Don’t miss out on cheap Apple devices in the post-holiday sales.
You can save a pretty penny on a sweet upgrade, whether you need a new iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or Mac — and we’ll help you get the money you deserve for your old gear.
Cult of Mac typically pays more than other trade-in services for aging Apple gadgets, and we won’t leave you waiting weeks for your cash.
Whether you’re addicted to Twitter, obsessed with Fortnite or wasting the day away on Netflix, you can kill hours on your iPhone without ever doing anything useful or productive.
Instead of mindlessly killing time, Brilliant gives you a way to expand your mind and learn something new every day.
The higher the quality of video gets, the harder it is to make the files work on the variety of devices we use. That’s because all kinds of new formats, codecs and other standards create compatibility issues. Even the sharpest 4K footage ever won’t look its best on your iPhone if it’s not in the right format.
This week on The CultCast: A new report details what’s (probably) next for Apple’s 2019 and 2020 iPhones. Plus: Apple plans Netflix-for-games subscription service (with Alex E. Heath!); it’s not just you, everyone got way more spam calls in 2018. And we talk a new wireless charging brick for iPhone, a smart outlet with HomeKit support, and the super-smart HomeKit thermostat you’ve never heard of, in an all-new Under Review.
Our thanks to Dashlane for supporting this episode. Dashlane is the official password manager of Cult of Mac. It’s so good, even Leander Kahney’s mommy uses it. Use it for free for one device at Dashlane.com/CultofMac.
We’ve seen some terrific discounts on the latest iPad Pro lineup, despite the fact that it hasn’t been out for long, and Amazon’s latest is up there with the best of them. The retail giant has slashed $100 off the 256GB model with cellular connectivity, reducing its price tag to $999.
And that’s just one of the awesome offers in today’s Deals & Steals roundup! We also have refurbished 9.7-inch iPad Pro units for under $300, and $125 off the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE. Plus, you can save up to 46 percent on some of Logitech’s best accessories for iPad and Mac.
Did you ever look at the five-minute intervals on the Calendar app’s time picker and think, “I really wish I could set that appointment at 09:03 and not 09:05”?
No, neither did I (nor did anyone else that isn’t some kind of control-freak psychopath). But that doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Today we’ll see how to tweak the Calendar’s time wheel to show one-minute increments instead of the usual five-minute segments.
iPad shipments grew by double digits last quarter, giving Apple its best holiday period for tablet sales since 2015. Shipments of slates and 2-in-1s had dropped earlier in the year, but analysts correctly predicted this was the result of people holding off for the new iPad Pro.
Some of Apple’s rivals also saw gains at the end of 2018.
Apple seemingly scrapped plans for an iPhone SE 2, but there’s good news for fans of Apple’s 4-inch handset. For the third time this month, Apple is offering brand-new, unlocked models of the iPhone SE for up to $150 off.
The handsets are available in rose gold, gold and silver options on Apple’s clearance webpage. The 32GB models cost just $249 and the 128GB models go for $299.
Compal Electronics will be the primary supplier of the next-generation iPad mini, which is expected to launch sometime this year, according to a new report.
The manufacturer is in the process of expanding production capacity with the expectation of increased shipments and revenues in 2019, despite “clouded” economic prospects.
The average American spends about 13 hours each year dealing with taxes. That’s a lot of work to get money you’ve already earned. For years the options were either fork over money to a tax advisor, or grind through the DIY process. A new app-based solution called Visor offers a third way.
You’ll have to wait longer to get your hands on the very first Mario Kart game for Android and iOS.
Nintendo has confirmed that the launch of Mario Kart Tour has been pushed back to this summer. The much-anticipated title was originally scheduled to arrive by the end of March, but Nintendo says it needs more time to “improve quality of the application.”
It is Nintendo’s second big delay in just one week.
One of the hottest features in macOS Mojave could make the jump to iOS soon: Dark mode is reportedly coming in the update expected this fall.
In addition, iPads running iOS 13 could get significant interface improvements, like better side-by-side multitasking.
Ever looked at your iPad and thought, “I’d love to hold that huge thing up to my ear and make a phone call. I’d look to-ta-lee badass. Now, where’s my cellphone holster?”? Bonus points if you had this thought while looking at a huge 13-inch iPad Pro.
Of course, it might actually be handy to make calls on your iPad, especially as you probably would use AirPods or EarPods to do so. Your iPhone may be charging, or in another room, or maybe you’re there with a number ready to call on your Mac or iPad. Now, the iPad still can’t use its cellular connection to send or receive SMS messages, or make phone calls, but if you have an iPhone nearby you can use it as a bridge to do both. Bonus: This even works with the Wi-Fi-only iPad.
