Mobile menu toggle

iPhone clock may have struck a major blow against Kanye West’s presidential dreams

By

Kanye West's new album Ye drops today on Apple Music (and elsewhere).
Kanye West wants to be the next president of the United States.
Photo: Mark Azali/Flickr CC

Noted Apple fan Kanye West is blaming the iPhone’s clock for his failure to turn in the correct nomination signatures on time in Wisconsin for his U.S. presidential bid.

State laws say the papers had to be filed “not later” than 5 p.m. local time on Monday. Unfortunately, West’s campaign submitted them 14 seconds after the 5 p.m. deadline. West’s lawyer argues that, because it was before 5:01 p.m., the paperwork should still be admitted.

Setapp, the app subscription service, lands on iOS with 8 awesome titles

By

Setapp comes to iOS
A catalog of amazing apps, one small monthly fee.
Photo: Setapp

Setapp, the brilliant app subscription service from MacPaw, has finally landed on iOS. The service offers eight titles at launch, including task-management app 2Do and wonderful writing tool Ulysses.

A small monthly fee gets you complete, unlimited access to every app in the catalog, with more being added on a regular basis. And if you’re already a Setapp subscriber, you may get the iOS apps for free.

COVID-19 forces temporary closure of Montreal Apple Store

By

Apple Sainte-Catherine closes due to COVID-19. Here's the store during happier, less socially distanced times.
The Apple Sainte-Catherine store during happier, less socially distanced times.
Photo: Sandra Cohen-Rose and Colin Rose/Flickr CC

The Apple Sainte-Catherine store in Montreal will be closed “until further notice” due to COVID-19 conditions.

“We take this step with an abundance of caution as we closely monitor the situation and we look forward to having our teams and customers back as soon as possible,” Apple said. The company would not confirm whether there was a positive case of COVID-19 at the store

Google was the No. 1 developer in the App Store last month

By

Google
Google was a big winner on iOS in July.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

As the company behind Android, Google is frequently positioned as one of Apple’s biggest enemy when it comes to smartphones. But it’s actually doing incredibly well thanks to iOS — as a new Sensor Tower report makes clear.

Published Monday, the report notes that Google was the no. 1 mobile publisher in the App Store for July 2020, based on total number of installs. Google’s top apps include YouTube, Google Hangouts, Gmail, Google Calendar, and others.

Celebrate Elon Musk’s SpaceX Mars ambitions with custom iPhone 12 Pro

By

Musk on Mars phone
All yours for around $5,000.
Photo: Caviar

The iPhone 12 isn’t out yet, and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has yet to fulfill his ambition of landing on Mars — but Russian luxury firm Caviar is getting ahead of the game.

This week, it announced a new limited series of 19 “Musk Be On Mars” iPhone 12 Pro handsets. Rather than being blinged out with gold and diamonds like previous Caviar iPhones, these special-edition units will feature “a piece from the SpaceX spaceship that was in space,” bas relief of the Dragon spacecraft, and a laser-engraved Musk signature.

All yours for a starting price of $4,990.

Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac takes Windows to macOS Big Sur

By

Running Windows on a Mac with Parallels Desktop just got better. Again.
Running Windows on a Mac just got better. Again.
Image: Parallels

Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac launched Tuesday, bringing new features and performance enhancements that mean the virtualization software delivers the “ultimate Windows-on-Mac experience,” the company said.

The update also preps the popular software for the upcoming release of macOS Big Sur. That required a major effort from Parallels’ engineers.

“We had to re-engineer all of the (kernel extensions) that we would need from scratch to work with the new macOS kext that’s integrated into the product,” said John Uppendahl, Parallels’ VP of global communications, during an online briefing about the software. “And to give you context, that alone took 25 man-years of engineering work.”

Tim Cook joins the billionaires’ club

By

Tim Cook earnings apple
Tim Cook’s net worth has gone up, up, up!
Illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The CEO of Apple reportedly passed a huge milestone: He’s now a billionaire. Tim Cook’s net worth has risen significantly, partially as a result of Apple stock more than doubling in value in the past 12 months.

But Cook is not likely to stay a billionaire. And not for the reason you might think.

Why the new iMac is still a great buy, even without Apple Silicon

By

2020 iMac: The new iMac looks just like the old one (only faster).
The 2020 iMac is certainly worth your cash.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s newest iMac is by far the fastest yet, with huge increases in both CPU and GPU performance. It also ships with improved speakers and microphones. And yet, it seems a lot of Apple fans don’t care.

The reason? The new iMac is powered by Intel processors, like all its predecessors since 2006, instead of Apple Silicon. Since Apple revealed its plan to switch to its own custom chips at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June, Intel processors just don’t hold the same appeal.

But there are some great reasons to continue buying Intel-powered Macs in 2020. Here are a few.

Google Maps finds its way to Apple Watch

By

Google Maps on an Apple Watch
Google Maps fans can now get turn-by-turn directions on their Apple Watch.
Photo: Cult of Mac/Google

A version of Google Maps for the Apple Watch starts rolling on Monday. The goal of this app is to allow users to navigate by car, bike, public transit or on foot, without having to look at an iPhone.

Also, Google Maps for Apple’s CarPlay Dashboard got some convenient new features today.

You’ll flip for this iPhone 12 Flip concept

By

An iPhone concept shows a realistic folding iPhone design
If Apple makes a foldable iPhone, it might look like this concept design.
Screenshot: ConceptsiPhone

When Apple gets into the foldable phone market, as arch-rival Samsung has already done, its first model might well look much like the iPhone 12 Flip. But for now, this is only a concept design.

Watch a video of it now:

Boys State is a timely and terrifying political documentary [Apple TV+ review]

By

Ben Feinstein appears in the terrifying Apple TV+ documentary Boys State
Ben Feinstein appears in the terrifying Apple TV+ documentary Boys State.
Photo: Apple TV+

If you looked at the crowds of white nationalists bearing tiki torches at the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and wondered what took them from innocent children to gimlet-eyed monsters of borrowed ideology, Boys State is a harrowing but necessary research tool.

The new Apple TV+ documentary by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss delivers a frightening look at a time-honored tradition that appears to have actively made the world a worse place.

Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner Boys State, which premieres Friday on Apple TV+, may nauseate you. But you’ll be glad you saw it, if only because it’s a shocking and sobering reminder that the next generation of conservatives is ready to step in and replace the one about to die — and they’re no less efficacious.

Mom and son duo sentenced for massive fake iPhone warranty scam

By

Iphone11
Pair got their hands on 111,000 iPhones during scam.
Photo: Apple

A 34-year-old Chinese citizen living in Switzerland has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail for a massive fraud involving Apple’s AppleCare+ warranty system. His 56-year-old mom, who helped him pull off the scam, was given a suspended 18-month jail sentence.

The pair, who have not been named, bought cheap copycat iPhones from China, before swapping them out for 111,000 new authentic iPhones. AppleCare+ allows customers to replace defective devices with new models when they are damaged.

Apple reportedly imported clothes from Chinese company accused of forced labor

By

Apple Paris
Apple staffers' uniforms may have been partly manufactured by an accused company.
Photo: Apple

A Chinese company facing U.S. sanctions for using forced labor provided clothing or raw materials to Apple, possibly in the form of uniforms for its retail employees, claims The Guardian.

Changji Esquel Textile is one of a group of 11 companies that reportedly violated human rights in China’s western Xinjiang region. The company denies using forced labor “anywhere” in its business and says it will appeal its inclusion on the sanctions list.

Celebrate Woz’s 70th birthday with star-studded, live-streamed event

By

Woz 70th birthday
Apple's co-founder turns 70 this week.
Photo: Steve Wozniak

Want to go to Apple co-founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak’s 70th birthday party? Of course you do — and, thanks to Woz’s wife Janet Hill, you can.

