If a speaker can be beautiful, then the Tivoli Audio Andiamo is beautiful. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Andiamo means “Let’s go” in Italian, and Tivoli Audio’s Andiamo is a very stylish speaker to take on the go. It has a cylindrical design wrapped in a leather carrying strap, and provides satisfactory sound.
Lend us an ear for a review of this Bluetooth speaker designed for listening wherever.
Take an early glimpse at a possible 2019 iPad Pro. Photo: Waqar Khan
A new video wraps up all the unconfirmed reports about Apple’s next professional-grade tablet. Rumors say this iPad Pro will have a much better camera than any of its predecessors.
Who wouldn't want an all-screen iPhone SE? Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Years ago, somebody dropped my old iPhone 5, and the screen exploded into a crazed sheet of splinters. Yesterday I finally “fixed” it by sticking a glass screen protector over the whole mess. It still looks terrible, but at least now I can use it without glass shards lodging in my fingertips.
And, now that I can handle the phone again, I realize that I love it. And it got me thinking. Why doesn’t Apple make a phone sized like the old iPhone 5, or iPhone SE, only with an edge-to-edge screen like the iPhones X?
Take Portrait mode-style photos, no iPhone X required. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
We’ve written a lot about the Focos photo app here on Cult of Mac, because it’s like the Photoshop of focus. The universal iOS app lets you edit the focus of your Portrait mode photos in crazy depth (pun intended). But v2.0 just launched, and it’s hands-down amazing.
Focos 2 uses machine learning to calculate the depth of any photo, and then apply portrait-style blur to it. That means you can take portrait photos on the iPad and, wildest of all, you can apply a portrait background blur to photos you’ve saved from the internet.
Judge's comment: "What I find most interesting is the background pattern, uniquely magnified and distorted in every one of the water droplets. I’m drawn to studying and trying to elucidate what that pattern is." Photo: Andrew Griswold
Each finished work of art has a backstory and Andrew Griswold’s podcast Just Outside the Artboard focuses on what happens between idea and creation.
His first episode, launched Aug. 23, gave him plenty to talk about as one of the 10 winners of Apple’s “Shot on iPhone” challenge.
Encrypting your disk is way safer than trying to 'secure' erase it. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
In the olden days, when you wanted to replace your hard drive with a bigger one, you’d run a “secure erase” on it to completely remove any personal data. This would write zeros to the entire disk, overwriting anything already there.
But now, thanks to advances in storage tech, this no longer does the trick. (Not that you can change your own Mac SSDs now anyway.) The new secure-erase, says Apple, is to just encrypt your disk.
iOS 13.1 beta 1 brings back almost every cool feature dropped from previous betas. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Surprisingly, iOS 13.1 is already in beta. It looks like Apple’s release strategy this year is to freeze the current beta version of iOS 13.0 in order to get it ready for the new iPhones expected on September 10. Meanwhile, Apple continues to test the next version, adding back some features removed during the beta period — Shortcuts automations, for example.
So, what other new (or revived) features will you find in iOS 13.1 beta 1?
Avoid selling your old Apple Watch to Apple. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
With big discounts to be had on Apple Watch Series 4, it’s an ideal time to upgrade — and sell off your old model.
It might seem like a relic now, but it’s probably still worth a small fortune — if you sell it properly. Here’s how to get the best price for your old Apple Watch and ensure you get paid fast.
Keeping your Apple Wallet passes as souvenirs? Don't bother. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
My real wallet is a shrine to minimalism. A bit of cash, a few cards, and zero old receipts or spent metro tickets. I keep it slimline, even with the aggressively European coin pocket included therein. My Apple Wallet, on the other hand, is as cluttered as the horizontal surfaces in my mother’s house, covered as they are with crystal animals, photo frames and lace doilies.
The problem is twofold. First, Apple Wallet never gets thicker, no matter how many cinema tickets and boarding passes you stuff in there. Second, how do you remove all those passes anyway? One at a time, with a swipe and a tap and a confirmation for each? No thanks.
Now that's a "One More Thing" surprise I'd be on board with! Photo: @x6oor/Twitter
Any iconic person who dies before their time occasionally gets photos shared of look-alikes, raising the faintest shred of possibility that they’re alive after all and just enjoying life out of the spotlight.
There’s no shortage of shots of Tupac and Elvis years after their apparent demise. But this week, the Twitterverse exploded when a photo looking a whole lot like Steve Jobs popped up. The Apple co-founder’s doppelganger is in Egypt, FYI.
Apple’s Mail app — the Mac one, not the iOS one — has a secret weapon for automatically cleaning up your inbox. It’s called Rules, and you can use it to process all arriving emails, so you don’t have to.
Mail rules can be used to get custom alerts, to automatically file invoices, to save newsletters out of the inbox, to block senders, and lots more. Today we’re going to check out a few of the most interesting Mac Mail rules so you can get started cleaning up your inbox.
Podcast searches are set to get way better in iOS 13. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Apple added full transcript search to its podcast directory in iOS 13. Even though you can’t actually read the podcast transcripts, this is still huge. You can search across the content of podcast episodes the way you can search websites with DuckDuckGo (or other search engines) today.
The Reminders app finally looks and acts like a grownup task manager. Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
As we draw nearer to the official release of iOS 13, things are starting to take their final form – as rocky as that may seem at times. One of the more stable, and more useful updates is to the Reminders app on iPhone and iPad.
Reminders was introduced back in iOS 5, and aside from losing some texture in iOS 7,the app has mostly been unchanged. In iOS 13, Apple is finally modernizing and improving on their task and to-do app to make it more functional and more competitive against many third party task managers.
Steve Wozniak shows off a "Celebration" model Apple-1, the rarest version of Apple's rarest computer. Photo: Charitybuzz
August 25, 2016: An ultra-rare Apple-1 computer raises $815,000 in a charity auction, one of the highest prices ever paid for one of the machines. Bidding actually reaches $1.2 million in the auction’s final minutes. However, that bid gets pulled seconds before a winner is announced.
The reason for the super-high price? This “Celebration” Apple-1 boasts a feature that did not appear on any production models of the computer.
The Mophie Powerstation Hub can charge a Mac, iPhone and iPad all at once. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The Powerstation Hub is a powerbank with an extra trick: wireless charging. There’s no reason to leave the convenience of wireless power at home when you can take it with you anywhere. This accessory also sports USB-C and dual USB-A ports, plus there are built-in AC power prongs for easy recharging.
We kicked the tires on this mobile battery. Come see how it performed in our tests.
Bento Stack is a must-have for any traveler. Photo: Wiplabs
Carrying essential accessories with you wherever you go can be a nightmare. Your wires can get tangled, your AirPods can get lost, and your Apple Pencil can end up in more than one piece. That’s why you need the Bento Stack.
This compact, multi-compartment storage solution keeps more than 10 must-have accessories neatly organized when you’re on the road. It’s a must-have if you’re a frequent traveler.
If you don't worry about your data being sold, here's a nice spot of sand where you can bury your head. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Did you know that Home Depot shares your “name, address and transactional information … with third party companies”? Or that Marriott Hotels discloses “Personal Data and Other Data with select Strategic Business Partners”?
What about this snippet from The New York Times’privacy policy: “If you are a U.S. print subscriber, we may exchange or rent your name and postal mailing address.”
The bad news is, pretty much anytime you share your data with a U.S. company, it will sell that data to somebody else. The good news is that you can opt out. And the even better news is that there’s one place to get all the information you need to do it.
Is this our first look at Apple's next-generation wearable? Photo: Slashleaks
A photo of what might be Apple Watch Series 5 appeared on Instagram this week.
The device looks just like a current model at first glance. But the model number displayed on its screen suggests it is actually Apple’s next-generation wearable.
No hyperbole: the Fuse Chicken Shield is truly sheathed in chainmail. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The Shield charging cable from Fuse Chicken is literally wearing stainless steel chainmail. It seems designed to survive battle with orcs, or at least the dangers it might run into on a job site. Amazingly enough, this company’s Titan cable is even more rugged, being wrapped in two layers of flexible steel.
There are Lighting and USB-C versions of both, and we took them into battle to test their mettle. Actually, we towed a car with one, and hit the other with a hammer. Read on to see how they survived.
Apple could finally bring noise cancellation to AirPods. Photo: Ste Smith/ Cult of Mac
A more affordable version of the struggling HomePod smart speaker will debut next year, according to a generally reliable source. Apple is also reportedly going to introduce AirPods with noise cancellation in 2020.
Both are products that consumers have been asking for.
These iPhone 11 dummies should be a lot like the real thing. Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
This year’s iPhone refresh will introduce new “shatter-resistance technology” and even better Face ID, according to a new report.
It is claimed users will be able to unlock Apple’s next-generation handsets from multiple angles — like when they’re lying flat on a table — thanks to a new Face ID sensor with a wider field of view.
Honk honk! Goodbye pesky background. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
The iPhone’s incredible Portrait mode does a great job of blurring the backgrounds of photos, making the subject stand out from busy backdrops. (Apple also uses this depth information for its truly awful Portrait Lighting effects — has anyone ever gotten a good result from the Stage Light filter? — but that’s another story.)
What if you could use the depth information inside Portrait photos to get rid of the background entirely? Wouldn’t that be something? Well, yes it would. And if you have the right app, it’s really easy to remove photo backgrounds.
Spending big on star power for Apple TV+ is really smart. Photo: Apple
On the surface, Cupertino’s decision to spend massive piles of money on its upcoming Apple TV+ streaming service seems crazy.
Is this a company with too much money being suckered? Is it a huge display of hubris (as some say of Apple Park)? Or is it, just possibly, a clever strategy that could win Apple the streaming war?
Here’s why I think that third answer is the correct one. Dig a little deeper, and Apple’s spending spree looks nothing short of brilliant.
While not a literal crystal ball for seeing the future, the EEC database gets close when it comes to Apple products. Photo: Jennifer Hubacher/Pexels CC
Multiple new MacBook, Apple Watch, iPod touch and iPhone models are coming this fall, according to a database that’s so far been very accurate about upcoming products. It belongs to the Eurasian Economic Commission, which become a gold mine for information on Apple computers that are right around the corner.
Finger crossed for Apple Pencil support. Photo: Olixar
Accessory-makers are already preparing cases for Apple’s next-generation iPhone lineup, including an “iPhone 11 Pro” that will support a brand new Apple Pencil.