3-D sensors could let face-recognition replace Touch ID on the iPhone 8. Photo: Carlos R/Pexels CC
The iPhone 8 might ditch Touch ID for 3-D facial scanning that could prove faster, easier and more secure than the fingerprint reader currently used for logins and payments.
The new security system, if perfected in time for the upcoming iPhone 8, also could help Apple get around a possible bottleneck in the production process.
Nebo is the best Notes app and not in beta. And maybe even then. Photo: Cult of Mac
Nebo is an alternative to Apple’s upcoming iOS 11 Notes app. Like the Apple app, Nebo lets you use the Apple Pencil to draw and write in notes. It also recognizes the words you write and lets you search on those terms. Unlike the native Notes app, however, Nebo also converts your longhand scrawls into actual, editable text, which can be copied and pasted anywhere.
In fact, I used Nebo to write this entire article. My handwriting isn’t as fast as my typing any more (my hand still hurts), but the app is fantastic.
Apple is already driving an OLED boom. Photo: iDropNews
iPhone 8 will drive mass adoption of OLED displays as rival smartphone makers fight to compete with Apple, new research shows.
Rumors have already accelerated the development of new displays for other brands, and it’s thought that 50 percent of all handsets will feature an OLED display by 2020.
These three courses will certify you in Adobe's 3 graphic design powerhouse apps. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Learning new skills is the key to getting more rewarding work, however you define that. But learning new skills is one thing — getting certified in them is another.
None of the above, claims well-respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In a list of predictions he’s made for the next iPhone, Kuo claims Apple will skip Touch ID altogether for its next-gen handset. And that’s not the only surprise!
Future iPhone displays could all be made by LG. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple could make a significant investment in LG Display’s new OLED production facility to ensure exclusive supply for future iPhones, according to a new report.
The company is said to be considering a 2 trillion to 3 trillion won (approx. $1.75 billion to $2.62 billion) deal, and a final decision is expected later this month.
This week's best deals include three top shelf audio upgrades and lessons in one of the office's most-used applications. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Here’s hoping everybody’s summer is rolling along nicely. This week at the Cult of Mac Store, we’ve got three personal audio upgrades that can help dial in the summer vibes. Because some people are still thinking about their work, we’ve also got a pair of courses in Excel. That’s a skill that looks good on any resume. Everything is available at a major discount – read on for more details:
Get behind-the-scenes stories from the quest to create a world-changing gadget. Image: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
It’s hard to put into words the iPhone’s massive impact on society over the past decade. But we tried! In this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine, we’ve rounded up our best coverage (including stories from our collaboration with Wired UK) of the iPhone’s 10th anniversary.
We’ve got insider stories about the development of breakthrough iPhone features, ultra-rare iPhone prototypes and much more for your reading pleasure. Get your free subscription to Cult of Mac Magazine from iTunes. Or read on for this week’s top stories.
Dina Alfasi finds intrigue and beauty in her fellow commuters. Photo: Dina Alfasi
Dina Alfasi sat across from a slim man on a bus who looked to her as though he was levitating and traveling someplace magical. With her iPhone, she made a picture.
What she captured was magic — and the picture made its own journey this week by getting published all over the world as one of the year’s best photos shot with an iPhone.
This simple app lets you watch your favorite streaming videos offline. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
When it comes to videos, the internet is like Scrooge McDuck’s vault: Full of endless riches to swim through. But with streaming video, no internet connection means being stuck with whatever’s on your hard drive.
Though Steve played it cool, the iPhone's launch was plagued with huge problems.
This week on The CultCast: You’d never know it from Steve Jobs’ effortless keynote introduction, but the original iPhone was plagued with huge design and production issues that almost made Apple call it quits — right up until the day it was released! To commemorate the iPhone’s 10th anniversary, we’ll recount some of the incredible stories behind iPhone’s beleaguered early days, and celebrate how Apple pulled off one of the greatest device launches in history.
Our thanks to Shutterstock for supporting this episode. Kickstart your next interactive project with video clips or music tracks from their collection, and save 20 percent for a limited time at shutterstock.com/cultcast.
Fire up your Apple gear and get ready to stream the Tour de France. Photo: Tookapic/Pexels CC
By Chris Brantner
The Tour de France is the premier cycling race in the world. Anyone can enjoy watching the event as the cyclists put themselves through one of the most grueling physical tests in all of sports. If you want to watch during the three-week race, you can easily stream the Tour de France on Apple devices, with or without cable.
The Tour de France starts Saturday, July 1, and finishes on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Sunday, July 23. Throughout the race, NBCSN will air live coverage on a daily basis. Thankfully, there are some great ways for you to stream the race on any of your Apple devices.
Making screen-capture videos in iOS 11 is easy, and turning them into GIFs is even easier. Photo: Cult of Mac
Thanks to the new screen-recording feature in iOS 11, you can now make a video of whatever you’re doing on your iDevice, and share it. I use this for how-tos (although ironically, not this one), developers can use it to make videos of their apps for the App Atore (the new iOS 11 App Store features videos quite prominently), and regular folks can use it to record a snippet of a YouTube video or suchlike. But what if you prefer to share your optimized video as a huge, bandwidth-hogging GIF instead?
Is Apple's design team losing its way? Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple is famous for its iconic designs, but is the company slowly losing its way?
Products like the Apple Pencil and Smart Battery Case suggest that Apple’s design team might be missing a certain spark. Even the iPhone, once the prettiest smartphone by a long shot, is now being outshone by rivals from the likes of Samsung and LG.
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we battle it out over whether Apple design has become lazy and boring. And be sure to have your say!
NetSpot lets you create a 'heat map' of your Wi-Fi connections, along with tools for fixing the weak spots. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
Because we live and work on Wi-Fi, we notice right away when the signal goes weak. Even though wireless signals are invisible, it’s amazing how sensitive we can become to where the blind spots are.
Slide-to-unlock is one of the iconic gestures of the iPhone. It looks simple, but it was tricky to get right. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
This an excerpt from Unsung Apple Hero, an e-book about UI designer Bas Ording’s career at Apple. Ording is responsible for a big chunk of today’s computing interfaces, but is little-known because of Apple’s super-strict privacy policies. Hit the link at the bottom of this post to get a free copy of the e-book.
One of the key design decisions that Apple’s Human Interface Team made early on while developing the iPhone was to go all in on big, simple gestures. They wanted to make a single, simple swipe accomplish as much as possible.
It’s a bit ironic. After investing so much in multitouch technology, which relies on multiple touch inputs, one of Apple’s key edicts was to make as many gestures as possible work with a single finger.
Will a future iPhone replace your Apple Watch? Photo: ConceptsiPhone
The iPhone’s success has been nothing short of spectacular. With more than 1 billion units sold as of June 2016, rival consumer electronics companies can only dream of building a product that popular.
It’s not easy to foresee how the iPhone will evolve in the future. Some things are obvious — like faster processors, more advanced cameras, and even better displays — but we must look beyond these to get a sense of Apple’s biggest ambitions. Here’s some of the many ways the iPhone might get better, stronger and faster in the next 10 years.
It's ugly, but it's a step forward. Photo: Benjamin Geskin
An alleged iPhone 8 prototype with a significantly larger display and slimmer bezels has made its way into the wild. Although it almost certainly doesn’t carry the handset’s final design, it’s still surprisingly ugly for an Apple device.
Mixing tech and housework should always be this easy. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Housework is by far my least favorite thing to do. So when I was recently asked to do a bit more around the house, I started thinking: Could I mix my love of tech with housework?
Thankfully there are tons of products, but the one that caught my eye was the Aircraft Pilot Max — a robot vacuum to take the effort out of my most hated chore. Its features, build quality and convenience make it a dirt-busting dream machine. Check out my video review, along with a full write-up below.
Photographer Joe Cunningham still thinks his original iPhone is the best. Photo: Joe Cunningham
The iPhone has changed enormously in the 10 years since it launched, but some people still think the first iPhone was the best.
Take, for instance, Minnesota photographer Joe Cunningham, who owns not one but two of Apple’s breakthrough smartphones. He doesn’t view them as investments, either. Even though the original iPhone goes for big bucks on eBay these days, Cunningham continues to use both handsets on a daily basis.
Instrumental founder and CEO Anna Katrina Shedletsky, who is using her experience as an Apple product design engineer to bring AI to manufacturing. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
Almost all electronic products are still assembled by hand, even hundreds of millions of iPhones.
At the forefront of this is an ex-Apple product design engineer, Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, who is using her expertise to help other manufacturers build their products.
On this episode of the Apple Chat podcast, we talk to Shedletsky about her new AI startup, Instrumental; Apple’s giant manufacturing operation; the role of product design; and much more.
If you’re curious how Apple makes its products, listen to the podcast or check out the full transcript below.
What does Tony Fadell, "godfather" of the iPod, think of the iPhone? Photo: Nest
Over the past decade, the iPhone has changed pretty much everything, from communication and gaming to the way in which we consume news and pay for our groceries. But how has the device impacted the lives of tech titans?
Find out from Eben Upton, creator of Raspberry Pi; Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia; Tony Fadell, founder of Nest and “godfather” of the iPod, and more.
Members of the original iPhone development team, Greg Christie, Bas Ording and Brian Huppi talking to journalist Brian Merchant. Photo: Lyle Kahney/Cult of Mac
PALO ALTO, California — The first iPhone “prototype” was strung together using bits of wood, duct tape and some old Polaroid lenses.
Key members of the Apple team reminisced about those early DIY efforts Wednesday night during a discussion led by Brian Merchant, author of The One Device, a new book about the birth of the iPhone.
“This thing was really kludged together,” said Brian Huppi, a former Apple engineer who helped build the first system. “It was built out of wood, duct tape and old lenses from the ’60s.”
These prototypes show some of the early steps Apple took in developing the revolutionary iPhone. Photo: Hap Plain
Apple collector Hap Plain can observe the iPhone’s 10th anniversary today by powering up two extremely rare iPhone prototypes — and you can see them in action, too.
The prototypes, which likely passed through the hands of Apple execs including Steve Jobs, Tony Fadell and Scott Forstall, offer a unique glimpse at iPhone development. You can see Plain fire them up in the video below, the latest entry in Cult of Mac’s collaboration with Wired UK to recap a decade of the iPhone.