Cult of Mac

A looper is a great musician’s tool, for practice and for making songs. Looper apps are also fantastic fun for anyone who wants to take a crack at creating a tune. Just hit record on a looper app, and make some noise. Then hit the button again, and your recording is played over and over, in a loop.

Then you then build on this, adding more layers. A guitarist can chop out drum beats, then some chords, and play a melody over the loop. A beatboxer can boom, boom, chick and spit into a microphone to build up what the kids call “sick beatz.” And Jimmy Fallon can sing a duet with Billy Joel.

There are many looper apps for iOS. Here are a few of the best.

One of the most popular types of headphones made by Beats is getting a fresh look in the form of an exclusive “Neighbourhood Collection” that adds new colors to the Solo3 headphones.

Google has expanded the reach of the Google Assistant on iOS.

Until today, the feature was only available to iPhone and iPad users in the U.S. — but now you can access it in a number of new countries throughout Europe, including the U.K.

If you’re reading this, you probably see a lot of PDFs cross your desktop. After all, they’re the format of choice for digital documents. But you might not realize that PDFs can be a lot more flexible and useful, with the right tools.

Yet another supposed next-generation iPhone component has leaked out early, adding another piece to the wireless charging puzzle.

This time, it’s another circular circuit board — but it doesn’t quite line up with previous iPhone 8 leaks.

Apple is expanding its Swift app development curriculum to cover more than 30 community colleges across the U.S. in the 2017-2017 school year.

In addition to the existing colleges adopting the curriculum, it was now be offered by Austin Community College District (ACC), one of the nation’s largest higher learning institutions, with 74,000 students.

Apple TV is expected to get a major upgrade this September. Sources familiar with Apple’s plans say the set-top box will finally deliver 4K video streaming with support for HDR, and a greater focus on live television content like news and sports.

A court in South Korea has sentenced 49-year-old Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong to five years in prison for corruption.

Lee — who denied all charges — was convicted regarding his role in a bribery scandal involving Park Geun-hye, the former president of South Korea. Prosecutors were seeking a 12-year maximum sentence.

This week’s Apple deals feature unique opportunities to save on MacBooks, iPhones and an interesting Apple Watch accessory. Plus, you can get a free Apple TV, thanks to the return of a great deal.

You know how on your Mac you always drag stuff to the desktop as a kind of temporary holding spot? You might be gathering together some photos, or just keeping a PDF until you work out where to put it, or until you have emailed it and can delete the original. That kind of thing isn’t possible in iOS, because a) there is no real concept of files, at least not in the Mac way, and b) there’s no desktop. But that’s about to change in iOS 11. The new Files app takes care of a), and thirdparty apps like The Shelf will be able to take to role of the desktop.

The race to complete Apple Park’s Steve Jobs Theater before the iPhone 8 unveiling looks nearly over in the latest drone video that showcases Apple’s spaceship campus.

Construction crews are still spread across the gorgeous grounds putting the finishing touches on landscaping and other projects but from the look of things, it won’t be long before Apple employees finally move in.

Take a look:

When Apple CEO Tim Cook paid a visit to testing equipment supplier CTS in Cincinnati this morning, he might have accidentally revealed that he’s already using an iPhone 8.

Cook tweeted a photo of himself talking to workers at the manufacturing facility, but the web is abuzz with what was hidden in his pocket. The outline of a device in his pocket appears to be an iPhone that’s too narrow to be an iPhone 7 Plus but too big to be an iPhone 7.

Getting your hands on Apple’s next generation iPhone won’t be cheap.

According to the latest report from the New York Times, the iPhone 8’s price tag will start out at a whopping $999, making it the most expensive smartphone Apple’s ever introduced.

If you’re reading this, you probably don’t need to be introduced to the iPad Pro. After all, the laptop-busting tablet gained a reputation as a powerful, flexible platform perfect for digital creativity. They’re also quite expensive.

The next great Apple data center powered by renewable energy is coming soon to Iowa.

Apple revealed today that it plans to invest $1.3 billion into a new data center in Waukee, Iowa, that will help create more than 550 construction and operations jobs in the city near Des Moines. Along with splurging on the data center, the company will also create a $100 million Public Improvement Fund to boost infrastructure in the Des Moines area.

Yesterday, we saw how to set the default screenshot format on your Mac to JPEG instead of PNG, in order to make your screenshots more universally usable. You can’t change the default screenshot file type on iOS, so today we’re going to look at the next best option — converting PNG to JPEG as easily and quickly as possible.

Popular Star Wars characters will pop up in Apple stores and other retail outlets around the world next week in a promotional event powered by augmented reality. Apple and Disney teamed up for the Star Wars promo, which coincides with the release of new toys for the upcoming movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

You wait months for an iPhone 7s leak and then two come along at once. First, we saw images of what is claimed to be the handset’s new logic board, and now we have photos of a supposed display assembly that looks remarkably familiar.

Apple will rule the wearables roost through 2021, claims research firm Gartner — although it’s likely to see its dominance eroded along the way.

Gartner claims that 41.5 million total smartwatches (including those made by all companies) will sell in 2017, generating a massive $9.3 billion. That number will almost double by 2021, however, when the firm thinks smartwatch sales will hit 81 million units for the year.

The guts of Apple’s upcoming iPhone 7s have apparently been revealed in yet another leak.

A reliable tipster posted photos today of what is believed to be the iPhone 7s logic board, which ties together all the handset’s components. It’s one of just a few iPhone 7s leaks we’ve seen ahead of the handset’s unveiling this fall.

Your iPhone is a splendid device. But to make the most of its potential, you need the right accessories. That’s why we’ve rounded up a group of accessories that covers all the bases. We’ve got a double-sided magnetic phone mount, and trio of extra long, MFi-Certified Lightning cables. On top of that, we’ve got a clip-on light and a set of five lenses that’ll transform the way you take photos with your phone. Plus, most are discounted by more than 70 percent. Read on for more details:

Apple Pencil has become such an essential accessory for iPad Pro owners that Apple is working on bringing it to the iPhone.

New patents again reveal the company’s work on making the iPhone compatible with its beloved stylus, just a day after Samsung announced its new Galaxy Note 8, a smartphone that has become so popular thanks to its S Pen.

For my money, Death Road to Canada is one of the best games to have landed on iOS in recent times. A crazy mash-up of randomly-generated zombie survival RPG, actioner, and text-based interactive fiction game, it’s a combination that totally shouldn’t work, but — like peanut butter and jelly — totally does.

And now it’s just got a massive update to more a great game even, well, greater. Check out the trailer below.

The iPhone 8 is set to be Apple’s most exciting handset refresh since 2014’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but not everyone is tripping over themselves to lavish praise on Apple before the phone event makes its debut.

Case in point is Barclays Mark Moskowitz who, in a note to clients, claims the big winner from this year’s iPhone 8 is going to be… Samsung?

Apple has updated its recently-launched machine learning blog to include three new papers, describing Apple’s use of artificial intelligence to improve Siri.

Check out the details below.