The Apple Music Festival is totally free. Provided you can get a ticket, that is! Photo: Apple
Apple has announced the lineup for its upcoming Apple Music Festival, which will feature performances by Pharrell Williams, One Direction, Florence + The Machine and others.
The concerts take place in London over 10 days from September 19 to September 28.
Did iPhones change the way Samsung handsets looked? Yes. Case closed. Oh wait, there are lawyers involved... Photo: Apple/USPTO
One of Apple’s key iPhone patents has been given a non-final rejection in the still-dragging-on Apple vs. Samsung lawsuit.
The reason? According to a new report, it should never have been granted in the first place, due to an issue with prior art and apparent “obviousness.”
Yet another way to access Google Hangouts. Photo: Jordanna Chord/Google
Google’s chat and video messaging service, Hangouts, got a whole new standalone web app on Monday afternoon.
“We are launching another way to use Hangouts today,” writes Google’s Jordanna Chord on Google Plus. “From our new site you’ll be able to take advantage of the best of Hangouts in the browser, along with an inspiring image to get you through the day.”
Now you’ll be able to keep in touch with all your Hangouts-using buddies in any web broswer, including Safari, without having to run Gmail or Google Plus (or the Chrome app).
Do you hear that, Apple Watch? Your primary interface is a fool! Photo: Apple
We have a bit of a digital-assistant war brewing in the tech world. In addition to Apple’s Siri, we have Google Now, Microsoft’s Cortana and, eventually, Facebook’s MoneyPenny. Everybody’s out to provide users with the most helpful fake secretaries imaginable, and even productivity app Slack is getting in on the action.
But while touting upcoming improvements to the chat platform’s helper, Slackbot, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield had some strong words about its rival in your iPhone or Apple Watch.
You can now own Steve Jobs' BMW. Photo: Julius Winegar
Steve Jobs was notorious for cruising around Silicon Valley in a Mercedes without a license plate during his last decade at Apple, but before El Jobso upgraded to the SL55 AMG, he and his wife Laurene owned a BMW 325i convertible.
That convertible can be yours, now that its third owner is placing the unique bimmer up for sale.
Google's robots are starting to look more an more like the Terminator. Photo: Boston Dynamics
Google-owned Boston Dynamics scared the bejesus out of us earlier this year with its hive-mind 160-pound robot dogs that can run on almost any terrain. Now the company is taking things to an all-new level with new video of its humanoid robot, which is the closest thing to a real-life Terminator we’ve ever seen.
Need a cheap Mac? Look no further than the MacBook Air. Photo: Apple
Just a week after Apple patch several OS X vulnerabilities, a security researcher has already discovered two new exploits that could allow an attacker to remotely gain access to your Mac.
Get all your stuff together in this lightweight, classy, functional messenger bag. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Ever try to go from home to the gym to the office to the party in the same day? If you have, you’ll know that move requires a lot of carrying capacity, typically across several bags.
Now try to do all that as an eco-warrior on a bicycle. You’ll want one big, waterproof bag that can hold your work stuff, your gym clothes and maybe a rain coat in case it gets wet out there. Stylish and useful, the Vitesse from WaterField Designs is a lovely, waxed-canvas messenger bag that will fit all that stuff.
If you travel a lot, iOS 9 and El Capitan have a hidden feature just for you.
Apple’s latest operating systems (both of which are currently in beta) offer a way to keep tabs on airline flights. Here’s how to access this hidden new feature.
The Bling helmet by LIVALL features LED lights for turn signals and night riding along with Bluetooth speakers for safe phone calls and music listening. Photo: LIVALL
The cycling helmet is often referred to as a brain bucket. It has kept many a melon in one piece after falls and collisions and there’s no smarter wearable for your ride.
One helmet promises to offer more smarts. It’s called the Bling Helmet by LIVALL and it is aptly named because of how it flashes.
Jamf Now is a cloud-based solution for managing all the devices used for doing business Photo: Jamf
If you’re running your business on Apple machines, it’s probably because you want to keep things clean and simple. But wrangling desktops, tablets, phones and the employees who use them isn’t as easy as syncing your calendar.
Emails, point-of-sale operations, apps, security settings — an enterprise of any size can quickly present a symphony of stresses that’s too much for any business owner to orchestrate.
Jimmy Iovine, Bono, Steve Jobs and The Edge Photo: Apple
With the purchase of Beats Electronics and the subsequent launch of Apple Music, Jimmy Iovine quickly became Apple’s best hope for saving the music industry. But in a new interview, the Beats co-founder says it’s just not cool to be into music anymore.
