News - page 337

This week, Cult of Mac is giving away one Ultimate Ears’ fantastic Wonderboom 2 portable speakers. You have a chance to win this small-but-mighty outdoor speaker that costs $99 and is available in four colors.

If you win, you can take the Wonderboom 2 on all your outdoor adventures this summer. The road-worthy Bluetooth speaker is the size of a softball but pumps out sound the size of a giant beach ball. With 13 hours of battery life, you can rock on well into the evening. If you want the party to never end, be sure to enter this giveaway.

Illustrator and graphic designer andygigante_82 knows how to place his computer setup in an entertaining context. The fantastical space is his “Little Hobby Hole” — which he writes with a trademark symbol — as depicted in his Reddit post.

Looking at his photos, you might not notice the computer gear. That’s understandable, given every shot’s explosion of dynamic graphics, colorful action figures, skateboards festooned with his own graphic designs and more.

It’s preorder day for the new iMac, iPad Pro and Apple TV 4K — and we learned a few unexpected things.

For starters, the rumored May 21 shipping date for the devices looks confirmed.

Secondly, the Magic Keyboard for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is on sale again in both black and white color options, via the Apple Online Store.

The European Commission accused Apple on Friday of wielding an unfair advantage over Apple Music rivals because of Cupertino’s tight control of the App Store’s commission system.

“By setting strict rules on the App Store that disadvantage competing music streaming services, Apple deprives users of cheaper music streaming choices and distorts competition,” said Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager in a statement. “This is done by charging high commission fees on each transaction in the App Store for rivals and by forbidding them from informing their customers of alternative subscription options.”

It’s not just U.S. tech giants that fear iOS 14.5’s new App Tracking Transparency feature. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, with a market cap of $646.84 billion, is supposedly very worried, just like Facebook.

A report from The Information says Alibaba invited half a dozen marketing execs to its Hangzhou headquarters to discuss how to react to the new feature, which stops apps from tracking users across websites and third-party apps.

Turns out the 2020 version of Apple Magic Keyboard does fit the slightly thicker iPad Pro set for release in May. Apple said Thursday the accessory is “functionally compatible” with its newest tablet.

The clarification was necessary because previous statements from the company seemed to indicate that only a new, larger version of keyboard case was usable with the 12.9-inch version of the 2021 iPad Pro.

iPad shipments increased a whopping 75% during the first quarter of the year over same period of 2020, according a market analysis firm. It’s the result of people needing computers to work and learn from home as the pandemic drags on.

Other tablet makers saw strong Q1 2021 growth as well, but iPad continues to dominate the market.

Procreate 5.2 will let iPad users paint in 3D and then view their creations with augmented reality. That’s a significant  step beyond traditional 2D creation.

And Savage Interactive says its digital tool will be up to four times faster on the 2021 iPad Pro thanks to the M1 processor.

A trusted Apple analyst recently predicted MacBooks would never use OLED displays, shutting macOS laptops out from the best-looking type of screen. But an expert in display technologies disagrees, as do several other analysts.

iPads with OLED screens have been rumored to be on Apple’s drawing board. And iPhones and Apple Watch already use this type of display. It’s possible the tech will spread to all Apple products. There are advantages and drawbacks to OLED, though.

The redesigned M1 iMac marks the first time in about 20 years that Apple will sell its desktop Macs in multiple color options. But don’t expect to find all of them on display in your local Apple Store.

According to a press release published Thursday by Apple, only the green, pink, blue and silver iMacs will be available through physical Apple Store locations. To get your hands on the orange, yellow and purple color options, you’ll have to order online.

Samsung beat Apple to retain its spot as the world’s no. 1 smartphone manufacturer, new market analysis carried out by Canalys suggests.

In a newly published piece of research, the firm claims that Samsung shipped 76.5 million smartphones in the first three months of 2021. That’s 24.1 million more handsets than Apple’s 52.4 million.

According to (generally) reliable Apple tipster Jon Prosser, Apple will release the new iPad Pros with M1 chips and the faster Apple TV 4K with redesigned Siri Remote on May 21. And a leak straight outta Cupertino indicates the new M1-powered iMacs will arrive that day as well.

