
If you think everyone and their sister has a Gmail account or uses WhatsApp these days, you wouldn’t be too far off.
Both tech giants, one a messaging app, the other an email service, have hit some serious milestones today.

If you think everyone and their sister has a Gmail account or uses WhatsApp these days, you wouldn’t be too far off.
Both tech giants, one a messaging app, the other an email service, have hit some serious milestones today.
Google’s parent company Alphabet is now the most valuable company in the world, passing Apple in market capitalization today in after hours trading.
This is the first time since February of 2010 that Google has passed Apple in value. The Cupertino-based iPhone maker has held the top spot since 2013 when it passed Exxon Mobile, but thanks to a strong earnings report today, Alphabet has rocketed to the top.
Need to add that special musical magic to your short film or home video, but know next to nothing about film scoring or playing an instrument?
Filmstro’s got your back with a super easy-to-use Mac app that will let you create powerful, custom soundtracks simply and easily without needing to know how to compose or write music.
I travel frequently, both for work and for pleasure. Over the past few years I’ve found certain accessories I just can’t live without. Whether I’m walking out the door to a coffee shop or I am getting on a plane and need to pack more serious gear, these are the travel accessories I couldn’t live without when it comes to iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.

As the iPhone becomes increasingly popular in China, its Galaxy-branded rivals are falling. According to the latest data from Strategy Analytics, Samsung dropped out of the top five smartphone makers in China last year, with Apple the only non-Chinese company to make the list.

Android’s Material Design spec is coming to your desktop. With an upcoming Chrome update, Google will introduce a brand new look that will be immediately familiar to those who regularly use the company’s mobile apps — and we can’t wait.
The iPad Pro and Apple Pencil are impressive tools but what becomes of the special bond an artist has with their sketchbook?
This is centuries-old relationship Apple is disrupting, so an accessories company has designed a case for the iPad Pro that has the look and feel of a personal and coveted sketchbook.
Microsoft still has a long way to go before it takes down the iPad.
The iPad Pro absolutely dominated the Microsoft tablet lineup, selling more units than the Surface Pro 4 and Surface 3 combined, according to the latest estimates from IDC which revealed that the iPad Pro was the clear winner this season as the top selling detachable tablet.
As a longtime iPhotos user, I’ve taken my sweet time getting to know the new Photos app in OS X. But I can tell you this much: It brings a few differences in the way it does stuff.
One of the new subtleties of the Mac’s Photos app is how it treats exporting your pictures. There are two ways to get your images out of the Photos app. One will give you a smaller file; the other will preserve the higher resolution of the original photo.
Here’s how to make sure you’re exporting your photos at the quality you want.
The iPad Air 3 is poised to be the biggest upgrade the iPad lineup has ever seen, but all those new features might come with a price of extra thickness.
An alleged schematic of the iPad Air 3 has been leaked that shows the upcoming device’s exact dimensions. The schematic also appears to confirm that the iPad Air 3 will use the Smart Connector found on the iPad Pro.
Check it out:
It’s a product with some holes in it and it’s the holes that could be of interest to Apple fans excited about the upcoming iPad Air 3.
A photo allegedly showing an Air 3 case has cutouts for a Smart Connector and four speakers. The Japanese Apple blog Macotakara raised the possibility of a beefed up iPad after seeing a case available for pre-order on Alibaba.
iPhones are amazing, but they can be better. How? That’s up for you to decide. One of the great things about the explosion of the iPhone is all the peripherals that have been made to trick them out. We’ve found some of the best add ons for the one device most of us always have with us. Take a look and see what grabs you:
Bill Gates has a song in his heart for the late Steve Jobs. Yes, they were fierce rivals as they pioneered products that revolutionized personal computing, but the competition mellowed into a good friendship.
So when Gates, in an interview on BBC show Desert Island Discs, was asked to choose eight songs and why they are meaningful to him, he had one picked out for Jobs — “Two of Us” by The Beatles.
Don’t count on Porsche to enter the self-driving car craze anytime soon.
In an interview with a German newspaper, Porsche’s CEO Oliver Blume turned up his nose at the idea that one day humans will no longer be in command behind the wheel, saying the company does not plan to develop self-driving vehicles.
To make the point clear that Porsche will not team up with a tech company, the CEO then dropped a not so subtle dig at Apple’s electric car project.

