In celebration of Black Friday, get these 10 top-rated Mac apps. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
It’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but we’re already thinking about Black Friday. Luckily, in this day and age, you don’t need to leave the couch to jump on great deals. In fact, you don’t even need to open a box.
Get yours hands on the mounted turret today. Photo: Epic Games
Fire up your consoles for this week’s Fortnite update.
Version 6.3 brings a new Food Fight game mode and the recently-teased mounted turret. It also removes glider redeploy (finally!) from all default modes, though it will stick around in larger team modes like Disco Domination and Soaring 50s.
Built from the same steel alloy as the Apple Watch, Wiplabs' Link Apple Watch Bracelet is the perfect companion for your new Apple Watch. Photo: Wiplabs
Link is Wiplabs’ beautiful Apple Watch link bracelet crafted from 316L stainless steel alloy with a custom butterfly closure.
It’s the best way to enhance your Apple Watch at a reasonable cost. We filmed an unboxing video to give you a hands-on glimpse at this handsome accessory, which is available now at the Cult of Mac Watch Store.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” the sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke once wrote. Making that link even more explicit is a new Harry Potter Coding Kit, which just went on sale via the Apple online store and Apple retail stores.
Aimed at teaching the basics of coding, the $99.99 kit lets kids build their very own interaction swart wand. Once constructed, they can then use its gestural recognition tech to complete 99 different coding challenges on an app.
Steve Wozniak thinks that his Apple co-founder Steve Jobs would be very happy with Apple today. That’s because it’s still a company which puts people above technology, Woz told CNBC.
“Steve always acted that way,” Woz said. “The users should be more important than the technology itself. You should not be a victim of the technology and what it can do. You should get to live your human life in the most human way possible.”
Ashish Chowdhary joins Apple from Nokia. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple has hired the former Chief Customer Operations Officer at Nokia Networks to head up its India operations department, a new report claims. Ashish Chowdhary will take up the role of Apple’s India head from January as Apple continues to try and grow its brand in the country.
India, which has a population of around 1.339 billion, is one of the fastest growing mobile markets after China and the U.S. However, it is one that Apple has largely failed to crack so far.
Mobile photography lensmaker Moment just launched a redesigned telephoto attachment for the iPhone, boasting that it’s sharper than any other smartphone glass on the market.
The 58mm lens works on single- or dual-lens handsets. Pair it with the iPhone XS for a true 100mm optical reach.
Could you just put the phone down for a while? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
There’s a good chance you’re looking at your iPhone more than ever before. A new study shows that it’s dozens of times every day. Which really isn’t a good thing.
Especially as another study has found that iPhone usage can ruin your vacation.
Apple wants to make a bigger mark on your home. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Getting your hands on Apple’s HomePod smart speaker just got a little bit more affordable.
Apple’s online store is now selling refurbished HomePod units for $299. This is the first time the HomePod has been added to the refurbished store since the speaker first went on sale in February.
This is a simple tip, but until I worked it out it was driving me crazy. In landscape orientation, the iPad Files app’s sidebar is always present, making it easy to get to any favorite folder, location or label, pretty much instantly.
In portrait, though, the sidebar disappears. However, there are two easy ways to make it come back, neither of which involves tapping the back arrow until you arrive at the root level of iCloud Drive.
Disassembling an iPad Pro isn’t for the faint of heart. Photo: Apple
Apple’s latest tablet isn’t easy to take apart, even for experts. A video teardown by iFixit documents the difficulties that come from 12.9-inch iPad Pro components held in with tiny screws and glue. Lots of glue.
Still, the hard work revealed some interesting details about the new computer, including the size of its battery.
The new iPad Pro is Apple’s best ever portable computer. Photo: Andrea Nepori
Since I got an new 2018 iPad Pro on launch day last week, I’ve used it exclusively. I haven’t touched my aging, decrepit Mac all week. I’ve used the iPad for work, and for play, so I’ve given it a pretty good workout. The short review is: It’s fantastic, and better in almost every way.
The long review? There are still plenty of annoyances.
This is the new Spotify app for Apple Watch. Photo: Spotify
The world’s largest paid music streaming service is finally landing on Apple Watch.
Spotify finally revealed its first app for the Apple Watch today that will give wearers the ability to play, pause and skip songs from their wrist. The first version is a bit limited in features, but Spotify is teasing some cool new options that will be coming down the pipeline real soon.
Futurists claim the iPad has already eliminated the need for a Mac. Realists say nah. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
Since the new iPad Pro’s launch, debate about the powerful devices has become increasingly polarized into two opposing camps: futurists and realists.
The futurists argue that the iPad is the future computing. Apple’s tablet has eliminated the need for laptops, they say, and anyone who claims they can’t manage their workflows on iOS is living in the past (and should just get with the program).
The realists, on the other hand, retort that while the iPad may be cool, it remains limited by iOS in a lot of very important ways. Those limitations mean it is currently impossible to use the iPad as a primary workstation for pros.
Screen Time is a great concept. But it's got its weaknesses. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
iOS 12’s Screen Time feature is a great way of making sure that people, particularly children, don’t spend too long using their iOS devices. That’s an important goal, whether you’re worried about the potential mental health impact of overusing technology or just want to stop your kids wasting their time on social media.
It turns out that there’s a workaround on Safari, however — as discovered by the eldest son of computer security expert and iOS hacker David Schuetz.
Learn up to 130 languages with a lifetime subscription to the uTalk app. Image: Cult of Mac Deals
The benefits of learning a second language are endless. Get fluent, and you can cruise around like a local during trips abroad, expand your business to overseas markets or simply keep your brain stimulated.
Luckily, diving into a new language doesn’t need to be limited to a classroom setting. The uTalk interactive language app makes learning a foreign language simple, fun, effective and convenient. And right now, you can save a bundle on a lifetime subscription to this powerful learning tool.
Apple's new iPhones are great. But are they the money-spinners Apple is hoping for? Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Goldman Sachs has added its name to the list of financial institutions worried about stagnating iPhone sales.
“We are concerned that end demand for new iPhone models is deteriorating,” Goldman Sachs wrote in a new note to clients. The firm estimates that Apple will produce 6 percent fewer iPhones next year than it did in the year previous. However, the big investment banking company admits it could be jumping the gun.
Multiple users have reported being locked out of their Apple devices, receiving messages stating that: “Your Apple ID has been locked for security reasons. To unlock it, you must verify your identity.”
There appears to be no pattern to the users receiving the message, in terms of their prior actions. It could be a fault on Apple’s part or, potentially, something more malicious like an attempted brute force attack by hackers.
Netflix looks good on the new iPad Pro. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
The Netflix app is now fully compatible with the new iPad Pro.
It takes full advantage of the space offered by the latest Liquid Retina displays, which are the first iPad screens with rounded corners that stretch edge-to-edge.
Apple has had a rough few weeks. Photo illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Some Apple stats are pretty mind-boggling to get your head around, such as the fact that a modern midrange iMac Pro boasts 11x as many bytes of memory as every combined unit of the Apple II ever sold.
The latest insane factoid is a bit less positive, however. After a recent decline in Apple’s stock price, the company has lost more money in 5 weeks — $190 billion — than its accumulated value in its first 30 years as a public company. Wow!
The T2 chip is great. Unless you want to use a third party repairer. Photo: IFIXIT
Apple has confirmed that certain repairs for its new Macs, sporting the T2 chip, can only be carried out by officially sanctioned Apple repair shops.
That’s because it contains software locks which brick the computers if they’re not operated on by someone not using Apple’s proprietary diagnostic software, called the AST 2 System Configuration. iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens describes this as a “guillotine that [Apple is] holding over” product owners — and potentially third party, unauthorized repairers, too.
This modem may soon bear the Apple name. Photo: Intel
The estimated release date for Intel’s first 5G modem makes it very unlikely a 5G iPhone will be released before 2020. Android devices with this speedy new cellular-wireless technology are expected a year before then.
The 5G iPhone delay is a result of the ongoing legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm.
The iPhone XS is a serious camera, so give it the attention it deserves. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Were you ever in the middle of trying to get that perfect photo, framing it just-so, and tweaking the exposure and focus for the perfect shot, when your mother called to remind you of your own child’s birthday? It could totally happen. And for pro photographers using the iPhone as their preferred camera (which is a great idea, BTW), the risk of interruptions is even greater.
That’s why noted iPhone photographer Austin Mann came up with a great way to shut up your iPhone while you’re busy shooting. It’s called Shoot Mode, and it’s yet another example of how useful Siri Shortcuts can be — even in tiny doses.
Some of the early optimism about iPhone XR sales might have been unjustified. Photo: Apple
Respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo just slashed his estimates for the number of iPhone XR units that will sell over the next year. That’s a real turnaround, as Kuo had previously been bullish on Apple’s latest handset.
And he’s not the only analyst expressing concerns about sales of the iPhone XR. But it’s also possible this model is just following a pattern first laid down by the iPhone X.