Team Rumble just got a lot better. Photo: Epic Games
Fortnite’s latest list of challenges is live in Battle Royale.
As usual, there are seven to complete — four easy and three hard — that will earn you a total of 50 Battle Stars. Three are available to all for free, but you will need to purchase the season five Battle Pass to access the other four.
Make your windows look as good as this one. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
You already know how to take a screenshot on the Mac: You hit either ⌘⇧3 (to capture the entire Mac screen) or ⌘⇧4 (to bring up a crosshairs to select a part of the screen). But did you know that there’s a third option that will snap a fancy picture of a single app window, complete with a classy drop shadow and a clean white background?
The 9.7-inch iPad released this fall helped keep Apple on top of the tablet market. Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
There was a time the glory days of the iPad seemed over. Sales declined quarter after quarter. Then the iPad Pro line debuted, and now Apple has seen six straight quarters of increasing tablet shipments.
That’s not true for rival device makers. Samsung tablets haven’t experienced a quarterly shipment increase since at least 2016.
This card reader will make you forgive Apple for taking away the SD card slot on the MacBook Pro. Photo: Satechi
Some frustrated creatives believe Apple is abandoning them and will point to the removal of the SD card slot on the MacBook Pro as one example. A new high-speed card reader by Satechi could ease that anxiety.
The brushed aluminum Type-C Micro/SD reader will be especially valuable to photographers and videographers routinely pausing their workflow to transfer large, high-resolution files. This reader is equipped with UHS-II, which carries a transfer rate of 312 MB/s.
HomePod sales are "small but meaningful," according to a new report. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
The smart speaker contest may be a two-horse race between the Amazon Echo and Google Home, but Apple’s HomePod is starting to carve out a share as well.
According to new research from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, the total smart speaker market has now reached 50 million units in the United States. Among the installed base of U.S. devices, Amazon has 70 percent, Google has 24 percent and Apple has 6 percent.
Get your website off the ground and drive traffic to it with Dragify Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Getting a website going takes a lot of work. First, you need a place to host it. Then, you need to actually build the thing. And you definitely need to optimize your site for SEO so people actually can find it.
That’s a lot, but with this bundle you get all of the above — for life!
Users in China complain they're being swamped with spam on iMessage. Photo: Weibo
Apple is working with Chinese telecoms firms to find a way to cut down the amount of iMessage spam customers in the country receive.
Apple has recently been under fire by state-controlled Chinese media for supposedly allowing users to be bombarded with illicit content through its iMessages. These are said to include gambling ads (illegal in China, aside from state lotteries), pornography, and counterfeit goods.
Look out for playable demos inside the Facebook app. Photo: Facebook
If you think your Facebook news feed couldn’t possibly get any messier, think again. As of today, users will see start seeing playable game demos as they scroll their Facebook timelines.
The demos will let you enjoy sections of a game before downloading it to your device, Facebook says. Angry Birds developer Rovio is already reaping the benefits of playable ads.
Surface Go puts the power of Windows 10 in your palms. Photo: Microsoft
Microsoft’s latest competitor to the iPad, the more affordable Surface Go, is now available to order.
Prices start at just $399 in the U.S., and for that you get an Intel Pentium Gold processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a 10-inch PixelSense display. You can also enjoy Windows 10 in the lightweight S mode.
A bezel-free iPad as it may appear later this year. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
This year’s iPad Pro will boast Face ID and a new iPhone X-style bezel-less design, code and assets hidden in the iOS 12 developer beta seemingly confirms.
The asset relating to the new asset was discovered in the battery usage user interface part of the new developer beta. It’s an icon depicting an iPad without home button and much thinner bezels.
Apple apps no longer dominate App Store search results. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple has confirmed plans to drop apps and in-app purchases from its iTunes Affiliate Program by October 1.
The company feels that commissions are no longer necessary following the launch of its redesigned App Store, which has improved app discovery. However, everyone else believes it’s an ignorant and shortsighted move that won’t be good for anyone but Apple.
Breaking news: Warren Buffett knows how to invest wisely. Photo: CNBC
For a person who famously said he doesn’t like to invest in tech stocks, Warren Buffett has done pretty well with Apple.
Following the company’s amazing quarterly earnings this week, Buffett’s shares in Apple have proven to be an insanely smart bet. How smart? Thanks to the 6 percent spike in Apple stock yesterday, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway firm likely made upward of $2.6 billion in a single day.
We may one day look fondly back on the days iPhones cost just $1,000. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple may have just reported yet another record quarter, but there’s a potential dark cloud lurking on the horizon in the form of the impending China trade war.
Not only has Tim Cook been outspoken about China being Apple’s future biggest market, but Apple also relies on China for the majority of its manufacturing. In other words, Apple has a problem — and in this case it’s a problem that could be passed onto you, the customer.
Apple has battled WiLan in court before. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple has been ordered to pay out $145.1 million in damages for infringing on patents held by the Canadian patent licensing company WiLan.
