Jetpack Joyride+ launched on Apple Arcade Friday, allowing subscribers to play the classic game without the hassle of in-app purchases.
Strap on a jetpack and fly through an endless runner. Or ride a mechanical dragon or giant mech while wearing a crazy costume — the game offers all these modes.
YouTube channel ChargerLAB got its hands on Apple’s new MagSafe Battery Pack and gave it the teardown treatment to see what secrets it contains.
The video, which you can check out below, shows off the magnetic battery pack’s dual-cell design. It looks like it essentially contains twin iPhone batteries — providing a total power output of 11.13Wh, based on two 3.82 volt batteries (7.62 volts combined).
Apple’s new MacBook Air with 13.3-inch Mini-LED display will debut in mid-2022, says respected TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo in a new note to clients, seen by Cult of Mac.
Kuo had previously said that a MacBook Air with Mini-LED screen would arrive sometime next year. However, he had not narrowed this down to a particular time of the year. Kuo is one of the more accurate (although not infallible) Apple analysts/reporters. According to AppleTrack, he has an accuracy rating of 76.6%.
Apple’s AirPods 3, the third iteration of its standard issue wireless earbuds, could make their debut in September alongside the iPhone, Digitimes reported Friday.
According to the report, the new AirPods — which are rumored to receive a redesign in line with the AirPods Pro, minus the active noise cancelling feature — will “remain price-friendly.” The current AirPods launched in March 2019 at $159 with standard charging case or $199 with wireless charging case.
Ikea and Sonos unveiled their latest collaboration recently — a Symfonisk Wi-Fi speaker embedded in a picture frame that blends into your home’s decor. But sorry, you won’t be slipping your oil painting of Steve Jobs in there. It’s not actually a picture frame.
OWC built Thunderbolt into the new Envoy Pro SX to make the portable drive fast and reliable. And don’t worry if you spill coffee on the SSD — it can take the punishment.
It’s available with up to 2TB of storage, isn’t bulky, and requires no fan.
Following the release of its 12-port Thunderbolt 4 dock in June, Anker is now rolling out a new addition to the PowerExpand range, the PowerExpand 9-in-1 USB-C PD Dock. It keeps a slimmer profile than Anker’s beefier docks in the range, some with a 12 and 13 ports.
Sony is offering PlayStation 5 owners a free, six-month trial of Apple TV+. This comes one month after Apple reduced the one-year free Apple TV+ trial for people who buy a new Mac, iPad or iPhone down to three months only. The Sony deal is open even if you’re already paying for Apple TV+ on a monthly basis.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted unanimously Wednesday to increase right to repair regulation stopping businesses from making it difficult for customers to fix their own products. Apple has repeatedly lobbied against right to repair laws around the world.
Back in May, the FTC published a report for Congress in which they listed some of the ways that companies (including Apple) make products tough to repair. These include gluing components together and restricting software and parts needed for carrying out maintenance. President Biden then recently signed an executive order asking the FTC to create new rules to bar these practices.
This appears to be the start of this ruling become more official.
TikTok is big. Almost unfathomably enormous, actually. The product of Chinese parent company ByteDance, the social media video-sharing app has remained a fixture at the top of the App Store charts for more than a year now — with no sign of it losing that position any time soon.
Journalist Chris Stokel-Walker is the author of a new book, titled TikTok Boom: China’s Dynamite App and the Superpower Race for Social Media. It launches today in Europe and worldwide, with a US launch coming September 30.
Stokel-Walker spoke with Cult of Mac about what makes TikTok, well, tick, the app’s face-off with Donald Trump, and why it’s no longer exclusively an app for teens to show off their dance moves.
Twitter is running an experiment that lets iPhone users downvote a reply to a tweet. It tests allowing users to actively show that they disagree with a response to a post on the social-networking service.
Twitter is often a venue for people to angrily argue politics, sports, entertainment, etc. Giving people the ability to downvote each other isn’t likely to calm the storm.
We’ll soon find out how the ongoing fascination with Steve Jobs will combine with the new fascination for NFTs. A handwritten job application the Apple cofounder filled out in 1973 is going up for auction both as a physical document and as a Non-Fungible Token.
