New cases designed for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus strengthen claims that the larger model with have a dual-lens camera system and a Smart Connector. In exchange for those upgrades, it seems Apple really will do away with the headphone jack.
SAN FRANCISCO — Look carefully at the cracks in the sidewalk around Apple’s new flagship store in San Francisco. They all line up with architectural elements of the store.
Some are continuous with the metal panels on the exterior walls. Some line up with the windows, and the huge glass panels that make up the 42-foot high front door. Some of the cracks are continuous with the stone floor tiles inside the store.
In turn, the joints in the floor line up with panels on the wall, which line up with the lighting panels on the ceiling.
In fact, most of the lines in the store — the edges of the glass balconies, cutouts in the middle of the tables, the edges of shelves and drawers — all line up with other elements of the store.
Some of these lines run continously from the sidewalk in front of the store all the way through to the tree-lined plaza in the back. It’s a bit crazy, when you examine it, and very, very difficult to pull off.
Mark Gurman is Apple PR's worst nightmare. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Few Apple bloggers can strike fear in the heart of Apple execs like 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman, and starting next month the ace Apple reporter will be taking his scooping talents to Bloomberg.
Gurman has been one of the most prolific Apple reporters during his time at 9to5Mac. Despite being just 22 years-old, the scoop master has revealed some of Apple’s biggest products and software updates well in advance of their official unveilings.
Now with the full backing of the Bloomberg media machine, Gurman will be extending his reporting skills to cover other tech companies. According to a memo sent to staff by Bloomberg editor Brad Stone, Mark Gurman will now cover consumer products made by Apple as well as its rivals.
China's Dianping app combines crowdsource reviews like Yelp with group discounts like Groupon. Photo: Virginia Werner/Cult of Mac
Mainland China is Apple’s second biggest market, and will one day be its first. The company is making a big push on the mainland, opening new stores and investing in home-grown companies. Why the interest? Because China is the new Japan — it’s where the future is happening. All this week we take a look at the cutting-edge apps that define mobile life on the mainland.
SHANGHAI CITY, China — “Where are we going to eat? Have you DianPing-ed it yet?” These are questions my friends and I often ask each other when we get together. This convenient app, backed by internet powerhouse Tencent Holdings, is a great tool that combines the functions of Groupon and Yelp.
Apple's next Thunderbolt Display won't just be super sharp. Photo: Apple
Apple’s new Thunderbolt Display will ship with a built-in GPU that will provide entry-level and older Macs with enough power to drive its super sharp 5K resolution, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans.
Apple will have to wait until next year for iPhone growth to return. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple is confident the iPhone will bounce back from its current slump in demand, but new forecasts suggest shipments will get worse before they get better. Researchers don’t expect growth to return until 2017 when Apple introduces bigger upgrades.
Coach is busting out some fancy Apple Watch bands. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Move over Hermes. There’s a new high-end fashion brand that is ready to capitalize on the Apple Watch and its leather bands will be launching soon.
Coach has secretly listed its first Apple Watch bands on its website. An official unveiling of the luxury leather bands is still in the works, but based on the early listings it appears that the bands will come at a relatively cheap price point.
Apple has begun inviting members of the press to its WWDC 2016 keynote on June 13.
The event kicks off at 10 a.m. PT in the Bill Graham Auditorium in San Francisco, and it should deliver our first sneak peeks at iOS 10 and Apple’s next major upgrades for watchOS, tvOS, and OS X.
When the Moog strikes, Parry Gripp writes funny songs about anything. Photo: Dana E. Ross
Parry Gripp was the lead vocalist of a promising pop punk band that had a record deal and stardom just around the corner.
Success never came and just as Parry Gripp was set to give up, a new career in music rose from the ashes — by accident — thanks to the iPhone and Apple.
The technology company was not only fodder for Gripp’s brand of absurd novelty music he was creating but, through iTunes, Apple provided a way for him to publish his music and start to make a living.
Apple has beaten Samsung in the American Customer Satisfaction Index for 2016 — but only just. While both companies scored exactly the same in 2015, Apple managed to grab an extra point to claim first place all for itself this year.
Enter now to win five years of free access to Adobe's Creative Cloud. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Content creators of all types and stripes use Adobe products, whether they know it or not. From Photoshop, Premiere and Indesign to Flash and Acrobat, Adobe underpins everything from photography and video to web design and digital documents. All of the above is wrapped up in Adobe’s Creative Cloud, and now’s your chance to get access to the whole shebang for a full five years, at no cost.
Could the real iPhone 8 look a little something like this? Photo: TechDesigns
Samsung gets a lot of hate for copying Apple’s first iPhones, but boy how the tables could turn in 2017. According to yet another report, the iPhone 8’s new OLED display will be curved on both sides — just like the Galaxy S7 edge’s.
