Apple Car might be coming, but will it be special? Image: Aristomenis Tsirbas/Freelancer
Progress on the Apple Car is coming along faster than anticipated after Project Titan hit some speed bumps earlier this year.
Based on a batch of new hires, it appears that Apple Car parts may have already entered the prototyping phase at the company’s Product Realization Lab, where machinists and engineers produce and test product designs.
The floating speaker part is fun, but it's the killer sound that makes it worth every penny. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Best List: Mars Bluetooth floating speaker by Crazybaby
The Mars Bluetooth speaker has a fairly reliable gimmick: the top part — which looks like a little UFO from an old sci-fi flick — floats above the bottom cylinder. It’s a cool visual trick managed by some fairly strong magnets, but it’s just that: a fun gimmick.
What’s surprising, though, is just how great this speaker sounds. It fills my house with deep bass thanks to the subwoofer abilities of that lower section of the speaker, and the UFO attachment flies proud while reproducing the rest of the sonic spectrum with highs and mids that don’t get lost in the bass response, but are also not too brittle.
Turn this floating speaker up and you’ve got a serious powerhouse Bluetooth speaker that just cries out to be admired by everyone at the party.
Doesn't get much better than getting paid to help the Earth... Photo: Pixabay
Today is Earth Day. That’s good news for the environment — and great news for your wallet!
To celebrate, we’re offering an extra $10 for every product sold on our gadget buyback program through the end of the weekend. Just use the promo code “earthday” when you get your quote and you’ll grab the extra green.
Prop it up and belt it out with this all-in-one speaker stand. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
These days, there are as many options for speakers and headphones as there are stars in the sky. Out of such a bewildering array of audio choices, we’ve picked four of the brightest, each one unique and distinct.
From a Bluetooth speaker that looks like a cajon to DJ-grade headphones, this audio gear makes the grade. And we’ve got hot deals on each of them. Take a look — and a listen.
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.
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.”
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 is serious about the environment. Photo: Apple
Apple has changed its homepage and released a new video to celebrate Earth Day, the annual show of support for environmental protection — and an area which has been a big focus of Tim Cook during his time as CEO at Apple.
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).
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
Greg Packer goes where the new iPhones are. Photo: Gizmodo
Greg 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.
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.
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.
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.
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: