Apple’s set to bring the noise at an exciting new keynote event March 21, full of iPad Air 3 and iPhone SE news, and we’re sure you’re ready to hear it.
While you wait for Apple’s big event, though, we’ve gathered together all the things we think you need to know about the upcoming Apple-fest and put them into this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine.
Enjoy the noise, and check out this week’s top stories.
We’d play this game in a heartbeat, especially if it can bust video games into our living rooms in such a realistic way.
Putting on a typical virtual reality (VR) headset like an Oculus Rift can be disorienting at first, as VR tends to shut you out of the real world and into a, well, virtual one. Augmented reality, like you might find with Google Glass, for example, tends to place the digital world into the real one.
This Sulon Q looks like a VR rig, but lets you see the real world through it, with some digital overlay to make the fantasy of a video game look like it’s in the same place as you are.
In the video below, you’ll see a demo of a Jack and the Beanstalk game which starts out in the Sulon offices, but then things get fantastic fast as the giant beanstalk finds its way upward to the sky.
Check it out and thrill along with us.
Silicon Valley, the HBO comedy about the hard knocks of startup life, is coming back for its third season this April, and based on the first trailer that was released today, it’s going to be every bit as whacky as the first two seasons, if not more.
The Pied Piper gang gets a new CEO to kick things off, after last season ended with founder and CEO Richard Hendricks getting booted from his top spot by the board. It appears that Richard hasn’t completely left the company despite getting fired, while Gavin Belson and the Piper’s other rivals are still trying to kill the nerdy compression company.
Watch the first trailer below:
Tim Cook will take to the stage to host another Apple keynote on Monday, but who cares?
It seems only a small percentage of Apple fans are interested in a 4-inch iPhone, and although the rumored iPad upgrade will be a big one, interest in tablets is falling like Jennifer Lawrence at big events. So that leaves… Apple Watch straps? Please!
Without a major unveiling, is Monday’s keynote really worth getting excited for? Or will it be another disappointment, with interest quickly turning to Eddy Cue’s colorful shirts and Craig Federighi’s impeccable hair instead?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over those very questions!
On a recent episode of The App Factor podcast I got into (or rather, confessed) how many apps were on my iPhone prior to me having to start from scratch and install the OS and apps fresh (for what it’s worth, it was 750+ apps).
While I try to use my iPhone and iPad for a number of things including writing, catching up with friends and more, a lot of times I’ll want a quick fix or even an in-depth game to play.
After having to install apps from scratch and picking up a new iPad Pro, a few games made the cut while I thought what I really wanted to install and play. Here are a wide variety of games that I love. From new games to classics, these are some of my favorites.
Countless YouTube videos and reviews have demonstrated just how impressive Samsung’s new smartphone camera is in Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, but just how good is it compared to the rest of them?
According to the experts at DxOMark, it’s the best you can get right now.
The Department of Justice has pulled another surprise on Apple this week by making a last minute request to turn the company’s court appearance on March 22nd with the FBI into an evidentiary hearing.
Apple lawyers told reporters this morning that they were caught-off guard by the last minute request which should have been submitted weeks ago.
Touted as “the ultimate iPhone leather case” by its creators, the Guardian Leather case for iPhone 6 and 6s is a new wallet-style accessory with a campaign that just launched on Indiegogo. It’s designed with various functions in mind, but the focus on music takes the cake: You can control the volume from the outside of the case and even store your earbuds along the side of it.
I spent some time with the Guardian Leather to test the various functions it promises to deliver and the overall quality of the case. If you’re a fan, you have plenty of time to back the Indiegogo project — just under one month left.
GT Advanced Technologies — a.k.a. the disastrous sapphire supplier which was hired by Apple to build iPhone displays, before collapsing into bankruptcy — has announced that it has reemerged from Chapter 11 as a newly-reorganized company with a “solid balance sheet,” and “renewed strategy focused on growth in the solar and sapphire industries.”
Fancy being its first new client?
Steve Jobs was such a perfectionist that, for years, he didn’t fill his house with furniture simply because he couldn’t find items that measured up to his high standards.
Which is why it is oddly fitting that only now — approaching five years after the former Apple CEO’s death — is work finally set to begin on building Steve Jobs’ dream family house on land he bought way back in 1984.
Cloud storage is incredibly, almost unbelievably convenient. It can also be incredibly expensive, which makes this opportunity from Zoolz all the more exciting. Right now you can get five years of 100 of top notch backup for whatever you’re willing to pay. Or, beat the average price to get 500 gigs.
