The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency put an AirTag into an item that was suspected to be on its way to illegal drug dealers. The hope was that Apple’s item tracker would enable DEA agents to discover the location of the criminals.
This may be the first time this has happened, and it also may be the last. We don’t know how useful the AirTag was in the investigation, but Apple deliberately makes the device very hard to use for surveillance of any type.
The FTC wants to free consumers trapped in subscriptions. Photo: Cult of Mac
The Federal Trade Commission wants to make cancelling subscriptions as simple as starting them. The US government agency proposed a “click to cancel” rule that would make it easy for consumers to escape recurring subscriptions and memberships.
Apple users can easily leave subscriptions they signed up for thorough the App Store. That’s not necessarily true for ones started elsewhere.
You can buy the bulbs one at a time or in 3-packs. Photo: Nanoleaf
Nanoleaf opened up preorders for its newly Matter-enabled Essentials lineup of smart bulbs and light strips Wednesday.
Thanks to the Matter smart-home standard, they work with HomeKit and other smart-home platforms. But there is one catch regarding their use with HomeKit.
These lips will warm up, make sounds and kiss you back ... if you let them. Image: Reuters/The Guardian video
COVID-19 lockdowns in China didn’t just mess up iPhone production, they inspired the invention of a bizarre new machine with fake lips you can use with your smartphone to “kiss” someone far away.
Chinese startup Siweifushe launched the MUA — named after kissing sounds — a couple of weeks ago, selling more than 3,000 of them and receiving orders for 20,000 more, a new report said.
You can set it to recognize someone at your door and play them a special message. Photo: Aqara
Aqara unveiled its new Video Doorbell G4 in January. It’s the first battery-powered, easy-install doorbell to integrate HomeKit Secure Video. And now it’s available to buy.
This is good news for HomeKit users who don’t like to mess with wiring but would love to have a artificially intelligent video doorbell that triggers automations.
Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" hits theaters later in 2023. Photo: Apple TV+
Apple reportedly hopes to make a big splash at your local movie theater in the very near future. The company supposedly will spend $1 billion to make films for the big screen.
These also will appear on the Apple TV+ streaming service, of course.
No artists were put out of a job in generating this image. Image: DiffusionBee/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Planet of the Apps is a series of interviews with app developers about making, marketing and maintaining apps in the App Store.
Swiss developer Morten Just has built a whole slew of useful Mac apps under the name Otato. But his latest app wasn’t made by him at all: He asked ChatGPT to build it for him.
While Just earned his stripes as a professional programmer, he didn’t write a single line of code to create 5 Movies. It’s an iPhone app that gives you five daily movie recommendations, shows you the trailers on YouTube and tells you where you can stream the films. (It’s currently pending App Store approval.)
These days, artificial intelligence is making headlines for giving users powerful tools that can write essays, recreate impressive art and give technology journalists the heebie-jeebies. 5 Movies is proof that, with a big assist from AI, it only takes a few prompts and a basic understanding of Xcode to create an iPhone app without any coding yourself.
When I interviewed Morten earlier this week for Cult of Mac, I asked him how he got ChatGPT to build his app, what the generated code looked like, and how AI-coded apps will impact ordinary people as well as software developers.
The earbuds are partially transparent and the charging case is fully so. Photo: Nothing
The Nothing company followed up its Ear (1) noise-canceling earbuds with the new Ear (2) version Wednesday, offering hip, hi-tech earbuds comparable to Apple’s AirPods Pro — but at a lower price of $149.
The new Nothing earbuds feature active noise cancellation, Hi-Res Audio certification, partially transparent casings for a cool look, and more personalization options than the originals.
Get ready to play Batman: Arkham Knight on your Mac, iPad or iPhone. Image: Rocksteady Studios
The Amazon Luna cloud-gaming service will soon include the Batman: Arkham Knight, Lego DC Super-Villains and three other premium games. They will be added in April.
And this applies to more than the United States, because Amazon also announced on Wednesday that residents of Canada, the UK and Germany now have access to Luna, which means they can play console-quality games on Mac, iPad and iPhone. There are even free games for Prime members.
Talk about a luxurious keyboard (with a price to match). Photo: Hacoa
People go nuts for solid wood on everything from guitars to flooring. But how about an all-solid-wood mechanical keyboard?
Japanese outfit Hacoa has one decked out in wood from the keycaps down through the housing, in either walnut or cherry. It’s called the Hacoa Full Ki-Board Wireless.
And it can be yours for the stout price of 99,000Yen ($745) plus shipping costs. That’s more than a base Mac mini.
