Cult of Mac

Microsoft’s latest competitor to the iPad, the more affordable Surface Go, is now available to order.

Prices start at just $399 in the U.S., and for that you get an Intel Pentium Gold processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a 10-inch PixelSense display. You can also enjoy Windows 10 in the lightweight S mode.

This year’s iPad Pro will boast Face ID and a new iPhone X-style bezel-less design, code and assets hidden in the iOS 12 developer beta seemingly confirms.

The asset relating to the new asset was discovered in the battery usage user interface part of the new developer beta. It’s an icon depicting an iPad without home button and much thinner bezels.

Apple has confirmed plans to drop apps and in-app purchases from its iTunes Affiliate Program by October 1.

The company feels that commissions are no longer necessary following the launch of its redesigned App Store, which has improved app discovery. However, everyone else believes it’s an ignorant and shortsighted move that won’t be good for anyone but Apple.

The smartwatch competition has come down to just two players: Apple Watch and Fitbit. They leave Samsung and other wearables makers well behind.

And in the second quarter of this year, Apple stayed far ahead of even Fitbit.

For a person who famously said he doesn’t like to invest in tech stocks, Warren Buffett has done pretty well with Apple.

Following the company’s amazing quarterly earnings this week, Buffett’s shares in Apple have proven to be an insanely smart bet. How smart? Thanks to the 6 percent spike in Apple stock yesterday, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway firm likely made upward of $2.6 billion in a single day.

Apple may have just reported yet another record quarter, but there’s a potential dark cloud lurking on the horizon in the form of the impending China trade war.

Not only has Tim Cook been outspoken about China being Apple’s future biggest market, but Apple also relies on China for the majority of its manufacturing. In other words, Apple has a problem — and in this case it’s a problem that could be passed onto you, the customer.

Apple has been ordered to pay out $145.1 million in damages for infringing on patents held by the Canadian patent licensing company WiLan.

A federal jury in San Diego, California ruled that the iPhone infringed on two WiLan patents. These “8,457,145” and “8,537,757” patents relate to wireless communications tech — specifically bandwidth request protocols in a wireless communication system and adaptive call admission control.

The company we know as Strapple (a company featured in Cult of Mac’s Watch Store) sounded a bit too much like the maker of Apple Watch. The tiny brand speedily changed its name to Strapa and doubled-down with the release of one of its most striking Apple Watch bands yet — the Primus.

Strapa explains Apple’s (minor) involvement in its sudden name change and site relaunch. During this transition, this company continues to make some of the best leather bands we’ve worn. The Primus Apple Watch Band is the latest in Strapa’s lineup.

Lisa Brennan Jobs, the oldest daughter of Steve Jobs, is coming out with her first book next month. Part of the story grapples with their complicated relationship. (He denied being her father at first.)

In an excerpt from her book, Small Fry, posted today, Lisa Brennan Jobs gives glimpses into some of her dad’s last months. She also talks about how it affected her psyche when he named the Lisa computer after her but didn’t admit it to her until she was 27.

Investors rushed to buy Apple stock today, pushing the share price up almost 6 percent. That added a whopping $55 billion to the company’s market capitalization.

Apple is still a bit short of the much-hyped $1 trillion valuation, but moved noticeably closer today.

Samsung just unveiled the first high-end Android tablet in years: With a 10.5-inch screen and a $649.99 price, the Galaxy Tab S4 takes aim squarely at the iPad Pro. As with Apple’s tablet, there’s an optional keyboard ($150) to turn this Android model into a 2-in-1 laptop.

We compare the two to highlight the differences.

Apple’s biggest keynote of the year is quickly approaching and, while the company hasn’t revealed the date, we have a pretty good idea of when exactly the 2018 iPhone lineup will be revealed.

After analyzing the dates of Apple’s previous unveilings and the 2018 calendar, it seems pretty likely the keynote will fall during the second week of September.

For most photos, the iPhone camera proves perfectly adequate. You just hold up your phone, point it, and shoot. The exposure and focus are almost always correct, or at least correct enough. But on occasion, you need to take control.

For instance, maybe that beautiful dark blue sky keeps getting washed out because the iPhone insists on correctly exposing the face of the human in the foreground, when you’d prefer to see the person in silhouette. (Or vice versa.) Or perhaps the iPhone insists on focusing on that tree in the foreground, instead of the person half-hidden behind it?

