac Dev Center.
The second beta preview comes two weeks after Apple released the OS X 10.10.3 to developers with a preview of the new Photos app. The new preview build 14D87h can be found in the Mac App Store or in the dev center.
Apple added two-factor authentication, an improved emoji layout, and paved the way for racially diverse in emoji in the last beta build. The release notes don’t mention any new features, but we’ll let you know what we find once it’s installed on our machines.
We’re still waiting for the release of iOS 8.2 but Apple just pushed out the second beta build of iOS 8.3 to developers.
The software update was made available this morning in the iOS Dev Center. Along with iOS 8.3 beta 2, Apple released beta build 2 of Xcode 6.3, which includes Swift 1.2. There’s also a new pre-release version of Apple TV beta for the third-generation Apple TV.
The iOS 8.3 beta 2 release notes don’t mention any new features, but we’ll tell you about all the goodies we find as soon as it’s installed on our iPhones. In the meantime, check out our feature on the new additions in iOS 8.3 beta 1, which included a new emoji layout, CarPlay features, two-factor authentication for Google, and Apple Pay support for China. Or use the direct download links below to jump into iOS 8.3 beta 2:
Toyota was one of the first car manufacturers to announce it would support CarPlay, but the company is pulling back on its plans to embrace Apple’s car infotainment system. Despite still being listed among Apple’s CarPlay partners, Toyota says it’s sticking with its own Entune systems.
The company says that while it has talked frequently to both Apple and Google about CarPlay and Android Auto, it has no plans to bring the technologies to its cars in the United States anytime soon. Toyota’s manager of advanced technology communications, John Hanson, told the New York Times, “We may all eventually wind up there, but right now we prefer to use our in-house proprietary platforms for those kinds of functions,” Mr. Hanson said.
While Toyota’s not so hot on CarPlay, other manufacturers like Ford, BMW, Volkswagon, and GM are more bullish on Apple’s car offerings. Here’s a full breakdown of which service auto makers currently support:
A somewhat surprising lack of interest in the iPhone 5c means Apple’s unlikely to have another stab at a more affordable iPhone category for a long time, but these beautiful mockups of a would-be iPhone 6c make us wish that wasn’t the case.
iTunes might currently be flagging compared to rivals like Spotify, but it seems that Apple has some big ideas to bolster its music services — and unlike many companies in Silicon Valley, they’re not going to be based solely on better algorithms.
In a new job posting, Apple makes clear that it wants to lead the way when it comes to specialized employees who know their music. In particular, the company is seeking an editorial producer, based in London, with a background in both music journalism and pop culture.
Apple is continuing to provide credible reasons that it may be working on an electric vehicle, as a new report suggests that Cupertino is in the midst of hiring away battery experts from major companies involved with the car industry.
The latest company to be allegedly targeted? None other than longtime Apple rival, Samsung.
In his breathtaking profile of Jony Ive in the latest issue of The New Yorker, Ian Parker drops a bombshell. You know that crossguard lightsaber in J.J. Abrams’ new Star Wars movie? The gnarly, rough-around-the-edges one seen in the latest trailer? You can give Ive credit for inspiring it.
That got Martin Hajek thinking. The Dutch CGI modeler, who always loves rendering potential Ive designs, wondered what it would look like if Apple produced a lightsaber. Not something rough and spitty, but just as refined as any other Apple product. And so, the iSaber was born.
If you want to switch over to Virgin Mobile from your existing network for its low prices, you’ll have to go Windows Phone or Android: Sprint’s pre-paid subsidiary seems to have stopped selling the iPhone.
One possible challenge with a vehicle packed full of connected components is what happens when you're out of range of the Internet. That problem could be partially solved by technology described in a 2003 patent (the oldest on this list, although it was only published in 2012). The patent describes a mesh network capable of keeping a car running in such a scenario.
Apple has since explored mesh networks beginning with iOS 7, becoming one of the first mainstream consumer tech companies to do so.
After hints that a broader international rollout was imminent, Apple Maps Connect has officially come to Germany, France and Canada.
