October 12, 2011: Apple launches iCloud, a service that lets users automatically and wirelessly store content in the cloud and push it to their various devices.
iCloud’s arrival marks the end of Apple’s Mac-centric “digital hub” strategy — and ushers in an age of inter-device communication and non-localized files.
When it comes to affordable website hosting, how much is enough? This discounted Hostdeal Unlimited Plan lets you host unlimited websites, with unlimited NVMe SSD storage and 54 free domains for life. And for a limited time, you can score this killer website hosting deal for just $119.97 (regularly $1,800).
Anyone hoping for an updated entry-level iPad that can handle Apple Intelligence should prepare for a bit of a wait.
Despite a flurry of new Apple products coming this month, the updated tablets reportedly won’t arrive until next year. But when they do, they should bring support for Apple’s latest AI features.
Update: The time for leaks and rumors is over — Apple’s smart home hub is now official. Read more:
Apple wants HomeView at the heart of your smart home
Apple appears ready to make a serious push into the smart home market with a new screen-equipped hub dubbed HomeView. It’s reportedly coming at a product launch event on October 13.
The device is for those who want to put the new Siri AI at the center of their home, as well as those who are serious about Apple’s HomeKit smart home accessories. Or both.
Here’s everything we know about Apple’s smart home hub in the days before it is expected to launch.
Apple signed a deal with Huxe, an AI-powered podcast generator, giving it the right to hire staff and license its technology.
The move signals Apple’s bigger AI audio plans for Apple Podcasts. But Apple isn’t buying Huxe outright, though the startup’s application is already gone.
Apple’s upcoming OLED iPad Mini will carry a significantly higher price tag than its existing $599 MSRP. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman believes the company will sell the tablet for as much as $799.
That would make Apple’s smallest iPad more expensive than the M4 iPad Air, which starts at $749.
October 11, 1995: Steve Jobs files the paperwork to float Pixar Animation Studios on the stock market.
A turning point in Jobs’ life, the Pixar initial public offering turns him into a billionaire. But things very nearly don’t turn out so well.
You can turn your iPhone, iPad or Mac into a piano teacher with Flowkey’s interactive lessons, real-time feedback and song-first approach to learning.
Flowkey is designed to meet you where you are, whether you’ve never touched a keyboard or you already know your way around one. And it costs just $50.99 for three years. A flesh-and-blood piano teacher might charge that much for a single lesson!
Update: The time for leaks and rumors is over — Apple’s smart home hub is now official. Read more:
Apple wants HomeView at the heart of your smart home
Apple will reportedly call its upcoming smart home hub the HomeView. Powered by an A18 chip, the display will focus on Siri and smart home control. It will also lack an App Store.
As previously reported, the HomeView will come in two versions: a countertop model with a metal speaker base and a wall-mounted model with a flat, square base.
More than 15 years after its debut, Siri finally feels useful beyond the basics. While iOS 27, iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 pack plenty of notable upgrades, Siri AI is easily the highlight. It can find buried information, understand what’s onscreen and get things done across apps.
From comparing PDFs to organizing travel bookings, here are some practical ways to put Siri AI to work on your iPhone, iPad or Mac.
This week on the Cult of Mac podcast: Apple’s about to make a big push into the smart home arena. We already knew about the impending launch of an intriguing new smart home hub, but the revelation that Apple is working with at least two other companies to produce new devices takes things to a whole new level.
The big question remains: How will Apple differentiate its smart home platform from everything else on the market? There’s plenty to discuss.
Also on the Cult of Mac podcast:
Listen to this week’s episode of the Cult of Mac podcast in Apple’s Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. Or watch the video version, embedded below. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!)
October 10, 1993: Apple ships its Macintosh Color Classic II, the last of the 9-inch compact Macs.
Also known as the Performa 275, the Color Classic II will eventually become something of a collector’s item, since Apple released it only in Canada, Asia and Europe.
By Jessica Kanzler, Cult of Mac Deals
Headway is a fun app that pulls insights from more than 2,000 popular nonfiction books and condenses them into brief summaries with all the key insights. It turns them into audio and text, so you can listen or read to absorb big ideas in just 15 minutes.
