Apple owes Samsung a fruit basket. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple stock has hit its highest share price in almost one year to coincide with the news that Samsung is permanently withdrawing its ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 from the market.
AAPL shares rose 2.3 percent to hit $116.72 last night, representing an increase of $2.66 per share. This rise was the highest for Apple shares since December 2015.
Pokémon Go makers Niantic Labs are busy rolling out an update for their cash cow app, adding a number of bug fixes — as well as two significant upgrades.
Back it up! The new Western Digital My Passport for Macs holds 4 terabytes. Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac
The best work I ever did as a photographer resides in a collection of Western Digital external hard drives that are stored in an old, large camera bag in my closet. The images span more than a decade and with any one of the WD My Passport drives, I can confidently plug one in and quickly find some black-and-white relic of my past.
You can see the progress of time in the pictures (clothes and hair styles) as well as in the design and sizes of the WD drives. Each year, the drives offered more storage space in the same basic compact housing.
So I was astonished a couple of weeks back when the UPS driver dropped off a WD My Passport sized just a little bigger than a deck of cards — with a whopping 4 terabytes of storage.
It's better to burn out than to fade away. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Galaxy Note 7, we hardy knew ye!
With growing numbers of reports of Samsung’s replacement Galaxy Note 7 handsets catching fire, Samsung has permanently stopped production of its once-acclaimed new smartphone flagship. Owners will be able to return their phones for a refund or to swap it out for another Samsung device.
A new iOS 10.1 beta is ready for your iPhone. Photo: Ste Smith/CultofMac
Apple dropped a fresh batch of beta builds for developers this morning with the release of both iOS 10.1 beta 3 and tvOS 10.0.1 beta 3.
The new betas come less than a week after Apple seeded the last version that brought a number of bug fixes and new features that make the company’s “biggest release ever” even better.
R.I.P., Galaxy Note 7. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Still thinking about making the Galaxy Note 7 your next smartphone? Forget about it.
I gave Samsung’s latest flagship a glowing review last month. But amid reports that supposedly “safe” replacement devices are overheating and exploding, there’s no good reason to buy a Galaxy Note 7 anymore.
Do yourself a favor and get the iPhone 7 Plus instead.
Streamline your workflow with this distraction-eliminating writing app. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
If you write code or create content, you’ve probably had to develop a way to keep the the distractions at bay. It’s hard to stay on task when a universe of distractions is right at your fingertips, but BlankPage makes the struggle a little less struggle-y.
Apple and Samsung will clash again tomorrow. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Samsung and Apple will go back to the Supreme Court this week as part of their never-ending legal battle over patents.
The Tuesday hearing will concern how much of the $399 million patent-infringement damages awarded against Samsung the South Korean tech giant should actually pay.
Irish people are backing Apple. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
A new poll suggests a majority of Irish voters support the Irish government in opposing Apple’s enormous $14.52 billion tax bill for unpaid back taxes in the Republic of Ireland.
47 percent of respondents said they agreed the Irish government was right to back Apple, compared to 39 percent who say it’s wrong to do so, and 14 percent who had no opinion on the subject.
Theresa May worries Russian hackers could hack Apple Watch. Photo: Foreign and Commonwealth Office
U.K. Prime minister Theresa May has banned ministers from wearing Apple Watches during Cabinet meetings, due to fears that they could be hacked by Russian spies for use as listening devices, a new report claims.
Under the leadership of former prime minister David Cameron, several members of the cabinet wore Apple Watches, including former Justice Secretary Michael Gove. Mobile phones have also been banned for the same reason.
Has this been the most disastrous smartphone release in history? Photo: Mr Ni/Baidu
The South Korean media is reporting that Samsung has suspended production of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, following one of the most bungled smartphone launches in history.
Over the weekend, AT&T confirmed that it will no longer issue new Note 7 handsets, while T-Mobile has also said it is halting sales. This follows news that Samsung’s supposedly fixed replacement handsets have also been running into battery problems causing them to burst into flames.