Martin Scorsese’s iPad ad wasn’t the only Apple-related spot at last night’s Oscars. In addition, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak popped up in an advert for Cadillac, in which he was described as “a college dropout [who invented] the personal computer.”
Selective history notwithstanding (the Programma 101, Micral N and Altair all have claims to being the first personal computers, while the Commodore PET was the first mass-market model), the ad is particularly interesting given the recent news about a possible Apple Car.
Check out the ad after the jump:
Attention all Mac developers! You know how when your city changes its trash-collection policies it leads to months of confusion? That’s about to happen on the Mac App Store: If you want to continue selling apps there, you’ll have to switch how you collect your garbage.
Apple plans to open two new data centers in Europe, its biggest European project to date. Located in Ireland and Denmark, the twin data centers will power the company’s online services including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for local customers.
Ahead of tonight’s Academy Awards, Apple released a new video celebrating how iOS devices can help filmmakers.
Jony Ive and his infamous design team aren’t simply creating the Apple products you use and love, their influence is reshaping Apple itself. On this episode, we look back at Jony’s humble start, and examine how Sir Ive and team became the powerful core of the world’s greatest company. Plus, we bet you just can’t wait to get behind the wheel of your very own Apple-made … minivan? We’ll fill you in on the latest Apple car rumors.
Our thanks to Sanebox.com for supporting this episode. Sanebox’s algorithms learn which emails you want to see and puts the rest into a daily digest you can review and delete with one click. See how accurate it is with a free trial.
Full show notes ahead!
It’s the weekend, and Cult of Mac is here to bring you a roundup of all the app goodness you might have missed over the last seven days.
Apps for turning your iPad into a sketch board for your Mac, keeping records of all your stuff, and yes, even Microsoft Office made it into the roundup this time around. It’s a stellar lineup, so be sure to stay till the end.
Without further ado, here are this week’s awesome apps!
The mysterious Apple minivans roaming the roads in California, Florida and elsewhere are generally assumed to be self-driving cars, but they are not. They are almost undoubtedly collecting data for maps.
They are “almost certainly a mapping vehicle,” said Paul Godsmark, chief technology officer with the Canadian Automated Vehicles Centre of Excellence, who examined photos of the mystery vehicles at Cult of Mac’s request.
We get slammed 24/7 with new Apple rumors. Some are accurate, most are not. To give you a clue about what’s really coming out of Cupertino in the future, we’re busting out our rumor debunker each week to blow up the nonsense.
This week the Apple Car rumors have revved into fourth gear as a tsunami of reports from various outlets have claimed that not only is the iCar project real, but Apple is trying to get it onto highways by the end of the decade. While everyone’s focusing on the iCar, don’t forget about Apple Watch though. The rumor mill spit out five juicy rumors this week covering everything from pricing to customization.
Take a look at this week’s electrifying Apple rumors see which one’s are destined to come true:
Apple has once again been named Fortune’s “most admired” company. Having won for the past seven years in a row — and then proceeded to shatter its own records throughout 2014 — it’s no surprise that Cupertino would take the no. 1 spot, but it’s yet another reminder of Apple’s current sustained dominance.
Google, meanwhile, increased its position by one place, versus last year, to take the no. 2 spot, while Amazon fell back a couple of places to no. 4. Microsoft, IBM and Facebook all failed to make the top 10.
AJ Forsythe couldn’t stop dropping his iPhone and cracking the screen. He also couldn’t afford to be Apple’s best repair customer.
Clumsy but industrious, Forsythe bought parts on Alibaba and found he could fix his own phone cheaply and quickly. Soon, he was running a repair service out of his dorm room at California Polytechnic State University, replacing cracked touchscreens for $75.
Five years later, Forsythe runs a network of 1,700 technicians in the United States with another 400 in 11 countries under the name iCracked.
Apple may be a tech giant with more spare cash than a dozen Scrooge McDucks, but it does spare a thought for the little guy every now and then.
Late last year, the company launched a new portal called Apple Maps Connect, designed to allow businesses to add or edit listings within Apple Maps. Initially available for U.S. businesses only, last month it expanded to the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore — and now it may be set to arrive in French and German-speaking countries, too.