A couple of ex-Apple engineers released an app that turned the iPad into a drawing tablet and the reviews, especially from artists, were positive. One even said “life-changing” while others saw only a couple of limitations that could easily be worked around.

The creators of Astropad were concerned that there was even one limitation. On Wednesday, it launched what it hopes is a tool with no limits, Astropad Studio, a subscription-based version of the app for professional creatives who use the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil as their go-to tools.

Apple calls iOS “the world’s most advanced mobile operating system,” but it was almost the world’s worst.

Before deciding on the icon-based user interface we know and love today, Apple designed an awful prototype UI that was based on the iPod’s software and controlled with a virtual click-wheel. Check it out in the video below.

Apple says it has no plans to manufacture high-tech servers in the USA, despite a recent report claiming the iPhone-maker applied for permission to do “high-tech manufacturing” at its site in Mesa, Arizona.

The Mesa center was previously the home of Apple’s ex-sapphire supplier that went bankrupt in 2014. Instead of seeking permission to manufacture on the site, Apple clarified that it is actually just applying to renew the original Foreign Trade-Zone status of the location that brings some big tax benefits.

Pokémon fans in China may have to go without hit mobile game Pokémon GO after it was deemed too dangerous for approval.

The government is working to evaluate potential security risks, but it looks like the world’s biggest smartphone gaming market will miss out on one of the world’s biggest smartphone games.

Sorry Android, it seems that iOS got the better gifts this Christmas!

According to the latest Kantar Worldpanel ComTech sales figures, iOS gained market share at Android’s expense in the United States, United Kingdom, France and elsewhere.

In the U.S., this marked the sixth consecutive quarterly decline for Android, while Apple grew 6.4 percent year-on-year.

To take great pictures, even with your smartphone, you need a tripod. Here’s a tripod for your smartphone fits in your wallet. Pocket Tripod PRO is a cleverly engineered, versatile platform for your mobile that folds into the size of a credit card. It’ll make for a huge leap in your phonetography that won’t put a dent in your pocketbook. Right now you can pre-order a Pocket Tripod PRO for just $19.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Apple is beginning to catch up with demand for the LG UltraFine 5K Display, causing shipping times to drop significantly in the U.S.

Earlier this week, new orders for the $974 screen were scheduled to ship in two to four weeks, but as of this morning, that estimate has been cut to just three to five business days.

Aside from the massive privacy questions it raised, one of the biggest questions coming out of the FBI’s 2016 standoff with Apple was how exactly it managed to hack the iPhone used in the San Bernardino shooting.

While we still don’t know for sure, 100 pages of documents released recently by the FBI as part of a lawsuit by three organizations sheds a bit of light on what happened.

Apple has partnered with security firm Tresorit to offer CareKit developers extra privacy options. In doing so, it makes it more straightforward for hospitals to use Apple’s CareKit platform, by allowing it to more closely meet regulations about patient data.

Called ZeroKit, Tresorit’s security technology includes user authentication for patients and healthcare workers, end-to-end encryption of health data, and “zero knowledge” sharing of health data, meaning that data isn’t shared with any service as it transfers.

Anyone who remembers the glory days of Shinobi or Ninja Gaiden may want to check out the recently-released Breakout Ninja.

A super-simple ninja game with one-tap control mechanics, it’s incredibly addictive, and could well turn out to be one 2017’s early breakout (no pun intended) hits.

Oh, and did we mention that it’s the work of just one man?

Joe Cunningham loves the original iPhone so much that he carries two of them — one for calls and texts, and one for taking trippy photos enhanced by a mysterious glitch in the decade-old device.

Like the kind of haunted handset you’d find in a Stephen King novel, the second iPhone exhibits a strange quality: It takes pictures that look like they’re the result of a bad acid trip.

“The psychedelic iPhone only gets used as a camera because I want to extend its life as long as possible,” Cunningham told Cult of Mac.

