Cult of Mac

Apple reportedly placed multiple rush orders for iPad screens with LG Display. The tablet saw increased demand in Asia this quarter, with COVID-19 forcing so many people to attend classes and work from home.

You don’t need to be using a Disney face to get your Apple Watch to tell you the time. Using a simple tap gesture, you can have the time read to you while using any watch face. Find out how in this Apple Watch pro tip.

This week on The CultCast: AirPods with new sensors could be on the horizon, and that would fit perfectly with Apple’s always-on approach to health. Find out why we can’t wait for in-ear health trackers. Or for Apple to revamp the musty Messages app for Mac.

Plus, we discuss the aftermath of last week’s controversial chat with hotshot Apple leaker, Jon Prosser. And finally, Cult of Mac TV reviewer Scout Tafoya tells us why you probably ought to queue up Defending Jacob (and why you might want to skip Central Park).

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.

Breakout Apple TV+ series Defending Jacob comes to a gutsy and strong conclusion by leaving its characters, and its audience, in the lurch. This is the smartest decision the show’s creators could have made.

The limited series’ ending, which premieres Friday, shifts everything we’ve seen so far into an entirely new light. It likely will haunt you for some time to come.

Spoiler alert: Details about “After,” the final episode of Defending Jacob, follow.

If nautical nonsense be something you wish, then drop on the deck and download SpongeBob: Patty Pursuit, a side-scroller that debuted Friday on Apple Arcade.

There’s no good place to run out of power for our phones and tablets. So why not carry the means of charging them anywhere the sun is shining?

Apple’s latest Apple Pay promo will get you 30% off custom sunglasses or eyeglasses from leading brand Ray-Ban.

Since prices for glasses are over $100, that means a saving of at least 30 bucks. Not bad, considering all you need to do is pay online using Apple Pay, and use a special code.

Despite an impressive pedigree and a marketable cast, new Apple TV+ show Central Park seems primed to annoy as many people as it will please.

You must put up with an awful lot of very trendy singing and songwriting, and an overly precious approach to character and plotting, to get to the meager delights within.

Apple’s newest MacBook Air is $49 more affordable if you buy yours on Amazon right now. Or you can save even more by opting for a renewed previous-generation MacBook Air, which is now available for less than $850.

Renewed stock doesn’t last long, so bag yours before they’re gone.

A federal judge has thrown out a copyright lawsuit against Apple and director M. Night Shyamalan claiming that Apple TV+ series Servant stole its core idea from a 2013 independent movie.

As with the spooky Servant, the movie The Truth About Emanuel is the story of a traumatized parent who hires a babysitter to look after a baby that (spoiler alert) turns out to actually be a doll.

Apple has started selling officially refurbished iPhone XR models in the Apple Online Store. The handsets are available in 64GB, 128GB, and the discontinued 256GB storage options — for about $100 to $120 less than their current selling price.

Apple remains the king of the wearables, according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, published Thursday. In total, the analytics firm claims that total device shipments for all wearables hit 72.6 million in the first three months of 2020. Of these, Apple shipped 21.2 million units.

Apple Watch remains the world’s no. 1 smart watch by a wide margin. However, shipments declined as a result of coronavirus-related challenges in the supply chain. Nonetheless, the continuing might of Apple’s AirPods — helped by Apple’s Beats “hearables” — was more than enough to offset the decline.

Days after Twitter labeled a Tweet by President Trump as false, Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that seeks to overturn liability protections for social media services.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the president’s most powerful political opponent, called the move “a desperate distraction” on the day U.S. deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic reached 100,000.

Fall detection on Apple Watch can be a real life-saver for those who are unsteady on their feet, but it isn’t enabled by default (unless you’re 55 or over). Here’s how to activate it on Apple Watch Series 4 or later.

Apple nipped a 8-episode biography of Hedy Lamarr away from Showtime. The drama will star Gal Gadot as the 20th-century actress who was also an inventor who helped lay the groundwork for some of today’s wireless technologies.

The show will appear on Apple TV+, the company’s streaming video service that’s taking on the likes of Netflix and Disney+.

A protester wrote a cryptic message on the window of the Apple Store in Tigard, Oregon, on Wednesday, and left a mysterious package. Police shut down the shopping center and sent in the bomb squad.

Fortunately, the bundle at the center of the furor turned out to be a non-dangerous bag of apples.

Scientists want to know if the health data an Apple Watch collects can be used to diagnose COVID-19. There are multiple research studies currently open to those with Apple’s wearable.

Participants contribute to the goal of detecting the illness before the wearer knows they’re sick.

Amazon is helping us all say entertained during COVID-19 lockdowns with generous savings on its own Fire TV devices. You can pick up a Fire TV Stick for as little as $29.99, and Fire Edition TV sets from just $139.99.

All Fire TV devices now support Apple TV+ — as well as a host of other streaming services, including Netflix and Disney+. These are limited-time savings, so enjoy them before they disappear.

Apple continues to lag behind when it comes to machine learning — and voice-to-text transcription on the iPhone is just one more example of this.

In a new video posted online by journalist James Chan, the iPhone’s speech transcription skills are put up against Alphabet’s Pixel smartphone. Not only is Apple’s version significantly slower, but it’s a whole lot less accurate, to boot.

Tired of seeing the same old Home screen on iPhone and iPad? You don’t really want to move around all your apps because then you’ll have to get used to finding them again. Instead, treat yourself to a fancy new wallpaper.

Find out how in today’s pro tip.

If you’ve been meaning to bone up on your coding, this deal on a lifetime of courses covering all kinds of computer languages is for you.

Alongside the physical health concerns during COVID-19, there’s been a massive uptick in mental health issues like anxiety. Those worries are highlighted by a big surge in mental wellness mobile app downloads, as noted in a new report from app analytics firm Sensor Tower.

The firm notes that the top 10 mental wellness apps experienced a big increase in downloads in April from the pre-lockdown January 2020. In all, apps like Calm, Headspace and Meditopia racked up a total of 10 million downloads last month.

The Apple Watch Leather Loop strap could be getting a redesign for this year’s Apple Watch Series 6. According to images posted to Reddit on Wednesday, the redesigned bands will come in (at least) black, blue, red and brown color options.

Unlike the existing Leather Loop straps, the new ones appear to have an additional accent color that runs down the edge of certain straps. It’s definitely a nice touch, design-wise — although there’s no guarantee that these are legit.

Want to own the home of a former Apple CEO? Wouldn’t we all? Unfortunately, you’ll need to pony up $37.5 million to do so.

Belonging to Mike Markkula, the angel investor who played a critical role in Apple’s early days, the ranch is the largest single landholding in Central California’s Carmel Valley. Markkula reportedly purchased it in 1982 for $8 million. He’s been trying to sell it since at least 2013 — and has dropped the price substantially during that time.

A video by the listing agency, Hall and Hall, lets you take a look around.

Woot is offering some of the biggest discounts we’ve ever seen on the 2018 iPad Pro today only. You can bag your refurbished 12.9-inch model for as little as $729.99 with 64GB of storage, or $839.99 with 256GB of storage.

Stock is selling fast, so be quick!