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You’ll be shopping in AR soon, thanks to Apple

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Apple AR Quick Look is augmented reality shopping
Apple’s AR Quick Look lets you see how this unique speaker, and other products, would look in your home.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Retailers that advertise with Apple’s AR Quick Look now have the option to add a “buy now” button directly in the augmented reality experience. Before this, shoppers could only look at items superimposed onto the real world.

This is just the latest part of Apple’s growing embrace of augmented reality.

Smartphone film fest dangles $10,000 prize for your iPhone masterpiece

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publicity shot for Moment International Film Festival
You have a little over a month to make a three-minute classic.
Photo: Moment

Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh has sworn off big expensive motion picture cameras for the camera in his pocket. Your iPhone is no different from his, so get out there and make the movie that’s locked in your head. It could win you $10,000 in the Moment International Film Festival.

How to add attachments from the Files app in Gmail for iOS

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Gmail iOS iPhone X
Google has been giving Gmail for iOS a lot of love lately.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Gmail is finally adding the ability to add attachments to emails straight from the Files app for iOS, giving users another crucial productivity tool.

Until now, the only way to send stuff from your Files app via Gmail was by using the sharing tool inside the Files app and creating a new email with it. Now users can reply to emails inside of Gmail for iOS and add attachments from Files without having to jump between apps. We’ll give you a quick rundown on how to use the nifty feature that’s starting to roll out to users globally.

Award-winning strategy game Company of Heroes lands on iPad

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Company-of-Heroes
A must-have for any RTS fan.
Photo: Feral Interactive

Company of Heroes, the award-winning World War II strategy game, today makes the leap to iPad.

The mobile version is a complete port of the original, which first debuted in 2006 — but it has been completely rebuilt for tablets. And if you’re into real-time strategy games, you’re going to love it.

“Our aim is that the experience of playing Company of Heroes on mobile should be as fantastic as it was on desktop,” publisher Feral Interactive told Cult of Mac.

Trippy video shot on iPhone will blow your mind

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Glacier
Glacier raises the bar for Shot on iPhone videos.
Photo: Vallée Duhamel

Great looking shot on iPhone videos are a dime a dozen nowadays, but I guarantee you’ve never seen anything like this one.

The creative team behind Vallee Duhamel pushed the iPhone XS Max camera to its limit for their conceptual video Glacier that has to be seen to be believed. Apple commissioned the video to be made for one of its Today at Apple sessions and will be playing it at stores worldwide to inspire iPhone owners to push their own creativity.

Buckle up for a short film that’s out of this world:

SwitchGlass is a supercharged Dock replacement for Mac

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SwitchGlass -- almost exactly the same as the Dock.
SwitchGlass -- almost exactly the same as the Dock.
Photo: John Siracusa

SwitchGlass is a handy new Mac app from John Siracusa. It’s like a superpowered dock, conceptually honed from the regular macOS dock by removing some annoyances, and adding some extra subtleties. It’s certainly not the most powerful dock-replacement app out there, but if your needs align with Siracusa’s, then you’re going to love it.

Strava finally adds support for Apple’s Workout app. But there’s a big but …

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Strava is ready to play nice with Apple
Strava is ready to play nice with Apple
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

Strava is a brilliant app for sharing your workouts and analyzing your fitness activity. But its Apple Watch app is not so great. That’s why I prefer to use Apple’s built-in Workout app and then view my data afterward on the Strava website.

The trouble is, up until now, the only way to do that was by relying on third-party apps such as HealthFit, which provide the missing link that syncs Apple’s workouts with Strava.

Strava has been promising to come up with a solution for years. And this week, the company finally delivered. It’s a huge step in the right direction, but I won’t be deleting HealthFit just yet. Here’s why.

5 Apple Stores in China are reopening — but customers must wear surgical masks

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Apple store in Shanghai
Apple reopens select stores in Beijing, but stores in other cities remain closed.
Photo: FullbridgeProgram/Flickr CC

Apple will reopen five of its retail stores in Beijing tomorrow, although only for limited hours. The stores will open between 11am and 6pm local time, compared with the usual 10am through 10pm 12-hour opening hours.

Apple made the decision to close all 42 of its Apple Stores in China as a result of the outbreak of coronavirus. Originally, it planned to reopen them on February 10. However, retail chief Deidre O’Brien later revealed that this reopening time was being pushed back further.

Former HBO boss could bring more socially conscious shows to Apple TV+

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Apple TV+
Apple TV+ has featured a diverse range of shows so far.
Photo: Apple

Cupertino could be looking to snap up more socially conscious original shows for Apple TV+ that examine issues such as identity and sexuality, a new report suggests.

Financial Times bases its claim on a new hire made by former HBO boss Richard Plepler. Plepler, who recently signed a five-year exclusive deal with Apple TV+, has hired literary agent Heather Karpas. Her LinkedIn page notes that she is interested in books about “minority and female perspectives on identity, sexuality, and power; examinations of emotional trauma and means of catharsis; and explorations of dysfunctional friendships and families.”

Make building websites as easy as stacking blocks [Deals]

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Blueprint
Instantly build websites with 200 examples pages, 500 responsive blocks, over 30 navigation panels and more, no coding knowledge required.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Designing a web page can be slow going. There are numerous types of devices that websites need to be responsive for, so prototyping can feel like flattening bumps in a rug. That changes with the right wire framing tool.

Apple is ‘likely to stick’ to plans for a September iPhone event

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Apple_Keynote-Event_Phil-Schiller-iPhone-11-Pro_091019
Yes, we will get our iPhone event in September. According to a supply chain rumor, that is!
Photo: Apple

Despite the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, Apple is going to “stick to its plans” for an iPhone event in September, according to a new report.

