A hacker who tried to extort Apple into paying him $75,000 in Bitcoin or a thousand $100 iTunes gift cards has been spared prison.
22-year-old IT analyst Kerem Albayrak, from London, claimed that he could leak passwords or carry out factory resets for devices attached to 382 million iCloud accounts. He was 19 at the time that he committed his crimes under the name “Turkish Crime Family.”
A supposed “iPhone 12” dummy unit offers what may be our very first glimpse at next year’s big redesign.
It shows a device that looks a lot like an iPhone 11 Pro Max from the front, with a large, edge-to-edge display and notch. But it sports flat sides and sharper edges that are inspired by the iconic iPhone 4.
Apple has given the boot to a messaging app called ToTok. This app was reportedly an United Arab Emirates spy tool used for tracking users’ conversations and movement.
ToTok has been very successful in the UAE. The country limits access to other popular messaging apps including WhatsApp and Skype. The UAE also bans FaceTime from Apple devices sold in the region.
This VPN post is presented by PureVPN.
There are many good reasons to use a virtual private network (VPN). Now you can add one more to the list. PureVPN just announced its biggest deal of the year — an 89% discounted Christmas sale price on its five-year plan (now $69). That’s a good VPN for Mac at a great price.
This week we make music on our iPhones, create drums on our Macs, travel through history with action-packed Solitaire Time Warp, and enhance images.
This Windows upgrade post is presented by URCDKeys.
‘Tis the season to seriously upgrade your old Windows OS. In a Christmas sale, URCDKeys offers a genuine Windows 10 Pro OEM key for just $12.48. That’s a substantial savings over what you’d have to pay Microsoft for a key. Once you enter Cult of Mac’s special discount code at purchase and get the key, you’ll be free to install Windows 10 Pro on any PC.
Even if you’re a die-hard Apple fan, there’s still plenty you most likely don’t know about the company’s most popular product. Get ready to wow all of your Apple-loving in-laws over the holidays with 10 things you (probably) don’t know about the iPhone.
Beyond the iPhone trivia, we’ve got a bumper crop of Apple tips and how-tos in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Things like how to find AirPods Pro in time for Christmas, how to add music to your Mac in a post-iTunes world and more. Download your free issue now to enjoy it on your iPad, or read the stories in any browser below.
Being attached to our computers doesn’t have to mean literally being attached. Whether for phones or tablets, a portable wireless keyboard offers tons of extra flexibility and accuracy.
That’s exactly what you’ll find in these four great deals on our favorite Bluetooth keyboards. Each is already significantly discounted, but using the promo code MERRYSAVE15 at checkout takes an extra 15% off.
Apple Shortcuts are an easy and powerful tool to automate actions on iOS devices. A new ‘how-to’ from the people at Take Control Books walks users through setting up and building customized shortcuts with step-by-step ‘recipes’.
Lego’s latest Apple Arcade entry builds an atmospheric puzzler brick by brick. Lego Builder’s Journey is “a story about play, connections and adventure.”
It’s available only to those who subscribe to Apple’s gaming service.
In macOS Catalina, iTunes has been replaced by separate apps, but none of those new apps takes on the tasks of syncing your music, books, photos and other data to your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. That responsibility now falls upon the Finder.
So, does this means you can plug in your iPad and drag and drop all your apps’ files between it and your Mac? Of course not. In fact, apart from this functionality now being in the Finder, not much has changed at all.
Elcomsoft claims its iOS Forensic Toolkit can now extract certain pieces of data from an iOS device before it has been unlocked.
Almost all of the data stored on an iPhone or iPad is securely encrypted after a reboot or restart — until a passcode has been entered. But the little bit that isn’t, which includes keychain records, can now be obtained.
As your loved ones gather for the holidays, have some family fun with Apple Arcade. A new video shows off games that can be enjoyed no matter your age.
Watch it now:
Even if you’re a die-hard Apple fan, there’s still plenty you most likely don’t know about the company’s most popular product. And, whether you want to wow your Apple-loving in-laws over the holidays or just feel the need to fill your brain with some iPhone facts, we’ve got you covered.
Here are 10 things you (probably) don’t know about the iPhone.
The iPhone might still be Apple’s biggest product by a wide margin, but the AirPods have a good claim to being Cupertino’s MVP of the year.
Accord to Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi, Apple sold $6 billion worth of AirPods in 2019. And it could sell more than double that number in 2020.
You can order Apple’s all-new Mac Pro with a whopping 8TB of storage.
Just like every other Mac Pro upgrade, however, it isn’t cheap. Maxing out your SSD space will cost you more than a high-end iMac with Retina 5K display — or even a brand-new 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Apple is building a larger research group to investigate ways to transmit data directly to iPhones and other devices, Bloomberg reported Friday.
According to the report, Apple CEO Tim Cook has reportedly made the project a company priority.
Spotted a vulnerability in Apple software, but not among Cupertino’s chosen developers tasked with seeking out bugs? No problem. As of today, Apple’s $1.5 million bug bounty program is available everyone who wants to participate. Previously, it was only open to a select few.
The bug bounty means people can earn up to 7-figures for finding weaknesses in Apple software. These could otherwise be exploited by nefarious hackers.
Apple today stopped signing iOS 13.2.3. It’s no longer possible to downgrade devices that have already been updated to iOS 13.3, which rolled out to everyone just over one week ago.
Some 2020 iPhones will feature special sensor-shift stabilization technology for their cameras, according to Digitimes.
This technology, used in many high-end cameras, would further reduce camera shake on the next-gen iPhone. It differs from the optical image stabilization currently used in iPhones.
This week on The CultCast: From the hottest gift of 2019, to our favorite tech and travel locations, catch our picks for Best of the Year!
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It’s the last Friday before the holidays, and appropriately enough, two of Apple’s most popular Apple TV+ Originals are wrapping up. On Friday, Apple debuted the season finale for both The Morning Show and For All Mankind.
There are new episodes of both Servant and Truth Be Told as well. That’s plenty to keep you entertained between frantic bits of last-minute shopping!
If you’ve beaten the computer a thousand times on Mario Kart Tour (which, let’s face it, is pretty tough not to do), you can finally pit your Mario and Luigi-steering abilities against other flesh-and-blood players.
That’s because Nintendo has launched the eagerly anticipated multiplayer online beta for Mario Kart Tour. You’ll need to sign up to the Gold Pass to play it, though.
Some AirPods Pro owners report an unusual smell emanating from the plastic and rubber casings of Apple’s hot new earbuds. Of all things, they say they detect a whiff of … blueberries.
One expert tells Cult of Mac the aroma could be deliberate, or simply a result of chemical compounds in the plastics.
If you thought using Apple Pay was already easy, prepare to be amazed. It’s even easier when you enable Express Transit mode. In New York City, Portland and London, you can now pass the ticket barrier with just a wave of your wrist. And even if your local transit authority doesn’t support Express Transit mode yet, it could be coming soon.
Wanna give it a try? Here’s everything you need to know.