Get a ground-up understanding of Bitcoin and the Blockchain. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Bitcoin is gaining excitement and value, and fast. But it’s not just a new currency, it’s also a new technology. So whether you want to invest, spend, or just hold a conversation, there’s a lot of ground to cover.
Apple has done an outstanding job of getting the iPhone X into customers' hands. Photo: Apple
Apple has done an outstanding job of meeting demand for the iPhone X. Less than one month after Apple’s eagerly anticipated tenth anniversary iPhone started shipping, Apple has already gotten U.S. shipping estimates down to one week.
That’s pretty astonishing considering that many folks were expecting iPhone X shortages to last well into next year!
Let us reveal to you the hidden gestures. Image: YSR50/Twitter
This week’s CultCast is a hot one! We discuss: The useful iPhone X gestures you haven’t heard about; why you need to check out Apple’s new YouTube channel; why folks are mad as heck about Apple Watch 3’s data prices. Plus, it’s the end of an era: Jailbreaking is dead. (And stay tuned for our favorite movies of 2017.)
This is an ultra-rare piece of unofficial Apple history. Photo: Bonhams
What was the first gadget Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak ever manufactured and sold? No, we’re not talking about the Apple-1, but rather the “blue box,” a device which allowed users to make free long-distance phone calls by reproducing specific dial tones.
One such device is up for auction this month, where it is expected to sell for upwards of $67,400. That’s roughly 67 brand new iPhone X handsets if you want to do the math!
Taylor Swift’s new album is finally available for streaming through Apple Music. Reputation’s arrival comes three weeks after its initial debut on iTunes. It’s also showing up on Spotify and other streaming services.
That's one heckuva bank transfer! Photo illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
After dragging its feet over collecting its giant 13 billion euros ($15.5 billion) tax bill from Apple, Ireland’s Department of Finance has revealed that an agreement has been reached with Apple over when the sum will actually be paid.
The giant tax haul, which Apple was ordered to pay by the European Commission over a year ago, will be transferred to an escrow account, which will manage the funds until all of Apple’s appeals have been heard. But not until 2018!
An iPad refresh could be right around the corner. Photo: Apple
Apple is said to be developing a new inexpensive iPad for 2018.
Sources say it will be even cheaper than the 9.7-inch model currently on offer as the company looks to take on affordable rivals from the likes of Amazon, Samsung, and Huawei.
Sound sync woes will be a thing of the past. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Been thinking about cutting the cable cord? Well, here’s a good way to do it in one fell swoop: Snag a sweet deal on a super-sharp Apple TV 4K with four months of DirecTV Now.
You’ll also find great buys on iPads, iMacs and MacBooks in this week’s roundup of the best Apple deals.
iPhone X sales are booming. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The battle between Apple and Qualcomm and Apple is turning downright nasty.
Hot on the heels of Apple’s counter-lawsuit, Qualcomm has filed three new patent infringement claims against the iPhone-maker. It is also seeking a ban on the import of all AT&T and T-Mobile iPhone X and iPhone 8 units in the US which could cause major headaches for Apple.
Look! Another new charging mat, this time on Kickstarter. This one is call Funxim, which sounds dirty in a way I can’t quite determine. Funxim lets you charge an iPhone and an Apple Watch at the same time, and is oval-shaped, which –as we shall see in a moment — seems to be quite important.
MacX Pro might be the fastest 4K video converter. Photo: Digiarty
This post is presented by Digiarty, maker of MacX Video Converter.
Thanks to iPhone 8 and iPhone X, 4K video is now the norm. 4K video looks incredible, but it also means a lot of super-high-definition content to manage. Having a powerful converter app is essential to making sure that video looks as good as possible — and works on all your devices.
Unlike a real drummer, GarageBand's Drummer never shows up drunk for a gig. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Drummer is one of GarageBand’s best features. It’s a virtual drummer that comes up with entire drum parts for your song. Or rather, it’s 15 drummers, each of whom has a different style, from hard rock to Latin rhythms, to trap and dubstep, to the hippie Finn, with his cajon and hand claps.
Drummer is amazing if you play another instrument and just need a drum track to play along to, but it is also extremely powerful, and can be used to create an entire song. And best of all, none of GarageBand’s drummers will ever turn up drunk to a gig. Let’s take a quick look at the basics, and then I’ll show you some neat hidden tricks.