Four out of the five most popular gadgets on Facebook are Apple devices, according to the social network’s new Preferred Audience tool. Unsurprisingly, the iPhone tops the list with more than four times as much interest as fourth-placed Samsung Galaxy.
Apple is bringing back its popular ‘Shot on iPhone’ advertising campaign that won several awards in 2015, only this year instead of using pictures of scenic landscapes and city life, the company is changing the focus by using only portrait photos.
Traveling abroad, especially for the first time, can be overwhelming. From figuring out transit systems to finding places to say, there’s a lot to consider. That’s why over the past several years, I’ve come to rely on a handful of choice apps to help me travel better, smarter, and cheaper.
International or not, these are the travel apps for iPhone and iPad I never leave home without:
As much as technology has become a ‘bicycle for the brain’, somehow the part of it that remembers where we put our wallet doesn’t get much exercise. Thankfully technology can help us with that too, from showing us where we left our keys, our car, even our pet if they run away. We’ve gathered a handful of the best tracking tech out there, and all for a fraction the usual price.
Take a look at what we’ve found:
As someone who plays guitar and records my own music, I’ve been really keen on trying to record an EP using iOS only. I’ve done it on a Mac before, but since the introduction of the iPad I’ve been wanting to record on a touch interface. I’ve used an iPad mini, and it worked well, but with the introduction of the iPad Pro, I wanted to give it another go. Here’s what I’ve learned so far.
This week on The CultCast: A souped-up iPad Air 3 coming in March; “iPhone 5se” would be a terrible name for a 4-inch iPhone; the iPhone 7 Plus PLUS is for those who demand only the best mobile camera; and why Apple is pumping the brakes on their electric car.
Our thanks for supporting this episode goes to FreshBooks, the easy-to-use invoicing software designed to help small business owners get organized, save time invoicing and get paid faster. Get started with a free trial at Freshbooks.com/cultcast.
Despite its heart-shaped icon, Health is an unloved app. It tends to gets relegated to a junk folder, along with other un-deletable Apple cruft, like the Stocks app.
But when you get past its garish colors and clunky user interface, Apple’s Health app turns out to be genuinely useful — if you customize the dashboard to match your personal fitness goals.
Another day, another batch of new ways to trick out your Mac. From fully removing deleted apps and all their digital detritus, to creating timelapses, recording screen activity and more, we’ve found some of the coolest enhancements for your Mac. And all of them are under $25.
Take a look for yourself:
There are so many new leaks and rumors about upcoming Apple gear, we’re awash in joyful speculation. There’s the new iPhone 7 just for photographers, new iPad Air 3 details, and some hidden iPad Pro firmware features, just for starters.
Add to that some fine new how-tos, some great app roundups and a look at Apple’s biggest financial quarter yet, and you’ve got a fantastic digital magazine ready for downloading right now.
Here are the top stories from this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine.
Apple is finally correcting an issue with Siri that it has known about since at least 2011.
The problem has appeared when users ask the virtual assistant to show nearby facilities that offer abortion services. For years, the results have directed people toward adoption centers, which is kind of the opposite of what they were looking for.
Apple says it’s made improvements to the search algorithm since it first identified the problem, but some users are still getting the undesired suggestions.
As our digital lives converge across mobile and desktop devices like our iPhones and Macbooks, we rely on them knowing where we are at any given time. Safari suggestions, for example, count on knowing your location, as do any Maps searches or such.
You might want to know when your Location data is being used, however, for privacy reason. If you enable the Location Services menu bar, you’ll be able to see when any app is accessing your private location data, making it more possible to lock down any sources you don’t want using it.
Here’s how to get that menu bar notice working.