Apple has released its latest report on government information requests, showing how many times it has been asked to hand over data on its users over the six month span running from July to December 2015.
At a time when Apple was increasingly finding itself at odds with the Justice Department over the topic of encryption (something which exploded earlier this year with the San Bernardino shooting case), U.S. law enforcement made requests relating to 5,192 individual Apple accounts.
Apple Pay has made its debut in Singapore, bringing the total number of countries adopting Apple’s mobile payment service to six — also including the U.S., Canada, China, Australia, and United Kingdom.
As in Australia and Canada, the service is initially available only for American Express customers, although Apple says it looks forward to new banks and card providers joining throughout 2016.
Do you know how many times a day you unlock your iPhone? Every time you do, you’re participating in Apple’s user-friendly encryption scheme.
Friday, the company hosted a security “deep dive” at which it shared some interesting numbers about its security measures and philosophy as well as user habits. To be honest, we’re less concerned with how Apple’s standards work than the fact that they do and will continue to. But that’s kind of the point behind the whole system — Apple designed its encryption system so that we don’t even have to think about it.
Hollywood’s top filmmakers held secret meetings with Apple at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, according to a new report that claims Apple is planning to make a big play to take on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video by creating its own original TV shows and movies.
Apple hosted a secret ‘iTunes Lounge’ at Sundance for a number of invitation-only events for film makers, producers, actors, and other A-list talent to hear the company’s pitch on how it plans to create a ton of original content that will be exclusively available on Apple TV.
The TrueTone display on the new iPad Pro may actually be worth all the hype.
Experts at the display evaluating site DisplayMate have finally put the 9.7-inch iPad Pro display through a gauntlet of extensive testing and discovered that Apple’s new display is “by far the best performing mobile LCD display that has ever been tested.”
There are plenty of reasons you might want to wipe your iPhone of its data. Whether you’re selling it through our Apple gear buyback program, recycling it or handing it down, wiping your iPhone is a simple and effective way to keep your information safe.
This tip won’t help everyone, but it should be a huge timesaver for multilingual users: You can change your Apple Watch language for Messages with just a couple quick taps. And you can do it directly on the device without having to go into the companion app on your phone.
Here’s how to make it happen.
Update: Apple has confirmed that its Worldwide Developers Conference 2016 will take place June 13 through June 17 in San Francisco. The keynote address will rock the stage at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, with the remainder of the week’s sessions at Moscone Center West. See below for registration details.
While Apple has not yet made public the dates or location for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, apparently Siri knows when and where the event will take place.
Kanye West tricked fans into subscribing to Tidal, claims a new class-action lawsuit against the rapper for backtracking on his commitment to make ‘The Life of Pablo’ a Tidal exclusive.
Yeezus originally proclaimed that his highly anticipated new album would be available exclusively on Tidal and would never go on sale. In a Twitter rant a few days after the album’s release, West told fans the album would “never ever be on Apple,” only to turn around a month later and put it on Apple Music and Spotify.
It looks like it’s about to all fall down on Kanye, Jay Z and Tidal, now that some gold diggers are claiming it was all just a ploy to boost Tidal’s subscribers.
Quit cheating, or face the consequences, says top mobile developer Supercell, the team behind insanely popular games Clash of Clans and Clash Royale.
With the incredible popularity of these two top iOS mobile games, it’s no wonder that Supercell has had to crack down on cheaters.
Legendary Silicon Valley tech adviser and former Apple board member Bill Campbell had died.
Campbell was popular for dishing out wise advice to top tech leaders like Steve Jobs, Larry Page and Jeff Bezos, and was popularly known by his nickname, “The Coach.”
Ask Amazon’s Echo smart speaker “How much does the Earth weigh?” and she’ll rattle off the answer in pounds. It takes about a full minute and is genuinely amusing. It’s just one of many surprises up Echo’s sleeve (see this crazy list of Echo Easter Eggs on Reddit). It proves she is by far the best computer you can talk to. Sorry Siri.
And now there are two new members of Amazon’s smart speaker family, both with significant advantages. I love them both, with a couple of caveats.