This is one app you may want to download. Photo: Apple
The Apple Watch just got a whole lot more indispensable! Today, two major heart-related developments mean Apple’s wearable device could one day save your life.
Firstly, Apple teamed up with Stanford Medicine to launch an Apple Watch heart app that looks for deadly atrial fibrillation. It alerts users when they experience irregular heart rhythms, and can actually get them help.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration finally approved AliveCor’s Kardiaband EKG reader. It’s the first medical device accessory for the Apple Watch.
A new High Sierra beta is available now. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple’s quick fix for a major security flaw in macOS High Sierra has resulted in another issue for some users. The update introduces yet another bug that breaks file sharing, but Apple has published instructions on how to repair it.
Instantly add a variety of useful connections to your new MacBook Pro. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
There are many great features to point out about the latest MacBook Pros. But with only USB-C ports for external devices, a wide variety of connections isn’t one of them.
Apple is doing more and more of its chip design work in-house. Photo: Intel
Apple is busy designing its own power management chips for use in future iPhones, which could debut as soon as next year, a new report claims.
The new chips would reportedly be the most advanced power management chips in the industry. They will boast superior processing abilities, allowing them to better monitor and control power consumption — thereby letting iPhones and iPads deliver better performance on lower power consumption.
More than 400 Apple Stores around the world will sport red logos next week, while every Apple Pay transaction will result in a donation to the Global Fund. Apple will also promote apps and games that support (RED).
iPhones suffer fewer issues, claims new report. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The “failure rate” of Android devices is nearly double that of iOS device, although iOS apps crash 7x more frequently than Android apps.
Those are two of the findings from respected mobile diagnostics experts Blancco Technology Group, who have just released their latest mobile device performance and health report.
Get the latest version of Edge today. Photo: Microsoft
Microsoft Edge for iOS is now available to download from the App Store. The web browser entered beta testing in early October, but you needed a Windows 10 PC to get your hands on it. Now it is available to anyone with an iPhone.
Qualcomm claims that the 2017 iPhones are violating its patents. Photo: Apple
Hot on the heels of Apple suing Qualcomm over its Snapdragon processors, Qualcomm has fired back by filing a patent lawsuit (a counter-countersuit?) against Apple for technology in the iPhone 8 and iPhone X.
Qualcomm filed its grievance with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. It singles out five patents that Apple is allegedly infringing on — including tech related to radio frequency transceivers, power management in mobile CPUs, image enhancement using depth-based data, and more.
Jimmy Iovine’s days at Apple are numbered. Photo: Apple
Spotify is in for a rough future, according to Apple’s Jimmy Iovine, who is warning the music industry not to place too much faith in the tech industry.
Iovine sat down for a new interview where he discussed the future of the music industry. According to the Apple Music boss, record labels are “100 percent” overly optimistic about where things are headed with technology.
DropStream streams any video or audio straight to Apple TV. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
You can snap photos of your iPhone, edit them on your iPad, and view them on your giant-screen iMac, with everything almost instantaneously in sync. But what if you have a video clip that you want to watch on your Apple TV? Oh man, maybe it’s best not to even ask. Now, though, there’s an app that lets you do just that: DropStream.
DropStream’s function is right there in its name. You drop a movie onto its Mac window, and the movie starts playing on your Apple TV (or Chromecast). You don’t have to convert it to the right format, or add it to iTunes, or anything like that. It just, as they say, works.
Stories, the short-video format popularized by Snapchat, is making its way to YouTube.
Everyone from Instagram to Facebook Messenger has already copied Snapchat’s popular, so it should be little surprise that YouTube has decided to get in on the action too. The video platform revealed to creators today that it’s working on a new feature called “Reels” that is a lot like Stores. Only it comes with some major differences.
Make your email look way awesomer with a fancy signature. Photo: Cult of Mac
You already know that you can add a signature to your outgoing emails in the Mail app on iOS and macOS, but did you know that you can make that signature fancy? And I mean, really fancy. You don’t just have to put your email address or phone number in there in regular text. You can add any kind of text you like, complete with colors and cool fonts. You can even add an image.