News - page 441

Imagine riding the subway when you realize you’re not quite sure of the changes you need to make on your journey. No problem! Simply whip out your smartphone, aim it at your travel pass, and watch a virtual map pop up in front of you.

Science fiction? Nope. It’s a proof-of-concept AR demo created by computer science student Gerald Nash. It gives a taste of the future, courtesy of a Snapchat filter, that will turn your Washington DC SmarTrip card into a trigger for a floating AR map of the area. Check out the video below.

Apple execs won’t get to feed off the usual live audience’s energy during next Monday’s WWDC 2020 keynote, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to get excited about.

As usual, Apple will stream the big event for all the world to see. But, due to health concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire Worldwide Developers Conference will take place online this year. Read on for our rundown of what we expect to see during the WWDC 2020 keynote, which kicks off at 10 a.m. Pacific on June 22.

The iPhone 12 will take a giant step closer to reality when TSMC begins producing the Apple A14 processor later this month, according to an unconfirmed report coming out of Asia on Friday. This reportedly will be the first A-series chip made with a 5-nanometer process, which should bring an increase in performance while improving battery life.

The A14 will supposedly use Qualcomm’s X60 modem, potentially giving it access to every type of 5G network.

To mark Juneteenth, a holiday to celebrate the official end of slavery in the U.S., Apple has made its original Apple TV+ movie The Banker available to watch for free.

The movie, which is based on a true story, stars Anthony Mackie and Samuel L. Jackson as Bernard Garrett and Joe Morris, two of the first black bankers in the United States. At a time when discriminatory Jim Crow-era laws were in effect in the U.S., the pair hired a white man (played by Nicholas Hoult) to portray the face of their business, while the pair posed as a chauffeur and janitor.

This week on The CultCast: We discuss our WWDC 2020 hardware and software predictions, and there’s a lot to say. Plus: A new leak details a next-generation iPhone with dual displays; the new 5600M MacBook Pro GPU is an absolute monster; and Apple’s back-to-school promo is back for the summer, but with an interesting twist.

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.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers recently seized a shipment of counterfeit AirPods coming from China, carrying a retail price (at least, if they were authentic) of $3,975.

Officers discovered the shipment of AirPod knockoffs June 1. The packaging said the parcel contained lithium ion batteries. However, officers inspecting the package reportedly grew suspicious because of giveaways with the packaging and marking used on the shipment.

Apple’s VR and AR headset ambitions fueled a clash between Apple Technology Development Group executive Mike Rockwell and former design boss Jony Ive, who left Apple last year, a new Bloomberg report claims.

The article traces the development of an Apple VR and AR headset to late 2015. It claims Apple dedicated up to 1,000 engineers to work on a project aiming to be the first major new product since the Apple Watch. However, the project has been subject to disagreements about its direction.

Apple’s latest round of Apple Pay promotions offers a variety of summer-themed discounts in assorted apps and online retail stores. Apple and partners are offering up to 20% off at a variety of retailers, selling everything from sportswear to sunglasses. Oh, there’s a $1 whopper at Burger King, too.

Check out the full list of Apple Pay summer offers below.

Days before WWDC kicks off, Apple had shuttered its Apple Events app on tvOS, instead folding it into the Apple TV app, streamlining the process of finding and watching Monday’s keynote event.

The wording on the app confirms that, “Apple Events is now part of the Apple TV app.” Using the app, you can watch both current and past Apple special events.

iPad setups are often seen as limiting and hard to work with. They require a lot of accessories and peripherals. They do have some advantages though, besides a lower price point. They are more versatile and travel-friendly. And as iPads are getting bigger and more powerful, iPad-based setups are becoming less bohemian.

Photographer Ryszard Sikorski has one of the cleanest setups I have seen. He actually finds an iPad setup quite liberating. “What I like is that I can use [the iPad] how I need it,” he said. “It’s not static.”

There are no plans to modify the rules of the iOS App Store that would allow Basecamp’s Hey mail app to avoid paying to be listed, according to Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of marketing.

The creators of Hey made news recently by calling Apple “gangsters” for requiring companies to pay 30% of their revenue to have software appear in the App Store.

The Apple Podcasts app is reportedly getting a facelift. The version debuting in iOS 14 will supposedly include a “For You” tab with suggestions based on podcasts the user is already subscribed to.

Ordinary things become extraordinary when seen close up and in slow motion. The Slow Mo Guys present an amazing video of an Apple Watch using sound to blast water out of its tiny speakers after a dip in the pool.

Watch it now.

Before there was iOS, early Apple handsets ran iPhone OS. A frequent Apple leaker apparently suggested on Thursday that the next version of this operating system will return to that classic name.

While this might seem like a seismic shift to some, if Apple really is prepping iPhone OS 14 — or perhaps iPhoneOS 14 — it’ll simply be using the same pattern for this operating systems as it does for all its others.

Stand All from Spigen is the new, ultra-affordable charging station that every desk needs. It tops up iPhone and Apple Watch (or AirPods and Apple Watch) simultaneously, and it’s a steal at under $20.

Apple reportedly cracked one of the big problems with its ill-fated AirPower charging mat — specifically the question of how to charge the Apple Watch. That’s according to top Apple leaker Jon Prosser, who posted pictures on Twitter Thursday to prove his point.

“Remember how I said that the main problem was that current prototypes didn’t support Apple Watch?” Prosser wrote. “Yeah. Well. They got the Watch working.”

Two separate leaks Thursday provide new details about Apple’s forthcoming AirTags, circular Bluetooth tracking devices that will help users find lost keys and other items.

iOS leaker @Soybeys posted what supposedly are some of the sound effects Apple will use for AirTags. A second report from Twitter user @blue_kanikam says AirTags will utilize a custom R1 chip, similar to the iPhone 11’s U1 chip, to know where the tiny tracking tags are spatially in order to work with other devices.

The U.K. government, which clashed with Apple and Google over its approach to contact tracing, has reportedly done a U-turn and will now adopt the tech giants’ privacy-conscious framework for fighting COVID-19.

The BBC reported the change of heart Thursday, one day after revealing that a former Apple executive, Simon Thompson, has taken charge of the delayed project. Thompson, who works as chief product officer at online retailer Ocado, supervised Apple’s e-commerce efforts a decade ago.

Apple has officially started offering its Mac trade-in program at Apple Stores in the U.S. and Canada. Apple has long offered trade-ins for credit toward a new purchase or a gift card for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Store. However, until now Mac trade-ins were limited to online-only. That meant that people had to mail in their Mac to Apple.

By making this available in its retail stores, it makes it easier than ever to trade your old Mac.

Ben Hess is a professional cinematographer — and he has the gear to prove it. He rocks an iMac Pro that’s hooked up to a 27-inch LG 5K UltraFine Monitor, giving him acres of premium screen real estate.

But the highlight of this rig is not the $5,000 computer or the $1,300 screen. It’s his $27,000 Red Gemini Camera and $5,000 lens. Hess comes to play. The Red Gemini is top-shelf, and an Atlas anamorphic lens gives him the eye of a hawk.

Anker boasts that the just-released PowerExpand Elite hub lets you “connect everything imaginable,” and there’s a certain amount of justification. This accessory has no less that 13 ports. There’s Thunderbolt 3, USB-A, USB-C, HDMI, audio ports, memory card readers, and more.

The company also launched on Wednesday the Anker PowerExpand, which “only” has seven ports of a range of types.

In 1983, novelist Wallace Stegner said “the National Parks are the best idea we ever had.” He certainly has a point. National Parks are treasured by pretty much everybody.

As if Twitter wasn’t noisy enough, it soon will let certain users post audio tweets. The new feature, which Twitter is testing exclusively on iOS devices, will let users talk for up to 140 seconds.

Twitter says the voice tweets will “add a more human touch” to the service.

Zoom promised on Wednesday to make end-to-end encryption an option for all users, not just paying ones.

This video conferencing app became incredibly popular during the COVID-19 epidemic. But it also drew criticism for weak security.

Zoom worked quickly to fix that, but again faced complaints when the company decided that end-to-end encryption would only be for paying customers. That’s a decision it changed today.

Apple’s educational summer camps for children are moving online. They’ve been redubbed Apple Camp at Home.

In previous years, Apple Camps were held in the company’s retail stores. But this year, they’ll be teaching video, art and design, and coding through a self-guided Activity Book and virtual sessions.