Phone calls are so 20th century. Apart from a knock at the door, when else can another person decide to bug you, and then bug you right away, at their own convenience, without getting your permission first?
In the 21st century, we have a name for these people: entitled. Fortunately, it’s easy to bump their presumptuous invasions, and let them know who’s the boss1.
Here’s how to decline iPhone calls (or mute them if you’re feeling particularly passive-aggressive).
Upgrade your Apple Watch with a magnificent metal band from Monowear.
Made from strong stainless steel, and priced at just $49.99, they’re color-matched for the best finish and they make everyone’s favorite smartwatch look even more suave.
You know how you can add an avatar to pretty much any social app ever, and all your friends, family, contacts, etc., will see it? Well, in iOS 13 you can finally do the same for iMessages.
No longer will you have to hope that your contacts use a nice photo of you, or worry that your boss is using a picture of a cute pig or pussycat to represent you in the group chat. Now you can add and share your own avatar, or even a Memoji. Let’s see how.
The designers of Inateck’s latest USB-C hub obviously believe that too much is never enough. It has eight ports, including the typical USB-A and HDMI ones but also some real legacy ports, including Ethernet and even VGA. There’s also a built-in removable USB-C cable for use on the go.
There’s a lot to test here, but I put this full-featured hub through its paces. Plug into my review to see what I learned.
Dropbox is getting increasingly bloated and annoying — on the Mac, at least. When iOS 13 ships later this year, you’ll be able to share whole iCloud folders with other people, so you can ditch DropBox altogether. But how will you switch?
One thing you can’t do is just drag your Dropbox folder into iCloud Drive. iCloud just won’t let you. In fact, you can’t even create a new folder and name it “Dropbox.” WTF?
Brilliant and inexpensive charging stands that make your Apple Watch look like an iconic iMac or retro Game Boy are just some of the awesome accessories made by Elago.
The San Diego company also offers Watch bands that let you carry your AirPods on your wrist, ear hooks that prevent them falling out of your ears, and silicone cases that keep them protected.
And they’re all available now from the Cult of Mac Watch Store for less than $20 each! Check out Elago’s terrific range today.
Apple wants you to know that, at least for now, it has stopped listening to Siri queries made by users. It’s the right move to make. But it’s the unnecessary result of a backlash Apple brought upon itself.
The Siri eavesdropping controversy perfectly illustrates why Apple needs to be more transparent with users — even if that means sacrificing some ease of use.
The Control Center on your iPhone or iPad comes with a bunch of preset icons so you can quickly open the Camera app, toggle Do Not Disturb and do plenty of other tricks. But you also can customize it, adding your choice of one-swipe shortcuts. You can even set the order of the icons.
Today we’ll see how to add Low Power Mode, and take a look at the other options available.
This week on The CultCast: Apple’s working on something BIG, and their massive increase in R&D spending proves it. Plus: we discuss all the surprises Apple unveiled in their recent earnings report, and it was another record breaker. And if you think your conversations with Siri are private, think again! Apple’s been caught reviewing your most personal sound bytes. And a new Moviepass competitor has emerged with a very interesting offer, but is it worth the price? All that and more!
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain..
Anyone who’s fed up with iTunes can put the latest pre-release version of macOS Catalina on their Mac now and start using the new Apple Music, Apple Podcast and Apple TV apps instead. Of course, today’s public beta, the fourth in the series, comes with a long list of known problems so it might not be worth the hassle.
As a Mac user, you already know how to take a quick screenshot with the ⌘⇧3 and ⌘⇧4 shortcuts. But did you know that you can also capture a video recording of your screen? If you’re running macOS Mojave, making a Mac screen recording proves as easy as hitting a shortcut, just like grabbing a screenshot. Older Macs can do it, too, albeit with a little more futzing.
You’re going to L-O-V-E this tip. You know how sometimes you see a folder on your iPhone’s home screen, and there’s a red notification badge on the folder itself? That badge is a summary of all the unread notifications of the apps inside the folder. Of course, at this point you just ignore it, because you don’t want to swipe through the pages of never-used apps inside the folder, just to see which apps have unread alerts.
But what if there was a way to quickly see which apps in that folder have outstanding notifications. Well, there is! And you’re going to kick yourself when you see how easy it is.
A Bluetooth LE security flaw could let malicious actors discover people’s iPhone numbers using Apple’s file-sharing AirDrop feature.
An attacker would need to create a phone number database for a specific region. Using a special script, they then could collect information on users who tried to AirDrop a file.
Shiny new Apple Watch? Why not deck it out with a classy leather Apple Watch band — the Crocodilus band from Strapa, available in the Cult of Mac Apple Watch store?
Strapa’s Crocodilus band is luxurious and timeless, and we filmed an unboxing video to give you a closer look at the band. Don’t worry — no crocodiles were harmed in the production of this strap!
Apple shares recordings made by Siri with third-party contractors, according to a recent report. The goal is to improve Siri’s responses, but the fact is, you probably didn’t know that this was happening — and almost certainly want it to stop.
Today, I will show you how to prevent these diagnostic recordings from going to Apple. The good news? You can do it using only Apple’s tools. The bad news is that you’ll have to get your hands dirty in the process.
Apple unleashed its best-ever Q3 earnings report today, and traders subsequently sent the company’s stock soaring in after-hours trading.
Thanks to record-breaking revenue from its services business and strong growth from wearables, Apple is heading into its most important period of the year ready to cash in. Investors had plenty of questions for CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri during today’s call. And the duo revealed some key tidbits we actually weren’t expecting.
Apple would prefer to build the upcoming Mac Pro in the United States. In fact, the company is trying to make it happen, CEO Tim Cook said Tuesday.
“We’ve been making the Mac Pro in the United States and we want to continue doing that,” Cook said during Apple’s earnings call. “We’re working and investing currently in the capacity to do so. We want to continue to be there.”
After several rocky quarters, Apple set a new record for third-quarter revenue. Plus there’s good news in iPad and Mac sales. However, iPhone revenue slipped considerably.
Check out these charts that demonstrate with a glance how the company did last quarter.
The beautiful Button-Stud Band by Form Function Form is a leather Apple Watch strap unlike any other.
Handmade for the perfect fit, with a single stainless steel stud, it’s wonderfully minimalist and hassle-free — and it comes in a bunch of alluring color options.
Up until the latest developer beta 5, the iOS 13 share sheet has been a mess. At the top is the truly excellent quick-share row, which automatically suggests sharing destinations that you use often — iMessage and email contacts, AirDrop destinations, and so on. Then there was the familiar row of app icons.
However, below that came a single long list of B&W labels, mixing up all the other sharing options, along with all of your shortcuts. It was impossible to use. It also felt like a placeholder for a new UI design.
Now, that new design has been added, and it’s … OK. There’s still no color differentiation for your shortcuts, and the list is still too long, but you can customize some sections. Let’s take a look at the new iOS 13 share sheet options.
The big news in iOS 13 developer beta 5 is that the share sheet has finally been fixed up. Previously, it has been almost impossible to use in the iOS 13 beta, thanks to pretty much every share option being lumped into one never-ending list.
We have a post all about the new share sheet in iOS 13. Check it out to see what’s new on that front. For everything else, keep reading here.
The Developer’s Gear Case from WaterField Designs looks like a bespoke Bible case your pastor had custom made after he sent around an extra collection plate at Sunday service.
But have faith, for the inside of the case will deliver you from the hell of tangled cords. And it will end the searches for the smaller tech accessories that are constantly lost in your backpack or shoulder bag.
Don’t settle for tacky plastic when buying an Apple Watch stand. Choose the HEDock and enjoy cool aluminum instead. It’s super-sturdy, looks terrific, and sports a bargain price tag.
Even if you keep your iPhone in a nice case and regularly polish the screen, it is probably a filthy cesspit of germs, fluff and abrasive dust. Fortunately, if you can be bothered to actually do something about it, cleaning your iPhone is easy and rewarding.
Rewarding in the sense that you’ll be rewarded with a pristine slab of glass and steel, instead of having to finger a filth-bomb every time you take your pocket computer out to use it.
Add a keyboard to your iPad Pro and it becomes a powerful but extremely portable laptop. So many people see the potential that companies make an array of keyboard cases. The range of designs gives buyers choices depending on what they want most: portability, protection, price, etc.
We’ve tested plenty of them; here are our picks for the best available.