Mobile menu toggle

Amazing Stories finds surer footing in second episode, ‘The Heat’ [Review]

By

E’myri Crutchfield & Hailey Kilgore in the Apple TV+ show Amazing Stories
E’myri Crutchfield and Hailey Kilgore enliven the newest episode of Amazing Stories.
Photo: Apple

The second episode of the redesigned Amazing Stories finds its legs with a story of a track star caught between life and death.

If showrunners Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz have anything even a fraction as good as this up their sleeves for the rest of the season, Amazing Stories might prove the strongest of Apple TV+ shows, considering its short episode order.

Production halts on all currently filming Apple TV+ shows

By

Appletvpluslogo
Hollywood and Apple TV+ shows join the fray in shutting down operations temporarily in wake of the coronavirus.
Photo: Apple

Apple has suspended all filming of Apple TV+ projects currently in production, according to a published report Friday.

The shows include the science fiction series For All Mankind, the Stephen King miniseries Lisey’s Story, the science fiction drama See, the TV drama The Morning Show, the psychological horror television series Servant, and the Isaac Asimov sci-fi series Foundation.

Super-rare Apple-1 sells for big bucks at auction

By

Apple-1 auction netted almost half a million dollars.
A working Apple-1 still goes for quite a pile of money.
Photo: RR Auctions

A fully functional and complete Apple-1 computer, hand-built by Apple founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs back in 1976, was auctioned off yesterday for over $458 thousand.

There are only a handful of these left. This particular unit appeared recently on the TV show Pawn Stars.

Apple shares shoot up after Trump declares national emergency

By

Apple Oriocenter 2
Finally, some good news for Apple this week.
Photo: Apple

President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency provided some much-needed relief to Apple’s stock price just before the market closed this afternoon.

Apple shares jumped up over $20 in value during the last 30 minutes of trading today, just after President Trump announced that the U.S. government will free up $50 billion in federal resources to combat the COVID-19 outbreak.

Win an Apple TV, plus a year’s subscription to the streaming service of your choice [Deals]

By

Pick Your Streaming Media Player and Streaming Service Giveaway
Here's your shot at winning a year of supreme streaming.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

In our new Pick Your Streaming Service & Device Giveaway, you’ve got a crack at winning a combo that will keep you binge-watching whatever you want for a year.

Enter now for a chance to win the streaming hardware of your choice, along with a year’s subscription to any streaming service. Total prize value: up to $1,000!

How to force Safari to open tabs the way it should

By

paper notebook with tabs
Tabs, just like those that Safari now messes up.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

At some point, fairly recently, Safari started opening new tabs to the right of the currently open tab, instead of opening them at the end of the tab bar, as nature intended. This means that you have to search for the newly opened tab, instead of just knowing exactly where it is. I can see the point of opening tabs next to the current one, but I don’t like it.

Happily, there’s a way to revert Safari’s behavior to the good old way — the way my grandmother, and her grandmother before her, dealt with their tabs. It’s a simple option inside Safari’s debug menu. Wait? Debug menu?

Santa Monica Apple Store employee tests positive for coronavirus

By

Apple-Store-logo
An Apple Store employee has tested positive for COVID-19.
Photo: Laurenz Heymann/Unsplash

An Apple Store employee, who went on leave earlier this month to care for a relative, has tested positive for COVID-19.

Apple and the employee from the Third Street Promenade store in Santa Monica learned of the positive test late Thursday, according to reports. The employee has not been back to the store since taking leave on March 2.

Apple pays up in patent case involving FaceTime technology

By

Facetime
Jony Ive and Steve Jobs talk during the first public FaceTime demo, which took place at WWDC 2010 in San Francisco.
Photo: Mathieu Thouvenin/Flickr CC

Out of appeals, Apple cut a check to VirnetX for more than $454 million to end a lengthy patent infringement case.

VirnetX, which sued Apple over patents relating to FaceTime, iMessage and VPN technologies, announced the payment in a one-paragraph press release Friday.

