The Japanese Apple Store in Tokyo’s upmarket Ginza district had to be evacuated and a promotional event canceled over the weekend after it received a bomb threat.
If you're appy and you know it, check our list! Photo: Cult of Mac
From a photography app with a difference to a math training app with human curation and a fantastic classic iOS puzzle game going free, we’ve sifted through this week’s most exciting apps to bring you the ones you absolutely need to download now.
Check out our picks below. Trust us, this is the way you want to spend Sunday!
iTunes Match will expand to 100,000 songs by year end soon. Photo: Apple
Back in June, Apple’s Eddy Cue promised that iTunes Match – Apple’s song matching service that syncs local music files to the iCloud for streaming anytime – would soon phase out its 25,000 track limit in favor of 100,000 tracks.
Sadly, we haven’t heard anything more about that since. But Apple might now be soft-launching the higher 100,000 track limit.
If you’re a Verizon customer who wants to be able to make Wi-Fi calls on your Android or iPhone like your brethren over at Ma Bell, you’ll soon be able to. But if you’re on an iPhone, you’ll have to wait until 2016.
Just how did those Apple whiz kids get so darn creative? Photo: Library of Congress
Though Apple spends far less on research and development than the competition, they out-innovate them all. How? Catch the discussion on this episode of The CultCast. Plus: iPhone 7 may ditch the beloved headphone jack; Amazon Video is coming to Apple TV; the holiday accessory that could be eroding your WiFi signal; and with the year drawing to a close, we choose we our favorite Apple device of 2015!
Our thanks to Lynda for supporting this episode. Lynda is like the Apple Music of online education, with over 3000 expert-taught video courses you can stream straight to computer or mobile device. Learn how to use Logic’s new super powerful Alchemy synth, or develop Mac apps for OS X—learn all you want for free for 10 days at lynda.com/cultcast.
Apple is getting rid of your data next month. Photo: Apple
If you’re still subscribed to Beats Music instead of Apple Music, your days are numbered. Until January 19, you have the opportunity to save all of your playlists and migrate your account data over to Apple Music if you wish to do so. But after that, Apple will discard of your current data.
This is where future Apple products will be revealed. Photo: Duncan Sinfield/Youtube
Drone footage of the progress being made on Apple Campus 2 has given us our first look at the underground auditorium where Apple will unveil all of its magical new products in the future.
The new auditorium won’t be visible once construction is complete, but thanks to Duncan Sinfield’s latest 4K aerial footage of the project, we can see how huge the new auditorium will be once Apple finally moves in.
Apple could be about to kill another technology. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Apple has famously killed popular technologies when it believes they’re past their best — and it could be gearing up to kill one more. According to recent rumors, next year’s iPhone 7 will ship without the 3.5mm headphone jack in favor of a thinner form factor.
Understandably, a lot of fans are unhappy about that prospect, which would mean all our existing headphones wouldn’t be compatible with the next iPhone — at least not without a (pricey) adapter. But could it be a move that pays off in the long run? Are there pros that outweigh the cons?
Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over these questions and more!
LucidCam hopes to turn the novelty of Virtual Reality into an affordable reality for the average consumer. Photo: LucidCam
Han Jin was looking through the eyes of the robot and could see the future. But the story doesn’t end well for the robot.
Jin’s view, with his colleagues’ support, put robot building on hold. The team changed direction, using the robot’s seeing mechanism to develop a Virtual Reality camera that could be put in the hands of regular folks.
Trump would love to see Apple move operations back to the U.S. Photo: Michael Vadon/Flickr CC
Donald Trump has said that his “real dream” is for Apple, along with other U.S. companies, to bring their manufacturing back to the United States.
Trump made the comments during an interview to promote his new book, Crippled America. “We think of Apple as an American company,” Trump said. “But they make their product in China. And they have offices here, but China makes more money with Apple than we do, if you think about it.”
Apple Watch continues to grow, while Samsung drops off the top five list. Photo: AppleApple Watch continues to grow, while Samsung drops off the top five list. Photo: Apple
The Apple Watch continues to go from strength to strength, while Samsung’s own wearable devices are eclipsed by new arrivals, according to new figures released by International Data Corporation (IDC).
Cult of Mac as it appeared on IE for Mac 5.1.7 in 2007. Look at how cute Leander was back then! Photo: Cult of Mac
Does your browser feel slow? Hate modern web design? Boy, have you got it lucky. Web browsers used to be infinitely worse. And so did web pages.
Don’t believe me? Here’s an emulator that allows you to surf websites from up to a couple decades ago, using old browsers like Safari 3.2.3 on Windows, IE 4.0.1 on Mac, or Netscape Navigator 3.0.4, also on Mac.
So much green screen you might think George Lucas was working for Apple. Photo: Cult of Mac
Some Mac users are complaining about a flaw in OS X El Capitan where, on certain machines, a green screen appears when they try to view large photos in Preview.
The next 4-inch iPhone might be the iPhone 7c, not 6c? Photo: MIC Gadget
This may not be worth much more than the pixels it’s written on, especially since usually accurate analyst Ming-ChiKuo says it’s coming early next year, but a new rumor out of China says the next 4-inch iPhone won’t be the iPhone 6c… it’ll be the iPhone 7c.
Apple's special offer is trying to raise Apple Music and Beats sales. Photo: Apple
Apple is trying to boost sales of its Beats by Dre accessories going into the holiday season by offering $60 Apple Music/iTunes Gift Card vouchers for a variety of headphones and speakers.
A look at Rocky's ruined iPhone 6 Plus. Photo: Channel Two Action News
A man in Atlanta claims he was forced to strip in public after his iPhone 6 Plus caught fire while in the front pocket of his jeans.
“I mean, it was pretty humiliating having to take your pants off in a parking lot,” he told the local Channel Two Action News, asking them to withhold his identity, other than his first name of Rocky.
Apple will finally get its hands on Samsung's sweet, sweet cash. Photo: Cult of MacApple will finally get its hands on this sweet, sweet cash. Photo: Cult of Mac
Following quite literally years of appeals and retrials, Samsung is finally paying Apple the $548,176,477 it owes for infringing on patents owned by the Cupertino company.
Four months before the fifth anniversary of the original complaint, Apple will receive the money from Samsung by December 14 — with Apple and Samsung filing a joint case management statement with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, stating that Samsung, “has made arrangements to complete payment to Apple.”
The countdown to the next Apple TV has already begun. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
The new, fourth generation Apple TV is still settling into its home next to our television sets, but already Apple is hard at work on its successor, according to a new report.
Apple’s suppliers are said to be putting a limited number of the new Apple TV into limited, small-scale “trial” production, ahead of volume production beginning early in 2016.
"Hey, Siri: Erase Iron Man 2 from existence." Photo: Apple
In a brand-new iPhone 6s ad, director Jon Favreau (Iron Man) looks to Siri for help in his directorial duties.
The spot, called “iPhone 6s – On the Set,” has the director trying to explain to some actors (presumably on his upcoming live action-ish adaptation of The Jungle Book) the finer points of playing flying squirrels.
Like this, but you’re wearing a big thing on your face.
Google has unleashed a free app that will let anyone with an Android phone take panoramic videos and record sound. Later, you’ll be able to use your virtual-reality headset of choice to relive those moments in 3-D.
The app is called Cardboard Camera, after Google’s own build-it-yourself VR goggles, and it’s available now in the Google Play app store.
A painting by artist Jorge Pardo is taking work away from bull-slinging gallery explainers.
The piece, which is currently showing at Art Basel in Miami, depicts an impressionist version of the artist on a slide at a water park. It comes from a photograph his daughter took and looks really cool, but that’s not the most interesting part of the work.
That honor belongs to the iPad set into the lower-right corner of the piece that can let anyone who walks by connect to Pardo via Skype.
The STACK PACK takes the cord out of charging your iPhone. Photo: STACKED
We are wireless, but not quite wire-free. One company wants to help iPhone users cut a couple of cords with a magnetic charging solution called the STACK PACK.
It’s all capital letters for a product that sounds more like workout vitamins. The STACK PACK promises to pack just as much power as that soon-to-be obsolete charging cord — except with shorter charging times and a satisfying feeling as your iPhone magnetically clicks onto a battery or charger.
Get ready to illuminate your Apple logo. Photo: David Cogen
We love seeing Apple’s glowing logo every time a MacBook lid opens, so wouldn’t it be awesome to have the same feature on your iPhone?
Making your iPhone 6 stand out in a sea of other iPhones is now a whole lot easier, thanks to an inexpensive new LED logo kit that brings an illuminated Apple logo to the back of your device. The hack is reversible and supposedly won’t drain your battery — but it might void your warranty.
Will the iPhone 6c be a flop like the 5c? Photo: Gadgetmac/Flickr
The upcoming 4-inch iPhone that has been picking up steam in the rumor mill the last few weeks won’t be a weakling when it comes to processing power, according to a new report that claims Apple’s new A9 chip will power the device.
Apple expert Ming-Chi Kuo at KGI Securities told investors today that his sources indicate the iPhone 6c is definitely real, and that it will look more like the iPhone 5s than an iPhone 6.