Mobile menu toggle

Siri meets its demise in Apple’s Earth Day ad

By

Siri
Hush it down, Siri. Hush it down.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple is going hard on Earth Day. Company stores changed their Apple logos green. The App Store has a week-long green app promotion. And today the company has released not one, but two ads.

The second Earth Day video from Apple features Siri and Liam hanging out talking about kale smoothies until Apple’s digital assistant meets its demise.

Watch the new ad below:

The prospect of Apple Stores in India just got a whole lot better

By

Apple supplier is increasing its ability to build masses of iPhones in India
Apple is focused on the Indian market.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple may become one of the first foreign companies granted a permit to open a retail store in India without sourcing 30 percent of its products from inside the country.

While this rule has previously proven to be a hurdle for foreign brands, in Apple’s case the Indian government appears likely to overlook it on the grounds that Apple is a “state-of-the-art” company manufacturing “cutting-edge technology.”

13 awesome Apple Watch tricks that prove it doesn’t need a ‘killer app’

By

Apple Watch is a killer device, even without a
Apple Watch is a killer device, even without a "killer app."
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The Apple Watch doesn’t need to prove itself to you. And contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t need a “killer app” to make it indispensable.

In fact, the Apple Watch is an awesome device all on its own, with a ton of tricks up its sleeve, like controlling your big screen TV and finding your iPhone, even in the dark.

Here are 13 killer things you can do with an Apple Watch that prove it’s worthy of a place on your wrist.

Apple in talks to open its first retail store in Dublin

By

Screen Shot 2016-04-22 at 11.49.05
Apple's first Dublin site could be quite spectacular.
Photo: Wanderlustful

Dublin, the largest and capital city of Ireland, may finally be about to get its first Apple Store.

Apple is reportedly in talks with a developer group called the Natrium consortium to open up a flagship retail store in Dublin’s city center —  possibly based on the ground floor of an iconic former department store, bought last year for €29 million ($33 million).

Apple might ditch iPhone 7s and jump straight to iPhone 8

By

iphone-6s-3d-touch-780x414
The iPhone 8 is going to be huge. But what about the iPhone 7?
Photo: Apple

Apple will drop its incremental “s” iPhone release next year in favor of jumping straight to the iPhone 8, claims Barclays analyst Mark Moskowitz.

Moskowitz backs up previous suggestions that the iPhone that launches in 2017 will boast the biggest upgrade since 2014’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus — with OLED displays and wireless charging, but lacking a physical home button. He predicts the massive revamp will lead to what he calls a “mega cycle” upgrade.

As for this year’s iPhone 7? He’s not so optimistic.

Woz: Apple should be forced to pay a lot more tax

By

Steve Wozniak wax sculpture fake eyes
Steve Wozniak wants Apple to pay its fair share.
Photo: Madame Tussauds

From saying that he doesn’t want to be stuck in the Apple ecosystem to advising Apple to build an Android phone, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has said a lot of things that probably don’t go down too well at his former company.

His latest comments, however, put him more directly in the sights of Tim Cook — as Woz uses a new interview to take a shot at Apple’s tax payments. His thoughts? The company should pay more than it does. Half of everything it earns, in fact!

Chinese government shuts down iTunes Movies and iBooks Store

By

China iPhone sales
Tim Cook meets with Apple Store employees in China.
Photo: Apple

In its biggest move yet to regulate Apple in China, the Chinese government has forced Apple to shut down its iBooks Store and iTunes Movies in the country — just six months after the services were first made available.

While the government initially approved the launch, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television reportedly changed its mind and demanded that Apple shutter the service.

Prince reigns on iTunes just hours after his passing

By

Prince
There's a lot of singing along with Prince going on today.
Photo: Jimi Hughes/Wikipedia CC

Just hours after the great musician’s passing, Prince reigns supreme on the top albums, songs and music videos on iTunes.

You may not be able to stream his incredible volume of hits on Apple Music or Spotify, but it seems as if his fans don’t care, with iTunes purchases rocking Prince’s tunes to the top of the charts.

Facebook whipping out its crystal balls to ‘improve’ your feed

By

Facebook
Facebook and Apple have beef.
Photo: Thomas Ulrich/Pixabay

Facebook is bringing more algorithms to bear to predict exactly what you’ll want to see in your News Feed, according to a post on its Newsroom site today.