A federal jury in San Diego, California ruled that the iPhone infringed on two WiLan patents. These “8,457,145” and “8,537,757” patents relate to wireless communications tech — specifically bandwidth request protocols in a wireless communication system and adaptive call admission control.
Makers of the popular Crocodilus Apple Watch band, Strapa continues its trend toward quality with its latest release — the Primus. Shown above with Matte Black hardware. Photo: Strapa
The company we know as Strapple (a company featured in Cult of Mac’s Watch Store) sounded a bit too much like the maker of Apple Watch. The tiny brand speedily changed its name to Strapa and doubled-down with the release of one of its most striking Apple Watch bands yet — the Primus.
Strapa explains Apple’s (minor) involvement in its sudden name change and site relaunch. During this transition, this company continues to make some of the best leather bands we’ve worn. The Primus Apple Watch Band is the latest in Strapa’s lineup.
Lisa Brennan Jobs, the oldest daughter of Steve Jobs, is coming out with her first book next month. Part of the story grapples with their complicated relationship. (He denied being her father at first.)
In an excerpt from her book, Small Fry, posted today, Lisa Brennan Jobs gives glimpses into some of her dad’s last months. She also talks about how it affected her psyche when he named the Lisa computer after her but didn’t admit it to her until she was 27.
Apple share price increased more than a dollar or two following a very strong quarterly earnings report. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Investors rushed to buy Apple stock today, pushing the share price up almost 6 percent. That added a whopping $55 billion to the company’s market capitalization.
Apple is still a bit short of the much-hyped $1 trillion valuation, but moved noticeably closer today.
The Galaxy Tab S4 is clearly designed to take on the 10.5-inch iPad Pro. So we compared the two. Screenshot: Samsung
Samsung just unveiled the first high-end Android tablet in years: With a 10.5-inch screen and a $649.99 price, the Galaxy Tab S4 takes aim squarely at the iPad Pro. As with Apple’s tablet, there’s an optional keyboard ($150) to turn this Android model into a 2-in-1 laptop.
The 2018 iPhone lineup could be prettier than ever. Photo: Martin Hajek
Apple’s biggest keynote of the year is quickly approaching and, while the company hasn’t revealed the date, we have a pretty good idea of when exactly the 2018 iPhone lineup will be revealed.
After analyzing the dates of Apple’s previous unveilings and the 2018 calendar, it seems pretty likely the keynote will fall during the second week of September.
Manual control can be dangerous in the wrong hands. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
For most photos, the iPhone camera proves perfectly adequate. You just hold up your phone, point it, and shoot. The exposure and focus are almost always correct, or at least correct enough. But on occasion, you need to take control.
For instance, maybe that beautiful dark blue sky keeps getting washed out because the iPhone insists on correctly exposing the face of the human in the foreground, when you’d prefer to see the person in silhouette. (Or vice versa.) Or perhaps the iPhone insists on focusing on that tree in the foreground, instead of the person half-hidden behind it?
Both of these can be fixed using the manual controls built right into the iPhone’s own Camera app. They’re pretty well-hidden, so you might never have even noticed them. But rest assured, they are there — and they are very easy to use!
Wim Wenders wants to find a new term for the type of photography done with an iPhone. Photo: BBC
So many people are taking so many pictures thanks to the iPhone. And yet, renowned filmmaker and photographer Wim Wenders says photography is “more dead than ever.”
“The trouble with iPhone pictures is nobody sees them,” Wenders said in a recent BBC video interview during an exhibit of his Polaroid photos. “Even the people who take them don’t look at them anymore, and they certainly don’t make prints.”
Sam William Smith's new font menu design is simple, and perfect. Photo: Sam William Smith
If you do any work with fonts on the Mac whatsoever, you will have run up against the font picker. It’s a piece of design that dates back to when the Mac only came with a black-and-white screen, and yet it’s still the only way to select a font on an Apple computer. That wouldn’t be so bad if it was a good design, but it’s not. The macOS font picker is little more than a drop-down menu. Worse, it’s a drop-down menu that changes every time you use it.
You can use the Mac’s font panel in some apps, but even then you’re faced with long and confusing lists.
Sam William Smith, a designer from Glasgow, Scotland, decided to do something about this. He completely redesigned the Mac font menu, and it’s great.
Take your pick of any two Casetify Apple Watch bands and get 20% off! Includes Stainless Steel, Woven Nylon and Saffiano Leather bands. Photo: Casetify
Now’s the perfect opportunity to up your Apple Watch style game and swap out that old strap for something fresh. Enter Casetify’s collection of fun and super stylish Apple Watch bands in Stainless Steel Mesh, Woven Nylon and the artist-inspired line of Saffiano Leather bands.
Browse the full lineup of Casetify bands in our Watch Store, and remember to use code CULTOF20 at checkout for 20 percent off when you purchase two Casestify Apple Watch bands through Aug, 31, 2018.