News - page 358

When it comes to iPad Pro, bigger would be better. And when it comes to iPhone 12 mini, smaller was definitely not better – at least from a sales perspective.

Get those perspectives in this week’s top opinion/analysis pieces from Cult of Mac Magazine. Then enjoy the rest of the week’s top Apple news, how-tos and reviews. It’s all free and ready to download and read on your favorite iOS device.

P.S. After weeks of Apple car rumors, don’t miss our thought experiment that explores five ways Cupertino could shake up our ideas about automobiles.

Facebook is reportedly building a smartwatch that’ll offer instant messaging on the go. And help users stay fit.

Of course, the Facebook watch will have to go head-to-head with Apple Watch, the 500-pound gorilla of the wearables market.

Save 15% on awesome iPhone and Apple Watch accessories from Just Mobile, SwitchEasy, and MagEasy in the Cult of Mac Store’s Valentine’s Day sale. Cases, screen protectors, portable battery banks and more are on offer. The sale ends soon, so enjoy it while you can.

Apple’s long-awaited AirTags personal item trackers might finally jump from rumor to reality. A reliable prognosticator says these accessories will reach customers in March.

And the same goes for an updated iPad Pro. Previous leaks also point to the tablet coming out before the end of Q1 2021.

While the iPad Pro serves as a primary computer for many people, the 12.9-inch version is simply too small. Apple needs to make a 15-inch iPad Pro Max to make the tablet truly useful for power users.

And a bigger screen is only the start. This version should include other top-tier features not found in Apple’s smaller tablets.

The UK government’s Department for Work and Pensions is reportedly buying 11,000 iPhone SE handsets for use by employees.

The report claims that it is paying around (4.1 million British pounds) $5.7 million for the total quantity of 64GB handsets.

One of the things that always surprised me was how, compared to some of his Silicon Valley peers, Steve Jobs’ net worth during his life paled in comparison to some of his contemporaries.

When Jobs died in late 2011, his net worth was reported as being $10.2 billion. That’s an enormous amount of money, but it was a drop in the ocean next to Bill Gates’ $56 billion that year, and less than Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s $19.8 billion apiece, Michael Dell’s $14.6 billion, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg’s $13.5 billion.

Had Jobs had the same share arrangement today, however, it would be a very different story.

Subscription apps are thriving right now, and nowhere more so than on iOS. According to a new report from app analytics platform Sensor Tower, worldwide spending on the top 100 subscription apps on the App Store generated $10.3 billion in 2020.

That’s a massive 32% increase from the $7.8 billion spent in 2019. It’s also close to four times what Android apps in the Google Play store pulled in in 2020. (They earned just $2.7 billion.)

More than 100 million people in the world now wear an Apple Watch, Above Avalon analyst Neil Cybart claims.

Provided those numbers are accurate, that’s the equivalent of every single person in California, Texas and Florida, the three most populous U.S. states — and with a good few warehouses of Apple Watches left over.

Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph has some advice for Apple. He thinks the company needs to really commit by spending more money on content for Apple TV+ to successfully compete in the streaming market.

The Adonit Prime is a stylus for the luxury shopper. There are versions for Apple tablets or iPhone, and both are made with premium materials.

With a price of $250, the Prime is for business professionals who want a digital stylus for the boardroom or office. A desktop charging stand both stores and shows off the accessory.

A U.S. House of Representatives committee sent Apple CEO Tim Cook a letter with questions about the App Privacy labels displayed in the App Store. The letter was prompted by a published report that many of these privacy “nutrition labels” contain incorrect information.

Fans of the Apple TV+ sci-fi series For All Mankind can enjoy a free augmented-reality application that lets them virtually handle objects from the alternate-history show.

Season two — which premiers in February on Apple’s streaming service — begins about a decade after the events of season one. The For All Mankind: Time Capsule AR app helps bridge the gap.

