A public launch is scheduled "in the next few weeks." Photo: Microsoft
The ability to play Xbox games in Safari on your iPhone and iPad will soon be available to everyone.
Microsoft this week confirmed its new cloud streaming web app, which has been in beta testing since April, will roll out “in the next few weeks.” What’s more, it’s soon going to get even more powerful.
The latest Apple Pay promotion gets you $20 off select purchases on Adidas when you spend $100 or more for Father’s Day. The discount is available through June 17 but excludes certain Adidas brands.
The trailer for season two of Apple TV+ series See gives us our first glimpse of new star Dave Bautista in the post-apocalyptic series. Bautista is best known for playing Drax in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, as well as for his Batista-bombing escapades as a former heavyweight champ in WWE.
In See season two he plays Edo Voss, brother of Jason Momoa’s character Baba Voss. Check out the trailer below.
A cleaner, more modern design. Screenshot: Cult of Mac
Apple has begun testing a revamped iCloud Mail interface for the web. The new look resembles the most recent version of the built-in Mail app in macOS and iPadOS, and users can try out the beta today.
Keeping your data safe. Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
iOS and iPadOS 15 give app developers the ability to hide sensitive information in lock screen widgets until a device has been unlocked.
The change is part of an upgrade to the WidgetKit framework, first introduced in iOS and iPadOS 14 last year, and will be particularly useful for things like banking and budgeting apps.
When people talk about “Apple” and “leaks” in the same sentence, they’re usually referring to rumors about upcoming products. But the Justice Department of the Trump administration took the step of subpoenaing Apple in an effort to quell White House leaks during the Trump presidency.
Specifically, it sought to gain information from Apple regarding data from the accounts of at least two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, their aides, and family members — including one minor. The New York Times reports that the gag order on the subpoena only expired this year, allowing those investigated to know they had been under scrutiny.
The Apple Design Awards celebrate the best iOS and iPad apps in a range of categories. Photo: Apple
The annual Apple Design Awards honor excellence in innovation, ingenuity, and technical achievement in iOS and iPadOS application and game design. A dozen winners were named Thursday in categories ranging from outstanding Interaction to apps that are just fun.
Linedock 16” gives you a MacBook Pro+ with loads of additional ports, terabytes of storage and a huge battery. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Linedock 16” is for anyone who’s ever thought, “I wish my MacBook had more ports and a longer battery life. And more storage!” The docking station fits under your notebook and adds ten ports, a 99.9Wh battery and up to 2TB of storage.
I tested the version of Linedock for 16-inch MacBooks. It totally blew my socks off.
The head of development for the BMW i3 electric vehicle allegedly joined the Apple car project. Photo: BMW
Ulrich Kranz, who once developed electric cars for auto-giant BMW, has reportedly been hired by Apple. He’ll become an important part of the Mac-maker’s ongoing efforts to create a self-driving Apple car.
iPad users will find browser tabs unavoidable in the version of Safari in iPadOS 15. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The redesigned Safari web browser in iPadOS 15 makes tabs an inescapable part of browsing. The new system is more space efficient, but forces many people to change the way they use their iPad.
I work in Safari on iPad all day every day, so I used the first iPadOS 15 beta to test the modifications that are coming. Here’s what I like. And what I don’t.
UnlockGo: For when you're locked out of your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Image: iToolab
This device access feature is brought to you by iToolab UnlockGo.
Anybody can get locked out of their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. It’s not a good feeling. Fortunately, if you run into trouble with your device screen passcode on an Apple device, iToolab UnlockGo can bypass it.
Perhaps you forgot your Apple ID password. Or your device is disabled. Or maybe you bought a second-hand device with another Apple ID logged in.
Any old headphones will do. Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac
You’ll need some special equipment to enjoy high-resolution lossless audio tracks inside Apple Music. But spatial audio with Dolby Atmos is available to everyone who has a set of decent headphones.
Here’s how to enable it on your iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV.
The days of iOS 14 are numbered. Here in June 2021, it’s all about … err, iOS 4?
At least, that’s the case for Zane Kleinberg. While most of the Apple fanbase is focused on the newly announced iOS 15, teen developer Kleinberg painstakingly remade iOS 4 — which Apple released in 2010 — from the ground up as a standalone app. He calls it OldOS, and you can try it out for yourself today.
“What I’ve created [with] OldOS is iOS 4 beautifully rebuilt in SwiftUI,” the up-and-coming developer told Cult of Mac. “In essence, the app is something of an emulator, or perhaps, a second operating system that lives inside an app on your phone. It’s really designed to be a near-functioning, near-pixel-perfect re-creation of iOS 4.”
Make your MagSafe Charger even more useful by turning it into a stand and grip for your iPhone 12. Elago’s aptly named Grip Stand accessory, priced at just $12.99, makes your iPhone easier to hold onto and easier to see while it’s charging. Bag yours today from the Cult of Mac Store.
