Cult of Mac

Cloud storage is crazy convenient, but it has its drawbacks. You can find yourself shaking your fist at the sky if  your wireless connection drops out, not to mention the concerns offboard storage often raises about data privacy. Of course it beats having to lug around a brick in your bag, and avoids the risk of a power surge or accidental fall that suddenly turns all your critical data into nothing but a memory. Luckily we’ve found a deal that offers the best of both worlds by giving you both: the IDrive 1TB Wi-Fi Drive and 1TB Cloud Backup Bundle.

Six weeks after we saw our first teaser trailer for the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic, Universal has released the first full-length trailer for the movie, showing Michael Fassbender as Apple’s co-founder and former CEO. And boy is it dramatic!

Check it out below.

It will be two years this September since Apple introduced its last iPhone “c” model, but if you believe a new report coming out of Asia, Apple’s planning on reintroducing its lower-cost colorful iPhone line early next year — with the launch of a brand new iPhone 6c.

But learning from lessons of the past, this one will be a little bit different.

Apple Music isn’t available on Android yet — though it is coming — but that doesn’t mean you have to miss out on Beats 1 radio. Thanks to a new web app, you can tune into the 24/7 worldwide broadcast on Android and other unsupported devices right away.

BMW would be open to collaborating with Apple to build a next-generation car, according to the company’s production chief, Oliver Zipse.

Speaking earlier today in Frankfurt, Zipse noted that “We live in a world of partnerships,” and that an Apple (or even Google) car wouldn’t be out of the question for BMW.

If you’re a wannabe Apple Music customer, but currently running the iOS 9 beta, have no fear — since Eddy Cue has confirmed via Twitter that a new beta seed is on the way, offering compatibility with Apple’s newly-launched streaming music service.

Cue didn’t give a precise timeframe, but did note that it would be, “early next week.” Apple’s most recent iOS 9 beta on June 23. Since the company typically releases new beta seeds at fortnightly intervals, it would make sense if the next one arrives next Tuesday.

One of the most highly-touted aspects of Apple Music is the streaming service’s focus on human curation — epitomized by its Beats 1 radio station, which skips algorithmic recommendations in favor of real, breathing human DJs.

If you miss out your favorite show, however, or else want to listen to the music selected by one DJ minus the chat, a neat feature of Apple Music is the ability to easily access the playlist of past shows.

Here’s how you do it.

So far, Beats 1 has been absolutely great. I’m a fan, and it’s been less than 24 hours!

Apple’s new global, 24/7 radio station is everything I hoped for — a discovery-oriented platform showcasing what’s new and what’s good. Of all the features of Apple’s big update to its Music services, Beats 1 is what I most looked forward to.

“Our genre is ‘great,'” explained DJ Zane Lowe on his opening show Tuesday. “That’s all we’re looking for.”

And that’s all I’m looking for too. In fact, I’m already obsessed with A$AP Rocky, who was played on Lowe’s show and I’d never heard before (yeah, I know I’m sad). A$AP Rocky is just one of half-a-dozen new artists I’ve tagged in iTunes for further exploration, including Beck, who I thought I hated.

I’m actually worried how I’m going to keep up. But isn’t this what radio is for?

We literally just posted about the iTunes version required to run Apple Music not being available yet, but it looks like it’s currently available as part of a system update in the Mac App Store.

Hey, thanks a lot, Apple.

If you’ve been playing around with Apple Music on your iPhone or iPad today, you might have wondered at some point what it’s like to listen to on your desktop computer.

You’ll have to keep wondering, though, because the iTunes update you need to listen to Apple Music isn’t out yet.

The iOS 9 beta has been out long enough for me to give it a fair test drive and discover all that it has to offer. So in today’s video, I’m going to give you a rundown of all the new features coming to your iPhone this fall.

Open your iOS 8.4 Music app and start listening. Beats 1 radio went live today at 9 a.m. Pacific time or 12 p.m. Eastern time, one hour after the launch of Apple Music itself. But is it any good? I’m your fellow music lover here to answer that question in as much depth as possible based on some first impressions.

First, a little background: Apple’s own radio station billed as “programs from people who love music” will stay live 24/7, broadcasting in over 100 countries. The station promises interviews with A-list celebrities and even radio shows hosted by the celebrities themselves every so often. They’ll create their own playlists and mixes and broadcast some of their favorite tunes. Jaden Smith will have his own show, so prepare to have an existential crisis.

When you sign in to Apple Music, you have access to Apple’s new music-centric sharing and socializing system, Connect.

While Ping may have come to an an ignominious end, Connect has the advantage of being integrated into the new, exciting Apple Music to the very core, and will let everyone signed into an Apple ID account (not just Apple Music members) use the system to follow their favorite artist.