The little bot will tell you how clean the air in your space is, and clean it for you. Photo: nara Pro
When you start to worry the air in your home could make you sick, an air purifier can help. And they’re getting smarter (but hopefully not “rise of the machines” smart a la Terminator).
The nara Pro, which the company bills as “the versatile air purifier robot,” runs a two-stage system via artificial intelligence that works with Siri and HomeKit, as well as other smart-home systems.
And you can get a good deal on it on the Indiegogo crowdfunding platform.
The stunningly beautiful and expensive Pro Display XDR gets a big discount. Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Apple’s 32-inch Pro Display XDR with nano-texture glass is down to its lowest price on Amazon. While the monitor retails for a whopping $5,999, you can get it for $5,499 on Amazon right now.
This is a massive $500 discount off its retail price. Like with all other Amazon deals, the one too is unlikely to last long.
"Friday Night Baseball" returns for a second season in early March. Photo: Apple TV+
Friday Night Baseball heads back to the Apple TV+ ballpark on April 7. This is the second season for the series that features weekly doubleheaders of marquee MLB games.
When the sports show launched in 2022, it was free. But that was last year — the 2023 season is only for subscribers to Apple’s streaming service.
One commenter thought the Mac Studio stacked on the old Mac mini looked like a Pixar robot character. Photo: [email protected]
This just in from the Things That Look Like Other Things Department: a Mac Studio desktop computer sitting on top of a Mac mini “looks like a small robot from Wall-E or one of the [other] Pixar films.”
Today’s featured setup sports the unintentional character in the form of an old Mac mini acting as a server and a stand for the much-newer Mac Studio. It’s pretty cute. You can imagine it rolling around, beeping and maybe firing off a laser blast.
Go ahead and hook up three 4K external displays to your M1 or M2 Mac with this new dock. Photo: NewQ
NewQ debuted its 16-in-1 USB-C Docking Station Wednesday with triple-4K-monitor support for Windows and macOS. It expands opportunity for M1 and M2 Macs with limited native external display support (one for MacBooks, two for Mac mini).
Plus, the 16-in-1 dock offers a port for practically any need and powers your laptop.
Voice Isolation isn't just for FaceTime anymore. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The Voice Isolation feature iPhone users have become accustomed to in video chats will soon expand to regular phone calls. It will make participants in these voice calls easier to understand.
This will be one of the major new features in iOS 16.4, which is expected in late March.
Is Apple silently working on an AirPods refresh? Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
Apple’s RC build of iOS 16.4 references an unreleased AirPods with the model number A3048. There’s also mention of a new AirPods charging case carrying the model number A2968.
In addition, Apple seems to be working on a new pair of Beats Studio Buds, dubbed the Buds+.
iPhone 14 Plus is selling better than many had previously thought. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Apple’s experiment with the iPhone 14 Plus is paying off… somewhat. The first 6.7-inch non-Pro model is selling much better than the 5.4-inch iPhone 13 mini it replaced, according to a market analysis firm.
That said, the Plus reportedly has the weakest demand of any of the handsets Apple released in fall 2022.
The iOS 16.4 release candidate means the full version should reach iPhones everywhere before the end of March. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Apple seeded the release candidates for iOS 16.4 and macOS Ventura 13.3 to developers on Tuesday, signaling that beta testing for these upcoming operating systems is almost over. The same is true for the release candidates for iPadOS 16.4, watchOS 9.4 and tvOS 16.4.
These will usher in new emoji, a better way for devs to work with betas, and other changes.
The Anker 737 MagGo MagSafe charger comes with a USB-C adapter and cable. Photo: Anker
Anker rolled out its latest 15W MagSafe charging stand Tuesday, introducing the 3-in-1 Anker 737 MagGo Charger. It adopts a triangular shape, juicing up iPhones at a full 15W and AirPods and Apple Watch at 5W apiece.
This follows the company’s first 3-in-1 MagSafe fast-charging stand, the Anker Cube, released in October 2022.
If you bought a top-tier smartphone anywhere in the world, it's almost certainly an iPhone. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Premium smartphones are on a roll. Revenue from iPhone and other devices that cost more than $600 grew to the point that they contributed more than half of all revenue from the product category in 2022, according to a market research firm.
That’s to Apple’s advantage, as iPhone sales make up 75% of this category.
The new Jabra Elite 4 buds cost just $99. Photo: Jabra
Jabra unveiled its new Elite 4 wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation Tuesday, offering various premium sound and comfort features for a modest price of $99 — $20 less than the previous version.
“The modern earbud user is looking for tech that’s ready for work and play at their fingertips, while not compromising on key features,” said Calum MacDougall, SVP at Jabra. “The Elite 4 offers a solution to this and is the perfect well-rounded design to help users to concentrate, connect and call without distractions.”