Mobile menu toggle

Swatch and Visa partner to one-up Apple Pay

By •

Apple Pay iPhone
Swatch isn't going to let Apple have all of the contactless-payment fun.
Photo: Apple

Like the Borg, Star Trek‘s race of cybernetically enhanced humanoids, Swiss watch maker Swatch is attempting to have the best of both worlds as it rolls out a partnership with Visa to bring Apply Watch-style contactless payment to its new line of analog timepieces.

Swatch announced the deal today, and the program will roll out early next year.

iPod Pro’s A9X processor packs gigantic 12-cluster GPU (but no L3 cache)

By •

The A9X chip puts iPhone 6s graphics to shame.
The A9X chip puts iPhone 6s graphics to shame.
Photo: Apple

The enormous iPad Pro has an appropriately huge graphics processor.

A teardown analysis by electronics firm Chipworks has revealed details of the new A9X processor that powers the Apple’s plus-size tablet, including the 12-cluster GPU that’s twice as powerful as the A9 processor found in the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.

Here’s a closer look at the chip:

Amazon is bringing Instant Video app to Apple TV

By •

Apple TV 4 brings iOS apps to the big screen.
Apple TV 4 brings iOS apps to the big screen.
Photo: Apple

Amazon’s Instant Video service has one of the best libraries in the world, but if you’re an Apple user, it has a crucial weakness: the only way to get it on Apple TV is to AirPlay it from an iOS or OS X device.

AirPlaying can be unreliable at times and you can’t use certain apps without cutting off your Amazon stream. That could change in just a few weeks though, according to an Amazon employee who let it slip that the company is working on an app for the new Apple TV.

Cyber Monday liveblog: Great deals on Macbooks, Bluetooth speakers, iPad cases and more

By •

cybermondaybanner-1

Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

cybermondaybug

Black Friday was great, but there are even more killer sales for Cyber Monday. Check out the most spectacular deals below, like huge deals on rugged Bluetooth speakers, still-useful discounts on Macbook and Macbook Air, and a super useful iPad keyboard case for less.

Cult of Mac will keep digging through Cyber Monday ads to find the best deals on Apple products, electronics and gifts for everyone on your list. The deals are all piping-hot and ready for your online shopping blitz.

Apple Music is coming soon to Sonos’ awesome speakers

By •

The new Play:5 speaker is a great update to Sonos' top-of-the-line box.
Sonos will bring sweet Apple Music to its line of speakers soon.
Photo: Traci Dauphin/Cult of Mac

Sonos, maker of some the best wireless speaker systems in the world, revealed today that it will add support for Apple Music by the end of the year.

The says a public beta for Apple Music on Sonos will be made available December 15. Sonos’ integration with Apple Music will allow subscribers to access the For You, My Music, New and Radio features of the service. A general availability to all users is scheduled for an early 2016 launch.

SnowCast will help you find (or avoid) the powder this winter

By •

snowcast-snow-prediction-ios-app - 3
SnowCast warns you if a warm fireplace is in your near future.
Photo: SnowCast

Shake hands with SnowCast. Make some small talk. It’s in your best interest, since this app is very quickly going to become one of your best friends as the winter season rapidly approaches. SnowCast very simply lets you know how much snow you’ll be getting over the next 48 hours at any given time.

Depending on where you are, that snowfall amount could be nothing. If you live in a mountainous area, that could be two feet. Maybe the amount is exactly 6.37 inches. Either way, SnowCast will keep you in the loop so you can decide whether to light the fire or go skiing.

OS X 10.11.2 beta 5 is now available

By •

el-capitan-beta
New El Capitan beta is here.
Photo: Apple

The fifth beta for OS X El Capitan 10.11.2 was seeded by Apple to developers and public beta testers today.

The new beta build 15C47a comes over two weeks after the previous beta was released, and should be one of the final beta builds before the update is released to the public.

Apple’s R&D spending proves innovation isn’t all about money

By •

Apple hQ
Apple's building a new office in San Jose.
Photo: Apple

When it comes to innovation, Apple is proving that it’s not all about the money.