When you comment on a Connect post, though, you’ll be known by a user name, which uses the @ symbol just like Twitter.

If you want to have something unique, though, you’ll need to act quickly and enter it now, before the service gets clogged up with all the other people that might want your specific user name. Here’s how to do just that.

Apple Music launched today, and so far people seem pretty happy with the new platform. But that isn’t to say that we haven’t found a few complaints to pick out.

We don’t like the new app icon, for one. And some of us are having trouble finding the music we own mixed in with all the streaming stuff. But probably the biggest issue we — and a reader or two — have had concerns the taste-selection screen when you first set up Apple Music.

Here are some of the important bubbles we couldn’t find when we first opened the new app.

So, you’ve gotten the three month trial subscription for Apple Music, right? How exciting!

Chances are, you’ll forget all about it and, whether you love the service or not, you’ll get auto-charged in September for the $10 to $15 you chose when you signed up for your Apple Music subscription.

If you want to make sure that you aren’t automatically charged again, here’s how to turn that function off.

Two minutes after Apple Music launched Tuesday, Hans Metzke was listening to it on his device. He hit pause on his excitement to send out this Tweet: “And we’re live! Awesome! Bye Spotify.”

Apple Music users immediately took to social media to sing the praises of Apple’s new music streaming service. At the same time, many were saying farewell to music streaming’s current king, Spotify.

Whether Apple Music, which is currently free for the three months, will usurp Spotify or the other big player, Pandora, remains to be seen.

I’m a streaming music junky. I gave up collecting, owning, and maintaining music files on my own Mac years ago and I’ve never looked back. It’s the only sensible way to have access to millions of songs without having to worry about storing them.

I’ve used and tested Rdio, Spotify, Beats Music, and other on-demand streaming services over the past few years, so it made sense to check out Apple Music, the new on-demand service to come out of Cupertino.

It’s going to take some time to dig in deep, but so far, Apple Music is proving to be an amazingly comprehensive streaming music product that focuses on discovery, something that the competition struggles with. Within minutes of downloading iOS 8.4, I’m already listening to a playlist of artists I know as well as those I don’t – a perfect blend of old and new.

I’ve found a new streaming service to love in Apple Music, and I think you will, too.

So you want to design apps for iOS. Good choice! Of course getting started can be tough, but today’s your lucky day: right now the iOS Designer Bundle is on sale for whatever you want to pay, but only until Midnight. It includes a slew of of lessons and tools that’ll bring you up to ninja level in no time.

Samsung has overtaken Apple to regain its lead of the U.S. smartphone market following strong sales of the Galaxy S6. The South Korean company’s latest smartphone became the third best-selling smartphone in its first full month on sale, trailing only the iPhone 6 and the Galaxy S5.

After months of speculation, Apple Music has officially launched — with the Beats 1 radio station also kicking off one hour from now at 12pm ET/9am PT.

Apple Music, which received positive first-look reviews earlier today, is initially available for a free three-month trial, after which it will set users back $9.99 per month — or $14.99 if you want to share with up to six members of your family.

One of Ireland’s largest newspapers told readers Tuesday morning not to expect any photos of Taylor Swift performing during her two sold-out concerts in Dublin.

The Irish Times passed on photographing her shows because of a restrictive contract Swift’s people ask shooters to sign. The contract gives the photographer a “one-time-only” use on the photos yet allows Swift unlimited rights to use the images for publicity and promotion.

Such contracts by entertainment figures are nothing new, except Swift famously called out Apple for initially withholding royalties to musicians during the free three-month trial period of the new Apple Music service.

Sony is looking to pour billions into its smartphone camera business as it looks to increase production and development of modules for customers like Apple, Samsung, and others. The company’s camera business is already a success, but its production capacity is limited.

Next to his favorite Bentley getting into a scrape, there can be few things which sound more likely to give Jony Ive nightmares than a chemical element capable of causing the catastrophic structural failure of aluminum.

Unfortunately for Jony, that chemical — referred to as gallium — not only exists, but has somehow gotten into the hands of oddball YouTube stress tester TechRax. All in the name of clicks science, TechRax has previously established himself as enemy number one to Apple’s Industrial Design team — doing everything from assaulting new iPhones with DeWalt angle grinders to crushing an Apple Watch Edition between two magnets.

Check out the video below to see how the aluminum iPhone 6 manages against its toughest challenge yet.

Apple Music is set to launch at 11am ET/8am PT today, alongside the release of iOS 8.4. As we count down the minutes, however, we can entertain ourselves with the first batch of “early impression” reviews for Apple’s new streaming music service.

Has Apple done it again? With minor quibbles, the answer certainly seems to be a resounding “yes.” Check out some of the review highlights below: