SonarPen costs less than a third of Apple Pencil. Photo: GreenBulb
If you do any kind of writing or sketching on your iPad, you should use a stylus. But you don’t need to spend $99 on an Apple Pencil. SonarPen is the affordable “smart pen” every iPad owner needs. It’s accurate, practical, and it never needs charging.
Your favorite horror movies could soon invade your living room thanks to Apple’s ARKit.
iOS developer Abhishek Singh has created a lot of AR experience since ARKit came out last year, but his latest is the most shocking. In a tweet posted this week, Singh showed off his latest demo that brings the scariest scene from the movie The Ring into your house.
A spotlight helps find things. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Did you know that you can use Spotlight on iOS as an app launcher? It works just like Launchbar or Alfred on the Mac. You just hit a keyboard shortcut and start typing, then hit enter to launch the app. If you have a wireless (or wired) keyboard attached to your iPad, you’re going to love this tip.
You don’t need to carry your smartphone to enjoy Spotify on the go anymore. Mighty is the tiny, lightweight Spotify player that’s ideal for runners and outdoor adventurers who want to leave their hefty smartphone at home.
It’s just one of the awesome ideas in this week’s Crowdfund Roundup. We also have the world’s smartest sleep mask, an iPhone battery case that brings back the headphone jack, and more.
Several spotlights. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Somewhere after the launch of iOS 11, Apple tweaked Spotlight search to be way more useful. Now, when you search for a person, you can trigger a sub-search that lets you find everything you have on them, from emails, to iMessages, to their contact details, through WhatsApp messages, to calendar events. Anywhere that your selected contact exists on your iPhone or iPad will show up in the list.
And then, you can narrow the results with a sub search.
iPhone X didn't come out early enough to give Apple a sales boost. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The world may have passed its peak smartphone moment last year.
Smartphone sales data released today from the number crunchers at Gartner revealed that worldwide smartphone sales declined for the first time ever during the last quarter of 2017. Both Apple and Samsung saw their market share decline just slightly, but good news could be on the horizon.
Microsoft Edge makes search even easier. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
MicrosoftMicrosoft is continuing its mission to make Edge a better browser on iOS by adding 3D Touch support. The app’s latest update adds Peek and Pop — plus a bunch of other new features and improvements.
Apple Pay subscriber numbers may have doubled in the past year. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple Pay has an estimated 127 million active global users — representing an increase of more than double the 62 million who used it this time last year, a new report claims.
While Apple hasn’t given exact figures for its mobile payments service, the figures are based on conclusion drawn by analyst Gene Munster, based on retailer reports.
Apple's new store in Vienna sits on a popular pedestrian shopping street near the Vienna State Opera. Photo: Apple
Apple just gave us a sneak preview of its first store in Austria, and it’s pretty stunning! Apple Kärntner Straße, which will open this Saturday in Vienna, is designed with “the original heritage building in mind,” Apple says.
The totally Apple-y redesign of the building, which sits on a famous shopping street between St. Stephen’s Cathedral and the Vienna State Opera, combines exposed columns outside with large window openings.
Will Facebook and Instagram follow suit? Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Twitter has finally begun its long-awaited crackdown on bots.
The company has made changes to its API that make it significantly harder for services to batch tweet to multiple accounts, retweet, follow users, and more. This puts a stop to the software that powers Twitter bots.
Take your pick of any two Casetify Apple Watch bands and get 20% off! Includes Stainless Steel, Woven Nylon and Saffiano Leather bands. Photo: Courtesy of Casetify
Stainless steel meticulously weaves its way through the Mesh Band for Apple Watch — Casetify’s answer to the significantly more expensive Milanese Loop by Apple. Casetify’s version is just as stylish and functional as the behemoth brand’s band, and now comes in two brand-new finishes: Iridescent and Gold (that matches the Series 3).
For penny-counters, you’ll save from $67 to $117 on Casetify’s silver and black stainless steel mesh bands, respectively, and gain three additional colors not offered by Apple: gold, rose gold and iridescent.
The Stainless Steel Mesh Bands are for both men and women. Check out the latest colors in our Watch Store, and read on to learn more.
35 million pairs of AIrPods sold in 2018. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple is working on upgraded AirPods with a new wireless chip and “Hey Siri” support, according to a new report.
The refresh will arrive “as early as this year,” according to sources familiar with the matter. A future refresh, pegged for early 2019, will also bring a water-resistant design.
Apple continues to promote the U.K. music scene. Photo: Brit Awards
Apple’s sponsorship of the 2018 Brit Awards, the musical awards ceremony held last night in London, brings special playlists and an exclusive live performance for Apple Music users.
