| Cult of Mac

NBA 2K22 hits the court at Apple Arcade

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Apple Arcade going big with ‘NBA 2K22’ and ‘Transformers: Tactical Arena’
Play some serious basketball with NBA 2K22.
Photo: 2K/Apple Arcade

Basketball season kicks off Tuesday and that brings the launch of NBA 2K22 Arcade Edition on Apple Arcade. It promises authentic action starring top players. And also a new mode that lets you run your own NBA franchise.

The just-launched game is exclusive to Apple’s gaming service. There are versions for Mac, iPhone and other Apple platforms.

NBA teams up with Apple Music to showcase emerging hip-hop artists

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BASELINE
BASE:LINE keeps you plugged into up-and-coming hip-hop artists.
Photo: Apple

Apple is deepening its partnership with the NBA by teaming up to launch a global playlist on Apple Music to highlight independent hip-hop artists.

The new playlist, dubbed “BASE:LINE” (get it? Cause there’s a baseline in rap songs and on the basketball court), will be curated by Apple Music’s director of hip-hop and R&B Ebro Darden. New artists and songs will be added to the playlist every Thursday with the first edition being made available today.

Apple’s ‘Sports Ball’ team could change the way you watch games

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Eddy Cue had the best seats in the house to watch the Warrior's comeback.
Eddy Cue is one of the biggest sports fans at Apple.
Photo: SF Chronicle/Twitter

Apple appears to be planning to become a bigger influence in the world of watching sports as it prepares to announce its TV streaming service next week.

The iPhone-maker invited Sports Illustrated inside its geeky “Sports Ball Room” where a team of employees track pretty much every major and minor sports game in progress. While competitors like Facebook and Amazon are pursuing exclusive rights to air certain games, Apple is taking a different approach. It wants to curate all the must-see moments and alert subscribers when they’re happening.

6 ways to stream NBA games on Apple devices

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Find out how to stream every NBA game on your iPhone, iPad or Apple TV.
Find out how to stream every NBA game on your iPhone, iPad or Apple TV.
Photo: tommy bebo/Unsplash CC

By Chris Brantner

With the NBA season’s arrival, it’s time to figure out how to watch your favorite teams. Whether you subscribe to cable or you’ve cut the cord, there are plenty of ways to watch pro basketball on your favorite Apple device.

You can opt to watch on Apple TV or you can choose a mobile device. Luckily, most cable apps and other streaming services work pretty much the same way. As long as you know the network the game is on and the time, it’s just a matter of pulling it up and rooting for your favorite team.

Nike’s iPhone-connected smart jerseys keep NBA fans connected

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Nike
The NBA and Nike introduce the Connected Jersey for fans.
Photo: NBA video

The NBA held a glitzy press event last week in Los Angeles to show off new team apparel for the upcoming basketball season. The star wasn’t the retooled jersey designs from Nike, hooded warmup jacket or even any of the 30 players who showed up to model.

It was the tag.

The Nike NBA Connected Jersey will cost fans $200 but inside the tag is a near field communication chip that connects to an iPhone app so that the wearer can have an “all-access pass” to content featuring their favorite players and teams.

Likewise, advertisers could also have unique access to pitching their products.

Watch iPad Pro artist bring NBA stars to life using Apple Pencil

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“Vector Art Monster” Rob Zilla uses an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil to draw NBA stars.
“Vector Art Monster” Rob Zilla uses an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil to draw NBA stars.
Photo: Apple

The NBA playoffs are set to tip off this weekend where the biggest names in the sport will clash for a shot at hoisting the Larry O’Brien NBA Championship Trophy.

This season has been one of the best in recent memory, so to celebrate, Apple brought in renowned digital sketch artist Robert Generette III, aka Rob Zilla, to show how he uses the iPad Pro to create lifelike sketches of the league’s superstars.

Check out his incredible drawing process:

Twitter’s Apple TV app lets you watch NFL games for free

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Are you ready for some football on Twitter?
Are you ready for some football on Twitter?
Photo: Twitter

Watching the NFL’s Thursday Night Football games this season will no longer require a cable subscription, as long as you got Apple TV.

Twitter revealed that it’s taking a big dive into video content today with its new app for Apple TV that will offer free live streaming of tons of sports other than football.

How LeBron and Cavs channeled Steve Jobs to beat Warriors

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Eddy Cue isn't cheering for Lebron this year.
LeBron took some advice from Eddy Cue's boss this year.
Photo: USA Today

The Cleveland Cavaliers pulled off one of the most improbable comebacks in NBA history on Sunday when they came back to beat the Golden State Warriors — Apple’s favorite team — in the NBA Finals and Steve Jobs was part of the reason why.

LeBron James had to dig deep for inspiration when the Cavs lost the first two games of the NBA Finals. After spending the weekend watching old Muhammad Ali fight, James reportedly realized his team needed something they could connect to to make them believe the series wasn’t over. So before Game 3, James gathered his teammates and played a portion of Steve Jobs’ infamous Stanford Univeristy commencement address from 2005.