Apple may have been voted consumers’ favorite brand in the United Arab Emirates, but one of the iPhone’s most popular features — FaceTime — still isn’t allowed in the country.
That could soon change, however, because Apple is in talks with the UAE federal government to lift the ban on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services as far as it affects FaceTime.
Xiaomi has made a big name for itself in China by rolling out impressive devices with affordable price tags. Ripping off Apple’s most popular devices has helped, too.
Now the company is preparing to do battle with the iPhone in the United Kingdom.
Apple’s design principles make it into all sorts of areas of pop culture — from the robots in Pixar’s Wall*E to the Stormtroopers and lightsabers in the Disney Star Wars movies to… Iron Man’s head-up display (HUD)?
According to a new oral history of Tony Stark’s instantly recognizable HUD, the computer interface’s design was greatly influenced by Apple’s then-brand new handset, which had only just shipped when the first Iron Man movie was in production.
Google Pay is gearing up to do battle with Apple Pay in its own backyard.
The payments service has started rolling out on Mac and iOS, and you don’t need a dedicated app to use it.
Steam has added official support for the Switch Pro Controller in its latest client beta.
Players no longer have to use fiddly third-party workarounds to enjoy Nintendo’s best controller in their favorite games. All of its buttons and even its motion controls are now fully supported.
The Apple Watch may have saved a man’s life after its heart rate monitor led 32-year-old New York resident William Monzidelis to be diagnosed with an erupted ulcer.
The ensuing incident sounds terrifying — but also a remarkable illustration of how useful Apple’s wearable device can be.
Apple Music may have made enormous strides, but Spotify remains the king of streaming music. For now, at least.
In its first ever earnings report as a public company, Spotify says that it ended the quarter with 75 million paying customers — and a massive 170 million monthly active users, taken across all user types.
iPhone fast charging is possible with the 2017 models, but it’s a seriously underutilized feature because the devices don’t come with the right adapters. But Apple is reportedly going to ship the 2018 iPhone models with the adapter and cable needed to get a 100% charge much quicker.
It’s one of the puzzles of last year’s devices. They support USB-C fast charging, but come with USB-A adapters that take much longer.
The total number of smartphones shiped worldwide in the first quarter of the year declined, but Apple was immune, experiencing a small increase. Its share of the global market grew as a result.
Arch-rival Samsung was hit though, seeing a small decrease year over year despite the launch of its new flagship models.
Apple and other tech companies are fighting back against a newly proposed method for giving law enforcement access to encrypted smartphones, bypassing users’ passcodes.
The iPhone backdoor proposal comes from Ray Ozzie, who was once chief technical officer at Microsoft, and its chief software architect.
Reese Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine has scored its third TV deal with Apple’s original video content creation team.
Apple has officially ordered one season of “Are You Sleeping,” which will feature Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer in the starring role.
Google I/O 2018 is right around the corner. You may not be all that excited for it if you only ever use Apple devices, but you should be. Google’s plans for the future of its platforms could well shape the future of all smartphones, wearables, and more.
They will also tell us how Google intends to keep up with and fight Apple’s latest devices, including iPhone X, which is quite literally changing the face of Android-powered devices.
Here are five big things we’re expecting from this year’s Google I/O keynote, which kicks off on Tuesday, May 8.
Astonishingly, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas turns 14 years old this year. And thanks to a new update to its iOS port, it looks better than ever on the iPhone X.
As you might expect, Steve Jobs had a pretty darn impressive Rolodex — and he was willing to draw on it to seek advice whenever he needed it.
According to a new interview with Louis Vuitton chief Bernard Arnault, Jobs turned to him shortly after rejoining Apple to ask Arnault’s opinion on Apple-branded stores. The idea seemed crazy at the time, but Jobs saw how well it could work for luxury goods makers.
Awesome email app Newton has killed off the “Sent” folder to make email as easy as instant messaging.
When using Newton, your sent messages now appear right inside your inbox alongside everything else, making it easier than ever to keep track of your conversations. Here’s how you can start enjoying this new feature today.
Nokia is in talks to sell the digital health business it acquired from Withings in 2016.
The Finnish firm paid $191 million for the company as it looked to do battle with the likes of Apple Health; now it looks like it could be returned to its original owner, Withings co-founder Eric Carreel.
Reports about lower-than-expected demand from Apple’s suppliers was one of the reasons so many people were predicting doom for the iPhone X.
But now that Apple has announced its crazy strong earnings for the quarter, Apple’s suppliers are enjoying a welcome boost to their stock prices — with shares rising by more than 14 percent in one case.
Apple’s iPhone battery replacement initiative was supposed to be a way of Apple getting out of trouble, after news about its iPhone battery throttling was released last year.
But according to a new report, Apple is being a bit shady about its replacement policy by finding minor faults with iPhones that it charges users to correct before giving them their replacement batteries.
Apple had another meeting with the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) about autonomous vehicles last month. The April 2 meeting came not at the request of Apple, but instead the DMV.
Nomad, maker of minimalist, practical accessories for Apple Watch and iPhone, now offers a strap that is not only designed for active wearers, but is really good-looking as well. And, at 40 bucks, it’s a super-sporty and stylish alternative to the higher-priced Nike Sport Bands by Apple.
With the intention of creating a silicone strap designed to “withstand the stresses of all forms of sport and exercise,” Nomad has succeeded — the Rugged Strap is a strong, lightweight, sweat- and water-resistant band that is also-super comfortable on the wrist. The best part is that it will take you from a hard workout to a night out, and will look great in both situations.
Read on to learn more about this band, which is perfect for year-round sports junkies. And check it out in our Watch Store.
Fitbit wants Google’s help to turn its fitness trackers into health monitors. The wearables maker will use Google’s cloud solutions to tie directly to users’ electronic medical records.
The real goal, of course, is to help Fitbit be more competitive with arch-rival Apple Watch.
Analysts have been extremely pessimistic about the iPhone X, with almost daily predictions that Apple’s top-of-the-line model was a flop. And they were all dead wrong. Tim Cook just said the iPhone X has been Apple’s best-selling model for every week since it launched, and that sales of all the company’s phones grew last quarter.
How did the analysts get it so wrong? Here’s what probably happened.
Apple blew analysts’ expectations out of the water this afternoon with its historic Q2 2018 earnings report that saw the company post the most revenue ever in the March quarter.
Tim Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri were absolutely giddy during today’s call with investors. Everyone expected the iPhone X to be a bust, but even Apple was surprised by its success as it still dominates the iPhone sales charts. New products are on the horizon too as Apple’s executives teased new goodies coming down its pipeline:
These were the biggest takeaways from the call:
Apple is set to reveal its second quarterly earnings report of 2018 this afternoon. If you’ve been listening to the analysts the last few months, you know that iPhone sales might take a dip.
Lagging iPhone X demand could cause Apple to bring in slightly less revenue than this quarter last year, unless Apple’s services or “other products” sectors picked up the slack. We’ll know for sure once Tim Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri run through all the numbers with investors today at 2 p.m. Pacific.
As usual, Cult of Mac will be live-blogging the action with all the analysis and snark we can muster.
Come join the fun:
There’s a lot of good news in Apple’s second earnings report of 2018 that should keep investors happy going into the next quarter.
Revenue during Q2 2018 hit an all-time high for a March quarter at $61.1 billion, thanks in large part to 52.2 million iPhones sold. Apple CEO Tim Cook says iPhone X sales are still killing it, too.