News - page 763

Faced with the threat of having the iPhone out of India altogether, Apple has supposedly agreed to implement a government-sanctioned Do Not Disturb app on its platform.

Apple had previously refused to carry the app, which it claimed violates user privacy by allowing the Indian government to access customers’ call and text message logs. Last week, we reported how this standoff could have resulted in the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India requiring mobile operators in the country to stop supporting the iPhone as a result.

There’s good news and bad news about the more-affordable 6.1-inch iPhone supposedly in development. The good new is it may have bezels almost as thin as the iPhone X. The bad news is it’s not expected until November.

Apple is reportedly turning to a new type of LCD for this upcoming model. This will enable the slim bezels, but the supplier has run into production problems.

This week we get all private, with a new version of Dashlane, the official password manager of Cult of Mac, plus the Shhlack privacy tool for encrypting your Slack chats to keep them safe from your boss. And once that party is started, we start in with some music apps.

The next-generation iPad Pro is going to have some nice improvements, like smaller screen bezels resulting in an edge-to-edge look.

But not every change is likely to go down well with fans. Apple is also supposedly going to remove the headphone jack, as it has done in its iPhone line. But that’s probably not the move that will draw the most criticism.

Think about how nice it would be to have the best lighted bathroom mirror and dim the lights without having to get out of the tub. That’s one of the promises of the Adore Bathroom lighted mirror as it can be controlled from your iPhone or iPad.

The center of this product is a standard mirror that’s about 20 inches across. This is surrounded by a while LED light that can be dim or bright.

What if your every Apple device could wirelessly charge almost every other one? Engineers came up with plans to put wireless chargers in MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones so they could charge each other, or an Apple Watch.

Building inductive chargers into macOS laptops is such an obvious idea it’s a bit surprising the 2018 MacBook Pro doesn’t include them. But Apple took this idea to its logical extreme.

Terry Gilliam’s fantasy film Time Bandits is set to be turned into a TV series by Apple.

The iPhone-maker is reportedly closing in on a deal that would give it the rights to make a TV series based on the 1981 movie, but Terry Gilliam won’t be attached as a writer for the series.

The Commerce Dept. is reportedly talking to social networking companies and consumer advocates about rules to protect online privacy. Also included are possible protections for companies that have data breeches.

This is supposedly laying the groundwork for legislation that might be proposed this fall.

Both Samsung and Apple are reportedly working on foldable phones, but China’s Huawei could be the first to get one on the market.

Phones that can unfold to the size of small tablets have the potential to shake up the mobile device industry in the coming years.

People in Japan hit by the recent massive floods are getting a little help from Apple if their iPhones, Macs or iPads were damaged as a result of the floods.

In a message posted on its regional support site, Apple says it is offering flood victims free repairs on damaged Apple products from now until the end of September.

If you think there’s a nagging sameness to the photos on Instagram, here’s your Exhibit A.

It’s an Instagram feed of collages that showcase the repetitive subjects and compositions of photos shared on the service.

A company named SpeakWare is suing Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft, claiming that all three are infringing on one of its patents.

Specifically, it claims that the tech trio are illegally using technology described in SpeakWare’s 2002 patent for “Hands-Free, Voice-Operated Remote Control Transmitter.” The allegedly infringing products are voice-activated systems which are used to control appliances. In Apple’s case, that’s Siri.

Apple’s normally happy to get a public shout-out for one of its products from a celebrity. It’s unlikely to be quite so chuffed about a recent incident involving actor Orlando Bloom, however.

Bloom was acting in a play at Trafalgar Studios in London, England, when he flipped out at an audience member using an iPad during his performance.

Secure messaging app Telegram now lets you save copies of your most important documents so that you always have them with you.

Telegram Passport can hold your driving license, passport, other forms of ID, and more — and promises to protect them with end-to-end encryption. You can then use those documents to prove who you are when logging into other services.

This week on The CultCast: Apple has issued a patch that significantly increases performance for all 2018 MacBook Pros, but there’s one glaring problem it doesn’t fix…. We talk benchmarks and real-world performance. Plus, we take a peek at the new HomePod features from iOS 12 beta, and we wrap up with your emails!

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.

Grid Autosport, the AAA racing game that offers a console-quality racing experience on iOS, has passed more than 100,000 downloads since debuting on the platform last November.

That’s an impressive figure in its own right. But it’s also welcome news for anyone who’d like to see fewer of the freemium games loaded with in-app purchases that have clogged the App Store in recent years. Here’s why.

Epic Games is finally bringing Fortnite to Android this summer following its launch on iOS back in March. But don’t get too excited just yet.

New reports claim the game will be exclusive to one Samsung handset that isn’t even out yet. There’s a chance your existing device won’t support it at launch.

Competition is heating up between Amazon and Apple, regarding which will pass the trillion dollar valuation mark first. But despite Apple still being ahead to the tune of approximately $949 billion to Amazon’s $888 billion, investors seem to believe that Jeff Bezos’ retail giant will be the one to set the record.

According to a recent survey at the 8th Annual Delivering Alpha Conference in New York, CNBC asked 100 investors which company they thought would set this record first. Amazingly, a whole 70 percent said that Amazon is likely to pip Apple to the post.

Apple just rolled out its latest update to the official Apple Store app, introducing an improved search interface.

The version 5.1 release now displays search suggestions like the App Store and iTunes apps, and thanks to speech recognition, you can find products using your voice for the first time.

Facebook lost more value today than any other company in history: $120 billion. The massive selloff came after CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the growing privacy concerns of the public, and the likely response of lawmakers and regulators, will hit the company where it hurts: in the pocketbook.

On the same day Facebook lost 19 percent of its value, Apple’s share price was unaffected. This is because the two companies have diametrically opposing views on the privacy rights of the public. What hurt Facebook so much is actually one of Apple’s strengths.

The highlight of Samsung latest mobile RAM chip is power efficiency. The second-generation LPDDR4X uses up to 10 percent less electricity without sacrificing speed. That’s almost certainly going to benefit future iPhone models.

With batteries improving only slowly, the best way to increase the time between charges is for the phone’s components to draw less energy. Hence Samsung’s efforts to make its RAM more efficient.

Some people treat Apple Pay like a bank account. They keep a balance of cash on this payment system and use it to pay off debts or accept money from friends.

A Redditor has a story that shows a potential pitfall of this strategy, especially if a large sum of money is involved.

Wired is turning 25 years old. To celebrate, the magazine invited Apple design chief Jony Ive to come to an event to talk about the crazy changes technology has been through over the last few decades.

Apple Watch is finally starting to face some bigger competition from rival smartwatch-makers, based on the latest data from Canalys.

Fitbit and Garmin are capitalizing on the wearables trend and diversifying their lineups to appeal to specific use cases. As a result, Apple Watch’s market share shrunk even though it sold more watches in Q2 2018 than it did during the same period last year.

When a product isn’t doing well, one marketing strategy is to sling mud at the competition. That’s why all Samsung’s latest ads don’t focus on the Galaxy S9, but criticize the iPhone instead.

There are four new ads that target some aspect of Apple’s products, such as the notch, no microSD card slot, and a lack of on-screen multitasking.