Thanks to iOS 14’s new widgets, seemingly everyone is redesigning their iPhone Home screens right now. Some of these look amazing. Others evoke the eyeball-abusing tragedy of late-stage MySpace, serving as painful reminders of why most of us didn’t become professional graphic designers.
Here are some of the better iOS 14 custom Home screens we’ve seen. (Want to make your own? We’ve got a guide for you: How to give your iPhone Home screen a new look with custom icons).
It’s no longer necessary to jailbreak your iPhone to completely overhaul the appearance of its Home screen. All you need is the Shortcuts app in iOS 14, and you can use custom icons for any app you have installed.
With some simple tweaks and plenty of spare time, you can make your iPhone feel like a brand-new smartphone with a completely different operating system designed just by you. We’ll show you how.
Ever wanted to make your brand-new iPhone look like it’s running Windows 95? That’s the outrageously novel idea that sprang into the mind of Ashley, an 18-year-old from Indiana who wants to work as a graphic designer, after she upgraded to iOS 14 last week.
Taking advantage of iOS 14’s new Home screen widgets feature, and a clunky workaround that employs the built-in Shortcuts app, she gave her iPhone 11 a vintage Microsoft-style makeover that screams retro cool and picked up 4.4 million views and 664,000 likes on TikTok.
“As someone who wasn’t even alive in the ’90s, other operating systems, such as Windows XP, are more nostalgic to me, but I went with Windows 95 because it furthered the contrast between old and new,” Ashley, who did not want her last name revealed, told Cult of Mac.
The iPhone 12 will debut at a special event on October13, multiple sources claimed on Wednesday. The release date will reportedly come shortly thereafter.
Cupertino is widely expected to introduce its next-generation handset in October, with only the date remaining a mystery. According to several sources, there’ll be an Apple event the second Tuesday of that month to take the wraps off.
Apple computers hold their value remarkably well — especially when they’re well looked after. Keep your MacBook looking brand-new with an ultra-slim, ultra-affordable hard case from Elago.
These snap-on protectors prevent your machine from picking up scuffs and scratches while it’s on the move. They’re not too thick or too heavy, and they don’t hide your MacBook’s gorgeous design.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is causing unexpected consequences, including a sudden sharp rise in tablet sales, according to a market-research firm. Specifically, there’s significantly increased demand for large tablets with removable keyboards that can function as laptops.
In order for any streaming service to keep up with the competition, it must serve up serialized shows that people can’t wait to finish. Until now, Apple TV+ did not offer one of those. Not even the star-studded and fairly engrossing Defending Jacob proved so compelling you couldn’t turn it off.
That all changes this Friday, when Israeli spy thriller Tehran premieres on Apple TV+. The streaming service’s best dramatic show by a mile, it delivers stunning displays of intrigue and backstabbing.
Poké-hit Pokémon Café Mix just got an update that will let you join other players to form teams, as well as get your hands (virtually, that is) on a range of items, including a Snorlax costume Pikachu.
The team feature lets you to share an ID with a buddy to hook up for special events. The teams you form can be both public and private. The feature promises to add a new dynamic to the popular food-serving game.
Apple Pay’s latest promotion offers customers at sandwich chain Jimmy John’s a free drink when they spend at least $10 on an order. The promotion is available through September 27.
In order to be eligible for the promotion, you have to be a Freaky Fast Rewards member, and pay for your order with Apple Pay — either in-store, through the iOS app or via the Jimmy John’s website.
Update: Apple opened the new online store today. You can check it out here.
Apple will officially launch its Apple Online Store in India on September 23, finally bringing Apple’s online delivery experience to the world’s second most populous nation.
Nothing beats a good set of earbuds, and this deal on one of the best and most affordable, iPhone-ready in-ear buds is a great way to improve your daily listening.
Everyone knows that the iPhone 12 is on the way, but — having been MIA at September’s “Time Flies” event — it’s not clearly exactly when. A leaked video from U.K. mobile network EE and BT could have answers, suggesting that the world’s first 5G iPhones are coming very, very soon.
In a leaked marketing video produced for interval use, EE and BT boss Marc Allera said that, “We are just days away from Apple’s next major launch, a 5G iPhone, which will be a huge boost for 5G.”
Alex Knoll is a professional photographer with some serious carpentry skills. When he couldn’t find a desk he liked that matched his budget, he decided to just build one himself. He sketched a plan on his iPad with the Procreate app and bought himself a few long slabs of pine and got to work. With a set of $100 table legs he bought from TableLegs.com, the total cost of the materials came out to roughly $300.
Laut’s super-stylish Prestige Necklace Sleeve lets you wear your iPhone 11 Pro or iPhone XS Max so that it’s always ready to go. It’s made from high-quality leather, looks terrific, and keeps your iPhone protected.
Bag yours today from the Cult of Mac Store for just $34.99.
iPadOS 14 brings handwriting recognition to Apple tablets, at long last. The new system is called Scribble, and it’s easy to use, fast and flexible.
Here’s how to enter text on your iPad with Scribble.
Almost all the reviews of the Apple Watch Series 6 say the same thing: Yeah, it’s great, but it’s an incremental upgrade, and if you already have a Series 5, skip the upgrade.
That’s sage advice, I guess, especially in the middle of a crushing pandemic that’s ruined the economy, left millions unemployed, and has lots of people thinking carefully about their expenses.
But I say stuff it!
If you have the money, run out and buy the latest Apple Watch. It’s frickin’ amazing! It blows my mind that you can have a mini-iPhone strapped to your wrist that can make phone calls, pay for groceries, give directions, monitor your blood and heart, and so, so much more. It’s a technological marvel, my favorite gadget — and it could possibly save my life.
Apple TV+ on Tuesday unveiled High Desert, an upcoming half-hour comedy series to star Patricia Arquette, winner of several Academy, Golden Globe and Emmy awards.
Fellow comedian Ben Stiller will direct the first episode. Both Arquette and Stiller will serve as executive producers, too.
Apple rolled out new updates Tuesday for its entire iWork suite on iOS, adding Scribble support, a new image picker and more. You can download the newest versions of Pages, Numbers and Keynote now.
Now is the time to treat yourself to a 16-inch MacBook Pro, with Woot offering up to $605 off refurbished models. Prices start at just $1,874.99, but the sale is good for today only, so enjoy it now!
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Microsoft is working on a major Outlook redesign inspired by macOS Big Sur. Its new app, which is redesigned from the group up and promises to deliver a reimagined email experience, will land in October.
Apple fans love to complain every so often, but overall they remain pretty darn satisfied when it comes to the company’s personal computer offerings.
That’s according to data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which reports that Apple ranks No. 1 in user satisfaction for personal computers with a score of ACSI score of 82. This ranking covers iMacs, MacBooks and iPads.
Websites have come a long way since the GeoCities days. But one fact remains the same: Nothing adds pizzazz to a website like animations. In 2020, sophisticated interactive animations make a website pop. And this Mac app makes it easy to add those elements to any site.
Chinese LED chipmaker San’an Optoelectronics is reportedly making “better-than-expected” progress developing Mini LED technology it hopes will be used in Apple’s future Mini LED iPad and MacBook devices, a Tuesday report by Digitimes claims.
If all goes according to plan, San’an Optoelectronics will join Taiwanese LED chipmaker Epistar in producing the screen tech for Apple. It is expected to enter trial production by the end of this year and receive orders from Apple in 2022. Apple’s first Mini LED devices likely will debut in 2021.
Tim Cook is reportedly impressed by how well employees have managed to work remotely, and says that some of these new work habits will endure after COVID-19.
In an interview with the The Atlantic Festival on Monday, Apple’s CEO said he does not think the company will “return to the way we were because we’ve found that there are some things that actually work really well virtually.”
The top three applications on the App Store right now all focus on iOS 14 widgets. They let users create custom Home screen widgets that aren’t tied to other applications.
Apple’s latest operating system adds these mini-apps, and a small selection of them come built into iOS 14. Plus, many third-party applications like browsers and email apps recently released widgets.
But applications whose entire focus is adding useful widgets to the iPhone Home screen quickly found plenty of users. Here are some of the most popular ones available now.