This week we make music on our iPhones, create drums on our Macs, travel through history with action-packed Solitaire Time Warp, and enhance images.
Even if you’re a die-hard Apple fan, there’s still plenty you most likely don’t know about the company’s most popular product. Get ready to wow all of your Apple-loving in-laws over the holidays with 10 things you (probably) don’t know about the iPhone.
Beyond the iPhone trivia, we’ve got a bumper crop of Apple tips and how-tos in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Things like how to find AirPods Pro in time for Christmas, how to add music to your Mac in a post-iTunes world and more. Download your free issue now to enjoy it on your iPad, or read the stories in any browser below.
Apple Shortcuts are an easy and powerful tool to automate actions on iOS devices. A new ‘how-to’ from the people at Take Control Books walks users through setting up and building customized shortcuts with step-by-step ‘recipes’.
Lego’s latest Apple Arcade entry builds an atmospheric puzzler brick by brick. Lego Builder’s Journey is “a story about play, connections and adventure.”
It’s available only to those who subscribe to Apple’s gaming service.
Elcomsoft claims its iOS Forensic Toolkit can now extract certain pieces of data from an iOS device before it has been unlocked.
Almost all of the data stored on an iPhone or iPad is securely encrypted after a reboot or restart — until a passcode has been entered. But the little bit that isn’t, which includes keychain records, can now be obtained.
As your loved ones gather for the holidays, have some family fun with Apple Arcade. A new video shows off games that can be enjoyed no matter your age.
Watch it now:
Even if you’re a die-hard Apple fan, there’s still plenty you most likely don’t know about the company’s most popular product. And, whether you want to wow your Apple-loving in-laws over the holidays or just feel the need to fill your brain with some iPhone facts, we’ve got you covered.
Here are 10 things you (probably) don’t know about the iPhone.
The iPhone might still be Apple’s biggest product by a wide margin, but the AirPods have a good claim to being Cupertino’s MVP of the year.
Accord to Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi, Apple sold $6 billion worth of AirPods in 2019. And it could sell more than double that number in 2020.
You can order Apple’s all-new Mac Pro with a whopping 8TB of storage.
Just like every other Mac Pro upgrade, however, it isn’t cheap. Maxing out your SSD space will cost you more than a high-end iMac with Retina 5K display — or even a brand-new 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Apple is building a larger research group to investigate ways to transmit data directly to iPhones and other devices, Bloomberg reported Friday.
According to the report, Apple CEO Tim Cook has reportedly made the project a company priority.
Spotted a vulnerability in Apple software, but not among Cupertino’s chosen developers tasked with seeking out bugs? No problem. As of today, Apple’s $1.5 million bug bounty program is available everyone who wants to participate. Previously, it was only open to a select few.
The bug bounty means people can earn up to 7-figures for finding weaknesses in Apple software. These could otherwise be exploited by nefarious hackers.
Apple today stopped signing iOS 13.2.3. It’s no longer possible to downgrade devices that have already been updated to iOS 13.3, which rolled out to everyone just over one week ago.
Some 2020 iPhones will feature special sensor-shift stabilization technology for their cameras, according to Digitimes.
This technology, used in many high-end cameras, would further reduce camera shake on the next-gen iPhone. It differs from the optical image stabilization currently used in iPhones.
This week on The CultCast: From the hottest gift of 2019, to our favorite tech and travel locations, catch our picks for Best of the Year!
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It’s the last Friday before the holidays, and appropriately enough, two of Apple’s most popular Apple TV+ Originals are wrapping up. On Friday, Apple debuted the season finale for both The Morning Show and For All Mankind.
There are new episodes of both Servant and Truth Be Told as well. That’s plenty to keep you entertained between frantic bits of last-minute shopping!
If you’ve beaten the computer a thousand times on Mario Kart Tour (which, let’s face it, is pretty tough not to do), you can finally pit your Mario and Luigi-steering abilities against other flesh-and-blood players.
That’s because Nintendo has launched the eagerly anticipated multiplayer online beta for Mario Kart Tour. You’ll need to sign up to the Gold Pass to play it, though.
Some AirPods Pro owners report an unusual smell emanating from the plastic and rubber casings of Apple’s hot new earbuds. Of all things, they say they detect a whiff of … blueberries.
One expert tells Cult of Mac the aroma could be deliberate, or simply a result of chemical compounds in the plastics.
The newest luxury leather bands from OleksynPrannyk are out ahead of the holidays, and they’re a wonderful gift for any Apple Watch owner.
Handmade in the U.S. from soft Italian leather, and available in a number of gorgeous color options, they’re a delight to wear and incredibly long-lasting. They’re also more affordable than they look.
The iPhone’s Portrait mode lets users add effects that emulate studio lighting. Soon, the iPhone could allow for the real thing.
Apple has added support for strobes as a preview for developers in its Made-for-iPhone licensing program.
Apple has been in early talks to possibly buy MGM Holdings and an equity stake in the Pac-12 Networks, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The deals could bring important live and on-demand content to grow Apple’s TV+ streaming service.
The U.K. division of Apple’s worldwide entertainment team finally inked its first major exclusive-look deal this week, after reaching an agreement with Catastrophe creator, Sharon Horgan.
Horgan, who just finished a similar deal with Amazon, will be reunited with Jay Hunt, Apple’s creative director in Europe. Hunt commissioned Catastrophe for Channel 4 and Amazon.
Cubasis, the audio workstation app from Steinberg, just got rewritten as a brand new app. Cubasis 3 looks just like the old version, but is all-new, and includes support for the iPhone as well as the iPad. And hopefully, this rewrite also means that in the future, updates that adjust the user interface for new iOS features and screen sizes will be supported a lot faster. It took more than a year for Cubasis to support the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, for example.
So, what’s new in Cubasis 3?
Our new book about the Apple community, The Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition, is finally available in book stores and on Amazon.
To celebrate, we’re throwing a book-signing party tonight at the publisher’s HQ in San Francisco — and all Cult of Mac readers are invited. Please join me and the book’s award-winning designer, Derek Yee, at the No Starch Press offices. There will be a big sale (and free Chinese food, too)!
The first trailer for Little America, Apple’s anthology series about immigrants, is finally here, and it might just be the antidote we need for these wildly divisive impeachment days.
Clocking in at just over two minutes, the Little America trailer starts with a round table discussion among immigrants from various nations talking about things you’ll only see in America. The trailer then dives into glimpses from the eight different episodes that show the uniqueness of all immigrant stories.
Check it out:
The Satechi USB-C Magnetic Charging Dock for Apple Watch offers a USB-C connector that enables it to plug directly into MacBooks and iPad Pros. It’s also designed to be used on the go.