When you connect online, it’s through a Domain Name System, or DNS. Depending on which DNS network you use, you could be faced with various types of restrictions like blocked shows and sites, or run the risk of your data and identity being exposed to theft. StreamJack offers a proprietary DNS network that bypasses many of those issues, offering the chance to get access and anonymity no matter where you log on for just $29.
Google’s upcoming Android N upgrade will bring native support for iPhone-like pressure-sensitive displays.
The move should make “3D Touch” screens more popular on Android, and will make it easier for app developers to take advantage of them.
Amazon is stepping up its battle with competitor Netflix by introducing a payment option allowing customers to buy its streaming video service for a monthly fee of $8.99 — one dollar less than Netflix’s most popular subscription plan.
Previously Amazon’s video service was only available to Prime members, who paid $99 annually for cheaper, faster shipping, alongside other perks.
Taylor Swift continues her about-turn on Apple Music by appearing in a new ad for the streaming music service, in which the hit-maker rocks out to Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” while appearing to get ready for a night on the town.
Check it out below.
It seems that research for Apple’s automotive “Project Titan” is picking up speed, with a newly published report claiming Cupertino has opened a small R&D office in Berlin — with the sole purpose of inventing the electric car of the future.
The new Apple car facility employs between 15 and 20 “top-class” employees, many of whom have previously worked in Germany’s buoyant automotive industry. Skills include everything from creating software to mechanical engineering and sales expertise.
Despite being a veritable genius when it comes to selling the masses on the latest tech product, Steve Jobs once candidly admitted that he set strict guidelines for how much time his own kids were allowed to watch screens at home.
It seems Jobs’ Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, isn’t quite on the same page, however — as Woz argues in a new interview that kids should be able to spend as much time on the computer as they want.
Jony Ive’s beloved aluminum casing is as about as iconic a part of the iPhone as the Apple logo or a working OS. Despite that, a new report claims that the company will ditch its aluminum look for an all-glass enclosure for next year’s iPhone 7s.
Reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo revealed this tidbit over the weekend in a note to clients, which also reiterated the view that the 2017-era iPhone will sport an OLED display.
The recent earthquakes which struck Japan may have affected the iPhone 7 supply chain — particularly related to the next-gen handset’s camera module.
In a week in which Tim Cook was named the most influential gay man in America, Apple Stores went green in advance of Earth Day and much, much more, app developers continued to do what they do best: to churn out high-quality apps to improve all of our lives.
I’ve chosen four great apps for this week’s app roundup — including a smart calendar app, a truly awesome photography app, and some great new games. Check out our picks below.
With a device as popular as the iPhone, the countless peripheral products that become available make it hard to find the right one for you, and cases are no exception. Lucky for you, we’ve found four of the sleekest and feature rich iPhone 6 and 6S cases you’ll ever find. Now you won’t have to spend days searching out a case that can keep your phone charged and protected in a style that suits your own.
Complex disciplines like software development take preparation and strategy to learn and engage productively. Unless you’re in school for it, the responsibility of finding the shape of the subject, pinpointing the areas to focus and in what sequence — it’s all left up to the aspiring app developer to decide themselves.
This bundle of 10 discrete courses will help you make sense of the wide and wild world of web development. It normally goes for well over a thousand dollars, but right now you can get access for just $49.
This week on The CultCast: We recall how Steve Jobs and the industrial design team brought Apple back from the brink. Plus: The reason Jony Ive gave up his car for a chauffeur; one year with the Apple Watch; and we reveal the strange cultural phenomena we’ve been secretly loving in an all-new What We’re Into.
Our thanks for Freshbooks for supporting this episode. FreshBooks is the easy-to-use invoicing software designed to help small business owners get organized, save time invoicing and get paid faster. Get started now with a 30-day free trial.
Why does Jony Ive, Apple’s chief designer, ride around in a chauffeured Bentley? It’s not like he doesn’t enjoy driving. It’s not because he’s incredibly wealthy, either.
Our very own Leander Kahney thinks he’s got Ive’s ride along motivation down, and you can read all about it in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine, along with great stories covering 8 ways to speed up your Mac, getting ripped with your Apple Watch, why a veteran designer’s departure from Apple matters, and how to use your own Bluetooth headphones with Apple TV for a much more private experience.
All that and much more in another awesome issue of Cult of Mac Magazine, available now for download.
Here are the week’s top stories.