News - page 428

While a large number of iOS users are also Mac customers, many people will use an iPhone or iPad but also rely on a Windows PC in some capacity. For those customers, Microsoft’s Remote Desktop app is a great tool, letting them access and use their professional or enterprise Windows PC through another device.

The latest update for the app is a big one for iPad owners — adding some eagerly anticipated features to the iOS app, including support for the Apple Magic Mouse 2 and Apple Magic Trackpad 2, external mice, and more.

Apple has slashed prices on the iPhone in China ahead of the country’s 6.18 shopping festival, which kicks off this month.

On Apple’s official online store on the Alibaba-owned online retailer Tmall, the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro Max, and 2020 iPhone SE all have big price reductions. Official Apple resellers like JD.com are also getting aggressive with their own price cuts — with steeper discounts than even Tmall in some cases.

Apple was the first public company in history to reach a $700 billion, $800 billion, $900 billion, and $1 trillion valuation. Could it also be the first company to hit the vaunted $2 trillion mark? And, if so, when will this happen?

In a research note to clients, Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani argues that not only can Apple get to this mark, it can do so over the next four years. That would be just six years after it hit $1 trillion for the first time. Today, Apple is worth around $1.3 trillion.

Apple Music has joined Blackout Tuesday, a music-industry-wide initiative seeking to raise support for Black Lives Matter following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis. Floyd’s death, captured on camera by onlookers, sparked protests and riots across the United States.

Doing its part for the day, Apple Music canceled its Beats 1 radio service on June 2. The service also changed its “For You” tab. Both redirect to a “For Us, By Us” stream playing music by black artists. A regular voiceover says that it is designed to “stand in solidarity with black communities everywhere.”

Protests across the United States led to a spike in interest in iPhone applications that let users listen to police radios. Several of these now rank very high on App Store top charts.

3D printed mockups of all four 2020 iPhone models might surprise some people. Especially the relative sizes.

Word of the first 6.7-inch iPhone first leaked out long ago, and plenty of additional details have since come to light. But even those who fully believe that Apple is prepping a super-size iPhone 12 Pro Max might not realize just how big it’ll be. Especially when compared to the 5.4-inch model the company is also supposedly working on.

In the weeks after the new 13-inch MacBook Pro debuted, upgrading the RAM from 8GB to 16GB cost a mere $100. But no more. The price is now twice that.

However, this isn’t an unprecedented price for the upgrade. Quite the opposite.

Apple released iOS 13.5.1 on Monday, along with an iPad equivalent, bringing “important security updates” to its mobile operating systems. The speed of their introduction suggests anyone running the latest version on their iPhone or iPad should upgrade ASAP.

Also Monday, Apple dropped Small updates for Mac, Apple Watch and HomePod. Plus the latest beta versions of iOS and iPadOS for developers.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro released in 2012 broke new ground, as it was the first Mac to get a Retina display. But it’s now been discontinued for many years, and is reportedly about to be classified as obsolete.

Anyone still holding onto this classic laptop needs to know what this classification means.

An estimated 9% of U.S. households subscribe to Apple TV+, a recent report by analysts at Parks Associates claims.

The report places Apple’s streaming video subscription service fifth on the list of most popular streaming platforms — behind only Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Disney+.

The iPhone 12 is likely to ship to ship in October, rather than the usual September iPhone launch time frame, claim a report published Monday by Digitimes.

This would seem to back up a separate recent report from increasingly authoritative Apple leaker Jon Prosser. Prosser also suggested an October, rather than September, launch for the new iPhone.

A security vulnerability with “Sign in with Apple” could have allowed hackers to carry out a full account takeover of user accounts accessed using the feature. Fortunately, the bug was spotted by India-based security researcher Bhavuk Jain.

In a blog post published over the weekend, Jain noted that he made Apple aware of the vulnerability back in April. It was subsequently fixed. Thanks to Apple’s bug bounty program, he was then paid $100,000 as a thank you from the Cupertino tech giant.

iPhones on display in Apple Stores run special software that renders them useless to thieves when removed from a store. Until now, however, we haven’t had a clear glimpse at what this antitheft measure looks like.

That changed over the weekend as one person displayed an iPhone seemingly taken from a looted Apple Store in Philadelphia. Here’s what the message says.

As protests roiled the United States following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Apple CEO Tim Cook sent a memo to employees condemning the killing, calling for change, and offering support.

In the note, Cook expressed his wishes for a “better, more just world” for everyone. He also advised employees that are “hurting right now” that they can access mental health resources and other support from Apple. In addition, Cook said Apple will make charitable donations to groups such as the Equal Justice Initiative.

You can read Cook’s entire memo to Apple employees below.

Several Apple Stores have been damaged and most are closed today amid protests in major cities across the United States.

Posts on Twitter show multiple Apple retail locations that have been broken into.

Jon Prosser is the hot new Apple reporter on the scene. On Twitter and his Front Page Tech channel on YouTube, he delivers Apple scoops with a healthy side helping of humor. So, is Prosser the new Mark Gurman?

Read our take in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. As always, the free iOS mag is filled with Apple news, reviews and how-tos.

Jason Sudeikis is reviving Ted Lasso for new Apple TV+ comedy that’ll debut August 14.

The show, called simply, Ted Lasso, centers on a small-time college football coach from Kansas hired to coach a professional soccer team in England, despite having utterly no experience with soccer.

Powerbeats Pro comes in four new colors starting June 9. Unconfirmed reports of Glacier Blue, Spring Yellow, Cloud Pink and Lava Red versions of Beats’ truly wireless headset have been circulating for weeks, but today brought the official unveiling.

But it’s still unclear if the upcoming 2020 version is different from the earlier one in any substantive way.

In the space of three short months, Jon Prosser went from an obscure YouTube nobody pumping out videos barely anyone watched to becoming one of the hottest Apple reporters on the internet.

On Twitter and YouTube, he’s unspooled a string of accurate predictions, including the exact dates and launch times of two of Apple’s newest products, the 13-inch MacBook Pro and the 2020 iPhone SE. That’s no mean feat, given Apple’s obsessive secrecy.

Prosser’s latest leak — revealed on last week’s episode of Cult of Mac’s podcast, The CultCast — claims Apple is working on a special pair of Steve Jobs Heritage Edition AR glasses. That wild revelation drew skepticism from none other than über-Apple reporter Mark Gurman.

“Do I even need to say that this (along with the rest of the Apple AR glasses stories in the past week) is complete fiction?” Gurman tweeted.

Jon Prosser makes headlines

Perhaps Gurman, who made his bones at 9to5Mac before moving up to Bloomberg, is feeling the heat. Prosser is starting to nip at his heels.

Tile, a startup that makes location-aware tracking tags, told the European Commission’s Competition department that Apple isn’t playing fair. It claims the iPhone maker has moved to “completely disadvantage” its smaller rival, even as Apple prepares to launch its own tracking tags.

The accessory maker told the U.S. government the same thing earlier this year.

Apple reportedly placed multiple rush orders for iPad screens with LG Display. The tablet saw increased demand in Asia this quarter, with COVID-19 forcing so many people to attend classes and work from home.

This week on The CultCast: AirPods with new sensors could be on the horizon, and that would fit perfectly with Apple’s always-on approach to health. Find out why we can’t wait for in-ear health trackers. Or for Apple to revamp the musty Messages app for Mac.

Plus, we discuss the aftermath of last week’s controversial chat with hotshot Apple leaker, Jon Prosser. And finally, Cult of Mac TV reviewer Scout Tafoya tells us why you probably ought to queue up Defending Jacob (and why you might want to skip Central Park).

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.

If nautical nonsense be something you wish, then drop on the deck and download SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit, a side-scroller that debuted Friday on Apple Arcade.

Apple’s latest Apple Pay promo will get you 30% off custom sunglasses or eyeglasses from leading brand Ray-Ban.

Since prices for glasses are over $100, that means a saving of at least 30 bucks. Not bad, considering all you need to do is pay online using Apple Pay, and use a special code.

A federal judge has thrown out a copyright lawsuit against Apple and director M. Night Shyamalan claiming that Apple TV+ series Servant stole its core idea from a 2013 independent movie.

As with the spooky Servant, the movie The Truth About Emanuel is the story of a traumatized parent who hires a babysitter to look after a baby that (spoiler alert) turns out to actually be a doll.