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This week on The CultCast: You’ll laugh, you’ll cry — wait till you hear the latest lawsuit aimed right at Apple’s biggest products. Plus: Leaked photos of EarPods with a Lightning connector look better than expected; why we may never get third-party Apple Watch faces; Netflix is adding a feature it swore would never happen; and a man builds a vibrant photography career in the world of sports with nothing but his iPhone. Oh, and Val Kilmer dances with a carrot in his derriere. Just hit play already.
Our thanks to Freshbooks for supporting this episode. FreshBooks is the easy-to-use invoicing software designed to help small business owners get organized, save time invoicing and get paid faster. Get started now with a 30-day free trial.
Millions of people go running with their iPhone or Apple Watch every day. Logging runs is one of the main features of just about every fitness gadget on the market.
So should you join the sweaty masses and start using a running app? Not so fast. Not everyone is suited to running, and it won’t develop all aspects of your fitness. Plus, there are loads of other kinds of exercise you could be doing instead. What makes running so special?
Apple guaranteed the iPhone would reinvent the phone. But filmmaking?
Writer and director Conrad Mess said the iPhone’s red record button turned him into a filmmaker. It helped another cash-strapped director win praise and wide distribution for a feature film he shot on the iPhone 5s that was the buzz of last year’s Sundance Film Festival.
The iPhone also is reshaping video journalism, especially across Europe, where news organizations are using the iPhone video camera for an increasing number of stories — and live stand-ups, selfie stick in hand — because the mobile journalist can shoot, edit and share on one device.
Some new data-gathering vehicles are roaming the streets of San Francisco. They’re unmarked, but are suspected to be Apple’s. They are laden with sensors, but what kind of data are they gathering, and what for?
Experts contacted by Cult of Mac say the mystery vans are next-generation mapping vehicles capable of capturing VR-style, 360-degree street photos. Plus, the vans use Lidar to create extraordinarily precise “point clouds,” a prerequisite for self-driving cars. Mesh those two databases together and you’ve laid the groundwork for an autonomous vehicle’s navigation system.
Updated: Check out two new battery cases for the iPhone 6/6s, the Moshi iGlaze Ion and the Spyder PowerShadow.
Protect your iPhone investment with the perfect case. Whether you’ve chosen the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s or 6s Plus, and 7 or 7 Plus. Cult of Mac has your phone safely covered. We receive and review a massive number of cases and bring only the best to you here in our review roundup, with new cases to be added each week.
Each case is tried and tested, with iPhone protection being the top priority. If you need something rugged and extra-durable, a minimalist case with sleek lines, or one in which to slip your credit cards and cash, browse our evolving list of featured iPhone 6 cases.
Check back often for our latest picks!
The photographers were assembled with all their heavy camera equipment, about to walk 18 holes under the hot Florida sun to cover The Players Championship in Ponte Verde Beach when in strolled their colleague, Brad Mangin.
“Where’s your gear?” Mangin was asked. He pulled out his iPhone 6s to a chorus of groans and curses.
Tired of hunching over your laptop and typing like a T-rex? Feeling limited by having a single screen? Boy have we got a deal for you. This is your chance to win a high resolution 27″ Apple Thunderbolt display, along with an Apple wireless keyboard and mouse, all set upon an adjustable 30 x 48” standing desk by Evodesk that’ll keep your posture proper.
They don’t call them “headphones” for nothing.
Slipping on a pair of quality closed-back headphones puts you in a rarefied headspace where sound envelopes you completely and nothing matters but the music. Just close your eyes, cue up the perfect tracks to suit your mood, and drift away.
The Audeze EL-8 Titanium headphones, which use a Lightning connector to plug into your Apple device, will take you to that special place. But you’ll pay a steep price for your trip to aural bliss.
Accomplished photographers tend to bristle when asked to talk about equipment. It’s not the camera that makes the picture, it’s the photographer.
Acclaimed photographer Richard Koci Hernandez would tend to agree, but he’s likely to gush about his camera anyway. That’s because some of the most interesting and satisfying work of his career has come from shooting with his iPhone.
The kind of gear that once helped Hernandez garner Pulitzer Prize nominations now rests idly in a camera bag.
The market for iPhone cases is worth billions of dollars. The first manufacturer with a case that fits a new device — say, the iPhone 7 — can make a killing in the days following an Apple launch.
For this week’s episode of Kahney’s Korner, I talked with industry veteran Tim Hickman, CEO of Gumdrop Cases. Over the years, he’s tried all kinds of tricks and strategies in the race to be first to market with new iPhone cases — including making thousands of cases that turned out to be wrong.
This time around, Hickman has received several CAD files from mysterious sources in China that supposedly show the exact dimensions of the upcoming iPhone 7. Will he bet his company’s fortunes on these files of dubious origin? Let’s find out.
iOS 10 is coming, and as with anything worthy of a base number it’s bringing a host of foundational changes. Messages is getting enhanced with a bevy of new features, Siri can now work with apps from the App Store, the Home app brings the Internet of Things one step closer to reality. Photos, texting, shopping, navigating, basically everything is being revamped or reinvented, meaning developers have their work cut out for them. This bundle of lessons is one way to make sure you’re ahead of the game and ready when iOS 10 drops, nearly 200 hours of training for just $29.