The social-media platform has been tinkering for years with the processes that determine what actually makes it to your screen. But these latest “improvements” might prove even more restrictive and detrimental to publishers than the loss of the chronological feed, and they could inspire other services to make similar changes.

Here’s what Facebook is doing to your News Feed now.

FBI paid a ton of money to unlock San Bernardino iPhone

By

The next iPhone will have a huge battery.
The next iPhone will have a huge battery.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Getting into the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone 5c was no cheap feat for the FBI.

The Department of Justice withdrew its demands that Apple unlock the terrorist’s iPhone after the FBI was approached by a third-party that had a method to hack the device. It turns out Cellebrite charged the FBI through the nose to access the information it wanted, but FBI director James Comey says it was totally worth it.

Prince is dead, but don’t bother searching Apple Music for his tunes

By

Prince is dead, but his music lives on. Just not on Apple Music.
Prince is dead, but his music lives on. Just not on Apple Music.
Photo: Scott Penner/Flickr CC

As news of Prince’s unexpected death spread today, shocked fans hoping to stream his tunes on Apple Music came up empty.

In the streaming era, the incredibly prolific musician — best known for his string of hits and Grammy Awards in the 1980s — is practically a ghost.

Tim Cook cracks Time 100 list yet again 

By

LOVELOUD
Apple CEO Tim Cook will introduce the band Imagine Dragons Satuday at the LOVELOUD Festival in Utah.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been named as one of Time’s 100 most influential people list that rounds up the top leaders, artists, and public figures that have shaped the world the most the last year.

Cook has frequently appeared on the list, but perhaps is more deserving of it than ever this year after leading Apple in a public fight against the federal government of digital security and privacy. Other notable people on the list include Bernie Sanders, Kendrick Lamar, Vladimir Putin, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Felix Kjellberg (a.k.a. PewDiePie).

Now you can try Apple’s latest batch of betas

By

Get your iOS device up to date fast and easy.
Get your iOS device up to date fast and easy.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Members of Apple’s public beta testing program can now get their hands on all the new software updates Apple dropped on developers yesterday.

New betas for iOS, tvOS, watchOS and OS X have been seeded to the public, bringing a bunch of bug fixes for every Apple platform, as well as some new features on iPhone.

iPad port of magical miniatures game should be the next big thing [Reviews]

By

Bring all the fun of an analog board game to your iPad.
Bring all the fun of an analog board game to your iPad.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

If I ran the world, Krosmaster Arena, a fabulously fun and deep strategy game that started out as a board game with delightfully sculpted miniature figures, would be topping the charts right alongside stuff like Clash Royale or Angry Birds.

Of course, I don’t, but I’m hoping each one of you reading this tries it out on your iPad so you can experience the joy of playing it digitally.

Hungry publicity hound saves his spot in Apple history

By

Greg Packer is described as a professional line-sitter with a knack for getting publicity. He often can be found at or near the front of the line at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City whenever a new iPhone is about to go on sale.
Greg Packer goes where the new iPhones are.
Photo: Gizmodo

Cult of Mac 2.0 bugGreg Packer is a shirtless footnote in the history of the iPhone. The retired highway maintenance worker from Long Island made a name for himself as the first person to line up for the sale of the first iPhone in 2007.

During his nearly weeklong stint sitting outside the Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City, scores of reporters came by to interview him as he sat in a lawn chair, at times not bothering to put on a shirt during his many closeups.

What’s a virtual private network, anyway? [Deals]

By

Trust in an industry-leading VPN: surf the web anonymously and without restriction
Trust in an industry-leading VPN: surf the web anonymously and without restriction
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

There’s a good chance you’ve heard about virtual private networks, or VPNs, but have no idea what they are. VPNs are, in essence, a way of establishing a secure and direct connection — like one you might have between two computers in the same office.

Using fancy techniques like dedicated connections, virtual tunneling protocols and encryption, a VPN distributes a connection that runs according to the same security and operational rules as that direct connection, only it’s distributed through a public network — namely, the internet.

iPhone 7 could have Intel inside

By

Your next iPhone may be powered by Intel.
Your next iPhone may be powered by Intel.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Skylake processors aren’t the only new Intel tech Apple plans to use in 2016.

