After several months with my iPhone 15 Pro Max, I’m stripping off its case and going “nearly nude.”
Yes, there’s a chance I’ll drop it and incur a hefty repair bill. (If so, AppleCare+ will ease the sting.) But the unbridled joy of the naked iPhone in my hand — and the lurid thrill of leering at its sleek natural titanium finish — make it worth the risk.
Rumors indicate Apple is working on a 12.9-inch iPad Air due to launch later this year. A new leak shows off alleged design renders of the upcoming tablet.
The CAD renders show that the 12.9-inch iPad Air will resemble its 10.9-inch sibling. However, it apparently will feature a redesigned rear camera module.
The description of Chrome’s Incognito mode will soon be changed to make it clear that Google tracks people who use the web browser. It also will warn users that websites can gather data about them as well.
This means the only people blocked from knowing your browsing history when using Incognito mode are family/friends who use the same computer.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Apple Vision Pro preorder week brings interesting new details about the mixed-reality headset. Will it be a sellout success? An amazing entertainment device? A $3,499 pain in the neck?
Maybe all of the above! We go over the last-minute pros and cons.
Also on The CultCast:
Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.
The days of the iPhone’s NFC capabilities being limited to just Apple Pay are coming to an end. Apple is open to allowing rivals to use the iPhone wireless tap-to-pay system. But only in the European Union.
The change is the result of antitrust charges brought by the EU.
Check out Apple’s new video for the Vision Pro: It’ll definitely give you FOMO. Labeled a “guided tour,” the 10-minute video shows a newbie user testing the AR/VR headset for the first time.
You’ll see lots of moments where the newbie gasps with Steve Jobs’ famous childlike wonder. But while Vision Pro looks amazing for consuming media, the video suspiciously skips over work you might do with Apple’s new spatial computer. It’s mentioned, but briefly: Here’s your workspace, now let’s watch Godzilla!
There were gasps when Apple first revealed that the Vision Pro headset costs $3,499, but shoppers who load the spatial-computing device up with additional storage and Apple’s recommended add-ons pay almost twice as much.
But to put that price in perspective, an earlier ground-breaking Apple product — one that changed computers forever — cost even more than that when it launched decades ago.
Even if you have zero interest in buying a $3,499 mixed-reality headset, you should stop right now and watch the new Making Apple Vision Pro video. It’s an absolutely mesmerizing video that shows the elaborate manufacturing process for Apple’s upcoming “spatial computing” device.
It takes just over a minute to watch, and it’s truly stunning!
How much does Apple Vision Pro weigh? That was one of the great mysteries about the $3,499 mixed-reality headset before Apple published the Vision Pro technical specifications Friday.
The answer? Between 21.2 and 22.9 ounces. That’s 1.325 to 1.431 pounds, or 600 to 650 grams. (The “weight varies depending on Light Seal and head band configuration,” Apple says.)
Isn’t it great when someone on social media humbly displays a well put-together and complete computer setup that makes yours look like random debris? Well, at least it’s a good learning opportunity. And today’s MacBook Pro setup is an exceptional example, as it doesn’t look like “all that” — even though it is.
At a glance you might not guess that it packs about two dozen components, and the user is happy to explain how he uses most of them.
Cult of Mac joined forces with Pitaka again for another unmissable giveaway. Four fortunate winners will receive one of two iPhone cases: either a gorgeous orange-and brown Sunset case — inspired by Jack Kerouac’s Beat Generation novel On the Road, and previously sold out — or a blue-tinged variant called the Moonrise case. (That one’s color scheme pays tribute to “the ‘blue hour’ between sunset and moonrise,” according to Pitaka.)
Each case retails for $69.99, and winners will receive one or the other at random. Don’t miss your shot at landing one of these sought-after iPhone cases!
Apple Watch is a serious tool, but that doesn’t mean all its accessories need to be straight-faced. Elago excels at making lighthearted and charming retro-style accessories for Apple products, and its W9 Stand for Apple Watch is no different. It makes your wearable look like an old-school Mac.
Compatible with all Apple Watch series, from Ultra down through the smaller sizes, the W9 stand is available now in the Cult of Mac Store.
Highly respected British audio brand KEF released an “LT” version of its stellar, versatile AirPlay-ready LSX II speaker line this week, keeping most key features but dropping the price by about $300 to $400.
That doesn’t make them budget speakers by any means, at $999, but nobody shops KEF for that.
Seven months after its announcement at WWDC23, Apple started accepting preorders for its Vision Pro headset Friday morning — and quickly sold out. Shipping dates for the company’s first AR headset slipped within minutes of preorders opening.
