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.
Apple Music is good, but here are a few simple ways it could be great. Photo: Apple
Yesterday’s iTunes update brought a few improvements to Apple Music as it lives on the Mac and PC. The minor tweaks and bug fixes are always welcome, but Apple Music still has a long way to go before the experience is where it should be, particularly in iTunes.
This honeycombed disk may help Siri understand you better someday. Photo: Steve Cummer, Duke University
Siri typically works pretty well when you’re just sitting around at home — or at least, it can usually hear you just fine. Whether or not you get the results you need is another question, but a prototype device created by engineers at Duke University could one day help Apple’s digital assistant understand you just as well if you’re in a crowded room or a car.
More updates than you can shake a selfie stick at. Cover Design: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac
This week, Apple has released a ton of new updates into the wild, including better-and-better versions of iOS 8, an iTunes that does Apple Music a bit better, and a Boot Camp that will let you run Windows 10 on your Mac. Try that on your Chromebook.
We’ve got a ton more, too, like killer tips and tricks for the public beta of iOS 9, a slick feature on trailblazer photographers who took selfies back in the day, and some ideas on how Apple Watch should track weightlifting sessions at your local gym.
(Note: Because of Cult of Mac’s recent redesign, some images are not displaying properly in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. We apologize in advance — and we’re working on it.)
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti worked with iPad during a recent mission on the International Space Station. NASA wants astronauts to start using smartwatches for some of their tasks.
Photo: NASA
There’s a smartwatch app for almost everything, but very few are useful to the men and women who work in microgravity.
So NASA is asking the pubic to design a smartwatch app for its astronauts to do everything from keeping them organized during science experiments to alerting them to space debris approaching.
Apple Car might be coming, but will it be special? Image: Aristomenis Tsirbas/Freelancer
Apple is definitely working on a self-driving car project, and according to some new documents, Project Titan appears to be further along than anyone thought.
Rumors of Apple’s car project first starting surfacing at the beginning of this year, with an announcement not expected until 2020 at the earliest, but the Guardian reports that Apple is already trying to secure a super-secret Bay Area test facility for the electric car.
Apple Watch bands now come in XL. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple Watch owners with gigantic wrists are getting some relief today from Apple with a new set of extra-long bands that that can wrap around wrists up to 245mm.
The Apple Store is now stocking a new Link Bracelet Kit that can an add up to six additional stainless steel links to the 42mm Link bracelet. Apple is also introducing some new XL Sport bands for those using the cheaper model.
I wanted to find photos from my vacation a couple of weeks ago, so I figured I’d try out Siri’s new iOS 9 functionality.
“Siri,” I said, “show me photos from Hawaii.”
Dutifully, Apple’s updated digital assistant pulled up photos from my trip to Oahu a couple of years ago. They’re lovely, but I wanted more recent pictures.
“Siri, show me photos from Hawaii last week,” I said, reasonably.
As soon as I finished speaking, there they were. Siri had launched my Photos app on my iPhone and brought up the photos I’d taken while in Kona. Great stuff.
Here are some other ways you can get Siri to find the photos you want in the huge pile you have sitting on your iPhone.
Who is your money on? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Like every other company, Apple and Google have had their share of highs and lows in the past — but one thing that’s for sure is that neither of them can keep going from strength-to-strength indefinitely; they’ll both stumble at some point in the future.
But which will be the first to take a tumble?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Androidand Cult of Mac as we battle it out over that very question!
Maybe the coolest, most tech savvy president ever. Photo: The White House
“Welcome to Spotify, Mr. President,” tweeted the streaming music giant Friday morning. That’s right: The president of the United States just shared two vacation playlists — and he didn’t use Apple Music.
The two music lists, titled “The President’s Summer Playlist: Day” and “The President’s Summer Playlist: Night,” contain 20 songs each, showing an eclectic taste with a diverse artist representation, including the Isley Brothers, Bob Dylan, Otis Redding and (ugh) Coldplay.
Apple is expected to unveil its new lineup of iPads at a keynote event in early September, but according to a recent rumor mill, the iPad Air 3 might not make an appearance on stage.
Chinese-based tablet supply chain makers have supposedly received decreasing orders because Apple plans to be more conservative with its tablet product line, claims DigiTimes sources who say a replacement for the iPad Air 2 isn’t in the works yet.
Seriously, who does this? Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
In his quest to get hold of a brand new iPhone, a teenager from the Netherlands has been arrested for attempting to steal a priceless artefact from the ancient city of Pompeii.
This bundle of lessons teaches how to develop iOS games across four different genres. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Making games can be as fun as playing them, and the key to mastering both is practice. After working through this bundle of lessons, you’ll be ready for the iOS game-making equivalent of Carnegie Hall. Covering the how-tos with over 20 games in four different genres, this package from StackSkills usually goes for over $2,000. But right now the whole thing is just $20 at Cult of Mac Deals.
Having billionaire CEOs work on your production line is an unnecessary cost for one thing. Photo: Apple
Apple supplier Foxconn is reportedly cutting costs and widening its margins to keep ahead of the pack as the Chinese smartphone market slows, according to a new report.
We’ve spent thousands of man-hours over the years debating whether Android is better than iOS, or vice versa. A new video series by YouTube video producers ColdfusTion explores that same premise, by talking through the history of both platforms and how they’ve evolved over the years.
Whether you’re new to the world of mobile, or just fancy a trip down memory lane on a Friday, it’s well worth a watch. Check it out below:
Rock music history is rife with musicians who developed a sort of god complex from money and fame.
A recent posting on Instagram indicates fame is unlikely to corrupt Brittany Howard, lead singer and guitarist for Alabama Shakes, who used the photo- and video-sharing platform to give a fan a guitar lesson.
Didn't get away this summer? These videos let you vacation vicariously. Photo: Stefanie Magnolia/Vimeo
Vacation films used to be something to fear. The blurry Super 8 home movie from the lake or the two-hour slide show of the neighbor’s trip to the Badlands would quickly put us to sleep (although we might have preferred death).
But these days, anyone can shoot and edit their vacation films with cinematic flair thanks to the latest smartphones and software that gives us tools that once required a film school degree. Just look at these stunning videos and you’ll see state-of-the-art summer memories, circa 2015.
Apple's first car product might be a heads-up display. Photo: Milan Nykodym/Flickr
Apple is looking to bring fighter-jet technology to your car’s dashboard, according to a new report that claims the iPhone maker is working on a 27- to 50-inch heads-up display for automobiles that will be completely controlled by gestures.