Kings of the Castle is fun for the whole family. Photo: Apple/Frosty Pop
A princess must be quick and clever to rescue a prince in Kings of the Castle, the latest addition to Apple Arcade. This game is all about speed, as players hastily collect gems and avoid traps.
The developer, Frosty Pop, is a big supporter of Apple’s new gaming service. This is its fifth contribution.
The Patriots aren't doomed, and neither is Apple. Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac
Imagine an organization that’s loved by its devoted, cultlike followers, but despised by haters. The close working relationship between its mercurial leader and one of the greatest talents in the field led to an unprecedented run of success. Even the occasional “-gate” style controversy failed to dent its success. But despite all this, analysts still question its long-term viability.
I’m referring, of course, to the New England Patriots. They may not be in the NFL playoffs this year, but people just can’t stop talking about the Pats. Kinda like the way everyone talked about Apple at CES last week, even though it barely attended.
Love them or hate them, the Patriots are the Apple of football.
Apple fan creates a Frankenstein’s monster of every macOS wallpaper combined. Photo: J3nRa1n/Apple
Ever wondered what it would look like if you combined every default macOS wallpaper, since Apple switched to OS X, into one single image? No? Well, one Apple super fan has done it anyway.
And the results look kind of like a trippy progressive rock/heavy metal album cover.
Relive over 400 classic video games while charging your phone with a 2-in-1 power bank and gaming console. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Video games have come a long way in the last 30 years, but nothing beats the classics. Unfortunately, there’s not much opportunity to play them anymore. But like all things these days, you can find them on your phone — if you get this incredible power bank that doubles as a retro gaming console.
Apple's about to make your MacBook Pro even Pro-er... Photo: @YSR50
This week on The CultCast: Apple is working on a way to make your existing MacBook Pro far more powerful — we’ll tell you everything we know. Plus: Get your wallet ready … the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro you’ve been waiting for is (probably) right around the corner. And we’ll tell you why Apple might soon be forced to ditch Lightning in iPhones and iPads.
And stick around for our spoiler-free review of the full first season of See!
Out thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast, and use offer code CultCast at checkout for 10% off your first purchase.
Apple is rumored to be launching its own Tile rival. Photo: Tile
Tile, a startup that makes location-aware tracking tags, will testify against Apple in a congressional antitrust hearing today.
Apple and Tile previously enjoyed a good relationship. Apple sold Tile products in its stores starting in 2015. However, last year, Apple stopped selling Tile products. It also hired away one of its engineers — with all signs pointing to Apple having developed its own rival product.
This was one of the biggest hauls of smuggled electronics goods in Hong Kong history. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Police have arrested three people in Hong Kong after discovering a massive shipment of undeclared iPhones, Apple Watches, iPads, and assorted luxury items. The suspected smugglers were attempting to sneak the products into China to avoid paying tax on imports.
The South China Morning Post describes it as one of the “biggest hauls of electronic goods” in Hong Kong history. The total value of the tech products was $1 million. Other smuggled goods, including tech components and edible bird’s nests, were worth an extra $2.2 million.
Little America is Apple's biggest critical hit yet. Photo: Apple
After a draught of new content on Apple TV+ over the holidays, the streaming service got 5 hours and 15 minutes of new shows to watch this week. Apple debuted all 8 episodes of its Apple Originals series Little America.
The critically acclaimed anthology series tells true stories of immigrants in America. It was developed by Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon, writers of The Big Sick, and former US Office writer and producer, Lee Eisenberg.
NBCUniversal decided to call its streaming-video service Peacock. And the jokes practically write themselves. Photo: NBC Universal
NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock will employ a distinctly different pricing strategy than Apple TV+, Netflix and other competitors. It’ll be free, but with advertisements.
Those willing to pay will have access to additional content, however.
It might be years before you can use the signature feature in your 5G iPhone. Photo: Ben Geskin
The 5G iPhone coming this fall is widely expected to be a huge windfall for Apple. But this handset might then turn around and hurt the company next year, according to a pair of market analysts.
And their prediction is equally bad news for those planning to upgrade to the 5G iPhone.
Getting Siri to read iMessages is AirPod Pro’s best feature. Photo: Cult of Mac
As of iOS 13, you can have your iPhone read out incoming iMessages through your AirPods. And this — along with their awesome sound and noise-canceling abilities — is my favorite feature of the AirPods Pro. On paper, it’s a small feature in a long list. But in everyday use, Announce Messages with Siri makes a huge difference in how I use my iPhone.
The Banker was originally scheduled to debut last year. Photo: Apple
Apple original movie The Banker will hit theaters and Apple TV+ this March following a delay, the company confirmed to Cult of Mac.
Starring Samuel L. Jackson, the film tells the fascinating true story of Bernard Garrett Sr. and Joe Morris, two African Americans who built up a successful banking business in the 1950s and ’60s.
