The era of using cables to charge your iPhone may finally be coming to an end.
During CES 2019, Ossia, a company that specializes in creating truly wireless charging solutions, debuted its first case for iPhone that can take radio waves out of the air and convert them into useable electricity.
This week on The CultCast: Smart window blinds, smart plugs, smart lights, smart locks and now … the best televisions on the market. Apple just revealed big moves to bring HomeKit to all your favorite gadgets, and Cupertino is just getting started. In 2019, the smart HomeKit devices we’ve always wanted finally arrive. Plus: Tim Cook just let it slip — Apple’s got new services lined up for release this year, but what could they be? We think we might just know.
Our thanks to LinkedIn for supporting this episode. A business is only as strong as its people, and every hire matters. Head to LinkedIn.com/cultcast and get a $50 credit toward your first job post.
Expect to see an extra lens for each of the 2019 iPhone models, claims a new report from the Wall Street Journal. In the case of the iPhone XS and XS Max sequel, this will mean jumping from two to three lenses. In the case of the iPhone XR follow-up, it means moving from one to two lenses.
This report appears to back up another recent rumor, suggesting that the new top-tier iPhone will sport a series of camera lenses arranged in a triangle configuration.
If you wait long enough to clean out a junk drawer or filing cabinet, you’re liable to find something historic.
In the case of graphic designer Greg Bridges of Sydney Australia, an old three-ring binder he stumbled across during a recent studio purge turned out to be an artifact from the early days of Apple.
Buying multiple Apple Watch bands may soon become as outdated as mechanical watches.
Apple recently patented a brilliant idea for a chameleon-like Apple Watch band that can change colors to match what you’re wearing. Sometime in the future, you might be able to snap a picture of the color you’re wearing, and have Apple Watch match it in an instant. It’s about to get a lot harder to make fashion faux pas.
Apple’s revenue is hurting this quarter. Part of that is down to China, but part of it is Apple’s own stupid fault. The iPhone is just too damn good.
Unlike most crappy Android junk, which slows down and falls apart almost as soon as you’ve opened the box, the iPhone lasts for years. Even if you, the original owner, replace it after just a couple of years, then it’s likely that you’ll hand it down to a friend of a family member who will enjoy it for a few more.
The iPhone is a great investment, then (for you, if not for share traders) but you can make it last a lot longer. Try these tips to make your iPhone last you for years.
Do you have a snippet of a song in your head, and it’s driving you crazy? Did you forget to Shazam it when you heard it playing in that hipster boutique vegan-boots-and-artisanal-ramen store? Then you need Apple Music’s search by lyrics feature, which lets you find a song based on a few vaguely remembered snatches of verse.
In the nearly two months I’ve been using the new iPad Pro with USB-C hubs, I’ve found these accessories to be alternately miraculous and frustrating.
This isn’t a review, or a how-to. It’s just a look at what’s right — and what’s still very wrong — with USB-C and the 2018 iPad Pro.
So, someone who obviously likes you very much gifted you an Apple Watch Series 4 this holiday season. Now you’d like to add some personal style with an out-of-the-ordinary Apple Watch band. You should consider those made by Strapa, a company based in The Netherlands that produces some of the best leather Apple Watch bands we’ve seen.
Trust us, you’ll love these bands.
Forget your wrist. The new location for wearable devices is clearly your waist, at least according to Korean wearables company Welt. At CES 2019, the startup unveiled its smart belt, which promises to track physical activity, measure your expanding waistline, and even perform Apple Watch-style fall detection.
The Welt smart belt does this using a bevy of sensors and a Bluetooth connection. The data gathered is sent to a connected mobile device such as an iPhone.
It’s happening again! You cheaped out and bought that 32GB iPhone or iPad a few years back, and it’s full up, again. But wait — before you go deleting your photos, or uninstalling apps at random until you recover enough space, take a look at this how-to. You might be able to recover tens of gigabytes from apps you’d totally forgotten about.
Did you know that every photo you send via iMessage, or other messaging services like WhatsApp, contains all that photo’s location data? If you snap a picture in your home, anyone who’s receives that photo will be able to see where you took it on a map.
