Lewis Wallace - page 11

As you might expect, we can’t wait to see what new gear Apple unleashes next Tuesday.

If you don’t mind spoiling the surprises, take a look at our predictions about what will bounce out of Cupertino’s magic pipeline during the “Spring Loaded” event.

However, if you’d rather skip the spoilers and spend your weekend watching astonishing animals, check out our reviews of the totally binge-worthy new season of Tiny World and the other new nature shows that just arrived on Apple TV+ for your Earth Day enjoyment.

Get up to speed with our iOS publication, Cult of Mac Magazine. Download the app for free to read on your iOS device, or get the links below.

In pictures, the Apple TV’s sleek Siri Remote looks like a total winner. In practice, it’s a bit of a disaster. Luckily, the fix is in: Elago’s inexpensive R4 Retro case makes the Siri Remote easier to use and harder to lose.

Plus, the silicone sleeve looks sporty and provides some protection to the surprisingly fragile Apple TV remote.

It’s Sunday, and you’re staring at your computer. What’s it gonna be? Work or fun?

Some of the new and upgraded apps in this week’s roundup put an array of clever tools at your disposal if you’re feeling productive. You can free up space on your Mac’s hard drive, download YouTube videos or give your Home app a makeover.

Others focus on fun. They give you new ways to flex your creativity and stay entertained — and maybe even get paid while doing so. Time to dig in!

Adding dozens of new games is great and all, but embracing the past might be the smartest move Apple Arcade made this month.

Now Apple’s subscription gaming service includes two new categories — Timeless Classics and App Store Greats — that showcase just how fantastically fun mobile gaming can be.

The expansion is a real boon for casual gamers who might be more into sudoku than an arty indie game they’ve never heard of. And it makes Apple Arcade’s $4.99-a-month subscription look like an unbeatable deal.

If you haven’t tried Apple Arcade, now might be the time to take the plunge. And if you haven’t checked out Apple One subscription bundles — all of which include Apple Arcade — you might be missing out some real savings.

Read all about Apple Arcade’s power play (and get the rest of the week’s top Apple news) in Cult of Mac Magazine. Download the free app to read on your iOS device, or get the links below.

New app HomePaper for HomeKit lets you quickly customize the look of Apple’s notoriously bland-looking Home app — with zero hassles.

With the app, you simply select a photo from your iPhone or iPad camera or take a new one. Then you can quickly adjust the color(s) and make your own customized wallpaper for the Home app. There’s no fussing around with a complicated image editor or painstaking resizing required.

Here’s how to use HomePaper, which runs on iPhone and iPad, to give your Home app the remodel it deserves.

In some ways, it’s hard to remember what the world looked like before Apple arrived in 1976. The upstart company made computing consumer-friendly, fashionable and, ultimately, ubiquitous.

In just four and a half decades, Apple made a surprisingly big impact on the tech scene and the world at large.

As we look back on the company’s 45th birthday this week, we take stock of 45 ways Apple put a ding in the universe. Hit the highlights in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Get the free app to enjoy the stories on your iOS device. Or read them on the web via the link stacks below.

It seems early, but we’re already deep into rumor season when it comes to this year’s iPhone. This week alone, we heard tantalizing tidbits about a massive storage upgrade, a cool black finish and more.

And that’s just for the iPhone. We’re also knee-deep in rumors about upcoming upgrades for AirPods, iMacs and Apple Watch, as well as as-yet-unconfirmed products like AirTags and Apple’s AR headset.

Get up to speed on the latest Apple rumors in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. It’s packed with Apple news, reviews and how-tos. Download it to read on iPhone or iPad, or get the stories below in your browser.

Jon Prosser’s eyebrows are officially toast.

Prosser, the serial Apple leaker with a big personality and a seemingly deep field of sources inside Cupertino, pledged to shave his eyebrows if we didn’t get an Apple event on March 23.

Well that day has come. And the Apple event didn’t. So he took a trimmer to his precious eyebrows in the most Prosser way possible — on YouTube, with a solid sense of humor (and a charity to boot).

Pour one out for our homie, the HomePod.

Apple recently pulled the plug on its sweet-sounding smart speaker, and the move is definitely not music to our ears. In fact, it calls into question Apple’s strategy of releasing — and then rudely abandoning — expensive, niche products. Maybe it’s time to throw in the towel on that.

Find out why we hope that never happens again in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Download it to enjoy on iPhone or iPad, or get the stories below in your browser.

The iMac Pro was sleek and fast and capable and ultimately … uninspired.

That’s Cult of Mac writer Luke Dormehl’s take on Apple’s recently expired pro all-in-one. He serves up a compelling “Dear John” letter to a weird period in Mac history. And it doubles as a lovingly hopeful look at what the future holds.

If you want to peer even deeper into the Cupertino crystal ball, we’ve got a hot mess of new rumors and leaks this week as we speed toward a probable Apple event on March 23. Catch up with this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Download it to enjoy on iPhone or iPad, or get the stories below in your browser.

An unusually deep and detailed report from one of the world’s most reliable Apple analysts gives us a possible look at where the iPhone is headed in the next few years.

From no-brainers like bigger batteries (coming later this year) to more mysterious possibilities like a folding model (2023 at the earliest), this week’s top stories offer a glimpse of what the next generation of iPhones might bring.

Get up to speed with this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Download it now to read on iPhone or iPad, or get all the top headlines in the link lists below. And let us know if the features you’re craving are on Apple’s agenda.

How do you get the kids to tune into your underachieving streaming service? Buy a documentary about one of the hottest young singer/songwriters in the world.

That’s what Apple TV+ did when it snapped up the rights to new doc Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry — and the strategy apparently worked. As per usual, Cupertino won’t reveal the actual number of people who watched the film since its premiere last week. However, an insider report says the music doc brought a ton of new, young viewers to Apple TV+.

Calls, the new thriller coming to Apple TV+, will depend on ears instead of eyes to get hearts pounding.

The oddball series “masterfully uses only audio and minimal abstract visuals to tell bone-chilling snackable stories,” Apple said in a description of the Calls trailer posted Wednesday.

If the latest Apple leaks and rumors prove correct, this year’s new Macs might seem strangely familiar. From colorful iMacs to the reintroduction of long-lost MacBook ports, it looks like Apple might go retro in a big way.

Cult of Mac writer Luke Dormehl dives into the phenomenon and makes the case for why going “Mac to the future” might be just fine.

And speaking of bad things … our Apple TV+ reviewer Scout Tafoya got an early look at Cherry, the new movie from longtime Marvel directors the Russo brothers. Let’s just say things went a little sour. (Scout’s blistering review of Cherry is pretty epic.)

On the other hand, he liked the new documentary Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry. That movie arrived on Apple’s streaming service this week, in case you’re looking for a little weekend viewing.

Read these stories and more in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. It’s free and built for easy reading on your favorite iOS device. (If you don’t want to download the free app, you can get the links in any web browser below.)

There’s an interesting new feature in iOS 14 that you might never have noticed. It’s called Mobility Metrics, and it tracks several things that offer insight into your overall fitness, coordination and health. Find out where to look for these metrics, and what to make of them, in our in-depth Mobility Metrics how-to.

Also in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine, we’ve got several hot rumors about upcoming Apple gear (and a possible March 16 event), plus loads of Apple TV+ reviews and first looks at upcoming shows. Download it now to enjoy on your iOS device.

P.S. If you’re a fan of Apple lore, don’t miss our exclusive interview with Del Yocam, the company’s first COO and a mentor to Steve Jobs. He’s got some interesting stories to tell.

When it comes to iPad Pro, bigger would be better. And when it comes to iPhone 12 mini, smaller was definitely not better – at least from a sales perspective.

Get those perspectives in this week’s top opinion/analysis pieces from Cult of Mac Magazine. Then enjoy the rest of the week’s top Apple news, how-tos and reviews. It’s all free and ready to download and read on your favorite iOS device.

P.S. After weeks of Apple car rumors, don’t miss our thought experiment that explores five ways Cupertino could shake up our ideas about automobiles.

After years of low idling, the Apple car rumors are really revving up. Possible deals with Kia and other automakers … whispers about secret supply-chain maneuvers … even a surprising claim that Cupertino’s first cars “will not be designed to have a driver.”

That’s the kind of Apple car news you’ll find in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine.

You’ll also get more potential revelations about that other top-secret Apple endeavor — building a headset. Whether that will be a $3,000 niche VR model or something a little more down to earth remains to be seen.

And if that’s not enough good Apple news for one week, Snoopy is back for new adventures on Apple TV+. We’ve got reviews of The Snoopy Show as well as the latest episodes of Dickinson and Losing Alice.

So-called App Store nutrition labels that detail exactly how an app handles your data sounded like such a fantastically simple idea when Apple described them last year.

Now that the feature is live, the devil is apparently in the details. As it happens, you can’t just trust all app developers to tell you exactly how much data their software hoovers up — or how they share it with potentially nefarious third parties. Apple says it’s working to police the problem, but it’s a black eye for the privacy-conscious company.

Dan Riccio, one of Apple’s top designers, is moving to a mysterious new role in Cupertino.

After joining Apple in 1998, Riccio worked on loads of groundbreaking products, from the first iMac to last year’s AirPods Max and the M1-powered Macs. Now, he’s become Apple’s “vice president of engineering.”

Going forward, Riccio says he will be “focusing all my time and energy at Apple on creating something new and wonderful that I couldn’t be more excited about,” according to a press release Monday.

It looks like the MacBook Pro isn’t the only Apple laptop that’s going back to the future. The next-gen MacBook Air supposedly will get MagSafe, just like the MacBook Pro we learned about last week. Plus it should come in thinner and lighter than ever.

Add in the upcoming iMac and Mac Pro redesigns, and this year is looking pretty fantastic for Mac fans.

Meanwhile, this year’s iPhone might be a bit of a welcome throwback as well. You can luxuriate in all the latest Apple news and rumors in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Grab it now to read on your iOS device. Or scroll down for the links to this week’s top Apple news, reviews and how-tos.

A recent restoration project brought vintage Mac MP3 player Audion back from the edge of oblivion. You can get Audion, and its more than 800 wild and wooly custom user interfaces, for free.

If you’re interested in how software design has evolved, you’ll love this totally trippy flashback to the bad old days when we all crammed our hard drives full of downloaded MP3s.

If you’d rather deal with more pressing matters, we’ve got other new apps to showcase in this week’s roundup. EZ Estate will help you get your final affairs in order. A new RSS reader will make you fall in love with an otter. You can display your HomeKit scenes in iOS widgets and more.

From CES product unveilings to juicy rumors, this week suffered zero shortage of new for Apple fans. You’ll find the cream of the crop in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. As always, it’s free — and it’s ready for consumption on your iOS device of choice.

I don’t want to slow you down on your way to the week’s top news stories. But if you use Safari (and you really should), don’t miss our new series of how-tos on getting the most out of Apple’s web browser. Those Safari Pro Tips are in the mag as well.

Or you can get it all, plus our reviews of the new Apple TV+ seasons of Servant and Dickinson, in your browser at the links below.

Loaded with psychedelic visuals and insect-eye product shots, Puffco’s promo video for its upcoming Peak Pro vaporizer will get your head spinning.

The super-chill dabbers in the high-concept one-minute video all look like they’re doing their thing in darkened rooms at their own private raves. The Peak Pro’s pulsating lights and a pulsing soundtrack add to the mood.

Lutron is taking its top-notch HomeKit smart plug outside. The upcoming Caséta Outdoor Smart Plug is a beefy-looking, iP-65-rated AC outlet that’s built to take all the abuse Mother Nature can dish out.

Designed to give you control over things like outdoor lighting and pumps, it’s smart enough that it can adjust your timers when daylight saving time arrives.

“It’s essentially weatherproof, dirtproof and sunproof,” said Matt Swatsky, Lutron’s vice president of residential mid-market business, in a press release Monday. “A homeowner can now enjoy all the benefits of a Caséta system for their outside spaces.”

An augmented reality Mac powered by Apple glasses offers a glimpse of what computing might look like in the future.

Yes, it’s just a concept. But man, is it gorgeously detailed. We talked with concept designer Dominik Hofacker about his fascinating concept, and you can read all about it in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Download it now to read on your iOS device, or get the links below.

We’ve also got the latest news and rumors on the the long-rumored Apple Car and AirTags (not to mention those Apple AR glasses that Hofacker is talking about). Plus, we’ve got how-tos and reviews (including a second take on AirPods Max and a look at the second anachronistic season of Dickinson on Apple TV+).