While competitors like Google, Facebook and Qualcomm dump huge percentages of their revenue back into R&D on projects like autonomous cars and Internet drones, a recent Bloomberg report highlights how Apple has gotten the biggest bang for its buck in R&D, despite spending less than any other major tech company.

Cool Bean snowboard is nothing if not cool beans

By •

The Cool Bean snowboard looks weird but is a ton of fun.
The Cool Bean snowboard looks weird but is a ton of fun.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Best List: Cool Bean snowboard by K2

If you hope to spend run after run in the sweet, deep powder on a single plank this winter, you’ll want a state-of-the-art companion.

K2 Snowboarding’s Cool Bean is just that: a directional, short and fat board with a swallowtail design that’s built for the freshies and surfing whatever the mountain throws at you.

Keep the cyber in Cyber Monday with deals on iOS, Microsoft and Adobe training [Deals]

By •

b39f7f132f670f5975f1b74c91930c28ff0f8be9_main_hero_image

Instead of buying a new TV or juicer this Cyber Monday, invest in your own tech savviness. From training in iOS and Xcode to Microsoft Office and Adobe’s array of creative products, you’ll emerge from the holidays ready to take on new challenges and better gigs. And most digital deals like these get another 25% taken off if you enter the coupon code ‘CYBERMONDAY25’ at checkout.

Steve Jobs director: We were arrogant to release movie like we did

By •

Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs movie is coming to Netflix
Danny Boyle thinks movie should never have been released wide so quickly.
Photo: François Duhamel/©2015 Universal Studios

Danny Boyle, director of the unfortunate box office bomb Steve Jobs, has said that people involved with the movie were guilty of behaving in an “arrogant” way.

Why? Not through twisting the truth, or painting an unfairly unflattering portrait of Apple’s late CEO as some have suggested — but rather opening the movie wide as quickly as they did.

Target sold one iPad per second on Thanksgiving

By •

iPad mini 4
iPads were flying off the shelves on Thursday.
Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac

We’ve written about how the overwhelming majority of Thanksgiving mobile shopping was done using iOS devices, but Apple devices themselves were (perhaps unsurprisingly) highly in demand during last week’s big U.S. holiday.

According to one report, Target managed especially impressive sales of both iPads and Apple Watches during Thanksgiving — with Apple’s debut wearable device proving very popular, while iPads sold at the rate of one per second throughout Thursday.

Apple could sell up to 6 million Watches over holiday season

By •

Space black link bracelets kits now available.
Interest in Apple Watch could double over holiday season.
Photo: Apple

Compared to the massive numbers of iPhones it unloads each year, Apple has “only” sold around 6-7 million Apple Watches since the device’s launch earlier this year.

Granted, that’s still more than the entire rest of the smartwatch industry combined, but a new report suggests that Apple could be on course to sell almost the same quantity again over the holiday quarter — signalling a near-doubling of sales for Apple’s debut wearable device.

Unhappy customer sues Apple for deleting his iPhone photos

By •

Apple is the U.K.'s top tech employer.
Staff at the Regent Street Apple Store accidentally deleted 15 years' contacts and photos.
Photo: Apple

A 68-year-old pensioner is suing Apple for “[wiping] away his life” after staff at the Regent Street Apple Store in London accidentally deleted his photos and contacts while fixing his iPhone 5.

Londoner Deric White lost photos from his honeymoon, along with 15 years’ worth of contact numbers.

Apple working on new MacBook Airs to debut at WWDC

By •

Photo: Apple
Apple may replace 11-inch MacBook Air with a 15-inch model.
Photo: Apple

Apple is reported to be working on new MacBook Air models to launch at the 2016 WWDC event, most likely to be held in June.

Citing sources in the supply chain, the report claims that Apple may ditch the smaller size 11-inch MacBook Air, but add a 15-inch model, much as it currently offers with the MacBook Pro.

Jeremy Clarkson shows off Amazon’s drone delivery system

By •

Amazon Prime Air
Coming soon to a garden near you?
Photo: Amazon

It’s been a hot minute or two since Amazon last released any information about its proposed drone-based delivery system, Amazon Prime Air, which may one day be dropping off our new iPhones and iPads in the most gravity-defying way possible.

That changed late Sunday when the mega retailer released a brand new video preview showing how the system may work — delivering our new purchases within an impressive 30-minute window. Check it out below.

Lara Croft Go, Reeder 3 and other awesome apps of the week

By •

appsoftheweek_1024
'Appy weekend everyone!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Another weekend is whizzing by and — with evenings continuing to draw in and memories of summer sun a distant memory — it’s the perfect time to catch up on the best apps currently circulating in the iOS App Store ecosystem.

Whether you’re planning on a lazy game-playing Sunday, or want to be up on the latest secure messaging app, we’ve got something for you. Read on to find out what we’ve picked.

Caseology review: Testing 4 of the nicest iPhone 6s cases available

By •

caseology-cases-all-four
From left to right: Skyfall series, Wavelength, Vault and Savoy.
Photo: George Tinari/Cult of Mac

Caseology is a fairly new smartphone case brand and the company was kind enough to send Cult of Mac four different cases from its iPhone 6s lineup to test out. With the vast majority of Caseology cases on Amazon receiving 4-star and 4 and a half-star reviews, I was eager to see if they lived up to the hype.

I got to use a navy blue and rose gold Savoy series case, navy blue and gold Wavelength series case, the silver and black Vault series case and the clear and rose gold Skyfall series case. In short, all of them ended up being four of my favorite cases to ever grace my iPhone.

Last chance to save big on these digital goodies in our site-wide Black Friday sale [Deals]

By •

68310324455197.30LP0xOTtvJpvpkyu7Zt_height640

Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Turkey Day has come and gone, and the Black Friday deals are about to do the same. Get in on these last minute bargains on a guitar that’s also a MIDI controller, and an HD security camera that connects in real-time through Wi-Fi. Plus, by entering the coupon code ‘BLACKFRIDAY’ at checkout you’ll save an extra 15%.

78% of Thanksgiving mobile shopping took place on iOS devices

By •

Apple raked in the cash last quarter.
iOS users are more likely to shop online than Android owners.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Early Thanksgiving online sale reports suggest that Apple devices were once again the platform of choice for people doing their holiday shopping.

How dominant were Apple devices in this category? Well, according to analytics firm Custora E-Commerce Pulse, iOS devices accounted for a massive 78.3 percent of all mobile e-commerce orders in the U.S., compared to 21.5 percent for Android devices.

Has Apple given us much to be thankful for this year?

By •

fnf
Are you pleased with what Apple delivered this year?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

You might be sick of the sight of Turkey by now, but you can’t spend enough time being thankful. The big question we have is: Should we be thankful to Apple for the lineup it has delivered in 2015, or was this a year to forget?

Friday-Night-Fights-bug-2Apple certainly hasn’t been slow this year; we’ve had the Apple Watch, Apple Music, iPhone 6s with new technologies like 3D Touch, the new Apple TV, and the giant iPad Pro. But will any of these things stand out as smash-hits in a decade?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over these questions and more!

This stylish mountain bike jersey will turn heads off the trail

By •

The Kitsbow Rudy puts some style in your singletrack.
The Kitsbow Rudy puts some style in your singletrack.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Best List: Men’s Rudy Jersey by Kitsbow

“You look cute,” said my wife.

I have been pulling on bicycle kit in front of her for more years than I care to count, and she has rarely muttered these words. But Kitsbow’s Rudy Jersey is not like most other mountain bike kit — it is both functional and stylish.

Instagram update lets you seamlessly manage multiple accounts

By •

instagram-update-lets-you-seamlessly-manage-multiple-accounts-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201312Screen-Shot-2013-12-12-at-153420-jpg
Instagram now supports more than one account. Photo: Instragram
Instagram now supports more than one account. Photo: Instragram

Instagram is bringing a great new update to Android and iOS that allows users to seamlessly manage multiple accounts. The change means you’ll finally be able to access your personal and professional feeds — and the one dedicated to your cat — without having to log out and back in.