Apple showed off the new devices during last week’s Spring Loaded event. However, at the time, Apple kept the launch date vague, saying only that they would be available sometime in the second half of May. The devices will be available for preorder starting Friday, April 30.

April 29, 1997: Steve Jobs’ friend Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, calls off his bid to take over Apple.

Ellison’s plan is to reinstall Jobs, who is then just an adviser to Apple CEO Gil Amelio, as the company’s chief executive. He also wants to take Apple private again.

Apple has changed a lot since 1994 — and so has the way we buy computers. A video posted on YouTube by filmmaker David Hoffman offers a neat time capsule showing customers at a computer store in Palo Alto, California, quizzing a salesman on a then-top-of-the-line Mac.

At the time, Hoffman was working for a startup called General Magic. As part of the team’s research, they went to a local computer store to watch customers buying computers. It makes fascinating — and, depending on your age, very nostalgic — viewing. It’s a great reminder of how much things have changed, too.

If you check Amazon, the Harry Potter books remain big sellers, even approaching a decade-and-a-half since the last volume was released. While Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery can’t claim that kind of longevity, the iOS game continues to be a cash machine three years after launching.

According to a new report from Sensor Tower, the game — which launched in 2018 — has reached player spending of $300 million. In Hogwarts Mystery, players create their own characters, and then guide them through daily life at Hogwarts — including attending classes, forming friendships and rivalries, and more.

Apple did it again. It just announced a quarter where it didn’t just beat everyone’s expectations, it blew them away. The Mac had a phenomenal quarter, and so did iPhone and iPad.

But you don’t have to bury yourself in spreadsheets to get the lowdown on what it all means. Just read on.

The first three months of 2021 brought a flood of revenue for Apple, up 54% from last year. And profits, too. The company had a successful quarter all around, with double-digit growth in iPhone, Mac, iPad, wearables and services revenue.

A shining star in the results was iPhone revenue, which increased by a whopping 65%. But other product categories increased by even higher percentages.

Limited77’s sweet lineup of wood cases for iPhone just hit the Cult of Mac Store, and you can get yours at a reduced price for a limited time. There are two awesome designs to choose from, with prices starting at just $25. Bag yours before the discount disappears!

Delta Airlines is equipping its flight attendants with an iPhone 12. The handset’s augmented reality capabilities will be used for training as well as locating catering items stored on planes.

OK, maybe it’s a tad premature to freak out over couples’ setups being some sort of thing now. After all, the sample size here is just one, and we have no intention of carrying out any kind of exhaustive and exhausting survey or study on the matter.

Redditor thateconomistguy presents a “couples study space” where he and his girlfriend pore over economics research side by side under the frames in which they plan to display their upcoming master’s degree diplomas.

Wall Street thinks Apple recently finished an amazing quarter. If the analysts are right, the company will reveal on Wednesday the results of a January-through-March period with significant revenue growth in all its products, both hardware and services.

Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has fined Apple $12 million for allegedly abuse its prominent position in the world of mobile apps.

It claims that Apple gives its own products a competitive advantage on iOS. Apple “respectfully [disagrees]” with the decision.

AirPods have been on a crazy upward trajectory since Apple introduced them in 2016. However, that unassailable rise may have finally stalled, according to a report from Nikkei Asia published Wednesday.

The publication claims that Apple has cut orders for AirPods by 25-30% after being stuck with excess inventory sitting around in warehouses. This is due to the ever-expanding competition Apple faces from other companies making their own rival wireless earbuds — many at a lower price point than Apple.

Australia’s antitrust competition watchdog says that it may have to step in and regulate the App Store if Apple doesn’t do so first.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) wants app store operators — including both Apple and Google — to allow developers to take payments outside of the respective app stores. This would stop both companies taking commission from every app-related purchase in which apps are available through their online stores.

Netflix has Joe Exotic and Tiger King. Now Apple is making its own move into the, err, big cat showbiz entertainment genre with a podcast on pop culture icons Siegfried & Roy.

The forthcoming Apple podcast will chronicle the career of the famous German-American entertainers, who were known for their Las Vegas shows featuring white lions and tigers. Siegfried Fischbacher died in January. His partner, Roy Horn — who was famously mauled by a tiger in 2003 during the duo’s live show — died last year due to coronavirus.