Also check out Elago’s new Charging Pad, which keeps your MagSafe Charger tidy and prevents it from moving around on your nightstand.
If you had done this in 1997 it would have blown people's minds. Screenshot: Billy The Kid/YouTube
The eMate 300, one of the most fascinating forgotten Apple products of the late 1990s, has received a second life as a Raspberry Pi laptop.
The personal data assistant, which Apple sold for less than a year between 1997 and 1998, was a sales dud at the time of its release. However, with its Jony Ive-designed curvaceous clamshell made out of translucent green plastic, it resembled the later iMac G3 and iBook computers that helped reestablish Apple as a computer manufacturer of note.
That makes it a machine worth celebrating. Now, thanks to the efforts of a YouTuber named Billy The Kid, it’s also a machine capable of running YouTube videos. Check out the video below.
Stay fit and keep your job. Well, not really. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
Apple has teamed up with Globant, a consultancy that helps businesses prepare for a “digital and cognitive future,” to launch a new Earn Your Apple Watch program. Aimed at companies and their employees, the configurable white label app and reward program uses Apple Watch’s various activity tracking tech to boost employee wellness.
The app allows Apple Watch-wearing employees to earn rewards by completing monthly activity goals. Those rewards could be goods or services vouchers, larger vendor-specific purchases, or even discounts on a new Apple Watch. It’s a smart way of trying integrate Apple Watch into businesses that want to get their employees moving.
This software is a necessity for iPhone owners. Photo: iMazing
Ever try (and fail) to AirDrop content between your favorite Apple devices? It’s not always easy. Sometimes one, or both, devices refuse to connect, making it impossible to transfer content seamlessly between them. Otherwise, you’ll have to text, email or transfer content to yourself with a storage drive, which is a nuisance that should be avoided altogether.
If you’ve been daydreaming about building your own iOS app to solve this problem, not to worry: iMazing can do it for you.
There's only one for macOS, but it's a stunner. Photo: Apple
We’re all itching to get our hands on Apple’s newest software updates. But due to many, many bugs, it’s a bad idea to install the developer betas right now. There is another way to freshen up your devices today.
The new wallpapers from iOS and iPadOS 15 and macOS Monterey are available to download today, so you can already start using them on your iPhone, iPad and Mac in glorious high-resolution.
Tim Cook testified as part of an antitrust investigation. Photo: C-SPAN
Efforts to regulate Big Tech continue with Democrats currently circulating drafts of antitrust bills that could affect the likes of Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google.
While there is every possibility that these draft bills morph over time, the biggest way they would currently affect Apple is by curtailing its ability to operate an app marketplace. This feeds into growing criticism about Apple’s control of the App Store, which has been the subject of investigation around the world.
Spatial audio is coming to Apple TV this fall in tvOS 15. It got a brief mention during Apple’s WWDC 2021 keynote on Monday, and now the company has shared more details on how exactly it will work.
iPhone’s Wallet app keeps itself tidy by automatically archiving expired event tickets and boarding passes in iOS 15.
They won’t be removed from the app altogether, so you’ll still be able to access them. But expired items will be bundled into a separate list so that you don’t have to trawl through them to find a pass you need.
Keeping your data alive long after you. Screenshot: Cult of Mac
Apple is finally introducing a Digital Legacy feature that will allow a friend or family member to access your data after you die.
Users will be able to assign an administrator who gets access to things like photos, contacts and other things uploaded to iCloud. However, some data, such as saved credit cards and passwords, will be off limits.
It's on its way. But you'll have to wait for a bit longer. Concept: Antonio De Rosa
Apple’s forthcoming MacBook Pros were erroneously expected by some to show up at this year’s WWDC. But according to a report from Digitimes, the next-gen Apple notebooks will not launch until the third quarter of 2021. This could be due to a lower-than-expected production yield for the mini LED screens for the computer.
The new 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pro models are expected to be the biggest MacBook Pro redesign in quite a while. They are likely to sport a redesigned chassis, offer a returning built-in SD card reader and HDMI port and a restored MagSafe charger. They will also boast the next generation of Apple Silicon processor, and will supposedly ditch the controversial Touch Bar as well. The question is when exactly fans will be able to get their hands on them!
macOS Monterey gives newer Apple computers the ability to send content to a second Mac over AirPlay. You can also use the feature for screen mirroring, turning a spare machine into an external display.
What’s more, unlike on your TV, AirPlay in Monterey lets you connect two macOS devices with a USB cable, greatly reducing latency and removing the requirement for a wireless network.
When moving big files around on an iPad, the iPadOS 15 Files application finally gives you a progress bar. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Improvements in the Files application coming in iPadOS 15 make it a bit easier for iPad users to transfer large files, and select groups of files with a trackpad or mouse. In addition, partial NTFS support is included.