The Apple Arcade library keeps on growing. Photo: Apple
The Apple Arcade catalog continues to grow with five new games for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV available today.
Inmost, an atmospheric, story-driven platformer from the creators of Stardew Valley, is one of the highlights. It helps takes the total number of Apple Arcade games for iOS and tvOS to 80.
A reliable analyst says Apple's AR glasses are right around the corner. Photo: Apple
This week on The CultCast: Apple’s AR glasses are about to be announced! At least according to one very reliable analyst…. we discuss. Plus: Mac OS Catalina is out, but you probably shouldn’t install it—we’ll tell you why. And Final Cut Pro just got massively faster thanks to a new update, and a long awaited iOS 13 feature finally goes live.
Our thanks to Linked In for supporting this episode. A business is only as strong as its people, and every hire matters… head to LinkedIn.com/cultcast and get a $50 credit toward your first job post.
A spectacularly simple charging solution. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Clear the clutter on your bedside table with the Zens Stand+Dock. This stunning charger tops up iPhone and AirPods simultaneously and eliminates messy cables that are forever in your way.
A built-in USB port on its base also allows you to charge a third device — like your Apple Watch. And with up to 20W of power output, there’s more than enough to go around.
The Apple II has been a faithful comrade to the Lenin Museum. Photo: mvstang/Flickr CC
The Soviet Union may have collapsed. But Vladimir Lenin, the country’s first leader, lives on, thanks to an audiovisual show still running on a small network of Apple II computers at a museum outside Moscow.
The Apple II is as revered by geeks as Lenin is by nostalgic Communists. Both proved revolutionary. And while the carefully edited story of Lenin might seem interesting to museum-goers, the unvarnished tale of the vintage Apple tech is more compelling.
Don’t update your Mac to macOS Catalina without doing some serious checking first. The new Mac operating system makes some deep changes, which means that at least a handful of apps on your Mac will break. And that’s probably the best-case scenario. If you’re a long-time Mac user, this could be a chaotic update for you.
So, how do you know which apps are going to break in Catalina? Here are two ways to check.
Cross a new iPad Pro off your Christmas list. Photo: Apple
You could be waiting longer than anticipated to get your hands on Apple’s next-generation iPad Pro. One trusted analyst says the refresh will arrive in early 2020 with the iPhone SE 2, while the 16-inch MacBook Pro will come even later.
This could mean that October Apple event we’ve all been waiting for won’t happen after all.
You can expect big things next year. Concept: Taeyeon Kim
Apple will launch its first augmented reality glasses in the second quarter of 2020, according to one reliable analyst.
Ming-Chi Kuo of TF Securities says the device could enter mass-production before the end of this year. The news comes just weeks after one rumor suggested Apple had shelved its AR glasses plans.
The Wall Charging Stand is great on the go. Photo: Wiplabs
Frequent travelers need an Apple Watch stand that’s lightweight, compact, and always ready to go. And they don’t get much better than the terrific Wall Charging Stand from Wiplabs.
It should be an essential part of your carry wherever you go.
The round Tile Sticker is the new model, but there are also updates to Tile Pro, Tile Mate and Tile Slim. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Anyone who’s ever spent a half hour searching for the TV remote can understand the appeal of the Tile Sticker. Glue it to anything relatively flat and you’ll never misplace that item again, as your iPhone can have this tiny tag play a loud alarm. Or put one on the headphones you can never find, or maybe the back of your ID badge.
There are also improved versions of the Tile Pro, Tile Mate and Tile Slim out today to help with finding your keys or wallet. Just don’t get lost in our reviews of all four new item trackers.
The Livboj is under there somewhere. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
This is the Livboj, an inexpensive but hard-to-find Qi charging pad from Ikea. Last week, I visited my local Ikea to stock up on frozen cinnamon buns. I got lost, and found a stack of these amazing devices instead.
Despite its dirt-cheap price tag of 5 euros ($5.50), the Livboj is pretty great. So far I’ve experienced none of the problems other people report from far-more-expensive Qi pads. You should snap up one of these elusive chargers — if you’re lucky enough to spot one next time you’re at Ikea.
Apple Watch camera remote inception. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
The Apple Watch is an amazing fitness tracker, and a pretty good notification device. But it has other tricks — tricks that you maybe didn’t know about, or didn’t realize would be quite as useful as they are. One is the Camera app. The Apple Watch doesn’t have its own camera, but it does give you remote control of your iPhone’s camera.
