Vietnam is currently facing production challenges due to coronavirus. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The coronavirus pandemic might be winding down in the United States, but it’s still wreaking havoc in other parts of the world. And that includes hammering Apple’s supply chain.
But you'll have to wait until 2022 to get your hands on them. Photo: Apple
Apple’s next-gen AirPods Pro will feature updated motion sensors for fitness tracking and arrive in 2022, according to a Bloomberg report Friday.
This would be in keeping with Apple’s increasing focus on the fitness and wellness field, both with Apple Watch and its Fitness+ subscription service. AirPods Pro made their debut in October 2019, and have not been updated since.
Question: When is the front-facing FaceTime camera on an iPhone more trouble than it’s worth? Answer: When you’re a thief who has just stolen an iPhone and, by using it, you’re recording video evidence against yourself.
This is one of the presumably many mistakes made by 21-year-old Kairo Theophilus-Reid. Theophilus-Reid recently appeared in the UK’s Swindon Crown Court, charged with a 2019 mugging of a younger teen’s iPhone 7.
He was arrested alongside fellow mugger Charlie Graham, and was found to have used the iPhone to record video of the pair in a restaurant hours after the incident.
Another set of nominations for Apple TV+. Image: The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences/Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
For the second year in a row, Apple TV+ kids’ shows Helpsters and Ghostwriter have racked up a slew of Daytime Emmy award nominations. While not quite the collective 13 nominations the two shows received last year (of which Ghostwriterwound up winning one), they nonetheless picked up an impressive six noms between them.
Ghostwriter — now in its second season — received five nominations, including outstanding sound mixing and editing, lighting direction, music direction and composition, art direction, and hairstyling. Helpsters — also having finished season two — picked up a nomination for outstanding costume design.
Keeps your iPhone firmly in your hand. Photo: Casetify
If you were born with butter fingers and you find it hard to hold onto your iPhone, you need the Casetify Ring. This little device sticks to the back of any smartphone to provide a secure grip, and doubles as a stand.
This could could happen in the next year. Photo: Sony/Cult of Mac
Beloved PlayStation games could make the jump to iPhone, iPad and Android. The head of Sony’s games division promised to launch “iconic PlayStation IP on mobile” in the near future.
Your Apple email is slow or not arriving at all because iCloud Mail is having problems. Photo: Zachary DeBottis/Pexels CC
Update: Apple changed the status on iCloud Mail from “issue” to “resolved issue” on Thursday afternoon. Problems with the service persisted for about 5.5 hours before being fixed, though.
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It’s not just you having problems with an Apple email account. Apple reports that iCloud Mail has been having an ‘issue’ for several hours.
The Apple Watch continues to triumph. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
The Apple Watch is not slowing down when it comes to its dominance of the smartwatch market. According to a new report by Counterpoint Research, Apple Watch recorded an impressive 50% annual growth in Q1, claiming an impressive 33% of the overall global smartwatch industry.
Meanwhile, a separate report from the International Data Corporation said Apple shipped 30.1 million Apple Watches for the quarter, representing an almost 29% share of the market. While the reports differ slightly on the numbers, the take-home message is that Apple is killing it when it comes to smartwatches.
May not have been totally transparent about Apple TV+ show. Apparently. Photo: E. J. Hersom/Wikipedia CC
Queen Elizabeth II may not be the biggest fan of Apple TV+. According to a report from the U.K.’s Daily Mail, the queen signed off on her grandson, Prince Harry, doing a show for the streaming service — but was possibly misled about its contents.
The report claims the queen believed the show, The Me You Can’t See, was “about veterans’ mental health – not to air his dirty emotional laundry and launch a ‘personal attack’ on the royal family.”
Is Apple weaponizing privacy to increase its advantage? Screenshot: Apple
Facebook isn’t backing down in its battle against Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature. And it’s seemingly got a couple of heavy hitter researchers in its corner.
In a Facebook-funded paper published Wednesday, Feng Zhu, an associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, and D. Daniel Sokol, a professor of law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, take issue with Apple’s new privacy features — referring to them as “an anticompetitive strategy disguised as a privacy-protecting measure.”
Stick with your job and get an iPhone doesn't sound like a bad deal. Photo: A Befendo/Flickr CC
The fast food industry doesn’t just produce on-demand fries and burgers quickly, it’s also classically had a rapid turnover of employees. That’s a headache during normal times, but with the current post-COVID staffing shortage, it’s proving to be more of a migraine.
One McDonald’s restaurant in Altamont, Illinois, has a bright idea to get staff to hang around, though: Offer free iPhones for those who stay in the job for at least six months.
NBA superstar LeBron James shared an image of himself on Instagram wearing what could *just possibly* be the as-yet-unannounced Beats Studio Buds in white. The new, wireless Beats earbuds sound like they’re Beats’ version of Apple’s AirPods.
