As another week full of news passes, your host Joshua Smith is here to give you a wrap-up on some of the latest and biggest features. iOS devices held for ransom, Apple’s big Beats acquisition and a rumored Apple iWatch are among just some of the featured stories in today’s rundown.
Take a look at the video and be sure to return next week for another. Subscribe to CultOfMacTV on youtube.com to catch new episodes of the roundup and other great video reviews, how-to’s and more.
The smartwatch race is on, and Microsoft has its own contender in the works.
Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch lineup is widely considered a dud, and many are waiting to see what Apple has up its sleeve with the iWatch. Not to be left behind, Microsoft is gunning for the fitness market with a wearable of its own that could arrive as early as this summer..
Perhaps most surprising of all is that Microsoft’s device will reportedly be platform agnostic, meaning it would work with Android and even the iPhone.
An analyst has traveled to Apple’s supply chain in Taiwan, and he claims to have learned about the rumored iWatch.
While the design of Apple’s upcoming wearable has been a point of contention so far, Brian Blair of Rosenblatt Securities claims that it will feature a round face. He also backs up previous reports that the device will go into production this summer. Based on the increasing frequency of such claims, we may see an actual iWatch materialize by the end of this year.
And that’s not all Blair has learned from supply chain sources.
Apple’s sapphire glass could be the biggest thing to hit the iPhone since Touch ID, and even though it hasn’t announced an iPhone 6 or iWatch with a Sapphire glass display yet, its chummy parasitic buddy Samsung is already looking for a way to copy.
Apple’s rumored iWatch could give the watch industry a much needed shot in the wrist once its finally revealed, but what if Apple decided to make iWatch a platform like CarPlay instead of an actual product?
It sounds crazy but putting Apple’s tech in the hands of the world’s classiest watchmakers could yield better results than if Cupertino dives into the fashion world alone. In its newest concept, Curved imagined what Rolex could do with the iWatch and the result is the manliest smart chronometer a non-geek could want.
Checkout the full concept video below:
This time on The CultCast: No, those rumored new EarPods won’t measure your pulse. Last week’s biggest Apple rumor was a fake made up by a guy on a toilet! Plus, why you shouldn’t expect new hardware at June’s WWDC; iPhone warns you when the NSA wants you for drug trafficking; Apple’s newest executive gets a HUGE payday; Katie Cotton, Apple’s long time PR lead and Steve Jobs confidant, calls it quits; Cupertino will take on Samsung with more Guerrilla-style marketing; and since you asked, we reveal the jobs we’ve always wanted on an all-new Get To Know Your Cultist.
Have a few LOLs while we catch you up on each week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the audio adventure begin!
Our thanks to Smile Software for supporting this episode! If you haven’t tried TextExpander from Smile software, you’re missing out on one of the most useful apps available for the Mac. With TextExpander, you’ll save time and effort by expanding short abbreviations into frequently-used text and pictures. Try it out yourself for free at smilesoftware.com/cultcast.
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If the rumors are true, Apple’s forthcoming purchase of Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion is all about one thing — making wearable technology fashionable.
Apple is poised to introduce a line of wearables that likely goes beyond the long-rumored iWatch. While the technology Tim Cook’s team is cooking up might be amazing, getting people to wear it — especially cracking the crucial mass market — will be one of the biggest challenges Cupertino has ever faced.
Injecting style into wearable tech notoriously difficult. Even Nike got flustered and discontinued its FuelBand fitness tracker. So far, no company has really cracked the code and turned gear into a fashion statement for the cool kids, with one giant exception: Beats, a phenomenally successful wearable technology brand that dwarfs the rest of the industry because it’s pulled off the hardest trick in the book.
There have been many wearables and quantified-health applications over the past few years, but most have steered clear of proclaiming themselves medical devices. Some of the rumors about the iWatch (such as the fact that it will be able to listen to the sound blood makes as it flows through arteries, and use this to predict heart attacks) may sound a bit too good to be true. But the number of biosensor and biomedical engineers Apple has snapped up recently makes us think the iWatch could be a device that crosses over firmly into the "medical monitoring" category.
According to one recent report, a reason for the long delay before launch is that Apple is awaiting certification from the Food and Drug Administration to get the iWatch approved as medical equipment. Given Apple's recent announcement of the Health app for iOS 8 to collect and show data on calorie consumption, sleep activity, blood oxygen levels and more, plus the conspicuous absence of a health-tracking fitness band in Apple's last iPhone 5s ad, the idea that the iWatch will be geared toward health seems as close to a foregone conclusion as you get for a device that hasn't even been officially announced yet.
Are you sitting down? Because this news may shock you.
With the iWatch reportedly set to arrive later this year, noted original thinkers Microsoft recently published a patent related to its own dive into the Wonderful World of Wearables™.
Amazingly enough, Microsoft’s plans suggest the company is planning to take on the previously uncharted waters of fitness tracking — with a somewhat familiar-sounding device capable of keeping tabs on the wearer’s pulse, displaying the number of calories burns during a workout, and measuring distance traveled.
This time on The CultCast: rumored new EarPods take your pulse and more; updated Macbook Airs get faster and cheaper; a leaked “iPhone 6” case indicates an iPod-inspired design; Google takes on Office with new iOS apps for Drive; we ponder the state of the iPod; and we pitch our favorite tech and apps then vote on which is best… it’s an all new Faves N Raves!
Have a few chuckles while we catch you up on each week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the audio adventure begin!
And thanks to Lynda.com for sponsoring this episode! Learn at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials at Lynda.com.
Click on for the show notes.
The complications behind creating a small screen for something like an iWatch are immense, but Apple has bought the company it may need to make it all possible.
TechCrunch reports that Apple has acquired LuxVue Technology, a small California-based company that specializes in “microLED-based displays for consumer electronics applications.” It turns out that microLEDs could work very well with wearables.
Those hoping to get a peek at Apple’s game-changing future products at next month’s Worldwide Developers Conference reportedly need to “dial back [their] expectations or be disappointed.”
Despite Tim Cook’s promise from the WWDC stage last year that Cupertino would enter “new product categories,” no big reveals are forthcoming on the iWatch or Apple TV fronts at this year’s big conference, according to a report from Re/code.
In a blatant attempt to steal Apple’s thunder, Samsung has announced a conference to take place on May 28 — promising to kick start “a new conversation around health.”
Why is this stepping on Apple’s toes?
Because the very next week is Apple’s eagerly-anticipated Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) — where Apple is expected to introduce the first stages of its new health-tracking family of innovations, beginning with the Healthbook feature for iOS 8, and likely to later expand to include the iWatch.
Apple suppliers in China have finally started producing the iWatch, according to a report from China Times that claims Jony Ive’s wristwatch masterpiece will land in the U.S. this Fall, and it might be even smaller than we thought.
As rumors continue to swell about Apple’s long-awaited leap into wearable tech, the U.S. Patent & Trademarks Office Tuesday granted a new patent covering an iWatch-like device form factor.
While Apple only lists a “wrist-watch device” as one of the possible applications of its planned electronic device, everything about the patent is in line with what we’ve heard about the iWatch.
The patent covers the housing for a device which would include wireless circuits such as transceiver circuits, and optical components such as light sensors and cameras.
For the moment, the Apple doom-mongers have been silenced by another record quarter. But there’s one area where things are down, and still dropping. It’s the iPod division, and it’s the closest thing Apple has to a dead man walking.
Sales of the music player continue to plummet as more people buy iPhones than ever, and listeners move away from music downloads toward streaming services like Spotify, Pandora and iTunes Radio.
Should Apple ditch the iconic product line that first signaled Apple’s expansion beyond computers — or is there some way the business can be turned around?
Read on to find out where things currently stand.
When Nike announced it was shutting down its FuelBand division and exiting the hardware business, many speculated that the company would be teaming up with Apple for the long-awaited iWatch.
Nike didn’t exactly do much to cool the rumors either — issuing a statement that claimed the two companies would “continue to partner on emerging technologies to create better solutions for all athletes.”
Now Nike Chief Executive Officer Mark Parker has poured more fuel on the fire, saying that sportswear company is committed to focusing on software, and is “excited” about its relationship with Apple.
When Apple reveals its Q2 2014 sales numbers later today, few people are expecting any miracles: Mostly, Wall Street expects that growth will have stalled. All the more reason why Apple needs a major new product like the iWatch to give them some of their mojo back.
One business that everyone definitely expects to have declined this quarter, though, is the iPod. Apple CEO Tim Cook has himself said that the iPod is a “declining business” and sales have been dropping ever since 2008.
The bad news for iPod fans is that at least one analyst thinks the iPod business is in such serious decline for Apple that they won’t bother updating the line at all in 2014. But the good news? He thinks the iWatch will replace the iPod.
Another piece of the “when will Apple release the iWatch” puzzle may have fallen in to place, with the news that Apple is actively pursuing the iWatch trademark in dozens of countries around the globe.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Apple if it was that straightforward.
Rather than trademarking the term itself, Apple appears to be using a shell company called Brightflash USA LLC to do the work on its behalf.
The firm is registered in Delaware, and has previously been tied to trademarking efforts by Apple. One indicator of the connection between Apple and Brightflash is that it is using the same IP attorney in several locations.
Back in September, popular Youtuber Lewis Hilsenteger released a hands-on video of what he believed to be the outer shell of the iPad 5. The video exploded on the Internet, and six weeks later when Apple announced the iPad Air, it confirmed the parts were spot-on.
So how does someone get their paws on the parts of one of Apple’s most anticipated gadgets weeks before it’s announced? On this week’s CultCast, Hilsentenger is our guest — and he’s going to tell us exactly how he did it.
Nike is dismantling the hardware team behind its FuelBand fitness tracker, according to a new report from CNET.
The sportswear company, which features Tim Cook on its board of executives, reportedly fired between 70 and 80% of the 70-person hardware team on Thursday.
With so much buzz about the possibility of Apple’s expansion into the wearables sector, it’s no surprise that we’re not exactly short of iWatch concept designs.
The folks behind the universal CircleTime app have added another one to the pile, though — and it’s certainly eye-catching.
“Available” in black and silver, and featuring a 2-inch display with curved anti-scratch glass, full version of iOS, and a Li-ion battery that last seven days before needing to be recharged, HedgeHog’s design is more robust and high quality than some of the other variations out there — even if it does somewhat resemble the heavy duty bracelets worn by He-Man in Masters of the Universe.
Apple has chosen LG as its sole supplier for flexible displays to be used in the iWatch, according to a new report coming out of Korea.
The report suggests that Apple is aiming to sell 9 million iWatch units by the end of 2014, that the device will be launched in September, and that the iWatch will come in two different sizes (1.3 inches and 1.5 inches).
When we think about the iWatch, we tend to think of a little smartphone that you wear on your wrist, or at least a bit of technology, but if the latest reports are anything to go by, Apple’s iWatch play is going to much bigger than that: with the iWatch, Apple intends to do nothing less than conquer the world of fashion, becoming just as synonymous with luxury watches as Rolex. But how?
Are we getting closer to the long-awaited iWatch?
According to a new report, three Apple suppliers have delivered samples of flexible circuit boards for the iWatch — with the device now expected to be unveiled in September.
A new report by Barclay’s chip analyst Blayne Curtis suggests the iWatch could boast an ultraviolet light sensor.
According to Curtis, Texas-based Silicon Labs has come up with “the industry’s first digital ultraviolet index sensors,” which could land the company an iWatch contract.
