News - page 67

The enigmatic teaser trailer Apple TV+ dropped Wednesday for psychological thriller series Disclaimer, from Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón and starring Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline, disclaims very little beyond a dark and foreboding mood and a warning to “be aware” of the assumptions that color our understanding of a story.

The seven-episode limited series debuts on Apple TV+ October 11.

UPDATE: After publishing the initial post, I realized a clever deep fake appears to be in play in the trailer’s narration, so I thought I’d better mention it (better late than never!) It only took seven days after posting about the trailer for me to realize I knew the narrator’s voice. And it seems she never said what she seemed to say in the trailer. See below.

Apple is reportedly ramping up work on a tabletop computer that’s essentially an iPad on a robot arm that can rotate and tilt the tablet to keep it facing the user.

This might be the source of previous rumors of a HomePod with a large screen.

A new study sheds light on which Apple Watch model consumers buy most — and least, and in between — Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) said Wednesday. Enthusiasts who assume the most popular Apple Watch model must be the biggest and best (Ultra 2) or the most cost-effective (SE2) miss the mark. They might be surprised that middle-market Series 9 takes the crown, followed by Series 8, which Apple no longer even sells.

The introduction of NFC and Secure Element (SE) APIs in iOS 18.1 unlocks new monetization opportunities for iOS app developers, Apple said Wednesday — though fees apply. But on the plus side, secure in-app near-field communication (NFC) transactions in iOS 18.1 will let devs integrate secure, contactless transactions directly within their apps on iPhone, independent of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet.

Ahead of the Paralympic Games in Paris, a new Apple video called ‘”The Relay” shows athletes with and without disabilities training and then competing together in a series of events. Each competitor shows the same drive, dedication and spirit — all with the help of Apple gear, of course.

“Apple products are designed for every athlete,” reads the video tagline. “And every body.”

Today’s featured MacBook Pro setup belongs to a coder in Panama who uses two excellent stands to lift almost all of his gear off his desk. One’s a microphone arm doubling as a headphone stand. The other, more-substantial rig is a Vivo Dual Monitor Desk Mount that holds aloft two external displays and a MacBook Pro on a tray. That really tidies up the desk.

Curiously, a furry primate only shows up in glimpses in Wednesday’s new trailer for Bill Lawrence’s new Apple TV+ comedy series Bad Monkey. Not counting glib ex-detective Vince Vaughn, that is. Lawrence brought us vaunted comedy smash hit Ted Lasso, by the way.

The show, based on Carl Hiaasen’s New York Times-bestselling novel, debuts on Apple TV+ on August 14.

UPDATE: The new 10-episode comedy series Bad Monkey from Ted Lasso creator Bill Lawrence is now streaming on Apple TV+ as of Wednesday. Vince Vaughn stars as a disgraced Miami detective who might get his job back if he can just transport a severed arm from point A to point B, and maybe prove murder along the way. Reviews so far seem to like Vaughn in the wise-cracking role, with a few caveats. Time‘s review headline: “Bad Monkey Is a Beachy Crime Drama Drowning in Ted Lasso Quirk.” You can watch and decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Correctly determining when soccer players are offside turns out to be surprisingly difficult. And the English Premier League turned to an unusual source for a fix: an offside-detection system powered by dozens of iPhones.

The same system might someday be used to track players in other sports, too.

Apple just opened applications for its fifth annual Entrepreneur Camp, and for the first time since it started in 2019, it will feature in-person sessions, Apple Developer said Tuesday. Until now it’s been all-virtual, mainly due to COVID-19 pandemic precautions.

Apple called the camp “a one-on-one, product-focused technology lab designed to empower underrepresented founders and developers, elevate their app-driven businesses and build dynamic communities.”

Aqara’s new Presence Sensor FP1E monitors smart-home spaces for human activity and helps launch automations via HomeKit and other platforms, the company said recently. To get the most out of it, though, you need an Aqara Matter bridge.

Leaks tell us Apple is prepping a super-slim version of next year’s iPhone 17 without all the features of the Pro models but with a price that’ll make it the most expensive in the lineup. These reports left many of us skeptical. Would anyone pay more for a slim-but-stripped-down iPhone?

But let’s change the rumor slightly — what if Apple is prepping a super-slim iOS handset that folds? If the recent leaks are actually about the iPhone 17 Fold, they make a lot more sense.

The Opera browser’s new mobile version for iPhone, dubbed Opera One for iOS, integrates artificial intelligence features like image generation and voice input, a free VPN for private browsing and other elements to offer a fresh alternative to pre-installed browsers on Apple devices like Safari, the company said Tuesday.

“Our research shows mobile phone users are six times more likely to be happy than not, after switching away from their system’s default browser,” said Jona Bolin, product manager at Opera. “So with Opera One for iOS, we want to further raise the bar and deliver a better browsing experience versus what users will find pre-installed.”

Since WWDC24, Apple has released five developer beta builds of iOS 18 every two weeks. The company has now switched to a weekly beta release cycle. iOS 18 beta 6 is here, packing some minor changes as Apple focuses on squashing all the bugs.

You can find all the new features and minor enhancements in iOS 18 beta 6 below.

Western Digital has been showing off its upcoming SD card with a whopping 8TB of storage capacity. And if that weren’t enough, the company’s SanDisk subsidiary is also prepping a tiny microSD card that can hold 4TB.

The days when a bulky external hard drive was necessary to carry around a huge collection of files are almost over.

Patreon, a service that many authors, artists, etc. use to get funding from fans, has to switch its iPhone/iPad application to Apple’s in-app purchase system by November. The company criticized the requirement on Monday, and pointed out this will add Apple’s 30% App Store fee to all new memberships purchased through the iOS software.

But Patreon isn’t being singled out — Apple makes virtually all applications use its purchasing system. Not that’s everyone is happy about it.

In today’s enviable computer setup, a software engineer drives a Studio Display with an M2 Pro MacBook Pro. But among other impressive peripherals connected in the rig we found a great version of one of Cult of Mac‘s Best Audio Interfaces for Mac. An interface serves as a bridge between your Mac and external audio sources like microphones and musical instruments to make the most of recording and mixing. 

A button being added to the iPhone 16 Pro models is designed to act like the shutter button on DSLR cameras, according to information leaking out of Apple. That includes doing much more than simply taking pictures when pushed.

After years of keeping the iPhone buttons to a minimum, the number continues to expand.

Apple does not plan to charge for Apple Intelligence in the next three years. Apparently, the company wants to add more advanced AI features before charging for it.

The Cupertino giant did not talk about eventually charging for Apple Intelligence during its unveiling at WWDC24 earlier this year.

Rumors indicate the iPad 11 is nearly here, and an iPad mini 7 is in development, too. Neither tablet has been updated in years, but that could change this autumn. Finally! We can look forward to better performance and maybe Apple Intelligence.

Here’s what’s likely coming in late 2024 to Apple’s budget tablet, and what we’ve heard about an iPad mini 7 release date.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: It sounds like a whole bunch of Macs powered by Apple’s M4 chip — including a Mac mini that will be surprisingly small — will arrive in the not-so-distant future. We discuss the latest M4 Mac rumors (and can’t help getting more than a little excited).

Also on The CultCast:

• The latest iOS 18 beta brings more interesting changes, including one that makes Griffin very happy.
• We’ve got questions about the next Apple Watch SE. Will it be plastic? Vibrantly colorful? Cheaper?
• Samsung’s copycat designers take heat from an unlikely source for mimicking Apple’s products.
• In a new Under Review segment, Griffin tells us what he likes (and what he doesn’t) about an unusual three-in-one MagSafe charger.

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.

Some people were skeptical when Apple TV+ turned the 1981 cult classic movie Time Bandits into a comedic adventure series for all ages. But it’s hard to argue with success — for the second week, the show starring Lisa Kudrow is one of the most popular on any streaming service.

And Jake Gyllenhaal’s crime drama Presumed Innocent continues to pull in a huge audience.

Apple plans to expand its Adaptive Lighting feature to Matter-compatible smart lights with the release of iOS 18, which will significantly increase the number of smart lights that can use the popular feature in the Apple Home ecosystem. And among the first to work on it is Nanoleaf, according to a new report.

A Mac or iPhone is a no longer needed to access Apple Maps — a web version reached public beta testing Wednesday. It allows users to get driving and walking directions from a web browser, including Chrome and Edge on Windows PCs.

Update: Several weeks after the initial release, Apple Maps on the web now works on a broader selection of web browsers.

Shrinking, the hit comedy starring Jason Segel and Harrison Ford as therapists with problems of their own, returns to Apple TV+ on October 16. Friday’s’s announcement came with a tiny teaser video for season 2.

This is another entry in Apple’s collection of shows with a radical premise: People in sitcoms don’t have to be horrible to each other.

Update: Apple TV+ posted on social media about Shrinking season 2 on August 5, then pulled the post and video shortly afterward. The teaser trailer came back on Friday.

What would the computer setup that has everything — in fact, two of many things — be missing? Well, in the case of today’s dual MacBook Pro workstation, it’s not excellent audio gear. Not only does it double up on high-end laptops, Studio Displays, Trackpads and more. It also mounts powerful Yamaha HS7 speakers and an AKG condenser microphone to help provide a fabulous soundtrack.