Cult of Mac

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SAN FRANCISCO — Will Tim Cook do anything to steal Google’s thunder?

The Apple CEO is back at the Moscone Center, this time for BoxWorks 2105, the annual gathering of customers and developers for enterprise cloud storage company Box.

It’s a rare speaking gig for Cook, who tends to limit his engagements to just a few high-profile events a year. While big and successful, Box’s conference is hardly one of the marquee events on the tech calendar. Unless it falls on the same exact day Google is announcing new products at its big Nexus media event.

“He’s f****ing with Google,” said one analyst in the press room when asked why Cook chose this event.

Cook is likely to talk up the new iPad Pro and Apple’s enterprise efforts, which include partnering with IBM and Cisco. Read on to see what he says. We’re liveblogging the event. Cook will be onstage at 9 a.m. Pacific.

After months of leaks and speculation, Google’s new Nexus smartphones are almost here. In just one hour, the company will kick off its big keynote in San Francisco to announce the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P — and maybe even more.

You can follow the whole thing in our liveblog right here starting at 9 a.m. Pacific.

Sometimes purchasing an Apple device can feel like you are shelling out for Italian marble. So it might as well look like it.

Design company UNIQFIND has developed skins and cases for MacBooks, iPads and iPhones that have the look of black or white marble.

Beats 1 launched triumphantly with Apple Music, but in a new interview with Beats DJ Zane Lowe, the radio presenter admits he’s “not sure” whether Beats 1 is a crucial part of the Apple Music package — although he hopes “there’s a place for it.”

The long-running disaster that was the Los Angeles Unified School District scheme to provide iPads to every student, teacher and campus administrator is apparently over — with Apple among the companies agreeing to pay out a $6.4 million settlement.

The tentative payout is hopefully the last phase in an aborted $1.3-billion plan for the second-largest district in the U.S. to get its hands on new iPads and Pearson educational software.

What kind of person hands over $750 for two new iPhone 6s handsets from a person they’ve just met on the street?

Apparently the kind of person who’s then surprised that the bag supposedly carrying his new iPhones instead contains a large amount of sugar, that’s who!

3D Touch was the most widely-praised feature of the new iPhone 6s, and something that has the potential to be a real game-changer going forward.

In a newly-published patent, Apple explains how 3D Touch-style technology could revolutionize maps, by letting users animate the screen with different levels of touch.

Apple has updated its website with new details about about its privacy policy and how it uses customer data.

Under the heading “The most personal technology must also be the most private,” the site runs down all of Apple’s core services, and explains how Apple protects user data in each case.

Here are some of the highlights:

It’s almost the end of September, which not only means the evenings are starting to draw in for most of us, but also that Apple Music’s three-month free trial is about to come to an end — with the $9.99 per month premium service kicking in from October.

After its Apple Music Emmys ad, Apple is making one more big push to sell users on its streaming music service. If you want to throw in the towel before getting charged, however, now’s the time to do it.

Read on if you need a quick “how to” reminder.

iOS 9’s Wi-Fi Assist feature helps when you’re connected to a slow Wi-Fi connection by kicking in your cellular data network to help things seem a bit snappier.

The problem is that it can also rack up some data charges if you end up going over your data cap. If you’ve got a limited data plan with your wireless carrier, you’ll want to find this iOS 9 setting, which is on by default, and kind of buried in the Settings.

With just days to go before free Apple Music trials start to expire, Cupertino is finally getting serious about explaining exactly how its streaming music service works.

A new wave of “guided tour” videos demystifies Apple Music’s functionality and features — but will this marketing and educational push be too little, too late to stop a wave of defectors from leaving the fledgeling service at a critical time?

Major Leaugue Baseball doesn’t have a great reputation of embracing Apple products on baseball diamond, but starting this week, teams will finally be allowed to replace their paper binders with iPads to look up everything from statistics, scouting reports, spray charts.

Teams were given the MLB’s blessing to start using iPads in the dugout during games, however there’s a catch: teams can’t connect iPads to WiFi during games, and all info must be downloaded before the first pitch.

The iPhone 6s has the best camera Apple’s ever made, but have you ever wondered how much better the new camera is than the original iPhone that launched back in 2007?

Lisa Bettany put the iPhone 6s camera through its paces in a new comparison test that pits the new device against the previous eight iPhones. Her images show how far Apple’s smartphone photography game has improved since the original iPhone debuted with its 2-megapixel sensor.

