Top stories - page 595

It’s amazing how many peripherals there are for expanding the functionality of the already very useful iPhone. We’ve rounded up some of the coolest and most affordable iPhone add-ons, from a tripod you can fold up and store in your wallet, to a module to turn your phone into a universal remote, a 32GB storage upgrade and a 3-pack of extra long, MFi-certified Lightning cables. Read on for more details:

Jony Ive’s vision for Apple stores includes plenty of live trees, so who can be surprised that the “Christmas tree” he and BFF Marc Newson designed for a swank British hotel turned out to be a minimalist fir with not a bauble in sight?

Unusual as it is, Ive and Newson’s creation is far from the most offbeat reimagining of festive firs in Claridge’s history. Check out previous Claridge’s Christmas trees, which range from truly ostentatious to totally bizarre.

Sources in Apple’s supply chain have corroborated claims that the company will launch a 10.5-inch iPad in 2017.

The device is thought to be aimed at the enterprise and education sectors, where the 9.7-inch iPad is considered too small and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is too expensive.

Bid goodbye to your free time because Microsoft just brought Solitaire, arguably its greatest creation, to Android and iOS.

The game has been a staple of the Windows operating system for 25 years and boasts 119 million players on Windows 8 and Windows 10 alone. Now it’s jumping to third-party platforms for the first time ever.

My shiny new MacBook Pro finally arrived. What kind of YouTube channel would Cult of Mac be running if we didn’t film a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar unboxing?

In today’s video, I open up my new space gray laptop, fire it up for the first time, and record my first hands-on impressions. Check it out below.

Samsung’s desperate to boost Galaxy S7 sales following the death of the Galaxy Note 7, so it’s turning to Apple (again) for inspiration.

The South Korean company is planning a “glossy black” version of its flagship smartphone that will take on the insanely popular jet black iPhone 7.

Holiday season means travel, and that means putting the ‘mobile’ in your mobile devices to the test. These four accessories will make sure your mobile tech is up to the challenge, from keychain-sized charging cables to gumdrop-sized earbuds, a pocket sized personal battery and a sturdy car mount. With these, all you’ll have left to worry about is avoiding political talk at the dinner table. Read on for more details:

If you watched the most recent Mac media event, you already got a preview of Final Cut X — thanks to the on-stage demo showing how it worked in conjunction with the MacBook Pro’s new Touch Bar. But there’s a whole lot more to the Final Cut Pro 10.3 update than that.

To check out what you’ll find in the latest update for Apple’s video-editing software, check out our comprehensive video below.

The rumored decision to adopt a glass chassis for the next-generation iPhone is reportedly fueled by a desire to improve wireless charging, another key feature supposedly coming to Apple’s 2017 phone.

The report comes from notable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who claims that all 2017-era iPhones will boast the long-awaited wireless charging tech.

If you’re ready to upgrade your iPad this holiday season, make sure you sell your old iPad to us first. Cult of Mac’s Apple gear buyback program can get you more for your outdated and even busted devices than companies like Gazelle, Walmart, Best Buy and even Apple.

We’re also offering a special Black Friday bonus. Just enter “blackfriday” on Cult of Mac’s buyback pagefor $15 extra on every trade-in.

For longer than I have allowed myself to believe, the iPhone has been called a scanner that fits in your pocket. But if I wanted a high-quality copy of an old photograph, I still sought out a flatbed scanner, presuming the results would be superior to taking a picture of a picture with a phone.

But the iPhone camera, as maybe you are tired of hearing, improves with each generation and the so-called scanner apps prove more valuable as a way to copy a photograph for sharing and even printing. One such app is the new Pic Scanner Gold.

Amazon is reportedly looking to bring live sports streaming to Prime subscribers. The retail giant is said to be in talks with a number of major sports organizations like the NBA, MLB, and NFL over rights to show live games.

Dropped some hard-earned coin on a fresh iPhone 7 Plus? Congrats. Now I’m going to help you protect it for less than $25.

In my latest video, I’ll show you my favorite iPhone 7 Plus cases that you can pick up right now at a bargain. Leather, protective. wallet — check out my picks below.

Learning to code is one of the best things you can do in today’s workplace. With such a vast skillset though, it can be hard to know where to start. That makes this bundle of lessons a great resource, with over 150 hours of instruction covering 10 broad topics for beginner and experienced coders alike. Best of all, you can pay what you want for the whole bundle at Cult of Mac Deals.

November 22, 1995: Toy Story, Pixar’s first feature-length movie, lands in theaters. The charming film wows the world with the wonders of computer animation.

The most successful of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs‘ business ventures during his wilderness years away from Cupertino, the box office smash makes his belief in the power of computer graphics pay off in a big way.

How big? A cleverly timed decision to sync the movie opening with Pixar’s public offering turns 40-year-old Jobs into a billionaire.

Apple has started shipping out the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar to customers in the U.K. and the rest of Europe.

Those who places an order before shipping dates slipped started to see their order status change to “preparing for shipment” on Monday, and many are reporting their new machine has now shipped this morning.

Looking to save yourself some cash on Apple’s new MacBook Pro? You could be in luck. The company is teasing a one-day shopping event for Black Friday that could bring tasty discounts on its latest products.

Samsung really dropped the ball with the Galaxy Note 7, but according to a new survey, fans haven’t lost faith in the South Korean company.

In fact, Samsung’s fans are just as loyal as Apple’s, with 91 percent saying they would buy another Samsung smartphone again.

Our iDevices depend on Lightning cables to stay charged and up to date. Unfortunately, those cables are super fragile, prone to fraying and breaking. That makes having backup a must, and this is your opportunity to get three extra-long Lightning cables for less than the price of one. Right now, you can pick up three MFi-certified Lightning cables for $21.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Canadian rap star and Apple fanboy Drake gives us a glimpse at his comical side in the company’s latest Apple Music ad by singing along to Taylor Swift while getting beaten by the bench press.

The ad is part of Apple Music’s ongoing “distractingly good” campaign, which has previously featured Swift herself.

Jony Ive certainly can’t be accused of not applying his minimalist mantra to every aspect of life.

Having previously been announced as the co-designer (with BFF Marc Newson) of the Christmas tree at London’s famous Claridge’s hotel, Ive’s creation was unveiled over the weekend, and — surprise — it’s a plain tree with no decorations, set on a white background.

Really, were we expecting anything different?

When you need extra hard drive capacity for your MacBook, the obvious options aren’t very attractive. Either add a bulky external drive to your computer bag, or go through the inconvenience and steep expense of getting a higher-capacity drive installed.

Nifty MiniDrive offers a third option, an invisible but significant expansion of storage capacity. And right now you can pick up a Nifty MiniDrive adapter for just $32.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

The tech industry appears to be nice and clean, but it has a long and toxic history of environmental damage. Silicon Valley is home to the most Superfund cleanup sites in the country.

A new film, Death by Design, takes a sobering look at the electronics industry and its toxic environmental legacy — both in the United States and in China. The film offers a behind-the-scenes look at the cost of the devices we consume in some measure of ignorance.

Apple features heavily in the film, though it’s not the only tech company implicated.

This week on Kahney’s Korner, I talk to the documentary’s director, Sue Wiliams, about Apple, pollution and Silicon Valley.

If you’ve been looking to add the significant layer of VPN protection to your online life, today’s your lucky day. Hotspot Shield Elite is a top notch VPN provider that’s great for hiding your IP address, browsing securely, bypassing content restrictions, and today an already great discount gets dropped even further. As of today, you can get a lifetime subscription to Hotspot Shield Elite VPN for $39.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

This week on The CultCast: The reviews are in! We’ll tell you what praises and complaints reviewers have about new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. Plus: The one Touch Bar feature you’ll absolutely covet; why the new Designed by Apple in California book is an artifact Apple fans will love; Apple quietly rebuilds a library of its gadgets long past; how to get the best Black Friday deals; and we review the hawt new Mavic Pro drone by DJI, then crash it into a cliff.

Our thanks to Harry’s for supporting this episode. Harry’s super-sharp, German-made razors ship free right to your door and for way less than the drugstore razors. Learn more at Harrys.com and score a free shave set with code CultCast at checkout.