When people look back on Steve Jobs’ most audacious moves during his 1997-2011 stint as CEO, launching the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone and iPad are most frequently singled out as rightfully big achievements — as is his decision to open Apple-branded retail outlets and the iTunes Stores.
Back on June 6, 2005, Jobs made another major announcement, however, when he revealed that Macs were switching their CPUs over from PowerPC processors to Intel ones.
Here’s why it mattered.
In a week where Cult of Mac brought you exclusive next-gen MacBook pics and controversial ex-iPad creator Tony Fadell parted ways with Nest, we got some great new apps arriving in the App Store.
Which apps were dominating our iOS devices over the past seven days? Check out our picks below. Trust us, it’s the perfect way to spend your Sunday!
This week on The CultCast: MacBook Pro spy photos reveal some juicy new features, but some old favorites go bye-bye. Plus: Apple may finally update its ancient Thunderbolt display; why moving iPhone to a three-year update cycle would suck; and stay tuned for more weird and wacky super-fan stories from The Cult of Mac.
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In this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine we have a great lineup for you. Read about Parry Gripp, whose career in music was given a boost thanks to Apple and the iPhone.
Check out the precise design features and attention to detail at the newest Apple store in San Francisco, where all architectural elements align. Plus, view leaked photos of the new OLED touchpad that is very, very likely to appear on this year’s MacBook Pro.
These and many more great stories in Cult of Mac Magazine, free for you right now.
Here are this week’s top stories.
Godammit. I really loved Muhammad Ali. My all-time greatest hero. A great athlete, funny as shit, and a giant of a man because he gave a shit about something other than himself. He stood up for what he believed in, and he shone a light on all kinds of injustice. Rest in peace Ali.
Nest co-founder and CEO Tony Fadell revealed today that he’s taking flight and leaving the company he created.
The godfather of the iPod hit a grand slam with the launch of his smart-thermostat company that was bought by Google, but it appears he’s ready to call it quits just six years into Nest’s run.
Mainland China is Apple’s second biggest market, and will one day be its first. The company is making a big push on the mainland, opening new stores and investing in home-grown companies. Why the interest? Because China is the new Japan — it’s where the future is happening. All this week we take a look at the cutting-edge apps that define mobile life on the mainland.
SHANGHAI CITY, China — In China, 478 million people — more than the entire population of the United States — listen to music online, according to government statistics. I am one of those people, and in China I have joined the reported 80 million active users of QQ Music to stream music on my iPhone.
With WWDC 2016 set to kick off in just 10 days, Apple has released a new update to its annual WWDC app that makes it easy to keep track of all the new software and announcements, even if you’re not attending the conference.
Developers will now be able to virtually attend sessions thanks to the new live streaming tools that come with the new tvOS version of the WWDC app, as well as multitasking picture-in-picture option for the iPad version.
Former Apple marketing guru Ken Segall helped launched Apple’s string of i-devices, but now he says that the company has lost its way from simplicity lately and there’s no clearer sign than the confusing naming scheme of the iPhone.
In a recent op-ed claiming Apple’s days of simplicity may have died with his buddy Steve Jobs, Segall takes Apple’s product names to tasks for being far too complex for customers to keep track, saying Tim Cook has created products that he finds bewildering.
Google’s DeepMind team has been working with scientists to create a way in which humans can kill artificial intelligence agents before they can turn on us.
It’s a concern many have as the AI systems being developed by tech giants become more intelligent and more capable — but Google has us covered.
Apple’s business model is based on the future, but sometimes a fan pines for the machine they had as a kid.
Self-taught hardware hacker and 3D printer artist Charles Mangin happily tries to satisfy those vintage tech longings by recreating pieces of Apple’s past in miniature. He even brings the screens to life — sort of.
Just days after it arrived on the App Store, NBA star Steph Curry’s emoji app, StephMoji, has already shot to the top of the paid apps list.
Because which indie devs need your money more than a $12 million per year basketball player?
Facebook is giving up on its attempt to be your go-to news outlet. Just seven months after it made its initial debut, the standalone Notify app, which provided push notifications for breaking news, is no more.
The 4-inch iPhone SE may not be the go-to choice of users wanting to get their hands on Apple’s premium handsets, but they’ve proven immensely popular in developing markets where they’ve been causing a major headache for Chinese makers of low-cost phones.
With that in mind, it’s no surprise to hear that Xiaomi — a company not exactly not for its reluctance to rip off Apple’s ideas — is rumored to be developing a smaller-sized smartphone aimed at taking back some of the ground it’s lost to the iPhone SE.
You may identify as an Apple fan in life, but is that really the way you’d like to be best-remembered in death?
If so, a company called Autograph, founded by Serbian artist Pavel Kayuk, may be able to help you. It has created a tombstone in the shape of an iPhone, referred to (of course) as the iTombstone — forever marking you out as coolest character in the graveyard. Or something like that.
Apple’s often-ridiculed Maps app is getting some much-needed assistance, thanks to a recent new hire who helped invent the satellite navigation systems used by a bevy of automakers.
Sinisa Durekovic, a software engineer who was the principle architect and engineer for Harman International Industries’ navigation systems, has reportedly joined Apple, and the company won’t say what he is working on.
Having trouble using iCloud, iTunes, or pretty much any other Apple service right now?
It’s not just you. Multiple Apple services are currently down and there’s no word on when they’ll be coming back up.
Mainland China is Apple’s second biggest market, and will one day be its first. The company is making a big push on the mainland, opening new stores and investing in home-grown companies. Why the interest? Because China is the new Japan — it’s where the future is happening. All this week we take a look at the cutting-edge apps that define mobile life on the mainland.
SHANGHAI CITY, China — A Chinese friend of mine recently started a fashion blog and asked me to take and edit some photos of her. We met up one sunny afternoon and I snapped various shots of her posing in a local park for an hour or so. After the shoot, we took a look at the photos together and she selected a few for me to edit. I took a crack at the photos in Photoshop, but she was far from satisfied.
“You barely even fixed my face,” she told me. “Just send me the photos and I’ll edit them on my iPhone.”
I was mystified. What iPhone app can rival the technology of Photoshop? How exactly was she going to “fix” her face?
Apple is expected to introduce a massive MacBook Pro redesign later this year, and photos recently published by Cult of Mac all but confirm it will feature an OLED touchpad and USB-C connectivity.
But it seems the company will have to win some fans over first, because many aren’t happy about these changes.
The folks at Chick-fil-A have found a magical formula for shooting to the top of the App Store charts: free chicken.
To promote its new mobile ordering app, the chicken-based fast food company is giving away free chicken sandwiches, all you have to do is download the new app and createa Chick-fil-A One account.
We’ve got another bonanza of discounted Apple gear, from laptops to desktops. These and more are in the best Apple deals we’ve seen this week.
Other World Computing discounts a selection of used Apple MacBook Air Laptops, with prices starting at $479. This price was found on a 13″ MacBook Air with Core i5 Sandy Bridge processor, 64GB SSD and 4GB RAM. Plus, all orders qualify for free shipping. Available quantities for some models may be limited. Each is covered by a 90-day warranty.
Apple took a major step this week toward getting out of its $533 million payment to the patent troll Smartflash LLC after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled that two of three patents owned by Smartflash are invalid.
The patent agency ruled that the two of the patents shouldn’t have even been issues in the first place because they are abstract concepts and not specific inventions. The USPTO made a similar ruling against one of Smartflash’s patents in March, which could help Apple get the case dismissed.
Microsoft today announced that it’s opening up its HoloLens platform to third-parties — and it has a crazy new ad to celebrate.
The three-minute clip showcases some of HoloLens’ insane capabilities, like turning an old warehouse into a shoe store, putting people from around the world in the same room, and taking you on sublime acid trips without the acid.
Apple will not be updating its old ass Thunderbolt display anytime soon, despite rumors that suggested the company was planning to unveil a new 5K Thunderbolt display with a built-in GPU at this year’s WWDC.
Apple should have started development on the Apple Car a lot earlier than it did, according to Space X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
The real-life comic-book superhero sat down for an interview at Code Conference and said that when it comes to autonomous cars, Google won’t be a competitor because they’re not a car company, however Apple will be.
Musk thinks it may be too late for Apple to be truly competitive though.