Somehow it’s the weekend again, and to help you celebrate we’ve combed through the week’s best apps to help you sort the wheat from the chaff.
Whether you’re after a great Tetris-style puzzler, the reissue of a tremendous Rockstar Games classic, or a Touch Bar-compatible music player, we’re confident we’ve got what you’re looking for.
Check out our list below.
With thousands of games in its catalog and more than 125 million users, Steam has become almost synonymous with computer gaming, whether Mac or PC. And, in great news for gamers, Steam is not afraid of discounts.
But not all discounts are created equal. How can you score the best prices on your favorite titles? We’re here to help, offering seven ways you can save with Steam.
This week on The CultCast: Why Apple’s done pursuing the “new hit product business.” Plus: The demise of Pebble Watch is a bad omen for wearables; Foxconn secretly prepares to make more Apple products in the United States; and we remember our favorite movies of 2016!
Our thanks to Harry’s for supporting this episode. Harry’s super-sharp, German-made razors ship right to your door for way less than drugstore razors, and you can use code CultCast at checkout to score $5 off your order at Harrys.com.
Apple hopes the new Apple Watch Series 2 will become one of the most popular tech gifts this holiday season, so the company made some new ads highlighting the wearable’s fitness skills.
The two new ads, showing how Apple Watch can help you live a healthier life, were published on Apple’s U.K. YouTube channel today.
Watch them both:
The first documentary from Apple has finally arrived — and it has nothing to do with iPhones or Macs. The film, titled 808: The Movie, chronicles Roland’s legendary TR-808 drum machine and how it influenced the music industry from the ’80s all the way up to today.
Narrated by Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe, the Apple Music exclusive features appearances by Pharrell Williams, David Guetta, Rick Rubin, Diplo, Questlove, Phil Collins, Beastie Boys and more.
Check out the trailer:
People griped when Apple launched the iPhone 7 without an earphone jack and asked the world to get excited about AirPods, the company’s cordless earphones designed for the brave new “wireless future.”
Apparently, cutting the cord hasn’t been so easy for Apple, either.
The AirPods, skewered on social media within seconds of being introduced at Apple’s product launch in September, remain in a holding pattern because of audio glitches — and could miss the crucial 2016 holiday shopping season entirely.
Galaxy Note 7 owners who refuse to give up their explosive device will soon have no choice but to use a different phone.
Samsung revealed today that it plans to release a software update later this month that will brick all Galaxy Note 7 units not returned during its recall.
The geeky excitement shared by mobile photographers over the dual-camera of the iPhone 7 Plus has not waned.
And as they’ve played with the small optical zoom and blurring backgrounds in portrait mode, two small accessories companies have been quietly but furiously developing a two-lens attachment dedicated to enhancing the reach of the 7 Plus camera.
As much as I like the kind of long, winding, RPG-style games you can get lost in for months at a time, I’ll always be a sucker for a great mobile puzzle game.
That’s exactly what developer Midnight Tea Studio offers with its new game Dropa! Pitched somewhere between Tetris and that fingerprint pattern you have to fill in when you set up a new Touch ID profile, it’s a game that’s sure to keep you busy during the holiday season.
Check out the trailer below.
Super Mario Run will sprint into the App Store on December 15, but while there’s plenty to be excited about with Nintendo’s first Mario game to hit iOS, there is one big potential downside for users: the game requires constant internet connectivity.
According to Mario creator and Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto, the decision to include no offline mode was made for anti-piracy reasons.
Apple touts the new iPhone 7 as being water-resistant enough to take into the shower. There’s really no good reason to bathe with your smartphone, but the point is that iPhone 7 owners don’t need to worry about a little rain or spilled tea.
Naturally, some people waltzed into their shower stalls with their expensive new phones in hand — just cuz — and some found a weakness in the iPhone 7’s water-resistance. Luckily for foolhardy iPhone owners everywhere, a Redditor discovered a simple hack for getting the water out.
Steve Jobs gave one of the most memorable commencement speeches in living memory, and it seems that Tim Cook is set to take on the same challenge when he delivers the address at MIT’s 2017 graduation event next June.
