Apple brought the Walkie-Talkie app back online today with a watchOS update after disabling it earlier this month with an undisclosed vulnerability that might have allowed eavesdropping.
The release of watchOS 5.3 also brings the ECG app for users in Canada and Singapore.
Overcast, the podcast app of choice for lovers of good design, powerful-yet-straightforward features, and the color orange, just added a brand-new recommendations feature.
Previously, Overcast used a Twitter-based recommendation engine. But developer Marco Arment says almost nobody used it. Now, he’s replaced it with recommendations based on users’ personal listening habits, and the result is amazing. I already added a few new podcast subscriptions based on its suggestions.
This week we take a ride with Swapfiets bikes, mangle music with Eventide’s new iOS effects apps, save money with Spend Stack, and more.
Los Angeles designer Ian Delucca customized AirPods with gold and diamonds for a series that “guides us into new relationships with the material world.”
And you can have that relationship with the blinged-out AirPods for $20,000.
Tim Cook has sent his condolences to the Japanese animation studio targeted in a suspected arson attack. The attack resulted in the deaths of 33 people. It is Japan’s worst mass killing in 20 years.
“Kyoto Animation is home to some of the world’s most talented animators and dreamers,” Cook tweeted. “The devastating attack today is a tragedy felt far beyond Japan.”
A new spyware tool reportedly can harvest data from iOS devices and their connected cloud accounts.
The tool, called Pegasus, also works with Android devices. The data it is able to gather even reportedly includes encrypted messages from third-party apps. It does this by fraudulently posing as the user to download their private content.
This week on The CultCast: Why some say FaceApp, the mega-viral app that ages your face, might also be stealing your data. Plus, why your next iPhone or Mac may feature Apple’s rainbow logo; Apple might soon make a big move into original podcasts; and we’ll tell you about the wild lengths some Apple factory works go through to smuggle out top-secret tech.
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A large percentage of Americans are happy that 4G wireless networks are being supplanted by faster 5G ones, according to a recent survey by a respected market-research firm. And a majority of US consumers are very interested in getting a phone that supports these speedier networks.
Eventide, one of the most important creators of musical effects, and the inventor of many crazy audio-mangling ideas, is now making effects apps for the iPhone and iPad. This is just about as big as news can get for musicians working on iOS. For those outside the world of music-creation, Eventide is roughly equivalent to Adobe, and the release of these apps is like Photoshop’s entry into mobile.
iOS musicians can now enjoy three effects from Eventide, all of which are Audio Units (plugins for other apps), and all of which run on both the iPhone and the iPad.
Apple has come out with new beta builds every single day this week and today is no exception.
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s fourth beta build of iOS 13 for developers, Apple has released the third public beta of iOS 13 and iPadOS, allowing anyone to test all the new features and bug fixes.