Beats is, of course, owned by Apple — thanks to Cupertino’s massive $3 billion acquisition in 2014. For whatever reason, it seems Apple will continue to release Beats-branded earbuds, despite the fact they stray into AirPods territory.
Some astounding closeup images should make you stop laughing at iPad photography. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Professional photog/developer Sebastiaan de With accidentally discovered that the rear-facing camera in the 2021 iPad Pro can focus on objects very close to the lens. This allows the tablet to capture close-up images not possible with an iPhone.
Cult of Mac did a bit of experimenting and confirmed the results.
Apple is exploring alternative payment systems, and the magic word “cryptocurrency” came up. Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac
A job opening at Apple for an “Alternative Payments” business manager set off a wave of speculation that the iPhone-maker is getting into cryptocurrency.
It’s apparently a change of heart by CEO Tim Cook, who’s on the record as being opposed to privately controlled currencies.
Stephen King talks about his inspirations for writing Lisey’s Story, which debuts June 4 on Apple TV+. Screenshot: Apple TV+
Stephen King makes no bones about it: Lisey’s Story is his favorite novel. He talks about why in a video released a week before the Apple TV+ premiers an adaptation starring Julianne Moore.
The author also discusses why he changed the story for the series.
Some DIY touches and nice decor top off a highly functional setup. Photo: callum-edw@Reddit
While London-based dental student and Redditor callum-edw studies how to fix your teeth, maybe you should study how he builds a classy computer setup with solid tech plus a few swanky details and DIY touches.
Callum’s rig centers on a MacBook Air M1 tethered to a 24-inch Dell U2419HC UltraSharp external monitor.
Because 2021 hasn't had enough Zoom calls. Photo: Apple
Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry’s Apple TV+ show, The Me You Can’t See, apparently became a big hit for the streaming service.
According to Deadline, insiders call the series the most-watched program worldwide on Apple TV+ since premiering earlier this month. It also drew 25% new viewers to the service, and a “more than 40% increase” in average weekend viewership in Harry’s homeland.
It's a big improvement from its predecessor. But not easy to open up. Photo: Apple
Most people haven’t gotten their hands on the 2021 Apple TV 4K yet. The good folks at iFixit have not only picked one up, but they’ve also stripped it down to peer inside.
A new teardown video suggests that the next-gen set-top box could be fairly straightforward to fix. However, don’t expect that same repair ease to apply to the upgraded Siri Remote.
How do you follow up a monster like the A14 chip? With the A15, of course! Concept: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
TSMC, the world’s largest semiconductor maker, has reportedly commenced production on the next-gen A15 chip for the iPhone 13.
It seems that Apple’s expecting to have a big hit on its hands, too. Digitimes reported Wednesday that “demand for the chip surpass that for its predecessor last year in scale, according to industry sources.”
With Center Stage support in the new Zoom version, the front-facing camera in the 2021 iPad Pro will follow you during your video calls. Within limits, of course. Photo: Zoom
Zoom users with a 2021 iPad Pro will be able to use the tablet’s Center Stage effect that keeps them cantered in the front-facing camera during video calls.
And Zoom 5.6.6 will also lets Apple tablet users see far more people in the gallery view.
Peek inside Rome's gorgeous new Apple Via del Corso store. Photo: Apple
As impressive as the sleekly minimalist, modernist Apple Stores are when they’re built from the ground up, there’s something dazzling about the company’s retail outlets that take over and restore classic buildings.
That second category certainly applies to Apple Via del Corso, which opens Thursday in the historic city of Rome. The 17th Apple Store in Italy, the new (well, old) structure is described by Apple as one of its “most significant restoration projects.”
That may be understating its appeal, too. Judging by the images, this could be the most spectacular Apple Store yet.
The iPhone 12 featured OLED displays on every model. Photo: Apple
Apple will become the world’s leading purchaser of OLED smartphone displays in 2021, snapping up an enormous 169 million panels for use in its iPhones. That’s considerably up for the 114.5 million it bought last year. It also puts Apple ahead of Samsung when it comes to buying these displays.
A MacBook Pro concept could be a first look at a 16-inch model Apple is about to release. Concept: Antonio De Rosa
Concept artist Antonio De Rosa combined the leaks and rumors about the next 16-inch MacBook Pro into a collection of images of the significantly redesigned device.
This is Siri. No, not like Siri from the iPhone. Photo: Siri Hafso
Apple’s Siri voice control system was named after a real woman in Norway. This isn’t her story.
Instead, it’s the story of Siri Hafso, an ordinary Apple fan who’s very tired of people making jokes about her name. And she asked Apple CEO Tim Cook if he can make it up to her.