With the Apple TV ready for a radical refresh, it’s time to start thinking about what you’ll do with your old set-top box once you upgrade to the latest and greatest model.
You’ll find cool projects for your old Apple TV in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine for iPhone and iPad. You’ll also get updates on new iMacs and an opinion piece on why the end of smartphone subsidies is actually good for Apple.
It’s the weekend, which means (we hope) taking a day off from the usual grind to relax, mow your lawn, have a lie-in, and check out the hottest apps to hit the App Store over the past seven days.
And, man, have we got some good picks this week — from Apple Watch email clients to excellent comedic weather apps!
Check them out below:
Too often, we either pay too much for a set of headphones that doesn’t quite meet our needs, or just spring for the cheapo brands sold next to the bubble gum. That’s why we’ve assembled a collection of premium ear-pleasers that’ll meet any preference or budget. Looking for waterproof and workout ready? Wireless and noise canceling? Durable but with studio-quality audio? You’ll find it here, and at a nice discount.
For all the ways we use our mobile devices, there are just as many ways for the battery to die and ruin our day. That’s why we’ve gathered the leaders of the battery pack, with options for toughness, multiple devices, even solar power, check below to find a portable energy source for every situation and need.
As a fitness tracker, Apple Watch is currently little more than a fancy pedometer. It only tracks distance and calories — the quantity, not the quality, of your movement. That’s a problem because fitness is about more than burning calories.
However, an interesting patent from Apple — plus a new technology claimed to be “Siri for understanding human movement” — suggests that Apple Watch could soon be adding weightlifting to its repertoire. Which would be good news for gym-goers and CrossFitters everywhere.
iPhone 6s rumor season is in full swing, but we won’t have to wait much longer until Apple reveals the real deal.
A fall iPhone 6s launch event is being planned for September 9, according to a new report that also reveals other products that will share the stage with Apple’s new smartphone.
Following the lead of other carriers, Verizon Wireless is killing subsidized phones and will streamline its data plans. New subscribers will no longer have the option to get a new iPhone subsidized when signing up for a two-year contract.
With the iPhone 6s launch likely two months away, this might sound like bad news for Apple, a company that has gotten fat off carrier-subsidized iPhones over the last eight years. But the death of subsidized iPhones could be a really good thing for Apple.
For better or worse and depending on your political leanings, Donald Trump is said to have won Thursday night’s debate for the Republican presidential nomination.
Trump also scored a bit of a victory on social media. Whether celebrated or reviled, he was talked about more than the other candidates. Compare the buzz to the professional wrestling term known as heat. Heat can mean cheers for the heroes, but also represent the boos for the heels. Heat in any form is the measure of popularity.
Is it the kind of heat you can warm to or is it just hot air? Either way, the commentary on Twitter and Instagram is entertaining and with a record 24 million viewers watching the debate, the Teflon Don will take all the heat he can get.
After the discovery of several dangerous flaws in a few short weeks, Android’s security — or lack thereof — has been big news. Google has acted quickly to eliminate the Stagefright flaw that left 95% of Android devices vulnerable to attack, but others have since wormed their way out of the woodwork.
Now fans are asking how these flaws made their way into public Android releases, compromising the security of more than 1 billion users worldwide. Could Google be doing more to prevent it? And are its hardware partners doing all they can to patch holes in their own software?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we fight it out over these questions and more!
Apple’s iPad Air 2 represents the peak of sleek and powerful tablets, basically the only way to improve it would be to remove the price tag. Well, consider it improved: With just your email address, you’ll be entered to win a free iPad Air 2, and you even get to choose the color. Take a moment to let the words ‘free’ and ‘iPad’ sink in, but don’t take too long — the chance to enter is only up for a limited time at Cult of Mac Deals.
Cult of Mac’s Photo Famous series introduces you to the groundbreaking photographers featured in Apple’s “Shot on iPhone 6” ad campaign.
Mobile photography’s most mobile photographer was on the Skeleton Coast in Namibia and didn’t want to be weighted down.
Jen Pollack Bianco traveled with her usual DSLR equipment — all 26 pounds of it — but when the time came to go on an elephant safari, she left the heavy gear behind. This was a bold choice, considering such encounters rarely happen more than once in a lifetime.
The travel blogger carried her new iPhone 6 and the camera inside proved it could handle a charging elephant.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Looks like the radically improved Apple TV we’ve be waiting for lands in September — we’ll tell you what to expect. Plus: Apple is not going to be your next wireless carrier; more Beats Radio stations are in the works; and don’t miss our picks for the “best of the worst” Apple accessories.
