Cult of Mac

Netflix has Joe Exotic and Tiger King. Now Apple is making its own move into the, err, big cat showbiz entertainment genre with a podcast on pop culture icons Siegfried & Roy.

The forthcoming Apple podcast will chronicle the career of the famous German-American entertainers, who were known for their Las Vegas shows featuring white lions and tigers. Siegfried Fischbacher died in January. His partner, Roy Horn — who was famously mauled by a tiger in 2003 during the duo’s live show — died last year due to coronavirus.

The SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive Luxe includes both Lightning and USB Type-C connectors so it plugs into almost any computer. You can easily access the same collection of files from an iPhone, Mac or iPad without resorting to iCloud, etc. Even better, the drive is small and comes in an all-metal casing.

I tested the iXpand Luxe with multiple devices. Here’s its strengths and weaknesses.

If there’s one thing you should get a handle on, it’s your overall wellness. An Apple Watch works great for that, but you don’t necessarily need to spend the same amount of cash to get a robust fitness tracker. The Smart Fit Multi-Functional Wellness & Fitness Watch offers 15 high-tech features to help you monitor stats that will help you meet your fitness goals.

iPhone 12 users can take advantage of the built-in MagSafe charger with the Twelve South Forté. This stand quickly powers up the handset while also raising it up so it’s ready to be used hands free.

Apple likes the design enough to put it on Apple Store.

Apple’s much-rumored AR glasses reportedly suffered a setback and might not be out as soon thought. The wearable augmented-reality accessory could have gone into production in the first quarter of 2022, but that’s now supposedly unlikely.

Apple debuted iOS 14.5, with its App Tracking Transparency feature, on Monday. But if you updated your iPhone or iPad, and haven’t seen a flurry of alerts about apps wanting to track you, don’t be concerned. The controversial privacy feature is working as advertised.

That’s because the new privacy tracking prompt, which asks users if they want to allow an app to track them on other companies’ apps and websites, will only show up when a developer agrees for the feature to go live on their specific app. Until they push it live, they’re blocked from tracking users via Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers (aka IDFA).

Rose Byrne’s dark comedy Physical just got a release date: June 18. And Apple TV+ also dropped a teaser trailer for the show set during the exercise craze of the 1980s.

Get your first taste of the comedy/drama now:

We want to help you master Control Center, one of the most powerful and underutilized features on Apple devices. Cult of Mac’s Control Center Pro Tips series will show you how to make the most of this useful toolbox on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac.

Worried your iPhone or iPad battery isn’t going to last you all day? Activate Low Power Mode inside Control Center to minimize how much energy your device is consuming when it’s not being used. It’s super-simple to use, won’t get in your way, and it makes a big difference.

We’ll show you how and explain a similar feature — Power Reserve — that you can activate on Apple Watch.

Apple is being accused of engaging in sneaky behavior when it comes to its advertising strategy. According to a Wall Street Journal report, advertisers who are targeting iPhone users say they will “get more data about ad performance if they buy Apple’s ad space than if they buy through third parties.”

iOS 14.5 offers new privacy oriented features that let users opt out of tracking for personalized ads. However, Apple also sells ads itself in the App Store, News, and Stocks. It has recently been bolstering its efforts in this department.

We want to help you master Control Center, one of the most powerful and underutilized features on Apple devices. Cult of Mac’s Control Center Pro Tips series will show you how to make the most of this useful toolbox on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac.

You don’t need to keep the Calculator app on your iPhone’s Home screen just to make it easy to find when you need it. Add it to Control Center instead and you’ll be ready to do math anywhere, anytime with just a swipe and a tap.

We’ll show you how.

We want to help you master Control Center, one of the most powerful and underutilized features on Apple devices. Cult of Mac’s Control Center Pro Tips series will show you how to make the most of this useful toolbox on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac.

There’s no need to dig around inside the Settings app to activate Dark Mode on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. Simply add the Dark Mode button to Control Center and you can quickly toggle it on or off in just a tap.

We’ll show you how in this Control Center pro tip.

If you’ve ever accidentally deleted some of your most important Mac files, keep reading. This data-saving app might just change your life.

Disk Drill Pro is an easy-to-use data-recovery app that allows you to recover documents, music, photos, videos or even whole partitions that have gone missing from your computer. That’s right: Those accidentally deleted files may not be lost forever as you feared.

