If you didn’t back the Pebble Time on Kickstarter and now you want one, you can now pre-order the device from Best Buy. The black, white, and red options are all available, and they’ll be delivered to your door within a month.
Twelve months in the life of an iPhone. Photo: Paul Trillo
I’m a sucker when it comes to upgrading to the latest iPhone, but like a lot of people I’ve stopped to think about how bizarre it is that new iPhones go from coveted items we’ll queue up for hours to get our hands on, to scratched, slightly-battered handsets we’ll sell or pass on to friends — all within the course of just one year.
Filmmaker Paul Trillo has taken this idea and used it to put together a pretty nifty short film showing off the life, death and reincarnation of one such device — all shot from the point-of-view of the iPhone itself.
Tim Cook and Apple might be moving into San Francisco. Photo: Apple
In a Chinese-language interview, Tim Cook has revealed how Apple considers Chinese consumer tastes into account when designing any new products.
Given that Cook has previously talked about how China will soon overtake the U.S. as Apple’s biggest market this is unlikely to surprise many readers, but it’s another reminder of just how important the Chinese market is for Apple.
Apple is bringing more chip design in-house. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Apple is reportedly developing a single-chip solution for handling both the touchscreen and display drivers for future iPhones, according to a new report coming out of Taiwan.
Interestingly the report suggests that the integrated design is designed to fit into an ultra-thin and ultra-narrow display — while also allowing Apple to completely eliminate the need for a physical iPhone “home” button by integrating fingerprint sensors into the main display.
Jimmy Iovine talks up Apple Music at WWDC 2015. Photo: Apple
Apple has changed its mind on the decision not to pay streaming music royalties to artists and labels during the three-month trial period of Apple Music.
Yesterday, Taylor Swift penned an open letter to the company arguing that, “We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.”
The tiny Mikme wireless microphone is designed to capture great audio quickly and easy. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
SAN FRANCISCO — While other people were crapping their pants or scratching their heads during the Apple Music unveiling, Philipp Sonnleitner was having an “aha!” moment.
It happened right after Apple took the wraps off of Connect, the social element of Apple Music designed to let artists share intimate moments with fans, from backstage video and unreleased tracks to private performances from couches anywhere in the world.
“You saw the Apple Connect?” Sonnleitner, CEO and founder of Mikme, asked during the getgeeked tech showcase here during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. “We have the tools!”
Taylor Swift may have announced she was shaking off Apple Music last week, but today she published an open letter to Apple explaining in more detail why her hit “1989” album won’t be joining the other 30 million songs available on Apple’s streaming music service when it launches.
“I’m sure you are aware that Apple Music will be offering a free 3 month trial to anyone who signs up for the service,” Swift writes. “I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months. I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company.”
We’re getting down to the wire on the chance to save big on the KeySmart 2.0 organizer, the Innori battery pack, the Sound Kick Bluetooth speaker, and more.
This is what the inside of a set of Beats by Dre Solo HDs looks like. Photo: Bolt. Used by permission.
A teardown of a set of Beats headphones, which sell for hundreds of dollars at retail, revealed that the hardware contains less than $18 in components. And that sounds like the ‘phones are an insane ripoff, but that’s not even the most interesting thing we learned from the examination.
We’re used to hearing about how our expensive gadgets “only cost” whatever amount, but of course you’re not just paying for the parts when you pick something up. That price includes labor and manufacturing, as well as the research that went into designing it and future iterations, post-purchase support, and a bunch of other invisible costs like the non-specific luxury and status values of the product.
Cheap materials aside, Beats contain a bunch of very cool design decisions that also help keep the real costs down for their makers.
"Hey Siri, what time is it?" "F*** you; that's what time it is." Photo:
Siri is a pretty handy virtual assistant on your Apple Watch. It can tell you the temperature, convert measurements, send text messages, and do several other things without you having to take your iPhone out of your pocket.
The one thing you should never have to do, however, is ask it what time it is because you’re wearing a watch, and that’s the minimum of information it should provide you without you having to ask. Seriously, just bring up your wrist. The time is right there.
But if you’re thick as a brick and ask Apple Watch Siri what time it is, it’ll come back with one of over a dozen silly responses. Check out our results below:
Apps that do no evil Photo: Graham Bower / Cult of Mac
If you ever dig into the privacy policies of app developers, be prepared for a shock. This is where they confess their sins: invading your privacy, selling your data, and pestering you with popups and unwanted ads.
