The iPhone SE keynote will be livestreamed. Photo: Martin Hajek
The iPhone SE and a new iPad will be unveiled by Apple on March 2st at an event at the company’s Cupertino headquarters, but Apple fans don’t need a press pass to get full access to first keynote of 2016.
The BrydgeAir iPad keyboard case is the perfect fit for your iPad Air. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
We all like to carry our gadgets around with us, but there are certainly times when being ultra-portable is apropos to the activity at hand. Say, vacation. I want to be able to take along just my iPad, or perhaps get some writing done in the local coffee shop — and the trendy ones usually have tiny tables that aren’t big enough for a full laptop.
The BrydgeAir iPad keyboard case is an impressive Bluetooth accessory and a fantastic match for the iPad Air. The keyboard allows me to be a bit more productive than I would without an actual keyboard, turning my iPad into a small, MacBook-like, laptop-style tablet.
That iPhone in your pocket is much more well-traveled than you are. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple is expected to unveil a brand new iPhone in a little over a week, only instead of going big, the first new iPhone of 2016 will be perfect for people with tiny hands and those who don’t want to spend a lot on a new smartphone.
The rumor mill has been serving up juicy bits of gossip on Apple’s upcoming handset for over a year, so as the big day approaches we have some pretty solid clues about the next iPhone’s design, hardware, price, name and much more.
Here are the probable answers to all your iPhone SE questions.
Apple has confirmed the date of its next keynote event, which will take place on March 21 in Cupertino, California.
Invitations to the event don’t offer any details about what’s going to be unveiled, but feature a tagline (“Let us loop you in”) and close-up of the Apple logo.
Pay what you want for a comprehensive set of 10 courses in game development. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
It’s clear that video games aren’t going anywhere, and they remain as rich a career field for developers new and seasoned alike. Both can learn a lot from this massive bundle of 10 courses, clocking in at 108 hours, from Unity3D to JavaScript to SpriteKit and beyond. The best part is that you can pay whatever you want for these courses, with part of every dollar going to support the important work of Save the Children.
Watching a UK-only movie on Netflix from the US. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
If you live in the United States and use Netflix, you might be disappointed to find out that some shows, like Kajaki: The True Story, are unavailable due to region restrictions.
These are based on licensing agreements that Netflix has with content providers. Many shows and movies are region-locked, which means that you can’t watch a show in the U.S. if it’s only available in the U.K., and vice versa.
There is a way around it, however. Here’s how to beat Netflix region restrictions to watch whatever you want, whenever you want, from wherever you want.
One of the most positive pieces of publicity the Apple Watch has yet received came when its in-built heart monitor revealed that a teenager was suffering from a potentially fatal condition, which could have resulted in his untimely death if left unchecked.
A future feature for Apple devices might take this life-saving concept even further by not just notifying users of possible medical emergencies — but actually alerting doctors or family members on their behalf if required.
Space-age iPhone, coming soon to a 3D printer near you. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
On its journey to product perfection, Apple is well-known for its endless prototyping of the next iPhone, iMac or Apple Watch.
Now the company may add ultra-tough metal alloy Liquidmetal to the list of materials it can use to create these rapid prototypes, thanks to a cutting-edge 3D printer designed for the job.
This case may offer some big clues about Apple's next tablet. Photo: Steve Hemmerstoffer
If you’ve been lusting over the feature set of Apple’s iPad Pro, but would rather stick to the 9.7-inch form factor of the smaller-size iPad Air, today could be your lucky day.
That’s because new photos of an alleged iPad Air 3 case (complete with dummy device) appear to show that Apple’s next tablet will be a scaled-down version of the iPad Pro — complete with the same quad speaker setup as its big brother, along with the triple dot Smart Connector that the iPad Pro uses to connect to its Smart Keyboard attachment.
President Obama threw some shade Apple’s way yesterday, failing to mention it as one of the tech companies putting user privacy and security first, while describing his new Cybersecurity National Action Plan.
Obama talked about businesses which “empower Americans” by keeping them safe with extra layers of security like fingerprints scanners — only to then namecheck “companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft… and Visa.”
No mention of the company which actually popularized Touch ID then? No, just checking!
Eddy Cue explains why encryption is so important. Photo: Apple
Apple is ready to take its fight to protect user privacy all the way to the Supreme Court, says Eddie Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, in a newly-published interview with Spanish-lanugage television channel Univision News.
“We’re willing to take it wherever we have to — and such an important event needs to be settled by the Supreme Court,” Cue said.
As Arnie would say, "Do it now!" Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Renderings of a supposed Spigen case for the iPhone SE indicate that the upcoming model will take most, if not all, of its design cues from Apple’s older iPhone 5s.
The iPhone SE reportedly has the same general shape as the iPhone 5s, with round volume buttons, a power button at the top and an ovoid or pill-shaped cutout for the flash, all of which sound nothing like an iPhone 6.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of MacPrepare for even better browsing on mobile. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
Google’s mobile Chrome web browser gets a new update today, which — according to the Chrome team — has “more than a barge full of performance and stability fixes.”
We’re not sure how many software fixes a barge would hold, but we feel confident in saying it’s a whole lot.