Apple’s just-released MagSafe Battery Pack faced plenty of mockery for not being about as slim as a credit card, as some people apparently expected. This criticism clearly comes from people ignoring an inescapable fact: Batteries are always bulky.
Until there’s a revolutionary breakthrough in power storage tech, there’s no way to make an ultra-slim battery store a useful amount of power. Stop expecting it. And stop criticizing companies for not miraculously producing an impossible product.
Targus recently launched a trio of EcoSmart cases for iPad made from recycled post-consumer plastic and up to 40% biodegradable materials — with no compromise on protection, the company said. The cases showed up on Amazon in mid-to-late June.
Both macOS Big Sur 11.5 and iPadOS 14.7 made the jump from beta to full release on Wednesday. They bring only a handful of new features, though, as well as bug fixes.
The updates follow several days after the debut of iOS 14.7 for iPhone.
Accessories maker Hyper has launched 65W and 100W HyperJuice chargers — based on power-efficient gallium nitride (GaN) technology — that you can stack to increase power output.
Redditor madeitinthewild makes beautiful music up in Canada. Or he makes music, anyway. Jazz music. You can tell by the assortment of saxophones next to his M1 MacBook Air- and iPad Air 4-based mini music studio. That, and he said so.
“Remember to always practice safe Sax,” came the obligatory jazz-joke comment.
“No way I live on the edge,” replied madeitinthewild, kinda true to his Reddit handle.
Australian outfit Chargeasap is back on crowdfunding site Indiegogo with new high-capacity power banks for charging gadgets on the go. The Flash Pro works for Android and the MagSafe-compatible Flash Pro Plus is designed for Mac.
Apple is looking to phase out the iPhone mini line in favor of its next-gen iPhone SE, a Wednesday report by Nikkei Asia suggests.
Apple debuted its first iPhone mini with last year’s iPhone 12 generation. However, sales have never materialized to match its bigger siblings like the regular iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. While Apple will release an iPhone 13 mini this year, expect that to be its last.
In its place? More emphasis on Apple’s other low-cost handset: The iPhone SE.
Netflix seemingly isn’t content to compete with Apple (spoiler: it’s winning) over streaming video subscription services only. The media giant has now confirmed that it is planning to launch an Apple Arcade rival — and at no extra cost to its subscribers.
In a letter to shareholders, Netflix noted that it is still “in the early stages of the initiative,” but that it views it as a major piece of the puzzle in terms of dominating the entertainment landscape.
The iPhone 12 has been a major success for Apple, but Wedbush analyst Dan Ives thinks the company’s expectations are even greater for the iPhone 13.
In a Wednesday note to clients, seen by Cult of Mac, Ives suggests Apple is gearing up to produce between 90 million and 100 million iPhone 13 units. That’s a 15% increase year-on-year over the iPhone 12, whose initial orders were for 80 million units.
The analyst also sheds light on when he thinks the iPhone 13 event will take place.
Apple Music will exclusively livestream a special “sold-out listening event” for Kanye West’s 10th album, Donda, on July 22. The event will take place at 5 p.m. PDT, with the album launching the following day.
Donda is West’s first album since 2019’s Jesus Is King, which won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Christian Album. It also achieved the No. 1 position on the Rap Album, Gospel Album and Billboard 200 charts.
Apple’s next-gen AirPods, the third iteration of the company’s regular AirPods, will go into production next month, Nikkei Asia reported Wednesday.
This would be the first upgrade for Apple’s standard issue AirPods since the second-gen version debuted March 2019. The original AirPods made their debut in December 2016.
Although The Problem with Jon Stewart doesn’t premiere on Apple TV+ until September, the comedian couldn’t let Jeff Bezos’ and Richard Branson’s personal space race go by without comment. Stewart posted a video Tuesday making fun of billionaires competing to see who can shoot off a better rocket.
The humor isn’t subtle. Many jokes have been made about how much Bezos’ New Shepard rocket looks like a penis, and Stewart takes the idea and runs with it. If watching a video of giant space penises is going to get you in trouble at work, maybe you’d better wait until you get home to see this one.
If not, watch the mockery now:
A Kickstarter campaign pushes a new iPhone camera grip and MagSafe case combo called the Fjorden. It promises to turn your iPhone into a DSLR camera — while still fitting in your pocket. Its physical camera controls might make a lot of photographers very happy.