A look at Rocky's ruined iPhone 6 Plus. Photo: Channel Two Action News
A man in Atlanta claims he was forced to strip in public after his iPhone 6 Plus caught fire while in the front pocket of his jeans.
“I mean, it was pretty humiliating having to take your pants off in a parking lot,” he told the local Channel Two Action News, asking them to withhold his identity, other than his first name of Rocky.
Apple will finally get its hands on Samsung's sweet, sweet cash. Photo: Cult of MacApple will finally get its hands on this sweet, sweet cash. Photo: Cult of Mac
Following quite literally years of appeals and retrials, Samsung is finally paying Apple the $548,176,477 it owes for infringing on patents owned by the Cupertino company.
Four months before the fifth anniversary of the original complaint, Apple will receive the money from Samsung by December 14 — with Apple and Samsung filing a joint case management statement with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, stating that Samsung, “has made arrangements to complete payment to Apple.”
The countdown to the next Apple TV has already begun. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
The new, fourth generation Apple TV is still settling into its home next to our television sets, but already Apple is hard at work on its successor, according to a new report.
Apple’s suppliers are said to be putting a limited number of the new Apple TV into limited, small-scale “trial” production, ahead of volume production beginning early in 2016.
"Hey, Siri: Erase Iron Man 2 from existence." Photo: Apple
In a brand-new iPhone 6s ad, director Jon Favreau (Iron Man) looks to Siri for help in his directorial duties.
The spot, called “iPhone 6s – On the Set,” has the director trying to explain to some actors (presumably on his upcoming live action-ish adaptation of The Jungle Book) the finer points of playing flying squirrels.
Like this, but you’re wearing a big thing on your face.
Google has unleashed a free app that will let anyone with an Android phone take panoramic videos and record sound. Later, you’ll be able to use your virtual-reality headset of choice to relive those moments in 3-D.
The app is called Cardboard Camera, after Google’s own build-it-yourself VR goggles, and it’s available now in the Google Play app store.
A painting by artist Jorge Pardo is taking work away from bull-slinging gallery explainers.
The piece, which is currently showing at Art Basel in Miami, depicts an impressionist version of the artist on a slide at a water park. It comes from a photograph his daughter took and looks really cool, but that’s not the most interesting part of the work.
That honor belongs to the iPad set into the lower-right corner of the piece that can let anyone who walks by connect to Pardo via Skype.
The STACK PACK takes the cord out of charging your iPhone. Photo: STACKED
We are wireless, but not quite wire-free. One company wants to help iPhone users cut a couple of cords with a magnetic charging solution called the STACK PACK.
It’s all capital letters for a product that sounds more like workout vitamins. The STACK PACK promises to pack just as much power as that soon-to-be obsolete charging cord — except with shorter charging times and a satisfying feeling as your iPhone magnetically clicks onto a battery or charger.
Great playlists deserve to be on all my devices. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
I made an Apple Music playlist of Paste’s top 50 albums of 2015 via iTunes on my Mac. I was able to share it out on Facebook and to my friends via Messages, but I wasn’t able to see the playlist on my iPhone.
I made sure that I was logged in to my iTunes account on both my Mac and my iPhone, I signed in and out of iCloud, and I even force-quit Apple Music on my iPhone to try and fix the issue. None of these options worked.
After a bit of searching on the internet, I figured out what the problem was.
Here’s what you can do if you’re having the same issue.
Get ready to illuminate your Apple logo. Photo: David Cogen
We love seeing Apple’s glowing logo every time a MacBook lid opens, so wouldn’t it be awesome to have the same feature on your iPhone?
Making your iPhone 6 stand out in a sea of other iPhones is now a whole lot easier, thanks to an inexpensive new LED logo kit that brings an illuminated Apple logo to the back of your device. The hack is reversible and supposedly won’t drain your battery — but it might void your warranty.
Will the iPhone 6c be a flop like the 5c? Photo: Gadgetmac/Flickr
The upcoming 4-inch iPhone that has been picking up steam in the rumor mill the last few weeks won’t be a weakling when it comes to processing power, according to a new report that claims Apple’s new A9 chip will power the device.
Apple expert Ming-Chi Kuo at KGI Securities told investors today that his sources indicate the iPhone 6c is definitely real, and that it will look more like the iPhone 5s than an iPhone 6.
Turn your iPhone into a trusted lighting assistant on photo shoots with the Luma Power. Photo: Lumu Labs
A good photographer doesn’t say, I’ll fix it later in Photoshop. Lumu Labs understood this when they developed an accessory in 2013 that turns the iPhone into a light meter.
Though heralded by working photographers and tech journalists at the time, Lumu Labs wasn’t satisfied with the bulbous little device that hooks into the headphone jack. They continued to tinker and came up with the next generation of light meter that is like having a knowledgeable photo assistant in the palm of your hand.
Apple's Swift language is now open source. Photo: Apple
Swift, the fast growing computer programming language created by Apple, is officially going open source starting today.
Apple unveiled Swift at WWDC in 2014 with a promise to make it open source in the future. Now that the language has become one of the fastest adopted languages in history, the company announced this morning that the time is right to open up access.
The Juiceboxx Charger Case is just one of the stocking stuffers that should be on your list. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Candy canes are great and all, but in this day and age we’ve come to expect something more when digging into our stockings. Thankfully some of the neatest stuff for stockings, whether portable power, phone-mounted lasers or hands free mounts — is also super affordable. The following are just a few of the awesome stocking stuffers we’ve gathered at Cult of Mac Deals.
It's not quite CarPlay, but it's close. Photo: Ford
The Apple Car may be a few years off, but a new deal signed between Ford and Apple is bringing Siri to 5 million more cars.
According to a new report, a software update available today means that any Ford owners who bought a Ford car with SYNC functionality after 2011 can take advantage of Siri Eyes Free by initiating a long press of the voice recognition button on their steering wheel.
The iPhone has been the top choice among Flickr photographers beginning in 2015. Photo: Flickr
The longtime Kings of the Camera must know their kingdoms are shrinking. If Canon or Nikon need further evidence, Flickr’s 2015 Year in Review shows the popular tool of choice for an engaged and global photography community is not a dedicated camera. It’s first and foremost a phone.
Apple’s iPhone was the popular device used by the Flickr community, according to an analysis of the EXIF data on pictures uploaded to the site. iPhone cameras accounted for 42 percent of the photos on the site, compared to the DSLRs of Canon, 27 percent, and the Nikon, 16 percent.
December is a month when most people can’t avoid shopping. You may have skipped Black Friday, but the holiday season is a different beast altogether, with gifts from loved ones, friends, and people you barely know coming at you from all angles.
Maintain lots of holiday cheer by shopping wisely with our December buying guide. We’ve pored over the extensive DealNews archives from years past to guide you in your quest for the most savvy purchases in December.
With over 1 billion downloads, Temple Run and it’s sequel, Temple Run 2, are the very definition of mobile gaming success.
It’s even better that husband and wife developers and co-founders Keith Shepherd and Natalia Luckyanova are such incredibly nice people. Their startup, Imangi Studios, has found the gold at the end of the rainbow, and they’ve no intention of stopping.
“Frozen Shadows” is the latest (and largest) free update to the franchise yet, giving you new characters like Guy Dangerous and Scarlett Fox to run through a brand-spanking-new ice world. You’ll also get new artifacts, winter costumes, and an absolutely terrifying new demon monkey to run from. Yikes!
“We’re really trying to expand the Temple Run universe,” Shepherd told us on the phone, “in much the same way as a novelist or storyteller would.”
Play Crossy Road with a pal, even without a second controller. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Once Apple brought games to the Apple TV, it was a no-brainer that we’d all want to play them together on the couch in our living room.
Apple requires developers to support the new Siri Remote, but they can also allow third-party game controllers to move stuff around on the screen, too.
Crossy Road, the excellent Frogger-like hit iOS game with the seemingly endless supply of cute creatures to play as (that was also an Apple TV launch title), goes one step further. If you want to play with a buddy and don’t have a second gamepad, you can have your pal play Crossy Road on Apple TV with just their iPhone.
Your next Watch strap could get a serious high-tech boost. Photo: Apple
Apple has a range of different Apple Watch straps available — but, aside from letting you pick the perfect strap to suit the rest of your attire, they all serve exactly the same function: keeping Apple’s debut wearable safely strapped to your wrist.
That may change in future iterations of the Apple Watch, with a new patent application published today describing how future Watch straps (or straps for other Apple devices) may include flexible displays woven into the material, offering another way of presenting user messages or notifications.
Could Apple build a mass-market 3D printer for consumers? Photo: Apple
Apple hasn’t released a new printer since the heady days of the LaserWriter 8500 in 1997, but a new patent application suggests the company is working on a new printer — and it’s no ordinary one, either.
Published today under the name “Method and apparatus for three dimensional printing of colored objects,” the patent application describes a 3-D printer capable of not only printing amazing three-dimensional structures, but doing so in multiple colors.
Did antitrust investigators target the wrong company? Photo: Apple
A group of authors and booksellers are standing by Apple in its decision to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling stating that Apple conspired to fix eBook prices when it launched its iBook store way back in January 2010.
The Authors Guild, Authors United, the American Booksellers Association, and Barnes & Noble have all banded together to file an “amicus brief” in the United States, arguing that the belief that Apple was taking place in “anti-competitive activities” was “misplaced.”
Streaming Steam games on Apple TV? Yes please. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
If you’re hoping to stream games from Steam to your new Apple TV, developer Kevin Smith (no, not the Clerks guy) has shown it is possible by modifying the Moonlight iOS project — which lets users stream Steam games from a desktop computer to their iOS device — so that it works with tvOS.
Did Silicon Valley close ranks to bring down the Steve Jobs movie? Photo: Joi Ito/Flickr CC
New York Times tech writer Nick Bilton has taken aim at Silicon Valley in his latest column — attacking it for helping to bring down Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs biopic, which so far has earned just $18 million at the box office in its first seven weeks.
Zoolz Cold Storage offers ultra affordable lifetime storage for up to a terabyte of your most valuable data. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Cloud storage has matured into a reliable and sensible solution for keeping data secure and accessible. Also reliable is the high cost of that storage. Thankfully there’s a way to significantly drop the price just by reducing the access speed, like with Zoolz Cold Storage. They’re offering a terabyte of storage for life for just $39.
Apple TV needs a better way to login to stuff. Photo: Twitter/Digits
Logging into any service on Apple TV is a pain. The text-entry field is one long line, and if you’ve got a particularly lengthy username or password for apps on the Apple TV, entering them can take much longer than it should.
Twitter-owned Digits is offering its own take on a solution with an SDK that tvOS developers can implement in their apps and let users type in a short string of numbers and letters that they get from their iPhone, rather than the full-on username and password combination.
This could solve the problem altogether, and it’s not much more tricky than using an app for Two-Step Authentication, which we all do now, anyway (or should).