Apple finally made its October keynote official this morning with one of the most unique event invites we’ve ever seen. Instead of just using one standard design, Apple sent nearly every journalist an invite with an Apple logo that was unlike the one sent to others.
We’ve tracked down over 20 variations of the Apple logo on the invites and compiled them below. You can also go to Apple’s updated event website and every time you refresh the page a different Apple logo will show up.
For the next several weeks, we’re giving away dozens of brand new iPhone XS cases on Instagram. We’re kicking off with a bundle of six sexy cases from Spigen, Urban Armor Gear, and Casemate. The six cases all fit the latest iPhone XS (not the Max), and together are worth a tasty $245.
USB Type C — it’s no longer a novelty but an emerging connectivity standard for Apple products. As a newer, more powerful variation of the same USB we all know and love (well, kinda), USB-C features higher power and faster data transfer than its predecessors via a smaller connector.
While older USB Type A and B were a great gift for Mac users — few mourned the passing of ADB and SCSI — USB is often finicky. Just plugging in an old-school USB cable can prove challenging, since you must position the connector just so for it to slide smoothly into the port. That often means several tries to achieve the proper angle and orientation.
Those obstacles disappear with USB-C because, in addition to its smaller size, it is designed to be reversible — with no up or down orientation, just like a Lightning cable — and the cables can have the same type of connector on both ends.
iOS 12 has a great new camera filter: Comic Book. It turns your selfies and photos into pretty convincing pen-and-ink-style drawings, complete with flat blocks of color. It even works with Animoji selfies.
But hold on one second. You won’t find this filter in your iPhone’s Camera app, or even in the Photos app. Instead, you need to fire up the Messages app and use the camera there.
Apple’s refreshed Privacy website is live, giving U.S. users the ability to download all of their data from Apple. The website explains how and why Apple products are “designed to protect your privacy.”
Apple stresses that “your data belongs to you” and insists that it never sells users’ info to advertisers or other organizations.
The website even gives users the ability to delete an Apple account — and all associated data — if desired.
If you like a photo or video on Instagram, you can like it, or you can save it to your collection. But what about just saving it? You just can’t download Instagram photos.
This week, a friend of mine posted some awesome videos he shot on tape back in the 1980s. I don’t want to dig around in Instagram’s ever-more-convoluted app just to watch them. I want to save them to my iPhone’s Photo Library. Instagram doesn’t let you save an image. Even if you copy the Instagram link using the share feature, then open that image in iPhone Safari, you can’t get at the image.
So I made a shortcut to do it for me. Check it out.
When Photoshop comes to the iPad next year, it will apparently be the full desktop version, with the same code base, shrunk down to run on iOS. At launch, a few features will be missing, but the plan is parity between desktop and iOS versions.
But there’s one thing that will ruin the iPad version of Photoshop from day one — a lack of keyboard shortcuts.
By Chris Brantner
With the NBA season’s arrival, it’s time to figure out how to watch your favorite teams. Whether you subscribe to cable or you’ve cut the cord, there are plenty of ways to watch pro basketball on your favorite Apple device.
You can opt to watch on Apple TV or you can choose a mobile device. Luckily, most cable apps and other streaming services work pretty much the same way. As long as you know the network the game is on and the time, it’s just a matter of pulling it up and rooting for your favorite team.
After spending upward of $1 billion creating original TV shows, Apple apparently plans to give them away for free. That would certainly be a bold move as Apple muscles into original video production, but it might be the craziest idea ever.
Here are three reasons why it’s a smart strategy — and three more why it could backfire.
How would you like to have the day’s weather forecast show up on your iPhone or iPad’s lock screen every morning? Every morning, after a peaceful alarm rouses you gently from your slumber, you can look at your iPhone and see how the day’s weather will unfold. And this is all built-in, no third-party apps or hacks required. You just have to know how to switch on lock screen weather.
The App Store is a walled garden, meaning that you can get whatever app you want as long as Apple approves of it. So if you’re looking for a wider selection, you’ll have to look outside the App Store ecosystem.
For much too long, the best key finder had a significant flaw. A Tile Pro or Tile Mate helps you keep track of your keys, the remote, or other items, but each only lasts a year. Then you have to buy another one because the battery can’t be replaced. That finally changes in the new 2018 version. Plus they have a greater range.
We tested the latest versions of the regular and Pro versions of the Tile tracker to see if they live up to their promises.
To make the most of your Mac, you’ve got to have the right apps. So we’ve rounded up four top-shelf apps at super-low prices. There’s a pair of powerful iTunes alternatives, a superpowered calendar app, and an enhanced contacts app.
Best of all, each is going for less than half the usual price!
In 2015, I purchased my wife a stainless steel Apple Watch (series 0) for her birthday. Since then, she’s used it to track hundreds of workouts, reply to thousands of texts, and triage countless notifications. She’s also told me nearly every day for the past year that she hates it and it never works right.
While that might be a bit of an exaggeration, she has a point. The original Apple Watch is slow and unresponsive. Plus, some features have become frustratingly unreliable (looking at you, Siri).
This year, we decided to upgrade her Apple Watch in time for our family vacation to Disney World. It was the perfect opportunity to test Apple’s magical wrist communicator at the most magical place on Earth.
This week on The CultCast: Is Apple preparing to dump a bunch of much-needed Mac updates on us? We discuss. Plus: Something very strange is going on with the Mac — we fill you in. And is MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar actually useful? We give you our brutally honest opinions. And stay tuned for another episode of CultCast 2nd Hour. This time: Siri Shortcuts, explained!
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to accept Apple Pay and sell your wares with your very own Squarespace website. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first hosting plan or domain.
Instagram has finally added proper secure authentication to its iPhone app. Previously, you could have Instagram send you a one-time login code via SMS every time you signed in. But SMS isn’t secure, making it relatively easy for people to hijack.
Now, you can use your favorite authenticator app — Google Authenticator, for instance — to generate a one-time code any time you need to sign in to Instagram.
Your shiny new Apple Watch is great for logging workouts. But it comes up short when you want to review your training progress and share your workout history with friends. Everything gets bundled in the Activity and Health apps on your iPhone, which are pretty basic.
That’s where third-party apps like Strava come in. Strava offers all the essential fitness analytics that Apple overlooks. The trouble is, Strava’s watch app sucks for logging workouts.
If only you could have the best of both worlds: logging your workouts with Apple’s excellent built-in Workout app, then syncing the data automatically to Strava. Well, thanks to a brilliant indie app called HealthFit, you can.
Apple could surprise us with updated AirPods before the end of 2018. But don’t be fooled by supposed “leaked” photos that claim to offer our first glimpse at the new headphones and their packaging.
The publisher claims the refresh will bring Apple’s long-awaited wireless charging case, better sound, and more. Some things just don’t add up in this case, however.
Black-and-white photos aren’t just regular photos with the color taken out. Or rather, they are exactly that, but they are also more than that. A B&W portrait can seem to say more about the subject than a colorful version, for instance. B&W is also ideal for showing more graphic images. Take a color photo of scaffolding and it looks super-dull. Take the same photo in B&W, jack up the contrast, and it becomes a stark grid — way more interesting to look at.
There’s much more to taking a B&W photo than just removing the color. For instance, did you know that a color filter will have a startling effect on a B&W photo? Let’s take a look at some of the tricks to capturing and editing stunning black-and-white images.
Anyone who feels their MacBook’s screen is too cramped can now use their iPad as as second display just by plugging in a dongle. Luna Display is now available to all after a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Astro HQ promises that its hardware/software solution is better than purely software options for using an iPad as an external monitor.
Instagram just added Nametags to its app, to make it easier to share your account with other people. Instead of forcing them to try to remember your Instagram username, you can just show them your Instagram Nametag, and they scan it from their own Instagram app.
It’s a neat feature, already in use on Snapchat. And — of course — you can customize your Nametag. Lets check it out.
Facebook’s new Portal smart speaker, an Echo Show rival that’s designed for video chat, sounds like a privacy nightmare straight out of Black Mirror.
But you know who could benefit from concerns about Mark Zuckerberg’s smart camera? Apple — and specifically the HomePod. Here’s why.
Google unleashed its latest wave of hardware designed to take on Apple and Amazon by combining its powerful software with custom-designed hardware. And it actually looks pretty good.
Three new products were unveiled at Google’s event in New York City this morning: the Pixel 3, Pixel Slate and Google Home Hub. All three pack some interesting new features that some of Apple’s own products can’t match. But there are also glaring weaknesses in the new Google products. Like the horrifically huge notch on the Pixel 3 to start with.
Take a closer look at all the new products:
It is looking increasingly likely that Apple will deliver a new iPad Pro lineup before the end of 2018. A new report, citing a number of sources familiar with the company’s plans, reveals some things we can look forward to.
Here’s what to expect from the next-generation iPad Pro’s display, Face ID, Apple Pencil, and more.
Fiery Feeds is an iOS news-reading app that lets you subscribe to any sites you like, and read all their new stories in one place. It’s way better than relying on Twitter for you news, because important stories never get lost in a sea of doggy GIFs. And the new v2.1 gets a visual overhaul, plus support for using Pinboard as a read-later service. I love it.