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This week on The CultCast: Some major changes are in store for Apple’s legendary industrial design team … we discuss. Plus: Apple commits to fixing all MacBook keyboard issues in just one day. This is huge. And it looks like not one but two new versions of the AirPods are on the way, with one being released this year. We’ll fill you in. And the new Powerbeats Pro wireless earphones are almost here, and they look like the higher-quality AirPods we’ve always wanted.
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iFixit says it removed its teardown of Samsung’s troubled Galaxy Fold device at the Korean company’s request.
The website’s teardown revealed that Samsung may have failed to include sufficient protection against debris between the device’s OLED screen and chassis bezel. iFixit removed the article after Samsung retrieved all units sent to reviewers. Many reviews noted that the pricey $1,980 handset suffered serious screen problems.
Apple’s old frenemy Microsoft officially joined the $1 trillion club yesterday, taking its place alongside Apple and Amazon as public companies which have passed the $1 trillion market cap.
While its closing price brought it back down to $990 billion, it still finished the day ahead of Apple $968 billion. This came after Microsoft reported that revenue grew 14% in the last quarter.
Amazon is reportedly in talks with some of the world’s largest music rights holders to launch a high-fidelity streaming service, costing around $15 per month.
Rumored to launch by the end of 2019, the service would offer a superior bit rate than many rivals. “It’s a better bit rate, better than CD quality,” a source told Music Business Worldwide. “Amazon is working on it as we speak: they’re currently scoping out how much catalog they can get from everyone and how they’ll ingest it.”
Several highly experienced designers who created Apple’s best-selling products are leaving after working decades for the company.
The departure of these senior designers comes as Apple is shifting some of its focus from computers to services. And even cars.
Apple won’t unveil the 2019 iPhone lineup for at least another four months, but we already have a pretty solid idea on what it will look like.
New renderings based on leaked information reveal the iPhone XI and XI Max in all their glory. From the front, the new iPhones look pretty similar to the XS and XS Max. When you flip them over though you’ll notice a new triple-lens camera array and new unique rear panel made out of one piece of glass.
Take a closer look:
Details about the 2019 iPhone models are starting to trickle out. Intel CEO seems to have said today that his company will be supplying 4G modems for this device.
Bob Swan’s comment is deliberately oblique, but at least one expert has taken it as an indication that Apple isn’t ready to fully switch to Qualcomm modems in its iPhones.
Snoopy paved the way for astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to walk on the moon.
How the cartoon beagle figured into NASA’s lunar plans will be the subject of a short “documentary” available next month on the Apple TV app.
Twitter is a swamp of spoilers. You can’t move for tweets about the plot of the new Star Wars movie or spoilers about whatever new TV show is dropping all its new episodes this week. There are two ways to avoid spoilers. One is to avoid Twitter entirely.
The other is to mute keywords, so you don’t see references to — well, references to whatever you want. Mutes don’t have to be about the long-awaited meeting between Spock and Obi-Wan, though. You can mute anything. You could avoid all mentions of President Donald Trump, for example. Brits could stanch the flow of Brexit mentions. Or you might temporarily mute mentions of a sports event if it’s taking over your timeline.
Although a recent report indicated that Apple is spending about $30 million a month for Amazon’s cloud services, new information indicates that’s a considerable reduction from the past.
This is a result of Apple’s growing collection of data centers around the world.
The grand unveiling of watchOS 6 is a little more than a month away. Leaked details on watchOS 6 have been pretty scarce in the lead up to WWDC 2019, but that hasn’t stopped concept designer Jake Sworski from coming up with a plethora of feature ideas that will take Apple Watch to the next level.
In his latest watchOS 6 concept, Sworski and his friends have dreamed up tons of big and little features that would add more information to Apple Watch. New watch faces, sleep tracking, activity ring advancements and more are all there. If Apple puts even half of these features in watchOS 6 we’ll be totally blown away.
Take a look at all these great ideas:
Apple is reportedly planning to lay the foundation for 5G on the iPad Pro by using Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) soft boards for the first time ever.
According to one of the most reliable Apple analysts in the game, the new LCP soft boards will allow for better wireless connectivity in the iPad Pro, but 5G modems probably won’t make it into the iPad Pro until 2021.
If you’re an iOS-using musician, then AUM is an utterly essential app. It’s an audio mixer, but that description hides its power. AUM does let you mix the audio from various apps, but it also hosts audio units (like plugins), routes audio between them, records those channels, and more.
This week, AUM got a huge update, adding a whole bunch of great new features.
The debut of Avengers: Endgame has Marvel fans fired up, and there are plenty of ways to show that with your iPhone, iPad or Mac.
Easily the most over-the-top option is Caviar’s $7,660 Infinity Gauntlet, but there are plenty more Avengers tie-ins that are much more affordable. There are cases and wallpapers, plus Fortnite has limited-time battle with Thanos.
The problem with having a mobile phone, an Apple Watch and a tablet isn’t that you’ve got a lot of devices, it’s that you have a lot of different chargers.
Just Mobile, the folks behind the popular TENC Air phone cases, is attempting to solve this problem with Encore Wireless, a Kickstarter project that launched last week.
DNA tells us that of the creatures in the animal kingdom, we are most closely related to chimpanzees.
Watching a chimp scrolling through Instagram on an iPhone should erase any lingering doubts.
3D printed mockups claiming to show two of the 2019 iPhone models have surfaced in Asia. These include the triple camera lenses that have been a part of so many unconfirmed reports about these devices.
Watch a video showing these mockups compared to the 2018 iPhone XS-series:
Apple has issued a voluntary recall order for AC wall plug adapters designed for use in the U.K., Hong Kong, and Singapore. According to Apple, some of these three-wrong adapters are prone to breaking and can pose an electric shock risk.
They were produced by Apple between 2003 and 2010, and included as part of the Apple World Travel Adapter Kit.
Being a digital nomad means bringing some of your most important stuff everywhere you go. So you want a bag that can accommodate your laptop, phone, batteries, notepads, wallet and other essentials — and also keep them safe. Even better if it looks nice, too.
Apple has long been known for its great customer support — and that’s confirmed once more in a new ranking of customer service among top laptop makers.
The Laptop Mag rankings pit 11 of the major players against one another to determine who comes out on top. The winner? Everyone’s favorite fruit-titled tech giant, which secures a whopping 91/100 score.
A court in India has lifted its ban on popular video-sharing app TikTok, which resulted in it being temporarily booted from the Indian iOS and Google Play app stores.
The app was ordered removed after accusations that it encouraged pornography and could pose a danger to kids from sexual predators. However, the decision was overturned on Wednesday afer a plea from developers Beijing Bytedance Technology.
Two Saudi sisters who fled the country for the U.S. have renewed attempts to get Apple and Google to delete an “inhuman” tracking app from the App Store. The app, called Absher, allows men to receive alerts about the whereabouts of wives or daughters.
Apple previously said that it was looking into the app to see if concerns were warranted. However, it still remains available in the Saudi version of both the Apple and Google app stores.
Some users report that they are not able to buy new apps or download updates to existing ones through the App Store. This appears to be the result of a bug which locks users in an endless cycle, requesting that they agree to new terms and conditions.
Good news everyone: The NSA no longer wants to collect your phone calls and text messages. Apparently.
Despite once being all-in on its electronic spying program, the National Security Agency now supposedly wants to abandon its mass data collection practices.