Siri chimed in when the UK's Defense Minister was speaking to Parliament. Screenshot: Independent
The U.K’s Gavin Williamson was giving a speech today when he was interrupted. That’s not unusual in the House of Commons, but in this case it was Siri rudely talking over the Defense Secretary.
Williamson was talking about Syria, and something he said was close enough to “Hey Siri” to activate his iPhone’s voice-control system. He and the MPs present got a laugh out of.
Adding an calendar event with Drafts is as easy as writing it on paper. Photo: Sludge G/Flickr CC
Do you hate adding new events to your iOS calendar? It’s a real pain, right? You have to click, and type, and turn one of these time and date dials, and type some more. On the Mac you can just hit ⌘-N to create a new event, and then type something like Dinner tomorrow at 19:00, and the Calendar app just works out what you mean, and adds the event.
On iOS, you have to do it manually, or try to coax Siri into doing it for you — neither of which is a pleasant experience. Why isn’t there a natural-language input for the iOS Calendar app? Well, if you’re using the awesome Drafts app, then there is.
The laser in the iPhone X's Face ID could one day transform the speed of broadband. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The 2018 iPhone lineup could have the same 3D technology as the current flagship handset iPhone X, according to an investment bank encouraging clients to buy stock in the components company.
Piper Jaffray says stock in the manufacturer Lumentum is a good buy and predicts strong growth in the second half of 2018 because of the demand for 3D components. Lumentum (listed as LITE) supplied Apple with the parts to power the iPhone X’s Face ID feature.
Big changes are coming behind the scenes at Apple Maps. Photo: Apple
Developers received an early 4th of July present from Apple today in the form of banging batch of new betas for iOS 12, watchOS 5 and tvOS 12.
The third beta for iOS 12 arrives two weeks after Apple seeded the last software update to developers that contained a number of UI tweaks and performance enhancements. iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV all received some software loving from Apple today, but it looks like the next macOS Mojave beta is still baking.
You can now play at 120Hz on iPad Pro. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Fortnite’s staggering rise in popularity has inevitably attracted a large number of cheaters who use third-party hacks to gain an in-game advantage.
The hacks they’re using help them aim faster, fire their weapons quicker, and even slow down enemy players. They’re also spreading malware all over the web.
It’s thought tens of thousands of Fortnite players have been affected, but you have nothing to worry about if you play on Mac or iOS.
Spotify's promotion of Scorpion may be good for Drake, but it's upsetting some customers. Photo: Apple
Spotify is taking some flack after getting carried away promoting the June 29 release of hip-hop artist Drake’s new album “Scorpion.” In an effort to commemorate the release by the streaming services most-played artist, Spotify spent the weekend highlighting the Canadian artist’s music. These highlights came through Drake-inspired playlists, banners, and the use of his image on playlists without his music.
Despite faster connections, display support hasn’t improved. Photo: Apple
Apple is apparently planning to upgrade the MacBook Pro line to the latest generation of Intel processors. Benchmarks for a macOS laptop running a “Coffee Lake” chip showed up on Geekbench.
The eight-generation Core i7-8559U CPU in this device has a base frequency of 2.7GHz, but a maximum turbo speed of 4.5GHz. It has 4 cores and 8 threads, and was built with a 14nm process.
This metal-reinforced Lightning cable adds extra life and length to your iDevice's lifeline. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Lightning cables are the lifelines for our iDevices. We rely on them for charging and syncing all our data, so when one goes kaput it’s a serious setback. That’s why getting a tougher Lightning cable is a good move.
Animoji is ready for iPad in iOS 12. Photo: Steve Troughton-Smith
New evidence that confirms Apple is preparing a future iPad with Face ID has been spilled by the latest iOS 12 beta.
One developer has discovered that AvatarKit, the framework that powers Animoji, is now ready for iPad. It still requires a TrueDepth camera which can only be found in iPhone X for now, but it seems that will change when new iPads arrive this fall.
This is the best deal yet on Amazon Echo Show. Photo: Amazon
Echo Show is Amazon’s finest Alexa device. It not only answers your queries, plays your music, and controls your smart devices like every other Echo speaker, but it also has a 7-inch touchscreen and built-in camera that let you do so much more.
It’s usually priced at $229, but from now through Prime Day on July 16, Amazon has slashed a whopping $100 off its price tag.
Practice your skills in Playground mode today. Photo: Epic Games
Hurrah! Fortnite Battle Royale’s exciting new Playground mode has finally returned, and you can enjoy it now across all platforms.
Playground was removed shortly after making its initial debut last week as a result of technical troubles. Epic promised it would return this week and it has today confirmed the new limited-time game mode is now open to all.