With all the recent rumors that Apple will build an electric car within the next few years, obviously Cupertino is going to be compared to the big electric car company of the moment, Tesla Motors.
Tesla sold more than 50,000 model S sedans in 2015, so I’m taking a look at four Apple Car lessons that Tim Cook and Jony Ive should learn from Tesla.
Check out the video below.
An alleged price list for Apple’s upcoming iPhone 7 series suggests there will be a high-end “Pro” model after all. Fans could also get 256GB storage options, while 32GB of storage could become the minimum.
What ever happened to the boombox, the chunky sound blaster built to bring the noise anywhere, and built to last? With all the effete Bluetooth speakers on the market — designed to be compact and pretty — the G-BOOM does away with pretense and gets right to the point.
This thing is tough, with rubber feet, a big, dumb handle on top that begs you to take the G-BOOM with you, and a sturdy build with plenty of space for the speaker’s powerful sound driver. Of course it also packs in all the nifty wireless features you’d ever want. It’s a modern take on the classic boombox that’s just $79.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.
The iPhone 7 is set to be one of the most boring updates Apple’s ever released. The new iPhone will look just like the iPhone 6/6s, except a new report claims it will have some minor tweaks on the front you probably won’t even notice.
Losing or breaking a phone can be seriously upsetting, especially when it means losing all the stuff you forgot to back up. G-Cloud’s app for iOS and Android makes it easy to back up all your devices’ files on Amazon’s super-secure AWS Cloud under a single account. This is easy and reliable cloud storage, with unlimited space for five years, and you can get it now for $29 at Cult of Mac Deals.
iOS 10 brings much-needed design overhauls for the Apple Music and Apple News apps.
The big iOS update, which is currently in beta but should hit iPhones and iPads this fall, brings huge changes to the Apple Music UI as well as minor improvements to navigation in the music app. To see all the changes in action, watch the Cult of Mac video below.
As soon as it was released, I rushed to install the new iOS 10 beta on my iPhone. The only problem is, new betas can be buggy. Really buggy.
If you made the same mistake and want to return to the stable and reliable iOS 9.3.2, there is a solution. In this week’s Quick Tips, I’m going to show you how to downgrade from iOS 10 to iOS 9.3.2. Check out the 60-second video below!
Rumors that the iPhone 7 will be a snooze-worthy update have been seemingly confirmed today by The Wall Street Journal, which claims Apple plans to break from its traditional pattern of redesigning its flagship device every year.
This year’s iPhone will come with plenty of minor upgrades, but according to the new report, some iPhone 7 features that Apple hoped to integrate just weren’t ready for a 2016 rollout.
The iPhone 7 may not include a 3.5mm headphone jack, but Apple’s going to make sure your old headphones aren’t immediately obsolete by including an adapter with the new device.
Prepare to lose another dongle.
Yet another sketchy leak suggests Apple’s upcoming iPhone 7 Plus will feature its first dual-lens camera system. The alleged chassis has surfaced just days after one tipster claimed that “technical difficulties” had scuppered Apple’s upgrade plans.
There’s nothing more cryptic than someone else’s notes. Not so Andy McNally’s.
McNally, a senior UI design consultant from Memphis, Tenn., created several great “sketchnotes” of the talks at Apple’s WWDC.
Sketchnotes are a form of visual thinking that combine notes and sketches. They’re increasingly popular, inspiring an army of aficionados and books by noted practitioners. The Core77 design site has a whole Sketchnotes section that’s worth exploring.
McNally kindly allowed us to reprint his WWDC sketchnotes. Check them out:
At WWDC this week, Apple all but confirmed that Apple Watch is really just a health gadget. Tim Cook described it offhandedly as a “device for a healthy life,” and most of the watchOS 3 segment of the keynote was devoted to health and fitness.
This focus on health makes sense. As an activity tracker, Apple Watch is arguably the best on the market, and watchOS 3 will make it even better. Apple’s wearable is ideal if you are simply looking to live a healthier day. But, despite some minor improvements, Apple Watch still sucks if you are into running.
In my line of work, conducting interviews and attending press conferences, a fully charged iPhone is a necessity. I don’t want the constant worry of watching my phone’s battery slowly die down as I search for the nearest power outlet.
To alleviate the fear of an undercharged iPhone, battery packs and cases are must-haves. And, while I appreciate the convenience of an external battery pack, they are often too bulky. A battery case is another option as it will house my phone and battery pack in one handy spot — again resulting in added bulk, especially when my phone is fully charged and I don’t need the battery attached 24/7.
Why hasn’t anyone thought of combining the two? Accessory-maker Moshi has heeded the call with its iGlaze Ion battery case for the iPhone 6 and 6s.
Check out the video below for my full review.