If buttons, ports, and speaker grilles give you real anxiety when looking at your smartphone, Meizu has the perfect handset for you. It’s called the Zero, and it’s the first phone that completely ditches all of the above for a gorgeous ceramic unibody design.
Get an iPhone 7 Plus 128GB refurbished by Back Market for $395. That’s about half the original price. Image: Apple
Back Market, a marketplace dedicated to preowned electronics, now offers a range of iPhone models refurbished by Apple. Before going to Back Market, Apple checks over these units and always replaces some of the components that typically wear out.
In addition, this reseller refurbishes iPhones itself, just not as thoroughly. These sell for considerably less, however.
Beat Cop puts you in command of a shamed NYPD detective. Photo: Pixel Crow/11bit Studio
If you hanker after the point-and-click adventure games of the 1990s (think Full Throttle), you’ll find plenty to like about Pixel Crow and 11bit Studio’s Beat Cop — which just brought its pixellated stylings to iOS.
Inspired by 80s cop shows like Miami Vice, the game puts you in control of an NYPD beat cop in 1986-era New York City. Your character has been busted down from detective after getting in over his head in a previous job. As a result, he’s stuck writing tickets and busting minor hoods, until he can redeem himself.
It only took a few years! Photo illustration: Cult of Mac / Picturesofmoney
Australia’s largest bank, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (abbreviated to CommBank), has announced that Apple Pay is finally coming to its customers.
The bank previously promised that Apple Pay support was coming soon, although it did not give an exact date. “Thanks for all your gentle prompts,” it stated in a tweet sent today. “We read them all. Now you #CanApplePay.”
The new AirPods sound intriguing. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Updated AirPods are supposedly on their way in the first half of 2019, possibly bringing new health-monitoring functions to Apple’s wildly popular Bluetooth earbuds. The upgraded AirPods’ impressive new features are “expected to receive enthusiastic market responses,” according to the report.
With other companies, such as Google and Amazon, supposedly launching rival wireless earbuds this year, the move could keep Apple ahead of the curve when it comes to innovation.
These cables can wear out and cause your MacBook Pro’s display to fail. Photo: iFixit
Every MacBook Pro since 2016 harbors a hidden design flaw that inevitably will require an expensive repair, according to DIY repair website iFixit.
The problem supposedly lies in “delicate” ribbon cables that connect the screen with the display controller inside the main body of the laptop. Opening and closing the clamshell case eventually causes these to wear out and begin to tear, iFixit says.
Imagine this, only more dynamic. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
The Dynamic Desktop is a great macOS Mojave feature. It changes the desktop image throughout the day, so your wallpaper always matches the time of day — nighttime images at night, shadowless glare at noon, and so on. Today we’ll see how to switch it on, and where to find new Dynamic Desktop images to add to the defaults.
Coach’s new lineup of Apple Watch bands are ready to glam up your wrist just in time for winter.
The company has come out with a limited number of new straps that add a splash of couture to your Apple Watch without totally busting your bank account.
Connect to Wifi Porter by simply tapping your phone on it. Photo: Ten One Design
Imagine letting a friend connect to your Wi-Fi network just by tapping a hockey puck-sized chunk of wood. That’s the promise of Wifi Porter, an accessory from Ten One Design that saves guests from having to type in a password to get on the net.
It uses NFC and doesn’t require users to install any software.
High Five packs all the ports you need. Photo: Vonmählen
The dark days of dongle hell might finally be over thanks to a brilliant new accessory that packs five different ports in one cable.
Vonmählen, a smartphone accessory maker based in Germany, revealed its new creation called the High Five. The company claims it’s the first ever 5-in-1 cable that’s so small it fits on your keychain. Best of all, it’s super cheap too.
Fortnite’s newest update brings a brand new item to Battle Royale, while removing one of its most frustrating weapons.
Players can surprise their enemies using the Sneaky Snowman, but it won’t be quite as easy to get around anymore, with reduced spawn chances for Quad Crashers, planes, balloons, and more.
Grab the new iOS update now! Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
The first iOS update of the year is finally ready for the masses.
Apple is releasing iOS 12.1.3 today, bringing a number of bug fixes and performance improvements to the iPhone and iPad. iOS 12.1.3 is a minor update and doesn’t contain any big UI changes or new features, but it resolves some important issues with CarPlay, iMessage, Photos and the iPad Pro.
