Cult of Mac

Apple debuted a new ad on its YouTube page over the weekend, showcasing the new Portrait Lighting feature for the iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus.

The ad depicts a woman walking down the street, perfectly illuminated with studio-like lighting despite moving between different locations. The ad shows off all of the different Portrait Lighting settings including Studio Light, Natural Light, Contour Light, Stage Light, and Stage Light Mono.

While the Portrait Lighting is for stills rather than video, the ad still gives you a sense of what the new feature can do for your photos. Check it out below.

A U.S. court ruled over the weekend that the FBI won’t have to reveal to Apple exactly how it was able to hack a terrorist’s iPhone, since this could present security issues.

Federal judge Tanya Chutkan said that naming the vendor which aided the FBI, as well as the amount of money that was paid to it, could invite cyberattacks against the company. In addition, it might lead to the hacking tool which was used being stolen.

An ethereal, relaxing game unlike almost any other I’ve across is one of the picks for this week’s “Awesome Apps of the Week.”

In addition, we’ve selected a massive price reduction and big update of a great original Nintendo game for iOS, an app which uses ARKit to help create floor plans of your house, and a Cedars-Sinai medical app for Apple Watch. Check out our picks below:

The more we lean on our mobile devices, the more of a headache a dead battery becomes. That makes carrying a backup battery a must, but where to start? Whether you’re in need of something compact and quick, or a massive hub for a suite of devices, this roundup of battery packs has you covered. Everything is discounted by 30 percent or more. Read on for more details:

Remember how, if you wanted to measure distance between two places, you’d have to either a) spend the next half hour searching the App Store for a non-hideous free app that wouldn’t be too frustrating to use, or b) contrive to force Apple or Google Maps to give you more-or-less direct directions between two points?

Those dark days are over, because now Google Maps on iOS has distance measuring built in. Now you can finally see how far it it from here to there. And back again, if you like.

When Apple execs stepped onstage for September’s big iPhone X unveiling, they had precious few surprises up their sleeves. This year’s iPhone keynote became one of the most spoiled in history, thanks to major software leaks — and a pair of industrious young developers who dug into Apple’s code to pierce the veil of Apple’s vaunted secrecy apparatus.

In this week’s issue, you’ll find that stories and more. Find out why Control Center no longer turns off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Check out our roundups of the best new cases for your iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus as well as the best straps to outfit your new Apple Watch Series 3. Get your free subscription to Cult of Mac Magazine from iTunes. Or read on for this week’s top stories.

Every week here at the Cult of Mac Store, we’re busy finding great deals on tech tools, gadgets, and courses. This round, we’ve got an email app contender for Outlook and Gmail, and an all-purpose, waterproof HD camera. Also check out the comprehensive course in the Microsoft Office suite, and a video editor packed with 60 video assets. So there’s something here for everybody, read on for more details:

Apple’s new flagship store on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile is set to open next month. To celebrate the beautiful new shop, Apple revealed today that it has partnered with local artists to celebrate the city’s creative roots.

iOS 11’s neat Split View and Drag and Drop implementation has spawned a new class of apps, for iOS at least: shelf apps. These apps provide a slide-out shelf, or junk drawer, into which you can drag items for temporary storage.

This proves useful for all kinds of reasons. You may want to gather up a whole bunch of files for different places before dragging them into an email. You may want to have oft-used files, or snippets of text, or URLs close to hand, or you may like to use a shelf to organize a project, keeping everything together.

However you use them, you can find several shelf apps on the App Store so far, with more arriving all the time. Here’s a look at the Cult of Mac pick for best shelf app (along with a few other options that offer different features).

Updating your Mac to the latest version of macOS might not mean it’s impervious to firmware attacks.

According to a new security report, a shocking percentage of Macs are still vulnerable to critical firmware exploits despite running the latest version of macOS. Making matters worse, most users are completely unaware that their firmware isn’t up-to-date.

Apple has quietly made another acquisition of a little-known startup that could bring some big benefits to iPhone and iPad users in the future.

A small France startup called Regaind was reportedly acquired by Apple. The company specializes in using machine learning to recognize what’s in a photo, which could boost some features Apple already created in its photos app.

Anyone who sends a lot of emails knows that a little extra efficiency goes a long way. Whether it’s typing out the same canned response over and over, combing endless threads, or just entering your name. Apple Mail and Outlook are great, but they can fall short for power users.

Apple is interested in developing its own in-house ARM-based processors for MacBooks, modem chips for iPhones, and a “chip that integrates touch, fingerprint and display driver functions,” claims a new report.

Doing this would allow Apple to lessen its reliance on companies on companies like Qualcomm, which Apple is currently locked in a legal battle with.

Apple takes user privacy pretty darn seriously, and it’s launched an updated webpage with a new look and information to underline exactly that point.

Shared on Twitter by both Tim Cook and Phil Schiller, the webpage lays out some of Apple’s beliefs on the topic, including the fact that it considers, “privacy is a fundamental human right,” and that it doesn’t want any of your personal information — ranging from the news stories you read to your heart rate after a run — to be shared against your will.

Apple TV has finally caught up with the 4K revolution.

It may be late to the game, but Apple’s newest set-top box pulls out all the stops to be the best on the field. It’s packing incredibly powerful new hardware that leaves competitors in the dust, and a much-improved tvOS platform that is years ahead of its rivals.

It may seem pricey starting at $179, but with amazingly sharp videos and great apps and games all rolled into one, Apple TV 4K is well worth the upgrade.

Watch our Apple TV video review:

Advertising is the life blood of many tech companies, so it’s no surprise that people are already tripping over themselves to find a good way of monetizing augmented reality, the technology Apple has brought to the masses with ARKit.

The company that’s first out of the gate with AR spam is Snapchat, which has just announced that it’s opening up its 3D World Lenses to advertisers. Ever wanted to have fun™ by interacting with a beloved corporate mascot? Well, now you can.

North America has been getting its ass kicked by natural disasters the last two months and Apple users have stepped up big help in the recovery efforts.

More than $13 million in donations have poured in from the Apple community to help relief efforts related to hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. And according to a new blog post from Apple, the donations are still pouring in.

iOS 11’s biggest new feature, for iPad users at least, is drag-and-drop support, which goes way beyond just letting you drag a file or snippet of text between apps. I’ve been using iOS 11 since the first beta last summer, and while drag-and-drop was neat, it didn’t really come into its own until third-party apps started supporting it.

Two things have surprised me. One: How useful drag-and-drop is inside a single app (which works on iPhone, too). And two: How bad drag-and-drop is for certain tasks.

The power to control the wind and create an ethereal flight of blowing flower petals is now possible with your iPhone or iPad.

An iOS version of Flower, a hit PlayStation game when it debuted in 2009, became available for purchase Thursday on the App Store.

We live in a world where cars can drive themselves and your phone can recognize your face, but most home security systems still require a physical phone line. Yes, we’re talking about that ancient form of communication used before the iPhone graced this earth.

You know how when you’re on a FaceTime call with your parents, and your father holds his favorite recipe up to the camera, and you use the screenshot to capture a photo of it? Well, now there’s a proper, official way to capture images from FaceTime calls. Even better, they’re not just stills. The captures are Live Photos, so you can relive that goofy smile from your grandparent long after they’re gone.

The first big beta update for iOS 11 is already available to the public, just one day after Apple seeded the new beta build to developers.

iOS 11.1 beta 1 can now be installed on iPhones and iPads by public testers and comes with other big updates for tvOS 11 and macOS High Sierra.

Apple Music has already racked up more than 30 million paid subscribers, but according to boss Jimmy Iovine, the company still has a long way to go before its satisfied with its streaming service.

The former Beats CEO turned Apple exec sat down for a new interview along with Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe to talk about the future of the service. During the wide-ranging discussion, the Apple Music team revealed how it thinks music streaming has to change in order to dominate free rivals like YouTube.

Playboy magazine may be more closely associated with bunnies than with bytes, but back in February 1985 it was home to one of the most revealing interviews of Steve Jobs’ career.

To mark the passing of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, who died Wednesday at the age of 91, we revisit one of the most in-depth interviews Jobs ever gave, which was conducted at a particularly tumultuous time in his career.

At long last, iOS 11 is upon us, along with a bunch of new tweaks and features. So it’s a great time for developers to start making the most of Apple’s slick new OS.