Cult of Mac

The iPhone XS and its front-facing camera are supposed to help its owners make better self-portraits. However, some think their iPhone selfies look better than they should.

Users are taking to internet forums like Reddit to question whether Apple added an undisclosed beauty filter to the front-facing camera on the iPhone XS and XS Max. Some are even posting side-by-side selfies taken with an XS and an older handset to make a case that the newest iPhone has more than deeper pixels and an improved portrait mode going for it.

Apple’s VP of software technology, Bud Tribble, made an appearance before the U.S. Senate’s Commerce Committee today to advocate for an overhaul of privacy laws in the country.

During the hearing, Apple was joined by other figures from tech giants like Google, Amazon, Twitter, and others to advise lawmakers on the current state of internet privacy. Tribble told lawmakers that Apple views privacy as a “fundamental human right,” but the company went short of offering solutions.

Apple Watch Series 4 lasts up to 18 hours on a single charge — just like its predecessors — and it somehow manages that with significantly smaller batteries.

An official Product Information sheet confirms Apple’s latest wearables have around 20 percent less battery capacity than Series 3 devices. It’s a testament to the power efficiency of the new components.

A hotly anticipated feature wasn’t available when the iPhone XS models arrived last week, but Apple is hard at work bringing Dual SIM support to these new handsets. This cutting-edge features is included in the first iOS 12.1 beta.

When the full version of the operating system update becomes available later this fall, the iPhone XS and XS Max will be able to simultaneously connect to two cellular providers.

Now that you’re finally getting used to iOS 12’s new Shortcuts app, here comes Scriptable, a new automation app that runs JavaScript. It can make powerful and deep connections with your iPhone or iPad — working with the Files app, for example, or Reminders.

Why would you want such a thing? Well, maybe you know how to program JavaScript. Scriptable lets you take your code, and integrate it with iOS. You can make your own scripts and use them to automate iOS. For instance, how about creating something as simple as a custom save menu that lets you rename files as you save them?

Having been the proud new owner of the iPhone XS Max for a few days, I’ve gotten a feel for the device.

Here’s a compressed iPhone XS Max review.

A rare working Apple-1 computer, one of just 200 built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976, has sold at auction for $375,000.

The computer is thought to be just one of only around 15 Apple-1 models still in working order. The auction took place in Boston, MA, on Tuesday. The buyer was an “anonymous businessman,” who placed his bid online.

Launching a podcast is something anybody can do, which is why it seems like everybody is. With so much content out there, quality stands out. So if you’re looking to get in on the podcast action, it pays to know how to do it right.

The Apple Watch Series 4 may be the first “must have” generation of Apple’s wearable device, and manufacturer Quanta Computer is working to full capacity to make sure it reaches as many customers as possible.

According to a new report, Quanta Computer’s capacity for the new Apple Watch at its factory in Changshu, eastern China is already “fully loaded.” In an effort to deliver even more of the devices, Apple has recruited a second supplier — Compal Electronics — which will start mass production in November.

It’s now easier than ever for iOS developers to distribute beta versions of their apps.

Apple is allowing them to share public URLs, which allow for quick enrollment when opened on an iPhone or iPad, through TestFlight. Developers no longer need an email address for every tester.

Apple removed several questionable websites serving up fake news and conspiracy theories via Safari’s “Siri Suggested” search results.

The recommended websites pointed users to posts about the “Pizzagate” hoax, Holocaust denier articles, and debunked race-based “science” stories. After BuzzFeed News alerted Apple to these bogus results, Cupertino promptly removed the recommendations.

Dragalia Lost, the newest mobile game from Nintendo, is now available to download on iOS in select markets.

The action-packed RPG, which was first confirmed last month, takes players on a journey of adventure as they fight to save the Kingdom of Alberia. It’s free to download and play.

Déjà vu much? A new report claims that the high price of Apple’s new iPhone XS series is likely to result in a slow down in demand later in 2018, after the initial fanfare for the new devices fades. This is said to be particularly true for the iPhone XS Max, which costs up to $1,449 for the 512 GB version.

While that’s certainly a possibility, however, remember that many people predicted the same fate would befall the iPhone X last year — and they wound up being spectacularly wrong.

Apple News is doing better than ever for Apple, but many publishers are still making barely anything from the platform.

According to a new report, lots of publishers are seeing big increases in traffic from Apple’s News aggregation service. However, due to the fact that Apple News keeps users inside its app, rather than redirecting to the original websites, this doesn’t necessarily translate into ad dollars for publishers. Far from it, in fact!

macOS 10.14 Mojave launched yesterday, but Apple already started testing the next version. Developers were just given access to a pre-release beta of macOS 10.14.1.

With availability so recent, it’s not yet known what’s in the new version. That said, the most likely enhancement is the return of Group FaceTime.

Traveling with Apple Watch is a fairly simple affair: strap on your watch and go. Traveling with all the extra accessories, however, is a serious pain in the butt.

There’s that 6-foot charging cable, for one, which always manages to get tangled up in my bag. Add extra Apple Watch bands and a wall plug, and you’ve got some serious carry, and we haven’t even mentioned dealing with the watch when you aren’t wearing it.

Twelve South has an answer to this conundrum, and it’s called TimePorter. And, Cult of Mac’s Nadine Kahney unboxes this great little case before our very eyes. 

An estimate of the component costs for each iPhone XS Max shows that much less than half of the purchase price goes to producing the device. This is Apple’s most expensive phone ever — and likely its most profitable.

The cost of storage went up considerably but Apple managed to save money by removing some 3D Touch components from the display.

One of watchOS 5’s greatest features is the Walkie-Talkie app. If you know other Apple Watch owners, you can just talk into your wrist, like in a 1950s secret agent TV show, and chat to them. It’s way better than having to make a phone call, because the chat is pushed.

Imagine that you’re on vacation camping, or on a bike trip across country, or working in a large (but fairly quiet) job site. You can talk to people as if they are there next to you. And in one way, this is better than a real walkie-talkie: Because it doesn’t use radio, there’s no limit to distance. You can chat to people on the other end of town, or the other side of the world.

Let’s see how to use the Apple Watch Walkie-Talkie app.

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Anyone who does their work on a computer likely uses a team management platform like Slack, Hipchat, Asana or Trello. It’s a busy space, with lots of competition, so Israeli startup monday.com is leveraging colorful, adaptive, intuitive design to stand out from the crowd.

An iPhone 7 is not the first camera you’d think about when figuring out how to get good shots of the moon. It certainly wasn’t Tom White’s first choice.

But after trying to get his DSLR mounted to a telescope just so, White wondered if his iPhone could do the job. The end result feels like the view astronauts would have from an Apollo command module in the moon’s orbit.

An Apple Watch Series 4 can detect if you’ve fallen and automatically call 911 to get your injuries tended to. Or get you arrested, depending on the circumstances.

That’s the warning of privacy watchdogs, who point out that 911 calls invite in more than just emergency medical personnel.

The iPhone XR replaces 3D Touch with something called “Haptic Touch.” But just what is Haptic Touch? The good news is that — in theory — it lets you use all the same hard-press shortcuts you’re used to. Here’s how it works.

A high-level Apple executive will tell the the U.S. senate tomorrow that the iPhone maker is in favor of federal privacy regulations.

He’ll be testifying along with representatives of Google and other companies likely to argue against privacy laws.

If you use VMware Fusion to run virtual machines on your Mac, it’s time to upgrade.

Version 11 has arrived with full support for macOS Mojave, the 18-core iMac Pro, and the six-core MacBook Pro released this year. The upgrade also adds enhanced Metal graphics rendering, an updated user interface, and more.

Didn’t get in on the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max pre-order madness and are now lusting after the best smartphone display ever?

There’s a simple tool on the internet that can save you hours of searching so you get the iPhone you want today. All it takes is setting a few filters and you’ll be alerted as soon as your local store has the new iPhones or Apple Watch Series 4 in stock.

This is how the tool works: