This week we check the weather with two great updates to old favorites, and record our thoughts on the never-ending 2018 summer in Day One’s great new voice notes feature.
This browser-based tool uses color to guide the eye from line to line, increasing reading speeds by up to 20 percent. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Do you find yourself re-reading the same sentence over and over again? Or accidentally skipping lines in a paragraph, momentarily losing your place? You can fix these issues with the right reading technique, and this browser-based tool can help.
Save 20 percent on Cartjett's lineup of Apple Watch bands through August. Choose from Leather NATO, Nylon NATO and Silicone Tire Tread bands. Photo: Carterjett
Apple’s Sport band is the basic bro of Apple Watch bands. If you want something a little more rugged — and a lot less forgettable — strap on a Tire Tread Sport band from Carterjett.
These sturdy silicone bands come in brilliant colors, with extra-large sizes and surprisingly small price tags as do the rest of Carterjett’s collection which includes Nylon NATO and Leather NATO bands as well.
Pop in the code SAVE20! at checkout and you’ll save 20 percent on all Cartejett Apple Watch bands through August.
Get the education in computer science you missed with this massively discounted lesson bundle. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Coding, app development and computer science in general are some of the most marketable skills you can earn. So it’s easy to wish you’d studied computer science in college. But if you didn’t, this massive bundle of lessons can help you get caught up.
Take advantage of $5 off Just Mobile's charging solutions for Apple Watch. Photo: Just Mobile
Now’s the time to get in on a great deal for Just Mobile’s design-award-winning Apple Watch accessories.
The company is slashing their regularly priced, award-winning stands and chargers for Apple Watch by $5. You’ll also get a $20 AluCable Flat lightning cable free with purchase of two Just Mobile Apple Watch accessories!
Check out Just Mobile’s HoverDock, TimeStand and Lounge Dock, and find your perfect charging solution for Apple Watch.
So sad, but maybe not a complete disaster. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
This week, a friend visited me, and the screen of her iPhone is cracked so badly that it barely registers a touch. I saw her struggle to even take a photo, and realized she didn’t know the volume-button trick.
Then we saw a little girl drop an iPhone onto the cobbled street outside a restaurant, while the owner (and uncle or family friend) looked on. The screen shattered, and the poor girl was distraught. That’s when I decided to write this guide to using your iPhone with a cracked screen.
Would you give up your iPhone for a Samsung Galaxy S9 or another Android device, or vice versa? Here're the reasons some people do. Photo: Samsung
Most people would rather have a root canal than switch from iPhone to Android. In all fairness, the reverse is somewhat true, though people are far more like to switch to iOS than away.
A new survey shows why people give up their iPhone for something from Samsung, Lenovo, or similar Android OEM, and vice versa.
We don't know why Apple quickly introduced new iOS 12 beta versions, but they're ready for download. Photo: Apple
Apple is really moving on iOS 12. It has introduced new pre-release versions for both developers and the general public just a few days after the last ones.
For developers, this is the tenth beta available. For everyone else, it’s the eighth.
Ikea's smart home accessories lineup may be expanding Photo: Ikea
Ikea, the Swedish-based “affordable” home furnishing company, is looking to expand its lineup of Trådfri smart home accessories to include an affordable smart switch. The report, which was first published on reddit and reported by Swedish tech site Teknikveckan, shows a pair of smart plug accessories that would allow your to control “dumb” devices with your smartphone or connected speaker.
Everyone should be using 2FA to protect their Fortnite account. Photo: Epic Games
Epic Games is giving Fortnite players even more of a reason to enable two-factor authentication by offering up a free emote. It won’t take you long to claim yours, and it’s the easiest way to prevent hackers from stealing your account.
Could Apple be moving the Smart Connector? Photo: Slashleaks
A mysterious cutout on an alleged leaked next-gen iPad Pro case suggests that Apple could be relocating the Smart Connector position on its new tablet — or even introducing a new connector or sensor altogether.
While the cutout isn’t explained, it does line up with previous reports suggesting that Apple would be moving the Smart Connector position closer to the Lightning port.
Take a trip down memory lane by loading up Windows 95 on your Mac. Play classic Solitaire and Minesweeper, and soak up the experience once enjoyed by nearly 70 percent of computer owners in the late ’90s.
It’s easier than ever, thanks to a new app built by Slack developer Felix Rieseberg.
iPhone X finally hits Apple's refurbished section. Photo: Apple
T-Mobile customers can now sign up to the iPhone Upgrade Program online — just in time for Apple’s big 2018 upgrades.
Online enrollment was previously available to those on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, while T-Mobile subscribers were forced to visit their local Apple Store. The process will be a little easier for those looking to buy a new iPhone this fall.
Just like most of the recent robberies, this one took place in California. Photo: Lyle Kahney/Cult of Mac
Yet another Apple Store has been targeted by thieves in the latest in an ongoing spate of snatch-and-grab robberies targeting Apple retail stores.
The robbery took place midday on Wednesday at an Apple Store in Corte Madera in Marin County, California. As with the other recent robberies, this incident involved multiple young men in hoodies entering the store and then grabbing multiple iPhones and other devices, before fleeing.
Lisa Brennan-Jobs, the firstborn daughter of Steve Jobs, has added her name to the list of people who weren’t fans of Jobs’ hand-picked biographer Walter Isaacson.
Isaacson wrote the mega-selling biography of Jobs published in 2011. However, since then numerous Apple insiders and people who knew Steve have criticized the book. Jobs’ daughter Lisa is the latest of these — saying that she didn’t trust the biographer, although she admits she never read his book.
Apple has hired away numerous Tesla employees since the end of last year — and not just to work on its Apple Car efforts, either.
According to LinkedIn data, 46 former Tesla employees have joined Apple since late 2017: either leaving the company directly for Apple, or being dismissed and then joining. These include manufacturing experts, security and software engineers, supply chain authorities, and more. And Tesla has an official statement to make about it.
The Russian Green band is made from embossed calf's leather. The unique crosshatch pattern offers a discreet yet remarkable texture and is highly resistant to wear. Photo: Benjamin McKay/Cult of Mac
Sometimes even an item as mundane as a watch strap tells a story. And the Russian Green Leather Apple Watch Band by Clessant has a cool one.
The band’s design is inspired by leather discovered in a doomed shipwreck more than 200 years ago. Clessant takes this inspiration to new levels and brings this unique discovery to light with its modern-day interpretation of this age-old Russian leather.
Foundation was a major influence on Star Wars, and now it's coming to Apple TV+. Photo: Bantam Spectra Books
A few months ago, we heard that Apple was developing Isaac Asimov’s Foundation book series for TV. Today, came word that Apple has committed to turning the sprawling sci-fi epic into a show.
Foundation follows the fall of a galactic empire, and centers on a group of scientists trying to save civilization from chaos.
A wristwatch is so much more than a means to tell time. It’s also the opportunity to make a subtle statement with a one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted Apple Watch band.
Heeding the call to individual style is OleksynPrannyk’s made-to-order and ultra-sharp Double Tour Apple Watch Band — the reasonably priced alternative to the highly priced Hermès band. The Double Tour and all of OleksynPrannyk’s bands are completely customizable with more than five adapter colors and 14 thread colors from which to choose.
Best yet, the entire collection is available now in Cult of Mac’sWatch Store. Trust me, you will love this band.
With PlugBug Duo, you can simultaneously charge your MacBook, iPhone, and iPad from one wall socket. Photo: TwelveSouth
Everyone wants to tote around less stuff, so add-ons that make your current gear more useful are welcome.And that’s just what the new PlugBug Duo by TwelveSouth does: it clips onto your MacBook charger and adds a pair of USB ports.
It’s especially handy for people who have a MacBook Pro with a USB-C port, but need to charge gadgets that take a traditional USB port.
Scotty Allen says DO NOT try this on your only iPhone. Photo: Strange Parts/YouTube
Scotty Allen, who describes his work as “Adventures from the Technological Fringe,” pulled off another DIY feat by bringing wireless charging to an old iPhone 7.
True to the word adventure, the task was not effortless for the YouTube host, whose channel is called “Strange Parts.” It took Allen a couple of failed attempts before he could deliver on the hack requested several times by followers.
One day I'll run out of street-sign photos to illustrate notification how-tos, but not today. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
One of iOS 12’s big changes is Notifications Center. It gets the seriously great Do Not Disturb at Bedtime feature, and it also now groups notifications, stacking them per-app in order to reduce clutter and increase clarity on the lock screen and elsewhere.
Notification grouping is totally automatic, but there are new settings that let you customize it if the auto options don’t suit you. Let’s take a look.
TSMC beat out Samsung and Intel to make Apple's A11 Bionic processor, and will apparently be the sole producer of its replacements. Photo: iFixit
TSMC has produced every iPhone processor for several years, and is reportedly going to continue to be Apple’s sole source for chips.
Apple generally prefers to get components from multiple sources, but apparently no company — not even Samsung or Intel — can compete with TSMC. That makes the two companies very dependent on each other.
Drafts is on its way to the Mac. Photo: Agile Tortoise
Drafts, the best text notes/writing/wrangling app on iOS, is coming soon to the Mac. Drafts, for those who haven’t tried it, is a kind of universal inbox for text. Whenever you want to write something — a note, an email, a blog post or an essay — you launch Drafts and start typing.
It’s always ready with a blank page. Then, when you’re done, you can use Drafts’ many, many actions to send that text elsewhere — beautifully formatted for the Notes app, as a list to the Reminders app, as a post to Twitter, a task in Things, etc. The list is almost endless thanks to a shared directory of new actions that can be installed with one click.
Until now, Drafts has been iOS-only. But soon, probably later this year, it’s coming to the Mac.