Now that the Apple Watch is out in the wild, we’re starting to see teardowns of its internals. iFixit has shown us the Taptic Engine, Digital Crown and tiny battery, but it wasn’t able to pry open the little computer that runs the entire device, the S1.
It turns out that the Watch’s system-on-a-chip is truly the feat of engineering Apple made it out to be. It also reveals a couple of tidbits about the Apple Watch we didn’t know yet, like that it packs the same amount of RAM as the iPhone 4.
All that remains of the original Thomas Edison invention is the socket fitting. That and it still only takes one person to screw in the light bulb.
The rest of the ilumi smart bulb, which is slowly lighting the way to smart home and office living around the world, would be unrecognizable to Edison or any of the other early inventors of incandescent bulbs.
It is too soon to know whether the names Corey Egan, Swapnil Bora and their company ilumi Solutions will assume a place on the list of lighting pioneers with their smartphone-controlled LED lights. But with a growing list of patents, financing from a certain well-known “Shark” and a steady stream of orders, the David-like startup is holding its own against bulb big shots like GE and Phillips.
Worldwide tablet sales may be falling, but according to figures from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, the iPad is still leading the product category when it comes to sales — despite five consecutive quarters of negative annual shipment growth.
Yay! We guess…
Richard Ryan is friendly and easy-going — even when he’s behind a 50-caliber rifle, violently shredding an iPhone, iPad or, this week, the new Apple Watch.
Every neighborhood had that one kid who liked to build a model only to blow it up. Ryan, 33, is that kid, except with more firepower and a slow-motion camera. He delights in “blowouts,” meaning when a round completely shatters a device, and likes to admire the “peel back,” the path a bullet travels through a device’s metal casing.
“Very little, if any, practical knowledge comes out of this,” Ryan told Cult of Mac before shooting an episode where he tested the Apple Watch while skydiving in a wingsuit. “It goes back to that kid smashing that thing he just bought as soon as he gets outside the store. Yes, there is a cringeworthy feeling you get watching that device you and I both want get destroyed. But there is a visual payoff with the slow-mo. It’s entertainment.”
Apple is teaming with IBM and Japan Post on a pilot scheme that will hand up to 5 million iPads out to elderly people in Japan by 2020, to help them keep in touch with their families, physicians and community.
In addition to existing iPad apps like FaceTime and Messages, the tablets will come loaded with custom IBM apps designed to help remind senior citizens to take their medication, exercise regularly, and maintain a healthy diet, while also allowing direct access to community support services such as grocery shopping.
Mobile cinema today is a Netflix movie streamed on your smartphone. But movie history is full of fearless and devoted projectionists traveling to bring moving pictures to remote communities.
A piece of that history, an actual mobile cinema on wheels, is now for sale in Great Britain.
A fleet of seven government buses toured the country during the 1960s, bringing industrial films to companies to promote efficiency and modern production techniques. One survived the scrap heap, was restored and is now on eBay for about $184,000.
We’re likely only a couple of months away from the first developer previews of iOS 9, but iOS 8 adoption continues to creepy steadily northwards.
According to Apple’s in-house stats — measured by visits to the App Store on April 27 — 81 percent of eligible iOS devices have now upgraded to Apple’s latest mobile OS. That’s up 2 percent from the last time Apple released its numbers.
Most of us can agree that selfie sticks are pretty much the bane of humanity, right? Heck, even Apple agrees: Cupertino already threw down a decree from on high that selfie sticks are not welcome at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference.
But while I admit to thinking the selfie stick pretty much represented the nadir of civilization and the beginning of the end for humanity, I spoke too soon.
It’s nothing compared to this monstrosity: the Selfie Arm.
Some people just won’t let go, will they?
Still upset about Apple’s much-maligned U2 album giveaway last year, Russian politician Alexander Starovoitov has come up with a new complaint we’ve not heard before: That by gifting Songs of Innocence to millions of iTunes customers around the world, Apple was knowingly distributing gay pornography.
If found guilty, Apple could be forced to cease operations in Russia for 90 days, or pay 1 million roubles in fines.
The new MacBook has been out for a couple of weeks, and OS X apps are starting to take advantage of its Force Touch trackpad.
Pixelmator, a popular photo editor and Photoshop alternative on the Mac, is an early example of how third-party developers are utilizing Force Touch. The app recently added support for the pressure sensitive trackpad along with a number of other improvements.
When Apple picked up Beats, they got a music service along with the headphone hardware and executive talents of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine.