As the App Store becomes increasingly crowded and competitive, many developers struggle to make a profit. Some turn their attention to alternative sources of revenue, and the quality of their apps suffer as a result.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Here are the 10 rules for developers to keep things “classy.”
Catching up on all things Apple? Check out this week's Cult of Mac Magazine. Photo: Stephen Smith
Every week, we pull together all the great stuff from the past week of Cult of Mac’s coverage of Apple, culture and technology news into a slick Newsstand magazine.
This week’s Cult of Mac Magazine, then, has all the details we can share about the upcoming iPhone 6s (with more to come in the months to follow, for sure), a few more Apple Watch details, a review of an amazing iPhone camera add on, a profile of the best Apple analyst around, and a look at the oddest little waterproof Bluetooth speaker you ever did see.
Leander Kahney likes Apple's use of magnets. So what happened with the new MacBook? Photo: Cult of Mac
Leander is having a bit of a moment. One of his favorite features of Apple product design is missing on his shiny new MacBook.
Jony Ive, what have you done with the magnet?
You can commiserate with our Editor and Publisher over the loss of the magnet that secured the cable to the charging port in the latest Kahney’s Korner video.
Are you rich? Do you live in one of the world’s richest countries? If you answered “yes” to both of these questions, guess what: you probably don’t have an Android phone.
A new report reveals that Android market share worldwide is almost directly correlated to how rich each market is. The richer the market, the lower the market share for Android. iOS market share is also related to wealth, except it’s polar opposite. So if you’re rich or in a rich country, odds are you own an iPhone instead.
Swiss watchmakers have one more reason not to like the Apple Watch. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FSWI) has announced today that for the first time since 2009 exports of traditional timepieces are down, and it looks like Apple Watch is to blame.
Your iMac might be in need of a hard drive replacement. Photo: Apple
Apple has launched a replacement program for certain iMac models with 3TB hard drives. If you bought a 27-inch iMac with a 3TB hard drive between December 2012 and September 2013, you might be eligible for a free replacement hard drive.
Jimmy Iovine talks up Apple Music at WWDC 2015. Photo: Apple
An Apple spokesperson claims that the company will not remove artists who decline to sign up for Apple Music from the iTunes Store.
This is the latest development in the tense negotiations leading up to the streaming service’s launch on June 30, with indie musicians and labels claiming that Apple is trying to bully and coerce them into putting their music on the new platform.
Former Apple engineer Scott Goodson is now at Pinterest Photo: Pinterest
Pinterest is looking for fresh blood to inject some more life into it’s mobile experience this year, so the company announced that it has nabbed Scott Goodson, a former Apple and Facebook engineer, to come in and improve the app’s performance across various platforms.
Google I/O and WWDC have been and gone, and Google and Apple have laid out the plans for their next major platform updates — Android M and iOS 9.
Now that we’ve had a chance to let those announcements sink in, it’s time for Cult of Android and Cult of Mac to battle over which is best in another Friday Night Fight. Let us help you decide which one will reign supreme when they roll out to the public this fall.
Apple stops selling its last non-Retina iOS device. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
The last iPad with a non-Retina display was sent to the grave today, almost three years after its debut.
Apple quietly pulled the iPad mini from its online store, leaving just the iPad mini 2 and 3 behind to go with the iPad Air 2. In doing this, Apple made a significant milestone stone: the Apple Store no longer sells non-Retina iOS devices.
iPads have taken over this New York school. Photo: Gail Robinson
A New York elementary school has taken the bold move of upgrading 75 percent of its third and fourth curriculum to iPad, meaning that students spend three-quarters of each day using their Apple tablets.
Jackson Avenue School is currently in its fifth year of a district initiative providing all students in grades 3-9 with iPads for digital learning.
Sorry to break it to you, but your Mac isn’t living up to its potential. The good news? We’ve rounded up 10 amazing Mac apps in a Summer Mac Essentials Bundle that can streamline efficiency & run faster, transforming how you email, take photos, stream content, transfer files, and more. Bought separately, they’re valued at $234, but we’ve bundled them up for $19.99 total. Grab the bundle today and start doing this with your Mac:
You know what we need on a Friday? A celebrity Apple Watch review.
“Did you hear what Newt Gingrich said about the Apple Watch?” sounds like the opening line to a Stephen Colbert joke. In fact, it’s a genuine question, since the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and “keen observer of technology” just published his first review for Mashable — offering his thoughts on Apple’s debut wearable device.
Testing out an Apple Watch Sport, Gingrich recounts a day spent on airplanes and in McDonald’s restaurants (yes, really!), before giving his final verdict on Cupertino’s first crack at a smartwatch.