Cult of Mac

The NBA held a glitzy press event last week in Los Angeles to show off new team apparel for the upcoming basketball season. The star wasn’t the retooled jersey designs from Nike, hooded warmup jacket or even any of the 30 players who showed up to model.

It was the tag.

The Nike NBA Connected Jersey will cost fans $200 but inside the tag is a near field communication chip that connects to an iPhone app so that the wearer can have an “all-access pass” to content featuring their favorite players and teams.

Likewise, advertisers could also have unique access to pitching their products.

The long wait for Apple’s AR future is finally over.

iOS 11 has just been released to the public today after a record-breaking beta testing period and it’s packed with a host of new features that will make your iPhone and iPad feel like new.

The wireless charging capabilities of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will reportedly receive a boost later this year, courtesy of a future over-the-air firmware update from Apple.

Right now, the iPhone 8 charges at a rate equal to that of the 5-watt USB Power Adapter that Apple provides with the iPhone. However, according to an early review of the device (no doubt with a tip-off from Apple), this will increase slightly later this year.

iOS 11 is available on Tuesday September 19th, and if your device is compatible, you can go ahead and update, by just tapping the button in Settings>General>Software Update. If all goes well (and it should), then you will wait for a while as the update downloads and installs, then your iPhone or iPad will restart into the new version of iOS, with all the cool goodies it brings.

But things sometimes can go wrong, so it pays to take a few precautions. You might also like to take the opportunity to clean up your device a little. Here’s how to prepare your iDevice for iOS 11.

IOS 11 is a huge update to Apple’s mobile operating system, but only if you’re using an iPad. While the iPhone gets its fair share of tweaks and polish, the iPad is transformed into a different machine. When you install iOS 11, your iPad will be transformed from a big iPhone, into a slick mobile computer. It has completely changed how I use my iPad, to the extent that I probably never need to buy another Mac again.

The headline features are drag-and-drop between apps, a new Mac-like Dock, a Finder-like app named Files, and a radically re-thought Control Center that echoes the one found in — you guessed it — the Mac. IOS 11, then, brings many of the Mac’s best features to the iPad, but redesigned to suit the touch screen.

What does this mean for daily use? It means that Mac and PC users can switch to the iPad without having to relearn how to do everything, and existing users will no longer feel like they have their hands tied while trying to do the simplest tasks.

iOS 11 is upon us. So coders are scrambling to get caught up with all the new tweaks and features. If you don’t know where to start, we’ve got a bundle of comprehensive courses that’ll catch you up.

$1,000 for the iPhone X is a “value price” to pay for such a premium product, Tim Cook told viewers during an in-studio interview with Good Morning America today.

In the 10-minute interview, Cook defended the pricing of the next-generation iPhone, talked about his excitement over augmented reality, discussed Steve Jobs’ legacy at Apple, and touched on the ongoing political topic of “Dreamers” in the United States — referring to illegal immigrants who were brought into the U.S. as children.

Apple customers looking to upgrade to the iPhone X or iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus might want to think twice if they’re planning to use it on T-Mobile.

Despite packing some of the most innovative technology for a smartphone, all three new devices won’t be able to support T-Mobile’s upcoming LTE network that operates at the 600MHz frequency.

With the iOS 11 launch imminent, developers are releasing updates that take advantage of all its new features. Some, like Dropbox, will support the new Files app, making Dropbox appear like just another folder like it does on the Mac. Other apps, like 1Writer and GoodNotes, now support drag-and-drop. And one of these apps in particular — GoodNotes — makes a spectacular and unexpected use of dragging and dropping.

iOS 11 launches in Tuesday September 19th, 2017, and will be an amazing update for both iPhone and iPad. It brings Do Not Disturb While Driving, a much-improved Siri, a brand-new space-saving photo format, a whole new interface and multitasking system on the iPad, and a zillion little tweaks that improve almost everything. But is your iDevice compatible?

If you suffer from dock or dongle despair, one company has an elegant solution for MacBooks that only feature USB-C ports.

The DockCase is a leather case with a built-in aluminum alloy dock with nine ports, including Ethernet, HDMI, SD and MicroSD card readers, and three for USB 3.0.

Apple’s digital assistant Siri could soon become your new psychologist.

According to a new job listing posted by Apple, the company is searching for a software engineer that also has some previous experience in psychology or counseling. Why? Because people are starting to talk to Siri like its a human.

The iPhone X is Apple’s top-of-the-range iPhone, but if you’re looking for impressive Geekbench scores — referring to the cross-platform CPU benchmark scoring system — you may be better off sticking with either the iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus.

That’s according to scores Apple’s new devices have achieved on Geekbench’s iOS Benchmark Chart. Despite all three devices having Apple’s new A11 Bionic Fusion chip, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus outstrip the iPhone X on both single core and multi core performance.

If you’re lusting after an iPhone 8 upgrade but don’t want to pay more for your smartphone, Sprint might have the perfect deal for you. It is currently offering one of Apple’s latest handsets for $0 a month — but only if you trade in certain phones.

Because we all have too many passwords to remember, losing track is a common and super inconvenient problem. So it’s well worth having a plan in place.

Apple’s keynote last week has clearly gotten the creative juices flowing for Apple fans around the world. One of them is Jonathan Mann, a.k.a. the YouTube musician who once composed a song about “Antennagate” that even made Steve Jobs dance.

Now he’s back, paying homage with fellow musician James Dempsey. Check out their fun collaboration below.

With a starting price of $999, the iPhone X may be Apple’s most expensive iPhone yet, but that doesn’t necessarily make it its most profitable.

In fact, according to a new report, Apple could actually make a smaller profit margin on the next-gen flagship phone than on previous handsets, due to the increased cost of components.

The iPhone 6s, which made its debut in 2015, lives on following the launch of iPhone 8 and iPhone X. It’s now one of the most affordable smartphones you can buy from the Apple store, and unlike iPhone SE, it offers a larger Retina HD display and 3D Touch.

Apple has begun shipping early orders for the iPhone 8, Apple Watch Series 3, and Apple TV 4K. All three devices were made available to pre-order on Friday, September 15, and they’re scheduled to reach customers on September 22.

Apple has announced that Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives, a documentary chronicling the career of the legendary music executive behind a wide range of iconic artists, will arrive on Apple Music October 3.

Check out Apple’s newly-released trailer below:

The closest thing you’re likely to get to a fully-realized StarCraft experience on iOS is just one of the apps we’ve highlighted for this week’s “Awesome Apps” roundup.

We’ve also got a nifty tool for adding icons to your Safari browser tabs, a way of sending Spotify songs using iMessage, and a fun one-button puzzle game that puts you in charge of a friendly planet in search of his friends. Check out our picks below.

If you’ve owned more than one mobile device, you’ve had to deal with juggling different chargers. USB, USB-C, Lightning, MicroUSB. It can be tough to keep up with all the cables you need to keep our devices running.

Apple’s first ever keynote at the Steve Jobs Theater last Tuesday was one for the ages as the company took the wraps off some of its most innovative products ever. There was a lot to unpack in Apple’s two-hour long keynote, so we’ve broken down the highlights on all the new products.

In this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine, you’ll find those stories and more. Get the latest on the new iPhone X, iPhone 8 and Apple Watch Series 3. And discover how to buy iPhone X without breaking the bank. Get your free subscription to Cult of Mac Magazine from iTunes. Or read on for this week’s top stories.

Another week, another raft of great new deals at the Cult of Mac Store. This go around, we’ve got a typing assistant that can save you serious time at the keyboard. There’s also a code-free tool for building websites, a sleek set of Bluetooth headphones, and a desktop USB hub. Additionally, everything is discounted by 30 percent or more. Read on for more details:

Note: This post, originally published at 2:44 a.m. Pacific, has been updated.

For the first time since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, the company’s latest models failed to immediately sell out.

More than 12 hours after pre-orders opened this morning, the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus remain generally available for pickup at Apple stores next Friday, the first day they go on sale to the public.

Typically, new iPhones sell out within minutes because demand far outstrips Apple’s ability to produce its latest devices in massive quantities. Is iPhone 8’s surprising availability a total Apple fail that shows nobody wants one? Or is it a sign of Cupertino’s mastery of the supply chain and production?