Cult of Mac

Let’s face it — smart watches are sleek and feature rich, but they also seem to miss the point of what a ‘watch’ is supposed to do. Watches used to be timepieces, something you look to for an instant check on where you’re at in the day. The Martian Notifier seems to have kept the essential usefulness of the wristwatch in mind, striking a balance between the familiar mechanical watch, and the usefulness of notifications and other smartwatch goodies. It’s a classic take on the new trend in watches, and right now you can get one for $29.00 at Cult of Mac Deals, a quarter of the usual price.

Apple’s Services business is now worth more than its individual iPad, Mac and Apple Watch businesses, according to the company’s quarterly earnings — and beautifully illustrated by the Apple-watching website Six Colors.

Check out their graph below.

Apple can’t make enough iPhone 7 devices to satisfy demand from customers (and from Wall Street to make more money).

During Apple’s Q4 2016 earnings call today, Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri hinted that big things are in the pipeline that should put the company back on track to growth — and it all starts Thursday with the MacBook Pro.

Here’s what we learned from the Q4 earnings call:

Apple is set to report its Q4 2016 earnings today, only instead of it being a time for celebration, the company is expected to announce its first annual revenue decline in 15 years.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri warned Wall Street that this quarter wouldn’t smash any records, but with the iPhone 7 doing better than expected, could relief be on the way?

Investors and analysts will grill Apple about how well the company expects to perform next quarter during today’s earnings call. And Cult of Mac will be right here, liveblogging the whole shebang when it starts at 2 p.m. Pacific.

Come join the fun — it’s livestreaming on Apple’s investor site.

Apple today revealed its results for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2016. While the company made as much revenue as expected, it still posted its first annual revenue decline since 2001.

The good news for investors is that Apple is projecting a lot of iPhone growth next quarter. In Q4 2016, Apple earned $46.9 billion in revenue and $9 billion in profit, but in Q1 2017 Apple predicts it will rake in $76 billion to $78 billion.

Xiaomi’s incredible new Mi Mix smartphone brings a jaw-dropping “edgeless” display, a ceramic design and groundbreaking new technologies.

Unveiled today, it isn’t just the prettiest smartphone of 2016; it’s the prettiest smartphone to date.

The Mi Mix is not an iPhone clone — something Xiaomi has become famous for — but it could tell us a lot about Apple’s next handset.

Need more proof that Apple is going to launch a new MacBook Pro on Thursday?

Apple accidentally leaked images of the OLED touchbar on the upcoming MacBook Pro in its latest update for macOS Sierra. Not only do the images confirm what we’ve known for months, but they also give us a glimpse at how the Magic Toolbar will work.

Check it out:

The rotting corpse of Blackberry Ltd. may provide the extra juice needed to get Apple’s car project rolling.

Apple has reportedly poached key engineers from BlackBerry’s QNX team in Canada to help develop the operating system for its self-driving car. And the iPhone-maker has set up shop just five-minutes away from the QNX offices.

This post is brought to you by LG Electronics.

It’s a sad fact that around a third of people on Earth — and some 80 percent of Americans — can no longer enjoy the glory of the night’s sky, due to light pollution. The celestial firmament has been a source of wonder and inspiration for the entirety of human existence, making its sudden disappearance a truly significant loss.

AT&T is getting into the television streaming game.

The company revealed today that it is launching a new streaming service called DirecTV Now in November and not only will it come with over 100 channels. It also won’t count against your mobile data.

Mac fans are guaranteed to see a new MacBook Pro with an all-new keyboard at the “Hello Again” keynote on October 27.

Apple added assets in its newly released macOS Sierra 10.12.1 update that appear to confirm the new OLED touch bar on upcoming MacBook Pro.

Wicked Lasers, the company behind the popular Spyder lasers and the world’s most powerful flashlight, has a new product designed to take parties to the next level. The LaserDock houses a laser projector and music visualizer in one. And it promises to be easy enough for anyone with a Mac or PC to operate.

The LaserDock was introduced on Indiegogo with much fanfare in September, surpassing its original goal. But does it deliver? Check out our video review below.

Much like Google offers personalized searching, macOS Sierra delivers location-based tips as part of its suggestions within Spotlight, Siri, Safari and Maps. That means Apple will try to recommend relevant services within your immediate vicinity.

If you don’t want this feature, however, there is a way to get rid of it. Check out our guide below to show how to do this — and how to turn it back on again if you change your mind.

If you haven’t already installed Apple’s latest iOS 10.1 update, do it now. Thanks to a vulnerability in earlier release of its software, it’s possible for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to be hacked using only a malicious JPEG image or PDF file.

If you work at a computer, you work with PDFs, the industry standard for digital documents of all sorts. Unfortunately, they’re a hassle to edit for the casual user. PDF Expert has won awards — Apple Editors’ Choice, Top Paid App in Mac App Store, etc. — by making it easy to edit PDF text, images, links, outlines and more. From zapping typos to completely rearranging a page, adding annotations or merging documents, it’s all made painless by PDF Expert. And today’s your last chance to get it for half off, just $29.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

The Mi Mix, an intriguing new concept phone from Xiaomi, offers an edgeless 6.4-inch display in a form factor no bigger than a regular 5.7-inch handset.

The feature-packed new smartphone was designed in partnership with French designer Philippe Starck, who is perhaps most familiar to Cult of Mac readers as the man who designed Steve Jobs’ high-tech yacht.

Apple Pay made its debut in Japan today, although it didn’t completely get off to the best start.

The reason? One of the most eagerly-anticipated selling points of the service — the ability to use it on the subway — didn’t work properly. While East Japan Railway Co. says things were fixed within a few hours, the rush hour outage has made some users worried about future system stability.

Still mourning the loss of your Galaxy Note 7? Xiaomi’s new Mi Note 2 can help you forget all about it. The stunning phablet shares a lot in common with Samsung’s failed flagship — and offers even better specifications.

During tomorrow’s Apple earnings call, Tim Cook is likely to unload some bad news. Wall Street expects Apple to report its first annual revenue decline since 2001, snapping one of the most impressive streaks ever witnessed.

Slumping iPhone sales mean Apple’s annual revenue could drop to $215.67 billion for 2016. That would be a significant decline from the $233.72 billion in revenue Apple posted in 2015 — but there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

Beats co-founder and Apple employee Andre Young, aka Dr. Dre, allegedly hired a hitman to kill Suge Knight, according to a lawsuit filed by Knight.

The former hip-hop mogul who co-founded Death Row Records claims Dre tried to have him murdered because Knight was owed a $300 million payout after Apple’s $3.4 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics in 2014. That deal made Dr. Dre the first billionaire in hip-hop.

The iPhone 7 probably won’t be enough to reverse Apple’s declining sales slump when it reports earnings tomorrow. But analysts say Apple is sitting on a “powder keg of dramatically aging” iPhones that could lead to a super-cycle of upgrades in 2017.

Apple Watch shipments declined a staggering 71.6 percent this summer, according to IDC, with Apple shifting just 1.1 million units during the third quarter. During the same period last year, the company sold an estimated 3.9 million units.

The public release of macOS Sierra 10.12.1 has finally arrived for Macs everywhere, bringing a bunch of bug fixes and tweaks.

Apple Watch owners will definitely want to grab the new update ASAP because it makes unlocking your Mac with your watch a lot more reliable. There are also some new additions for iPhone 7 Plus owners.

iPhone 7 Plus owners can finally start using Apple’s highly-touted Portrait Mode starting today.

Apple released iOS 10.1 to the public this morning after weeks of beta testing the new Portrait Mode. The software update comes with a couple of other tweaks for iPhone and iPad as well as a number of bug fixes.

By now, most of you are probably upgraded to macOS Sierra, which is proving be a massive home run for Apple. However, while the new Mac OS packs some great new features, it’s also got a handful of problems — ranging from strange error messages to Wi-Fi issues.

Check out our video below for three macOS Sierra problems we’ve run into so far — and how we were able to solve them.