While recovering your most precious files is priceless, Disk Drill Pro 4 is available now for just $49.99, making data retrieval easier and cheaper than ever before.

European Union competition chief Margrethe Vestager is reportedly set to this week issue charges against Apple suggesting that its control of the App Store violates EU rules.

According to the Financial Times, the announcement will be made late this week. This is based on conversations with “several people with direct knowledge of the announcement.”

We want to help you master Control Center, one of the most powerful and underutilized features on Apple devices. Cult of Mac’s Control Center Pro Tips series will show you how to make the most of this useful toolbox on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac.

Need to scan a QR code in a jiffy? Add a handy code reader to Control Center on iPhone and iPad that’s quick and easy to find in just a swipe. We’ll show you how.

We want to help you master Control Center, one of the most powerful and underutilized features on Apple devices. Cult of Mac’s Control Center Pro Tips series will show you how to make the most of this useful toolbox on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac.

When you’re listening to a song you dig, but you have no idea of its name or the artist who recorded it, you can use Control Center on your iPhone or iPad to identify the track in an instant.

It’s the simplest way to invoke Shazam, the powerful music-recognition tool built into iOS, aside from asking Siri to name that tune (which you probably don’t want to do in certain situations). We’ll show you how.

The M1 chip just made its way to the new iMac and iPad Pro, but Apple’s already hard at work on its successor. According to a new report from Nikkei Asia, mass production of the M2 chip is already underway.

It is expected to debut as soon as early July, initially for use in a redesigned MacBook arriving in the second half of the year. Like the M1 chip, the M2 is being made using the 5-nanometer process developed by TSMC, the company that makes Apple’s A-series chips.

Apple is donating money to support relief efforts in India as the country grapples with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, CEO Tim Cook said.

“Amid a devastating rise of COVID cases in India, our thoughts are with the medical workers, our Apple family and everyone there who is fighting through this awful stage of the pandemic,” Cook wrote in a tweet sent to his 12.8 million Twitter followers.

iOS 14.5 is the best update of the pandemic era because it works with your Apple Watch to remove the hassle of unlocking your iPhone while wearing a face mask. You don’t have to type in your passcode every single damn time. The phone just unlocks. Like it’s supposed to.

But the trick does require an Apple Watch. If you’ve been on the bubble about getting one, this feature should go a long way toward convincing you. It serves as yet another elegant example of how Apple’s ecosystem offers users simple solutions to modern life’s annoyances.

The just-released PopGrip Slide Stretch lets users keep a handle on their iPhone 12 without interfering with the MagSafe charging system. That’s because the new gadget from PopSockets lets the PopGrip slide back and forth on the back of the handset.

Apple Clips 3.1, a new version of the free video-creation app, adds fun augmented reality effects that map themselves to a room and the people in it. The goal is unique videos that people can then share on social media.

And Apple promised to start making monthly content releases with new filters, stickers and more.

If you’ve ever messed around with design software like Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign, you know they aren’t exactly intuitive — especially if you don’t have design experience.

However, owning effective marketing and design collateral is essential if you want to grow your brand. Luckily, when you’re short on time (and resources), technology is on your side. This RelayThat Design App: Lifetime Subscription helps you automatically produce the designs you need in just a fraction of the time, for whatever platform you need to publish your fresh new assets on.

The fresh emoji appearing in iOS 14.5 will set your heart afire. Or at least let you show that in texts. The new collection of pictographs also includes some new faces, and plenty of additional variations to show how we couple up in the 21st century.

iPad users get the same emoji thanks to iPadOS 14.5 and macOS 11.3, which also launched on Monday.

iOS 14.5 gives us the ability to unlock iPhone with an Apple Watch for the first time. It’s perfect for those who can’t get Face ID to work when wearing a mask.

We’ll show you how to get it all set up.

iPhone and iPad just got a significant new privacy protection, preventing third-party apps from tracking you without permission. App Tracking Transparency debuted in iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5.

Here’s how to use it. And what to do about all the popups asking, “Allow [THIS APP] to track your activity?”

macOS Big Sur 11 was apparently such a significant update that Apple doesn’t have much to add in follow ups. Version 11.3 launched Tuesday bringing a collection of tweaks but not big changes.