| Cult of Mac

Apple Music apparently isn’t as ‘intimate’ as Spotify

By

Apple Music brand intimacy
How does Apple Music make you feel?
Photo: Apple

We make choices based on emotion and feelings can change on a whim. The best brands understand this as a science and if bonded closely with its customer base, can successfully influence its purchasing choices.

So the marketing team in charge of Apple Music may want to huddle up after a report on brand intimacy released today saw the music streaming service drop from its No. 1 spot from last year to No. 5.

Instapaper’s new Premium plan goes live on return to Europe

By

Instapaper punishes its European users use
Instapaper Premium unlocks awesome features.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Instapaper has finally returned to Europe following a GDPR blackout, and users can now subscribe to its new Premium plan to unlock additional features.

The service was pulled in the E.U. following the introduction of new data protection regulations, but now it’s fully compliant and ready to do business again. Here’s what you can expect if you upgrade with a Premium subscription.

Instagram now lets you save photos into collections

By

Instagram now has more than 600 million users.
Photos can now be grouped into collections.
Photo: Instagram

Keeping tabs on all your favorite Instagram posts just got a lot easier today, thanks to a new update that adds a new ‘Saved’ section.

Instagram’s new update lets users create Pinterest-like collections based off of posts from other users. However, unlike Pinterest only you can see the collections. For now.

Flipboard, Stagehand, and other awesome apps of the week

By

Awesome Apps
'Appy weekend!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

It’s the weekend, which means that it’s time to ditch all the chores you had planned and instead sit down and try out some of the week’s most significant new apps.

From a tremendous “reverse platformer” to a nifty attempt at revolutionizing your magazines-reading experience, here are the apps and app updates that intrigued us this week.

5 more apps that crush it with 3D Touch

By

Social app bumpn will 3D Touch your heart(s).
Social app bumpn will 3D Touch your heart(s).
Photo: bumpn

As developers race to embrace 3D Touch, more and more third-party apps are utilizing iOS 9’s killer feature to make common tasks faster and easier.

Employed properly, 3D Touch’s Quick Actions lists can put many tasks at your fingertips — assuming you’re using an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, the only models with the hardware to us the new technology. 3D Touch’s new Peek and Pop features also let you preview certain items (Peek), then press deeper if you want to open them (Pop).

With more and more apps adding 3D Touch, developers are clearly hell-bent on creating more stimulating experiences. Here are more third-party apps that are doing big things with 3D Touch.

Pinterest hires former Apple designer Susan Kare

By

Early Apple designer Susan Kare.
Early Apple designer Susan Kare.
Photo: Photo: Ann Rhoney

As part of the original Macintosh team back in the 80s, Susan Kare created some of Apple’s earliest typefaces and icons, but now the famous designer is ready to bring her iconic skills to Pinterest, as the company’s newest design lead.

Tim Cook hobnobs with tech power players in Sun Valley

By

tim-cook-pinterest
Tim Cook and Pinterest's Ben Silbermann

Tim Cook and Eddy Cue were in Sun Valley, Idaho this week for Allen & Co’s annual gathering of the richest and most successful people in media and technology. The gathering includes multiple days of hobnobbing with fellow elites where Cook has become a staple for the past two years.

Last year Apple’s CEO made headlines by telling a reporter to throw her Samsung away. This year Cook was mum when reporters asked him questions, but he was spotted chatting with some of his fellow tech titans, like Microsoft founder Bill Gates: