Apple operations chief Jeff Williams is the most important person at the company after CEO Tim Cook, according to a new report.

Williams, who has also taken over Apple’s design studio following the departure of Jony Ive, is thought to be first in line to replace Cook when the time is right.

“He’s very much in the mold of the current chief executive: a paragon of operational efficiency and even temper,” said several current and former colleagues.

The 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition drew a ton of social media ballyhoo when the pricey luxury watch was part of the first generation watches in 2015.

But who would pay $10,000 for a watch sure to be obsolete in a hurry? As many predicted, not a lot of people.

These days, everything’s smart, from our houses to our phones to our cars to our light bulbs. Protecting yourself has been smart since before technology, so this feature-rich pepper spray is smart twice.

Apple products seem to have dropped off shoppers’ wish lists this Prime Day.

Despite big discounts on Apple Watch, AirPods and Beats headphones, only one Apple product made it into the top 10 searches in the U.S. The Nintendo Switch claimed the top spot by a good margin.

Apple Watch is expected to come with brand new display technology as soon as next year, according to a new report.

Apple is said to be in advanced talks with display makers over bringing microLED screens to its popular wearable. One advantage of the switch will be longer battery life in between charges.

The 2020 iPhone lineup could bring a huge display upgrade that will put it on par with iPad Pro in terms of refresh rate.

One leaker says Apple is “considering” 120Hz panels for next year’s handsets. It would be the first time its ProMotion technology has graced an OLED screen since its debut in 2017.

We’ve already extolled our excitement over CarPlay changes coming in iOS 13. But now that the beta season is well underway, we’ve had the chance to go fully hands on.

After taking it on a road trip, using it while commuting, and exploring the new features, this is our hands-on look at CarPlay in iOS 13.

This week we take a ride with Swapfiets bikes, mangle music with Eventide’s new iOS effects apps, save money with Spend Stack, and more.

Whether you’re working on a laptop or a desktop computer, it means being tied to the machine. That is, unless you go wireless with Apple’s Magic Mouse and Keyboard.

This week, the Cult of Mac Store got some massive new deals on useful apps, instruction and digital tools. Below you’ll find a bundle of 10 Mac apps, to a tool for converting websites to searchable text, 10 terabytes of backup storage, and more. Deals range from 50% to 98% off, so read on for more details:

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company will begin volume production of 5nm chips in the first half of 2020, according to the company’s chief financial officer.

The Taiwanese foundry manufactures all Apple’s processors. TSMC’s move to 5nm comes right on time to employ this cutting-edge process in the A14 CPUs for next year’s iPhone and iPad models.

Fifty years after the Apollo moon mission, the leaps in mankind’s computing power continue to amaze. For instance, did you know an iPhone could manage 120 million moon missions at once?

Get the story behind that astonishing stat, plus the latest on CarPlay, FaceApp and the likely design of this year’s new iPhones, in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. It’s jam-packed with all the Apple news, reviews and how-tos you can fit into your weekend. (Prefer to read in your browser? Get the headlines below.)

Treat yourself to some new Apple Watch bands and accessories and enjoy some big discounts on the Cult of Mac Watch Store.

We have gorgeous aluminum link bracelets, premium charging stands that work with Apple Watch and iPhone, and speedy wireless charging pads all on sale for a limited time.

Check them out right here and see how much you can save.

Canadians should start polishing up their credit ratings, as they soon may be able to apply for a shiny new Apple Card.

The US launch of this credit card will happen in the coming weeks. Canada might not be far behind.

Los Angeles designer Ian Delucca customized AirPods with gold and diamonds for a series that “guides us into new relationships with the material world.”

And you can have that relationship with the blinged-out AirPods for $20,000.

Dozens of airplanes still have equipment subject to cellular phone interference. This is one of the reasons why iPhones and Androids have to be in airplane mode during flight. Fortunately, this danger will soon go away. The best-known cockpit system to have problems with cellular radios has to be replaced before the end of 2019.

Does that mean in-flight phone calls will become part of travel?

If you currently use a third-party bookmark manager, you might be able to ditch it when you upgrade your iPhone or iPad to iOS 13. The main new feature is that you can now save all your open tabs into a bookmark folder, then reopen all the links in that folder with one tap. But that’s not all. Thanks to iPadOS’ new contextual menus, the built-in bookmarks got way easier to use.

Australia’s leading Instagram influencers expressed a range of feelings this week over the photo-sharing app’s experiment with hiding “likes.”

Some fear it starts the clock counting down toward the end of their moment of fame.

Someone needs to get the Apple Watch its own comic book series, because right now it’s saving more lives than most DC and Marvel superheroes put together.

The latest case involves a 48-year-old U.K. man who underwent lifesaving heart surgery after a series of Apple Watch alerts about his low heart rate.

Tim Cook has sent his condolences to the Japanese animation studio targeted in a suspected arson attack. The attack resulted in the deaths of 33 people. It is Japan’s worst mass killing in 20 years.

“Kyoto Animation is home to some of the world’s most talented animators and dreamers,” Cook tweeted. “The devastating attack today is a tragedy felt far beyond Japan.”

There’s so much to learn about the world around us. So when you sit down to watch Netflix, keep in mind you could be streaming content that informs as well as entertains — and at a small fraction of the price.

A new spyware tool reportedly can harvest data from iOS devices and their connected cloud accounts.

The tool, called Pegasus, also works with Android devices. The data it is able to gather even reportedly includes encrypted messages from third-party apps. It does this by fraudulently posing as the user to download their private content.

This week on The CultCast: Why some say FaceApp, the mega-viral app that ages your face, might also be stealing your data. Plus, why your next iPhone or Mac may feature Apple’s rainbow logo; Apple might soon make a big move into original podcasts; and we’ll tell you about the wild lengths some Apple factory works go through to smuggle out top-secret tech.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain..

Apple Music has switched the names of one of its most popular playlists. “A-List: Hip-Hop” is now branded as “Rap Life,” and comes with a new show on Beats 1 radio.

The change was orchestrated by Ebro Darden, global editorial head of hip-hop and R&B at Apple Music. “Rap Life” will be promoted as a segment during Darden’s daily show on Beats 1. Apple is also launching a self-contained “Rap Life” show on Beats 1 every week.

Epic Games has told Fortnite players on iOS that they will need to delete and reinstall the game to keep on playing.

Disgruntled iPhone and iPad users quickly discovered they were unable to load into Battle Royale after a game-breaking bug was introduced in the most recent 9.40.1 patch.

Epic’s unusual “fix” has understandably upset a lot of fans, who now have to download gigabytes of data all over again.