This lets you trigger the camera’s shutter, or record a video, from anywhere in range of your iPhone’s Bluetooth radio. Why? Group self-portraits, without having to set the timer and run back to your friends in time to smile. Videos: I used the video camera function just this week to record my progress for my guitar teacher. Like I said, it might be more useful than you’d expect.
The OWC USB-C Travel Dock adds multiple ports to an iPad Pro or MacBook. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The OWC USB-C Travel Dock has five ports to extend the capabilities of your MacBook or iPad Pro, including HDMI and dual USB-A. Wrapped around these is a casing of aluminum and plastic thick enough to stand up to the kind of punishment many of us subject our gear to. Yet it still looks professional.
We used this multiport hub on several business trips. Here’s how it came through.
Built-in magnets inside the pad grab onto Xvida’s companion case for iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max to form a super-secure grip. And you can save big on both products today!
Safari’s content blockers effectively block trackers and other Bad Stuff on the web, but that only works in Apple’s browser. Any other app you install on your iPhone or iPad can send all kinds of personal information to anyone, without you ever knowing. Your location, the details of your menstrual cycle, how long you spend asleep — pretty much anything.
So how do you stop this? Well, iOS 13 itself can help limit some abuses. But what you really need is an iOS firewall app that can detect and shut down any unauthorized connections.
What does this mean for the 16-inch MacBook Pro? Concept: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Details have leaked out of an Apple USB-C wall charger more powerful than any the company currently offers. This has spawned speculation that it‘s for the rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro expected to launch soon.
A power adapter that offers more current leads to faster recharges.
Opening two files in the same app on an iPad requires rocket science. Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac
Thanks to the recently launched iPadOS, I can finally do simple things on my iPad that I’ve always been able to do on my Mac. Like opening multiple documents in the same app, or installing fonts.
Trouble is, while these things are easy to do on a Mac, they’re fiendishly difficult with an iPad.
In the early days, everyone celebrated the iPad for being easier and more intuitive to use than a Mac. But as Apple crams in more features, that is no longer true. iPad is still easier to use for simple things, but it is much harder and more cumbersome for performing advanced tasks.
The Apple Pencil can now take screenshots! Photo: Apple
Like skinning a cat, there’s more than one way to take a screenshot on the iPhone and iPad. And with the launch of iPadOS 13, there’s now one more way to snap a picture of your screen on the iPad.
Let’s check out all the ways to take a screenshot on an iPad running iOS 13.
iOS 13 lets you add more motion to your Live Photos by putting them in a video loop. Screenshot: Apple Support/YouTube
Fans of Live Photos will be able to save one or more into a single video thanks to a new feature in iOS 13.
Apple Support rolled out a quick tutorial on its YouTube channel Wednesday that shows the easy steps to stitching a string of Live Photos into a fun little video loop.
It could be one of many new faces. Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
Apple’s recent watchOS 6 upgrade brought a host of new features and faces to Apple Watch. But it has also had a nasty impact on battery life for lots of upgraders.
Apple Watch Series 5 owners are reporting that their new wearable isn’t lasting as long as Apple promised it would in between charges. However, they’re not the only ones who are suffering.
Customers can't get enough of iPhone 11. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Apple will not release an “iPhone 11S” in 2020, according to one reliable analyst.
Cupertino is instead expected to name its next-generation smartphone — which will launch next September — the “iPhone 12.” This could mean a big break from tradition going forward.
Put the Solar PowerFold in the Sun for a few hours to bring a useful charge to your iPhone. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
A solar-powered battery should be part of any disaster-preparedness kit, and the myCharge Solar PowerFold can keep an iPhone up and running just by sitting in the sun for a few hours.
We tested the ability of this very portable device to capture the thermonuclear power of our nearest star. Here’s how it went.
Add a splash of color to iPhone 11 Pro. Photo: Elago
Spend even more of your hard-earned cash on iPhone 11 Pro or Pro Max and you’ll have to forget the fancier color options offered by iPhone 11. But there is another way to brighten up your new smartphone for next to nothing.
A 16-inch MacBook Pro, which might look something like this, could be arrive soon. Concept Art: Viktor Kádár
An Apple October event hasn’t yet been announced, but there’s such an impressive list of products that are supposedly ready to launch that the company seems to need a big venue to show them all off.
There’s an epic new Mac, a big MacBook, fresh iPads and plenty more, all reportedly coming soon.
Post photos direct to Instagram from Safari on your Mac. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
If you know the trick, you can use Instagram on your Mac. And I don’t just mean viewing your timeline in Safari. I mean uploading pictures, adding filters, the lot. What’s more, it’s dead easy. Interested? Here’s how it works.