A YouTuber turned an iconic “sunflower” iMac G4 into a DIY HomeView — and posted the necessary files on GitHub for anyone to use for free.

When creator Jesse Richards bought the iMac G4 for just $20, the computer wouldn’t even boot up. But after vibecoding a fix, Richards is now able to query his homemade HomeView about the weather, his calendar, recipes and more. It even controls some of his smart home, just like Apple’s official HomeView, hasn’t yet hit store shelves.

“It’s the most-used screen in my house,” said Richards.

After posting yet another quarterly revenue record on Monday, Apple provided more insight into the massive scope of its operatings in its quarterly earnings call.

During the live-streamed call, new Apple CEO John Ternus and CFO Kevan Parekh praised the company’s new products and dug into the nitty-gritty about financials. A Q&A session with Wall Street analysts yielded more questions than actual answers, but the numbers Ternus and Parekh tossed around speak volumes.

Apple CEO John Ternus on Monday answered a question on the mind of many after the first MacBook with a touchscreen was announced: what does this mean for the future of the iPad?

Ternus’s answer gave the very good reason why the company isn’t going to combine Mac and iPad: it would make them both worse.

Apple just reported another record-breaking quarter, despite the company being forced to increase prices on many of its products because of an ongoing global memory shortage.

“Today, Apple is proud to report a September quarter revenue record of $114.5 billion, up 12 percent from a year ago, with iPhone reaching a September quarter record and Services reaching an all-time high,” said John Ternus, Apple’s CEO, in a statement Monday.

November 2, 2012: The first iPad mini goes on sale, shrinking both the size and the price tag of Apple’s groundbreaking tablet computer.

With a reduced screen size of 7.9 inches – instead of the then-standard 9.7 inches – the original iPad mini is the fifth iPad to be released by Apple. Critics hail Apple’s most affordable iPad ever, although some people complain about the tablet’s lack of a Retina display.

Don’t let the modest appearance of the HomePod mini 2 fool you. The audio quality is excellent for a speaker in this price range and size. It’s even better than its predecessor. And the speaker is useful for more than music or podcasts. It really is smart — though not as clever as it will be after the arrival of a future software update that will bring support for Siri AI.

As a longtime HomePod mini user, here’s what it’s like using the second-generation version.

Apple might add touchscreens to all its high-end MacBook Pros next year, leaving only the entry-level 14-inch model with a traditional display.

The rumor that Apple will make touch standard on every MacBook Pro with a Pro or Max chip comes just days after the company unveiled its first touchscreen MacBook Pro.

iCloud+ costs $9.99 a month for 2TB, which rounds out to about $120 per year, every year, until you decided to stop paying Apple. If you want a better option, you can get 1TB of cloud storage from Drime, plus a specialized file transfer tool called Transfr Pro, all for just $89.99 for life (regularly $748).

It’s called The 1TB Cloud Storage & File Transfer Lifetime Subscription Bundle, and it’s a great way to store your files securely.

Apple’s upcoming smart display could double up as a HomeView security camera. The best part? It’s said to use the same built-in camera that handles FaceTime.

Text found in HomeView’s software code describes a security camera mode with features like motion detection, live streaming and recording.

November 1, 2007: Six months after Steve Jobs showed it off, the original iPhone becomes Time magazine’s “invention of the year.”

The iPhone stands out from the rest of 2007’s gadget pack, which includes the Nikon Coolpix S51c digital camera, the Netgear SPH200W Wi-Fi Phone and the Samsung P2 music player. Remember those? (Yeah, we thought not.)

The more devices you own, the more difficult it becomes to protect your privacy from malicious actors and sanctioned snoops. This heavily discounted FastestVPN lifetime license guards up to 10 of your devices, from your MacBook to your iPhone, for just $27.97.

This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: Apple just released the first touchscreen Mac in history — and totally soft-pedaled the touchy-feely part!

Instead, the company emphasized the screen quality of the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display, including showing how great it works from mountaintops and forests.

Color us shocked! There’s plenty to discuss about this momentous Mac. That screen does look gorgeous. And a lighter laptop is always welcome. But that price … ouch!

Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:

• Apple’s chip-and-ship upgrades to the iMac and the entry-level MacBook Pro come with one big surprise (and it’s not the powerful M6 chip).
• The iPhone Duo‘s Crackgate is real. But is it overblown?

Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in your podcast app of choice. Or watch the video version, embedded below. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!)

October 31, 2005: Less than three weeks after launching video downloads with iTunes 6, Apple reveals that it has already sold more than 1 million music videos.

Apple’s dive into the online digital video market — with 2,000 music videos, Pixar short films and a selection of hit TV shows for $1.99 — looks like the logical next step after selling individual songs on iTunes. Passing the 1 million download benchmark so quickly suggests the plan is a roaring success.