Your next school assignment could be in GarageBand. Photo: Apple
GarageBand for iOS is one of the first Apple apps to add support for Schoolwork, giving teachers the ability to create GarageBand assignments and activities.
The version 2.3.4 update also allows you to view note labels on any Touch Instrument’s music keyboard.
Apple’s weakest earnings report of 2018 is scheduled for July 31.
The iPhone-maker notified developers this afternoon that it will reveal how many iPhones it sold during the Q3 2018 fiscal quarter. And it might also drop some clues about when the next iPhones are going on sale.
HTC Dream was the first Android phone. But now its maker could be out of business in a year. Photo: T-Mobile
HTC, once among Apple’s top rivals in the smartphone market, is laying off a quarter of its workforce. This is just the latest step in the slow collapse of the Taiwanese company.
This isn’t the result of some terrible misstep. There just doesn’t appear to be room in the current phone market for anyone but Apple, Samsung, and China-based phone-makers.
Trashed a photo by mistake? Here's how to undelete it. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
We’ve all done it. We’ve woken up after a big night out, and before we even rinse the sleep from our eyes, we reach over and delete last night’s photos on our iPhones. We even squint, or kind of half look at the screen as we do it, just so we don’t get a reminder of whatever the hell it was we got up to last night.
But wait. Later, after the hangover clears, you’re hunting around for the photo you took of that totally sweet guy’s phone number, the one he wrote on the napkin while you were checking out his awesome forearms. “I’ll lose that piece of paper,” you told him, and took a snap of it with your iPhone camera, just in case. And it turns out that this was a way smarter move than that fifth round of chili vodka shots, because you did lose that napkin number. Only now you’ve gone and deleted the photo too, you big dummy.
No problem. Undeleting a photo on iOS is as easy as agreeing to another drink that you don’t really want. Let’s see how to do it.
These bookmark-metaphor photos are going a bit too far. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
If you have a website you visit frequently — and who doesn’t? — then you might like to have quicker access to that site. You might appreciate an icon on your iPhone’s home screen that you can tap to launch that site, just like you’d launch an app.
Today we’ll see how to add a bookmark to your iPhone home screen. And if you already know how to do this, check out the post anyway. There are a couple of neat extra tricks in there.
Instagram wants to protect you from over Gramming Photo: Pixabay
Instagram wants to start helping users spend less time on its app.
Starting today, the photo-sharing app is adding a new tool that tells users when they’ve already seen all the new photos that have been posted over the last two days.
Apple is heading toward a $1 trillion market cap. But could Amazon get there first? Photo: Pierre Marcel/Flickr CC
Apple’s market value will eventually top $1 trillion, but Amazon is evolving more and more as if it will get there first.
The gap has rapidly narrowed between the two company’s market values. Apple, always believed to be the first company to reach $1 trillion, started out the year with stock valued 50 percent higher than Amazon’s. For a closer look at Apple’s financial journey, check out this detailed report onapple valuation over the years.
TouchBar on iOS doesn't make much sense. Photo: Eyad Murshid
Apple’s Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro hasn’t been as big a hit as the company would have wished for, but it could make a comeback at an unlikely location: the iPhone.
A concept artist has imagined what it would look like if Apple brought the Touch Bar to iOS and while it may seem like an odd fit at first, it actually might be pretty useful.
There are fresh beta versions of iOS and macOS. But they probably aren't the ones you're waiting for. Photo: Apple
The wait is nearing the end for the next iPhone and Mac operating systems. However, these aren’t the big upgrades announced last month. Instead, iOS 11.4.1 and macOS 10.13.6 will fix bugs in the current versions.
Apple just released the fifth beta version of each of these. The full release can’t be far behind.
Did you get a chance to try Playground mode? Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Fortnite’s long-awaited Playground mode made its official debut last week, but it didn’t last long. Almost immediately after Playground went live, Epic Games was forced to close it down due to a host of technical problems.
Epic has promised that Playground will return this week, and in a new update published today, it says “recent tests look promising.” But we probably shouldn’t get our hopes up just yet.
Benchmark scores for a prototype 2018 iPhone X Plus reveal the amount of RAM and the processor speed, plus an early look at the performance. Photo: Mac Otakara
Someone testing a 2018 iPhone prototype inadvertently uploaded benchmark results for this device. Among the other details revealed is an indication that this will be the first iPhone with 4GB of RAM.
Naturally, the Geekbench results also include the performance. However, with the model still months away, scores are a bit underwhelming.
TickTick works as a Reminders replacement, or an advanced task manager. Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
When Apple rolled out iOS 5 way back in 2011, one of the software’s highlights was a new app — Reminders — to help you keep track of tasks.
Since that time, Reminders hasn’t evolved much. However, the type of task manager people are looking for has changed dramatically. TickTick offers greater control, more granularity, and is an all-around better to-do list app.