Cult of Mac

Apple may have sold 10 million+ handsets in the first weekend of the iPhone 6 going on sale, but don’t expect those kind of numbers for the Apple Watch.

Despite being eagerly-anticipated by both fans and the press, Apple has reportedly asked its suppliers in Asia to manufacture a total of 5-6 million units of its three Apple Watch models for the device’s upcoming launch in April. Of these, half are expected to be the entry-level Apple Watch Sport model, one third will likely be the mid-level device, and the remaining ones will be the ultra-luxurious models — including the 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition.

MacBooks and iPhones have been no strangers on Modern Family but in an upcoming episode, Apple’s mobile devices are also taking over filming duties.

Modern Family plans to be the first major TV show to air an episode shot almost entirely with the iPhone 6, iPad Air 2 and MacBook FaceTime cameras. The episode, titled “Connection Lost,” airs February 25 on ABC, but the sitcom’s creator, Steve Levitan, says filming a TV show with the iPhone was even more difficult than anticipated.

AMC’s mega-popular show The Walking Dead has returned for the second half of its fifth season, and if you are as excited about it as my Twitter feed is, you’re probably looking for something gory to hold you over between episodes.

But don’t worry — we have you covered. Here are some more undead-themed shows and movies that will satisfy your need for fake blood while you’re waiting to make sure Daryl Dixon’s zombie-proof vest made of “fan favorite” is still holding up.

Any way you slice it, the iPhone 6 has been a phenomenal hit for Apple: the kind of record-shattering sales phenomenon that would seem once-in-a-lifetime, were it not for the fact that Apple will probably beat its own record within a couple of years.

As is well known by now, between the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple sold a whopping 10 million units in just the first weekend of its next generation handset: a gigantic increase versus the 5,000,000 units the iPhone 5 sold in its first few days, or the paltry 525,000 that Apple managed to sell of its original iPhone back in 2007.

If you’re like me, these numbers are kind of hard to imagine in real-world sales terms. Fortunately, a new webpage aims to put these figures in context, by breaking down exactly how many handsets Apple sold every second of its iPhone opening weekends.

The Apple Watch might have been four years in the making and the most Jony Ive-centric Apple product yet — but the company didn’t get everything it was wishing for from the device.

According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, Apple originally wanted its smartwatch to focus far more prominently on health-related innovations, only to be forced to go in another direction midway through the project.

If Apple had had its way, the Apple Watch would have boasted smart sensors capable of tracking blood pressure, heart rate and even stress levels — but despite hiring top people from the biosensor industry, the technology didn’t work quite as well as had been hoped.

The recent New Yorker profile of Jony Ive revealed how he was the driving force behind the Apple Watch, and how he felt the “the obvious and right place” for wearable tech was the wrist — and not the face, as Google tried with its Google Glass project.

In the same story, Tim Cook offered his dim appraisal of Glass, saying that, “We always thought that glasses were not a smart move, from a point of view that people would not really want to wear them. They were intrusive, instead of pushing technology to the background, as we’ve always believed.”

While the two disses may read like potshots at an Apple rival, a patent published today reveals that — yes — Apple has indeed tried virtual reality goggles, roughly three years before settling on the Apple Watch form factor. Here’s what it came up with.

While Samsung’s next-generation Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge may be dominating the headlines right now, they won’t be the only exciting devices the South Korean company releases this year.

New Galaxy Tab S slates are also on the horizon, and according to inside sources familiar with Samsung’s plans, they’re going to be made of metal and even thinner than Apple’s super-slim iPad Air 2.

People are calling The New Yorker profile of Jony Ive the most important thing written about Apple in quite a while, and I’d have to concur.

Not only is it full of fascinating details, it puts Ive at the center of Apple, where he belongs. As the piece’s author, Ian Parker, writes: “More than ever, Ive is the company.”

This is something that’s been true for a couple decades, but still isn’t apparent to most people — even veteran Apple watchers. Such is the company’s secrecy, and the tendency of the public to equate everything Apple does with Steve Jobs, that the true story has yet to be told. Ive has not gotten the credit he deserves.

When you’ve designed some of the most successful consumer electronics in modern history, where else can you look but up?

One of the many interesting tidbits in The New Yorker’s 17,000-word profile of Jony Ive surrounds his fascination with the Apollo space program and, yes, designing spacesuits. It doesn’t sound like the spacesuit itself was what inspired Apple’s top designer as much as the process that went into it.

Ive mentions he’s been watching the old Discovery channel series Moon Machine about the challenges facing the Apollo program. NASA designers had no idea what goals they even needed to meet for the suit, but built up to the final design with invention after invention until they got it right.

An anecdote from The New Yorker’s time in Ive’s hallowed design studio (emphasis added):

Nothing quite solidifies an Apple product’s significance in pop culture like The Onion’s take. America’s satirical publication of note has already decided to give us a glimpse at the rumored Apple car.

The mysterious automotive project that’s reportedly codenamed “Titan” will have the following features:

If there’s one thing today’s New Yorker profile of Jony Ive hammers home, it’s how important the Apple Watch is to Apple’s design guru. The 16,000-word story reveals how Ive pushed the Apple Watch as a project, shortly after Steve Jobs’ death, when Apple was under pressure to come up with its next insanely great idea.

Here’s all the ways

The Greek mythological character Icarus ignored his father’s warnings and flew too close to the sun. The intense heat caused the wax that was holding his wings together to melt and he tragically crashed into the sea below him.

