Build and decorate an ideal farm in Farm It! on Apple Arcade Photo: Tummy Games
The just-released Farm It! manages to set itself apart from the plethora of other farming games with one big advantage. Because it’s on Apple Arcade it won‘t nag players to pay real money to buy in-game items.
Jim Sturgess and Brooklynn Prince return in a new season of Home Before Dark on Apple TV+. Photo: Apple
The premiere season of Home Before Dark pleased critics and audiences alike, and Apple TV+ revealed on Friday that season two will play on the streaming service in summer 2021.
The show follows Hilde Lisko, who doesn’t let being a child stand in the way of being an investigative journalist.
iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch users should install new system software updates immediately. Graphic: Cult of Mac
Apple has a fix for a serious bug in the mobile version of its Safari web browser. Hackers have reportedly already used it, which makes a high-priority of installing iOS 14.4.2, iPadOS 14.4.2 and watchOS 7.3.3. All three hit Apple servers Friday morning.
Versus Evil’s Hitchhiker is a mystery story and game in one. Photo: Versus Evil
Hitchhiker asks players to travel the highways exploring the unknown while also confronting new dangers. It’s sort of a mystery novel in the form of a game. But unlike a book, choices you make when speaking to people you meet affect how it all comes out.
Dual curved displays and magic Apple peripherals make this setup sing. Photo: Russ Hicks
With the recent arrival of a dual-monitor stand, Oxford, England-based Russ Hicks completed an overhaul of the setup that powers the one-man business he has run for 25 years: Genesis Marketing Services.
He specializes in printing equipment suppliers and packaging services. And his business now runs on a Mac mini M1 and dual curved screens.
Multiple sclerosis has made Hicks’ work more challenging recently, but Apple products have helped him deal with it.
After more than a year of rumors, AirTags might soon see the light of day. Concept: Jon Prosser
Apple’s location-tracking AirTags could retail for $39, and measure a diminutive 32mm x 32mm x 6mm, making them smaller than the rival Tile Pro item trackers.
Apple leaker Max Weinbach shared the information in a new video from EverythingApplePro. The video notes that the information comes from a “retail source,” and that, while the price is “an estimate,” it is likely that AirTags will retail for approximately this figure.
Interestingly, there’s no mention in the video of a rumored two sizes of AirTags. This is something that Apple leaker l0vetodream suggested last year. That earlier report also suggested that the AirTags keychain will be sold separately.
Sell your old Mac to Cult of Mac today and you’ll get a nice stack of cash to put toward a new model. We typically pay more than anyone else, and we’re fast!
A new report claims that Apple’s next-gen AirPods won’t arrive until the third quarter of 2021. This backs up a recent report from renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who recently said that the AirPods 3 are unlikely to launch until Q3 2021.
Prior to this, AirPods 3 had been heavily rumored as being part of Apple’s next product event — originally rumored for March, but then pushed back to April.
The new iPhone could ditch the graphite color option for matte black. Photo: EverythingApplePro
Apple could ditch the gray “graphite” option seen in the iPhone 12 Pro for a new matte black color with the iPhone 13, claims Apple tipster Max Weinbach.
In a video posted to the EverythingApplePro YouTube channel Friday, Weinbach shared mockups of the new premium black finish. This would be similar to the black color option available for the regular iPhone 12, but in a high-end matte finish.
It reportedly also will boast a new anti-fingerprint coating to ensure the handset looks its best at all times.
Apple is considering whether to launch a more ruggedized Apple Watch aimed at athletes and people doing outdoor activities in extreme environments, Bloomberg reported Friday.
This device could potentially be launched as early as this year or 2022. Inside Apple, the project is referred to as the “Explorer Edition” Apple Watch. It would offer the same basic functionality as the regular Apple Watch, but with added rubberized impact-resistance and protection — similar to Casio’s G-Shock line of watches.
And you thought the iPhone 12 Pro Max was big. Photo: เอาไปแบ่งกันดู/Facebook
We’ve all been there. You eagerly place an order for a new iPhone online, then eagerly wait by the door for its arrival, only to have your fun ruined when it turns out that your new iPhone is, in fact, a table.
OK, so we’ve not all been there. But an unnamed Thai man apparently has, after he bought what he thought was a cheap iPhone 7 that turned out to be a novelty desk.
A slew of AI-related acquisitions might make Siri less of a nimrod. Which is important considering it’s built into so many products, like HomePods. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple reportedly bought more companies developing artificial intelligence technology over the past five years than anyone else. A prime goal is to make the Siri voice assistant smarter, according to GlobalData, the market-research firm that compiled a list of AI-related acquisitions by many companies.
The top-notch camera in the iPhone 12 Pro Max scored kudos from “Consumer Reports.” Photo: Lyle Kahney/Cult of Mac
Consumer Reports on Thursday revealed its “Best Smartphones of 2021.” And Apple’s biggest and most expensive model beat every other iOS device. The iPhone 12 Pro Max was named the “Best iPhone”
According to a recent complaint filed with a U.K. antitrust regulator, Apple and Google are working a bit too closely for comfort. The complaint alleges “collusion at a very senior level” of both companies when it comes to search engines.
But make no mistake: While things certainly cooled down since the days when Apple co-founder Steve Jobs threatened to go to “thermonuclear war” against Google, the two companies remain on a collision course. And the conflict will come over the exact same issue they’re currently allegedly colluding on.
It’s all about the future of search as we know it.
An iPhone emerged fully functional from the bottom of a Canadian lake. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Canadian Angie Carriere dropped her iPhone into a lake while she was ice fishing. A month later, she retrieved off the bottom of the still-frozen lake. And it works.
This is the first time a play has been staged at the Steve Jobs Theater. Photo: Apple
For the first time ever, the Steve Jobs Theater is about to become a, well, proper theater through the airing of a play filmed at the Apple Park venue usually used for Apple keynote events.
The play, 12 Angry Men… and Women, is based on the book 12 Angry Men: True Stories of Being a Black Man in America Today. It will be available to watch for free via the Apple TV app from Friday, March 26 through April 22.
One of the big criticisms leveled at Apple over its control of the App Store is that it doesn’t allow ways of side-loading apps. That is to say that, if you want an app on iOS, it’s Apple’s way or the highway.
Apple, however, disagrees. In a response made as part of the Australian consumer watchdog’s probe into the App Store, Apple argues that this is not true at all — because people can create web apps or the internet.
Oprah Winfrey will interview National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman on her show The Oprah Conversation this Friday. The 23-year-old inaugural poet, author, and activist wrote the poem “The Hill We Climb,” delivered at the inauguration of President Biden and VP Kamala Harris.
“Amanda Gorman is a young woman who stepped into a moment in history with enormous grace and dignity,” said Winfrey in a statement. “I was enthralled by her youthful spirit from the first moment we met, and very much looked forward to hearing her unpack all that has happened to her the past few months.”
Apple has long talked up the strides it’s making when it comes to being an inclusive workplace. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t examples of this not being the case.
As reported by Bloomberg Thursday, Apple has lost the early round of a discrimination lawsuit brought against the company by a female engineer from India. She alleges that her two male managers, one from India and the other from Pakistan, treated her as a subservient.
Apple ads consistently find fun, accessible ways of showcasing features without having to resort to technobabble. Case in point: Its new ad showing off the Ceramic Shield for the iPhone 12.
Apple could easily fill a 30-second ad talking about how this specially engineered glass is heat-treated so as to develop nano crystals similar to the ones found in ceramics, which are embedded into the glass matrix of the display. It could talk about the difference between hardness and toughness, and give percentage improvements over last year’s model.
But it doesn’t. Because most people only want to know whether this means they can drop their iPhone without it breaking. That’s where the “Fumble” ad comes in.
A job application filled out by Steve Jobs when he was even younger than this sold recently for big bucks. Photo: BBC
The fascination with Steve Jobs continues on a decade after he passed away. A handwritten job application the Apple cofounder filled out in 1973 sold on Thursday for $221,747 (£162,000). That’s far more than it went for three years ago.
Here’s the abstract wallpaper from Mac OS X Tiger released in 2005. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Wednesday is the twentieth anniversary of Mac OS X. And those who went though the many versions over the decades can download some reminders. Every major new version came with a fresh wallpaper, and they’re all available for free.
The iPhone SE Plus is allegedly coming later this year, and it might look like this. Screenshot: The Hacker 34
An iPhone SE Plus with an edge-to-edge screen and Touch ID in the power button is supposedly coming in the second half of 2021. A concept designer transformed the leaked specs into a beautiful video exploring features of the proposed iOS handset. Watch it now.
OS X changed the game for Apple. Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
OS X, the most important piece of software in Apple history, turns 20 today.
Going on sale in its full, public version on March 24, 2001, Mac OS X 10.0 — code-named Cheetah, the first of many cat-themed names — transformed Apple’s operating system forever. It brought user interface enhancements that persist to this day, as well as technological advances that form the backbone of Apple’s current operating systems. In fact, OS X paved the way for today’s post-PC devices, from the iPhone and Apple Watch to HomePod and Apple TV. If you’d like toknow more about Apple’s operating system evolution, check out this deep dive into its history.
While Apple eventually ditched the “OS X” branding for “macOS,” and switched from naming Mac software after big cats to California locations in 2013, Cheetah’s impact continues to be felt two decades after its introduction.
Esther Smith and Rafe Spall return for Trying season 2, premiering globally on Apple TV+ on May 14. Photo: Apple TV+
Apple TV+ on Wednesday promised a third season of the comedy series Trying. And it announced the second season of the show about a couple undergoing the herculean trials of adopting a child will debut worldwide in mid-May.