Top stories - page 486

In this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine: The public beta of iOS 12 is out now, so anyone can download it and install it on their device. But what does the new version of iOS actually do? Apple introduced Screen Time, the great new Do Not Disturb, and the powerful Siri Shortcuts at the WWDC 2018 keynote in June. But until you dig into them, you won’t have an idea how great these new features are, along with many more.

You’ll find that story and more in this issue. Get your free subscription to Cult of Mac Magazine from iTunes. Or read on for this week’s top stories.

Weather can be exciting, but checking the weather rarely is. Regardless of what’s going on outside, Carrot Weather makes checking the forecast hilarious and fun. Better than that, Carrot Weather offers an Apple Watch app that is best in class for the platform.

JPMorgan Chase now offers an all-digital bank account. Finn by Chase is for people who prefer to do everything on a phone, as this checking and saving account is only accessible on an iPhone or iPad.

To grab people’s attention, the bank will give $100 to new customers who complete at least 10 qualifying transactions within 60 days of opening the account.

Something is going to happen in the Fortnite game tomorrow. What that will be is a bit of a mystery, but it’s causing a lot of buzz.

Whatever the deal is, it’s happening at 1:30 pm Eastern Time on Saturday. In-game TV screens are showing a countdown clock, and that’s when it hits the zero hour.

You can still buy MacBooks and iPads at new Apple Store in Seattle, but that’s not the main emphasis. Instead, this retail location is built around a giant screen that’s used for educational events.

Of course, these educational events are all product related, like how to take better pictures with an iPhone. Or run a small business with an iPad.

Apple has begun gathering its own data about the U.S. road network, rather than buying this information from other companies. The goal is to significantly improve Apple Maps.

This app was a disaster when it launched 6 years ago, and although there have been significant improvements, it has been the butt of jokes ever since. Apple wants to change that.

Apple’s new iPhone lineup will feature embedded Apple SIM technology alongside an additional SIM card slot, according to a new report.

Users will be able to take advantage of both to juggle two lines simultaneously. In certain markets where Apple SIM is not supported, Apple will offer a device with two SIM card slots.

Few things make a brand pop like top notch visuals. Video or animated elements can make a strong impression, showing that you take quality seriously. But that usually means paying quality prices, or learning to do it yourself.

This week on The CultCast: Apple plans new, improved AirPods, HomePod and over-ear headphones; Apple finally acknowledges its new MacBook keyboards suck, and they’re going to make it right; a top Apple analyst drops a bunch of details on Apple’s 2018 product pipeline; and how Apple is trying to solve a fascinating issue their autonomous car.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to accept Apple Pay and sell your wares with your very own Squarespace website. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first hosting plan or domain.

A groundbreaking ceremony today for a huge Foxconn plant was attended by President Trump. Foxconn is best known for assembling the iPhone, but this plant in the Midwest will produce LCD screens.

Although Apple isn’t directly involved with the production facility, the president still used his speech this morning to applaud the iPhone maker.

For the last few years, Apple has been investigating making autonomous cars, even though this is well outside its core competency of computers and their accessories.

The move leaves many observers scratching their heads, but a pair of analysts put together reasons why self-driving automobiles should be Apple’s next product category.

Most people would agree that Siri is way behind its competitors. But Apple recently made moves that indicate it’s working to improve this voice assistant.

A British survey discovered what smartspeaker owners actually use them for. This could help Apple decide what new features to add to Siri, as well as the ones that need shoring up.

Synth One just launched. It’s a new synth app for the iPad, but it’s also a big deal. Why? Because it is free, open-source, and built by volunteer musicians and programmers. Stay with me here. Synth One isn’t out typical hideous open-source bloatfest of an app. It’s beautifully designed, sounds great, is easy to use, and is above all fun.

A Paris fashion designer, known for quirky clothing and accessories that catch eyes, uses scrap material to keep prying eyes from using webcams to spy.

Arthur Lhermitte makes webcam covers from leather offcut from his patterns. The tiny dots of leather stick to laptop webcams and smartphone cameras with a micro-suction tape that leaves no residue on the lens.

Some believe Facebook is already using our smartphones to hear our private conversations. That’s not true, but the social network is certainly considering it.

Facebook has applied for a new patent that describes a method of tapping into our microphones to listen to our reactions to TV ads. It’s just as invasive as it sounds.

Making the most of your Mac means loading it with the right apps. So we’ve rounded up some of the best deals on productivity and utility apps for Mac. That includes apps for working with PDFs in new ways, capturing streaming video, and more. Everything is massively discounted too, so upping your Mac’s game won’t have to drain your wallet. Read on for more details:

You might soon be able to team up with friends on PlayStation 4 when playing Fortnite on rival consoles.

Sony has finally said that it is exploring the possibilities of a cross-play “solution” that it hopes will make everyone happy. Microsoft and Nintendo are already allowing gamers to play together, regardless of the device they’re using.

Apple’s Sport band is the basic bro of Apple Watch straps. If you want something a little more rugged — and a lot less forgettable — strap on a Tire Tread Sport band from Carterjett. These sturdy silicone bands come in brilliant colors, with extra-large sizes and surprisingly small price tags.

They’re a perfect option for revving up your Apple Watch collection.

Living in America, it’s sometimes easy to forget the FIFA World Cup is going on now in Russia. Soccer isn’t one of the Big Four U.S. sports. Heck, most Americans don’t even call it by the right name.

But the fact that new downloads of the Fox Sports Go app grew 950 percent during the first week of the World Cup shows there are vast numbers of people living in this country watching the matches on their phones or tablets.

The advertising regulatory body in the UK ruled that Apple can say that the  iPhone X takes “studio-quality portraits.”

An ad for this smartphone promised “Radically new cameras with Portrait Lighting. Studio-quality portraits. Without the studio.” However, this brought two complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

Have you ever decided to make dinner, only to find the recipe has gone missing. Sometimes it’s a misplaced notecard, other times, a saved (or pinned) link that is now dead. With Paprika, your favorite recipes are stored digitally, and you’re in control. As someone who cooks nearly every day, Paprika is the best recipe app for chefs of any skill level.

Whether you’re a casual weightlifter or a committed gym rat, workouts are better with music. But if you go hard at the gym, chances are you burn through earbuds like you do calories. Most personal audio devices can’t stand the sweat.

Polish off those Poké Balls and prepare yourself for battle because Pokémon Quest is finally available on Android and iOS.

The new free-to-play game from The Pokémon Company takes us on an all-new adventure across Tumblecube Island with a fresh spin on filling up your Pokédex.

Part of the reason public Wi-Fi is so risky to use is that the security built into this short-range wireless networking standard hasn’t had a significant upgrade since 2004. But that’s about to change.

The Wi-Fi Alliance introduced Wi-Fi CERTIFIED WPA3, the next generation of Wi-Fi security. This adds new features to simplify Wi-Fi security and enable more robust authentication. The enterprise version offers increased cryptographic strength.

Two weeks after the initial — and surprisingly solid — beta of iOS 12, comes the second update. iOS 12 beta 2 has tweaked the operating system in several places, mostly in Screen Time, which was quite sparse in the first round. Let’s take a look at what’s changed.