This week on The CultCast: Apple is prepping iPhone SE 2, but trouble in China could mean massive production delays across the entire tech industry. Plus: macOS leaks hint at big CPU upgrades on the way; and a celebrity calls out the MacBook’s troubled keyboards.
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast, and use offer code CultCast at checkout for 10% off your first purchase.
When I was a kid, we communicated in class by writing notes on pieces of paper, and passing them to other kids. It was called “passing notes,” and is now probably taught in schools as an artisanal pastime, along with “going outside” and conkers. In 2020, kids use insane workarounds to avoid actual writing.
Today we’ll see how to “pass notes” using nothing but two $700 iPhones and two $160 pairs of AirPods.
Yes, the iPhone 11 Pro is waterproof-ish enough to survive a good soaking in a pool, lake or ocean. But why chance it when you don’t have to?
Should you fancy a photo swim, you will want to consider the AquaTech AxisGO underwater camera housing for the iPhone 11 lineup.
Gmail is finally adding the ability to add attachments to emails straight from the Files app for iOS, giving users another crucial productivity tool.
Until now, the only way to send stuff from your Files app via Gmail was by using the sharing tool inside the Files app and creating a new email with it. Now users can reply to emails inside of Gmail for iOS and add attachments from Files without having to jump between apps. We’ll give you a quick rundown on how to use the nifty feature that’s starting to roll out to users globally.
Great looking shot on iPhone videos are a dime a dozen nowadays, but I guarantee you’ve never seen anything like this one.
The creative team behind Vallee Duhamel pushed the iPhone XS Max camera to its limit for their conceptual video Glacier that has to be seen to be believed. Apple commissioned the video to be made for one of its Today at Apple sessions and will be playing it at stores worldwide to inspire iPhone owners to push their own creativity.
Buckle up for a short film that’s out of this world:
SwitchGlass is a handy new Mac app from John Siracusa. It’s like a superpowered dock, conceptually honed from the regular macOS dock by removing some annoyances, and adding some extra subtleties. It’s certainly not the most powerful dock-replacement app out there, but if your needs align with Siracusa’s, then you’re going to love it.
Despite the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, Apple is going to “stick to its plans” for an iPhone event in September, according to a new report.
That is despite the fact that another report today claims that orders for the five-nanometer A14 chips for the iPhone 12 are likely to be 50-60% higher than for last year’s iPhone chips. In other words, the next-gen iPhones face both increased demand and, for now, reduced supply.
The iPad added drag and drop in iOS 11. We’re now on the third version of iOS to support this potentially super-useful feature, and yet it still doesn’t work. Third-party app support remains spotty and inconsistent. And, worse, drag and drop doesn’t work properly even in some of Apple’s own apps.
What’s going on?
Quick Share, a highlight of Samsung’s latest handsets, is a feature iPhone owners have been using for over 8 years. The Galaxy S20 and other new models from this company can wirelessly send files directly between two devices… just like Apple’s AirDrop.
StatusBuddy is a brand-new app for macOS that lets you quickly check on the status of various Apple services in just one click.
The app sits in your Mac’s menu bar where it’s always accessible and displays a red badge when an Apple service is running into issues. It pulls information from Apple’s official status pages so you don’t have to go hunting for it.
If you have any App Store subscriptions, you will be familiar with the emails you get every time one renews. And if you subscribe to more than a few monthly plans, then maybe you even get annoyed by them. If your tolerance to this kind of thing is particularly low, we have good news for you: You can now opt out of App Store subscription-renewal emails that Apple sends.
The wait for Samsung’s impressive newest smartphone lineup is almost over. The Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, and Galaxy S20 Ultra go on sale next month, with prices starting at $999.
You probably won’t be ditching your iPhone to get one if you’re a big fan of iOS, but you might be a little jealous of those who are. Samsung’s new devices offer a number of awesome new features iPhone users can only dream of for now.
Here are five that Apple should steal in 2020.
Samsung fired a powerful-sounding salvo in the battle for smartphone camera supremacy Tuesday when it introduced the Galaxy S20 Ultra.
The Ultra kicks off a new decade in smartphone camera technology with an impressive list of specs packed into its four-camera module. Some of the features include 8K video, a 108-megapixel sensor on its main wide-angle camera, and a 100X zoom feature called Space Zoom.