Smart speakers may be outpacing the smartphone in adoption, too. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Despite somewhat mixed reviews, Apple’s HomePod is seemingly winning over the customers who have bought it, with 89 percent of HomePod-owning respondents to a survey claiming that they are either satisfied (59 percent) or very satisfied (30 percent) with the device.
While not quite up there with Apple’s best product satisfaction scores, it nonetheless suggests a bright future for Apple’s debut product in the smart speaker category.
Even our very own Ste Smith can benefit from the magic of Portrait Lighting. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple is very proud of its Portrait Lighting feature for the iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus, and it’s willing to let users take a peek behind the Cupertino curtain to show exactly why.
In a new video shared Wednesday evening, Apple gives an overview of the development process which led to Portrait Lighting — including collaborations with photographers to study lighting, state-of-the-art artificial intelligence, and more. Check it out below.
On the Mac, you can type any character available in there Unicode standard, just by opening up the Emoji & Symbols viewer (Control-Command-Space) and picking the one you want. The selection on iOS is much more limited. Even finding an ellipsis is such an odyssey I can never remember whether it’s available or not. But UniChar changes that. It’s a Universal iOS app that brings every single Unicode character to your device.
Dashlane reveals the state of password security across America. Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac
Late last year, I switched password managers. I traded in trusty old 1Password for relative newcomer Dashlane, and I haven’t looked back.
Dashlane is a well-designed, fully functional and easy-to-use password manager that tops 1Password in one key respect: a Security Dashboard that makes it dead easy to track your online security and update it as necessary.
The HomePod automatically adjusts it EQ to suit the music and the room. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Theoretically, you shouldn’t have to adjust the sound of the music playing to your HomePod. Between all the fancy music processing, and the HomePod’s ability to tailor its audio to the size and shape of your room, music should come out sounding pretty great already. But that doesn’t account for taste. Maybe you like a whole lot of extra bass? Or maybe a certain frequency is booming in your room, and the HomePod isn’t doing anything about it.
Then you should try equalization — tweaking the balance of audio frequencies put out by the speaker. The bad news is that the HomePod offers no native EQ. The good news is that it’s easy to adjust on your Mac or iPhone.
Apple Watch is dominating the market. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Members of Apple’s public beta testing program can already get in on the latest iOS 11.3 beta build that was seeded to developers yesterday.
Apple released iOS 11.3 public beta 3 today that brings a number of new features to the iPhone and iPad as well as a bunch of bug fixes. There’s also a public beta available for macOS 10.13.4 beta 3 available this morning along with the third beta of watchOS 4.3 for developers.
Snapchat lets you video chat with up to 16 people. Photo: Snapchat
Snapchat has promised to make changes to its app after a Change.org petition attracted more than 1.2 million signatures from disgruntled users.
Snap has endured growing backlash from fans following a controversial redesign, with many calling for the company to revert to its old user interface. Now the company says it is planning adjustments to the Friends and Discover sections.
Apple's QuickTake may have been ahead of its time. Photo: LGR/YouTube
In order to appreciate one of Apple’s most successful products, the iPhone, you have to respect one of the company’s biggest failures. The QuickTake digital camera was not a threat to the camera market the way today’s iPhone is.
The sensor was 0.3 megapixels. Shaped like a set of binoculars, the QuickTake 100 could only hold eight pictures, most of which were fuzzy, washed out and with funky colors that convinced photographers of the time that film photography was not in danger.
But as the retro-computer YouTube channel, LGR, points out, the QuickTake does not deserve to be bashed as a failure. It should be lauded as a pioneer of digital photography.
Do you have what it takes to cash in on Angry Birds? Photo: Rovio
Get your flinging fingers ready for a new Angry Birds game that lets you battle it out for real cash.
Angry Birds Champions is an officially-licensed spin-off from WorldWinner. It’s everything you love about Angry Birds, but with the chance to compete against other players and get paid for smashing those pesky pigs.
Like Jobs, Tim Cook is as proud of the ideas he says no to. Photo: Apple
In a new interview, Tim Cook says that one of the priorities of his job is learning to say “no to a bunch of great ideas” in order to keep Apple focused.
“There is more noise in the world than change,” he said. “One of my roles is to try to block the noise from the people who are really doing the work. That’s tougher and tougher in this environment … We can do more things than we used to do because we’re a bit bigger. But in the scheme of things versus our revenue, we’re doing very few things. I mean, you could put every product we’re making on [a] table, to put it in perspective. I doubt anybody that is anywhere near our revenue could say that.”
If the importance of saying “no” sounds familiar, it’s because it’s a lesson straight out of the Steve Jobs playbook.
Get a comprehensive Python coding education, for whatever you're willing to pay. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Python is one of the most flexible coding languages you can learn. Efficient and easy to understand, it’s the ideal basis for large and small projects alike. So if you’re looking to beef up your resume, Python’s a great place to start.