Internet providers won’t cut off service during COVID-19 crisis

By

Stingrays mimic cell towers, and are used by both criminals and police.
You won‘t lose internet access if you can‘t pay your bill.during the coronavirus pandemic.
Photo: Miguel Á. Padriñán/Pexels

Internet service providers AT&T, Comcast, Cox, Verizon and many more have pledged to not cut off service from customers who can’t pay their bills because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Internet access is important during the crisis to keep the public informed, but also to let people work from home, attend school remotely, and keep in touch despite social distancing.

Microsoft Build 2020 goes online-only amid COVID-19 pandemic

By

Microsoft-Build-2020
Like WWDC and others, Build will go digital this year.
Photo: Microsoft/Cult of Mac

Microsoft is keen to go ahead with this year’s Build conference, but the event will now be online-only, the company confirmed on Friday. Build was scheduled to take place in Seattle from May 19 to May 21. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced Microsoft to go completely digital instead.

Microsoft’s announcement came just before Apple announced that WWDC 2020 will also go ahead with “an all-new online format.”

Apple confirms WWDC 2020 will go ahead in June with ‘all-new online format’

By

Apple WWDC 2020
WWDC 2020 will go ahead, but as an online-only event.
Photo: Apple

Apple on Friday confirmed that its annual Worldwide Developers Conference will go ahead in June with “an all-new online format” and not take place at a conference center as has happened since the first WWDC in 1987.

The high-tech giant said the approach was essential amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but that it was determined to deliver a full program with an online keynote and developer sessions. Apple has also confirmed it will commit $1 million to local San Jose organizations to offset revenue loss as a result of WWDC going online-only.

Apple dominates surging wearables market

By

AirPods ad
More consumers are making the leap to wearable technology.
Photo: Apple

Apple doesn’t just hold a lead over its competitors in the wearables market. It captured a 36.5 percent share of the market in the final quarter of 2019.

Second-place Xiaomi’s slice of the pie was under 11 percent.

2 new cases of coronavirus reported at Apple’s Irish HQ

By

Apple's headquarters in Cork, Ireland.
This brings total number of cases to at Hollyhill office to three.
Photo: Jan Zuppinger/Flickr CC

Two more cases of coronavirus have been detected at Apple’s Ireland HQ in Hollyhill, County Cork, a report published Friday by Irish news outlet The Echo.

This brings the number of COVID-19 cases reported at the Irish Apple offices to three. The first case was confirmed by Apple on Tuesday.

Second episode of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories arrives on Apple TV+

By

Amazing Stories Apple TV+
Have you checked out this show yet?
Photo: Apple

A new episode of Apple TV+ original series Amazing Stories landed Friday. This installment, titled “The Heat,” is the second of five in this first season of Steven Spielberg’s rebooted sci-fi anthology series.

Apple’s description reads as follows: “Tuka and Sterling are best friends whose bond transcends the physical world as they follow their dreams after tragedy strikes.”

COVID-19 won’t stop Apple shipping 90 million AirPods this year

By

AirPods Pro are so popular Apple is struggling to keep up with demand
Coronavirus is sweeping the world, but at least you can listen to music wirelessly.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Even with the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus battering Apple’s supply chain, Apple hasn’t revised its shipping forecasts for its crazy popular AirPods, a report published Friday claims.

Digitimes notes that Apple is “expected to stick” to its plan to ship 90 million pairs of AirPods in 2020. That’s an increase of 50% from Apple’s shipments last year. The report cites sources from the supply chain.

Apple cancels all ‘Today at Apple’ sessions across U.S. and Canada

By

Today at Apple session image
Apple stores are starting to look sparse.
Photo: Apple

Apple is continuing to take preventative measures against the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. by canceling all ‘Today at Apple’ sessions at Apple stores in the U.S. and Canada.

Earlier this week, ‘Today at Apple’ sessions in Seattle and San Francisco stores were canceled until March 29. Cult of Mac confirmed Friday that the company has canceled all further sessions at all retail locations in the U.S. and Canada for the foreseeable future.