Cult of Mac

The recent return of the iconic Beats Pill portable Bluetooth speaker wasn’t just a typical product update, but a complete overhaul to help cement Beats’ identity as a premium-products subsidiary of the iPhone giant, according to a new interview with Apple executives.

“We wanted to do something special with the Pill and completely re-architect and reimagine it,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple VP of Apple Music, Apple TV+, Sports and Beats. “It wasn’t a case [of] let’s swap out one or two things. We really wanted a complete refresh. This is a completely new product inside, and outside as well.”

If you’re not yet all in on USB-C, the Waloo Portable Foldable Charging Dock is a great way to keep your iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods topped off at home or on the road. The compact multi-charger comes with two built-in Lightning connectors and an Apple Watch charging puck. It’s a little bigger than your iPhone, folds flat for easy transport, and costs a shockingly low $14.99.

The Apple TV+ streaming service earned more Emmy Award nominations than it ever has before. There were 72 noms for 16 different shows, including The Morning Show, Palm Royale, Lessons in Chemistry, Slow Horses, Loot, Hijack and many more.

“We are so thankful to the Television Academy for honoring our storytellers with a record number of Emmy nominations today,” said Jamie Erlicht, Apple’s head of Worldwide Video.

An innovative case that turns your Apple Watch into a pseudo iPod is now available to order for $79.99. The tinyPod is a clever case that houses your Apple Watch, turning it into a music player you carry in your pocket rather than strapped to your wrist.

Plus, since it’s an Apple Watch rather than an actual iPod, it comes with some features that Apple’s groundbreaking MP3 player never did.

Apple has rejected reports of training Apple Intelligence and its AI model on YouTube videos without the creators’ consent. The company says OpenELM, its open language model, does not power Apple Intelligence.

Instead, it created OpenELM as a way to contribute to the development of open source large language models.

FolderFort is an affordable alternative to Google Drive. And with this limited-time deal, this cloud storage service is even easier on your wallet. Right now, you can get 1TB of cloud storage with a lifetime FolderFort subscription for just $69.97 (regularly $251.64).

Unlike Google Drive, with FolderFort, you only pay once, and you’re set for life. And when it comes to pricing, there’s no comparison. Google Drive charges nearly half that much per year, for one-fifth the storage. And Apple One bundles — which admittedly add in things like Apple TV+ and Apple Music — cost even more.

You can turn multiple Live Photos shot on your iPhone into a video. Simply select a group of Live Photos taken in a burst, and you can create a single, stitched-together video that you can save to your library and share on social media.

Here’s how it’s done.

If you hurry, there’s still time left in Amazon Prime Day 2 to snag deals on multi-device MagSafe chargers from Belkin and other makers. So if you want, say, Belkin’s MagSafe 3-in-1 Fast Wireless Charging Pad for half off — or other good deals on chargers for iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods from various companies — see the Amazon links below. And note that Prime Day prices may fluctuate.

A big upgrade is a special occasion for any computer setup. And today’s featured M2 Max Mac Studio rig saw major changes recently, including a boost to audio quality courtesy of a legendary audio brand. Bowers & Wilkins MM-1 speakers joined the desktop mix.

July 17, 2002: Apple ships a new super-sized iMac G4 with a 17-inch widescreen LCD display that becomes the envy of most computer users at the time.

“The best consumer desktop just got even better,” says Steve Jobs of Apple’s new all-in-one computer in a press release. “Having this gorgeous 17-inch flat screen floating in mid-air right in front of you is simply breathtaking. There’s nothing like it in the PC world.” He wasn’t wrong!

A new Apple initiative addresses California’s housing-affordability crisis in the San Francisco Bay Area, the company said Wednesday. In partnership with the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund, Sobrato Philanthropies and Destination: Home, Apple launched the Bay Area Housing Innovation Fund with an initial investment of $50 million.

The fund aims to accelerate affordable housing development by providing targeted, favorable loans to developers. It’s part of Apple’s larger $2.5 billion commitment to tackle housing affordability issues across the company’s home state.

World Emoji Day happens on July 17 every year — but why? The holiday’s story takes a circuitous path through Apple history, tying together Mac OS X Jaguar, calendar software, Japanese cellphone carriers, Macworld Expo and Emojipedia creator Jeremy Burge.

With the recently-released PC emulator UTM SE, you can now emulate Windows on iPad directly. You can revisit old PC games, just like how you can use Delta to play old Nintendo games. You can also install Mac OS 9 or Linux. With Ubuntu, Debian or other versions of Linux, you can run all kinds of open-source software for getting real work or programming projects done.

But bad news: You can’t use it to run macOS Sonoma on your iPad. There’s some confusion about this, but unfortunately the long-held dream of turning your iPad into a Mac will have to wait for another day.

