An Apple Watch user in the UK recently had their life potentially saved after they used their Apple wearable to call for help after getting stranded in a flooded river.
The cyclist, from Rotherwas, Hereford, was swept off their bike during a flood, and swept downstream for a mile. Eventually, they were able to grab onto a tree branch, and use their Apple Watch to dial 999, the UK equivalent of 911.
For years, China has been Apple’s biggest manufacturing hub for building its devices. But that’s now changing, with a report Wednesday claiming that Apple is “ramping up” production of iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other products in other parts of the world.
This is an attempt by Apple to diversify manufacturing beyond China, following trade tensions between the U.S. and China in recent years.
With its population of more than 1.3 billion people, India is the only country on Earth with a population that rivals China’s. (By comparison, the United States’ is a paltry 328 million.) It’s no wonder, then, that Apple has been hungrily eying the market for quite some time.
To date, success has been a bit disappointing, however. That may be changing, though, with a new report claiming that Apple doubled its market share in India during the last quarter, based on research from Counterpoint and CyberMedia.
Working and schooling from home has led to a rush of computer purchases, to Apple’s benefit. The Mac-maker is set to reveal the results of its most-recent financial quarter on Wednesday, and analysts predict quarterly revenue will break through the $100 billion mark for the first time.
Apple committed to a second season of its spy thriller Tehran on Tuesday. The first season drew praise from critics when it streamed on Apple TV+, and the adventures of Mossad agent Tamar Rabinyan will continue.
The recently released HomePod mini got a raft of new features in a software update released Tuesday. The process of handing off songs from an iPhone to the smart speaker now comes with some visual, audio and haptic effects. And media controls automatically appear on the iPhone when it nears the diminutive HomePod.
Starting Tuesday, Apple Watch users can install watchOS 7.3. This adds support for the recently announced “Time to Walk” audio feature for Fitness+ subscribers. There’s also a new Unity watch face. Plus, the ECG app will be available in four additional Asian countries.
Apple released iOS 14.4 to the general public on Tuesday, along with the iPad equivalent. According to their developer, these allow users to scan smaller QR codes, and to classify their various Bluetooth devices so audio notifications can be routed correctly.
It also closes a security hole that hackers might have actually used to break into iPhones.
Apple CEO Tim Cook will give a pro-privacy speech during the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection conference in Brussels this Thursday.
Cook will deliver his speech virtually from Cupertino. The talk will cover “enforcing rights in a changing world,” and will deal with boosting user confidence in online advertising, among other topics.
Apple TV+ is reportedly gearing up to buy a new serial-killer series called In With the Devil, starring Taron Egerton (Rocketman) and Paul Walter Hauser (Richard Jewell).
The six-part series will be based on James Keene and Hillel Levin’s 2010 book of the same name. It tells the story of Keene, a convicted drug dealer, who was asked to befriend a murderer in prison in order to link him to a series of unsolved killings. In exchange for taking on the undercover assignment, Keene was promised that he would be released.
Corellium, a company that makes virtualization testing products for iOS devices, is opening up its offering to include individual plan subscribers. Before this, its tools were only available with enterprise accounts.
This should make its products available to more developers than ever. In a blog post announcing the change, Corellium said that this also brings about a change in pricing. It notes that:
Is Apple helping facilitate an illegal gambling den by running the App Store? That’s the accusation made by a new lawsuit, claiming that freemium casino apps are running wild in the App Store — and Apple’s taking a piece of the action.
The plaintiffs in the case are two social casino app users. Each has spent upward of $15,000 on casino app in-app purchases.
Apple TV+ executives felt the need. The need for Top Gun: Maverick, the long-awaited sequel to 1986’s classic blockbuster, Top Gun. Unfortunately, Paramount Pictures wasn’t selling.
That’s according to a new report, claiming that Apple tried to pick up the rights to the new Tom Cruise-starring movie, after coronavirus scuppered original theatrical plans.
Programmers with years of automotive experience can apply now to help create the Apple Car. Apple’s website lists a number of job openings that, reading between the lines, appear to be for the team that’s building Apple’s self-driving vehicle.
Dan Riccio, one of Apple’s top designers, is moving to a mysterious new role in Cupertino.
After joining Apple in 1998, Riccio worked on loads of groundbreaking products, from the first iMac to last year’s AirPods Max and the M1-powered Macs. Now, he’s become Apple’s “vice president of engineering.”
Going forward, Riccio says he will be “focusing all my time and energy at Apple on creating something new and wonderful that I couldn’t be more excited about,” according to a press release Monday.
When Florian Mueller submitted his latest game to the App Store, he didn’t think it would end with him filing a complaint against Apple with the European Union, the U.S. Department of Justice and other antitrust authorities around the world.
But that’s exactly what happened after Apple rejected his Corona Control Game due to its COVID-19 theme. Google, which barred Mueller’s game from the Google Play store, is also named in his complaints.
Germany-based Mueller, who has another career as a blogger on legal issues, is not happy with how Apple and Google handled his game submission.
“When [Apple and Google] rejected the game at the beta-testing stage, I was indeed surprised that they took issue with it in such a fundamental way they wouldn’t even let us distribute it to testers,” Mueller, 51, told Cult of Mac.
The Snoopy Show, coming to Apple TV+ in February, puts the focus on Charlie Brown’s irrepressible beagle. A new trailer for the series dropped Monday, and it demonstrates the show is going to come crammed with lighthearted fun.
Watch the just-released trailer now.
Magnets and implanted medical devices don’t mix. Apple warned users of the iPhone 12 and MagSafe accessories that these devices all have built-in magnets, and therefore should be kept away from pacemakers and defibrillators that have been surgically implanted in someone’s body for safety reasons.
Time to Walk, a new Apple Watch feature for Fitness+ subscribers, promises interesting and encouraging audio stories to liven up walking for exercise.
This year’s Apple Watch upgrade will reportedly add another potentially transformative medical feature: a blood sugar sensor.
That’s according to a new report from ET News, which says both Apple and Samsung will bake the feature into their respective smartwatches — the Apple Watch Series 7 and Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 — later in 2021.
Italian consumer association Altroconsumo launched a massive class-action lawsuit against Apple on Monday, seeking 60 million euros ($73 million) for the alleged planned obsolescence of iPhones.
Specifically, the suit mentions the iPhone 6 and 6s generation of devices. Apple used a software update to slow down these phones’ performance, resulting in the “Batterygate” controversy.
“Planned obsolescence is a deliberate unfair practice to consumers that causes frustration and financial harm,” Els Bruggerman, head of policy and enforcement for consumer right’s group Euroconsumers, told Cult of Mac. (Altroconsumo is a part of Euroconsumers.) “In November 2020, Apple announced that it will pay $113 million to settle allegations that it slowed down iPhones to mask battery issues. That settlement clearly demonstrates that Apple resorted to planned obsolescence as a deliberate attempt to increase renewal of phone, hide issues and deceive consumers.”
Apple says it slowed down the iPhones to preserve battery life and avoid crashes of older devices. Between 2014 and 2020, Apple sold approximately 1 million of iPhone 6 and 6s models in Italy alone.
There’s something strangely nostalgic about Microsoft taking shots at Apple in a commercial. If you were to add in a post-grunge soundtrack, hair with frosted tips, and a supreme overconfidence in the value of any and every .com business, it could be the ’90s again.
Sadly such vintage touches aren’t present in Microsoft’s latest ad — pitting the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 against the MacBook Pro. Guess which one the folks in Redmond, WA think you’re better off buying?
It looks like the MacBook Pro isn’t the only Apple laptop that’s going back to the future. The next-gen MacBook Air supposedly will get MagSafe, just like the MacBook Pro we learned about last week. Plus it should come in thinner and lighter than ever.
Add in the upcoming iMac and Mac Pro redesigns, and this year is looking pretty fantastic for Mac fans.
Meanwhile, this year’s iPhone might be a bit of a welcome throwback as well. You can luxuriate in all the latest Apple news and rumors in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Grab it now to read on your iOS device. Or scroll down for the links to this week’s top Apple news, reviews and how-tos.
Spire Blast, a physics-based match puzzler that debuted Friday on Apple Arcade, is one of those simple games that so many people find addictive.
Strategically use colored balls to knock down towers. It’s a casual game that’s easy to learn but with multiple levels to keep it challenging.
Brie Larson, perhaps best know for her role in Captain Marvel, will reportedly take the lead in Lessons in Chemistry, a series about a frustrated scientist in the 1960s who’s forced to take a job on a cooking show.