Cult of Mac

Photographers gripe about the ugliness of camera backpacks and a number of startups have cropped up on Kickstarter with designs that remove the bulk, improve functionality and give the genre a much-needed facelift.

Brevitē, pronounced like the word that means concession, had such a successful run with its first camera backpack in 2015, it immediately designed two more.

Now the Boston-based company started by three brothers is crowd funding to bring its most recent line to market. The Hadley Series appears to refine the minimalist design philosophy that motivates Brevitē.

Apple’s new Wireless Charging Case for AirPods will go on sale this December, according to a report out of Europe, which sites Apple Switzerland. The device is expected to cost $69, which is the same amount you’ll pay to replace a standard case if you lose it.

Spotify now offers iOS users the ability to easily share tracks with people using iMessage — without having to worry about copy-and-pasting links to do so.

Personal electronics are looking more and more like the shiny future we’ve been promised. Wireless devices are a big part of it. The fewer wires cluttering up our lives, the more things start to feel like the 21st century.

Apple has discontinued Apple Watch Series 2 following the unveiling of its successor earlier this week. Series 1 models are still available, and will be sticking around for the foreseeable future as a more affordable alternative to Series 3.

As virtually everyone predicted, the iPhone X was the undisputed star coming out of this week’s Apple media event — but don’t expect them to be in ready supply immediately following release.

According to a new report, the later shipping date of the tenth anniversary iPhone X is linked to production problems, and suggests possible supply constraints in the months ahead. In other words, if you want to get your hands on an iPhone X, you’ll need to be exceptionally quick off the mark when pre-orders open.

Apple technology “just works.” Except for when it doesn’t — as the world was reminded during this week’s iPhone X event when software boss Craig Federighi was unable to get Face ID to work on stage the first couple of times he tried it in front of the world.

Except, according to Apple, that’s not what happened at all. To paraphrase Apple’s late CEO Steve Jobs, we’re watching it wrong.

Sports-centric wireless headphone maker Jaybird is ready to make a run at AirPods.

The company just fired the starting gun for Jaybird Run, a set of totally wireless earbuds aimed at runners and other sports fanatics. They’re bigger than AirPods, and differ in significant ways. But for runners and other athletes, they could offer keen competition for Cupertino’s wireless earbuds.

Apple may claim that Face ID is its most secure biometrics system yet, but Sen. Al Franken wants the proof.

In a letter to Apple sent Wednesday, the Minnesota Democrat raised questions about whether Apple might use the faceprints it gathers to “benefit other sectors of its business, sell it to third parties for surveillance purposes, or receive law enforcement requests to access it facial recognition system — eventual uses that may not be contemplated by Apple customers.”

The iPhone 8 is one of the most gorgeous smartphones ever created. And absolutely no one is planning to buy it.

Cult of Mac polled our readers after yesterday’s keynote at the Steve Jobs Theater to gauge interest in iPhone X and its two ugly step-siblings. Over 5,400 potential iPhone buyers responded and it looks like the iPhone X is going to be a mega-hit while iPhone 8 sales may suffer.

Here are the results:

For a company that insists it doesn’t like to look to the past, Apple’s new Face ID logo will certainly feel familiar to longtime Mac users.

Apple debuted the new logo during its iPhone X keynote yesterday to show off the phones facial scanning features. It features a simple smiling face that looks three dimensional, but it’s actually just a repurposed version of the classic Happy Mac icon originally created by Susan Kare for the original Macintosh.

Check out the similarities:

The iPhone isn’t the only Apple product lineup that got a lot more expensive this week.

While Apple fans were busy ogling at all the specs and prices on the new iPhone X and iPhones 8 after yesterday’s keynote, Apple made a quiet adjustment to the price tags on all of its iPad Pros but hasn’t publicly stated the reason for the increase.

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The new iPhone X is a game-changing device. It’s stuffed with delicious tech nougat: high-resolution cameras and 3D sensors, augmented-reality capabilities, an OLED display and other mouthwatering goodies.

You want to make sure to protect a pricey phone like this (it starts at $999). But you also don’t want to hide the gorgeous details of its design. This is a top-tier Apple device, after all.

Apple rolled out three new iPhones Tuesday that will excite mobile photographers. One day later, smartphone lens maker Moment debuted three new products that “take everything amazing about your new camera phone and make it worse.”