That is despite the fact that another report today claims that orders for the five-nanometer A14 chips for the iPhone 12 are likely to be 50-60% higher than for last year’s iPhone chips. In other words, the next-gen iPhones face both increased demand and, for now, reduced supply.

From infrared scanners to tracking apps: How Foxconn is dealing with coronavirus

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iPhone sales drive Apple’s biggest supplier to big profits
Foxconn operates mega-factories in China, which are more like mini-cities.
Photo: CBS

Apple manufacturers in China, such as Foxconn, are taking measures including installing infrared temperature scanners and producing their own surgical face masks to combat the spread of coronavirus.

Factories belonging to companies like Foxconn have been hit hard by the spread of the virus, now officially called COVID-19. While some remain closed, others have reopened with a vastly reduced workforce. A new report sheds light on some of the safety measures they have been ordered — or have chosen — to take.

There’s no going back: Apple stops signing iOS 13.3

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Stop the madness
It's all about iOS 13.3.1 now. And beyond!
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

It’s the end of the road for iOS 13.3 and iPadOS 13.3. That’s because Apple has stopped signing both ye olde versions of its operating system. This means that it is no longer possible to download and install them on devices.

Instead, Apple wants to encourage every iPhone and iPad user to join them in the shining wonderland utopia that is mobile software versions 13.3.1.

Foldable phone shipments could surpass 100 million by 2025

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8-inch foldable iPhone concept
A concept foldable phone shows the advantages: it’s about the size of an iPhone 11, but opens into an iPad mini.
Concept: Ben Geskin

The market for foldable phones is still in its infancy. But a market analysts firm says eventually every major phone maker will produce them, including Apple. Once problems with early designs are worked out, shipments will pass the 100 million mark in a few years.

Microsoft’s xCloud finally gives iOS gamers a taste of Xbox games

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Microsoft Project xCloud on iPhone
Microsoft’s Project xCloud on iPhone enables iPhone and iPad to play Xbox games.
Photo: Microsoft

Microsoft is giving iOS users an early look at Project xCloud, its upcoming cloud-based streaming service that will let a wide variety of computers run Xbox One games. Interested gamers can sign up for a trial that lets a fortunate few play Halo: The Master Chief Collection on an iPhone or iPad.

Darkroom iOS photo app switches to monthly subscription

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Darkroom photo editing app for iPhone and iPad
Darkroom wants to make a great photo editing app even better.
Screenshot: Darkroom/App Store

Every photographer has an editing workflow with a rhythm formed with a particular piece of software. Darkroom is among the preferred apps for the mobile shooter who does a lot of editing on their iPhone or iPad.

Darkroom’s developers (pun intended) announced Wednesday a business change to a subscription-based app for new users.

What’s the point of drag and drop on the iPad?

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Even the Magic Mouse combines touch, drag and drop better than the iPad.
Even the Magic Mouse combines touch, drag and drop better than the iPad.
Photo: Harpal Singh/Unsplash

The iPad added drag and drop in iOS 11. We’re now on the third version of iOS to support this potentially super-useful feature, and yet it still doesn’t work. Third-party app support remains spotty and inconsistent. And, worse, drag and drop doesn’t work properly even in some of Apple’s own apps.

What’s going on?

Samsung copies Apple again with AirDrop clone

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Samsung Quick Share is an AirDrop ripoff.
Samsung’s Quick Share is just like a feature iPhones have had since iOS 7.
Photo: Samsung

Quick Share, a highlight of Samsung’s latest handsets, is a feature iPhone owners have been using for over 8 years.  The Galaxy S20 and other new models from this company can wirelessly send files directly between two devices… just like Apple’s AirDrop.

Coronavirus’ latest victim: Massive electronics show MWC

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Everyone who is anyone in mobile (except Apple) will be at Mobile World Congress 2018.
MWC Barcelona 2020 has been canceled.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

Mobile World Congress 2020, the biggest annual trade show focused on smartphones, has been canceled.

News of the canceling comes less than two weeks before the event was supposed to open its doors in Barcelona, Spain where over 100,000 visitors and over 2,000 exhibitors from around the world were expected to attend.

Nearly 11 million moochers in US stream music illegally

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apple-music
Apple Music is the one major streamer without a free tier.
Photo: Apple

Apple Music and Spotify pushed their paid subscriber numbers to new heights in 2019, but the number of people that share their account passwords is also increasing.

Nearly $1 billion in possible revenue maybe have been lost in 2019 thanks to stream “mooching”, according to a new study that estimates there are 95 million people in the U.S. using a major streaming service.

Handy Mac tool lets you check the status of Apple services with one click

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StatusBuddy-Mac
Download it free today.
Photo: Guilherme Rambo

StatusBuddy is a brand-new app for macOS that lets you quickly check on the status of various Apple services in just one click.

The app sits in your Mac’s menu bar where it’s always accessible and displays a red badge when an Apple service is running into issues. It pulls information from Apple’s official status pages so you don’t have to go hunting for it.

Mac Pro orders delayed until March in some markets

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President Trump will tour Apple's Mac Pro factory in Texas this week
Ordering a Mac Pro in Europe requires some patience.
Photo: Apple

Order a Mac Pro in Europe today and it won‘t be delivered for almost a month. This is almost certainly a result of factory shutdowns in China in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak. But Americans can get this new desktop Mac far quicker.

How to stop all those App Store subscription-renewal emails

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subscription-renewal emails
This is how subscription-renewal emails used to arrive.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

If you have any App Store subscriptions, you will be familiar with the emails you get every time one renews. And if you subscribe to more than a few monthly plans, then maybe you even get annoyed by them. If your tolerance to this kind of thing is particularly low, we have good news for you: You can now opt out of App Store subscription-renewal emails that Apple sends.