“Mr. Cook’s brilliance as a business leader, his genuineness as a human being, and his passion for issues that matter to our community make his voice one that I know will resonate deeply with our graduates,” MIT President L. Rafael Reif said. “I am delighted that he will join us for commencement and eagerly await his charge to the class of 2017.”
The iPod turns 15 this year. Hard to believe, right? It’s also hard to believe you still have that old iPod at all, what with the amazing music-carrying capacity of iPhones, iPads — heck, even your Apple Watch.
If you’re not using your old iPod (and it’s not one of those incredibly valuable special edition iPods that collectors are snapping up), you should sell your old iPod to us. Cult of Mac’s Apple gear buyback program will make sure you get as much cash as possible.
If you like watching a kid opening a gift at Christmastime, you might delight in watching a video posted by iPhone photographer Cielo de la Paz that shows her opening an unexpected gift from Apple.
For the second straight year, the self-taught photographer had one of her pictures selected for Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” marketing campaign. In addition to compensation for use of the photos for the campaign, Apple surprises the photographers with a coffee table book displaying photos selected for the Apple World Gallery.
If there was doubt Apple is moving forward with development of a self-driving car program, events over the last week show Cupertino is indeed mapping out a course.
An Apple patent application for an autonomous vehicle collision-avoidance system published Thursday is the second public acknowledgment that Cupertino is very much in the game.
The National Hockey League may soon introduce a new set of pads for the hands.
iPads.
Apple and the NHL are reportedly close to a deal that could put iPads into the hands of coaches on team benches and for fan engagement around arenas.
Score bargains on iPads and MacBooks, both high-end and low, in this week’s roundup of best Apple deals. Plus, a third-party accessory that costs $139 less than Apple’s version.
We’ve heard for years that the internet of things™ would imbue everything in our lives with the power of the web, all accessible by voice. If you’ve been waiting for something that isn’t a computer or smartphone or smart home hub to ask for driving directions or movie times, here’s your dream device at last: It’s a lamp that gets its smarts from Alexa.
Apple and Hollywood are reportedly in talks to provide home-video rentals of movies as little as two weeks after theatrical release.
Studio heads from Warner Bros., Universal Pictures and 21st Century Fox have indicated recently they are looking for deals. Two unidentified sources close to the talks told Bloomberg News the studios are considering partnering with Apple and iTunes.
When mophie created a battery case for the iPhone, the company picked a name that confidently signaled an expectation — juice pack.
And behind that name is plenty of juice, especially for the latest cases that debuted this week for the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, bringing extended battery life and easy wireless charging.
That Apple’s next iPhone may contain few surprises does not surprise fans growing impatient for game-changing innovation.
The next iPhone may have them seeing red.
Red is reportedly set to join the color lineup of Apple’s 2017 iPhones, according to the Japanese Apple news blog Macotakara.
Apple has denied that it is responsible for eight iPhone 6-series handsets bursting into flames in China, blaming the fiery phones on “external factors.”
The company came under fire (pun semi-intended) from Shanghai’s consumer watchdog for the alleged fault, but Apple said its own investigations have shown there is “no cause for concern.”
Apple is reportedly set to launch new iPad Pros in the first half of 2017, but that may not be enough to stop iPad demand slipping to its lowest level to a new record low, claims a new report.
Citing sources in the supply chain, the report claims that chip demand for the iPad has continued to slow, meaning that shipments of iPad devices for 2016 may struggle to hit 40 million units in total. And things are likely to get even worse.
Once again, the world’s most popular camera is a phone.
Smartphones, led by Apple’s iPhone, was the type of camera used most by photographers in 2016 on the photo-sharing site Flickr, according its annual analysis of EXIF data on pictures uploaded to the site.
The iPhone was in the hands of shooters for 47 percent of the pictures uploaded to Flickr. Canon and Nikon were second and third with 24 and 18 percent.
Apple Pay is accepted at 35 percent of retailers — or around 4 million locations — in the U.S., claims Jennifer Bailey, the VP in charge of Apple Pay.
Speaking at San Francisco’s Code Commerce conference (try saying that five times quickly!), Bailey cited it as a victory for Apple, and evidence that the service is finding its mark.