This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: iOS 15.4 packs a punch with some fun and useful new features. It’s still just a beta, but it will give us lots of new emoji for our critical, high-level communications when it goes live. Plus, the beta includes a convenient new way to unlock your iPhone while wearing a face mask — just in time for the end of the pandemic! 🤞

Also on The CultCast:

• An Apple event in March looks quite likely.
• Mini-LED iMac Pro might be delayed.
• An Apple car patent sheds light on an advanced sunroof.
• How to download Wordle, just in case The New York Times screws up the popular game.
• Donkey talk!

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video livestream, embedded below (down by the headlines and donkey links).

The rumored Apple Car may not be on the verge of rolling off the assembly line, but someday a version of it may have sunroof glass that you can darken or lighten with the touch of a button or with a Siri command.

That’s according to a patent the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted Apple this week for a sunroof with variable-opacity glass. That means a driver could adjust its transparency.

Two monumental events happened this week. Apple became the first U.S. company to be worth an astonishing $3 trillion. And a day later came the official end of BlackBerry — a series of phones that once dominated the market.

The collapse of BlackBerry is proof that today’s winners aren‘t inevitably tomorrow’s. While in the coming years Apple could become the first company to reach $4 trillion, it also could start down a path that ends in failure.

Here’s some of what Apple will do so it doesn’t end up like BlackBerry.

Taking Apple products and patents for inspiration, A UK-based vehicle-leasing company called Vanarama has offered a detailed look at what it thinks the first Apple Car could look like. You can explore the 3D concept render inside and out.

This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Just how well does a new $3,500 M1 Max MacBook Pro perform against a $15,000 Mac Pro that’s only two years old? The results from the latest tests and benchmarks are simply insane.

Also on The CultCast:

• Apple plans to make a totally autonomous car — with no steering wheel or pedals! And it might show up by 2025.
• Leander’s Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition coffee table book is on sale for just $9.99.
• And our favorite TV shows in an all-new “What We’re Into” segment.

Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video livestream, embedded below.

Apple is reportedly committed to making a car capable of driving completely autonomously. The new head of the project won’t be satisfied with a vehicle with only limited capabilities.

The car might not need a steering wheel or pedals at all. And it could be on the road by 2025.

On the heels of Apple VP Doug Field’s departure as chief of the Apple Car project for a role at Ford, Cupertino has named longtime Apple Watch software head Kevin Lynch its new exec in charge of Project Titan. That’s the code name for the company’s self-driving electric car effort.

Apple resumed development of its autonomous electric vehicle on its own after failing to secure a major automotive partner, according to a new report. Cupertino supposedly is in touch with global auto parts manufacturers, indicating selection of a supplier(s) could be imminent.

Development of an Apple car just hit another speed bump. Doug Field, who’d reportedly been managing the project, just left to join the Ford Motor Company.

This is surely a blow to Apple’s secretive automotive efforts. And the company was already multiple years away from having anything to put in a showroom, according to the latest leaks.

Apple plans to start mass production of its very first car in 2024, according to a new report that cites sources familiar with the matter. Cupertino is now in talks with a number of suppliers, including LG Electronics and Toyota, over components.