This week we switch on our lights with a tap of the iPhone, customize our Finder’s menus, track our health with HealthChampion and more.
An Apple employee teaches the basics of the free GarageBand music-creation software in an new video tutorial from Today at Apple. It covers sampling sounds from your kitchen to make house music.
Normally, these free educational sessions are held in Apple Stores, but with these all closed during the COVID-19 crisis, they’ve gone online. There are already training videos for drawing and taking better pictures.
With screaming-fast internals, key flagship-level features and a budget price tag, the new iPhone SE ticks all the boxes in these uncertain times. Apple cut a few smart corners to make the magic happen.
Read all about the 2020 iPhone SE in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Grab yours today and get to reading. (Alternatively, hit the links below for the week’s top Apple news, reviews and how-tos.)
A Fold Apart asks players to solve over 50 handcrafted paper-folding puzzles. But the real goal of this title that debuted Friday on Apple Arcade is to bring together a couple struggling through a long-distance relationship.
The head of Apple Music is apparently assuming an additional role. Oliver Schusser is reportedly going to take charge of the company’s Beats line of high-end headphones, while also remaining at the helm of Apple’s music-streaming service.
Apple also took the opportunity to refute a recent unconfirmed report that it’s phasing out Beats.
Chris Evans’s first big role after playing Captain America is a district attorney whose 14-year-old son is accused of murder in Defending Jacob on Apple TV+. He and other cast members talk about their characters from this upcoming show in a “First Look”video released Friday.
Watch it now:
Every iPhone buyer knows the excitement they feel when they first pull the protective plastic wrapper off their new device. Apple is supposedly about to release an ad for the 2020 iPhone SE that plays on the excitement users feel in that exact moment.
Watch it now:
The American Civil Liberties Union said Friday it is cautiously encouraged by a commitment to privacy by Apple and Google as they develop Bluetooth-based contact-tracing technology to track the spread of COVID-19.
But the civil liberties group says the two tech giants must resolve “certain important privacy-related questions” key to winning trust from a public growing wary about who sees their data.
Those looking to improve the graphics performance of their 2019 Mac Pro can now pick up the Radeon Pro W5700X MPX Module from the Apple Online Store.
For exactly $1,000, the new GPU offers up to 9.4 teraflops of compute performance and 16GB of GDDR6 memory. It uses AMD’s latest RDNA architecture, and it’s now the most affordable GPU module Apple sells.
Apple began taking pre-orders for the second-generation iPhone SE on Friday, and in the U.S. already ran out out of its stock for release on launch day.
Orders placed placed earlier today will arrive on April 24. But the official Apple Store website indicates that orders for the new $399 iPhone placed now won’t arrive until May.
An amazing 49-inch LG UltraWide monitor dominates the sweet work-from-home setup of front-end developer Justin Chua from San Jose, California. A second 32-inch Dell monitor floats above, adding even more screen real estate to this eye-blasting battlestation.
And check out his sweet, custom-made mechanical keyboard!
Anyone missing the ocean can dive into E-Line Media’s Beyond Blue. Playing as a scientist, the goal of the iPhone or Apple TV game is to explore and uncover the secrets of the Earth’s last uncharted frontier.
It debuted Friday on Apple Arcade, the company’s subscription gaming service.
Steam Link for iPhone and iPad just got a big update that adds mouse and keyboard support for the first time. Don’t get too excited just yet, however. While direct mouse input is available, it’s not ideal for many game genres just yet.
Seeing friends and family in person just isn’t possible during a global pandemic, so WhatsApp could be making some changes to ensure that we can still have face-to-face contact (via a screen) without leaving our homes.
Changes in the app’s latest beta release suggest the limit for group audio and video calls will soon increase. It currently allows for just four participants at any one time, while others — like Facebook Messenger — can support up to 50.
Goldman Sachs may be Apple’s partner in Apple Card, but that doesn’t mean that its equity research division is a cheerleader for Apple in everything it does. In fact, the firm just cut its price target on Apple from $250 down to $233, and recommends that clients sell their Apple shares.
This is the third time that Goldman has downgraded its Apple earnings estimate since February 17. Analysts led by Goldman tech analyst Rod Hall think that Apple is headed for a reduction in iPhone demand this year. That’s likely to be followed by a shallower recovery headed into 2021.
Want a glimpse at the (possible) new iPhone 12 Pro Max? YouTube channel EverythingApplePro and Max Weinbach have posted what they claim is a leaked design for the new handset, based on supposed CAD drawings.
As expected, they suggest that the new iPhone will borrow design cues from the squared-off, boxier iPad Pro redesign. It also looks set to sport a slightly thinner profile, just 7.4mm thick next to the 8.1mm of the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Oh, and notch-haters might be pleased by the smaller notch on the device.
Check out the video below.
Apple is now taking preorders for the 2020 iPhone SE ahead of its official debut on April 24. Prices start at just $399 for a 64GB model, making this one of the company’s most affordable smartphones to date.
Go claim yours before those shipping dates slip — and don’t miss some of the preorder deals being offered by some third-party retailers.
In more evidence that this year’s iPhone 12 will debut on time, Apple chipmaker TSMC says that its 5-nanometer chips are already in volume production and with satisfactory yield rates. TSMC expects a “a very fast and smooth ramp” of these chips in the second half of the year. It is heavily rumored that these will be the chips used in the new iPhone 12.
CEO CC Wei told investors this during an investor meeting held Thursday. Wei also said that TSMC is on track to deliver 3-nanometer chips which could be used in phones as soon as 2022.
Ahead of Earth Day on April 22, Apple TV+ debuted Friday a new animated short movie titled Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth. Featuring an impressive cast of voice talents including the much celebrated Meryl Streep, Chris O’Dowd, Preacher‘s Ruth Negga, and Room‘s Jacob Tremblay, the half-hour animated short is available to watch for subscribers right now.
Apple TV+ also debuted a new show about spectacular houses around the world.
Having been in beta since September, Apple Music’s web app is finally fully up and running for all users.
The web app, found at music.apple.com site (no longer with the “beta” prefix), lets users listen to Apple Music content without using the dedicated app.
Apple and Google are reportedly in a “standoff” with the UK’s National Health Service over the development of the companies’ joint program to build contact tracing APIs.
According to a report from The Guardian, the two companies are taking a strong stand against the NHS’s insistence to break current Bluetooth privacy protocols. The NHS is hoping Apple and Google will lift their limits on how Bluetooth can be used, but Google says those limits are in place so that they can’t be abused for surveillance efforts.
In a virtual meeting with employees on Thursday, Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted that COVID-19 makes for an “uncertain and stressful” time, but he’s optimistic about the future.
Cook hosted Apple-wide meeting that let workers pose questions to Apple’s CEO about the effects COVID-19 is having on the company.
Apple wants users of older iPhone models to know the advantages of a new budget iPhone. Its “iPhone SE — Why Upgrade” page describes the multiple ways this just-announced handset is faster, with a longer battery life, a better camera and other improvements.
Now that the super-cheap 2020 iPhone SE is finally out Apple fans can turn all their anticipations to the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro launch this fall.
There has been no shortage of video concept videos imagining what Apple’s first 5G handset will look like, but the latest mockup created by Technizo Concept might be the most accurate depiction of the iPhone 12 Pro we’ve seen yet.
Look at that sleek new industrial body:
More than developers can test iOS 13.4.5 and the iPad equivalent. Starting Thursday, the general public can download a beta version if they’re brave enough to run pre-release software.
Just be aware, these updates are almost entirely about fixing bugs in the iOS and iPadOS versions released March 24, not new features.