The preorder also answered some questions about the Vision Pro. Plus, if you want one, you still have a chance to get one. The $3,499 mixed-reality headset — which Apple hails as the dawn of “spatial computing” — goes on sale February 2 in Apple retail stores in the United States.
Friday morning ushers in Apple’s era of spatial computing when the Vision Pro goes on sale, and the cutting-edge headset is likely to sell out almost immediately.
But that won’t be a sure indication of huge demand for the new product — Apple has reportedly produced a relatively small number of the $3,499 headsets.
Seagate unveiled the world’s highest-capacity hard drive Wednesday with its Exos Mosaic 3+ HDD platform, hitting the 30TB mark for the first time, the company said. That’s enough space to store a thousand Blu-ray movies.
The company said it used several new technologies to get there, and its road map shows the arrival of even bigger storage devices in the coming years. And while businesses will certainly go for these megadrives, they will also be available to many kinds of end users and require no special hardware to read.
As the trailer Apple TV+ dropped Thursday for documentary series Messi’s World Cup: The Rise of a Legend shows, the soccer superstar is practically a deity in his home country, Argentina. And if you don’t already worship him, you might start after watching the show, which premieres February 21.
Anyone who loves the world’s most-popular sport, soccer (aka football), probably knows a thing or two about Messi. But that just makes the new four-part documentary series all the more enticing for its “exclusive, behind-the-scenes” look at the man’s five World Cup appearances and his long-awaited 2022 win with Argentina.
Apple previewed Apple Hongdae Thursday, its seventh Apple Store in South Korea and 100th in the Asia-Pacific region, opening Saturday in a busy university neighborhood in Seoul with a daily Today at Apple Pop-Up Studio featuring hip-hop artist Beenzino.
“We couldn’t be more excited to bring our customers in Korea something special at the start of the year with the opening of the all-new Apple Hongdae,” said Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail.
With the Apple Watch sales ban back, Apple has decided to sell its latest smartwatches without blood oxygen monitoring in the U.S. The tweaked Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 models went go on sale starting January 18 across the company’s online and retail stores.
The Cupertino giant is not making any hardware tweaks to the wearables. Instead, it will turn off the blood oxygen sensor feature through software.
Apple lost a court appeal Wednesday, which means Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 might once again get pulled from U.S. store shelves. The court agrees with previous rulings that the wearables are in violation of a patent held by a medical-device company.
But Apple has a workaround: it’s almost certainly going to remove the application at the center of the patent dispute.
Competing designers in World War II Nazi-occupied Paris — Christian Dior, Coco Chanel, and others — launched modern fashion and helped bring the war-torn world back to life, the trailer for upcoming The New Look drama series on Apple TV+ implies.
Who knew? And with a cast including Ben Mendelsohn (Dior), Juliette Binoche (Chanel), John Malkovich, Maisie Williams, and other familiar faces, who cares if it’s letter-perfect history? It looks like a good time. Speaking of captivating performances, check out this take on Amanda Peet hot in a compelling role.
The 10-part series The New Look premieres on Apple TV+ on Valentine’s Day, February 14.
Apple’s sleek and colorful all-in-one desktop computer, the iMac, appears in Cult of Mac‘s setups coverage less often than other Macs, but not for lack of trying. It seems people don’t flaunt iMac setups all over social media all that much. But judging by today’s warm and inviting pink-iMac setup, maybe they should.
The cozy little office space also benefits from smart lights we don’t see all that often, either.
Apple unveiled its new 2024 Black Unity Collection featuring a new Apple Watch band and face Wednesday, as well as related iPad and iPhone wallpapers. Proceeds from watch band sales help support grantees in the company’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI).
The company also profiled one of the grantees — Shout Mouse Press — saying it inspires resilience and creativity in the Black community by lifting underrepresented voices in children’s literature.
Apple revealed Wednesday that iOS 17.3 will be out “next week.” The major feature is Stolen Device Protection, a new system for protecting the personal information of users.
It’s likely new versions of iPadOS, macOS and watchOS will also debut at the same time.
Apple devices are known for their beautiful designs and user-friendly functionality — not their battery power. Apple Watch is no exception, needing daily charging. So sometimes the battery runs low when you’re not near a charger. But a brand-new gadget fixes that problem.
qCharge 2.0 Portable Apple Watch Battery, now available in the Cult of Mac Store, goes wherever you go and charges up your Apple Watch (and AirPods Pro 2) anywhere, no cable required.