Poking fun at iPhone prices and the hyped spectacle of Apple product launches, Moment released a “live event” to introduce the “world’s first” $1 case, $2 waterproof case and $3 wireless charging case. Moment kept its price point in single digits because of a ground-breaking material used to create the cases – cheap cardboard that comes in one color, dirt brown.

Just calling the cameras in the iPhone X and the iPhone 8 plus “cameras” is like mistaking the iPhone itself for a phone. The combination of hardware and software in these new machines could better be likened to a movie FX or photography studio in the extent of their capabilities. The standout feature on these new iPhone X camera is Portrait Lighting, and today I want to take a look at why it’s so amazing.

Ever wanted to get hold of Apple’s rarest computer, and have enough cash to purchase a good-sized family home in many parts of the U.S. to buy it with? Then you may be interested in CharityBuzz’s new auction for one of the very first Apple-1 computers ever built.

Originally owned by a friend and associate of Steve Wozniak, Adam Schoolsky, the Apple-1 in question is one of less than 60 believed to still in existence.

iPhone X is Apple’s most expensive smartphone to date, with the cheapest 64GB model priced at $999, and the 256GB model priced at $1,149.

That’s $50 more than a 21-inch iMac. However, you don’t have to go hungry for the next few months to afford one. Here’s how to save money and get your hands on iPhone X without breaking the bank.

When you type a lot, you develop some habits that can cost valuable time. That’s true whether you’re filling out forms, coding, writing copy. No matter what you do at the keyboard, there are ways to cut down on wasted keystrokes.

Typinator is an app that helps eliminate the many small strings of text and even images that add up to minutes and even hours. Additionally, it operates on multiple apps and platforms. And right now, you can get a standard license for Typinator for just $15.99 at Cult of Mac Deals. Get an additional 11% off this deal with coupon code “iOS11”.

Apple fans may have been pleased with yesterday’s media event, but one group that wasn’t is Switzerland’s largest watchmaker. Shortly after Apple announced its new Series 3 Apple Watch, shares in Swatch Group AG tumbled 3.2 percent due to concerns about added competition.

The Apple Watch Series 3 saw Apple add cellular capabilities to its wearable device — meaning that you no longer need to carry around your iPhone to receive texts, calls, emails, or Apple Map directions.

One of the best low-key announcements at yesterday’s iPhone X event was that Apple will soon offer 4K movies on iTunes for the same price as 1080p copies. In an incredibly neat gesture, existing 1080p purchases are automatically upgraded to 4K for no added cost.

Almost all the big Hollywood studios have agreed to the deal. The only one that hasn’t? Weirdly enough, it’s Disney — a.k.a. the movie studio that Apple’s theoretically the closest to.

Apple’s futuristic iPhone X was revealed less than 24 hours ago, but it’s taken the internet no time at all to lambast it with a series of jokes and parody videos.

Skewering the worst new iPhone features is a time-honored tradition after an Apple keynote, and YouTuber jacksfilms has come out with one of the most hilarious parodies we’ve seen yet. The short video takes iPhone X to task for adding its silly notch and ridiculous 3D emoji instead of other, more useful features.

Prepare to laugh your animoji face off.

Apple’s HomePod smart speaker was nowhere to be found at Apple’s iPhone X event yesterday. While Apple lavished its attention on Apple TV 4K, the new Apple Watch, and, of course, its next-gen iPhones, the smart speaker it unveiled at WWDC didn’t even get a mention.

For anyone excited about Apple’s rival to Google Home and Amazon Echo, that’s either a very good thing or a very bad thing. Here’s why:

This week on The CultCast: We react to everything announced at Apple’s iPhone X press event! Plus, we’ll tell you all we now know about iPhone X, iPhone 8, the new Apple TV 4K, Apple Watch Series 3, the AirPods update, and the new AirPower charging mat. It’s a packed show. Better hit play, fam.

Apple has eliminated the ability to browse the App Store from within iTunes on a Mac or PC.

Its latest update is focused on “music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and audiobooks,” Apple says. This means app management can only be done on an iOS device.

The iPhone X may be pricey in the U.S., but spare a thought for the folks in India! As far as local pricing goes, the 64 GB version will retail for Rs 89,000 ($1,391) when it goes on sale on November 3. The top-end 256 GB model, meanwhile, will set customers back a massive Rs 102,000 ($1,594). That’s not great for a market Apple is keen to grow.

As a local news report points out, the iPhone X is so expensive in India that customers can actually save money by buying a return flight to Hong Kong to pick it up there.