Apple just dealt Facebook a serious blow in retaliation for the social network’s recently pulled VPN app that was paying teens to take all their data from phones.
Facebook’s internal iOS apps no longer work after Apple revoked the certifications need to install the apps on employee’s iPhones. Everything from early builds of Facebook, Messenger and Instagram won’t even open. Even simple tools like a lunch menu are currently broken.
You know the Apple FaceTime bug that everyone’s going crazy about? It’s a huge screwup, for sure, but at least we know it’s just a bug. Being able to call someone and eavesdrop on their conversations without them knowing is clearly a privacy nightmare, which is why Apple disabled Group FaceTime until it can issue a proper fix.
Amazon, on the other hand, offers silent eavesdropping as a feature for its Echo speakers. It’s called Drop In, and if you’ve enabled it, you should probably turn it off.
The internet is chock-full of content worth keeping. Trouble is, not all of it is easy to snag, and speed or bandwidth can be major factors. So who wouldn’t jump at the chance to make almost everything downloadable, and fast?
Starting Friday, Apple Music subscribers can enjoy the service on domestic flights with American Airlines without purchasing Wi-Fi.
Complete access to the service and its more than 50 million songs will be available on flights equipped with Viasat satellite Wi-Fi. American Airlines is the first commercial airline to offer the service.
Not included in the Q4 financial results Apple just announced was the number of iPhone units sold. An analyst firm quickly filled in the gap, estimating that 65.9 million iOS handsets shipped in the last quarter of 2018, down significantly.
This is the first quarterly earnings announcement in which Apple didn’t reveal how many iPhone, Mac, and iPad units it had sold.
Details on an upcoming pair of iPad models are already trickling out, and today came word that these tablets might support an Apple clip-on keyboard. At least one of these models is expected to target the classroom, making the release of a Smart Keyboard for it a very welcome addition.
This change might help Apple regain some of the ground it’s lost in education.
Tim Cook sounded confident about Apple’s future when he got on today’s Q1 2019 earnings call with investors this afternoon. Despite slumping iPhone sales and declining revenues, Cook told investors that his company is being managed for the long-haul instead of short-term gains.
Wall Street is already responding positively to Apple’s earnings report with shares trading up in after-hours trading. The company has 1.4 billion active Apple devices in the world, positioning Apple to continue raking in money as no other company can. However, today’s call revealed some new challenges Apple faces going forward.
Apple unveiled its earnings for Q1 2019 this afternoon and as expected, total revenue came in a lot lower than Apple originally predicted at the end of last year, with iPhone sales dropping 15%.
Thanks mostly to slumping sales in Greater China, Apple posted $84.3 billion in revenue, marking a drop from the $88.3 billion the company pulled in during the same quarter a year ago. Even though iPhone sales are struggling, Apple’s services are bringing in more money than expected, giving investors some good news.
Investors are eagerly waiting to see all the numbers from Apple’s 2018 holiday quarter during today’s earnings call. Based on early reports, some of the numbers might come in even lower than expected.
Gulp.
Apple already warned investors that iPhones sales during Q1 2019 came in lower than expected, mostly thanks to problems in Greater China. Even after lowering revenue guidance, the company still could pull out a few surprises. However, most analysts remain worried that the iPhone sales slump will continue into 2020.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri are set to get on the phone with investors at 2 p.m. Pacific today. Per usual, Cult of Mac will be here live-blogging all the action with up-to-the-minute analysis on all the important numbers.
Come join the fun:
Malicious Siri Shortcuts are a real possibility warns one developer, so users need to start treating all of them as potential threats. He calls on Apple to fix their problems.
Shortcuts debuted last fall in iOS 12. They are small apps that can be used to automate iOS features. That apparently makes them well suited for creating malware.
When Apple unveils its earnings report for last year’s crucial holiday quarter, the entire world will be watching for signs of the company’s long-rumored impending doom.
Several factors will make Tuesday’s Q1 2019 earnings call Apple’s most important in years. Depending on how it goes, it could have an enormous impact on the company’s stock’s performance in 2019 and beyond.
The boss of one of the biggest names in the camera industry says his company cannot compete against the cameras in the iPhone and other smartphones.
Canon CEO Fujio Mitarai says the camera market will shrink by almost 50 percent within the next two years.
To survive, Mitarai says Canon, which produced pioneering autofocus gear popular with professional photographers, will shift its focus to corporate customers in fields like surveillance and medical care.