Samsung today unpacked Galaxy Buds Plus, its answer to Apple’s top-selling AirPods. The Korean company’s latest truly wireless headphones offer better sound quality and longer battery life. But they lack the hallmark feature of AirPods Pro: active noise cancellation.
The future of folding phones took a step in a new direction today with Samsung’s unveiling of the Galaxy Z Flip.
Taking a different approach to folding displays than the disastrous Galaxy Fold, the Z Flip packs a screen that folds from a tiny clamshell device, into a full-size 6.7-inch smartphone. And it comes with some novel uses that could change how app design is approached.
Looking for a portable Apple computer? You have two choices — a MacBook or an iPad. Both excel at different things. The iPad is super-portable, silent and cool. The Mac is more flexible, offers more connections, and can run much more complex software.
It may be that you already know whether you need a Mac or an iPad. If you use apps that only run on the Mac, or if you need to hook up a lot of extra hardware, then a Mac is your only option. But if you desire the ultimate in portability, or you want to use a touchscreen or an awesome Apple Pencil stylus, you need an iPad.
If you’re on the fence, wondering which portable Apple computer best fits your needs, this article will help you decide. The MacBook vs. iPad battle is on …
The breakout show for Apple TV+ has arrived: Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet. It’s hilarious, but also has heart.
This isn’t a typical office comedy. It’s set at a video game development company, so episodes are a struggle between employees trying to be creative, others trying maximize profitability, and people caught in the middle just hoping to get the code shipped on time.
I’ve made several attempts at creating/repurposing iOS shortcuts that download YouTube videos and save them for offline viewing. The problem is, most of the shortcuts broke after a while, or proved so unreliable that I gave up on them. And, judging by the responses I get via Twitter, you folks are also very interested in downloading YouTube videos.
Well, this weekend I finally found a way to make it work reliably. And because it uses a third-party service to locate the downloadable video link, it means that someone else is making sure that it all keeps working. Hopefully. For now. Fingers crossed.
You know when you reply to a message on your Apple Watch, and it’s such a pain to write it out a letter at a time or to dictate your reply (only to have Siri mishear you)? The alternative is to use one of Apple Watch’s canned responses. Unfortunately, they all sound like your account got hacked, or that you don’t care about the sender enough to come up with a proper reply.
However, you can customize those replies to make them much more useful. And with one clever trick, you can make Apple Watch smart replies sound just like you really wrote them.
Apple is ramping up production of the new iPhone SE 2, which likely will retail for just $399, according to Fast Company. Shockingly, that’s the same price the original iPhone SE sold for in 2016.
The Uniq Fuele Mini offers enough power to more than fully recharge an iPhone 11 in a package just a bit bigger than a credit card. It beats bulkier rivals that are convenient when your iPhone needs a recharge, but the rest of the time they’re a hassle to carry around.
I tested this affordable, multi-port powerbank for several days. Read on to see how well it performed.
Could Apple be preparing to make a surprise switch to AMD processors in a future Mac? References to a number of new AMD microprocessors have been spotted in the latest macOS 10.15.4 beta, which rolled out to developers Wednesday.
The clues hidden in Mac code suggest Apple’s lengthy relationship with Intel could be on the rocks.
The Chinese company that assembles most of the world’s iPhones has ordered employees in one region of the country not to return to work next week to prevent further spread of the deadly coronavirus.
Foxconn sent text messages to Shenzhen-based employees that those sites will remain closed until further notice. While Foxconn’s main iPhone factory is in Zhengzhou, a portion is assembled in Shenzhen. Shenzhen is also the headquarters for Foxconn’s parent company, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.
U.S. District Judge William Alsup allowed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Apple over allegedly exposing iPhone owners to high levels of radiofrequency radiation to move forward Thursday. However, the judge also blasted the Federal Communications Commission for its “dumb” testing standards.
This week on The CultCast: The new iOS 13.4 beta just leaked new hardware, new iPhone features and MORE. We’ll share aaaaall the juicy details. Plus: How your iPhone might soon replace your car keys; Apple Maps just got a massive update; and Microsoft quietly stole Apple’s secret recipe …
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast, and use offer code CultCast at checkout for 10% off your first purchase.