August 17, 1944: Larry Ellison, billionaire co-founder and former CEO of Oracle, and Steve Jobs’ best friend, is born.

A later member of the Apple board of directors and the closest thing Jobs had to a confidante, in the 1990s Ellison even considered staging a hostile takeover of Apple to reinstall Jobs as CEO during his time away from the company.

Jobs’ son, Reed, reportedly referred to Ellison as, “our rich friend.”

Apple gave hackers an inside look at how it keeps iOS 10 secure during a recent Black Hat conference keynote that has now been made available to view online. 

The keynote by Apple security expert Ivan Krstic discusses three iOS security mechanisms (HomeKit, Auto Unlock and iCloud Keychain) in unprecedented detail, showing key elements of Apple’s cryptographic design. If you’ve ever been curious how Apple keeps all your private data safe, it’s well worth watching. 

Check it out below:

When it comes to smartphone upgrades, consumers now think that companies like Apple and Samsung release too many new models and don’t put enough effort towards recycling.

A new study from Greenpeace surveyed over 6,000 people in the U.S. China, Russian, Mexico, Germany and South Korea and found that the average person has at least three phones at home, and more than half said they more than half said they would be okay with changing phones less often.

The new lyrics feature in Apple Music might not be powered by a third-party company, according to a new job posting found on Apple’s website.

It appears that Apple instead plans to do most of the work compiling lyrics all on its own by hiring “a team of lyrics curators with excellent writing skills, music knowledge, and attention to detail.”

This post is brought to you by i2e Consulting.

Keeping any project on track is like cooking a meal, requiring close attention to all the ingredients as well as the sequence and timing of critical tasks. In the kitchen you use a cookbook; in the digital workplace, you face a dizzying array of platforms and software for keeping all the goals, team members, deadlines and contingencies in order.

Project Planning Pro streamlines all that, and right now Cult of Mac is offering a special 30 percent discount on the Mac version of the easy-to-use software.

The next time you buy Ford, instead of buying a car to keep you might just get access to an entire fleet of autonomous cars.

Ford CEO Mark Fields revealed today during a meeting with employees in Palo Alto that not only is the company building an autonomous car, it plans to launch an entire fleet of autonomous vehicle by 2021 to create its own ride-hailing service by 2021.

Apple’s next iPhone could be available to the public as soon as September 23rd, based on a new leak that reveals AT&T plans to do a big “Merchandising Reset” at all stores that day.

The unveiling of the iPhone 7 is rumored to take place on September 7th with pre-orders to follow two days later, meaning customers will have to wait three weeks for the device to arrive this year instead of the usual two weeks.

The Apple Watch has been out for well over a year now, and it’s beginning to get a little bit long in the tooth. In addition, the second-generation wearable, which is rumored to arrive along with the iPhone 7 this September, isn’t shaping up to be a worthy upgrade just yet.

The best way to breathe new life into your Apple Watch is to customize it with some different bands and bracelets. Check out my top seven picks in the video below.

A new iPhone 7 Plus prototype has leaked out weeks ahead of its official debut, and not only is it a working handset running regular iOS, but it’s also finished in a beautiful blue that could be added to the iPhone lineup this fall.

Apple Watch is getting a UI makeover with watchOS 3 which completely changes how you interact with apps, making them faster and easier to access thanks to the all new Dock feature.

Now when wearers press the side button on Apple Watch, instead of bringing up your favorite contacts, the watch brings up the dock providing a quick view of your favorite apps that are now updated immediately, so you spend less time staring at the spinning wheel.

Here’s how to make the most of the new Apple Watch dock:

Apple desperately wants the iPad to replace your computer, but it can’t carry out everyday computer tasks as well as some other tablets can. Microsoft highlights that by mocking the iPad Pro’s computer dream in its new Surface Pro 4 ad.

Is your living room like a boneyard for old remotes? In the age of smart devices, having a separate plastic brick for each appliance in our home seems pretty dumb. Blumoo went ahead and did the logical thing, creating an app that turns your Android or iPhone (or Apple Watch) into a universal remote for your A/V devices. For a limited time, you can get it for $47.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

A new iPhone 7 component leak suggests Apple’s next-generation smartphones will finally deliver faster charging technology. According to one leaker, the devices will feature “at least” five volt two amp charging.

Legendary investor Warren Buffet tends to stay away from technology stocks, but he can’t be too upset about his company’s decision to invest in AAPL stock.

At least, that would be the assumption based on the fact that his Berkshire Hathaway investment company announced this week that it’s increasing its stake in AAPL by a massive 55 percent.

Two new reports suggest that Apple is both tightening up on certain aspects of its spending in China, while also boosting its overall investment — as it pushes hard to grow its brand in the country at a time when local demand for its iPhones has “plummeted.”

The Big Apple gains an extra Apple Store today, with the opening of a brand new retail outlet in the iconic World Trade Center area.

Located in the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, the light and spacious Apple Store fits perfectly in its impressive (and, dare we say it, Jony Ive-style minimalist) surroundings. Check out footage of the new retail space below.

August 16, 2013: JOBS, the Steve Jobs biopic starring Ashton Kutcher, lands in theaters.

The first of two competing Jobs movies (the second one was the Aaron Sorkin version, based on Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography), the movie receives polarizing reviews from critics, but fails to make an impact at the box office — where it earns just $6.7 million in its first weekend.

The Apple Watch is known for having one of the best heart-rate sensors among smart watches, but according to former Apple platform architect Bob Messerschmidt, getting a super accurate reading wasn’t an easy task.

Messerschmidt joined Apple in 2010 after Steve Jobs acquired his company and set him to work on the Apple Watch team. In a new interview that reveals some of the design process that went into Apple Watch, Messerschmidt says he originally wanted to put the heart rate sensor in the Apple Watch bands.

This post is brought to you by Digiarty Software.

Anyone who keeps half an eye on the world of Apple knows that iOS 10 and iPhone 7 are about to drop. This is a big deal: These major upgrades will bring a wide range of new capabilities and features, so you’ll likely be feeling the itch to upgrade soon.

But before you install iOS 10, or migrate to the iPhone 7, you ought to make sure you properly manage the data on your outgoing device. MacX MediaTrans offers a way to do just that, and it’s easier to use and more reliable than iTunes.

The release of Apple Maps with iOS 6 was so disastrous it led to the firing of Scott Forstall, former SVP of iOS, and to a rare public apology from CEO Tim Cook.

Almost four years on, Maps is in a very different place. Apple has worked hard to iron out the kinks and add new features that help the service compete with rivals like Google Maps. But is Apple Maps still the laughing stock of maps apps?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fights as we battle it out over the state of Apple Maps.

Apple’s efforts to build a self-driving electric car hit another speed bump recently after the company lost its navigation engineer to electric car startup Faraday Future.

Computer vision and vehicle navigation specialist Bart Nabbe was working with Apple’s not-so-secret Project Titan team for nearly the last two years, but his LinkedIn profile now shows that he’s at Faraday Future serving as the director of strategic partnerships.

Apple continues to polish macOS Sierra and tvOS 10, seeding the sixth beta builds of the new software updates to developers today.

The new betas come a week after Apple dropped the last batch of betas, which brought a number of new bug fixes and performance improvements to the gigantic releases that are set for public launch this fall.

A brand new operating system with a colorful name is currently under development at Google, according to a new project page found on GitHub.

Google hasn’t officially acknowledged that it’s working on the project, but the new operating system could possibly replace Chrome OS and Android by being able to run on pretty much everything.

Apple has today rolled out its sixth beta updates for iOS 10 and watchOS 3 ahead of their public debuts this fall. iOS 10 beta 5 is also available for public testers, and all releases promise improvements to performance and stability.

Apple has made a bunch of improvements to its QuickType keyboard for iOS 10, and one of those is support for multilingual typing. This lets you type in multiple languages simultaneously, and it’s super simple to set up. Here’s how.