With the right scanning app, your iPhone or iPad can scan documents with vivid clarity. There’s no need for a printer-size scanner — you just need your Apple gear. A great example of such an app, iScanner is now on sale for only $24.97 (regularly $199.90).

Apple’s iPhone Duo uses Touch ID instead of Face ID to unlock the device. The fingerprint scanner isn’t as convenient as having the handset simply recognize your face, but there are actually three ways to speed up the process.

One involves cutting out a step in signing in with Touch ID, while another lets you skip Touch ID entirely. The third is… odd.

Apple acquired AI company Ascend.io earlier this year, likely to boost its backend data handling. The now-shuttered company’s LinkedIn page says its goal was to “make data engineering delightful” by using AI and automation to build things faster, more safely and at scale.

Apple for everything from services like iCloud to tracking inventory. Plus, features like Siri AI only work if the data feeding them is clean and organized. Acquihiring a team that automates data-intensive tasks could help Apple deliver better results across the board.

October 30, 2009: Two years after launching in the United States, the iPhone finally goes on sale in China, giving Apple a chance to reach the world’s largest market.

Regulatory hurdles previously blocked Apple’s access to China. With those problems solved, Apple offers the iPhone 3GS to the country’s 1.3 billion people, most of whom do not yet own smartphones.

Knowing how to opt out of data brokers is basic digital hygiene. Your name, home address, and phone number could be up for sale right now.

California has just handed its residents a free shortcut, while everyone else still has some solid options. Here’s what works, what it costs, and why you’ll need to keep at it.

Apple’s latest little smart speaker is now available to buy in person. The HomePod mini 2 reached store shelves on Friday, giving customers their first chance to pick it up since the announcement a few weeks ago.

The new model builds on the success of the original HomePod mini, which became a popular option for people who wanted Apple’s smart-speaker experience without paying for the full-size HomePod. The sequel brings a new generation of hardware while retaining the compact design that made the original so appealing.

Finding good AI tools isn’t the problem. Even the free version of ChatGPT can do a lot. The real frustration is that if you want good results for generating copy, creating images, transcribing text and doing a myriad of other AI tasks, you often need a whole pile of subscriptions, and those costs add up. The alternative is to get an all-in-one tool that brings top AI models together in one interface. Enter 1minAI.

The major benefits of 1minAI are organizational and financial. It gives you access to ChatGPT, Gemini Pro, Llama, Mistral AI and more. So you get all your AI tools in one place, and you don’t need to pay for a subscription to each one separately. For a limited time, you can get a lifetime sub to 1minAI for just $24.97.

Remember streaming TV and films with Popcorn Time? Maybe not. A forgotten Popcorn Time updater could potentially let attackers hijack up to an estimated 350,000 Macs. As it turns out, the updater kept running in the background even after people stopped using the entertainment app.

The flaw allowed anyone who controlled an expired update domain to run code on affected Macs without root access. Researchers disabled the updater on many machines since then, but the app itself remains risky. Uninstall it if you haven’t already. 

The Obsbot Tiny 3 is a small webcam with a sensor as large as the one in the iPhone 17 Pro’s main camera. And, frankly, it delivers a ridiculous leap in image quality over standard webcams.

I spend a lot of time in online meetings — a couple of hours every other day. While I never paid much attention to image quality, I knew that my Creative 4K webcam was not really up to the task. So I tried the Obsbot Tiny 3. It’s great, but at $349, it costs a lot more than a regular webcam. Is it really worth it?

Ask Apple CEO John Ternus, and he’ll tell you his company didn’t just introduce the first touchscreen MacBook Pro. No, they made a MacBook with a beautiful tandem OLED display that also has touch support. The distinction matters.

Still, there were good reasons to add limited touch support to the notebook, as company executives explained in a new interview. Also, if you strongly object to the inclusion of a touchscreen in a MacBook, you’re simply not the target market. Apple execs spelled out who was asking for the feature.

The new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display is the first with a Dynamic Island. The interactive, pill-shaped module is borrowed from the iPhone, but where’s the iPhone’s Face ID? Apple left it out — and some Mac fans are mad.

On the iPhone, the Dynamic Island wraps around the TrueDepth camera that powers Face ID. But not on this pricey MacBook Pro — Touch ID still handles login authentication. Instead of the laptop unlocking magically when users look at it, they will need to give it the finger instead.

October 29, 2012: Scott Forstall, Apple’s senior vice president of iOS software, is fired from the company after the disastrous Apple Maps launch. After Forstall’s ouster, Apple divvies up the roles he previously handled among other high-level execs.

Design chief Jony Ive assumes leadership of the Human Interface team. Craig Federighi becomes head of iOS software. Eddy Cue takes control of Maps and Siri. And Bob Mansfield “unretires” to lead a new technology group.