The same goes for uploading images to online auction sites, or internet forums. The good news is that it’s easy to sanitize your images with Shortcuts.
There aren’t many health and fitness statistics Apple Watch can’t track, but to make up for some of those that are missing, there’s the impressive new Smart Strap from Aura.
By sending electricity through your body (without hurting you), the Smart Strap can measure your weight, fat, muscle mass, and more. It won’t cost you much more than a regular Apple Watch band, either.
Tim Cook teased new services that will be coming to Apple users this year. Responding to questions about falling iPhone sales during a CNBC interview, Cook stressed the way that Apple’s services division has grown significantly in the past several years.
“The services are on a tear,” Cook said. “On services, you will see us announce new services this year. There will more things coming.”
Images posted online might be our first glimpse of the next iPad mini. A new version of this small tablet is rumored to be out this year.
While the leaked pictures reveal a few details about the iPad mini 5, they don’t answer some pressing questions.
Turned the screen brightness on your iPad (or iPhone) all the way down? Still too much light for you? Reading in bed next to someone whose eyelids seem to amplify light the same way a magnifying glass turns the sun into a death ray for ants?
Then this tip is for you. With a simple triple-tap of the top button or Home button on your iPad, you can dim the screen way beyond its usual limit.
Although your whining, over-sensitive bed partner will likely just start complaining about the noise of those button taps instead.
Too lazy to get up and close the drapes? Then you need Ikea’s new HomeKit-enabled blinds, Kadrilj and Fyrtur. These new powered blinds have already launched in Germany, and can be integrated with your home hub, your Alexa, or your Google Assistant.
A recent support document from Apple describes a manufacturing process that’s apparently the cause of complaints that 2018 iPad Pro units sometimes arrive new from the store already slightly bent.
While acknowledging that this is possible, Apple stands by its earlier statements that its inspection process eliminates any units that are bent more than 0.016 inches.
The biggest TV makers in the business are finally ready to play nice with Apple.
Apple’s long-rumored TV streaming service isn’t expected to launch until later this year, but in the meantime, Vizio and LG revealed that they’re adding AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support to their 2019 TVs. And it could be a crucial win for Apple’s growing ambition to take on Netflix.
Apple doesn’t really make its presence felt directly at CES. However, at 2019’s event it has ramped up its focus somewhat. No, Apple’s not unveiling the Apple Car at the gigantic tech lover’s event, but it did invite reporters to meet with a number of third-party companies who have created HomeKit devices for smart homes.
These include smart lights, smart locks, smart door cameras, and more.
Expect 2019 to be a big year for Apple’s iPad tablets. And for professional-grade Macs, too. The next 12 months won’t be as significant for the iPhone and Apple Watch lines, though there will certainly be some improvements.
Services and software are as important to Apple as hardware, so expect the long-awaited video service to arrive, and we predict a resurgence in augmented reality games too.
Read on for all our predictions for the most important changes in the Apple ecosystem this year.
The Apple App Store had its best week ever between between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. And New Year’s Day was the best single day of sales ever.
This is just the kind of news the company needs, as Pres. Trump’s trade war with China is hurting iPhone, iPad, and Mac sales in that country.
Apple is set to make 5 billion dollars less this quarter than it previously expected. That’s a pretty big deal, and it’s down to two major things. One was an “economic weakness in some emerging markets.” The other was that Apple said it sold “fewer iPhone upgrades than we had anticipated.”
That second one is very interesting. Why aren’t people upgrading? There are two possibilities. One is that they’re switching to Android. The other is that people are holding onto their old iPhones for much longer. Why’s that?
A 20-year-old Florida woman discovered the health benefits of owning an Apple Watch when it indirectly saved her life as her flipped car was filling with water.
Amanda Antonio told first responders in Hillsborough County, Fla., that she used her Apple Watch to locate her iPhone to call 9-1-1 after her car rolled in a ditch full of mud and water.
A Goldman Sachs analyst thinks Apple’s revised earnings guidance might be the start of a longer-term story. According to Rod Hall, Apple could slash numbers even further later in the year, due to lowered expectations about iPhone sales.
Hall goes on to liken Apple to Nokia, a fallen giant in the mobile game. The company ruled the market early on, only to run into problems.