Cult of Mac

Unsurprisingly, Apple’s attempts to reinvent television come with a few challenges attached. One of these is the fact that if the company wants to broadcast affiliate feeds, it must somehow wade through the complex rights issues that currently exist for local TV.

In short, Apple wouldn’t be allowed to show local programs from stations affiliated with networks such as CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox, because — despite these networks airing the content — they don’t actually own it.

Apple Pay today makes its debut in the United Kingdom, nine months after it launched in the U.S., and it has been greeted by plenty of support from local banks. Those with a supported device can register their credit and debit cards now through the Passbook app on iOS.

The upcoming Suicide Squad movie may be the most gritty and in your face version of the world-saving team of supervillains, but it isn’t the only one around.

If you can’t wait until next year to see Task Force X in action, you have a few options available to see Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and their crazy friends right now in both live-action and animated forms. And they’re available online, so you can crank up your iPad or Apple TV and watch them right now.

I didn’t have high hopes for Suicide Squad, the upcoming action movie that pits a team of supervillains together on a top secret government mission, but now that the first trailer for David Ayer’s action-packed film has been teased to fans, I’m starting to become a believer.

Will Smith, Cara Delevingne, and Viola Davis all make an appearance in the first trailer that debuted at International Comic Con 2015 over the weekend, but Jared Leto manages to steal the show as the Joker with a menacing appearance in the last few seconds.

Check it out:

Though Adobe Flash has been dying a slow death over the past few years, it’s far from dead yet. However, it seems like some people are getting pretty impatient with it and Facebook’s new chief security officer Alex Stamos is one of those people. He publicly tweeted yesterday calling out Adobe to just set a date already to kill Flash and make an announcement to put an end to its misery.

Siri can be used to quickly access a huge library of sound effects. Ask it to play fireworks, a babbling brook, or even a machine gun and Apple’s digital assistance will pull out the perfect sound effect. But if you ask Siri to ‘play loud farts’ you’ll get an unexpected surprise.

While Apple hasn’t been adding DRM to your music, there must have been some issue with the service when paired with iTunes Match.

iTunes 12.2.1 is out now, and it contains a fix for any iTunes Match users who saw iTunes change some songs from Matched (which gives you access to high-resolution audio files that you own) to Apple Music (which will disappear if you let your subscription lapse).

European leaders have finally agreed to a bailout plan with Greece this morning. The country’s financial crisis at one point capped how much cash citizens could withdraw daily, so Apple has decided to help its customers out by providing one free month of iCloud to current subscribers.

Amateur hour is over — it’s time for an iPhone cable that means business. Avoid the fray, the tangles, the scuffed up grossness that is the stock iPhone cable after just a few weeks of regular use by stepping up to the Titan MFi-Certified Lightning Cable. It’s built to be tough, but with the Cult of Mac special price of $24.99 it’ll be gentle on your wallet.

Apple’s latest iPhones may be six months older than the Galaxy S6, but they have no problem outpacing Samsung’s flagship — and all other competitors — in a high-end gaming comparison.

GameBench found the iPhone 6 to be top in both frames-per-second and stability across all game types.

The iPhone is the gold standard for modern design – and that sometimes gets in the way of some of its amazing functions.

Take photo and video. Even the most serious photographers and filmmakers can create high art with an iPhone, but conventional cameras, no matter how clunky they seem today, were designed with grip and stability that is missing from an iPhone.

A startup company has created an iPhone 6 case that converts the iPhone into a retro-looking handheld movie camera, complete with cinematic lenses, a viewfinder, film trigger and a mount for mics and lights.

We’ve heard about iPhone-related crime before, but here’s one that’s new: A U.K. man in London who was arrested by police after charging his iPhone on a train.

45-year-old artist Robin Lee was approached by a police community support officer on board the train last Friday, warned that he was “illegally extracting electricity.” When Lee arrived at his destination, police officers were waiting to arrest him.

A whopping 9 out of 10 patent lawsuits filed against tech companies in the first half of 2015 were brought by NPEs (non-practicing enterprises, a.k.a patent trolls), a new report reveals.

Thanks to its status as the world’s most valuable company, Apple was the number one target of these attempted lawsuits — with the Eastern District of Texas being the favored location for patent trials on account of their tendency to side with trolls and award large sums of damages.

Google is planning another big Android Wear update that will deliver a number of new features Apple Watch users are already enjoying, according to a new report. Among them are interactive watch faces and the ability to send doodles and emojis to friends.

Apple is getting one step closer to becoming its own record label by creating its own artistic content — having recently produced in-house music videos for top-name artists such as Drake, Eminem and Pharrell.
The videos — which include Em’s “Phenomonal” and Pharrell’s “Happy” — debuted on Apple Music. Future artists Apple will reportedly be producing videos for include M.I.A., Purity Ring, Diddy and James Bay.

Anyone wanting an illustration of why smartphone unit sales are not the single most important metric for judging success should check out wealth management company Canaccord Genuity’s findings about Apple’s iPhone sales versus profits.

According to Canaccord Genuity, despite selling less than 20 percent of all smartphones, Apple rakes in a massive 92 percent of operating income. Samsung, by contrast, ekes out just 15 percent to take second place. Everyone else basically broke even or lost money.

Apple has no problem placing massive orders for its upcoming iPhone 6s and 6s Plus units, but according to a new report the company is treading a bit more carefully when it comes to orders for the upcoming 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Reportedly set to arrive in late November this year, sources in Apple’s supply chain say that Apple’s component orders for the giant-sized tablet have been lower than most people expected — although no specific numbers are mentioned.

Cult of Mac has some fine deals on offer this week, offering discounts on a lifetime of WordPress themes and secure mobile connections, an exclusive 3Doodler bundle, and plenty more.

This week: how to train Apple Music to dish up better tunes; Microsoft calls it quits on the phone game; iOS 9 and El Capitan betas go public; awkward stories from Disneyland; and the REAL REASON Apple is building a “Spaceship” campus…

Our thanks to Bushel for supporting this episode, the simple-to-use cloud-based tool that anyone can leverage to manage the Apple devices in their workplace. Get Bushel for free for up to 3 devices when you sign up at Bushel.com/cultofmac.

Show notes ahead, my friends.

It’s always a good time for a great deal, and we’ve got some good ones ending soon. Get in on dramatically dropped prices on top products like Dragon Dictate, REMXD bluetooth headphones, and lots more before they drop off the map!

Apple’s fitness apps are surprisingly limited given that is a core selling point of Apple Watch. Even basic features like mapping runs and challenging friends are currently missing. And from what we’ve seen so far, watchOS 2 won’t address these shortcomings.

Here’s my wish list of 10 things I’d like to see Apple do to get its fitness apps in shape.

This week, we’ve got a ton of even more great stuff for you all in one place. Check out our guide to getting Apple Music on your iPhone so you can listen without burning up all your data on streaming, our beginner’s guide on running with the Apple Watch, a profile on one of the best sports photographers out there who also happens to use an iPhone, a hilariously true interview with the developers behind, yes, the Farty Troll game, and the straight skinny on iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan public betas.

Get all that (and more!) in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine. Download and subscribe right here, too.

We’re seeing a lot of reports across the Internet of Apple Watch owners getting some irritation from their wearables. We have a few likely culprits for these blights, including friction with the band; contact dermatitis from dirt, water, or soap getting stuck underneath; or allergic reactions to adhesives or nickel used in the smartwatch’s production.

Whatever the cause, however, the fact remains that wearable rashes are very real and not limited to Apple’s new smartwatch. Here are some of the most interesting (meaning disturbing and gross) pictures we’ve been able to turn up from the Internet.

As you may have heard, Apple released the public beta for OS X El Capitan yesterday. Since I tend to ignore the risks of beta software in favor of all the new features, I downloaded it on my mid-2011 MacBook Air. Do yourself a favor: don’t be like me. Understand and acknowledge the risks of beta software. It’ll save you time and data.