It's not clear what is causing the problem. Photo: Apple
Have you noticed Fortnite isn’t running so smoothly on Mac or iOS since the introduction of season two, chapter two? You’re not alone; almost every player is experiencing significant frame drops following last week’s update.
Both companies have factories in China. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Two suppliers that make components for Apple in China employ forced labor, according to a report published Sunday. The Washington Post says BOE Technology Group, which supplies screens to Apple, and O-Film, which makes iPhone cameras, both use Uighur labor, either directly or through contractors. Apple lists both companies on its latest supplier list.
The report describes how the Chinese government detained more than 1 million ethnic Uighurs from China’s western Xinjiang region in reeducation camps. And it says evidence indicates that authorities “are moving Uighurs into government-directed labour around the country as part of the central government’s Xinjiang Aid initiative.”
Apple has ramped up prices of the iPhone in India. For some devices, at least. Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
Apple has raised the price of several iPhone models — including the top-tier iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max — yet again in India, risking denting sales in the country that were just starting to take off.
The price hike is just under 2%, making it smaller than the sizable iPhone price increase Apple introduced in India in 2018. It follows increased import duties announced during India’s Union Budget 2020.
LG Innotek makes camera modules for iPhones. Photo: Apple
iPhone camera module supplier LG Innotek closed one of its South Korean factories over the weekend after a worker tested positive for coronavirus.
LG Innotek has long been part of Apple’s supply chain, supplying camera components for iPhones. This year, it is also expected to manufacture 3D Time of Flight (ToF) modules for Apple’s next generation iPads and iPhones.
FlashDock is small in size but big in storage capacity. And look at all those ports. Photo: Commotron
FlashDock solves two limitations in Apple’s MacBooks. Not only does it bring an array of legacy ports to Apple laptops, this very portable USB-C hub includes up to 2TB of storage.
And it does so for less than the cost of building additional storage capacity into a macOS laptop.
Scrolling Apple News doesn't have to be about ignoring dozens of articles. Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
Ever since its launch, people have mostly been dismissive about Apple News on iPhone, iPad and Mac. One big reason is the way it interacts with links on the web, boxing users into the News app instead of letting them visit the open web.
For me, that’s actually a pretty desirable thing, because I really like the News app. It’s much cleaner-looking than many ad-bloated websites, and far less emotional and combative than getting your news on social media.
But making the News app show you the things you care about, with less clutter and noise, requires one simple trick.
Learn up to 14 new languages by practicing with reading and listening at the same time. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Learning a new language is a precious gift to give yourself and the world around you. Apps have made it easy to carry our studies with us, so we can learn any place, and at any pace. Different language apps take different approaches, but this one might be one of the most effective.
Care packages sent to Apple employees stuck in China include cookies and chocolate. Oh yeah, and a free iPad. Photo: Weibo
Apple reportedly is sending care packages to its employees who are stranded in China by the COVID-19 coronavirus. And among the face masks, hand sanitizer and cookies is a slightly more expensive item: an iPad.
Apple deliberately broke a facial-recognition iPhone app from Clearview AI. Photo: Clearview AI/Cult of Mac
A facial-recognition application that has been the source of recent controversy has been taken offline by Apple. This came after a published report accused Clearview AI of evading the App Store by distributing its iPhone software to customers via tools that are only supposed to be used inside companies.
We've rounded up our best sellers for February, including massive cloud storage, wireless earbuds, and lots more. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Whatever happened this February, you can’t deny it was a great month for deals on tech. At least in the Cult of Mac Store, where there were crazy deals on massive cloud storage accounts, sleek wireless earbuds, extra laptop monitors and an intuitive website builder.
Facebook is overhauling its Messenger app on mobile to give us a simpler, more enjoyable user experience. The redesign does away with chatbots and games and makes Stories even more prominent.
The iPhone-maker’s latest featurette focuses on the sixth episode in the series, “The Baker.” Interviews with show co-creator Lee Eisenberg, director Chioke Nassor and the episode’s lead actress Kemiyondo Coutinho are combined with shots of the production and other characters to add more context to one of the most intriguing episodes of the show.
