Cult of Mac

If you find yourself within the immediate radius of a crime that’s committed, you could find your personal data seized by police, with a helping hand from Google.

That’s the takeaway from a recent report about how Raleigh police have presented Google with broad search warrants, requesting user data from all mobile devices with a certain vicinity of particular crimes. In one case, Google was reportedly asked for unique data for all homes and businesses within a 17-acre area of a gun-related incident.

Apple reportedly operates a secret manufacturing plant in California where it produces MicroLED displays, a new type of screen that could make future gadgets “slimmer, brighter and less power-hungry.”

Right now, the company is said to still be in the testing phase, manufacturing small quantities of the displays. The tech likely won’t arrive for years. But by developing its own custom displays, Apple could further differentiate its devices from rival products.

One of the most valuable additions to the MacBook was the MagSafe connector. Held to the computer by a small magnetic ring, it prevented an inevitable step on the power cable from bringing the computer to the floor. But with USB-C taking over as a charging option, the old risks of flying devices is back.

So you’ve got your iMac, iPad and iPhone at the ready. Your bookshelves are heaving under the weight of all the Steve Jobs biographies, and you’ve got a cabinet containing various rare vintage Apple products, like the ill-fated Pippin games console and that weird vertical Mac display from back in the day.

Now all you’re searching for is a little Apple-themed something for the wall to say to visitors “I’m a little bit too into this Cupertino-based tech company.” Well, look no further — because we’ve got the poster for you!

If it took you a while to sign up for early access to Fortnite on iOS, you’re probably still waiting to get an invite — but you may be able to play already.

Lots of fans have reported that they’ve been able to gain access to the game without receiving an email from Epic. If you haven’t already, you might want to try it yourself.

Apple is rumored to be developing its very own “MicroLED” displays for future devices, but for now, it will continue to buy a staggering number of third-party panels from manufacturing partners.

Sources in the company’s supply chain say Apple could need up to 270 million iPhone displays this year alone.

A job application filled out by 18-year-old Steve Jobs in 1973 has sold at auction for $174,757 — significantly more than the $50,000 it was expected to raise.

The application reminds us the there was once a time when Jobs was just a regular kid with no employment, no phone, and no car. You know, before he became the billionaire head of the world’s most exciting tech company!

Fortnite, arguably the most anticipated iOS game of 2018, is just one of our selections for “Awesome Apps of the Week.”

In addition, we’ve got Google’s AI assistant newly landed on iPad, a neat update to one of the most popular third-party keyboards around, and a great basic text-editing app for iOS. Check out our picks below.

As St. Patrick’s Day imbibing commences, Cult of Mac offers up all things green for your Apple Watch band-buying pleasure.

We’ve scoured the Watch Store to feature eight special bands in green from these great companies: Casetify, Clessant, E3 Supply Co. and Ullu. Today only, save 20 percent on these Irish-inspired Apple Watch bands by using code IRISH2018 at Watch Store checkout!

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin, paid a visit to Apple’s new spaceship campus in Cupertino today.

Mnuchin got a tour of Apple Park accompanied by Tim Cook. The Ape CEO has a history of both working against and with Donald Trump’s administration, and in the duo’s photo that was tweeted this afternoon, it doesn’t look like Tim is particularily stoked.

Check out the full tweet:

The number of MacBooks shipping in 2018 will grow by double digits, if a reliable analyst’s prediction proves correct. That would give Apple’s laptops stronger annual growth than iPhone or iPad.

A quick and reliable LTE connection is a necessity for any iPhone. Verizon and T-Mobile offer the best 4G performance, with AT&T and Sprint not able to keep up.

All four of the national carriers’ networks show improvement over 2017, but some haven’t yet recovered from the deluge of usage that came when they began offering unlimited data plans several years ago.

Face ID completely changes the way users interact with their iPhone, but imagine if every physical lock could be opened with just a glance.

In Apple’s newest iPhone X ad, the powers of Face ID get unleashed on the real world after a high school girl discovers (or imagines?) she has the power to open anything with her face.

Watch the mayhem unfold:

The public launch of Apple’s biggest iOS update in 2018 so far might be just a few weeks away, now that developers just received another beta build for iOS 11.3.

Apple seeded iOS 11.3 beta six to developers this morning, bring a bunch of bug fixes and under-the-hood improvements to the iPhone and iPad.

My plan to get to bed early last night was ruined when Epic Games dropped a Fortnite Battle Royale invite in my inbox. I had been itching to play it since I signed up for early access on Monday, so I ignored my body’s desperate calls for sleep and dived right in.

I had already played Fortnite on PlayStation 4 and PC, so I had a good idea of what to expect with the mobile version. Epic promised it would deliver exactly the same experience. But I had no idea what the game would look like, or if it would even be worth playing with touch controls.

I was blown away. Here are my first impressions of Fortnite on iOS.

You probably already know how to save a bookmark on your iPhone or iPad, but you might not know just how many neat things you can do with them. You can customize your Safari home screen to show the bookmarks you want, but that’s just the beginning. Let’s find out how to really use bookmarks on your iPhone.

SwiftKey, one of the most popular third-party keyboards on iOS, has just gotten even faster and more efficient — thanks to an update which adds a new Toolbar for giving you super-speedy access to the keyboard’s most popular features.

Macs are complex machines, but in some ways they’re a bit like people. Everything they can do relies on a healthy, uncluttered hard drive; the “brains” of the operation. But you can’t take your Macbook to a psychologist (unless that’s your thing), so instead you’ll want a utility app like Drive Genius.

Apple issued invites Friday for an education-themed event in Chicago on March 27.

The invite promises “creative new ideas for teachers and students.” That could indicate the arrival of more-affordable Apple devices — like the new MacBook Air and iPad we’ve been hearing about.

Epic Games has started rolling out the first early access invites for Fortnite Battle Royale on iOS. It seems a large number of fans have been lucky enough to get one, but a handful have been left heartbroken after discovering they can’t play it.

It turns out Fortnite doesn’t support jailbroken devices.

Microsoft Edge for iOS now boasts support for iPad. It took four months to arrive, and it’s only in beta for now — but it’s exactly the tablet interface you’ve been waiting for.

This week on The CultCast: Siri sucks, Apple knows it, and Cupertino isn’t sure how to fix it … but there’s still hope. Plus: Our 2018 WWDC hardware expectations!

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% off any hosting plan.

Apple constantly wins plaudits for being a brand consumers feel passionate about, but Fitbit Chief Financial Officer Bill Zerella doesn’t think that applies to the Apple Watch.

Speaking at the recent Roth Investment Conference in Laguna Beach, California, Zerella said that, “I have yet to meet anyone who owns an Apple Watch who’s passionate about the product.”

Steve Jobs’ daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, is writing a coming-of-age memoir.

Given his immense significance as the CEO who turned around Apple’s fortunes, there are many books about Steve Jobs. This newly announced one written by his daughter will offer a different, more personal take on the late Steve Jobs than most of its bookstore rivals.

Any time you slate a product that a lot of people worked hard on, you’re bound to get some pushback.

In the wake of a recent damning report, suggesting that Siri is broken, and has pretty much been that way since the start, Siri’s co-founder Dag Kittlaus has hit back at one of the article’s claims.