The site of Apple's upcoming Dubai Apple Store. Photo: Longhornsandcamels
The United Arab Emirates hasn’t even gotten its first Apple Store yet, but that hasn’t stopped Apple from ranking no. 1 in a list of the “Top 10 Most Intimate Brands in the UAE.”
In doing so, it didn’t just beat tech rival brands like Samsung and Google, but also auto-makers Lexus and Mercedes, chain coffee shop Starbucks, and a variety of others.
How full will the audience be when Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs movie opens wide? Photo: Universal Pictures
Just like the original Macintosh or iPhone, the Steve Jobs movie is racking up favorable reviews among a few early adopters — en route to (hopefully) taking over the world.
After its limited opening weekend, it’s definitely off to a strong start.
Resumonk makes it fast and easy to create beautiful, clear resumes so you can got on with looking for your next gig. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Possibly the worst part of the dreary task of job hunting is writing a resume. They’re about as fun to read as they are to write, so your’s has to be clear and eye-catching, something Resumonk Resume Creator makes easy. It’s a great way to cut a big part of the pain out of looking for a job, and right now you can get a lifetime subscription for $24.99
Somehow it’s already half-way through the weekend, but there’s still time to check out the hottest apps to have arrived in the App Store as of late!
This week, we’ve selected a broad range of topics — from emergency alerts everyone should have installed on their iOS devices, to a fun photo app, and some truly immersive puzzle games. Check out our picks below.
Sure, the lights are all pretty now. But at what cost, Philips? Photo: Philips
You should be excited to get Siri up and running with your new Philips Hue bridge and control your lights with the power of your voice, but one annoying error might stop you. It definitely had me scouring the Internet for answers when I was setting up my smartbulb system this afternoon, and I’d love to save you that time.
Because if you’ve spent $200 on fancy lightbulbs, you probably want to start using them right away, damn it.
Griffin's iTrip AUX lets you charge and control your phone's audio, all through the Aux-in jack. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Cars play a key role in how we use our digital devices, like providing the perfect way for listening music, convenient ways to take hands free calls, and keeping our phones charged up. There’s still more that can be done though, and we’ve rounded up the car charging stations to prove it.
6s battery life not great? It could be your processor. Photo: iFixit.com
This week: we celebrate CultCast 200! And just in time for the party—it’s the iPhone 6s scandal we all knew would someday come… #CHIPGATE. We’ll tell why the internet is nerd-raging over this newest iPhone scandal, and why it might just be diminishing your iPhone 6s’ battery life. Plus: the new Jobs movie is generating Oscar buzz. Seriously! And since he’s seen it—twice—Alex E Heath is here to give us his review. And stay tuned till the end for our favorite memories of CultCast’s past. It’s CultCast 200!
Our thanks to Harry’s for supporting this episode. Harry’s super-sharp, German-made razors ship free right to your door and for way less than the drugstore razors. And be sure to use code CultCast at checkout save $5 off your first order.
Another year, another -gate. Cover Design: Stephen Smith
Another week, another fantastic Cult of Mac Magazine ripe for your perusal! We’ve got a ton of stuff on the latest iPhone 6s controversy, unfortunately dubbed “Chipgate,” as well as a deep dive into OS X El Capitan with a tour and some great tips, a head-to-head comparison of Apple TV versus its next big rival, Roku 4, some fear and loathing over the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic, and a sexy (?) power strip and some other fantastic product reviews.
Check it all out in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine, available for download at the incredibly low price of free!
Can you log a weightlifting workout with the Workout app's "Other" option? Not really. Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac
Some Apple Watch users are apparently confused over what types of exercise the wearable’s Workout app can track. Many people are using it to log weightlifting or stretching sessions, even though Apple only claims the app is suitable for “dedicated cardio workouts.”
Fortunately, a new breed of fitness apps is emerging that uses the accelerometer access enabled by the recently released watchOS 2 to track strength and flexibility workouts more effectively.
Overcast is the best podcast app for iOS. Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac
The best podcast app for iOS — Overcast — got a huge update today, and best of all, its creator has decided to drop the in-app purchases and make it completely free for everyone.
The popular Overcast 2.0 app now includes streaming, chapters, storage management smart speed and tons of other optimizations. Even though there aren’t any in-app purchases, creator Marco Arment has included a patronage option where customers can support the app with a small monthly donation.
With all the free new features, there’s really no reason not to use Overcast over Apple’s Podcast. One of the app’s best features is that it makes listening to podcasts a bit more social by allowing users to recommend podcast episodes to followers.
Here’s how to get the most out of Overcast recommendations:
The new Steve Jobs movie gets just about everything wrong, says the PR veteran who worked with the Apple CEO during the first Macintosh’s launch. From the situations to the dialogue, almost nothing’s accurate.
“How many things are not true in the movie?” laughed Silicon Valley PR vet Andrea “Andy” Cunningham during a phone interview with Cult of Mac. “Several hundred!”
But Cunningham said she loves the new Steve Jobs biopic anyway, because it captures the truth — a truthier truth.
Which one is your money on? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Whether you like it or not, 2-in-1 tablets that turn into laptops are a thing. Microsoft’s Surface was one of the first to kick off this trend, and with the Surface Pro 4 that was announced this week, it is making the 2-in-1 an even more compelling device.
For the same price as an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil, you can get a Surface Pro 4 with powerful notebook internals that runs desktop-class software when you need it. So, why wouldn’t you?
What makes the iPad Pro a better option? And did Apple miss a trick by not making the iPad Pro the ultimate 2-in-1 for iOS and OS X users?
The Osmo by drone makers DJI is a camera steadied by a three-axis gimbal. Photo: DJI
DJI, which has taken our filmmaking aspirations airborne with its popular line of Phantom drones, has brought its tech genius back to Earth with a new handheld camera with three-axis gimbal stabilization.
The Osmo can record 4K video or 12-megapixel still images all atop a grip with built-in controls, a stereo microphone plus an audio jack for more sophisticated sound recording.
A Trinity turbine powering a house and an electric car. Photo: Janulus
You’ve spared no expense in creating a smart home. You bought smart lightbulbs, a smart TV and smart appliances. All that’s missing is a device that makes you look smart when the electric bill comes in the mail.
The Agustsson brothers of Iceland may have figured out that part. They are the creators of Trinity, an affordable line of portable wind turbines, some of which can power the entire home.
KOAR's Cloud Buds are a sleek, fully-featured Bluetooth headset, going for a price that's hard to beat. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
We live in the future we all saw coming, one where the phrase ‘you have to use your hands?’ is said un-ironically. It’s the 21st century after all, why should we have to, you know, touch things to make them work? KOAR’s Bluetooth Cloud Buds are built for their time, a seamless hands-free way to listen to music and use your phone for just $24.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.
Sorkin's a great writer but, man, is he orange! Photo: Conan
Steve Jobs writer Aaron Sorkin has been doing the media rounds as of late. Last night he appeared on Conan, where he made a kinda-sorta apology to Tim Cook for their recent falling-out — only to then turn around and joke about Apple hacking his personal files.
The Otter Box Defender series brings peace of mind. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Best List: Otter Box Defender Case for iPhone 6 Plus
It happened again yesterday: My beautiful, coveted iPhone 6 Plus found itself airborne, tumbling through time and space. I think it knew where it was headed — I certainly did. I could hear the horrifying noise even before it happened. The inevitable bone-chilling sound of my iOS 9 goodness coming in Force Touch contact with the tile.
I do this often enough to know my cat is running short on lives. This time I lucked out again, but I know the shatter is inevitable. So I’ve turned to the grandfather of iPhone protection: Otter Box and its almost-bombproof Defender series.
Hussain Solih was the first person in the Maldives to get his hands on an iPhone 6s. Photo: DHORAAGU
The iPhone 6s and 6s went on sale in an additional 36 markets today, bringing the total number of countries where Apple’s latest handset is available to well over 40.
Check out the list of second-wave countries (and a few snaps of celebrating Apple fans) below.
This is the first Note that isn’t all about specs. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Android
After kicking off the “phablet” trend in 2011, the Galaxy Note series has become the bigger and better smartphone in Samsung’s lineup every year — and usually the best phablet on the market. But with this year’s Note 5, a lot has changed.
Samsung has snubbed a number of popular features to take a gamble on the new design language it first introduced with the Galaxy S6 earlier this year. It makes the Note 5 far prettier than its predecessors, but does it make for a better handset overall?
The 's' stands for SIM-free. Or something like that. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
People who have been waiting to pick up their iPhone 6s or 6s Plus without a SIM card can start planning out their weekend — because Apple has just started offering unlocked, carrier-free, SIM-free versions of its next-gen iPhones direct from the Apple Store.
Relations between the two companies sound a bit frosty right now. Photo: CC Wikipedia
Elon Musk has hit out at Apple’s rumored electric car project, saying that it’s filling its ranks with second rank people — who Tesla has already tried out and then gotten rid of.
“They have hired people we’ve fired,” Musk told German newspaper Handelsblatt. “We always jokingly call Apple the ‘Tesla Graveyard.’ If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple. I’m not kidding.”
"Variable performance depending on who made your processor" was maybe not high on Apple's feature list. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
If you’re confused about the so-called ‘Chipgate’ controversy swirling around the Internet today, we’re here to help.
It just wouldn’t be an iPhone launch without something going awry, and the latest outcry concerns the relative performances of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus’ A9 processors, especially their effects on the phones’ battery lives. And if that all sounds a bit technical and boring, it is. But it’s not too hard to understand.
The app that Chipgate made famous is returning to the App Store after a brief hiatus.
Developer Lirum Labs has told Cult of Mac that its diagnostic tool, that can tell people which A9 processor their iPhone 6s contains, is back by popular demand.
Which chip is in your iPhone 6s? Photo: techfast Lunch & Dinner/YouTube
Heading to social media to vent about Chipgate, some iPhone 6s owners are upset to discover that not all A9 chips are created equal.
Worse, some feel duped by Apple, which used two vendors to supply different versions of the chips in “identical” phones. Others worry about reports of inferior battery life — and some are thinking seriously about returning their new iPhones. Still others are playing the latest Apple controversy for laughs.