Mobile menu toggle

It really pays to be an iOS developer

By

Swift Playgrounds
Swift Playgrounds is Apple's tool for learning to code iPhone and iPad software. It's the first step to earning one of the high iOS developer salaries.
Photo: Apple

Want to make mad bank? Learn to program iOS apps. The career website Dice compiled average iOS developer salaries, and the numbers are a touch breathtaking.

The results are broken out by geographical area, with cities that have the highest costs of living also offering the most generous salaries. But even the lowest paychecks are enough to get that Porsche you’ve been wanting. Or a home and family. Whichever.

How to save any audio file to iPhone without a Mac

By

We can do better than this.
We can do better than this.
Photo: Guillaume Flament/Flickr CC

Did you ever download an audio file to your iPhone, and then wonder just how you are supposed to listen to it? Maybe you have a few recorded lectures you want to listen to on a plane, or you have some audiobooks you’d like to listen to on the beach. The bad news is a that you can’t add music or any other audio to your Music app library without a Mac or a PC.

Since iOS 11, you’ve been able to download and save audio files in the Files app, but good luck listening to them. It’s like listening to audio in the Finder on your Mac, with no way to save your place, or really control the playback much at all.

But there’s a better way. The Overcast podcast app, which is pretty excellent in general, also lets you upload your own audio files, and then it treats them as regular podcast episodes. We also have a more complex method that takes a bit of setup, but can be used with any podcast app, including Apple’s own. Here’s how to use them.

Streaming TV is getting pricier by the minute

By

Apple TV service facing competition
Unfortunately, Streaming TV cost has gone up for all of the biggest players in this market.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

People looking to trim their cable bill turn to a variety of services that offer a smaller selection of channels streamed live over the internet. These streaming TV services go for a substantially lower cost than a traditional cable package.

But many of these aren’t as cheap as they once were. DirectTV Now, PlayStation Vue, Sling TV and YouTube TV have all hiked prices recently.

Drake’s new album shatters every Apple Music record

By

Streaming services like Apple Music dominate the US music market
ChampagnePapi is the king of Apple Music.
Photo: Apple

Drake’s new album Scorpion may not have been well received by all his fans, but that hasn’t stopped it from destroying pretty much every record on Apple Music.

Scorption launched last Friday and quickly became the fastest growing album ever on Apple Music’s chart. Its rise was so meteoric that it became the number one album in 92 different countries almost instantaneously. And Apple didn’t even spam promotions for it like Spotify did.

Siri ‘heckled’ Britain’s unsuspecting defense secretary

By

Siri chimed in when the UK's Defense Minister was speaking to Parliament.
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.

Add events to your iPhone calendar using natural language and Drafts

By

Adding an calendar event with Drafts is as easy as writing it on paper.
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.

Apple 3D sensor supplier will make bank off 2018 iPhones

By

VCSEL
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.

iOS 12 beta 3 arrives with more detailed Maps data

By

Apple Maps
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.

Apple users immune to Fortnite hack malware

By

Fortnite mobile controller
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.

Heavy-handed promo of Scorpion stings Spotify

By

Drake talks Apple Music at WWDC.
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.

‘Coffee Lake’ chips could give 2018 MacBook Pro a jolt

By

The 2018 MacBook Pro is expected to look much like its predecessor.
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.

iOS 12 spills new evidence of future iPad with Face ID

By

AvatarKit for iPad in iOS 12
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.

Amazon slashes a whopping $100 off Echo Show for Prime Day

By

This is the best deal yet on Amazon Echo Show.
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.

Fortnite’s Playground mode finally returns across all platforms

By

Fortnite Playground mode
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.

HTC is falling to pieces thanks to Apple

By

HTC Dream was the first Android phone.
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.

Comcast throttles Xfinity Mobile customers

By

Xfinity Mobile is getting throttled.
Videos played over Xfinity Mobile will appear at a lower resolution, and tethering is getting slowed down.

Comcast put a limit on video resolution for its Xfinity Mobile subscribers. Going forward, the maximum will be 480p. 

In addition, subscribers to its unlimited data plan get throttled to 3G speeds when acting as a hotspot for another device.

How to undelete deleted photos on iOS

By

Trashed a photo by mistake? Here's how to undelete it.
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.

How to add bookmarks to your iPhone home screen

By

These bookmark-metaphor photos are going a bit too far.
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.

Amazon may beat Apple to become first $1 trillion company

By

$1 trillion value
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 on apple valuation over the years.

That gap is now just 10 percent.