These Apple deals mean the gear you want is at the price you need. Photos: Apple
Right now, you can get that massive MacBook Pro with Touch Bar that you’ve always wanted. Plus, a pair of iPads at great prices, and the hottest wireless headphones in the land at the best price yet.
You’ll find them all in this week’s roundup of the best Apple deals.
These iPad accessories will thrill anyone who gets them. Image: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Still stressed about holiday shopping? Don’t fret! Cult of Mac is here to help you pick out the perfect gifts for your loved ones this Christmas. This gift guide offers up a bunch of brilliant suggestions for the iPad addict in your life.
We’ve handpicked the best accessories, the finest cases, and more.
This week, on a holly jolly edition of The CultCast: The next-gen AirPods are supposedly coming in 2018; next-day delivery of iPhone X is a sprinkling of Christmas magic; how to listen to Youtube videos when your iPad or iPhone screen is off; and we wrap up with our favorite TV shows of 2017!
Our thanks to Backblaze for supporting this episode! Backblaze online backup is Mac native, unlimited, unthrottled cloud backup, and it’s only 5 bucks a month. Try it totally free for two weeks at backblaze.com/cultcast.
These accessories are perfect for any Mac owner on your gift list. Image: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Christmas creeps up on you quickly, so if you haven’t already started your shopping, it’s time to do something about it. Cult of Mac can help! In this guide, you’ll find a selection of stellar gifts that are perfect for the Mac lover in your life.
We have killer keyboards, stunning stands, super speakers and more!
Gain skills in Adobe's graphic design apps, and the credentials to back them up. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
In today’s workplace, digital design skills are at a premium. So knowing how to use Adobe’s industry standard apps for graphic design — Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator, etc — means having an advantage in your job search.
Template apps don't mean much to you? They would if you were a developer. Photo: Graham Bower
A minor change in its App Store guidelines this week concerning template apps doesn’t sound like much. But if you’re one of the many, many iOS developers running a small business who rely on the App Store for a living, either directly or indirectly, it was a major triumph.
Here’s why it’s given developers another reason to celebrate this holiday season.
The latest version of Toast adds enhanced integration with other apps, along with powerful new tools. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Capturing, converting, editing, burning to DVD. Each of the many ways we work with digital media files requires the right software. Roxio Toast has long been seen as one of the top digital media apps for Mac. With the latest version, Toast 16 Titanium, that title seems even more secure.
Apple is building up an impressive team for its original programming. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple has recruited three executives from Amazon Studios, who will help Apple further grow its original programming ambitions.
The new employees include Tara Sorensen, former head of Amazon kids’ programming, who will join Apple to pursue a similar role; international development executive Carina Walker, who joins Apple as a creative executive; and business affairs chief Tara Pietri, who will head up Apple’s legal affairs division.
Apple may be considering a price reduction in early 2018. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
iPhone X shipments are likely to be somewhere between 30-35 million in the fourth quarter of 2017, a new report claims.
If true, this would be something of a disappointment for Apple. Sources in the semiconductor packaging and testing service industry suggest that iPhone X pre-orders in markets including the United States, Taiwan, and Singapore were not as strong as expected.
Apple says that it slows down older iPhones, but for good reason. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Well that didn’t take long! Within a day of Apple acknowledging that it’s software updates cause older iPhone models to slow down, Apple has been hit with not one, but two class action lawsuits from folks outraged that it would behave in this way.
Both suits are asking for unspecified damages from the company.
If you have a spare Mac, you could turn it into a local iCloud cache. Photo: Dean Hochman/Flickr CC
When iOS update time rolls round, you probably run through all the devices in your home, downloading those multi-gigabyte updates over and over. If you have a few iPhones, plus a couple of iPads, it all adds to a lot of data, and a lot of waiting. New in macOS 10.13 High Sierra is Content Caching, which stores these downloads on a Mac, so they only have to be downloaded once.
This doesn’t only save on internet data usage. It also makes it way faster to update several devices. And it’s not just updates either. Content caching can also cache iCloud documents, your photo library, and app updates.
The next Apple Watch will be better at detecting heart problems. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
The Apple Watch is poised to become a serious medical device in the next few years thanks to a big new upgrade coming down the pipeline.
Apple is reportedly developing an advanced heart-rate monitoring system for Apple Watch that will utilize an electrocardiogram to take more accurate readings of the wearers’ health.
Apple is invested heavily in self-driving tech. Photo: Idiggapple/Twitter
Apple is investigating new ways to make self-driving care systems drive more like humans, based on a recent patent filing from the iPhone-maker.