Apple’s upcoming augmented-reality glasses could make additional MacBook screens unnecessary. An AR concept video shows how virtual displays could appear next to real ones, making the user more productive without having to carry around all that hardware.

Watch it now:

You can pick up new AirPods at pretty terrific prices right now, which means it’s a great time to upgrade if you’re still rocking Apple’s original wireless buds. And we can help make the upgrade even more affordable.

Sell your old AirPods to Cult of Mac today to turn them into quick cash that you can spend anywhere. We’ll tell you how.

The Fraudulent Website Warning system built into Safari in the upcoming iOS 14.5 reportedly takes an additional step to protect your identity. Apple licenses the scam-prevention service from Google, and going forward will block that company from knowing users’ IP addresses through the use of a proxy server.

David Wilcox is an IT consultant working from home in Bristol, England. His remote work situation means he gets to tweak his setup just as he likes, he told Cult of Mac.

Wilcox’s central command is a 27-inch 5K iMac from 2019. Humming along with it are two 28-inch U2HE850 monitors paired and run together via a Startech Thunderbolt 3 to Dual DisplayPort Adapter.

With that much screen real estate and a plethora of networking gear, he gets a lot done.

“My first computer was a Sinclair [Research] ZX81,” he said, referring to a machine made by Timex Corp. in the United Kingdom starting in 1981. “So this setup is just about a home-computing Nirvana!”

With the global pandemic causing many students to rely on remote learning, it’s not a great time to be in higher education. But there is one small bright spot: Cupertino just doubled the free trial period for Apple Music for students in select countries.

Instead of the standard three-month trial, students in higher education can now get six months before they must shell out a monthly fee. The extended trial, only available to new Apple Music customers, runs through April 30.

Patent applications published Thursday shed new light on Apple’s quest to create a noninvasive blood sugar sensor. Unconfirmed rumors point to the transformative medical feature arriving in this year’s Apple Watch upgrade. If true, it could offer diabetics and others a convenient way to accurately track blood glucose levels.

Apple reportedly acquired the rights to Dolly, a science fiction courtroom drama about a robot companion that kills its owner, then proclaims itself innocent and demands a court trial.

The movie is set to star Academy Award nominee Florence Pugh (Little Women). No director has yet been attached.

Claire Danes will reportedly star in The Essex Serpent, a drama series about a 19th century widow who goes monster hunting. The show will be based on a popular novel.

Previously Keira Knightley was going to take the lead, but she bowed out of the project over COVID-related scheduling problems.

Apple’s rumored electric vehicle could be just a nice luxury item that appeals to Apple fans with a lot of disposable income, similar to the HomePod or AirPods Max — but far more expensive. Or it could alter the automotive experience in a far more profound, Apple-esque manner.

I’d bet on the latter option. Apple doesn’t do things by halves. Steve Jobs famously stated that he wanted to build a personal computer that would put a ding in the universe. The iPhone, Apple Stores, the Apple Watch, iTunes and the App Store — those all changed the way that we use technology on a regular basis. They solved a bigger problem than just giving us a nice, Apple-branded version of an existing product to play with.

If Apple makes a car, it will likely remake the way we think about cars. Here are five ways Cupertino could do that.

Apple Maps will start collecting crowd-sourced accident reports when iOS 14.5 is released. The beta version already lets users test sharing the locations of accidents, speed traps and other hazards.

This is hardly cutting edge, of course. Google Waze has included the feature for years.

Mophie’s new Wireless Charging Stand+ powers an iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch simultaneously. Plus, it props up the handset so it can be used while charging.

The accessory hit online store shelves on Wednesday.

Basking Ridge, New Jersey-based Edward Wang, Ph.D., is an executive director with Quest Diagnostics. He took some serious time and effort making his setup a clean and powerful tool for health care work and audiovisual play. Once he diagnosed and treated a cable-management malady stemming from several separate pieces of computer and audio equipment, his setup delighted him.