News - page 764

Memorial Day weekend is no exception to the epic sales typically found on holiday weekends. In addition to a little R&R, why not spend a minute treating yourself to some great scores on Apple Watch bands?

Cult of Mac Watch Store’s Memorial Day Weekend Sale will offer up to 25 percent off the majority of our vendors. You’ll find great discounts on some of our most popular brands for Apple Watch straps, chargers and stands. Sale ends Monday, so check out these stellar discounts while they last, and see some of our featured brands below.

In this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine: We’re expecting big things from iOS 12, including a whole host of improvements that will make our devices more stable, and plenty of welcome bug fixes. Apple will surely surprise us with some nice new features, too at WWDC 2018.

Here’s our lengthy wish list for this update, which includes a Home screen overhaul, a more powerful FaceTime, better multitasking, and more!

You’ll find that story and more in this issue. Celebrate Memorial Day Weekend with three days of great savings on Apple Watch bands and accessories in Cult of Mac’s Watch Store. Get your free subscription to Cult of Mac Magazine from iTunes. Or read on for this week’s top stories.

A locked iPhone can’t be accessed without the passcode, and even Apple can’t unlock it. But Apple has to comply with government requests for iCloud information.

And there are a lot of them. The company received 3,358 requests to access personal data in the second-half of 2017, with about half of these coming from the United States.

Apple began offering 4G-enabled smartwatches last fall, but it seems people don’t return them very often. It’s taken this long to build up a large enough supply of refurbished Apple Watch LTE units that they can finally be offered to the public.

Those who don’t mind a refurb can get this wearable at 15 percent off the regular price.

WWDC is right around the corner, which means we’re about to get our very first look at Apple’s next major update to iOS.

We’re expecting big things from iOS 12, including a whole host of improvements that will make our devices more stable, and plenty of welcome bug fixes. Apple will surely surprise us with some nice new features, too.

Here’s our lengthy wish list for this update, which includes a Home screen overhaul, a more powerful FaceTime, better multitasking, and more!

The giants of the financial world are firmly in Apple’s corner. First, mega investor Warren Buffett‘s company became Apple’s third-biggest public shareholder. Now investment titan Morgan Stanley has issued a note to clients, outlining why Apple is likely to pass a major financial milestone in the next year.

At time of writing, Apple is trading at $188.51. However, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty the stock has the potential to hit a price target of $214. Should it manage this feat, Apple will become the first company in history to surpass $1 trillion in market cap.

Not garnering enough attention tapping away at your unfinished novel on your iPad in your local Starbucks? That will certainly change if you invest in Rymek’s latest keyboard accessory.

Designed to replicate the look and feel of a vintage typewriter, Rymek’s iPad-compatible mechanical keyboard will let you bash out the words between sips of whisky, while pretending you’re Mad Men‘s Don Draper.

Apple has decided that it won’t allow iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV owners to play PC games through Steam Link.

Valve’s new app, which is now available in beta on Android, has been banned from the App Store because of “business conflicts.” Apple has also turned down Valve’s appeals.

It’s yet another example of Apple customers being hurt by its often farcical App Store rules. What makes this ban even more ridiculous is that there are so many apps similar to Steam Link already available in the App Store.

Apple is looking to hook more people to subscribe to its iCloud storage service — and like good salespeople they’re willing to give you the first hit for free, after which you’ll have to start paying.

At present, Apple offers you a tiny amount of storage for free as a preview of its iCloud storage. However, this is such a small amount that users will run out even if they’re only backing up the videos and photos on their iPhone. For most customers, it’s therefore necessary to pay a monthly subscription fee to Apple to cover all your storage needs.

A jury has decided that Samsung must pay Apple $539 million in damages, following four days of deliberation — and years of ongoing legal battles.

The verdict is almost exactly in the middle of the $1 billion in damages Apple was requesting, and the $28 million Samsung’s lawyers felt the South Korean tech giant should pay.

The iPhone dominates smartphone sales charts. The iPad is so ubiquitous that, for many, its name is a catch-all term for any tablet. The Mac is the most desirable computer out there. But the HomePod? Not so much.

According to figures released this week, Apple’s smart speaker made up just a tiny 6 percent share of all smart speaker shipments for the first quarter of 2018. What is Apple doing wrong? And what could it do to turn things around? Here are five suggestions for HomePod improvements we’d like to see.

Bendgate is back in the news and this time, court documents show Apple knew about structural problems with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus prior to release.

Apple’s own tests revealed the handsets might have a bending problem but publicly defended the structural soundness despite widespread customer complaints of frozen or unresponsive touchscreens. As the complaints piled up, Apple quietly corrected the defect, the documents show.

Got your eye on the powerful iMac Pro but don’t want to pay full price? Apple just began selling refurbished units for 15 percent off.

iMac Pro is Apple’s first all-in-one machine for professionals who need serious capabilities. The only problem? It starts at $5,000.

This week, you will see great deals on essential Apple accessories including Multiport Adapters, iPad covers and charging stands. Plus, get the lowest price on an unlocked iPhone 7!

With iOS 11, Apple introduced a “Do Not Disturb” feature that texts callers to let them know you’re driving or otherwise engaged if they try and phone when you’re busy. But a future version of the technology could perform a more useful feat by texting context-specific responses to the person calling.

In a patent application published today, Apple describes how your iPhone could analyze available information — ranging from fitness tracking apps to your calendar and location information — to figure out the most useful response to a message.

Call it macOS or OS X if you want, but today Apple’s Mac operating system passed a major milestone: overtaking Apple’s classic Mac OS by a single day.

Pointed out by Jason Snell of Six Colors, the original Mac operating system lasted 6,269 days from January 24, 1984 to March 24, 2001. The current operating system, meanwhile, has lasted from March 24, 2001 to the present day — a total of 6,270 days! Time sure flies, right?

You can now secure your Facebook account with two-factor authentication without handing over your phone number.

The social network now works alongside apps like Google Authenticator, Duo Security, and more. Its setup process has also been refined to make bolstering security a simpler experience.

Apple wants you to use Apple Pay and it’s willing to reward you if you’ll give it a shot. The company’s latest Apple Pay promotion offers free delivery on food ordered from food delivery service Postmates through its app.

Unlike many of the one-week promotions Apple runs for Apple Pay, this offer runs through the end of June.

Apple’s Services division is growing rapidly, but according to analyst Gene Munster it is still leaving billions of dollars on the table by failing to monetize its software in the way that it could.

Munster says that Apple should be following other high tech companies by charging monthly subscription fees for Pro Apps, aimed at audio and visual professionals. These apps include Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro X, Motion, Compressor and MainStage 3, each of which Apple currently sells for a one-off fee.

The look of iPhone ads is familiar. A cool song blares while the device sleekly moves before the camera. An artist has used that formula to create an ad for the iPhone SE 2, a smartphone not yet released.

The look of the phone matches the latest rumors of this upcoming budget model. It seems almost real.

All President Donald Trump’s many tweets come from his trusty iPhone, and he’s not shy about blocking people who use this social network platform to respond to his comments.

Today, however, a federal judge ruled that blocking anyone from accessing the president’s Twitter feed is a violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Apple’s self-driving shuttle bus project has finally found a car manufacturer to work with.

After being spurned by BMW and Mercedes, Apple has inked a deal with Volkswagen that will allow the iPhone-maker to turn some of its T6 vans into self-driving shuttles for employees.

The grand unveiling of iOS 12 is just a few weeks away and there’s one feature on everybody’s wishlist: grouped notifications.

iOS 11’s notification screen is a mess when you get multiple notifications from the same app, but developer Matt Birchler has created a simple concept that shows how Apple could make the lock screen notifications so much better.

Here’s how they would look:

One of the best original iPhone photography apps is about to make a comeback.

Camera+ was one of our favorite camera apps in the early days of the iPhone thanks to its streamlined UI and unique features. Now the developers behind have given it a complete overhaul in time for the summer.

Apple was the top wearables vendor in Q1 according to market analysis firm Canalys. A rival analyst from Asymco also placed Apple at the top, but with a higher total of devices shipped. Canalys put the number at 3.8 million. the other at just over 4 million.

Disagreements like this are possible because Apple itself doesn’t reveal how many smartwatches it sells. Still, both groups of analysts agree that Apple Watch leads the market.