To celebrate her famous husband’s landmark birthday this Tuesday, Hill is throwing Woz a massive online birthday bash, and you can tune in to watch it streaming live at 5 p.m. Pacific time on Wozbday.com and Twitch.tv/inspirehouse. Oh, and there’s a typically Woz-style event you can participate in as well.

Booting WeChat from the App Store could hit global iPhone shipments hard

By

WeChat
It's hard to overstate WeChat's importance in China.
Photo: Virginia Werner/Cult of Mac

Booting WeChat out of the App Store could drive down worldwide iPhone shipments by up to 30%, claims respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

While WeChat’s total removal from the App Store seems an unlikely prospect, it could be the worst-case scenario of President Donald Trump’s recent executive order to stop U.S. transactions with WeChat and parent company Tencent.

Apple takes issue with pear-based logo it considers too close to its own

By

Pear/Apple
Spot the difference.
Photo: Prepear/Apple

Apple is taking aim at a meal planner and grocery list app called Prepear, which it claims bears a more-than-passing resemblance to Apple’s iconic logo.

In an Instagram post by the app’s creators, Prepear’s founders express their shock that the “trillion dollar Apple” has gone after a small business’ trademark. They say that fighting Apple will cost “tens of thousands of dollars,” but that they will fight nonetheless.

Learn how to produce polished audio on Logic Pro X

By

Logic Pro Lifestyle
Master the many features of the leading digital audio workstation with 45 hours of lessons.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

One of the greatest things about computers is how easy it is to create music. Even more so if you use a Mac, because of Logic Pro X, Apple’s industry–leading Digital Audio Workstation. With this massive collection of lessons, you can learn to use it like a pro.

Get more productive with Vissles’ attractive portable display [Review]

By

Vissles-M review
Easily expand your working space, or enjoy a movie on a larger display, with the Vissles-M.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

A portable monitor makes you more productive on the go. And the 15.6-inch Vissles-M is a thin and lightweight LCD screen that easily connects to a Mac or iPad Pro through its USB-C port.

I tested this affordable external display in a variety of conditions, and used it for both for work and fun. Here’s how it held up.

Phil Schiller’s greatest hits! [Cult of Mac Magazine 361]

By

10 reasons we'll miss Pete Schiller.
Here's why we love this longtime Apple exec.
Cover: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

We’re all going to miss Phil Schiller now that he’s stepped down from his role as Apple’s marketing chief. He was a close friend of Steve Jobs, and he played a major role in Cupertino for decades.

To be clear, he’s not leaving Apple entirely. Instead, he became an Apple Fellow (and he’ll run the App Store and Apple Events). Still, it’s a big change for Cupertino. In tribute to an Apple OG, let’s take a trip down memory lane and relive Phil Schiller’s greatest hits.

That post is just one of the good reads you’ll find in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Download it now and get all the week’s top Apple news, reviews and how-tos in an easy-to-read package.

Grow your audience by mastering the many facets of digital marketing

By

Marketing Lifestyle
This massive bundle of lessons will teach you how to connect your brand or products with the widest possible audience.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Marketing moved online long ago, and every week that goes by, it becomes more fundamental to the ways we buy and sell. Facebook, YouTube, Google and Amazon have become the core of our modern economy. So if you’ve got a product, brand or anything else you want to connect with customers or audiences, you’ve got to learn the ins and outs of digital marketing.

Why we’re skipping the new iMac and buying Apple stock, this week on The CultCast

By

CultCast 436: This week we talk iPhone SE 2, HomePod and the AirPower charging mat, resurrected!
Which makes a better investment, iMac or AAPL?
Photo: @YSR50

This week on The CultCast: The brand-new iMac may look the same, but it’s so powerful that video editors are gleefully buying two or three at a time — we’ll tell you everything that’s new.

But look, forget buying the shiny new iMac, and put your money in Apple stock instead! I’m going all in on AAPL. Find out why I’m about to dump a huge cash stockpile into Apple stock, and the cash value of my current investments. We’re talking real numbers here, people.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.