A deal may be announced as early as today. Photo: Toshiba
Apple has reportedly agreed terms with Bain Capital as part of the private equity firm’s $18 billion bid for Toshiba’s memory chip unit — with a final agreement that could be announced as early as today.
You can save $100 on the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
This week, protect your new iPhone 8 Plus with some inexpensive cases. Or consider a crazy-low deal on an older iPhone, a hot buy on the latest iPad Pro or other bargains in our roundup of the week’s best Apple deals.
Amazon's new Echo devices are ready to invade your home. Photo: Amazon
Amazon revealed not one, not two, not three, not four, but five Echo-based products at a huge event today at its headquarters in Seattle.
The wave of gadgets, which also included a new TV dongle, is ready to take on Apple’s HomePod speaker and Apple TV 4K with some pretty impressive features. Even more impressive, though, are their incredibly low price tags. It makes you wonder how Apple possibly can compete.
The Half app converts JPG to HEIC, saving space without losing quality. Photo: Cult of Mac
The iPhones 7, 8 and X all capture images in the new HEIC format, which creates images much smaller than JPEGs, with the same quality.
All new images you snap, and movies you capture, will be saved in the new HIEC and HVEC (for movies) formats. But what if you want to convert your older images from JPEG to HEIC to save some space? That’s exactly what Half App does.
To boldly go where no iPhone case has gone before. Photo: Caviar
We’ve seen iPhone cases plated in gold, encrusted with precious gems and crafted from the skin of an ostrich. But one made from a meteorite is sure to make a strong impact.
Since you’re already spending more than a grand on the new iPhone X, another $4,100 will get you a case made with “authentic elements” from a meteor discovered in Russian in 1967. The case, available for pre-order now from the Russian luxury accessories company Caviar, which also offers slightly less expensive cases made from volcanic rock, mink fur, and amber.
Apple's next TV shows should be a lot better than Planet of the Apps. Photo: Apple
Hollywood is racing to do business with Apple in hopes to help the iPhone-maker create its first breakout TV series and movies.
Apple’s LA-based TV execs, Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, have been lining up meetings with some of the top names in town, according to a new report that sheds some light on the company’s TV strategy. Everyone from Jennifer Aniston to Steven Spielberg has pitched the duo. But in true Apple fashion, they’re being very picky about what they say yes to.
iOS 11 just got its first big update. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The first big beta update for iOS 11 has already arrived just over a week after Apple’s new software went live for the public.
Developers received a fresh batch of updates this morning, including iOS 11.1 beta 1 which adds a host of changes and bug fixes to Apple’s most significant software release of 2017.
Who wouldn't want their very own Steve Jobs autograph? Photo: Ben Stanfield/Flickr CC
Do you fancy getting your hands on some Steve Jobs memorabilia, but can’t quite stretch to the high six figure dollar mark needed to purchase a big ticket item like an original Apple-1 computer? No problem if so — because an upcoming auction for a Steve Jobs autograph may be more in your ballpark.
The autography in question is on the front cover of a Newsweek magazine from October 24, 1988, features Jobs with his NeXT computer — the first of several computers he launched during his wilderness years outside of Apple.
Romeo and Juliet sensor components are to blame. Photo: 20th Century Fox
The TrueDepth facial recognition 3D sensor is reportedly the latest manufacturing bottleneck when it comes to the iPhone X, and is causing Apple’s suppliers to turn out just “tens of thousands” of finished handsets per day — against possible preorders of 40-50 million.
A new report sheds a bit more light on the exact problem being faced by Apple’s suppliers. Apparently, it relates to a pair of components dubbed Romeo and Juliet, which make up the sensor in question.
That sound you hear is champagne flutes clinking in Cupertino. Photo: Interbrand
Apple has had another great year, which is why it’s no surprise to hear that brand consultancy Interbrand has just named it the world’s most valuable brand for a highly impressive fifth year in a row.
Apple was followed by Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung, Facebook, and IBM — all of which helped technology firms dominate the top 10 list.
That's a whole lot of logo fails. Photo: Branded in Memory
As the world’s most valuable company, with one of the most recognizable logos in corporate history, you’d think that most people would be capable of drawing the Apple symbol with some degree of accuracy. Especially since it appears on the devices that millions of us carry in our pockets every day.
In fact, a new survey called Branded in Memory shows that more people get the Apple logo wrong than get it right when sketching it out. Check out the most common mistakes below.
Issue only affects a small number of handsets. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The iPhone 4 had Antennagate, the iPhone 6 Plus had Bendgate, and — at least according to multiple online complaints — the iPhone 8 suffers from Cracklegate.
The issue affects a small number of iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus earpieces, resulting in a distracting “crackle” or “static” noise during calls. But don’t worry — according to Apple, a fix is on the way.
Apple is expecting a 50/50 split between the iPhone 8 and iPhone X product lines. Photo: S Marshall-McCormack/Twitter
Concerns that the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus experienced disappointing first weekend sales are overblown, claims respected KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In a note to investors, Kuo said that reports about the new iPhone 8 have so far been “excessively negative.”
Instead, Kuo suggests that first weekend sales for the handset were relatively stable, and that Apple is expecting a roughly even split between the iPhone X and the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.
