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Here’s where you can buy the Apple Watch Edition

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Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

Tim Cook has only said that the Apple Watch Edition will be available in “select stores” later this month. You won’t be able to just walk into any location and try on the ultra-expensive gold model.

Now we know exactly which Apple retail stores around the world will sell the Edition when it goes on sale April 24th.

First reviews: New MacBook is gorgeous, but limited 

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Apple just released a new OS X beta. Photo: Apple
The new MacBook reviews are in. Photo: Apple

Apple Watch has been hogging so much of the tech spotlight lately that you could be forgiven for forgetting that Apple is also about to release a revolutionary new computer.

The first reviews of the new MacBook landed on the web to remind us that the first gold MacBook will be available to order tomorrow, too. According to the experts, it’s the most beautiful computer ever created. But should you buy it?

Here’s the good and the bad of the new MacBook.

iPad installation plays music based on the face you are wearing

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The
The "Sound of Emotion" will play music based on facial expressions at eh Market Street Protyping Festival in San Francisco. Photo: Sound of Emotion/Neighborland

You’re in a mood and your face can’t hide it. Now imagine if that face was the source of music.

The “Sound of Emotion,” a musical project created with facial expression recognition technology, will be on display at the Market Street Prototyping Festival in San Francisco. The festival runs today through April 11 on Market Street between Embarcedero and Van Ness.

The installation will use four iPad and for selected genres, each device will represent a single instrument, such as bells, a didgeridoo and drums.

Thumbs down: iOS update breaks Touch ID for some

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Touch ID
Apple's fingerprint scanner is experiencing a Touch of bother. Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

Apple dropped its third major update for iOS 8 yesterday, and along with racially diverse emoji, two-factor authentication for Google and new Siri languages came another altogether unwelcome addition: a fault that is stopping Touch ID from working for many users.

Sadly, this is the kind of thing that is becoming a more regular occurrence for Apple. Despite exciting new hardware developments like the Apple Watch, the company has been getting increasingly sloppy with software updates — with routine and sometimes crucial functionality taking a hit on what feels like a regular basis.

First TV remotes made sedentary lifestyle a click away

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The remote control for the Zenith Space Command TV. Photo: Todd Ehlers/Flickr CC
The remote control for the Zenith Space Command TV. Photo: Todd Ehlers/Flickr CC

The person who named the first television remote control in 1950 knew exactly how it would transform Americans. It was called “Lazy Bones.”

 Sure enough, we became couch potatoes. But television today without a remote would be near impossible and far from relaxing. Who would want to stand at the set pressing the up arrow button to go through the infinite number of channels brought to us by cable and satellite TV?

You probably grew up with parents that referred to the remote as a “clicker.” That’s because early models had big buttons that made a percussive sound when pressed. The first TV remotes, like Zenith’s Lazy Bones, were tethered to the set with a long cord.

Apple Watch will be available for sale online only at first

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apple-watch
The company is preemptively trying to meet Watch demand by limiting orders to its online store. Photo: Apple

Apple is clearly expecting the Apple Watch to be a big hit, because it’s already limiting orders to just its online store.

In an effort to help meet expected demand, Apple has announced that you won’t be able to go into your local store and walk out with a Watch for the foreseeable future.

This eight-armed photographer is a sucker for a smile

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Rambo is an octopus that has been trained to photograph her visitors at an aquarium in New Zealand. Photo: Sony/YouTube
Rambo is an octopus that has been trained to photograph her visitors at an aquarium in New Zealand. Photo: Sony/YouTube

Here’s a couple of tips should you decide to hire an octopus as your photographer.

If it asks you to “watch the birdie,” be sure to know exactly which tentacle is holding it. Also, don’t let it charge you double for the shots where a tentacle got in front of the lens.

An animal trainer at an aquarium in Aukland, New Zealand has trained an octopus named Rambo to photograph visitors to her tank. Considering the intelligence of these sea creatures, it may only be a matter of time before she raises her prices. For now, she charges $2.

Tim Cook reportedly jets to Paris for Apple Watch’s fashionable debut

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Photo: Kaysgeog/Flickr CC
The Galeries Lafayette is getting a special visitor. Photo: Kaysgeog/Flickr CC

While you’re at work today, Tim Cook is enjoying croissants and chocolat chaud at a chic French eatery. Probably.

That’s because the Apple CEO is reportedly in Paris: most likely for the Apple Watch’s official public unveiling tomorrow at one of the city’s fanciest department stores, Galeries Lafayette Haussmann.

The definitive guide to preordering an Apple Watch

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Apple Watch
Want to be among the first to strap on an Apple Watch? These tips will help. Photo: Apple

The Apple Watch launch might be Cupertino’s most innovative — and complicated — product rollout ever. Usually you just pick between a colors and tech specs, but for Apple’s “most personal device yet,” things aren’t so straightforward.

Even the actual purchasing process is different: Lining up at the store a couple days early isn’t going to help you this time, but this guide to buying an Apple Watch definitely will. It’s loaded with tips for beating the odds and wrapping an Apple Watch around your wrist on launch day.

Here’s everything you need to know about how to preorder and buy an Apple Watch.

(Editor’s note: This post has been updated and stickied to the top of Cult of Mac’s homepage. You’ll find fresh Apple news by scrolling down the page.)