If only Icarus had the Extreme Micro Drone 2.0 at his disposal, he’d have not only been able to fly at great heights, but also perform death defying stunts while recording all the action. You can get one for yourself at Cult of Mac Deals for a limited time.

As rumors of an Apple car start to gain speed, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has run the figures to find out what kind of business proposition automobiles could be for a company that tends to steer clear of small or low-margin markets.

His verdict? If Apple cars were even a “moderate success,” Tim Cook and pals could be looking at an extra $50 billion per year in revenues. To put that figure in context, it would be an increase of 23 percent on top of the already impressive cash-generating machine that was Apple in 2015.

Remind us to remortgage our homes to buy AAPL stock!

Computer users of a certain age remember the Commodore 64. Millions brought the future into their homes with this, their first personal computer.

And if you still have a Commodore 64, dust it off and make sure it’s not a Commodore 65. A model with the higher digit sold on eBay Sunday for close to $23,000.

The 64 still holds sales records. It outsold IBM and Apple during the early 1980s, in part because it sold in retail stores and not just electronics or computer stores.

But the 65? It never made into the stores.

In what may be the longest magazine feature yet dedicated to Apple’s industrial design guru, the New Yorker has just published a sprawling 16,000 word profile of Jony Ive — taking readers from his early meetings with Steve Jobs up to the present day.

It’s jam-packed with fascinating tidbits about Ive, his secretive design studio, and Apple’s past and future. While I’d thoroughly recommend reading the whole article, here are the details that really leaped out:

Based on what Steve Wozniak has said in the past, it would be very easy to come to the conclusion that the Apple co-founder is far from excited about the Apple Watch. In an interview with CNNMoney late last year, Woz seemingly dismissed it as a “luxury fitness band,” and said that he had gotten “real negative on smartwatches.”

What a difference a few months makes. In a new interview for the BBC, Wozniak touches on everything from the new Steve Jobs movie, to rumors about an Apple car, to — yes — his thoughts on the Apple Watch.

And if he wasn’t enthusiastic before, he certainly is now!

Apple opened its new store in San Jose, California, on Valentine’s Day, just a day after closing the nearby mini-store that was the last of its kind.

Located just minutes from the mini-store location, Apple Store Oakridge was unveiled at midnight, with employees removing the black plastic that covered the glass. The new retail venue opened at 10 a.m. on Valentine’s Day, with a queue of around 85 people gathering — all of whom received a gray, commemorative Apple T-shirt to mark the event.

Everyone might be tripping over themselves to talk about the possible Apple Car, but there’s a much-more imminent Apple device rumored to be on the way: the 12-inch+ “iPad Pro” tablet.

Over the weekend, French Apple-watching website Nowhereelse.fr shared a handful of new pictures of the mythical plus-sized iPad, claiming to be photos of a third-party case for the device.

The photos give some indication of just how big the iPad Pro would look alongside today’s iPad Air 2. As with existing current iPad cases, the iPad Pro case features cutout sections for a Lightning connector, microphone, volume rocker, mute switch, rear-facing camera, and power button. It’s not clear from the picture whether the tablet will boast a 12.2-inch screen or a 12.9-inch one: both of which have been rumored so far.

Check out another picture — and additional information — after the jump.

After more than a decade at BBC Radio 1, well-known DJ personality Zane Lowe has taken a job with Apple in Cupertino, California.

Although the five-time Radio Academy Award winner hasn’t said what he’ll be doing at Apple, he will reportedly work on iTunes Radio.

Like a shiny new penny, Cult of Mac Deals gleams with new products that are sure to streamline your life, up your game, and offer new opportunities.

Get in in this action now before you miss out. Check out Cult of Mac Deals to see all that’s in store right now and read on for our personal picks.

If Apple really is working on a car, what would it look like? And what would we want it to look like and do?

The growing chorus of rumors about Apple’s possible automotive ambitions — and the hard facts about the car designers it’s already recruited — don’t prove Cupertino is working on a car. But if Apple is staffing up to transform the transportation industry, what features might it deliver in its human-transport device?

Here’s what we’d like to see in the very first iCar.

This week: The iCar rumors are swirling. Is Apple preparing to give Tesla a run for its money? Plus: The industries we want Apple to conquer next; why we need Cupertino to get into the space game; college kids love iPhones more than sexy time; we tell you our favorite packs for toting about your Apple and DSLR gear; and stay tuned to the end for our new segment, “Cross the Streams,” where we’ll cover the shows we can’t stop binge-watching.

Our thanks to Varidesk for support this episode. With models starting at just $275, Varidesk is the highest-quality, least-expensive way that we know of to get started with a standing desk. And you should absolutely check them out, because moving to a standing desk will change your life.

Full show notes ahead!

Like a bucket of extra crispy, Cult of Mac Deals has got tasty offers that are finger licking good – and you won’t need coronary bypass surgery afterwards! Huzzah!

There’s a whole bunch of deals on cool tech that are closing pretty soon, so we thought we’d bring them to your attention. Read on for all the deets, yo.

Most clothing designers like to see their clothes well photographed. Betabrand’s Steven B. Wheeler has menswear that just might ruin a photo — and that’s part of the cool factor.

Wheeler and DJ Chris Holmes teamed up to design five pieces called Flashback, clothing made of a highly reflective fabric that will bounce any iPhone flash right back through the lens.

In most cases, the result produces a nuclear look, with the silhouette of the clothes distractingly white hot. Surrounding details either get lost in the shadows or simply go unnoticed because the eyes zero in on the aura of the Flashback clothing.