The Banker’s release was put on hold last November so that Apple could investigate allegations made against one of its producers.
New regulations could force Apple to ditch Lightning cables in Europe. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple is expected to deliver at least one iPhone model without a Lightning connector next year, according to a new Barclays report.
The device won’t make the switch to USB-C, as previous rumors have predicted. It is instead expected to rely solely on wireless connectivity options for both charging and data transfer.
Barclays analysts also believe that this year’s iPhone refresh will bring an improved TrueDepth camera system that could mean even better Face ID.
The dongle works pretty much anywhere. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
If you own a 2018 iPad Pro, you probably also bought Apple’s USB-C-to-3.5mm headphone jack adapter, just so you can plug headphones into your $1,000-plus computer. But what if you want to do something totally crazy like, I don’t know, listen to music and charge the iPad at the same time? Or, given that this a pro machine, maybe you want to hook up a MIDI piano keyboard, or other gear, and use headphones at the same time?
Tough luck, right? No! If you have any old USB-C hub or dock, you can plug Apple’s cheap little dongle into the hub itself. Check it out.
Apple charity donations fund Saints of Steel, a non-profit run by Apple employee Jaz Limos. Photo: Apple
Apple’s 1-for-1 donation matching program, and paying employees for time spent volunteering, resulted in $100 million going to charities last year, the company said.
BASE:LINE keeps you plugged into up-and-coming hip-hop artists. Photo: Apple
Apple is deepening its partnership with the NBA by teaming up to launch a global playlist on Apple Music to highlight independent hip-hop artists.
The new playlist, dubbed “BASE:LINE” (get it? Cause there’s a baseline in rap songs and on the basketball court), will be curated by Apple Music’s director of hip-hop and R&B Ebro Darden. New artists and songs will be added to the playlist every Thursday with the first edition being made available today.
AirPods and AirPods Pro outsell all rivals by a wide margin. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Apple sold almost 60 million AirPods wireless headphones in 2019, according to a market-analysts firm. That’s a dramatic increase from the 35 million the company is estimated to have sold the year before.
And Apple took the lion’s share of 2019 sales of totally wireless (TWS) headsets.
Why is the FBI demanding Apple help to create a ‘backdoor’ to unlock iPhones when it has GrayKey? That's a good question. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Revelations that the FBI has access to a tool that can unlock data on secure iPhones are raising questions as to why the agency is demanding Apple help to create a “backdoor” to recover data on the iPhones of a Florida shooting suspect.
Apple and other multinationals are fed up with being sued by patent trolls. Photo: Andrew Becraft/Flickr CC
Apple is among the companies which want to stop so-called patent trolls from stifling innovation with their claims.
A patent troll, for those unfamiliar with it, is a person or company that holds patent portfolios but does not actually make any products. Instead, they earn their money by licensing out the technology — or suing companies which use it unlawfully. And Apple and 34 other multinationals — including Microsoft and BMW — are none-too-happy about them.
This meal-planning platform makes it easy to eat well by organizing and planning your shopping and cooking. Photo: Travis Yewell
Eating is easy, but eating right can be pretty hard. There’s temptation and misinformation everywhere, so it’s important to have a trusty guide that also can keep you honest and on track. That’s just what this daily diet assistant offers.
Apple is embracing machine intelligence, without losing sight of the human factor. Photo: Universal
When it comes to artificial intelligence (AI), Apple wants to have its cake and eat it, too. That is to say that it wants cutting edge data-driven machine learning on its devices, without violating its own user privacy pledge.
And you know what? It’s managing to pull it off — as the company’s latest AI startup acquisition underlines.
The Cult of Mac Store’s big January sale is still under way, with sweet discounts on some of the best Apple Watch accessories. Choose anything from our entire lineup of stunning Strapa bands today and save 15% before this discount disappears on January 17.
And enjoy free standard shipping on orders over $100!
But who signs Tim Cook's certificates? Photo: Lemont Washington
What do you get when you’ve been at Apple for five years — aside from a (hopefully nice) paycheck and the knowledge that you’re valued enough by the world’s biggest tech company that they want to keep you around for half a decade?
The answer: A nifty five years plaque you can hang up on your wall, signed by none other than CEO Tim Cook.
M. Night Shyamalan and Tony Basgallop’s Servant may be arguably the best of the Apple Originals. But it may not be so, well, original, according to a new lawsuit filed against Apple.
The suit claims that the spooky Apple TV+ drama borrows a fair amount from Francesca Gregorini’s 2013 film The Truth About Emanuel.
Luke Miani doesn't think you should buy 12 used MacBook Pros. But he will to prove a point about buying used Apple computers on eBay. Screenshot: Luke Miani/YouTube
Search YouTube for Apple-related content, and you will easily find hosts who unbox, hosts who hack, hosts who fawn, and, of course, plenty who throw snark and shade.
Then there’s Luke Miani, whose Apple-centric videos with a rising number of views fall under a different category: useful.