Cult of Mac

Bad drivers may soon get some crucial tips on the road from Apple, if the company’s latest patent ever becomes a reality.

While everyone in tech is working on driverless car systems, it appears that Apple is looking into ways to make it safer for humans to get behind the wheel too. Apple filed for a patent this week that envisions an augmented reality system for cars that shows drivers more of what’s ahead of them than they can see with their naked eyes. And it could totally change the way we drive.

Roli’s new Songmaker Kit is a kick-ass portable music-making setup that hooks up to your iPad, iPhone or Mac. It consists of a mini version of Roli’s amazing Seaboard keyboards, along with a couple of the company’s modular Blocks. Everything connect via Bluetooth, creating a custom music workstation that’s easy to use and extremely portable.

Let’s take a look at the Roli Songmaker Kit and see how you can use it to make music anywhere.

In today’s edition of Deals & Steals, we found a brand-new 12-inch rose gold MacBook for $400 off. We also have great deals on a Logitech universal remote bundle, a surprisingly stylish router and a cheap smartphone.

The wait to pick up Apple’s cheapest 9.7-inch iPad ever over.

You can now order the new 9.7-inch iPad online and pick it up the same day at Apple stores across the United States. Customers who already ordered the iPad after it was unveiled on Tuesday should also start receiving their shipments today.

Criminals in China have discovered a brilliant new use for drones: smuggling valuable iPhones.

Authorities in China arrested 26 suspects that were found using drones to smuggle $80 million worth of iPhones between Hong Kong and the mainland in what is reportedly the first case of drones being used in cross-border smuggling crimes in China.

Apple’s software update released yesterday for the new HomePod may have altered the sound quality on its smart speaker.

Many angry HomePod owners that installed the update yesterday have taken to Twitter and Reddit claiming Apple’s fine-tuning of the speaker with the update has totally ruined how some songs sound.

Mac owners can finally use an external GPU to boost their computing power now that Apple has released macOS 10.13.4 to the public.

The software update has been in beta testing with developers for months and is now available to everyone for the first time. macOS 10.13.4 brings a number of improvements to the Mac, including some updates to iMessages, Safari and more.

Your iPhone takes great pictures, but it doesn’t feel like a camera. After all, cameras are easy to grip and hold steady, and that’s by design. But the design for phones focuses on being sleek and slim enough fit in your pocket.

This week on The CultCast: Apple has powered up the new iPad so much, it’s hard to resist! We’ll tell you why we’re so excited. Plus: What you need to know about iOS 11.3; everything Apple revealed at its “field trip” event; a reliable report says Apple Watch Plus is incoming; and you asked, we answer — from the best Home apps, to our Mac mini predictions, to Commando versus Predator, we answer your most burning questions.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to accept Apple Pay and sell your wares with your very own Squarespace.com website. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10 percent off any hosting plan.

Juuk’s precision-made aluminum Apple Watch bands are always on point. The Velo is the latest style in Juuk’s lineup of amazing steel bands — the Locarno, the Revo, the Ligero and the Vitero — and is decidedly different in design from its predecessors. Redesigned and reengineered from the ground up, the Velo Apple Watch band features a three-row link design.

This beautiful band comes in three different finishes — Midnight, Silver and Ruby. Obsidian and Cosmic Grey are currently in production. Check out Juuk’s latest lineup below!

Apple will soon let you download all the information it has stored about you, modify it, or even delete it. The privacy change is required by a new European law, but is also in-line with Apple’s policy to not spy on its customers. This sets it apart from rivals like Google and Facebook.

Marketing language often invites a reviewer to find the flaw in the claim. So skepticism was in order when the OnePack arrived with the declaration of being the “Most Functional Backpack.”

I have a backpack for every time I heard that one. But of all the backpacks I’ve shouldered for reviews, OnePack at least comes close to keeping its word.

The software update Apple just released for the HomePod doesn’t include AirPlay 2, the most anticipated new feature. In fact, this new version doesn’t seem to have any enhancements, though maybe that’s to be expected from a smart speaker that just launched last month.

Are you a table drummer? Then here’s a fantastic way to annoy your family and friends this weekend. It’s a iPad and iPhone app called AAS Objeq, which uses the iPad’s microphones to listen to your ceaseless, OCD tappety-tapping, and transforms it into more drumlike sounds. That it, the sound of you whacking the table becomes a bass drum, a chopstick on a water glass can become a hi-hat, and so on. The possibilities for irritating those around you are almost endless.

Thanks to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a backlash is brewing against the way tech giants like Facebook monetize data. This could result in government regulation, which has the potential to upend the business models of some of the world’s biggest companies.

Luckily, Apple is practically immune. Here’s why 2018’s biggest tech scandal could actually help the world’s biggest tech company.

This post is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of Setapp.

As indie developers, we can get too caught up in how things work — what features our product has, what users can do with it. It often seems like if we can just explain how our product works, everyone will become a devoted user.

We spend lots of time pulling together onboarding videos and tutorials. But there’s a whole other front in the battle of promotion and conversion: making an emotional connection between a potential user and your product and brand.

The just-released iOS 11.3 requires Safari users to tap in web pages to AutoFill their user names and passwords. This means extra work for you, but it’s also more secure.

Another change in the latest version of iOS adds warnings when entering private information onto non-encrypted web pages.

The new Apple Pencil-friendly version of Pages for iPad also has a couple of other big new features. One of these is iBook creation, which we’ll look at in another post. Today we’re going to see how to add an Image Gallery to a regular Pages document. This is handy if you need to include lots of pictures into a document, but don’t want to use pages and pages to do so.

You could, for instance, include galleries of vacation photos in a newsletter for family and friends, with images stacked into daily galleries, or organized by event. Or you could pile a bunch of diagrams into one Image Gallery, allowing you to include a lot more information without cluttering the document. Better still, you can export your Pages document as an eBook, and the galleries become fully interactive.

Let’s find out how to add one.

Apple Watch owners can finally download the first big software update of 2018 for Apple’s wearable. watchOS 4.3 launched to the public this morning, adding a bunch of small new features and performance improvements that make the Apple Watch tick better than ever.

The first major iOS update of 2018 has finally arrived, bringing a host of new features and improvements to the iPhone and iPad.

Apple initially released iOS 11.3 yesterday just for the only available to download on the new 9.7-inch iPad Apple. Now the software update is finally available to all users worldwide.

An iPad sale? Already?!? If you want to save on the new iPad that Apple unveiled this week, you’re in luck. Best Buy is offering the tablet at the best price with a store gift card.

Plus, save on AirPods at Costco. Or choose from a wide selection of refurbished phones, accessories and more at the TechRabbit March Mobile Madness Sale.

iOS 11.3 could be missing two big features when it finally makes its public debut this spring.

Messages on iCloud and AirPlay 2 are notably missing from early release notes. Both features, which were initially expected to come with iOS 11 last fall, have been hit by several days. Who knows when they will appear again.

Thunderclap Newman once sang that there’s something in the air. The Foobot smart air monitor promises to tell you what that something is.

Designed to detect a variety of air conditions in your home, the pint-size Foobot gathers loads of data about indoor pollution. It then let you delve into that information on your iPhone or iPad. So is it a “must have” device or one gadget too many? Get our initial thoughts in our Foobot review.

Tim Cook doesn’t have the same problem with porn that Steve Jobs did.

During a recent interview, Cook made it clear that he feels comfortable with people using their Apple devices to check out, err, adult materials online.

This week’s Apple Pay promotion could get you 20 percent off when you buy sporting goods from Fanatics. You’ll need to spend a minimum of $25 to qualify for the offer, which is valid until April 4. You will also need to use a promo code at checkout.