Tim Cook gets ready to unleash the iPhone XS during the Gather Round keynote in 2018. Photo: Apple
Apple’s iPhone XS Max has one of the best cameras in a smartphone – as long as you’re not pointing it at yourself.
The flagship handset tied the Samsung Galaxy X9 Plus for fourth place in a new set of test protocols from DxOMark Labs, which has tested and ranked digital cameras for 10 years.
It turns out that every other company exec wants to be Apple. Photo: Lyle Kahney/Cult of Mac
For the twelfth year in a row, Fortune has ranked Apple number one in its list of “most admired” companies.
Despite Apple’s iPhone-lead decline in recent months, the publication considers that Apple has beaten the opposition in nine different criteria. These include innovation, people management, use of corporate assets, social responsibility, quality of management, financial soundness, long-term investment value, quality of products and services, and global competitiveness.
Target stores are now accepting Apple Pay. Photo: Apple
Apple Pay is now rolling out in Target stores throughout the United States, and will soon be available at Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, and other top retail locations.
The expansion means that 74 of the top 100 merchants and 65 percent of all retail locations in the U.S. now offer support for Apple’s mobile payment platform.
Download Pixelmator Pro 1.3 today. Photo: Pixelmator
Pixelmator Pro, one of the finest and more affordable alternatives to Photoshop, just got a big new update that adds a bunch of new features and improvements on macOS.
Image editors can take advantage of clipping masks, layer tags, quick opacity and blending controls, and more in version 1.3.
Watch award-winning documentaries with CuriosityStream for $2 a month Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
With the endless hours of videos out there, it’s easy to fall deep into a YouTube rabbit hole or binge watch an entire season of reality TV on Netflix. But let’s be honest, that’s often not a very enriching experience. So if you need a regular video fix, it might as well be with content worth watching.
The iPhone 5 was a brilliant phone. And Qualcomm was a big reason for that. Photo: Apple
Apple has admitted in court that, when it transitioned to 4G connectivity with the iPhone 5, Qualcomm was the only company capable of providing the chips Apple needed.
The admission of Qualcomm’s technical superiority over rivals came from Matthias Sauer, Apple’s director of cellular systems architecture. Sauer said that Apple considered working with Ericsson, Broadcom and Intel — but that none could deliver the chip specifications that Apple wanted.
Apple Watch's heart rate-tracking abilities is a major selling point for the device. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
A three year battle over Apple Watch technology has been resolved with Apple and biometric sensor company Valencell reportedly coming to terms over a dispute.
Valencell sued Apple back in 2016 over the heart rate-sensing technology in the Apple Watch, which has gone on to become one of the device’s big selling points. The company claimed that Apple met with its executives prior to launching the Apple Watch, but ultimately failed to reach an agreement.
Designed in California, built in India? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple supplier Foxconn is reportedly showing more interest in manufacturing iPhones in India, a new report claims.
The move would reduce Apple’s reliance on China at a time in which turbulence in the Chinese market, both from customers and potentially trade tariffs, is causing headaches in Cupertino.
Every iPhone display will look this good one day. Photo: Apple
Apple plans to use OLED displays in all iPhone versions from 2020, according to a new report.
The flagship iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max already use OLED technology, but the more affordable iPhone XR employs an LCD panel just like its predecessors. A complete switch to OLED will allow for “more flexible handset design,” sources say.
Coming soon? Well, we hope so at least. Photo: Apple
When 2018 ticked over to 2019, Apple’s AirPower charging mat officially missed its Apple-imposed deadline. But, counter to rumors that it has been abandoned, a new report suggests that Apple will be shipping it “later in 2019.”
There’s no proposed shipping date mentioned in the report, but “later” could suggest the second half of the year. If so, it could ship a whole two years after it was originally unveiled in September 2017.
The Mac Evo would fit between the Mac mini and Mac Pro in size, capabilities, and assumably price. Photo: Pierre Cerveau
A new concept called the Mac Evo seeks to bring faster performance through liquid cooling. The computer would be just three times the size of Mac mini but offer greater speed by lowering the temperature of the processor.
The Intel chips Apple uses in its OS X computers often have to be throttled down to keep them from overheating. Liquid cooling is one solution.