Starting with the iPhone 7, Apple may finally ditch Qualcomm modems in favor of a new chip from Intel which has pretty much missed out on the entire iPhone revolution.

Apple’s post-3.5mm jack headphones sure sound smart

By

patent_style_2
New headphones will switch between wired and wireless modes without dropping audio.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

In advance of the next-gen iPhone, which will reportedly ditch its 3.5mm headphone jack in favor of wireless or Lightning EarPods, Apple had filed a patent application for hybrid headphones capable of switching between wired and wireless options without dropping audio in the process.

What a $1,000 investment in Apple in 1996 looks like today

By

money
Note to self: always bet on Apple.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

As a tech fan, there are plenty of times — particularly when you hear about billionaire investors and record-breaking stock prices — when you wonder whether you would have had the foresight to predict things turning out the way they have.

Would you have bet big on Apple around the time of its 1980 IPO? Was it obvious that Steve Jobs was going to turn around the company in 1997? Or would you have been the equivalent of folks calling the Titanic an unsinkable ship, and pouring your life savings into pre-crash dot-com companies?

An amazing new data-viz shows how the returns on a $1,000 investment made in Apple, Microsoft and IBM would have fared over the next 20 years following January 1, 1996. Check it out below:

7 things you need to know about the new Kindle Oasis

By

kindle oasis
The Kindle Oasis takes e-reading to a new level.
Photo: Amazon
The Kindle Oasis takes e-reading to a new level. Photo: Amazon
The Kindle Oasis takes e-reading to a new level. Photo: Amazon

Even though speculation about what to expect ran wild, the formal introduction of the Kindle Oasis last week still left a lot of people surprised.

We’ve got the lowdown on the most important things you need to know about Amazon’s newest eBook reader model, which is due to begin shipping April 27.

Apple settles ‘unfair’ service agreement on Samsung’s home turf

By

iPhone mobile encryption touch id
South Korea's fair trade watchdog persuaded Apple to change its conditions.
Photo: Olly Browning/Pixabay

Apple has revised a so-called “unfair” business agreement concerning the conditions South Korean repair service providers must work under in order to do business as part of the Apple Authorized Service Provider Program.

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) had complained that Apple had the ability to terminate contracts with local businesses without any prior notification, and without taking responsibility for losses incurred by its withdrawal of the Authorized Service Provider label.

Facebook Messenger now offers group voice chat for up to 50 people

By

HEADING
Facebook just made chat more sociable.
Photo: Facebook
Facebook just made chat more sociable. Photo: Facebook
Facebook just made chat more sociable. Photo: Facebook

Facebook is continuing its mission to try and replace your standard telephone number with its latest update for Facebook Messenger — allowing up to 50 users to jump on a VoIP audio call for a group chat.

The feature, which started rolling out globally yesterday, allows anyone to start a group call by hitting the app’s Phone icon and selecting the group chat members they want included. The members will then receive a Messenger call simultaneously, which they can join at any point the conversation is taking place.

Low-cost Android makers are hurting thanks to iPhone SE

By

low-cost-android-makers-are-hurting-thanks-to-iphone-se-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201604iphonesearray-800x620-jpg
The iPhone SE is causing a headache for low-cost Chinese OEMs.
Photo: Apple
The iPhone SE is causing a headache for low-cost Chinese OEMs. Photo: Apple
The iPhone SE is causing a headache for low-cost Chinese OEMs. Photo: Apple

Apple’s affordable 4-inch iPhone SE is causing a major headache for Chinese makers of low-cost Android phones.

Supply chain manufacturers in Taiwan and China are reportedly becoming more conservative about building up inventories of smartphone components from companies including Huawei, Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo as the iPhone SE squeezes the competition.

Samsung crushes Apple in smartphone shipments as iPhone plummets

By

Samsung Galaxy
Look out, Apple!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Look out, Apple! Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Android
Look out, Apple! Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Android

Samsung couldn’t have wished for a better start for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge.

Not only are sales shaping up to beat expectations, with an estimated 10 million sales during March alone, but according to the latest data, the new handsets helped Samsung crush Apple in smartphones shipments last quarter.