If you want to record the smoothest 4K video with an iPhone, skip the 6s and go with the 6s Plus.
The two new iPhones appear to be identical in almost every way except screen size, but in a new 4K video comparing the digital stabilization of the iPhone 6s against the optical/digital stabilization on the iPhone 6s Plus, the new camera on Apple’s bigger-than-big iPhone is clearly superior.
Check it out for yourself:
Sloppy coding in some popular iOS games allows hackers to give themselves and others thousands of dollars’ worth of in-app purchases for free.
The hole was discovered by developers at DigiDNA, creator of a backup tool called iMazing that allows iPhone and iPad users to access their devices’ hidden file systems. The developers found that the app backup/restore feature in iMazing 1.3 exposes weaknesses in the way games like Angry Birds 2 and Tetris Free handle in-app purchases.
To demonstrate how easy it is to hack in-app purchases using this method, the DigiDNA team tweaked Angry Birds 2 to start the game with 999,999,999 gems — the equivalent of $10,000 of in-game credits.
One of the big innovations of iOS 9 was the ability for Safari users to download and take advantage of content blockers.
According to a new report, however, ads may not be the only content that is blocked by apps like Crystal. Online retailers such as Walmart, Sears and Lululemon are also seeing their e-commerce sites negatively affected by adblockers — with some crucial features failing to work as before.
Here’s another tip that’s snuck into watchOS 2: Did you know that you can keep your Apple Watch awake longer now while you’re using it?
Apple hasn’t mentioned this feature much, if at all; we couldn’t even find it on the details screen when we upgraded. But it’s a great addition to the firmware that will save you a little frustration and a lot of wrist-flipping.
Here’s how to do it.
The future of computing may be sitting on your wrist, but it’s still tethered to something a little old-fashioned. But as of Monday, the Apple Watch’s new operating system allows it to cut a few of the cords that connect it to the iPhone.
Apple’s watchOS 2 debuted, giving the watch new superpowers but also allowing native apps to run independently of the iPhone.
If there’s one thing we could all benefit from, it’s more time in the day. Unfortunately, Time Travel on the new Apple Watch operating system, watchOS 2, won’t actually let you travel back in time to get a few extra hours of Netflix in, no matter which edition you purchased.
However, watchOS 2 does now include a new feature called Time Travel, which lets you see the past and future right on your wrist. You can check what the weather will be a few hours from now for your drive home, see if you’ve got any appointments later in the day, or just figure out what time the sun set yesterday to prove you were home before it got dark.
Either way, here’s how to Time Travel on your Apple Watch running watchOS 2.
LAS VEGAS — If you need proof that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in the bike industry, look no further than Interbike. The massive bike show here is an undeniable indication that innovators are still plugging away in their garages, trying to build the next big thing and prep it for Kickstarter.
Independent innovators are making cargo bikes one at a time, marketing lightweight welding masks to protect riders from the rain, and dreaming up helmet inserts for the world’s great sweaters. Cult of Mac takes one more lap around the convention center hall …
Apple’s second major iteration of its wearable firmware, watchOS 2, is finally out today, and it has some extra fun features hiding along with all of the ones the company has been talking about since it first announced the update back in June.
Sure, native apps and custom watch faces are cool, but watchOS 2 also contains some smaller updates that you have to look for. Here are some of the hidden gems.
I was so excited to have a color screen on my Apple Watch when I picked the Sport up this past April.
When I went through all the watch faces, though, I was rather underwhelmed; really, you have a bright, high-resolution monitor on your wrist and all you can do is put a moving moth or Mickey Mouse on it? Ugh.
Luckily, with watchOS 2, Apple’s made things just a little brighter and a little more animated. Here’s how to get these snappy new watch faces on your own Apple Watch.
The App Store suffered its worst security breach in history over the weekend, when it was discovered that hundreds of Chinese apps have a malicious program dubbed ‘XcodeGhost’ embedded in their software.
The huge security lapse made its way into legitimate apps thanks to Chinese developers who used a counterfeit version of Apple’s Xcode software that was uploaded to file sharing service Baidu. By using XcodeGhost to compile their apps, developers accidentally allowed the malicious code to be distributed through the App Store.
Apple has pulled infected apps off the store to stop stop the spread, but users still need to delete XcodeGhost apps off their devices manually. Most of the apps infected are mostly used in China, however some big name apps like WeChat, Angry Birds 2, and Didi Chuxing (Uber’s biggest rival in China) were also hit.
Here’s a full list of infected apps:
A mysterious new emoji has been added by Apple to iOS 9.1 and OS X El Capitan, but unlike the other emoji supported by Apple, this weird new pictogram wasn’t created by the Unicode Authority, and no one knows why it exists.
Apple plans to give emoji the middle finger when iOS 9.1 drops later this year, but it looks like the iPhone-maker has developed its own emoji called “eye in speech bubble,” and no one has any idea what it means.
Check it out:
This week: we review the new and notable features of iOS 9, and some lesser-known features you should definitely be using. Plus: why you probably should’ve gotten the 128GB iPhone; a legit way to save 20% off your next Apple purchase; and what we love and don’t about iCloud storage.