Apple will soon lose the veteran coder who helped make Swift one of the fastest-growing computer languages in the world.

Chris Lattner, who has worked as Apple’s director of developer tools for the past few years, revealed today that he is leaving the company to join Tesla.

Samsung today released its new Gear apps for iOS, finally allowing iPhone to be used with Gear watches. In this how-to, we’ll show you how to get them connected, how to download new apps and watch faces, and how to setup S Health.

Hon Hai Precision Industry, aka Foxconn, hasn’t experienced an annual decline in sales sent it went public in 1991, but thanks to slumping iPhone sales, the company just gave shareholders some bad news.

You love your MacBook Pro and think it can do just about anything, even make change.

That is literally true for some MacBook users, who have been reporting on tech forums of the odd placement of a random quarter or penny in their machine’s SuperDrive, discovered when the bottom plate was removed.

The new MacBook Pro is set to receive a “recommended” rating from Consumer Reports after working with Apple to discover why tests showed the laptops suffered from unreliable battery performance.

The culprits? A hidden Safari setting and “an obscure and intermittent” bug.

Remember that massive news news story from 2010, when an Apple engineer accidentally left an iPhone 4 prototype in a bar in Redwood City, only for it to wind up in the hands of Gizmodo?

Well, a much, much bigger story could have happened a few years earlier — when then-Senior Vice President of Apple’s iPod Division Tony Fadell came close to losing an original iPhone prototype at an airport, prior to it being publicly unveiled.

Now that’s got to be a bad day at the office!

With the new year come countless resolutions to do more and better work. That’s why we’ve rounded up some of the best deals on productivity services in the Cult of Mac Store. We’ve got a lifetime of cloud storage, a time-saving virtual assistant, a Gmail-powered task manager, and a tool for mapping your thoughts and ideas. They’ll all bring your day-to-day workflow to a new level. Read on for more details:

It feels like another lifetime when Apple was scoring dead last on Greenpeace’s report on environmentally friendly data centers and the greenest Apple got was putting out an iMac G3 in “lime” or “sage” colors.

Like a one-time rebel who now sits up front in class, today’s Apple is one of the most sustainable and eco-friendly tech companies around — and Greenpeace’s latest clean energy index has the stats to prove it!

With macOS Sierra, Apple Pay finally comes to Macs so you can use the mobile payment service to buy stuff online. The feature works best on the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, but don’t worry Pad if you own an older Apple computer: You can still use Apple Pay if you’ve got a 2012 or newer Mac, as long as you have the latest software and an iPhone or Apple Watch with Apple Pay enabled.

To get started, just follow our handy guide on how to use Apple Pay on Mac. You’ll be spending money online in no time!

Samsung confirmed last January that it was making its latest Gear smartwatches compatible with iPhone. Just over a year later, it has finally delivered on that promise.

Download Samsung’s new Gear app for iOS today to connect your Gear S2, Gear S3, or Gear Fit2 to your iPhone.

Apple will adopt a new manufacturing process to deliver an all-new form factor for iPhone 8, according to a new report. The next-generation Apple smartphone will use a stainless steel forging process for its metal frame as opposed to traditional CNC machining.

Instead of having a single host, Apple’s upcoming TV show Carpool Karaoke will put someone new in the driver’s seat each episode.

The company also plans to add more interview elements to the show, which was created by Late Late Show host James Corden. The show will pair different musicians and celebrities for each of the first 16 episodes during Season 1.

Apple fans who weren’t old enough to surf the web 10 years ago when Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone can relive the glorious event, thanks to an archive of Apple’s website that will take them back in time.

The first big batch of beta updates of 2017 have finally arrived from Apple, bringing developers a slew of bug fixes and performance improvements on the Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV.

Apple’s betas come nearly three weeks after the last batch of updates. The new software updates includes the third betas for iOS 10.2.1, macOS 10.12.3, tvOS 10.1.1 and watchOS 3.1.3.