China's WeChat is a messaging app tha offers just about everything, from text messaging to instant payments. It's a monster, with mote than 1 billion registered users. Photo: Virginia Werner/Cult of Mac
Mainland China is Apple’s second biggest market, and will one day be its first. The company is making a big push on the mainland, opening new stores and investing in home-grown companies. Why the interest? Because China is the new Japan — it’s where the future is happening. All this week we take a look at the cutting-edge apps that define mobile life on the mainland.
SHANGHAI CITY, China — Now that I use WeChat, I don’t need much else when it comes to social media apps. In fact, WeChat has almost entirely replaced text messaging in China. I am able to link up with other WeChat users through their username without providing a telephone number, so it is a great platform for communicating with new acquaintances or people I am working with.
I have hundreds of WeChat contacts, but only a handful of telephone numbers in my iPhone. The app also recently introduced group video messaging and has an extensive WeChat Wallet service (similar to Zhifubao) available to Chinese bank account holders.
Messenger is finally getting encryption. Photo: Facebook
Facebook plans to tighten security on its popular Messenger platform this summer, but it won’t be turned on for all users by default.
Messenger will add a new end-to-end encryption feature that prevents hackers and the government from being able to read your text messages. Facebook won’t be able to read your messages either though, and that will seriously hurt its ability to make bots great if you decide to opt-in to better security.
This MacBook Pro chassis is unlike any other. Photo: Cult of Mac
Leaked photos of what is claimed to be Apple’s next-generation MacBook Pro all but confirm it will ship with a new OLED touchpad above its keyboard. The images sent to Cult of Mac also hint at four USB-C connectors.
Education is easy with EDX's learning platform. Photo: EDX
This post is brought to you by EdX.
It’s often said that the internet makes it possible for anyone to get educated on any subject. But just as in offline modes of education, the many models of online teaching and learning are far from perfect, with plenty of room for improvement and innovation.
A joint effort between Harvard and MIT — dubbed EdX — is aiming to provide not only a place for learning new skills, but a platform for innovating new ways of teaching and learning over the web. It’s a nonprofit online education platform partnered with nearly 100 of the world’s leading universities and institutions — Harvard, MIT, Microsoft, Caltech, Columbia, you get the picture — to provide students anywhere in the world access to more than 1,000 certified courses. As an open-source platform, it also offers educators an opportunity to design and implement their own modes of teaching.
The Aura is spectacular inside and out. Photo: Digital Storm
Apple doesn’t have gamers in mind when choosing components for its latest Macs, but PC maker Digital Storm has proven that it’s possible to build a beastly gaming rig into the iMac’s gorgeous all-in-one form factor.
Check out the company’s stunning new Aura PC, which puts NVIDIA’s latest GTX 1080 graphics card behind a 34-inch curved display.
Apple moves in early next year. Photo: Jerry Gonzo
Construction on Apple’s new campus isn’t expected to be completed until the end of the year, but the spaceship is starting to come into shape in the latest flyover video that shows some buildings have already been completed.
Tim Cook’s beautiful pile of dirt keeps growing in Matthew Roberts’ latest drone footage of the new campus that takes a look at the massive 11,000 vehicle car garage that is nearly finished, as well as a new plaza that’s being constructed near the underground theater entrance.
Find out what's hot in your favorite genre. Photo: Apple
Apple just added another bunch of playlists to Apple Music that will help you discover new music from your favorite genres. They’re called “Breaking,” and they’re filled with over two hours of the hottest tracks.
Caltech says MacBooks and other products violate its WiFi patents. Photo: Apple
The super-fast WiFi on your iPhone may be the result of patent violations, according to a new lawsuit filed by the California Institute of Technology that claims Apple violated four of its patents.
Eddy Cue had the best seats in the house to watch the Warrior's comeback. Photo: SF Chronicle/Twitter
The Golden State Warriors completed one of the biggest comebacks in NBA playoff history last night when they beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, and perhaps no one in the arena was as amped as Apple VP Eddy Cue.
You see, Eddy Cue loves basketball. He’s such a big hoops fan that he’s made a habit of getting spotted with some of the game’s biggest stars in the biggest moments. So it should be no surprise that when the Warriors’ local paper announced the team’s win this morning Cue was right on the front page with Steph Curry.
Screw Nintendo's proprietary connectors! Photo: Gametech Direct
Don’t you just hate having to pack a whole bunch of different cables when you go traveling? Here’s a tiny little adapter that can help by making your Nintendo 3DS compatible with Lightning, allowing you to charge it with your iPhone’s cable.