Could Apple carry its Apple Music human curation obsession over to its much-rumored Apple TV refresh?
During Jimmy Iovine’s new interview with Wired about Apple Music, Iovine — unprompted — chose television as another example of a place Apple could incorporate its belief in humans trumping algorithms when it comes to recommendations.
Iovine said that:
Once Apple Music finds its groove there’s going to be no way for rivals to compete with the service, according to Beats co-founder and Apple exec Jimmy Iovine.
“Curation is a big thing to us, and no one is going to be able to catch us or do it better,” Iovine says in a new interview, in which he stresses Apple Music’s not-so-secret weapon — human focus.
#FightingWords.
With Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs movie just two months from its U.S. release, Universal has just dropped a new TV spot on us.
Aside from reconfirming that actor Michael Fassbender looks nothing like Steve Jobs, the new teaser provides glimpses of a few scenes we haven’t see before, along with a couple more Aaron Sorkin-ized Jobs-isms.
Google will finally launch Android Pay, its brand new mobile payments service, alongside a refreshed Nexus 5 from LG in October, a new report claims. The Apple Pay competitor will take advantage of Android M’s native support for fingerprint scanners.
Tim Cook might be a guy who can take care of himself, judging from the impressive amount of time he spends in the gym each day, but Apple’s not taking any chances: The company shells out close to $700,000 each year on security for its CEO.
And who can blame them?
We’re going to be waiting a few years (or decades?) before Apple gets around to adding holographic displays to the iPhone, but did you know there’s actually a wicked-simple trick that lets you turn your iPhone into a hologram machine?
This isn’t the work of crazy science fiction. It’s based on the same type of tech that resurrected Tupac for a 2012 Coachella appearance. Simply using some household items, you can make holograms for your iPhone too.
Learn how to do it below:
Samsung has been mercilessly copying Apple’s software, hardware and marketing for years, but the most unoriginal company in tech has taken its copycat ways to an all new level by ripping off Steve Jobs’ signature look.
In a recent promotional headshot for his upcoming appearance at the DMEXCO conference in Germany, Samsung VP Georg R. Rötzer not only copied Jobs’ dark outfit and round spectacles — he also aped the Apple co-founder’s pose from the cover of Walter Isaacson’s biography.
The brand-new beta of iOS 9 brings an entirely new set of wallpapers, some welcome improvements to Apple Music and more new treasures. These are some of the most exciting changes yet to Apple’s upcoming mobile operating system (the previous beta brought back Home Sharing and delivered lots of tiny design tweaks).
Let’s run through all the changes in iOS 9 beta 5, which was made available to developers today.
Nintendo has been incredibly slow to embrace mobile gaming, but this Wii M concept design has me wishing the company would get serious and make their own smartphone.
This mockup is so beautiful I think I’d gladly give up my eight-year membership in the iPhone club to have a portable gaming device like this at all times.
ResearchKit has already helped scientist make some breakthroughs in the study of diseases like Parkinsons, but the apps powered by Apple’s open-source health software haven’t been made available internationally. Starting today, iOS users in the U.K. and Hong Kong can get in on the ResearchKit action too, thanks to the MyHearth Counts app, which was just made available to to people outside of the U.S. for the first time.
If you close your eyes, the iPad drummer known as Appleman sounds like he is tearing up a real set of skins. What you see in his YouTube videos, in which he covers the drumming parts of rock classics like Marilyn Manson’s “Beautiful People,” contradicts what the ears hear.
But how would he do against a drummer on an analog kit? Fast fingers met fast sticks recently as the anonymous Appleman went mano a mano with 17-year-old drumming phenom Yamachika Takuto.
By the sounds of the exchange of solos and the cheers from the audience, the two battled to a draw.
Dr. Dre hasn’t given us a new album in over 15 years, but he just gave us another great reason to scoop up his upcoming album, Compton, when it drops tomorrow, after the doc has promised to donate his proceeds from the album to build a performing-arts center for kids in his hometown.
During an appearance on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 Radio show, Dre called in to talk about the project, and confirmed that he has been working with Compton mayor Aja Brown to develop a community arts center as a way to give back to his city.
Listen to the interview below:
The sassy robot that got its start on iOS has started taking over the Mac too. Carrot Weather launched in the Mac App Store today complete with tons of features and even more snarky comments about the conditions. The self-proclaimed “weather robot with a personality” has plenty to offer.