Chances are, you’ve lost your iPhone a time or two, even in your own home. I’ve found myself stalking around the living room, kitchen, and even bathroom trying to remember just where I left that darn iOS device.
Tile, the popular “find your stuff” tracker, has a trick you can use to find your lost iPhone, even if you’ve put the iPhone on silent.
Here’s how.
In terms of marketshare, the Apple Watch’s watchOS compared to Google’s Android Wear is likely to follow a similar trajectory to iOS and Android.
In other words, while Apple is dominating right now in smartwatch shipments, that balance promises to shift somewhat over the coming years as new low-cost competitors enter the market.
Just like its iPhone-building rival Foxconn, Apple manufacturer Pegatron is reportedly planning to build factories in India, taking advantage of the cheap labor opportunities in the country compared to China.
Will tomorrow’s iPhones be “designed in California, built in India?” Signs are increasingly pointing to yes.
Apple is looking to decrease its reliance on data infrastructure that it currently outsources to Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
Dubbed “Project McQueen,” the new project is meant to speed up Apple’s cloud services, like moving photos and videos onto your iOS devices.
Talking to your iPhone is commonplace these days, but getting Siri on your MacBook or iMac might seem like something out of a near-future like the one shown in Her by Spike Jones.
Siri on the desktop might not be as far out as it seems, though, if a new partnership between speech recognition company Sensory and Intel works out.
Apple’s own engineers may be the company’s last line of defense if it loses its case against the FBI and receives final orders to create “GovtOS,” a less secure version of the iPhone’s mobile operating system.
In fact, some reports say that even if legal proceedings go in the government’s favor, and Apple is compelled to create the software authorities are requesting, certain employees may simply quit to avoid having to make what CEO Tim Cook has called “the software equivalent of cancer.”
Barring unemployment, some encryption engineers may have a variety of other options to stick it to the man.
Maybe you’ve heard of a little sportsball contest that’s starting this week, and maybe you haven’t. If you haven’t, just know that that’s why your neighbors are going to be shouting like maniacs for the next few weeks.
My loud, a-hole neighbors aren’t the only ones excited about March Madness; Facebook’s Messenger app is also getting into the spirit with a hidden game that will test your skill, precision, and tolerance of emojis.
Here’s how to play.
I recently expressed my frustrations with Apple Music and why I didn’t plan to continue using the service. I want to love Apple Music. Siri integration and the ability to have a singular place to listen to all my music, both streamed and purchased, would be a dream come true.
Unfortunately, Apple Music currently has far too many shortcomings and quirks for me to take it seriously. However, with the help of these third-party apps, I’ve found using Apple Music to be far less painful — and, in some cases, even enjoyable.
The new Apple Events apps for tvOS has finally arrived, giving Apple TV owners a way to watch the iPhone SE keynote from the comfort of their living room.
Apple’s ‘Loop you in’ event will be the company’s first keynote to stream on the new Apple TV, only unlike previous event channels, you’ll have to download it from the App Store to tune in.
T-Mobile Binge On, the awesome service that lets you enjoy all the videos your eyes can handle without eating into your data plan, now supports YouTube, Discovery GO, and a whole bunch of other streaming services.
In some kind of weird time vortex that makes me feel like it’s 1991 again (now if only I could find my original cassette of Nirvana’s Nevermind!), Apple is giving everyone the chance to huddle around their TV set again playing SEGA Genesis classic Sonic the Hedgehog.
That’s because the original platformer featuring everyone’s favorite blue-spined, ring-collecting, chili dog-eating speedster just landed on Apple TV — with sequels Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic CD following later this month.
Jump Legends is a new adventure game for iOS with something very interesting going for it. Your character is an adventurer that’s traveling and jumping through various obstacles to collect different rewards and treasures.
Ultimately, your only responsibility in the entire game is to simply tap so your character jumps as needed. In Jump Legends, this proves extremely challenging because your journey changes every single time you lose.
This is a guest post by Karthik Suroju, a digital marketer at CloudMagic.
The iOS App Store is a one-stop destination for everything consumers need on the iPhone and iPad. However, that’s not the case with the Mac App Store. At the beginning of January 2016, there were 1,234,267 apps for iPhones, 662,984 for iPads and a mere 27,011 for Macs.
New video of an alleged iPhone 7 case appears to show major changes destined for Apple’s next-gen smartphone.
If it is accurate, the case appears to confirm that Apple will kill the headphone jack and add stereo speakers to the bottom of the device, which should be revealed later this year.