Newsstand - page 62

Few of us know what it’s like to have our music played at an Apple keynote, but 37-year-old Apple fan Jonathan Mann does. Way back in the days of the iPhone 4, he composed a song about Apple’s Antennagate PR disaster. Not only did it get played at an Apple event, it actually made Steve Jobs dance.

For the past 11 years, Mann has recorded a new song every day, using his trusty Mac setup. That’s more than 4,000 songs in total. Now he’s launched a new podcast revealing his creative process. And, true to form, the latest episode features a song about the Mac Pro.

“My first computer, when I was just a toddler, was an Apple IIe,” Mann told Cult of Mac. “My mom used it for work, and my favorite activity was just to hold down different keys on the boot screen and watch the letters go and go.”

Did you know that your boss might be tracking when you open and read her emails? Or that anyone who operates a mailing list can see when you open their emails, thanks to read receipts?

But did you also know that it’s trivially easy to block read receipts? You can make your overreaching boss think that you never read her emails, or at least make her a bit more paranoid. Email tracking uses something called tracking pixels. Let’s see how to block them, and disable email read receipts on Mac and iOS.

A growing number of iPhone 11 owners are reporting audio issues and other strange glitches with wireless CarPlay.

All say the feature worked fine with previous devices, but after upgrading to the latest Apple handsets, they’ve been unable to avoid CarPlay problems. And Apple’s latest iOS updates don’t help.

Apple’s forthcoming low-cost iPhone, often referred to as the iPhone SE 2 or (confusingly) the iPhone 9, is set to enter mass production in February, Bloomberg claims. The news outlet claims that Apple could unveil the iPhone SE 2 “as early as March.”

Production on the new handset is reportedly being split between regular Apple contract manufacturers Foxconn, Pegatron, and Wistron.

Transferring your Apple Card statement to a spreadsheet application just became a simple process. No third-party software is required — Apple today added the ability to export your transactions in a format that software like Microsoft Excel and Apple Numbers can easily import.

iOS 13 and iPadOS added official support for adding fonts to your iPhone and iPad. You’ve been able to do it for a while, using third-party apps that hack their way around the problem using software configuration profiles to install typefaces on your system. If you’d like to learn how to download fonts on iPad, check out this detailed guide.

And you can still use those. In fact, you may have to, as we’ll see in a moment. But now you can also install fonts from the App Store, as well as previewing them in a new built-in panel. Let’s take a look.

iPhone 11 Pro’s midnight green color option seems to have proven popular since its introduction last fall. But it might not stick around. A new rumor suggests Apple will swap it for navy blue later this year.

If you and a friend both have AirPods or Beats headphones, you can share audio coming from a single iPhone or iPad. This is great for listening to the same music track or podcast, or — most useful I reckon — watching a movie together. Apple makes it really easy for you to share your audio stream with someone else. In fact, you could say it’s easier than doing it the old way, because A) there are no wires to get tangled and B) there’s no splitter adapter to lose.

Here’s how to set up audio sharing on AirPods.

Apple CEO Tim Cook called for worldwide corporate tax reform Monday, saying the tech giant “desperately” wants the system to be fair.

Speaking in Ireland at an awards event, Cook said he thinks “logically everybody knows it needs to be rehauled. I would certainly be the last person to say that the current system or the past system was the perfect system.”

AirPods Pro’s brilliant noise cancellation feature gives them a huge advantage over regular AirPods. Except when that noise cancellation feature doesn’t work properly.

A growing number of users say their buds aren’t blocking out background noise as effectively as they once did. And testing confirms that to be the case.

The world views video gamers as couch potatoes who spend countless hours in front of the TV, and that may be true, for the most part. But there are some spectacular exceptions to the rule.

Tommy Monkhouse credits Pokémon Go for changing his life in a big way by helping him lose a whopping 140 pounds in just one year simply by walking.

Philip Lee makes toys that disrupt our logic boards with mushy feelings.

The Hong Kong designer, known for his cute Classicbots line inspired by classic Macs, will launch two new toys this year that should bring a twinkle to the Apple of your eye.

If you have a pair of AirPods Pro, then you know all about noise cancellation. That’s kind of the whole point of Apple’s top-tier AirPods, from the noise-sealing silicone tips to the software Ear Tip Fit Test. You probably also know that you can deactivate noise cancellation, and even quick-switch modes by squeezing the shaft of one of the earbuds.

But what if you never want to disable the excellent active noise cancellation on your AirPods Pro? Maybe you keep accidentally deactivating the feature (like I do). Today we’ll see how to switch off the shaft-squeezing shortcuts — and how to access them from your iPhone’s lock screen instead.

Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus is coming to Apple TV+.

The Veep alum signed her first-ever multiyear content deal, which will see the actress both develop and star in TV shows and other content exclusively for the iPhone-maker.

Imagine an organization that’s loved by its devoted, cultlike followers, but despised by haters. The close working relationship between its mercurial leader and one of the greatest talents in the field led to an unprecedented run of success. Even the occasional “-gate” style controversy failed to dent its success. But despite all this, analysts still question its long-term viability.

I’m referring, of course, to the New England Patriots. They may not be in the NFL playoffs this year, but people just can’t stop talking about the Pats. Kinda like the way everyone talked about Apple at CES last week, even though it barely attended.

Love them or hate them, the Patriots are the Apple of football.

This week on The CultCast: Apple is working on a way to make your existing MacBook Pro far more powerful — we’ll tell you everything we know. Plus: Get your wallet ready … the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro you’ve been waiting for is (probably) right around the corner. And we’ll tell you why Apple might soon be forced to ditch Lightning in iPhones and iPads.

And stick around for our spoiler-free review of the full first season of See!

Out 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.

As of iOS 13, you can have your iPhone read out incoming iMessages through your AirPods. And this — along with their awesome sound and noise-canceling abilities — is my favorite feature of the AirPods Pro. On paper, it’s a small feature in a long list. But in everyday use, Announce Messages with Siri makes a huge difference in how I use my iPhone.

Apple is expected to deliver at least one iPhone model without a Lightning connector next year, according to a new Barclays report.

The device won’t make the switch to USB-C, as previous rumors have predicted. It is instead expected to rely solely on wireless connectivity options for both charging and data transfer.

Barclays analysts also believe that this year’s iPhone refresh will bring an improved TrueDepth camera system that could mean even better Face ID.

Revelations that the FBI has access to a tool that can unlock data on secure iPhones are raising questions as to why the agency is demanding Apple help to create a “backdoor” to recover data on the iPhones of a Florida shooting suspect.

Search YouTube for Apple-related content, and you will easily find hosts who unbox, hosts who hack, hosts who fawn, and, of course, plenty who throw snark and shade.

Then there’s Luke Miani, whose Apple-centric videos with a rising number of views fall under a different category: useful.

Elkson makes some absolutely terrific accessories for AirPods and Apple Watch, then goes and sells them at amazingly low prices. And you can get yours even less today from the Cult of Mac Store.

We’ve slashed up to 40% off of a number of Elkson’s best products, including a protective AirPods case that adds wireless charging, an incredibly comfortable Apple Watch band, and more.

Crazy Russian modders have one-upped themselves yet again by creating an absolutely absurd guitar made out of 106 iPhones (and one iPod touch).

The one-of-a-kind working guitar, with a neck based on a 1999 Fender Telecaster, is being sold by Moscow-based guitar shop Copper Guitars. We’ve seen some pretty wild ways to repurpose old Apple devices, but this is the most metal one yet. And it could be yours for just over $6,000.

Take a closer look:

You surely know about the iPhone’s Low Power Mode already, but did you know there’s also a Low Data Mode? Just like the battery-saving setting, Low Data Mode cuts back on data usage, only connecting to the internet for essential data or when you explicitly request a connection. In practice, your active usage won’t be affected much. It’s all the background stuff that gets cut off.

Here’s how to set up Low Data Mode on your iPhone or iPad.

President Donald Trump called on Tuesday for Apple to “step up to the plate” and “help our great country” by unlocking the iPhones used by a Saudi aviation student that killed three people at a Florida Navy base in December.

MacBooks are wonderfully portable but a laptop display can be cramped for getting serious work done. The Lepow 15.6-Inch USB-C Portable Monitor is so slim and light it can easily go with you and double your available screen space.

I fully tested this surprisingly affordable USB-C monitor. Read my review to see how well it performs in the real world.