| Cult of Mac

Concept artists imagine crazy cars from Apple, Netflix and other tech giants

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An Apple Car as imaged by ‘ Vanarama.’
The iDrive is just one of the Big Tech concept cars imaged by Vanarama.
Concept image: Vanarama

The Apple Car really is on the drawing board at Cupertino, but no one outside the company knows what it’ll look like. Vanarama came up with a concept design.

And it didn’t stop there. Its designers had fun imagining vehicles designed by Netflix, Peloton, Airbnb and Zoom if these other Big Tech companies got into the market.

iPhone 12 first impressions, and HomePod gets crazy new features, this week on The CultCast (now in video!)

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Dolby Atmos on Apple TV 4K: HomePod's new Apple TV features look like game-changers.
HomePod's new Apple TV features look like game-changers.
Image: Apple

This week on The CultCast: The reviews are in, so let’s talk about iPhone 12! Plus: The honest truth about iPhone 12’s 5G; the original HomePod gets powerful new features, and Jony Ive gets a brand-new job.

And now, The CultCast has video! Or subscribe to our audio episodes if you don’t like our faces.

Jony Ive is ‘designing the future’ at Airbnb

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Jony Ive pays for thousands of orchards to be planted at schools
Jony Ive, the man who once designed the iPhone, Mac and iPad, is now doing design work for Airbnb.
Photo: Apple

Sir Jony Ive, who once headed up the design of all Apple hardware and software, is now working on future Airbnb products. His design company, LoveFrom, will collaborate over the next several years with the vacation rental service.

Airbnb and ClassPass join chorus of complaints about Apple’s 30% sales fee

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Money on Unsplash
Apple is demanding its usual fee for in-app sales.
Photo: Pepi Stojanovski/Unsplash

Airbnb and ClassPass are the two latest companies to clash with Apple over the tech giant’s demands for a percentage of in-app sales.

According to the The New York Times, the two companies — reeling from the effects of COVID-19 on their businesses — are upset that Apple demands a 30% cut of sales for their sale of online experiences.

LGBTQ employees want Google kicked out of SF Pride parade

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SF pride
Apple employees marching in the SF Pride parade.
Photo: Tim Cook/Twitter

Some of Google’s LGBTQ+ employees have petitioned the San Francisco Pride board of directors to kick the search engine giant out of the SF Pride parade slated for this weekend.

The Google employees posted an open letter this morning saying they’ve spent countless hours trying to get Google to improve policies and practices regarding the treatment of LGBTQ+ persons, but the company has done nothing. Even though they might get in trouble for writing the letter, nearly 100 employees signed it, urging the parade to reject Google’s failure to act.

Another Apple industrial designer is leaving the company

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Airbnb logo 1
Miklu Silvanto, who joined Apple in October 2011, is leaving the company to join Airbnb.
Photo: Airbnb

Another Apple industrial designer is leaving Jony Ive’s iconic design team. Miklu Silvanto, who joined Apple in October 2011, is joining Airbnb’s new offshoot design studio Samara.

In his new role, Silvanto will help design future house prototypes. Samara has hired a number of experts in disciplines ranging from industrial design to roboticists and urban planners.

Apple backs transgender student in Supreme Court fight

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Supreme Court plaintiff and LGBT rights advocate Gavin Grimm.
Apple is backing Supreme Court plaintiff and LGBT rights advocate Gavin Grimm.
Photo: Geoff Livingston/Flickr CC

Apple and dozens of other top tech companies filed a Supreme Court brief today in support of a transgender boy’s fight for equality.

In the case, Gavin Grimm, a transgender student from Virginia, is suing the Gloucester County School Board for creating a bathroom policy he says discriminates against transgender students by separating them from their peers.

Apple loses to Facebook and Google as top talent attractor

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Apple adds 5 new vice presidents to its executive lineup
Employees love working at Apple.
Photo: Milo Kahney/Cult of Mac

Apple is one of the top 5 companies in the U.S. when it comes to attracting and keeping talent, but its rivals Facebook and Google are even better.

LinkedIn has come out with its first ever Top Attractors list based on insights from tracking billions of data points of its 433 million members and discovered that in the employee perks arm race, few can top Google.