This task managing app is like having a coworking platform for your home and family. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Life today is full of competing priorities and distractions. Work and personal emails, groceries and chores, personal projects and work obligations. Consequently, it can quickly get overwhelming trying to keep track of it all.
Apple could focus on iPhone X production instead. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple will reportedly slash iPhone 8 production in half to focus more heavily on the next-gen iPhone X, the most significant of its 2017 iPhone upgrades.
The report cites an unnamed source, claiming that this would be the first time in the history of the iPhone that Apple would slash production so soon after the device went on sale.
New customers cannot sign up due to security concerns. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple fans in China who coughed up more cash for an Apple Watch with LTE almost certainly regret that decision today. The government has reportedly blocked the feature after brief availability with one carrier due to security concerns.
Rose is one of the three new fighters you can select. Photo: Capcom
Not played the excellent Street Fighter IV Champion Edition port for iOS? Capcom has just given you several new reasons to buy it — including a sizable price drop, three new female characters, and a nifty tweak focused on counteracting multiplayer “rage quitters” who will try and stop you earning valuable wins.
Apple's retail guru with some of the company's employees. Photo: Angela Ahrendts/Twitter
Apple retail guru Angela Ahrendts is in Chicago, ahead of the opening of the new long-awaited flagship store Michigan Avenue store on October 20.
Ahrendts shared a photo on Twitter of her with retail staff, with a glimpse of the newly constructed staircase leading down to the store. “Thank you to this wonderful team and the many more who are bringing #AppleMichiganAve to life for our customers this week!” she wrote.
With Alexa baked in, UE's new Blast speaker will be right at home in the kitchen. Photo: Ultimate Ears
SAN FRANCISCO — Ultimate Ears’ punchy portable speakers just got smart. The new Blast and Megablast speakers bring built-in support for Alexa, Amazon’s voice-operated smart assistant.
Bringing the always-listening, voice-operated helper to a battery-powered speaker proved “nontrivial,” said Benjamin Falk, principal software product manager at UE, during a demo of the new speakers.
Undisturbed turns off those annoying red badges. Photo: Cult of Mac
Do you know how to turn on your Mac’s Do Not Disturb mode? That’s right, you open up the Notification sidebar, pull down, and toggle the switch. It works great. Right up until you look at the Dock, or the app switcher, and see a bunch of big red badges hassling you to read your email or check your boss’ Slack messages.
That’s where Undisturbed comes in. It’s an app that improves Do Not Disturb, so you really don’t get disturbed.
The iPhones 8 and X both support Apple’s “fast-charging” option, which has been available on the iPad Pro since the first 13-inch model. Fast charging lets you use a powerful USB-C charger, along with a USB-C-to-Lightning cable, to charge your iPhone quicker than you can with the standard iPhone or iPad chargers.
But is it worth the $75 that those accessories will cost? Is charging really so much faster? According to tests run by software engineer and startup investor Dan Loewenherz, the answer is no.
Adobe's new Lightroom CC seamlessly syncs across all devices. Photo: Adobe
Adobe rolled out a rebranded Lightroom software Wednesday and photographers should rejoice because it will mean less time processing and organizing their images.
At the heart of the big update is an all-new Lightroom CC, a cloud-based app that will work more seamlessly to sync RAW images, edits and metadata across all devices, from iMac to iPhone. Original images are automatically stored or backed up, rather than having to select images for cloud storage.
Siri will teach you how to teach her. Photo: Cult of Mac
Siri is great for setting reminders and timers, but in recent times Apple’s AI assistant has gotten a lot better at other things, too. For instance, sending iMessages to folks via your EarPods or AirPods, with your iPhone still in your pocket, works well enough that you can use it reliably all the time.
However, if Siri can’t pronounce the names of your contacts, then it’ll drive you crazy. Luckily, you can teach Siri to say these names correctly.
Apple puts a lot of AI tech into Siri. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
A tiny, low-power auxiliary processor that constantly listens for the phrase “Hey Siri” enables one of the most basic features of Apple’s AI assistant.
The processor, embedded in the iPhone’s motion coprocessor, keeps the “Hey Siri” command from running on the device’s main processor all day. That revelation comes in a research paper published today by Apple’s machine learning team. The paper dives deep into how Apple uses AI to power “Hey Siri.”
Apple’s self-driving car was recently spotted by the CEO of a self-driving car start-up called Voyage. Co-founder MacCallister Higgins got up close with one of Apple’s Lexus RX450h’s that’s outfitted with a monstrous new sensor array. The short video posted to Twitter shows Apple’s project has made some serious strides in the last few months.