Bullet journaling is a big deal. It’s a way to put your notes, lists, to-dos and calendars into any old notebook, and be able to find all of those things instantly. It’s truly the paper equivalent of an iPhone’s notes, reminders and calendar apps, only it’s all on paper. That means you can doodle and go totally free-form, instead of being constrained by an app-maker’s design.
The only thing a paper Bullet Journal can’t do is send you an alert or a notification. Today, we’ll see how to fix that, combining the paper journal with your iPhone’s calendar app.
You might think you know a lot about the iPad, but ... Photo: Malvern Graphics/Cult of Mac
While the iPad was arguably the purest distillation of Steve Jobs’ computing philosophy, even dyed-in-the-wool Apple fans don’t know everything about the revolutionary tablet.
Whether you’re an Apple newbie who’s just learning the differences between the iPad Air and the iPad Pro or a longtime fan who calls Cupertino products by their code names, there’s always a bit more to find out.
Here are 10 things you (probably) don’t know about the iPad.
CEO Tim Cook says “Apple is fundamentally strong.” Photo: Fox Business
CEO Tim Cook promises Apple is fundamentally strong and will weather the problems resulting from the coronavirus spreading around the world. He says his focus isn’t on short-term changes in Apple’s share price, despite a recent significant drop.
In a wide-ranging interview with Fox Business recorded Thursday in Birmingham, Alabama, Cook also discussed whether his company will move more device production out of China, and his relationship with President Donald Trump.
Laurene Powell Jobs (center) at the Female Founders Conference 2016 in San Francisco. Photo: Y Combinator/Flickr CC
Laurene Powell Jobs, the wife of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, sat down for an interview with the New York Times this week giving rare glimpses into the mind of the world’s 35th-richest person.
In the interview, Powell Jobs discusses her childhood in New Jersey as well as how her 22-years of marriage to Steve Jobs influenced her views. Perhaps the most interesting bit of the interview comes though when Powell Jobs hates on massively rich people, saying it’s dangerous for society.
Sheriff’s deputies in Illinois arrested four men after they found 55 stolen iPhones during a traffic stop near Galesburg.
The Knox County Sheriff’s Department later determined the phones were fraudulently purchased around the U.S. using stolen identities. Deputies estimated the value of the phones at $80.000.
Apple created a special new ad for customers in Japan that highlights the different ways the Mac has been showcased on some of the most popular anime shows in the country.
Cut together with scenes from shows like Mr. Osomatsu, NEW GAME!!, your name., Weathering with You and more, the brilliant ad encourages anime fans to embrace their creativity and create a new generation of anime stories.
Apple heavily relies on China where coronavirus has been most prevalent. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Coronavirus has hit Apple shares hard. Despite initially shrugging off the disruption of the outbreak, Apple is currently trading down more than 20% from its record record high.
That makes it one of the hardest hit stocks on the Dow Jones Industrial Average thanks to coronavirus.
It's like Frogger but set in a castle. And without the cars or frogs. Photo: Hipster Whale
Crossy Road Castle, the long-awaited follow-up to Hipster Whale’s 2014 game Crossy Road, landed on Apple Arcade on Thursday.
The game takes the same updated Frogger concept that made the original such a hit, but swaps out the roads and cars for a procedurally generated endless castle tower the player must climb. Check out the trailer below:
Stay secure, anonymous, and free of annoying content restrictions for three years, and on all your devices. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Here at Cult of Mac, we’re big fans of VPNs. That’s because they not only keep us secure and private online, they also bypass annoying location-based content restrictions, so you can stream your favorite content anywhere you go. With this great deal, you can get VPN protection on all your devices for three whole years.
Grab the latest update to get started. Photo: Android Police
Shazam is finally offering Apple Music integration on Android, almost two years after the music identification service was acquired by Apple.
Users have the ability to identify songs and enjoy full versions of them using their Apple Music subscription. The feature comes with a beta tag for now, but works just as you would expect.
Apple's AirTags may be far more powerful than we thought...
This week on The CultCast: Apple’s first ARM-based Mac is headed our way — we’ll tell you what we know. Plus, Apple’s new AirTags tracking tiles will be unlike anything we’ve seen, and way more powerful than we thought. We discuss! And stay tuned — we’ll tell you the weird rule Apple makes big movies follow if they want to put iPhones or Macs on the silver screen.
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