Both of these can be fixed using the manual controls built right into the iPhone’s own Camera app. They’re pretty well-hidden, so you might never have even noticed them. But rest assured, they are there — and they are very easy to use!

So many people are taking so many pictures thanks to the iPhone. And yet, renowned filmmaker and photographer Wim Wenders says photography is “more dead than ever.”

“The trouble with iPhone pictures is nobody sees them,” Wenders said in a recent BBC video interview during an exhibit of his Polaroid photos. “Even the people who take them don’t look at them anymore, and they certainly don’t make prints.”

If you do any work with fonts on the Mac whatsoever, you will have run up against the font picker. It’s a piece of design that dates back to when the Mac only came with a black-and-white screen, and yet it’s still the only way to select a font on an Apple computer. That wouldn’t be so bad if it was a good design, but it’s not. The macOS font picker is little more than a drop-down menu. Worse, it’s a drop-down menu that changes every time you use it.

You can use the Mac’s font panel in some apps, but even then you’re faced with long and confusing lists.

Sam William Smith, a designer from Glasgow, Scotland, decided to do something about this. He completely redesigned the Mac font menu, and it’s great.

Now’s the perfect opportunity to up your Apple Watch style game and swap out that old strap for something fresh. Enter Casetify’s collection of fun and super stylish Apple Watch bands in Stainless Steel Mesh, Woven Nylon and the artist-inspired line of Saffiano Leather bands.

Browse the full lineup of Casetify bands in our Watch Store, and remember to use code CULTOF20 at checkout for 20 percent off when you purchase two Casestify Apple Watch bands through Aug, 31, 2018.

The “notch” in the iPhone X drew heavy criticism when this device was first announced, but makers of Android phones have been quick to embrace it. So quick that Google felt compelled to step in and limit the number of screen cutouts allowed.

Phone designers were apparently going overboard if Google had prevent them from putting in three or more.

Apple won’t have to pay additional taxes to the city of Cupertino based on the company’s number of local employees, city officials have decided.

Some Cupertino City Council members planned to give voters the opportunity to decide whether Apple, and other large local businesses, should pay a “head tax.” Apple would have paid around $9.4 million annually to the city. However, those plans have now been scrapped.

For the last few years, health has been a key focus area for Apple. Fitness tracking, sleep tracking, nutrition tracking, mindfulness and even reproductive health have made their way into the Health app. Unfortunately, when it comes to your sexual wellbeing, Apple’s offering is pretty minimal. With Clue: Period and Ovulation Tracker, you can track a wide range of physical and mental details and gain useful insights into patterns and abnormalities in your natural cycle.

Think smartphones are an unavoidable part of daily school life if you’re a teen? Think again. Well, if you live in France, at least.

Under new legislation, French students are banned from using either smartphone or tablets during the school day. The new laws were part of President Emmanuel Macron’s election promises.

When you put on over-ear headphones, the last thing you want to hear is the outside world. So noise cancellation is the obvious choice, but it’s also the expensive one. Not so with these Bluetooth headphones from Paww.

We’re just one day away from another round of challenges in Fortnite Battle Royale. But you don’t have to wait to find out what you’ll be doing this week, because week four’s challenges for season five have leaked out early.

Here’s how you’ll earn another 50 Battle Stars.

Facebook has introduced new iOS 12-style Screen Time tools intended to help users manage their time on Facebook and Instagram. The new features give users an activity dashboard, daily reminders about usage, and a new way to limit notifications.

A recent rumor claimed Apple will add dual-SIM functionality to at least one of the handsets in this year’s iPhone lineup. Now its latest developer update has all but confirms those claims.

Code discovered in iOS 12 beta 5 reveals Apple is already making preparations for a secondary SIM card slot in some iOS devices. It seems two traditional SIM cards will be supported, rather than a traditional SIM combined with embedded Apple SIM technology.

Apple and Qualcomm have been feuding for the past year-and-a-half, but they may make peace in time for the upcoming 5G era.

According to a new report, sources in the supply chain think the companies will patch up their relationship next year, due to the fact that it would be too risky for Apple to bet on 5G smartphone production adopting non-Qualcomm chips. Qulacomm is one of the leaders when it comes to 5G chip technology.