The USPTO finally published Apple’s first patent application related to autonomous vehicle systems today, giving some insight into the strategies Apple might use to make its mark in the emerging self-driving car market.
Protect your phone conversations with military grade encryption. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
So you use a two-factor authentication, a VPN, you cover your webcam. You’re doing everything you should to stay safe and private online. But what do you do about your phone calls?
2018 and 2019 iPhones could come with improved batteries. Photo: Apple
According to reliable Apple analyst KGI Securities’ Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple will focus on increasing the iPhone’s battery capacity for both the 2019 and 2020 models.
Kuo claims that Apple’s semiconductor manufacturing processes and substrate-like printed circuit boards will enable it to create the required space in its handsets for these larger batteries. He also suggests that Apple will opt for new “superior” radio frequency printed circuit board (RFPCB) batteries.
Apple currently has around $252.3 billion held overseas. Photo illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The newly-passed Republican tax overhaul will allow Apple to repatriate its giant $252.3 billion overseas cash pile without paying as much tax as it would have previously.
Under the new rules, it would be able to take advantage of a one-off 15.5 percent tax rate, meaning it would owe around $39.1 billion — much of which Apple has already set aside for the purpose.
Apple has gone out of its way to make up to customers. Photo: Studio MDHR
Apple has taken swift steps to make up to customers following the recent counterfeit Cuphead app, which appeared in the App Store this week without permission from the popular game’s developers.
Rather than customers having to request refunds for the fraudulent app, Apple is pre-emptively offering them to everyone who bought the app. It’s a nice “make good” for a situation that could have been embarrassing for the company.
Does your iPhone 6s feel slower? Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac
Does your iPhone seem to get slower and slower as it grows older? Well, according to Apple, that is exactly what’s supposed to happen.
Many iPhone users have long suspected that Apple throttles performance of aging iPhones. The popular theory is that Apple does so to entice users to upgrade. However, Apple says there are really good performance reasons behind the practice.
Brazil demands easy iPhone battery replacements. Photo: iFixit
With all the fuss about depleted old batteries slowing down iPhones, it might be a good idea to at least check the health of your iPhone’s battery. To do this, you can use a free tool called coconutBattery. This handy app digs into your iOS and Mac devices to tell you how old they are, and how strong your battery is compared to when it was new.
This little box solves all kinds of problems. Photo: Kingston
If you’re traveling to see family this Christmas, then you may like the Kingston MobileLite G3, which is — amongst other things — a wireless SD card reader that lets you load and save any files you like. Unlike Apple’s own SD card reader, which only works with video and photos, the MobileLite can read any file you want, and then hand it off to any app that can open it.
Not only that, but the MobileLite also works with USB drives, and can juice your iPhone with its built-in 5,400 mAh battery.
Mac apps? iOS apps? There soon might be no difference. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple has always denied that merging its mobile and desktop operating systems, the way that Microsoft has done, is a good idea. But from 2018, it is reportedly starting to explore that road by giving developers the ability to create apps which work on iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
Depending on the hardware you use them on, these apps could be controlled via touchscreen, mouse, or trackpad — and would be equally at home on both iOS and macOS.
This app goes way beyond spell check to make sure your writing is clear and concise. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
These days, we’re all typing countless emails, social media posts, messages and other text based communications. That means a lot of chances to make the wrong impression thanks to poor spelling or grammar.
Spot the difference? Photo illustration: Kon/Apple
Apple is facing a lawsuit in China from a local clothing brand, which argues that Apple is infringing on its design trademark with its logo for App Store.
Apple changed the icon for the App Store in August this year — jettisoning the previous image showing a ruler, pencil and paintbrush crossing over to form an “A” shape, in favor of a simplified version of the same image. Unfortunately, clothing brand Kon has been using a similar image dating back to 2009, supposed to show skeletons bones symbolizing triumph over death.
Apple started selling OLED iPhones this year with the iPhone X. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Samsung Display will continue churning out OLED displays for Apple in 2018, with a reported 180 – 200 million flexible OLED iPhone panels scheduled to ship next year, a new report claims.
That’s around 4x the estimated 50 million OLED panels that Samsung supplied Apple with in 2017, which suggests that Apple is planning on expanding its number of OLED handsets in the new year.
A glimpse at how Apple's new store will eventually appear. Photo: Apple
Apple is opening a new “global flagship” Apple Store in Melbourne, Australia.
Australia’s minister for tourism and major events John Eren described the new venue as being a “major drawcard for visitors and locals,” that would breath “new life into one of Melbourne’s most iconic landmarks.”