A protective bumper that's actually protective. Photo: Telephant Labs
Buying a bumper case is a great way to protect your iPhone while showcasing its good looks. But did you know that most bumper cases on the market have poor impact protection? The Dynamic Defender changes that with its unique shock-absorbing mechanism.
It’s just one of the awesome ideas in this week’s Crowdfund Roundup. We also have a MacBook charging accessory that should come bundled with every Apple notebook, and more!
This MacBook Pro is now a Samsung DeX laptop. Photo: Kris Henriksen
The 2008 MacBook Pro isn’t much of a gaming machine nowadays, but apparently, if you just slap some new innards into it, it makes a pretty decent Android setup.
A modder named Kris Henriksen decided to take his old MacBook Pro and convert it into the most beautiful laptop to ever run Samsung’s DeX software which allows Galaxy S8, S8 Plus, and Note 8 owners to plug their device into a monitor to run Android-based apps in a desktop environment.
The Spire Studio looks super easy to use. Photo: iZotope
If you’re a musician, there are plenty of ways to get recordings into your iPhone or iPad. Almost everyone uses either the Voice Notes or Music Memos to capture ideas, and there is a small universe of music apps for iOS, along with hardware to connect your instruments or high-quality microphones. But the Spire Studio hopes to make things easier by combining new hardware with an app, to make capturing audio super-simple.
You can buy the new Apple TV 4K from Amazon. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Amazon’s boycott on Apple TV sales appears to finally be over.
After removing Apple’s set-top box from its website in 2015, the online retail behemoth has given in and created a listing for the new Apple TV 4K this morning.
The FDA is easing up on digital health tools like Apple Watch. Photo: Graham Bower / Cult of Mac
The Food and Drug Administration is making it easier for Apple and other tech companies to get health-related products out to the public faster.
Apple will be part of a new pilot program aimed at rapidly advancing the development of digital health applications. If the program works as intended, it could mean we’ll see new Apple Watch applications and other Apple-made health accessories a lot sooner.
Gates revealed to Fox News he's now an Android user. Photo: Fox News
Bill Gates just got himself a brand new smartphone, and it isn’t an iPhone 8.
The Microsoft co-founder has ditched Windows Mobile for Android. Despite getting closer to Steve Jobs before he died in 2011, Gates still has no interest in using iOS.
The first iOS 11 update is here. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
iPhone and iPad users that upgraded to iOS 11 last week are already getting their first update even though Apple didn’t release any beta builds to developers yet.
The new iOS 11.0.1 update was pushed out to devices this morning exactly one week after the big release of iOS 11. It’s not clear if there are any major changes, but it looks like it may come with some important bug fixes.
iPhone X production is no walk in the park for Apple. Photo: Apple
If you wonder why you can’t get your hands on an iPhone X until well into 2018, you may have its facial recognition 3D sensor to blame, a new report claims.
Citing two executives working for iPhone X suppliers, the report states that the new sensor’s yield rate is failing to reach a satisfactory level. As a result, just “tens of thousands” of iPhone X handsets are currently being produced daily. For a handset that could have preorders of 40-50 million that’s not good!
Apple still makes a killing on its new handsets. But a bit less than before. Photo illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Each iPhone 8 costs Apple approximately $288.08 to build, while iPhone 8 Plus handsets cost an estimated $295.44, according to a new breakdown by IHS Markit. On top of this, Apple pays around $7.36 in basic manufacturing costs per device.
The new handsets are slightly more expensive than Apple’s previous generation of iPhones, with the smaller iPhone 8 costing around $9.57 in components more than the iPhone 7 did upon release.
When Apple execs stepped onstage for September’s big iPhone X unveiling, they had precious few surprises up their sleeves. This year’s iPhone keynote became one of the most spoiled in history, thanks to major software leaks — and a pair of industrious young developers who dug into Apple’s code to pierce the veil of Apple’s vaunted secrecy apparatus.
Steven Troughton-Smith and Guilherme Rambo, who live thousands of miles apart in Ireland and Brazil, dutifully combed through the leaked code. Working separately but in parallel, they pieced together clues that allowed them to reverse-engineer Apple’s plans. Then they released their findings on Twitter, painting an incredibly accurate picture of the iPhone X in a drip-drip-drip of juicy, spoiler-filled tweets.
The end result? An Apple event upstaged by leaks, and by the hard work of two curious coders. Cult of Mac talked with Troughton-Smith and Rambo to find out how they uncovered some of Apple’s most closely kept secrets.
You don't even own an Apple TV 4K yet. These folks have already broken one. Photo: iFixit
The new fifth-generation Apple TV 4K brings impressively sharp ultra HD video to Apple’s set-top box, but what changes has Apple made the internals of its latest Apple TV model?
To answer that question, our friends over at iFixit have carried out a complete teardown of the new device to find out what makes it tick. Or, in this case, quietly whir.
One of Foxconn's many existing factories. Photo: CBS
Apple supplier Foxconn’s chairman Terry Gou will reportedly visit Wisconsin, site of its first U.S. manufacturing facility, in early October to sign subsidy agreements with the local government.
Wisconsin has recently approved a package of subsidies that will help Foxconn establish manufacturing plants in the state. Ahead of Gou’s visit, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation will meet on September 28 to discuss the arrangement.