Apple introduced its own Screen Time tools with iOS 12. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Apple has responded to a New York Times report, claiming that it has removed various parental control apps from the App Store. Apple allegedly removed apps which offered similar features to its own Screen Time tool.
In response, Apple confirms that it did remove “several” such apps — but says that this was done due to privacy and security risks.
The Mipow Power Cube XS is a desktop wireless charger and a portable wireless charger in one. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
The Mipow Power Cube XS combines a wireless iPhone charger with a portable battery. Put another way, it’s a wireless charger that works wherever you take it, with no power sockets or cables needed.
Be sure to check out our reviews of this innovative but affordable accessory, which launches this week.
The iPhone 11R could have a dual-lens camera like today’s XS series. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
The camera in this year’s more affordable iPhone XR replacement could be as good as the one in last year’s flagship model, if a new report turns out to be correct.
Actually, using a mouse with an iPad sounds pretty awesome. Cover: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
Coming soon to an iPad near you: a mouse! Don’t puke in your mouth. This is going to be cool.
Plus, get the rest of the week’s best Apple news, reviews, how-tos and opinions in the latest issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. It’s a free iOS app, and it looks great on your iPad (with or without a mouse). Or keep reading to get the week’s top stories in your browser.
Make PDFs easy to read and edit with one simple tool. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
If you work with or on a computer, PDFs are as common as oxygen. But when it comes to making changes, they can be as tough as lead. So to edit PDFs on Mac, you’ll want this easy to use tool.
Apple's love affair with Intel was short-lived. Photo: Intel
Apple nearly purchased Intel’s smartphone-modem chip business as a way to fix its impending 5G problems on the iPhone, according to a new report.
Talks between Intel and Apple allegedly came to an abrupt halt once the iPhone-maker settled its legal war with Qualcomm. The two sides had been talking about an acquisition since the summer, but it sounds like Intel’s hopes of selling have been dashed for now.
A Chrome extension can bring your hidden "Likes" out in the open. Photo: Pixabay
Facebook is suing a New Zealand-based company for selling fake likes and follows to users of its photo-sharing app, Instagram.
The lawsuit, filed today in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, accuses the defendants of using different companies and websites to peddle bot-generated likes, views, and new followers, which violates Instagram’s terms of use along with U.S. computer fraud laws.
Even Siri can manage to set alarms and timers without screwing it up. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Siri may still be hopeless, but one thing it’s always been good at is setting alarms. In fact, I don’t use Siri much at all any more1, but for alarms and timers, I use it exclusively. Even with iOS 12’s great 3-D Touch timer widget, Siri is quicker.
Today we’ll see how to tell Siri to create an alarm, set a timer, how to edit an alarm, and how to delete one.
Apple has been relying more heavily on Services. Photo: Apple
If Apple spun off its Services division as its own company, the business would be worth between $400 billion and $450 billion, according to a new analyst report.
To put that number in perspective, it’s more than twice the value of Netflix — and only $100 billion less than Facebook.
This bundle includes an intuitive website builder, responsive framework, and three packed lessons. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
These days, putting up a website is easy. But building one that works and looks great takes tools and knowledge. So this bundle of powerful web design platform, responsive web framework, and three lessons is a can’t-miss deal for anyone looking to make their mark online.
Reports indicate two new AirPods models are on the way.
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.
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..
Teardown reviewed what may have been devastating flaw in design. Photo: iFixit
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.
Office subscriptions have been a massive boost for Microsoft. Photo: Microsoft
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 already has its own standard music streaming service. Photo: Amazon
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.”
The back of the iPhone XI. Photo: OnLeaks/CashKaro
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.
Intel will supposedly supply a vital component for the iPhone 11. Photo: Thomas Hawk/Flickr
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.
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.
Apple is increasingly using its own data centers, rather than outsourcing iCloud storage to rival companies. Photo: Pexels
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.
watchOS 6 could be jam packed with new stuff. Photo: Jake Sworski
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.