Cult of Mac

This week on The CultCast: A noted leaker says the September 10 Apple event will include a mythical “one more thing.” Plus: More leaks shine a light on next week’s iPhone announcements; a new turbocharged Apple TV is on the way; and Apple Watch will finally get a long-awaited feature.

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The iPhone XR remains a big hit for Apple — not only in the U.S. but around the world. The $749 handset easily outsold every other smartphone during the first half of 2019, according to new data.

With Apple’s next keynote event just days away, Apple has updated its Apple Events app for Apple TV. If you own an Apple TV and want to watch Tuesday’s event from the comfort of your couch, this is the app you need.

The September 10 “By innovation only” event kicks off at 10am Pacific/1pm Eastern. A new wallpaper hints at the event’s theme, which many are predicting refers to the new color options for the iPhone 11.

Apple Pay users flying Southwest Airlines can now use Apple’s mobile payments service for their travels. Customers can use Apple Pay to pay for tickets as well as ancillary services, such as meals, during flights.

“Providing modern digital payment solutions to our Customers is critical,” said Christopher Priebe of Southwest Airlines. “The launch of Apple Pay enhances our ability to sell flights, as well as ancillary products using one of the most widely-used digital wallets in North America.”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is reportedly going to produce and star in a show for Apple’s upcoming streaming video service.

Mr. Corman will be a drama centered on an elementary school teacher.

Wall chargers made with gallium nitride (GaN) transistors can be considerably smaller than ones that use silicon instead. An outstanding case in point is the Anker PowerPort Atom III Slim, which is tiny but can still put out 30W to quickly power up an iPad Pro or even a MacBook.

We tested this svelte USB-C battery charger in the field. Read on to see how well it lives up to its promise.

An original Apple-I unit recently sold for $471,000 but you can assemble your own replica for much, much less.

Steve Wozniak designed and hand-built the original back in 1976. Anyone who wants to assemble their own today can buy the parts and instructions from SmartyKit.

Apple launched a new web player for Apple Music today, allowing pretty much any PC, tablet or smartphone to access the music streaming service.

This is the new MicroLab from Arturia. It’s a USB MIDI keyboard you can hook up to your Mac, your iPad or your iPhone. It’s tiny — but how does it differ from the zillion other portable MIDI keyboards littering the pages of Amazon? Two ways.

One is that it has a bunch of clever design features that make it great for travel or small desktop setups. The other is that it has big, proper, velocity-sensitive keys, instead of the stupid junky keys on almost every similar MIDI keyboard.

Samsung finally revealed the new launch date for the Galaxy Fold this morning, but if you already pre-ordered, you’ll have to get back in line.

Emails were sent out by Samsung to all customers that pre-ordered the Fold to notify them that their pre-order has been canceled so the company can “rethink the entire customer experience.”

After the release of iOS 13.1 beta 2, iOS 13 is probably good enough for you to install and use. I’ve been running the new iPadOS on an old test iPad since the very first version, and it has been glitchy all the way. But as of the latest developer beta, almost all of the problems have been ironed out.

So, is the iOS 13 beta really stable enough to install?

There’s growing interest in a 5G iPhone, according to survey done by a market-analysis firm. Almost a quarter of current users of Apple handsets would be willing to pay more for an iPhone with a higher-speed wireless connection than the cost of the company’s top-tier device today.

The Sonos Move is the first speaker from this company that can be used outside of the home. To make that possible, it’s also the first time Sonos has made a Bluetooth speaker.

It offers Apple’s AirPlay 2 and multiple voice assistants, but not Siri.

Summer might be almost over, but Apple’s newest iPads are ready for the beach — thanks to the ultra-rugged Catalyst case.

Now available for the most recent iPad Air and iPad mini, Catalyst makes your tablet completely waterproof, and keeps out unwanted debris like sand and dust. It can also handle accidental drops.

Could an Apple cryptocurrency be coming? While it doesn’t sound like it’s on the immediate horizon, Apple Pay VP Jennifer Bailey recently suggested it’s not totally off the table.

It would fit with Apple’s growing embrace of financial services. The company got into mobile payments with Apple Pay in 2014 and released the Apple Card this year. Now, Cupertino appears to be taking a wait-and-see approach on cryptocurrencies.

A former Apple advertising creative lead, who worked on some of its biggest ad campaigns, has sued his former agency, TBWA. Duncan Milner claims wrongful termination based on age discrimination.

Following the retirement of TBWA boss (and Steve Jobs friend) Lee Clow this year, Milner was told that the company “couldn’t carry his salary anymore.”

Stunning new color options for iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro are today revealed in new images from case-maker Olixar.

One supposed finish — which mixes light pastel pink, green and yellow — is similar to the stunning Aura color options available for Samsung’s new Galaxy Note 10.

Dr. Mario World, the latest Nintendo title to land in the App Store, just got a new update — adding 4 new doctors and 20 additional stages.

New doctors include Doctors Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Baby Peach, and Baby Daisy. While I’d quibble about the realism of someone being able to complete a 7-year+ medical course while remaining a baby, I don’t think that’s entirely the point.

Reading remains one of the best ways to soak in new information. But reading also takes a lot of time, and sometimes, you just need to know enough to get a grip on a subject, or to know what everybody’s talking about.

Over the summer, Apple Music hosted a series of seven exclusive concerts at global Apple Stores. The concerts featured artists Bad Bunny, Omar Apollo, Khalid, King Princess, Daniel Caesar, Ashley McBryde, and Lewis Capaldi.

Anyone who missed them can now check out these rising stars in concert, courtesy of Apple’s “Up Next Live” EPs. Now streaming on Apple Music.

A reliable source today echos claims that Apple is developing an iPhone SE upgrade for early next year.

The new low-cost handset will feature Touch ID, just as expected — but it won’t be the new in-display Touch ID technology that Apple could bring to other handsets in 2020.

That means there’s no hope of an edge-to-edge display.

Apple’s opening its latest Tokyo Japanese Apple Store this weekend. To mark the occasion, it’s offering would-be shoppers a sneak peak.

In keeping with Apple’s love of embracing local culture, the new store makes use of in-store bamboo plants. There are also impressive two-story vitrine windows made from specially cast aluminum to create three-dimensional rounded corners. Resembling giant iPhones, these are the first of their kind at any Apple Store.

Check out more pictures below.

Apple really is working to integrate Touch ID into future iPhone displays, according to a new report.

The company’s in-screen fingerprint-scanning technology could debut as early as 2020. It is expected work alongside Face ID on flagship handsets, giving users a choice between unlock options.

You’ll need a subscription to enjoy to Apple TV+ when it lands later this year, but you may not need to purchase an Apple TV. The new video streaming service is also coming to Samsung Smart TVs.

Samsung’s long-delayed Galaxy Fold folding smartphone will finally go on sale on September 6. This comes five months after it was originally made available for preorder.

The troubled handset, which has undergone a major redesign, will launch in South Korea this week. it will be followed by select countries including France, Germany, Singapore, U.K., U.S. in the near future.