It looks like Apple has just upped its game, internally, in creating a Spotify-killer: Cupertino has just picked up four producers from BBC Radio 1, including key talent from hot radio property “BBC Introducing.”
The man who lead the creation of iOS may have found his next calling in an unlikely place: Broadway.
Scott Forstall, a veteran Apple executive who was famously ousted in 2012, has been co-producing a hit musical that’s already doing very well for itself.
The Apple Watch has been in short supply ever since its hype-filled launch, and a new report claims that it’s all the Taptic Engine’s fault.
Defects in the key Apple Watch component were found in the Apple’s supply chain, severely limiting early supplies of the wearable, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Apple poached talent from fashion brands leading up to the Apple Watch launch, but the tables turned this week as Donna Karan International revealed it has sniped some talent from the tech giant.
Casey Neistat showed us a brilliant way to turn your cheapo Apple Watch into a luxurious gold Edition, but if you’d like to make your fake Edition look just like the real thing, you can now get it gold plated for a fraction of the cost of Katy Perry’s.
Microsoft has gone from shunning Apple products to making the world’s best iOS apps quicker than Jony Ive can say aluminum. This morning at the company’s Build conference for developers, Microsoft revealed its plan to make you fall back in love with Office: Extensions.
Spotlight can do a lot of things, but did you know that it can search hashtags on Twitter?
The feature, which many are just now discovering, could be only the beginning of how Apple and Twitter will work together in the future.
As Apple prepares to relaunch Beats Music at WWDC, another tech giant is throwing its name in the music ring: Instagram, which has just launched a new @Music account designed to capitalize on its popularity among music fans.
The newly-opened account will share music-related photos, lyrics, and videos, relating to both established artists and new acts you haven’t heard of.
Chris Hawker does his best thinking when he sees someone doing something awkward. Watching people struggle with everyday tools guides the designer to invent things that solve everyday problems, from peeling a cucumber to powering our growing number of electronic devices.
So when Hawker found himself in an uncomfortable stretch between his couch and the nearest outlet, trying to charge his phone and talk on it at the same time, he wished for a plug-in near his leg.
Hawker came up with Couchlet, a thin, dual-USB port that tucks in between couch cushions or wedges beneath a mattress. On Indiegogo for just three days, the Couchlet attracted more than 1,600 funders and surpassed a $30,000 goal.
The Apple Watch is such a stunningly gorgeous piece of engineering that throwing it down on your nightstand at the end of a hard day — as if it were a common-as-dirt Android Wear device — is borderline insulting.
What you need is an equally attractive charging stand to proudly display your new wearable as it’s refreshed for the following day.
But which one to choose? Follow Cult of Mac’s suggestions and you’ll be keeping your Watch battery fully-juiced in style.
Several dozen American Airlines flights were delayed overnight, after the pilots’ iPads — used for providing information to flight crews — failed prior to takeoff, leaving pilots without a flight plan.
Most early reviews of the Apple Watch didn’t do it justice. It’s fine, they said, but not for everybody.
Come on! COME ON!!!!
The Apple Watch is the most exciting gadget for years. Its ambition is huge. It does a ton of stuff. It’s not some silly smartwatch — it’s a computer for your wrist. And I’m loving it.
Yeah, it has its quirks, and it’s far from perfect, but it’s a great vision, and it’s only going to get better!
It’s a ton of fun, and it works great — except when it doesn’t.
More Apple Watch owners with wrist tattoos are reporting problems using the device. The light sensors that enable the Watch to determine if it’s being worn apparently get confused by tattooed skin.
The problem — let’s call it “Tattoogate” — is possibly the result of metallic pigments used for the inking process, although nobody knows for sure. While the glitch affects only a small number of users, it’s definitely mauling the buzz of some frustrated Apple Watch early adopters.
Cult of Mac reader Michael Lovell spoke with us about his disappointing experiences with the Apple Watch, and even sent in a video demonstrating the problem. Check it out below!
A “test model” iPad was stolen in a home robbery earlier this month along with other valuables. Suspects have been arrested, but the stolen goods have not been found.
Getting direction from a computer sucks, but that could soon change based on a new patent filed by Apple for “Humanized Navigation Instructions for Mapping Applications.
Rather than receiving instructions from an emotion-less robot, Apple’s new patent would make Siri’s turn-by-turn directions sound more like they’re coming from your buddy in the passenger seat by mixing in references to restaurants and landmarks.
Here’s some examples you might here, instead of just being told “in 500 feet, turn right”: