Just in time for Valentine's Day, too. Photo: Apple
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Apple’s latest Apple Pay promo offer $15 off your order at 1-800 Flowers.
Word of advice, though: As great as this offer might be, you’re best keeping the discount quiet, rather than bragging about how much you saved, come February 14.
You probably won’t be ditching your iPhone to get one if you’re a big fan of iOS, but you might be a little jealous of those who are. Samsung’s new devices offer a number of awesome new features iPhone users can only dream of for now.
Paired with Logitech Capture software, the new StreamCam makes streaming video smart. Photo: Logitech
The new Logitech StreamCam is built to make video streamers’ lives simpler. The smart webcam captures 1080p/60 fps video and connects via USB-C. Plus, the updated Logitech Capture software — which uses artificial intelligence to automate exposure, framing and stabilization — now runs on macOS.
Lots of promised power in this camera bump. Photo: Samsung
Samsung fired a powerful-sounding salvo in the battle for smartphone camera supremacy Tuesday when it introduced the Galaxy S20 Ultra.
The Ultra kicks off a new decade in smartphone camera technology with an impressive list of specs packed into its four-camera module. Some of the features include 8K video, a 108-megapixel sensor on its main wide-angle camera, and a 100X zoom feature called Space Zoom.
Swift Playgrounds' coding lessons are now on Mac. Photo: Apple
Apple’s educational coding app, Swift Playgrounds, has finally made its way to the Mac.
After landing on the iPad in 2016, Apple has created a Catalyst version of Swift Playgrounds for Mac, making it easier for anyone to dive into the interactive lessons, no matter which platform you prefer most.
Avalanche is a universal translator for photo apps. Photo: CYME
Do you still have all your photos stuck in an Aperture library? Aperture won’t even launch in macOS Catalina, so you’re going to have to do something about that. The long-time answer has been to move to Adobe’s Lightroom, but then all your carefully crafted RAW edits are lost, or at least frozen into JPGs, never to be reversed.
Avalanche is a new Mac app that can convert your old Aperture library into a Lightroom library. What’s more, it uses machine learning to reverse-engineer your edits, and then does its best to redo those edits in Lightroom. It seems amazing. And because it doesn’t need the Aperture app installed on your Mac at all, you can use it even if you’ve already upgraded to Catalina.
Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus are going to have to compete against AirPods Pro without a really popular feature. Photo: Samsung
Samsung today unpacked Galaxy Buds Plus, its answer to Apple’s top-selling AirPods. The Korean company’s latest truly wireless headphones offer better sound quality and longer battery life. But they lack the hallmark feature of AirPods Pro: active noise cancellation.
The future of folding phones took a step in a new direction today with Samsung’s unveiling of the Galaxy Z Flip.
Taking a different approach to folding displays than the disastrous Galaxy Fold, the Z Flip packs a screen that folds from a tiny clamshell device, into a full-size 6.7-inch smartphone. And it comes with some novel uses that could change how app design is approached.
Jeff Bronikowski has worked in the media industry for over 20 years. Photo: Warner Music Group
Apple Music has added another media industry veteran to its roster of top executives.
Former Warner Music Group head of innovation, Jeff Bronkikowski, revealed that he has accepted a job with the iPhone-maker to become the new global head of strategic music initiatives for Apple Music.
Tim Cook standing at the Foot Solider monument in Birmingham, Alabama. Photo: Tim Cook
Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted a photo of himself at one of the most iconic civil rights movement monuments in his home state of Alabama this morning to show his support for Black History Month.
Cook, who grew up in Alabama during the ’60s and saw the impacts of discrimination and burning KKK crosses first hand, paid respects to the men and women who marched in Birmingham in 1963 to demand equality.
The launch of Apple’s new AirPods Pro in October helped the company record steady growth last year. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Apple’s AirPods will once again dominate the market for truly wireless headphones in 2020, according to a market research firm. And sales will hit 100 million units this year.
The only real question is which company will come in second in this market.
Book a flight and travel light. The iPhone 11 Pro might be all you need. Screenshot: Travel Shortfilms/YouTube
Still not persuaded that an upgrade to the iPhone 11 Pro is worth the money?
If you are a photographer or wanna-be filmmaker that still needs convincing, travel vlogger Harshit Vora makes a breath-taking argument with a montage of 4K clips from an eight-day trip to Egypt.
Can an app help stop the spread of coronavirus in China? Photo: Apple
The Chinese government developed an app that lets users check whether they are at risk of infection from the novel coronavirus spreading across the country.
The location-aware “close contact detector” app reveals whether users have been close to another person suspected of having coronavirus. The data-hungry app serves as yet another illustration of China’s surveillance-heavy approach to controlling its citizens.
The email app BlueMail finds itself on the outside of the "closed garden." Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Banned email app BlueMail is back in the Mac App Store, just one week after its developers tried to publicly rally other small companies to speak out against Apple’s App Store practices.
Ben and Dan Volach’s eight-month appeal of Apple’s ban ended Tuesday when the App Store relisted BlueMail. But the brothers say they will continue to fight Apple in court on claims the tech giant stole patented features of the app before booting it from the App Store.
Deal has sent stock rocketing upwards. Photo: T-Mobile
T-Mobile’s $26 billion merger with Sprint has been given the go-ahead by a U.S. district judge, rocketing the companies’ stock prices upward.
Sprint increased 74% this morning, hitting $8.34. T-Mobile, meanwhile, increased 11% to $93.62. However, the deal won’t officially be done until the California Public Utilities Commission approves the merger.
This image quickly vanished from Twitter. But not the internet. Photo: Roland Atoui/Twitter
Apple has signed up as a member to the FIDO Alliance, an organization whose mission is to develop and promote authentication standards for reducing the world’s reliance on passwords.
The news was made public in the form of a photo from a recent FIDO Alliance conference, describing Apple as a new member of the group. However, the tweet was rapidly deleted. Nonetheless, the FIDO website confirms that Apple is a board-level member.
My colleague Charlie no longer has a HomePod. He kept the knitted cactus, though. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Apple’s HomePod may be two years old, but it may as well be a total newcomer based on its percentage of the overall U.S. smart speaker market.
According to a new report from eMarketer, Apple joins smart speaker brands like Harmon Kardon Invoke and Sonos One in the “other” category of speakers. In total, “other” smart speakers make up just 18.4% of the overall U.S. market. Meanwhile, Amazon hoovers up 70% of sales, followed by Google with 31.7% market share.
By any measure, Apple had an astonishingly successful decade between 2010 and 2020, becoming the world’s first publicly traded $1 trillion company in the process. But Apple’s next 10 years could be another monster decade for the company, Mad Money host Jim Cramer speculates.
Speaking on his 65th birthday Monday, Cramer said that, “I’m going to make another 10-year bet [on Apple]. I think they’re that good.”
Colorful T-Mobile CEO John Legere will hand over the reins to a successor. Photo: T-Mobile
A verdict regarding the long-delayed megamerger between T-Mobile and Sprint is expected to be announced Tuesday, The New York Times claims.
The ruling would combine America’s third- and fourth-biggest wireless carriers to create one with a massive 100 million customers. It follows an “unusual suit” filed back in June by attorneys general from 13 states, alongside the District of Columbia. They are concerned that a merger would reduce competition in the industry, which could drive up cellphone bills.
Is this the iPhone SE 2 in a Totallee case? Maybe, maybe not. Photo: Totallee
Accessory maker Totallee is so confident it knows the exact dimensions of the upcoming iPhone SE 2 that it went ahead and started taking preorders for a case designed for it.
This takes some serious nerve, as this low-cost handset is still just a rumor. It isn’t expected to be announced before March.
iCloud folder sharing finally arrives in iPadOS 13.4, and iOS 13.4 too. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The wait is over for iCloud folder sharing… at least for everyone willing to install the initial iOS 13.4 public beta or its iPad equivalent. And there’s new Memoji stickers, tablet users can remap some keys, plus some other new features to experiment with.
Cupertino’s seemingly neverending legal battle with patent troll VirnetX Holding Corp. took another turn this week when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied Apple’s request to reconsider an original patent-infringement decision.
VirnetX and Apple have been fighting in courts for a decade over patents related to FaceTime and other secure communications. VirnetX, which doesn’t produce any products, previously won more than $503 million in damages, but courts subsequently threw out the award.
The multi-camera filter mount will let the iPhone shooter use any 52 mm filter. Photo: Moondog Labs
If the iPhone is the best camera because it’s always in your pocket, there are plenty of accessories that make your photos look even better once your phone is unholstered and on the hunt.
Moondog Labs has just such an add-on with a filter mount that goes right over the three-eyed iPhone 11 Pro.