If you come across someone cheating in a game that supports Game Center, you can easily report them. Photo: Ally Kazmucha/The App Factor
Up until recently, I almost always accepted Game Center invites from whoever. I like playing games on my iPhone and iPad and always welcome a worthy opponent. However, there are a lot of people out there cheating and faking scores. While I handled some of this by just deleting them, I also realized that there is a way to report these accounts via Game Center.
Your iPhone will always need to be recharged everyday. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Every year Apple introduces a new iPhone, and every year I get my hopes up that this will finally be the model that can go two or three days without needing to be recharged. But according to a lithium-ion battery expert, the odds of Apple adding a power source capable of boosting iPhone battery life like that are practically zero.
Dee Strand, chief scientific officer at battery research firm Wildcat Discovery Technology, says the throughput on smartphone batteries is rapidly improving every year. The problem is, new features are bogging them down.
The Microsoft Surface Book is a tablet and laptop in one. Photo: Microsoft.
Microsoft is taking a page out of Apple’s marketing playbook for its newest ads promoting the Surface Book, and the company threw in a few digs at the Mac while they were at it.
Rather than just focusing on the product, Microsoft’s new ads add a human touch by focusing on how the device has changed some professionals’ workflow. First up is photography Tim Flach, who uses a Surface Book and Surface Pen to precisely edit his incredible animal photography. If owning a Surface Book gave me killer shots just like Flach, I’d ditch my Mac too.
“Being able to use a pen like this on the screen directly with the image gives me a different relationship to it,” says Flach. “And I just can’t do that on my Mac.”
Split-screen finally comes to stock Android. Photo: GoogleSplit-screen finally comes to stock Android. Photo: Google
Google I/O doesn’t kick off for another two months, but Google won’t wait that long to drop its next-generation Android N upgrade.
Its first developer preview is out today for Nexus devices, and it comes packing a number of features swiped from iPad Pro and iOS, including split-screen multitasking, picture-in-picture mode, and bundled app notifications.
You'll be able to disable all notifications for Live Video on Facebook soon. Photo: Thomas Ulrich/Pixabay
Live Videos might be a boon to content creators who want to capture the attention of more of Facebook’s teeming throngs of users, but getting a ton of notifications from all the sources you’ve previously liked can be a serious pain in the pants.
Luckily, Facebook plans to release a new update that will let you turn off Notifications for Live Videos altogether, which should please most of the people complaining about it on Twitter.
This portable Bluetooth flash is perfect for those who thrive on nightlife. Photo: George Tinari/Cult of Mac
As far as smartphone cameras have come with improved low-light shooting and intelligent LED flash, there will always be some situations in which you could use just a bit more light. This is especially true for photographers who want to make smart adjustments for their photos, or people who tend to do most of their socializing at night. So it’s worth shining a light on iblazr 2, a fantastic Bluetooth LED flash.
This successor to Concepter’s original iblazr isn’t just your ordinary wireless LED flash. It’s equipped with tons of features that let me fine-tune the way I want my photo to come out. The most important feature for me is that it works with the native camera apps on iOS and Android. In fact, according to Concepter’s website, it’s the only wireless LED flash that does.
It turns out that Tim Cook’s old high school in Robertsdale, Alabama, isn’t quite as fond of the MacBook is he is.
Robertsdale High, from which Apple’s CEO graduated in 1978, has swapped the company’s notebooks it was giving to every student for significantly more affordable Chromebooks built by Lenovo.
Convert native and scanned PDFs into a range of editable documents Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Macs are great for handling the day to day, but there we’ve found some great ways to make it even more productive. From unlocking PDFs to removing distractions from your daily workflow and managing finances, these apps are affordable ways to get a lot more out of your Mac.
The iPhone 7 is already shimmering on the horizon. Photo: Eric Huismann
Manufacturers are gearing up for the iPhone 7, which means we’ll be getting our first blurry glimpses of what could potentially be Apple’s next-gen smartphone — courtesy of “leaked” iPhone 7 case pictures doing the rounds online.
You now have to pay more for the best Netflix package. Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac
When you’re binge-watching a show like Walking Dead or Person of Interest on Netflix, you may at times need to get up for a snack or bathroom break (or both).
Fumbling around for the mouse to bring up the playback overlay is fine, but using the keyboard to pause your streaming media is much faster. Here are five hidden keyboard shortcuts that will put you in charge of your Netflix experience.
No stereo? No problem. AmpMe app creates a sound system with all the phones at a party. Photo: AmpMe
AmpMe, the magical app that syncs multiple phones together to create one giant speaker, is getting a much needed update today that lets you take the party anywhere, even if you don’t have internet.
The Montreal-based startup revealed today that it has added a new ‘Offline Mode’ that will let users sync an unlimited number of phones together regardless of whether or not you have a data connection. And to make it easier to get the party started, the app has add a new ‘Auto-Join’ mode that makes it easier than ever to get the music listening party started.
Encryption is fast becoming the year's biggest tech story. Photo: Apple
As if the United Nation’s support wasn’t enough to show the tide is turning in Apple’s favor in its encryption standoff with the FBI, a newly-published poll suggests that registered U.S. voters are now evenly split over the year’s biggest tech story.