Apple can expect to get a final verdict on whether it can continue development on its proposed 850 million euro ($960 million) data centre in Athenry, Ireland later this month.
An oral hearing concerning the major development took place earlier this year, and inspector Stephen Kay has now submitted his recommendations to the Irish advisory board about the project.
iPhone 7 Plus could get a big resolution improvement. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Display panels that are apparently bound for the upcoming iPhone 7 handsets have appeared on Chinese social media — suggesting that the larger iPhone 7 Plus will boast a 2K or Quad HD display.
Do you remember Netscape Navigator? Photo: Netscape
August 9, 1995: The Netscape Communications IPO floats shares of the company behind Netscape Navigator, the Macintosh’s default browser, on the stock market.
While not totally an Apple-centric moment, this was big news for Mac fans in 1995. The success of Nestcape’s $2.9 billion IPO also sweetened Wall Street on technology companies. Plus, the experience of using Netscape Navigator to surf the internet on a Macintosh is something many older Apple users will still remember fondly.
Google has decided to attack Apple directly in a funny new ad that rips the iPhone for its paltry 16GB of storage on entry models.
The new ad has been played heavily during NBC’s Rio Olympics coverage and promotes Google Photos “free up space” feature the upload an unlimited number of pictures to the cloud so users have more storage for apps, videos, music and other content. Apple has a similar feature with iCloud, but you have to pay for it.
Russia is investigating Apple. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple doesn’t sell iPhones directly in Russia, but it’s being investigated by the country’s federal Anti-Monopoly Service for colluding with resellers to fix the price on its devices.
The government agency revealed today that it has opened a case against Apple and 16 major resellers that all had identical prices for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models when they launched in Russia in October 2015.
Apple will seamlessly integrate Touch ID into the MacBook Pro. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple’s upcoming MacBook Pro refresh won’t just bring a fancy OLED touchbar for customizable function keys, but also the first Touch ID sensor on a Mac, according to a new report. And it will be built into the notebook’s power button.
Watching The Handsmade Tale just got cheaper. Photo: Hulu
Getting your weekly fix of new TV shows from Hulu is about to get more expensive, as the streaming video service plans to phase out its free tier that was supported with ad revenue.
After letting users watch thousands of episodes for free since it launched nine years ago, Hulu has partnered with Yahoo to offer up its content for a new service called Yahoo View, an ad-supported service that will give viewers the ability to watch the five most recent episodes of shows from ABC, NBC and Fox.
The inside of the next iPhone may have been exposed. Photo: Apple
A slew of leaked iPhone 7 casings have already given us a good idea of what Apple’s new device will look like on the inside, but we now have a better idea what it will pack on the inside, too, thanks to some photos out of Asia.
The leaked pictures claim to show a bare iPhone 7 logic board, revealing what the layout will look like before any chips have been placed on the board.
Messages is getting stickers in iOS 10. Photo: Apple
Messages is getting much more creative in iOS 10, and for the first time, users will be able to download and send all kinds of awesome stickers. Apple is already offering four sticker packs, and many more iMessage stickers will become available from third parties later.
Here’s how to download and send iMessage stickers to your friends.
iPhone 7's home button will be a lot different. Photo: George Tinari/Cult of Mac
Apple’s latest iPhones could be its last with physical home buttons. According to a new report from Bloomberg, the iPhone 7 series will instead feature a new pressure-sensitive home button that uses Apple’s Force Touch technology.
ArcTouch devs Adam Fingerman and Paulo Michels give us a peek into the future of Siri. Image: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple has opened up Siri to third-party developers, which means we’ll soon be able to do a bunch of things — like ordering pizza or sending money — simply by speaking to Apple’s intelligent assistant.
It’s a big change, and another step toward a friction-free future in which we will talk to our devices instead of poking at them with our fingers.
In this week’s episode of Kahney’s Korner, I talk with Adam Fingerman and Paulo Michels of ArcTouch, a mobile development company that works with big media companies like ABC, NBC and CBS. As they’ve explored the Siri API, they’ve gained insight into what we can expect when iOS 10 and macOS Sierra get released to the public this fall.
Turn any surface into a phone mount, perfect for group shots. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
The word ‘selfie’ might make you smile or it might make you roll your eyes, but there’s a lot more to it than just front-facing cameras and goofy looking sticks. We’ve gathered some great tools for taking a wide variety of shots in a variety of situations, whether you’re trying to get the perfect jumping shot, experimenting with points of view, get shots or video from inside a car, or just more space for storing all of those photos. Any one of these could change the way you take selfies, so take a look:
iPads are proving more popular than ever with people in business and government. Photo: Sam Mills/Cult of Mac
A growing part of Apple’s iPad business is coming from governments and corporations, with almost half of the tablets (particularly high-end models) being bought by this audience, according to a new report from The New York Times.
“Apple is stronger in the enterprise market with its devices than it is with consumers,” Forrester analyst Frank Gillet told the newspaper.
We may get double the number of Apple Watch 2 models we're expecting. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple will reportedly release two different next-gen Apple Watch devices, according to a well-connected analyst.
In a note sent to investors over the weekend, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims Apple will launch a slight iterative improvement on the Apple Watch later this year, boasting the same overall design but an improved 16nm processor and improved waterproofing. However, really keen Apple Watch enthusiasts will also be able to get the Apple Watch 2, which will reportedly add a host of other improvements.
Apple Maps was a turning point for Apple. Photo: Apple
Apple’s decision to open up macOS and iOS for public betas was inspired by the company’s horrible experience with the iOS Maps debacle in 2012, according to a new interview with Tim Cook, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi.
From a Snapchat-inspired Instagram update to a beautifully frustrating endless runner puzzle game, we’ve sifted through this week’s most exciting apps to bring you the ones you absolutely need to download now.
Check out our picks below. Trust us, this is the way you want to spend Sunday!
Charge your Apple Watch in style with the meticulously engineered NightStand. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
This week brought with it a great crop of deals on gears and gadgets, and there are some brand new ones you might have missed. We’ve got a sleek nightstand for your Apple Watch, an app that will keep your writing error free, a versatile tripod for your cell phone, and a high res dashcam with a massive 8GB drive. That’s a lot to sort through, get digging:
Get a top shelf VR experience without paying a top shelf price. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
We find great deals on the regular, but this week we’ve found some especially awesome gear and gadgets on sale. We’ve got a virtual reality headset that’ll blow your mind without breaking your bank, lessons in developing for the upcoming, game-changing iOS 10, a pair of extra-long, MFi-certified Lightning cables, and a tool that will transform the way you use PDFs. Take a look:
Not to worry, iOS 10 will protect you from harmful emoji
This week, on The CultCast: the controversy around iOS 10’s new gun emoji; we compare Instagram’s new stories feature to Snapchat’s; Gwyneth Paltrow brings her coding skills to ‘Planet of the Apps’; we attended a 5-day Apple II festival, we’ll tell you the cool parts; and stick around for the best ways to find specific Pokémon in ‘Pokémon GO’.
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% off.
Turi could make Siri smarter than ever. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple’s latest acquisition could play a big role in the iPhone maker’s future artificial intelligence products.
Turi, a Seattle-based startup specializing in machine learning and AI, was reportedly acquired by Apple for around $200 million. The startup creates software that gives developers the ability to add AI capabilities that scale automatically, which could certainly be an attractive addition to Apple’s platforms.
Who wouldn't want to see this? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
iMessage is the only major messaging service that’s exclusive to one platform. According to Tim Cook, that’s because iMessage helps sell Apple devices — but does anyone actually buy an iPhone for iMessage alone?
Would it really hurt Apple if its popular messaging service went cross-platform? Lots of iPhone and iPad owners also use Android devices, and bringing the service to Google’s platform would provide them with a more seamless messaging experience.
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we throw virtual hands over whether Apple should bring iMessage to Android.
When portable battery packs just won't cut it. Photo: Thomas Kim
There’s nothing worse than having a dead iPhone battery in the middle of nowhere, but for science mastermind Thomas Kim, that’s never a problem.
In one of the latest in his series projects where he turns everyday garbage into scientific creations, Kim tapped into the power of beautiful little waterfall by turning a bunch of plastic bottles into a water wheel to generate enough hydroelectric power to recharge his iPhone.
Apple needs help squashing bugs. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple’s head of security and engineering architecture, Ivan Kritic, revealed yesterday that the iPhone maker is finally creating a bug bounty program that will offer rewards of up to $200,000 to security researchers who find vulnerabilities on the company’s various software platforms.
The news came during a keynote at the annual Black Hat Conference in Las Vegas where Kritic also gave attendees a behind-the-scenes look at iOS 10 security as part of Apple’s effort to become more open about its architecture in hopes of improving it.
Get the most out of your music with macOS Sierra. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple Music has had a nice clean refresh in macOS Sierra — making it far easier to search for and discover the best Apple’s streaming music service has to offer.
Here’s what tune-lovers need to know when running the new operating system, which is currently in public beta and will be released this fall.
New EarPods equipped with a Lightning connector have appeared on video again ahead of the iPhone 7’s launch this fall. Their design is slightly different to that of previous leaks we’ve seen, leading us to believe these ones could be real.