Browsing the App Store can feel like staring into an endless abyss. With so much software to choose from, it’s hard to know where to start. So it makes sense that the Netflix-style subscription model has come to offer an alternative to scrolling through an endless stream of apps, prices and reviews.
In this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine: In iOS 12 and macOS Mojave, Safari gets solid improvements that will win you back from Chrome — especially if you value your privacy. But while safeguarding your privacy and security on the web fuels many of Safari’s great new features, there’s much more Safari goodness to anticipate.
You’ll find that story and more in this issue. Get your free subscription to Cult of Mac Magazine from iTunes. Or read on for this week’s top stories.
Jaime Waydo is leaving Google’s Waymo for Apple. This should help silence anyone who doubts that Apple is serious about its autonomous car efforts.
Waydo describes her old job at this Alphabet subsidiary as “Helping make self driving cars a reality!” Presumably, that’s what she’ll be doing in her new position too.
In the latest sign that Cupertino is serious about video, Apple signed media superstar Oprah Winfrey to a multi-year deal. Cupertino’s growing original content team will work with the “Queen of All Media” to whip up original shows.
One retailer has already started taking preorders for new accessories made for this year’s “iPhone XI” and “iPhone XI Plus.”
Those are the names that will be given to Apple’s new flagships, according to one accessory maker. A more affordable device with a 6.1-inch LCD screen, believed to be called the “iPhone XS,” is also on the way.
We hope for Apple’s sake that these names are inaccurate.
Down the road, as you gaze into the monitor of a new iMac, the screen could gaze back.
Apple was awarded a patent Thursday by the United States Patent & Trademark Office for adjustable reflective display technology that can track your gestures, including eye and head movements.
Good luck finding your way with Apple Maps today.
The service is suffering a widespread outage that is preventing many users from using search or directions. The problem seems to be affecting iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac users around the world, but Apple says all services are operating normally.
UPDATE: As of Friday afternoon, whatever the earlier problem was, this service appears to be working normally again.
Gaming on iPhone and iPad has been something that has often gone overlooked. While big name titles haven’t typically made an appearance on iOS Devices, occasionally a game comes to the platform that is both visually amazing and a joy to play. Alto’s Adventure is incredibly fun, surprisingly delightful, and perfectly addictive, making it a rare gem in the iOS game library.
Some of us need to have email notifications enabled, but we don’t want our iPhone to ping every time a spam message hits out inbox. Gmail just got a big notifications upgrade that solves this problem.
Its official iOS app now uses artificial intelligence to provide notifications for your most important emails only.
Apple is reportedly negotiating with Cartoon Saloon, an Irish Oscar-nominated animation studio, for the distribution rights for what would be Apple’s first animated feature film.
A deal is supposedly close to being reached, although there are scant details beyond this. Cartoon Saloon has previously produced three Academy Award-nominated animations including Secret of Kells, The Breadwinner and Song of the Sea. Its preschool series, Puffin Rock can be found on Netflix, and is also popular in China.
Raspberry Pi is the platform for almost any DIY computing project you can imagine. From home entertainment systems, to robotics, to building your own smart home, it’s a compact processor with vast possibilities. So where do you even begin?
Ah the ’90s, a time when things were simpler, including the video games. Anyone who played SNES has fond memories of dozens of games that are now bona fide classics. Being 16-bit didn’t make them any less fun, which explains the excitement over Nintendo’s Super NES Classic.
It’s a nostalgia-packed gaming machine, and right now you can enter to win a Super NES Classic for free.
Intel has reportedly started production of the new faster XMM 7560 modem chips for Apple’s 2018 iPhones, marking the first time Intel has manufactured modem chips in-house for Apple.
While Intel has supplied Apple with modem chips for the past couple of years, previously it has outsourced production to TSMC.
Apple’s more affordable iPhone models with LCD displays will remain its best-selling devices with the transition to OLED technology slower than expected.
A new report claims Apple will continue to offer an iPhone with an LCD in 2019 and beyond. One analyst warns that the iPhone lineup won’t switch to OLED displays entirely until 2020 at the earliest.
Apple’s brilliantly creative HomePod ad, directed by Being John Malkovich helmer Spike Jonze, has won a top prize at the Association of Independent Commercial Producers Show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The awards were handed out on Thursday night. Apple shared the “Advertising Excellence/Single Commercial category” top spot with the absolutely hilarious “It’s a Tide Ad” Super Bowl series of ads for Tide. If you haven’t seen Apple’s excellent HomePod ad before, you can check it out below.
Apple’s latest ad campaign focuses on how the Mac can be used by regular people to create music, make art, develop apps and more.
Like classic Apple campaigns such as the “Switch” ads of the early 2000s, or the long-running “Shot on iPhone” ads, the “Behind the Mac” ads focus on real Apple users — thereby making them feel more authentic. They also embrace Apple’s accessibility push, demonstrated through stories like legally blind photographer Bruce Hall, who uses Apple devices.
Check them out below.
There’s a new line of bags, totes, and sleeves on the Apple Store today. Rapha produced these just for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users.
Rapha is a sportswear brand focused on clothing and accessories related to road bicycle racing. Its new Apple offerings are aimed at commuters, though.
Apple put a feature in the first iOS 12 beta designed specifically to thwart iPhone unlocking tools that use the Lightning port to get access to the device. But Grayshift, maker of a prominent unlocking tool, says it already has a workaround.
This is good news for the many law enforcement agencies around the U.S. who’ve invested in Grayshift’s GrayKey unlocker. It’s not so good for anyone who wants to be sure their iPhone can’t be hacked.
Updates to all the apps in the Apple iWork for iOS suite boast many additional features. Pages’ and Numbers’ ability to record, edit, and play audio is just the start. In both those, and Keynote too, an Apple Pencil can be used to select and scroll. And the are plenty more.
There are also enhancements in iWork for Mac.
An iPhone X was found in good working order after it survived an extreme drop test off of California’s tallest bridge last week.
With the video button on record, the glass-encased Apple flagship successfully filmed its own dizzying trip as it fell from about 1,000 feet and hit a rocky bottom. Cosmetically, the iPhone looks like a boxers face after 12 rounds of jabs and hooks.
If you don’t already know it, then this tip is about to blow your mind. It’s the paper roll for the Mac’s Calculator app, which has been a feature since, like, forever. You may have been using the Calculator since the very beginnings of Mac OS X, and yet you may still have never seen it.
There’s an old proverb: “The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is today.” That totally applies to the Mac Calculator’s paper toll. Let’s check it out.
Verizon just created a new top tier to its unlimited data plans. It was designed for “super users who want the most,” according to the carrier.
The Above Unlimited plan offers 75GB of unthrottled 4G LTE data, and 20GB of unthrottled hotspot data, for $95 a month.
Ark: Survival Evolved is now available on Android and iOS.
The popular survival game from Studio Wildcard is completely free-to-play and in-app purchases aren’t necessary. The only thing you need to worry about is staying alive in a world dominated by dinosaurs.
While you’re still missing the headphone jack on an iPhone, prepare your mind for a future Apple handset without the side buttons.
Apple applied for a patent this morning on squeeze detection sensors that could replace the input buttons and add “deformable” walls to the housing.
Just in time for the FIFA World Cup, Apple has debuted a series of new soccer-themed tutorial videos for the iPhone X, offering users some photography suggestions.
The videos cover shooting using backlight, taking panoramic photos, using burst mode, capturing action shots, and more. Check them out below.