Shoppers frequent Amazon every day, trusting the site’s algorithms to show the best deals. But a recent Pro Publica report suggests that Amazon is becoming more biased, with its own products and “Fulfilled by Amazon” offerings being prioritized over those from other vendors — even if the other vendors have the cheapest prices.
Get 3 years of complete browsing privacy and unblocked streaming Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
We’re well into October and along with the shifting seasons comes a whole new set of deals on gear and gadgets. This week we’ve got three years of unlimited bandwidth over a VPN, a set of on-ear Bluetooth headphones, a lifetime subscription to Sticky Password, and — coolest of all — the Bionic Bird, a drone that looks and flies just like a real bird. That’s a diverse bag of goodies, read on for more details:
Apple's bold vision of future tech inches closer to reality. Photo: Apple
This week on The CultCast: Revamped iPads coming this spring; Apple lays the groundwork for the next era of personal technology; how smart homes get hacked; Google’s Pixel phone versus iPhone 7; and we reveal our favorite new iOS and Mac apps!
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to build a website that looks beautiful on any device that visits at Squarespace.com. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10 percent off.
Get triple backup for your Lightning cables at more than triple the usual length. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
This week at the Cult of Mac Store saw some spectacular deals. A triple pack of more than triple-length MFi-certified Lightning cables, an award winning app for expanding the usefulness of PDFs, a top-shelf set of wireless Bluetooth earbuds, and the latest version of the super popular Toast from Roxio. They’re all discounted by at least half, and they’re all worth checking out. Read on for more details:
Safari is lagging behind other web browsers in HTML5 support. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple is facing a new lawsuit that was filed this Friday by a French open-source software maker that says its launching the lawsuit to get developers better HTML5 support on iOS.
Facebook is on a quest to cure your boredom with its newest standalone app that is focused solely on events.
Available only on iOS (for now), the new app dubbed Events from Facebook helps you find things to do in your area by giving you a filtered feed of what your friends are up to.
iPhone's security has the FBI stumped. Photo: Ste Smith
The FBI and Apple could be on a collision course for another legal showdown over a dead terrorist’s locked iPhone.
Apple refused to comply with the FBI’s demands to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone eight months ago. That led to a very public legal battle over privacy and security. Now the FBI needs help again after obtaining the iPhone of a terrorist that stabbed 10 people in a Minnesota mall.
Two cameras that excited the world about photography, the iPhone and the Kodak Brownie. Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac
Miroslav Tichy roamed the streets of his Czech Republic town with a camera made of plywood, a cardboard tube and a plexiglass lens he polished with toothpaste and cigarette ashes. His crude, distorted photographs now hang in museums around the world.
So don’t worry if the camera on that iPhone 7 you just purchased doesn’t score high in some laboratory test that pits its image quality against other cameras.
This stunning 4K LG Display plays nicely with USB-C. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The upcoming 2016 MacBook Pro is rumored to feature only USB-C ports, much like last year’s MacBook refresh.
If you’re hoping to get an external display to go with your shiny new laptop, right now the options are somewhat limited. Luckily, the stunning new LG Electronics 27UD88 monitor will provide you with everything you need.
Take advantage of great deals on iPad Air 2, MacBook Air, a Canon camera and much more. Photos: Apple, Canon
Halloween is right around the corner, which means your local CVS probably already put out Christmas decorations. They do that for a reason, you know: It’s never too early to start thinking about the holiday season!
Following that logic, we’ve put together some of this week’s best deals from around the internet to start the gift-giving wheels turning. Even if you’re just giving the gift to yourself.
Samsung vs Apple lawsuits will never end. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The U.S. Court of Appeals gave Apple another victory today in its five-year-long legal battle with Samsung.
Apple won its appeal in an 8-3 ruling that reinstated a previous patent-infringement verdict that awarded the company $119.6 million. The judges in the case said it was wrong for the three-judge panel to throw out the verdict in February and suggested Apple could be owed even more money.