Asia and Europe are Apple Pay's two biggest focuses next year. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple watchers should expect the company’s mobile payment service, Apple Pay, to expand to new markets in 2016 — with a heavy emphasis on Asia.
According to a new report, Apple is focusing on Asia and Europe since adoption in the United States has been slower than expected. Regions set to get Apple Pay next year so far include China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Spain.
I'd be happy with just the one iPhone, to be honest. Photo: Tigard PD
Police in Tigard, Oregon have cracked an organized retail crime ring which used stolen gift cards worth three-quarters of a million dollars to buy iPhones bound for the Hong Kong black market.
Tigard Detective T.J. Hahn told the local KOIN 6 News that organized retail theft has become a bigger crime than even drug sales.
“This kind of activity makes millions of millions of dollars, into the billions,” he said.
The FAA is trying to address glitches in its new online drone registration process. Photo: Cult of Mac file
Several thousand drone pilots registered their aircraft with the Federal Aviation Administration within the first 24 hours, but glitches in the system briefly shut it down after takeoff.
The FAA said the new mandatory online registration had to be shutdown for troubleshooting but would reopen Thursday.
Find what you want in mobile Safari. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Sometimes I’m browsing a site like Cult of Mac on my iPhone and I’m looking for something specific, like a story about encryption, for example. Instead of swiping down the page and hoping I see the story I’m looking for, I want to just search for it.
When you’re on your Mac, it’s super easy to find something like this: simply hit Command-F, type in the text string you’re looking for, and Safari (or any other web browser on the Mac, really) will find them all in the web page you’re on, highlighting them for you.
But what about finding stuff when browsing the web on your iPhone? There’s no Command-key on the built-in keyboard, so how do you search your favorite web page to find keywords?
Turns out, there are two ways to do it, which is kind of odd.
HappySacs: They go on your man-bag. Photo: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac
Best List: HappySacs
Let me just make this clear up front: HappySacs are little, elastic-banded bags that you put over your testicles. This is probably when you start wondering why a person would do such a thing, and nobody will blame you for thinking so.
But HappySacs have a noble mission in mind, and it extends even beyond comfort. These weird little pouches want to save your balls in both the short and long term. And they do so way less awkwardly than you might think.
The King of All Cosmos is back, telling the Prince what to roll up. Photo: Bandai Namco
Describing the funky weirdness of Katamari Damacy has always been somewhat of a challenge. You play a pill-headed little person who must roll a big sticky ball around various environments, picking up weird stuff like rice candy, cows, and pencils, while taking your quests from some odd king-looking dude who speaks in an odd, english as a second language-flavored patois.
It’s bizarre, but super fun, and its coming to a mobile phone near you as Tap My Katamari on iOS and Android. Check out the teaser trailer below.
Ho, ho, horrifying? Photo: Boston Dynamics/YouTube
Robots are cool, but there are some things visionary engineers in the robotics field should not mess with – like eight tiny reindeer.
Boston Dynamics put their famous robotic dogs through another test – harnessing three Spot bots to a sleigh, pulling a waving Santa-like figure (not the real Santa, but a real person dressed as Mrs. Claus). The Google-owned company posted a video on YouTube of the prancing robo dogs, apparently showing the world once again that even the job of Rudolph can be replaced by a robot.
China argues new laws are necessary to keep citizens safe. Photo: AppleChina argues new laws are necessary to keep citizens safe. Photo: Apple
China’s Foreign Ministry said today that U.S. tech companies have nothing to fear from the country’s new anti-terrorism law, which could require companies to create “back doors” in products, or to hand over encryption information to the Chinese government.
In this age of cyber theft, keeping your passwords on a pad of paper or (even worse) an online document just won’t cut it, no matter how indecipherable you might think they are. Sticky Password offers a new solution for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android users. And right now you can get a lifetime subscription for just $24.99.
The Fab Four are coming to streaming music services everywhere. Photo: The BeatlesThe Fab Four are coming to streaming music services everywhere. Photo: The Beatles
Forget The Ed Sullivan Show, The Beatles are coming to Apple Music, Google Play, and a variety of other online streaming music services — and just in time for Christmas, too.
Starting Christmas Eve, the Fab Four will be available for your listening pleasure on Apple Music, Spotify, Slacker, Tidal, Microsoft’s Groove, Rhapsody, Deezer, Google Play, and Amazon Prime.
Apple fanatics got up to some strange stuff in 2015. Image: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple fans are some of the most dedicated in all of tech (some might even call them a cult), but a few enterprising and/or desperate people really outdid themselves this year.
Not that we can really blame them. Cupertino brought the heat this year with the Apple Watch, a cool new Apple TV, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, and the massive iPad Pro. We can forgive the superfans for really going all out to get their hands on the latest iGear. But some of their efforts might have been a bit too enthusiastic.
Here are some times when people’s love of Apple outweighed logic this year.
Apple's building a new office in San Jose. Photo: Apple
Apple is changing the way members of its board of directors are nominated, according to a new SEC filing that reveals Apple plans to offer ‘proxy access’ that will give shareholders greater power to oust directors and dictate strategy.
Apple has claimed final victory in a lawsuit arguing that the company was purposely intercepting and failing to deliver texts sent from iPhones to Android owners.
The case was related to Apple’s iMessage service, which posed a challenge to Apple-to-Android switchers up until 2014, when Apple finally issued a fix for the problem.
Taken with an iPhone. Photo: Pete Souza / White House
Pete Souza, the Chief Official White House Photographer, just posted a huge album of all of the many wonderful shots he has taken with his iPhone over the last year.
The holidays are the perfect time to spread the Apple love. Photo: Jack Mayfield
As an Apple fan, there’s a great gift you can bestow upon your friends and family this holiday season. The amazing part is, it’s free.
I’m not talking about the free tech support you’ll inevitably dole out to befuddled relatives (Cult of Mac’s how-to section can help with that, BTW). I’m talking about evangelizing for two of Apple’s least-loved products — and this gracious act will also goose the greater good.
This concept’s different, though, in that it’s actually plausible. Meet the iPhone 7 Edge, a concept that takes the concept of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and applies it to the next iPhone.
You'll now be able to WhatsApp your friends with full motion video. Photo: Macerkopf.de
Having added voice calling at no extra cost earlier this year, WhatsApp is now reportedly looking to introduce FaceTime-style video calls, according to a new report.
The leaked iOS screenshot shows a full-screen video call, along with a smaller inlaid video preview with the camera view of the call recipient, just like Skype or Apple’s own video calling service.
Immersive 360-degree videos are now available to fourth-gen Apple TV owners. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Now you can watch (and explore) 360-degree videos on the new Apple TV, thanks to virtual reality network Littlstar’s free app.
The network’s new tvOS app delivers content from the likes of Showtime, Disney and PBS. It works with Apple TV’s Siri Remote, granting users the ability to control the angle used in the immersive 360-degree videos via the remote’s nifty trackpad.
Well, that's one way to show you remember your classmates. Photo: Weibo
Christmas came early for schoolfriends of a Chinese businessman when he distributed 39 brand new iPhone 6s handsets during an elementary school reunion (!) over the past weekend.
The rose gold iPhones were engraved with the words, “To commemorate the Beilun Sanshan Primary School Class of 1998.” The generous giver of the gifts, a businessman with the surname Zhang, reportedly handed out the iPhones during a dinner in Ningbo, a city in China’s Zhejiang province.
There goes my productivity. Thanks, Apple! Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
So you’re watching a TV show or movie on your iPad and you hear the ding that means you just got a new email. You could double press on the Home button to bring up the multitasking bar and swipe over to your Mail app, but why?
One of the cool gosh-wow things of iOS 9 on a newer iPad is the picture-in-picture multitasking feature, which means you can switch over to any app while you continue watching that video.
Remembering passwords is one of the biggest pains of modern tech living. Hundreds of geniuses at dozens of companies have been searching for an easier solution, but Google may be ready to unleash a new solution that uses your smartphone to replace passwords all together.
'Tis the season for giving. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
If you’re anything like us, procrastination is one of the biggest hallmarks of the holidays. We’re here to help with our gift guide liveblog, which will be updated from now until Santa starts dropping through chimneys.
Whether you’re looking for something for a friend, spouse, significant other or just your dog, we’ve got a little something for everyone. Snap up these great gift ideas now — so you can get back to procrastinating.
A concept rendering of the iPhone 6c. Photo: Martin Hajek
The biggest wireless carrier in the world may have just revealed when the iPhone 6c 7c will finally launch.
Rumors of the iPhone 7c have been heating up the rumormill for months now, and with the device’s big unveiling supposedly just around the corner, it appears that China Mobile has accidentally confirmed to the world that the new low-cost iPhone will arrive by April 2016.
Sure our iPhones look sharp, but the sleek exterior hides an inner life that resembles the floor of a bachelor pad. Broken bits of uncompressed photos, unused files, app caches, cookies, backup logs and whatnot clog up the works (there’s probably a few empty pizza boxes in there, too).
Small and unassuming, with incredibly clarity and tone. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Best List: Reference X20i In-Ear Headphones by Klipsch
Have you ever wondered whether a pair of $550 earbuds is worth the price? I have, but never really had the scratch to put it to the test.
Klipsch, however, sent me a pair of their high-end earbuds, the Reference X20i In-Ear Headphones, to test. When I opened the wooden box and slid the headphones out of their leather pouch, then slipped their oval-shaped eartips into my sound holes, I went to the Star Wars: The Force Awakens soundtrack. The orchestral music seemed like a great way to see if these really expensive headphones match their price tag.