To help ignite the scene, Iovine and Dre created an Academy for Arts Technology and the Business of Innovation at USC, and while the music and tech mogul says the program has already become ultra-competitive to get into, it might not be enough to change young people’s minds from wanting to become the next Larry Page instead of the next Jimmy Page.
When it comes out, Brikk will have an opulent iPhone 6s just for you. Photo: Brikk
We don’t even know for sure what the unrevealed iPhone 6s is going to look like, but that isn’t stopping one company from opening up preorders for ridiculously expensive and extravagant custom versions of Apple’s upcoming handset.
Luxury design company Brikk will pre-sell you blinged-up versions of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, and if you have $206,000 or so lying around that you’d love to spend on a phone you haven’t even seen yet, they have a model for you.
The Complete iOS 9 Developer Course will get you caught up on iOS 9 well before it drops. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
iOS 9 is coming, and from what we hear it’s going to be a game-changer. Luckily there’s still time to prepare for Apple’s newest era in mobile, and we’ve found a course that can get you totally caught up before it drops. It’s called The Complete iOS 9 Developer Course, and it’s just $99 at Cult of Mac Deals, a whopping 90 percent off the normal price.
Upgrade to the latest iPhone whenever you want. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
We’re less than one month away from the iPhone 6s being announced, and carriers are tripping over themselves and each other trying to offer the best terms for customer upgrades.
The latest carrier to throw its name in the ring is Sprint, which has just launched its new iPhone Forever plan, which lets users upgrade to the latest iPhone any time they want — without having to pay an upfront fee or experience a hike in rates.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wouldn’t want to toil in the dehumanizing hellhole described in a recent report about work conditions at his company. In a memo to employees responding to the allegations, Bezos painted a picture of caring Amazonians who are “fun” and “brilliant” and “helping to invent the future, and laughing along the way.”
He also said anybody who gets treated badly by Amazon should snitch to HR — or email him directly to air their grievances.
Yep, that's ludicrous. Oh, and the guy's name is Ludacris. Photo: Ludacris
Some stars are just too big for the 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition. One of them is rapper and The Fast and the Furious actor Ludacris, who rocked up at the Teen Choice Awards on Sunday night sporting a custom Apple Watch studded with diamonds.
Australian banks wish Apple Pay would make like a boomerang and go home. Photo: Cult of Mac / Picturesofmoney
Apple Pay might be a while arriving in Australia according to a new report, which claims that the country’s four largest banks are stalling negotiations with Apple so as to hold on to $2 billion per year they earn from merchants for interchange fees.
Dr. Dre's third album was one of the most anticipated hip-hop albums in years. Photo: Apple
Dr. Dre’s long-awaited third album, Compton, was streamed a massive 25 million times on Apple Music, and had half a million iTunes downloads in its first week, according to new figures released by Apple.
Apple is dead set on showing how much it values artists. Photo: Apple
Three new Apple Music ads show off Cupertino’s creative cool, highlighting musical acts and touting the tagline, “All the artists you love and are about to love, all in one place.”
These live courses will make you a pro at digital marketing and social media Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Learning is a lifelong endeavor, but even if you live to 100 you won’t have a shortage of stuff to study with this roundup of deals. Hundreds of hours of content covering marketing, IT, banking, coding, you name it.
This bundle of apps offers 10 different ways to maximize your Mac's performance. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Beneath the keyboard of your Mac lies a vast ocean of untapped potential. We’ve assembled some of the best deals on the most powerful apps for drilling deep into those hidden reserves of functionality. From productivity-enhancing programs. to comprehensive hard-drive maintenance and unlocking hidden Mac OS functions, these app bundles are power-packed and priced to move.
Imagine getting paid to Instagram... Photo: @withhearts
This week on The Cultcast: Ever wonder what it’s like to have companies pay you to travel the world snapping their Instagram photos? Professional Instagrammer Cory Staudacher shares his workflows and favorite iOS photo apps — and you won’t believe how much some companies will pay you to make them look cool.
Plus: Neat new features coming to iOS 9; Apple quietly beefs up the iPhone 6s to prevent another #Bendgate; and don’t miss our list of new favorite apps.
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Build a beautiful new website quick with Squarespace’s drag-and-drop interface. Start a free trial and save 10 percent off any first order with code “CultCast.”
Catch our favorite new apps in the show notes below.
The Activity app forms the hub of Apple’s fitness platform strategy. Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac
If you compare the Apple Watch to dedicated fitness tracking devices, it comes up short, and the forthcoming watchOS 2 will do little to address these limitations. Instead, with this update Apple is focusing on helping improve third-party fitness apps.
That’s because Apple sees its wearable as the main component of a fitness platform, with the Activity app as hub. While the built-in Workout app is mostly for beginners, third-party apps will provide the missing features for hardcore users.