Check out the comparison shot below:

So, you’re one of 13 million people to get a brand new iPhone 6S over the launch weekend. Congratulations, you now have access to a faster phone — potentially a rose gold one, better cameras, stronger aluminum and of course, 3D Touch. The latter is actually extremely useful, but it’s only as useful as developers allow.

Since the feature is brand new, 3D Touch mostly works with Apple’s stock iOS apps for quick application shortcuts on the Home screen, plus Peek and Pop inside apps to preview different types of content. A few productive developers saw the light and quickly updated their apps to support this drastically new way to use an iPhone.

You can tell that the future is very bright for 3D Touch as developers are just getting started figuring out how to unlock all of its potential. Until we reach that 3D utopia, here are five terrific apps that already do Apple’s latest innovation plenty of justice.

iPhone 6s is a mirror image of its predecessor at first glance, but thanks to improved internals and innovative new technology, it’s very much a different beast.

With Apple’s latest A9 processor, a new 12-megapixel iSight camera, Live Photos, and 3D Touch, this is much, much more than just an “incremental” iPhone upgrade. It’s the iPhone that will change the way you use your iPhone. It’s Apple most exciting smartphone in years.

Tim Cook revealed that Apple sold more iPhones 6s units this weekend than any other iPhone launch in history, but apparently the historic sales just aren’t enough to please Wall Street.

The iPhone 6s is so fast, not only does it destroy the iPhone 6 in speed tests, it tops the iPad Air 2 and every Android device on the market, according to initial benchmark tests.

Apple’s engineers managed to make some huge GPU improvements on the iPhone 6s thanks to new technology that allows the the A9 chip to deliver higher performance and lower power consumption. According to early benchmarks by tech gurus at AnandTech, all the improvements add up to make the iPhone 6s nearly twice as fast as the rest of the industry.

In some benchmarks, the iPhone 6s nearly tops the Surface Pro 3:

If the fear of loss doesn’t persuade you to print the pictures on your smartphone, perhaps your curiosity about cool gadgets will. In this case, consider the Polaroid ZIP photo printer.

It is a tiny ink-free printer slightly bigger than a deck of cards that, with an easy-to-use app, lets you make small prints from your phone or tablet. The photos are the size of a business card, adding charm and fun to the photo sharing experience.

Symbols have been key to the way humans express ideas for millennia, and and as visual communications get supercharged by the internet, designers can never have too many options. The universal power of symbols inspired the creators of the Noun Project, a massive collection of royalty-free icons meant to empower designers with the means to visually express almost any idea. Right now, you can get two years of unlimited access to the Noun Project’s archives for just $39.

We’ve heard very little about the official Apple Music app for Android since the service was announced back in June, but now a third-party company claims to be running a new beta program on Apple’s behalf.

Betabound is giving Android users the opportunity to register their interest in Apple Music for a chance to get early access — but we’re not totally sure it can be trusted.

The Apple advertising campaign “Shot on iPhone 6” can now be a line on the closing credits of a Swiss news station, which now does 100 percent of its broadcasts on the iPhone.

During the summer, Léman Bleu gave each of its reporters an iPhone 6 kit to shoot their stories and use for live shots. That means a reporter with a mic in one hand can use the free hand to grip a selfie stick for live standup shots.

Apple is presenting gay propaganda with its same-sex emoticons — and Russia isn’t Putin up with it any more!

According to a new report, the Russian police are stepping up their investigation of Apple for “promoting homosexuality” with its range of LGBT-friendly emojis.

And the punishment could be a whopping 800,000 to 1 million rubles — which is roughly what Apple makes in 2.5 seconds, if our calculations are correct.

Every Apple fan is likely familiar with Steve Jobs’ pilgrimage to India, during which he formulated some of the ideas that would serve him so well in the future.

But did you know that, years later, Jobs would suggest that fellow entrepreneurs follow in his path by visiting the same mountain Kainchi Dham Ashram temple that he once had?

According to a new story told by Mark Zuckerberg, that’s exactly the advice that Jobs once laid out for the then-green Facebook CEO. And Zuckerberg was pleased to take him up on his advice.

The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus have sold a record 13 million handsets in their first three days on the market, according to Apple.

“Sales for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple’s history,” said Tim Cook.