Cult of Mac

Every report we’ve heard suggests that Force Touch is practically a lock for Apple’s next-generation iPhones, but a rumor coming out of Taiwan claims that the feature was originally planned as a handset exclusive for the iPhone 6s Plus.

According to supply chain sources, the iPhone 6s Plus alone was originally designed to include Force Touch sensors, although Apple has since changed its mind and decided to incorporate the technology into both the 6s Plus and smaller 6s.

That’s certainly good news if — like the majority of customers — you plan to buy the smaller 4.7-inch iPhone 6s, but still want to take advantage of the latest Apple tech.

The “secret” developer port on the Apple Watch has yet to be harnessed by third-party developers, but it definitely possesses cool powers, as this new video shows: The tiny port hidden by the Apple Watch band can actually charge your device faster than normal.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Apple is pretty darn keen on making Apple Pay into the de facto mobile payments solution.

With that in mind, the company is reportedly set to announce a new Apple Pay Rewards Program at next month’s Worldwide Developers Conference, offering exclusive perks to customers who use the service, while driving people to return to participating merchants.

We’ve had a new Steve Jobs biography and documentary already this year, with a movie biopic based on the Walter Isaacson book just around the corner.

If you thought Jobs’ life hadn’t been explored enough by biographers, however, think again! The National Geographic Channel is getting ready to a air a new documentary series called American Genius, which will explore famous business rivalries throughout history.

And it’s kicking off with an episode about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

Everyone knows that talking on your cellphone while driving will get you a ticket in most places, but one driver in Canada recently found himself taking heat from the police after he was caught tapping his Apple Watch while behind the wheel.

The Cult of Mac faithful have spoken: Apple’s cuddly co-founder The Woz will be the latest tech icon recreated in wax as a Madame Tussauds statue.

Beating out other possible candidates including Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak will take his rightful place alongside the waxen visages of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg at Madame Tussauds’ San Francisco museum this fall.

You can spend $90,000 on a Richard Prince “piece of art.” Or you can get the same thing from the original source he ripped off at a 99 percent discount.

Prince used screenshots of people he followed on Instagram and converted them into a large inkjet paintings he then sold for thousands of dollars. Prince did not alert the subjects their Instagram shares were being displayed and sold.

Some of the images were from the popular trend-setting SuicideGirls, whose founder has offered the same pictures printed in the same way for sale for $90 on its website.

Need a new Lightning cable right now but don’t have time to drive all the way to the Apple Store? Starting today you don’t even have to leave your couch to get your Apple fix, now that the Apple Store app has added same-day delivery via Postmates integration.

Designer Frank Costa uses his iPhone 6 Plus for lots of things, but he noticed that when typing on it one-handed, the anatomy of his thumb use wasn’t as ergonomic as it could be.

Costa decided to design a new kind of keyboard for the thumbs, one that would only need you to tap and then move your thumb a short distance away from wherever you tapped. This would require less stretch and — perhaps — less stress on the thumb joints.

“So, being a designer,” Costa writes on Medium, “I played with the idea of a keyboard thought (out) for the thumb. A keyboard requiring only a single tap and some short swiping to construct words and sentences.”

Apple has confirmed the existence of the “Unicode of Death” security exploit in iMessages.

“We are aware of an iMessage issue caused by a specific series of unicode characters and we will make a fix available in a software update,” an Apple rep said today in an e-mail to Reuters.

The new Apple TV streaming service might not be launching as soon as we hoped, but when it does, CBS will probably be part of the package.

CBS CEO Les Moonves made an appearance at Recode’s Code Conference and revealed that he just met with Eddy Cue last week to talk about Apple’s upcoming plans. When asked whether CBS will be apart of the new service, Moongraves said “probably.” However, it’s going to take a lot of money to close the deal.

Apple’s VP of operations, Jeff Williams, took the stage at Recode’s Code Conference today to talk about everything from his pride and joy (ResearchKit), to the future of Apple Watch.

A full lineup of new software and products are sure to be announced next month at WWDC, but Williams revealed some of the surprises early, telling Walt Mossberg that Apple Watch apps are about to get a new SDK so they can run faster.  Apple’s electric car project came up as well with Williams calling cars  ‘the ultimate mobile device.’

Here are seven juicy insights into Apple’s future from the interview:

If you have more than one credit card, chances are you’ll want to put them all into Apple Pay so you can use any of them when the mood strikes, or your card balance dictates.

If you’ve got an Apple Watch, you’ll need to add them to the Watch via a separate process than the way you added them to the iPhone.

Once you’ve added more than one card, though, you might want to change the default Apple Pay card. Here’s how to do just that.

Apple Watch is one the most incredible watch I’ve ever owned, but there’s just one problem — the apps are all soooo slow.

That could change pretty soon, according to Apple VP of Operations Jeff Williams, who says Apple will give developers a preview of native Apple Watch apps at next month’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

Apple updated its official WWDC app this morning, and along with listing hundreds of sessions that will give developers an inside look at the latest iOS and Mac software, the app reveals the conference will kick off with a two-hour keynote June 8.

Google I/O is one of the biggest events on the calendar for Android fans, and this year’s event is going to be just as exciting as the last. In addition to the next-generation Android upgrade, we’ll see updates to other Google platforms, and maybe even new devices.

Here are nine things even Apple fans won’t want to miss during Google I/O 2015, which runs May 28 and 29. (This post was updated May 27.)

All good things come to an end. Case in point: our amazing Apple Thunderbolt giveaway, which comes to an end tonight on Cult of Mac Deals.

Developers have been eager to capitalize on the Apple Watch hype, with thousands of apps already available, but according to Snapchat’s CEO, it’s going to be a long time until you’re able to check your snaps on Jony Ive’s timepiece.

If you’re looking for a good deal on a movie to watch you may want to check out the freshly-launched Movie of the Day! app on iOS, which offers up to 70 percent discounts off the price of new and classic films.

A joint effort between Fox and Apple, the app offers users a new iTunes movie download each day. According to Apple these movie deals will “range from blockbusters to acclaimed indies,” so there’s a high probability that you’ll find something that you enjoy.

An iPhone 5 user from San Diego almost lost his Apple handset after accidentally dropping it into the sea.

“My brother tried throwing my phone to me,” Gregory Papadin told British newspaper The Mirror. “It ended up going straight under water and sank to bottom of the ocean floor.”

Papadin says the underwater pressure proved too much for him and his brother to swim down and retrieve the phone, but the captain of the ship he was renting was able to dive in and get it — to discover that the phone had not only managed to survive the episode, but actually film its own watery descent.

Check out the video below:

The phenomenal success of the iPhone 6 has catapulted Apple back to the spot of “world’s most valuable brand” in the 2015 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list, after it temporarily lost the title to Google last year.

According to organizers Millward Brown, Apple increased its brand value by a whopping 67 percent to $247 billion in the last year, compared to 2014’s winner Google, which achieved “only” a 9 percent value increase during that same time.

There is plenty that former Android-users won’t miss if they make the jump to iOS, but one thing they might is the iPhone’s lack of an Android-style “back” button — the result of Steve Jobs’ belief that everything about the iPhone be as uncluttered as possible.

A new Kickstarter project gives you back this feature, however, thanks to a “smart” screen protector which adds just such a button to your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus home screen.

And based on the fact that it’s already been funded more than six times over, we’re assuming it’s something a number of users would really, really like to get their hands on. Literally.

Some iPhone users are getting a flashback to 2013 as a new version of the so-called “Unicode of Death” has returned to wreak havoc with their iMessages.

The security exploit, which activates when someone sends you the message in the image above, reportedly forces jailbroken handsets into Safe Mode and completely removes other units’ ability to access the Messages app.

The son of China’s richest man has bought not one, but two gold Apple Watch Editions. For his dog.

Wang Sicong’s father, real-estate magnate Wang Jianlin, is worth about $34 billion dollars, and the 27-year-old son officially has too much disposable income.

A fire of unknown origin broke out today in Apple’s command center in Mesa, Arizona.

Local firefighters responded at around 11:30 Tuesday morning to the structure, which formerly held sapphire glass supplier GT Advanced Technologies.

A Mesa fire spokesperson said the flames seemed to be localized to the roof of the building, near Signal Butte Road and Elliot Road.