News - page 752

Donald Glover’s video for “This Is America” is one of most talked-about music videos of the year, but one brilliant animator is adding an extra dose of old-school cool by painstakingly re-creating it on a vintage Mac and software from the ’80s.

New York City illustrator Wahyu Ichwandardi (aka @pinot) is animating the entire “This Is America” video pixel by pixel. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but he’s currently 375 frames deep — and it looks incredible.

Watch the first minute of the video:

Philip Lee is an ad man, a great admirer of vintage Macs and a lifelong collector of toy robots. From those three pieces of Lee’s life comes Classicbot, a line of designer toys that turns historic replica Apple hardware and desktop icons into adorable characters.

His first, the Classic, looks like the original Macintosh computer except with a friendly face, arms and legs. There’s even a cute mouse, a Font Suitcase that fits in the toy bot’s hand and a cardboard box reminiscent of the original packaging.

The smart speaker install base will approach 100 million units by the end of 2018 — but Apple will make up only a tiny piece of the market.

At least, that’s according to analysts at Canalys, who forecast how things are shaping up for the various Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod devices currently winding their way into kitchens and living rooms around the world. Their take home message? That, unless something big changes, Apple is kinda screwed!

The iPhone X’s ugly notch could pave the way for Apple to dominate the smart glasses market.

Augmented reality glasses are poised to become the hottest tech gadget of the next decade and Apple’s already laying the foundation with the iPhone X. It may not seem like the two will be directly related, but this clever concept shows how the key lays in the TrueDepth camera hidden in the notch.

Check it out:

The iPad is an extraordinarily versatile productivity tool, and Apple is keen to showcase that fact in a series of stylish new ads. The 15-second spots demonstrate the way that Apple’s tablet — alongside the Apple Pencil — can be used to make it easier to deal with your paperwork or computing on the move.

Check them out below.

A group of hooded thieves snatched $19,000 worth of iPhones from a New York Apple Store late last week.

Five men were recorded on CCTV during the raid at the store in Huntington Station, NY. Police are offering $5,000 for any information that will allow them to apprehend the criminals.

Remember the bemused reaction you had to the selfie stick the first time you saw one? Remember how that feeling gradually changed to begrudging acceptance as they became standard issue over the months that followed?

Get ready for the next creation in that line of “are they kidding?” thinking: the iPhone foot mount for the person who doesn’t want pockets in their clothing. They’ll be everywhere in 2019. Maybe.

Chinese smartphone manufacturer and occasional Apple tribute act Xiaomi has made its debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange — officially making it the world’s third largest phonemaker.

Xiaomi is one of the world’s most hotly anticipated stock market listings, having risen to prominence in developing markets, such as China. CEO Lei Jun, who was present at the company’s IPO launch today, has admitted that his founding the company was heavily inspired by the story of Steve Jobs.

Imagine you’re on a game show and the trivia answer you need to win is… the password you created for your online banking account.

This isn’t an elaborate form of hacking, it’s a funny new Apple advertisement that points out that Face ID saves us from ever having to remember passwords.

Researchers investigating differences between groups of Americans have an interesting observation: owning an iOS device is the best indicator that someone is in one of the top income brackets. Even better than using Grey Poupon.

They are trying to discover whether rich and poor, white and minority, men and women have less in common now than they did in the past. Studying the products they buy is part of this process.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was a visionary. That’s a phrase that gets tossed around a lot, but in Jobs’ case we have solid evidence.

Speaking at a conference in the early 1980s, a decade before the Internet became a household name, he described something we do everyday: buy software online.

This week we map our minds with WriteMapper, check out the weather with new maps in Carrot Weather, and see who was sampled in that song playing on the radio in WhoSampled. And — if you can believe it — even more.

Don’t expect to see the rumored folding Windows computer any time soon. In fact, Microsoft might have cancelled the device code named Andromeda.

This would have been small enough to be pocketable, but then unfold to become a tablet about the size of an iPad mini.

In this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine: If running and swimming with Apple Watch don’t rock your boat, you should give rowing a try. It combines all the benefits of cardio and strength training. Whether you get in a boat or use a rowing machine, it’s a great way to get in shape.

You’ll find that story and more in this issue. Get your free subscription to Cult of Mac Magazine from iTunes. Or read on for this week’s top stories.

A few months ago, Apple surprised everyone by announcing its latest smartphone was a huge hit, resulting in better than expected earnings and a big jump in company shares. That didn’t happen to Samsung.

Instead, the Korean company missed analysts’ profit expectations, partially because of sluggish demand for the Galaxy S9.

Looking for something to do this weekend? Been meaning to try Fortnite‘s Playground mode on your Mac or iPad? You should combine those because this training level is getting pulled down in a few days.

The good news is Epic Games already has big plans for the next version.

The next dramatic shift in smartphone design is expected to be folding displays. An industry source in Asia says that Apple is developing a foldable iPhone but it won’t be out before 2020 and possibly even later.

This means Samsung could beat Apple to the punch. The foldable Galaxy X is rumored for release in the first half of 2019.

Apple Music now boasts more paying subscribers that Spotify in the United States.

Both services have more than 20 million subscribers, but Apple Music is finally “a hair ahead” after creeping up on Spotify for months, according to a new report. Apple’s service is expected to widen the gap in the coming months as it continues to enjoy a faster growth rate than its biggest rival.

Do you love your AirPods but wish they looked like they came out in the 80’s?

ColorWare has come out with a new customization of Apple’s AirPods that look like the could have been paired with the original Macintosh. The Pantone 453 finish makes the buds look more retro, but they’re anything but cheap.

It hasn’t escaped Apple’s attention that the FIFA World Cup is going on. As part of the celebration, it’s released a trio of “Shot on iPhone” videos of people playing football/soccer on three continents.

This long-running campaign demonstrates the capabilities of iPhone cameras.

You see yourself as a budding star of the vertical screen but so far you’re spending more time off-camera in post-production editing and formatting your IGTV videos.

Wedding filmmaker and YouTuber Matt Johnson has wasted no time figuring out how to get your vertical videos – and if you’re stubborn, the horizontal ones – ready for posting to Instagram’s new IGTV video platform.

Microsoft is developing a “Movies & TV” app for Android and iOS in an effort to boost downloads from the Microsoft Store, according to a new report.

Customers can enjoy content purchased from Microsoft only on Windows platforms for now. The company hopes that by supporting new platforms, it will encourage more people to use its store over competitors like iTunes.

This week on The CultCast: Finally — new evidence shows that a Mac refresh is right around the corner. Plus: MacBook Pro is about to get the feature we’ve all been wanting; Apple is rebuilding its Maps app from the ground up, and it looks magnificent; Apple’s new Seattle flagship store is stunning; and we pitch a wood-wrapped iPhone case, waterproof camping lights, and a great new reading app in an all-new Under Review!

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to accept Apple Pay and sell your wares with your very own Squarespace website. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first hosting plan or domain.

Nature is truly present in the Teton Wood Apple Watch band in Zebrawood by Wood Mark Watches. The wood for this special band comes from a species of tree found and sourced in Central Africa. Known for its richly veined, zebra-like stripes and pale golden yellow wood, zebrawood is a beautifully exotic material.

Read on to learn a bit more about these unique bands for Apple Watch, and the many surprising benefits of wearing wood. Wood Mark’s entire lineup of wood bands is now available in Cult of Mac’s Watch Store.

Note: Wood Mark does not ship internationally!

We’re all accustomed to paying a simple, one-time fee for our iOS apps. But developers are increasingly turning to subscriptions. In fact, there were billions paid in app subscription fees in the past year.

Apple reported today that revenue from subscriptions is up 95 percent over last year.