Setting it up is a little finicky — but the reward of seeing that classic Windows XP desktop on your iPad can make it all worth it. Keep reading to see how it works.

With eight states running sales tax holidays in coming weeks, Apple specified on Wednesday which of its products will qualify for tax-exempt status and in which states. The sale dates vary depending on the state, with the tax waiver helping consumers potentially save hundreds of dollars on Macs, iPads and Apple accessories.

Find out which states offer the discounts, and on what products, below.

Cameras that beam still images and video to iPhones and other smartphones make it easy to keep tabs on your home or business from anywhere. Security cams, video doorbells and other types of cameras can connect to your phone, letting you view live footage 24/7.

Here are a few secret tricks and gestures that will help you get around your iPhone faster. These hidden gestures help you text pictures to your friends faster, scroll through big pages and screens, type special characters and use your phone one-handed.

This is a follow-up to an earlier article with three other secret iPhone gestures you need to know. Learn all of these gestures and you’ll feel like an iPhone power user.

July 16, 2014: Apple agrees to pay $450 million to resolve the Department of Justice’s antitrust case against the company over e-book pricing in the iBooks Store. In the e-books lawsuit, Apple stood accused of conspiring with five major book publishers to fix prices on digital books.

After all five publishers settled their claims outside of court, Apple became the only one to go to trial. The e-books lawsuit settlement closes the book on a bad chapter in Apple history.

New game Roia challenges players to guide a river down a mountain by rearranging the terrain. It’s another unique premise from Emoak, a team of developers with a history of creating standout games.

I spent a couple of hours playing it on my iPhone, and found the game to be demanding but also relaxing. And not like anything I’ve played before.

This is traditionally the best time of year to buy portable power stations and solar generators for summer camping and hurricane preparedness. And now there’s another big reason to pull the trigger on a power purchase: Amazon Prime Day. Bluetti’s Prime Day deals on power stations, backup batteries and more mean you can assemble the perfect system for your needs — and save tons of money from July 16 to July 21.

Looking for good Bluetooth headphones that won’t throttle your wallet? In this Edifier W830NB headphones review, I look at Edifier’s latest noise canceling set. They might just be your ticket to affordable listening.

Following up on its W820NB model, Edifier packs serious punch for the price in this $80 pair (or $63 for Amazon Prime Day!). Just don’t expect them to beat out top-shelf cans from the likes of Apple and Sony.

iOS 18’s redesigned Photos app will gain a Recovered album to help you restore damaged photos or videos. It will only show up when the app detects corrupted media not in your photo library.

The new Recovered album will appear under the Utilities section of the Photos app.

You can download the watchOS 11 public beta for free — right now. With it, you can try out the great new Fitness features coming to the Apple Watch before Apple ships the update to everyone. And if you’re already running the watchOS 11 developer beta, you can switch over to the public beta for additional peace of mind.

Of course, there are a few things you should look out for. Beta software can be buggy and can lead to data loss or apps that don’t work. Battery life will certainly take a hit. Not to mention, installing software updates on the Apple Watch is kind of annoying. They take a long time to download; the watch has to be above a certain battery percentage, sitting on its charger — and you’ll have a new software update to install about every other week.

If you’re still sure you want to try it out, you’ll need to install iOS 18 on your iPhone first. I’ll show you how.

You can download the macOS Sequoia public beta for free — right now. You can get a look at the exciting new features coming to the Mac before the update is shipped to everyone. And if you’re already running the Sequoia developer beta, you can switch over to the public beta for additional peace of mind.

Of course, there are a few things you should look out for. Beta software can be buggy and can lead to data loss or apps that don’t work. Not to mention, a lot of the most exciting features announced at WWDC24 aren’t included yet, like Apple Intelligence.

If you’re still sure you want to try it out, you should make sure you have a backup of your most important data with two copies of your photo library before you try installing. I’ll show you how.

You can download the iOS 18 public beta for free — right now. You can get a look at the exciting new features coming to the iPhone before the update is shipped to everyone. The iOS 18.2 beta enables additional Apple Intelligence features on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models.

Of course, there are a few things you should look out for. Beta software can be buggy and can lead to data loss or apps that don’t work. If you’re still running the iOS 18 developer beta, you can switch over to the public beta for some peace of mind.

If you want to try it out, you should make sure you have a backup of your most important data with two copies of your photo library before you try installing. I’ll show you how.

With a market capitalization above $3.6 trillion, Apple regained the title of world’s most valuable publicly traded company. The Mac-maker is valued well above Microsoft and Nvidia, both of which had been valued higher earlier this year.

A recent sharp rise in AAPL share value seems to indicate that investors are optimistic that a surge in iPhone sales is on the horizon.