Build your ultimate command center and have easy access to power outlets, USB ports, Bluetooth audio, and more at any time with Freecube.
It’s just one of the awesome ideas in this week’s Crowdfund Roundup. We also have smart bike lights that’ll keep you safe on the road, advanced wireless earphones, an ultra-immersive virtual reality headset, and more!
In this age of constant data leaks, using a VPN to protect your online identity is a must. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
If you think the buzz around using a VPN service these days is exaggerated hype and paranoia, think again. Never before have so many day-to-day human interactions and transactions occurred online.
Whether we’re emailing our bosses, checking in with our kids, chatting with our friends or using a plethora of apps to schedule and manage our lives, it all takes place online.
The "banned" app lets you pray in real-time. Photo: Human Coalition
Apple has reportedly banned an anti-abortion app from the App Store after complaints were made about it from “left-wing bloggers.”
Among the features of the Human Coalition app is a “Prayer Feed,” where users can access a real-time map of the United States, allowing them to join in with the prayers of other users on behalf of “abortion-determined families.”
Cardhop was created by the stellar team behind Fantastical. Photo: Flexibits
Remember how Flexibits made managing your calendar incredibly easy with Fantastical? Now it is doing the same for your contacts with a brand new app called Cardhop.
Cardhop makes keeping your address book up to date and staying in touch with friends and colleagues quick and easy. It uses the same great natural language recognition found in Fantastical, and it’s available today on macOS.
Two of America's titans of industry are teaming up. Photo: Bubba73/Wikipedia
Apple and General Electric (GE) are teaming up to allow iOS apps to take advantage of the predictive data and analytics from Predix, GE’s industrial Internet of Things platform.
“GE is an ideal partner with a rich history of innovation across the industrial world in areas like aviation, manufacturing, healthcare and energy,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “Together, Apple and GE are fundamentally changing how the industrial world works by combining GE’s Predix platform with the power and simplicity of iPhone and iPad.”
Now your friends will know exactly where you are. Photo: WhatsApp
It’s now easier than ever to let your friends know exactly where you are. WhatsApp has added live location sharing to its mobile apps, and promises to keep it secure with end-to-end encryption.
The macOS High Sierra upgrade is causing iMessage issues. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
A frustrating bug in macOS High Sierra is causing significant iMessage delivery delays for some users. It is also causing notification issues on iPhone and Apple Watch, and as things stand, there is no real fix.
An end is in sight. Or at least it could be. Photo: Qualcomm
Speaking on stage at the Wall Street Journal’s D.Live tech conference, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf said that he thinks that the company’s feud with Apple can be resolved — so long as the right fee is negotiated.
“At the end, the important thing to remember is this is fundamentally a discussion about pricing over the fundamental technology that makes the phone the phone,” Mollenkopf said. “It comes down to, how much are you going to pay?”
Smart speakers could be fastest consumer device ever to hit 50 percent adoption. Photo: Apple
Smart speakers like the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and forthcoming Apple HomePod could become the fastest consumer device in history to hit 50 percent adoption levels, claims Activate CEO Michael J. Wolf.
For those keeping track at home, that’s faster than smartphones, television, cars, the internet, and personal computers.
Two great new shelf apps for iPads running iOS 11 have launched recently, and both are worth a look. One is Yoink, which has a long history as a shelf app on the Mac. The other is Gladys, with distinguishes itself by being both super-simple to use, and full of geeky extras.
iPhone users that love using Gmail will soon be able to make it the only email app on your iPhone. Google revealed today that it has begun testing a new feature that allows users to connect third-party email services to the Gmail app.
Editing your video clips will make them way less boring. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
The secret of a good movie is in the editing. Well, the script, the lightning, the directing, the photography and the acting are all important, but for home movies, you have little control over those.
So it’s down to the edit. And the most basic of edits is to lop the ends off a clip, to trim video and make it shorter. Watching excessively long clips is the equivalent of a conversation with someone who can’t ever get to the point. “Let me tell you about that time I fell out of the plane. It was a Tuesday. No, I think it was Wednesday. Wait, it must have been a Tuesday because …”
It’s painful. So, do yourself a favor and trim your video clips. Even if you’re not planning on combining your edits into a short movie, you should at least remove the cruft from anything you’re going to show. The good news is that it’s dead easy to trim video on Mac and iOS.
TwelveSouth's new Inspire Candle. Photo: TwelveSouth
Mac and iPhone accessory maker Twelve South is bringing back its Mac-scented candle that flew off store shelves last year. The all-new Inspire candle still smells like a new Mac but comes with some big updates to its design that are sure to delight Apple fans.