The National Park Service service turns 104 on Tuesday, and to help celebrate, there is a new Apple Pay donation program and special content collections on Apple TV and the App Store. Plus, there’s an upcoming Apple Watch Activity Challenge.
Apple reportedly explored adding an iPod port to the Mac mini. Images of a prototype unit surfaced online over the weekend, showing a product Apple decided not to release.
Apple’s market cap has surged by $600 billion in the past 20 days. That’s nearly the equivalent of Tesla’s $394 billion and Netflix’s $218 billion market caps combined, Above Avalon analyst Neil Cybart points out on Twitter.
Upcoming live-action Disney movie Mulan will be available to purchase through Apple’s TV app, Variety reports.
A remake of the 1998 animated movie, the 2020 Mulan will cost $29.99 to purchase on third-party platforms — Apple’s included — starting September 4. If that’s the only Disney content you’re interested in seeing right now, that’s actually cheaper than watching it via Disney+.
Apple won’t be forced to boot messaging app WeChat out of the App Store in China, Bloomberg claims in a weekend report.
According to the publication, the Trump administration is “privately seeking to reassure” American companies like Apple that they can still do business with WeChat in China. Two weeks ago, Trump ordered a U.S. ban on WeChat, although the details were not clarified.
Possibly the most spectacular Apple Store yet is set to open in Singapore, Apple’s third retail store in the country.
Apple Marina Bay Sands has a look like no Apple Store before it. It resembles a geodesic dome or giant lantern sitting on a body of water in the iconic Marina Bay, a luxury venue which first opened its doors in 2010.
Apple’s South Korea business has said that it will make a 100 billion won ($84 million) payout to support small businesses and help consumers. This is to address antitrust concerns raised in the country.
Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has been investigating Apple Korea for reportedly forcing mobile carriers to pay for advertising and warranty repairs. The payout — which is phrased like a pledge, but also sounds like a fine — will act as a make-good on Apple’s “unfair” terms.
You can get a comprehensive overview of all your HomeKit cams with Eve’s latest app update. And if you spot neighbors doing something fishy on your property, you can use Jury to settle the dispute virtually rather than taking them to court (or throwing fists like a barbarian).
Those are just two of the featured apps in our roundup of the week’s best new apps and updates.
Apple’s brain-melting march beyond a $2 trillion market cap might be just the start. Find out how high AAPL stock might go (and why all this success might have Apple fans tired of winning).
Plus, we’ve got more Apple rumors, this time concerning a potential cheaper Apple Watch and more! And Epic Games unleashes yet another creative salvo in its battle royale with Apple. (Surprise, surprise — Cupertino fires back in court.)
You can read all these stories, plus plenty of Apple how-tos and product reviews, in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Download it now!
Apple on Friday asked a judge to deny Epic Games’ request for a court order forcing Apple to return Fortnite to the App Store. In a filing, the iPhone-maker said Epic Games brought the ban on itself by its own actions.
The court’s decision will determine whether this wildly popular game will be available for iPhone and iPad users while a potentially lengthy court battle between Apple and Epic Games goes on.
This week on The CultCast: It’s a battle of the titans! Fortnite developer Epic Games takes Apple to court over its App Store policies, and the dev just might get its way. Plus: Apple and its stock hit another astonishing milestone; Jon Prosser was right — Apple has begun rebranding Beats; and Apple TV+ finally makes the move we’ve been waiting for: bundling premium channels for one low price.
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
The Apple Watch essentially launched the smartwatch category, and continues to dominate it. And rather than competitors catching up, Apple’s share of this market in increasing. It took in 51.4% of the worldwide revenue from shipments of smartwatches during the first half of 2020, a significant rise from the same period last year.
Keep your AirPods looking cool this summer with the super-sweet Ice Cream case from Elago. Available in four delicious color options, it not only looks great, but also keeps your AirPods protected on the go.
What’s more, it’s a steal at just $18.
Images and a video allegedly showing a teardown of AirPower, Apple’s multi-device wireless charger that was canceled before it launched, came to light Friday.
Samurai Jack made the jump from cartoon to video game on Friday, with this classic series transformed into an action platformer.
The star of the Cartoon Network series faces new enemies and rejoins familiar allies to track down the evil Aku and defeat him once and for all in Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time on Apple Arcade.
Epic Games will hand out anti-Apple prizes in a new Fortnite tournament due to take place Sunday, August 23.
Prizes will include a “Free Fortnite” hat modeled after Apple’s classic “Think Different” branding, the in-game skin for the evil-looking Apple Big Brother character (dubbed the “Tart Tycoon”) from Fortnite‘s “1984” Mac ad parody, and more.
Apple passed $2 trillion this week, but one bullish Apple analyst doesn’t think the stock is anywhere near its limits. In a note published Friday, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote to clients that he thinks Apple has “a lot of gasoline” left in the tank.
Ives predicted Apple could reach as high as $600. Currently, AAPL is trading at $473.10, defying the overall market with its upward trajectory.
Several major news outlets are throwing their hats into the ring with Epic Games and others in pushing back against Apple’s App Store commission.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a trade body that represents the New York Times, Washington Post, WSJ and other publishers has sent a letter to Tim Cook asking for better terms for digital subscriptions sold through the App Store.
Apple TV+ series Little Voice came to an end Friday with the season finale episode debuting on Apple’s streaming TV service.
Producer J.J. Abrams’ series, created with songwriter Sara Bareilles and writer Jessie Nelson, tells the story of aspiring singer Bess King and her attempts to make a career for herself as a singer. Alongside the season finale of Little Voice, Apple TV+ also added a new episode of comedy series Ted Lasso.
The addition of 5G connectivity is one of the most compelling elements of this year’s iPhone 12, but it’s going to come at a cost to Apple. Literally.
According to a new report by TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple will likely pay $75 per unit for sub-6GHz 5G support, and a maximum of $125 for mmWave 5G. However, Kuo does not think Apple will pass these costs on to the end consumer.
A regular source of Apple leaks said on Thursday that a less expensive version of the Apple Watch is in the offing.
This was just one of multiple tidbits Jon Prosser dropped during a public Q&A session. He mentioned the first MacBook with Apple silicon, talked a bit about the company’s game controller, and more.
In just three weeks, the classic strategy game Company of Heroes will launch onto iPhone. Feral Interactive promised Thursday that, following a successful iPad debut earlier this year, the combat simulator will be released on September 10 for iPhone and Android.
Western Digital introduced on Thursday an updated version of the My Passport SSD. It offers dramatically faster data transfers, plus a new sleeker design.
The external storage device is available in capacities up to 2TB, and offers prosumers an easy way to carry around fairly large collections of images, movies or other files.
Apple’s surge past a $2 trillion market cap this week underlines just how well CEO Tim Cook’s vision works for shareholders. But is this good news for Apple fans?
The first publicly traded U.S. company to hit this milestone, Apple has transformed from one of the world’s dynamic companies into one that can be, well, kind of boring. The strategy that fueled this unprecedented success makes it far less likely that we’ll seen an insanely innovative product coming out of Cupertino in the future.
Mophie just launched four power banks designed to, in its words, “charge mobile devices at the fastest speed possible.” These latest additions to the long-running Powerstation line of batteries come in a range of storage capacities and prices, and can be used with iPhones, iPads and MacBooks.