And, we all love the sweeping musical scores that define our favorite movies and videos games, but have you ever wondered who creates them? Composer Gareth Coker, creator of the Ori and the Blind Forest score, joins us to talk about the process of creating a cinematic score from scratch, how music and technology are more intertwined than ever, and what it’s like to work as a modern day video game and movie composer.
A new, slightly hidden feature in iOS 9 hopes to help keep your connection as strong as possible.
Apple’s latest version of its mobile firmware contains a lot of obvious changes (Passbook is now called Wallet, for example), but a lot of the biggest and best changes are buried away just waiting for you to discover them. One of these hidden gems is the Wi-Fi Assist feature, which might just solve one of the most annoying issues we saw in earlier versions of the operating system.
Here’s what it is and how it can help you.
I can’t stand the new lowercase keyboard in iOS 9. It’s a fairly useless change to begin with, as it doesn’t make anything easier.
Sure, it shows whether you’ve pressed the Shift key or not, but the new Shift key is also improved, making the lower-case option aesthetic rather than functional.
So, if you’re like me, here’s how to put that keyboard back to the way it “should” be.
Apple met with officials at California’s Department of Motor Vehicles to discuss plans to test its self-driving Apple Car on public roads, according to a new report.
What does this mean? Quite possibly that we’re set to get a glimpse of the Apple car a lot sooner than most people figured.
We’ve gotten our first look at the guts of the latest Apple hardware thanks to an iPad Mini 4 teardown that’s appeared online, and the new tablet from the Cupertino company is looking really familiar. But we don’t mean that in a bad way.
Repair-advise site iFixit has sacrificed one of the devices in the name of science and education, and its findings reveal that at its heart, the iPad Mini 4 is a smaller version of the upper-tier iPad Air 2. Here’s what the carnage revealed.
We know Jony Ive can design computers large and small. So why not the space where the devices are sold?
The world caught a glimpse of a new Ive-designed Apple Store in Brussels this week and the common theme seems to be: wood.
LAS VEGAS — If you noticed a substantial drop in leg-shaved and Lycra-clad bicyclists on the roads in your part of the world it is because they are all taking a spin in Sin City.
They didn’t come for the penny slots, forced air and big-ass beers, though. They made the pilgrimage to Vegas to attend the annual mega-bike show known as Interbike. It brings out industry giants like Giro and Shimano, but the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well too, with small builders and garage tinkerers showing off their latest big ideas.
Cult of Mac walked the show floor on day one look at it all. Here is some of the coolest new stuff we found.
Ahmed Mohamed can count Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak among his many supporters in the tech world. According to Woz’s most recent Facebook post, he sees a lot of himself in the 14-year-old Texas boy who was arrested for bringing a homemade digital clock to school.
While Ahmed’s teacher mistook his clock for a bomb, Woz says he built a similar gadget when he was in high school — only he actually wanted people to think it was a bomb. Woz even spent a night in juvie for the stunt (where he used the opportunity to teach inmates how to shock guards).
Here’s the story in Woz’s own words:
iOS 9 is out and, unsurprisingly, app developers are springing to take advantage of its new features.
There are already too many to provide a fully comprehensive list of every iOS 9-optimized app out there, but we’ve pulled together a selection of some of the best — to give you a test drive of some of the best features of Apple’s latest mobile OS.
Read on for our picks.
iOS 9 includes a new feature that desktop users have had for a while: content blocking. More conventionally known as ad blockers, this software cuts out all the advertisements and other cruft from web pages, allowing faster load times and a more streamlined experience.
Of course, most websites you read these days (including Cult of Mac!) rely on advertising to keep the lights on.
Luckily for all of us, most new content blockers let you whitelist specific sites so you can continue to help them pay their bills.
Once you get your iPhone upgraded to iOS 9, you might be overwhelmed. While Apple’s new mobile OS doesn’t pack a lot of grand new visual features, the update does include tons of little tricks that make using your iPhone and iPad even more ridiculously easy to use.
Here are all the secret iOS 9 tricks every user should know:
Apple’s flip-flop on game controllers for Apple TV might be bad news for developers, but it’s great news for gamers.
It’s a virtual guarantee that all games will work better out of the box when running on the refreshed Apple TV, which will have its own App Store for the first time.
We’re all going to be diving into the deep end with iOS 9. While many of the changes are subtle, there are a fair number of differences in both the visual style and the under-the-hood workings of Apple’s new mobile OS.
That means this a perfect time to take a deeper look at all the killer stuff you don’t want to miss. These iOS 9 tips will help you make the most of all the great new features.
Apple made two important changes to the way you install iOS 9 that will help out your storage space and probably your anxiety. If you’re like a lot of other people, you were pretty frustrated last year trying to install iOS 8. Your 16GB iPhone already has to store all your apps and photos, and it just seems downright greedy of Apple to ask you to install a software update that would take up even more space. This year’s update should be much smoother sailing.