I reviewed the app, which is currently on sale at Cult of Mac Deals, and found it surprisingly helpful for burning through my to-read list. And a lifetime subscription to Headway Premium is currently on sale for just $49.97 (regularly $299.95) with code SAVE20.
If you purchase the iPhone Duo from the Apple Store, Apple will have a little surprise for you. Apparently, Apple retail stores can customize the foldable’s boot screen with the buyer’s name.
So instead of just a “Hello,” users will see a “Hello, [insert name]” when they turn on the device for the first time.
Apple’s Mac shipments fell in the third quarter, but figures from market research firms show that Apple is weathering a difficult period for computer makers far better than its biggest rivals.
Mac shipments dropped about 11% in the July-through-September period, but that is barely a blip compared to huge declines from Lenovo, HP and Dell. The result is that PC shipments worldwide plunged about 20% year over year.
Apple’s aggressive push to stop advertisers from tracking iPhone users is reportedly blocking one of the world’s biggest programmatic advertising platforms from displaying any ads in Safari on iOS 27.
Ad-buying platform The Trade Desk thinks its ads are being blocked by mistake and has asked Apple to rectify the situation. The Trade Desk and others could simply be caught in the crossfire as Apple continues to crack down on advertising vendors that try to track users across websites. Either way, it shows how much control Apple has over the ads on your iPhone.
October 9, 1991: A court orders Apple to pay $26.5 million to Apple Corps, The Beatles’ record label and holding company, for trademark infringement. The end of this Beatles versus Apple lawsuit marks the second time Cupertino is forced to pay the English rock band.
The ruling comes a decade after Apple swore it would never get into the music business.
Apple reportedly has a second major product launch event planned for this month, and this time the spotlight will be on the Mac lineup. The star of the show, supposedly set for October 27, will be the first-ever MacBook Pro with a touchscreen. Plus, Macs updated with the latest Apple silicon are expected, and a significantly revamped iPad mini.
Word of this event comes just hours after Apple sent out invitations to a product launch event on October 13. The focus of that one is expected to be smart-home products.
The new smart home products produced by LG Electronics in partnership with Apple will feature a “tap to set up without power” feature, according to a leaker who spotted the reference in iOS 27.
Also, LG Electronics apparently won’t be the only second-party manufacturer Apple works with to create new smart home products. The same leaker says Schneider Electric, a French company with its North American headquarters in Boston, will produce thermostats, temperature/humidity sensors and possibly more.
Apple invited select media and creators to an event in New York on October 13. With “Welcome Home” as the theme, the invitation strongly hints that its long-awaited smart-home push is finally about to begin.
Rather than being held at company headquarters, the event will be in New York City’s Tribeca neighborhood. And it’ll start at 6 a.m. PT.
October 8, 2014: Apple says it is “surprised” after GT Advanced Technologies, the supplier previously rumored to make ultra-strong sapphire glass displays for the iPhone 6, files for bankruptcy.
The announcement appears to mark the end of the road for sapphire glass iPhone screens, a highly anticipated upgrade that promised to make devices more durable but never arrived.
The iPhone Air 2 could be thinner than the original iPhone Air, according to a new rumor. And it may even slim down to match the iPhone Duo when unfolded.
That means the Air’s already slim 5.6mm body will be down by 0.4mm. What’s more surprising is that the battery could grow instead of shrink.
WhatsApp is reportedly preparing to finally bring Liquid Glass to its built-in video player on iPhone. In the latest beta version, the playback progress bar sports a translucent, floating look.
But it’s not in the regular version yet. That makes the video player one of the final screens still waiting for the redesign. Anyone using WhatsApp will easily notice the mismatch every time they open a video.
If your iPhone is running short of space, the culprit might be a bug in iOS that causes System Data to grow out of control.
It can be a serious problem. Gigabytes of storage can be choked with useless data, preventing you from using it.
Here’s what to do if your iPhone is running out of space because of an enormous iOS System Data collection. And it doesn’t require deleting your precious photos and apps.
Meta’s Muse personal AI agent just arrived on the iPad. Wednesday’s release gives Apple’s tablet a native version of an AI assistant that has quickly become one of Meta’s most visible consumer AI products.
iPad support arrives less than a month after Muse launched on iPhone (and Android).