The iOS 8.3 jailbreak could be a long time coming

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Even jailbreakers need to unjailbreak sometimes.
The iOS 8.3 jailbreak could be a long time coming. Photo: Redmond Pie
Photo: Redmond Pie

You probably knew this already, but if you’ve got a jailbroken iPhone or iPad, don’t upgrade to iOS 8.3. Not only does it break existing jailbreaks, but it patches a huge number of security holes in the operating system, making an iOS 8.3 jailbreak farther off than ever.

Twitter now supports your slo-mo iPhone videos

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BBC Earth Unplugged/YouTube
Meet the world's most deadly tongue. Photo: BBC

Shooting ultra slo-mo videos are one of my favorite things about the iPhone 6 Plus, and thanks to Twitter, it’s now far easier to share them via social media.

That’s because the micro-blogging network now supports the posting and embedding of slow-motion iPhone clips; opening up whole new possibilities when it comes to making sure that video of your office work party, your pet running across a field, or your kid practicing skateboard stunts looks as dramatic as possible.

Slow-motion enthusiasts like director John Woo are going to have a field day…

Apple Pay now available in more stores than ever

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Apple in talks to bring Apple Pay to Israel
Apple Pay is setting the gold standard for mobile payments. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple Pay continues its march to becoming the standard mobile payment solution, adding ten new participating retail partners in the United States, to bring its total number of merchants to 68.

Major new Apple Pay adoptees include GameStop, T-Mobile Stores and the Golden State Warriors, Orlando Magic, and Phoenix Suns NBA franchises.

Check out the full list of new participating companies below.

Samsung follows Apple into luxury department store marketing

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post-318576-image-a2d5261cae87471a4cd7daf4b8a49926-jpg

It’s well known that Samsung is happy to take a bit of inspiration from Apple when it comes to the look and feel of its mobile devices, but it’s also willing to splash the cash to try and match Apple’s strategy of establishing itself as an upmarket designer brand.

At a time when Apple is focusing on getting its Apple Watch sold alongside luxury fashion brands in department stores, Samsung’s new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge smartphones have popped up in full-window displays as the chic Harrods store in London, where they will be displayed until April 26.

Why you’re seeing weird alien emojis everywhere

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emoji alien

Apple released big updates to iOS and OS X today, and among the changes is a whole lot of new emojis.

There are over 300 emojis added by Apple as part of an update to the Unicode standard, and most of them focus on racially diversifying the existing emojis we all know and love. There’s also an awesome Spock emoji for when you’re wanting the world to live long and prosper.

But the catch is that if you’re not on the newest iOS 8.3 and OS X 10.10.3, you won’t see these new emojis. Instead, you’ll see an alien or an empty box!

How to unlock iOS 8.3’s secret Spock emoji

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A photo of actor Leonard Nimoy playing the role of Spock in Star Trek, with his right hand raised in the Vulcan salute that is represented in the Spock emoji.
iOS 8.3 emoji now include the Vulcan salute. Photo: Star Trek
Photo: Star Trek

The Spock emoji is here — sort of. Apple added support today for the Vulcan salute emoji, the Star Trek-inspired emoji approved as a new Unicode symbol last year.

The new emoji, described by Emojipedia as “a raised hand, with the fingers separated between the ring finger and the middle finger,” is now visible to users on iOS 8.3 and OS X 10.10.3. However, you can’t actually pick the Vulcan salute out of the emoji character sheet just yet.

There’s no word on when Apple will officially add the Spock emoji to the keyboard, but you can start using it right now by following these quick steps.

The 17 best Apple Watch tidbits from early reviews

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Apple Watch Edition
Early reviewers are in love with Apple Watch. Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

The first wave of Apple Watch reviews landed this morning with the consensus that Apple has created the best smartwatch ever. Now whether you actually need a smartwatch is still being heavily debated, but the early Apple Watch reviews have highlighted some pretty compelling cases.

Reviews from tech news sites have praised Apple Watch for its innovative UI and incredible design. After slogging through the first reviews though, the most interesting insights I found about Apple Watch came from non-tech sites. What will it be like for normal, non-tech nerds to use Apple’s timepiece?

Here’s everything new I learned about Apple Watch from reading all the reviews:

Blast off into realistic galaxy in massive space sim Elite Dangerous

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So pretty, so big. So...Dangerous. Photo: Frontier Developments
So pretty, so big. So...Dangerous. Photo: Frontier Developments

Space travel is bound to be essentially lonely. Even in our one galaxy, there’s something like 300 billion star systems. Three hundred billion. It’s hard to even conceive of that number, to be honest.

Frontier Developments, the developer of Elite: Dangerous, has gone to great lengths to give players that feeling of loneliness, balanced with the excitement and multiplayer action that current gamers expect when they launch a video game.

“With a real full scale galaxy it’s easy to head off into unexplored space,” executive producer Michael Brookes told us. “We think that’s a good thing; players can choose the life of a pioneer on the unexplored frontier, or stick to more populated places for cooperative and competitive play with other players.”

Even better, this stunningly gorgeous fourth entry in the Elite game franchise is coming to your Mac soon.

iOS 8.3 is out with racially diverse emoji, new Siri languages, and more

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A new day, a new iOS bug...
iOS 8.3 is here. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple released the third major update to iOS 8 today with the public launch of 8.3, which brings a host of new features to iPhones and iPads.

The iOS 8.3 update is available as an over-the-air update or via iTunes. Some of the new features include racially diverse emoji, two-factor authentication for Google, new Siri languages, and tons of bug fixes.

Here’s a run down of the biggest features you’ll find: