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How Apple is Going Back to The Future With Its Designs

Charlotte Henry ·

Some of the designs of recent Apple products, particularly, but not exclusively, the iPhone, leave longtime users with a sense of deja vu. Cult of Mac took a good like at how Apple is going Mac back to the future.

Specifically, Apple ditched the curved edges that graced every iPhone since 2014’s iPhone 6, reverting to the squared-off edges of previous devices. That was perfectly OK with me: The iPhone 5 remains probably my favorite iPhone design in history. By borrowing (you can’t exactly steal your own designs) some of that classic phone’s design elements, and then offering some truly up-to-date tech in the form of all-display OLED screens, 5G, and A14 chips, Apple merged old and new in a compelling package. But that’s not the end of Apple’s newfound willingness to reference what worked in the past. Apple’s next MacBook Pro apparently will take a backward leap to move forward. Rumors indicate the laptop will revive the beloved MagSafe charger. And it reportedly will restore ports like HDMI and an SD card reader that disappeared half a decade ago.

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Twitter Announces ‘Super Follows’ and Communities

Andrew Orr ·

Twitter announced a couple of features on Thursday that will arrive in the future and change the nature of its platform.

The payment feature, called Super Follows, will allow Twitter users to charge followers and give them access to extra content. That could be bonus tweets, access to a community group, subscription to a newsletter, or a badge indicating your support.

Twitter also announced a new feature called Communities, which appear to be its take on something like Facebook Groups. People can create and join groups around specific interests — like cats or plants, Twitter suggests — allowing them to see more tweets focused on those topics.

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New Paramount+ Service Will be $5 a Month With Ads

Andrew Orr ·

Paramount+ is a rebranded and expanded version of CBS All Access. In a virtual investor event on Thursday executives revealed pricing. It launches March 4.

And they said that Paramount+ will cost $4.99 per month with ads in the U. S. (less than the $5.99 charged for CBS All Access), or $9.99 without ads and with additional sports, news and live TV content. There are also plans to bundle this with the company’s premium subscriptions, such as Showtime.

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Why Apple TV+ Movie 'Cherry' is Personal for Directors Anthony and Joe Russo

Charlotte Henry ·

Ahead of the launch of Cherry on Apple TV+ on February 26, there was a premiere on February 23. AppleInsider reported on how the story had a personal element for directors Anthony and Joe Russo.

“Like many of us, we’ve had personal experiences with loved ones who have had either addiction problems, overdose problems, even involving death,” Anthony Russo said. “So the issue of the opioid crisis was very present in our personal lives.” “But even beyond that, it felt like it was a very timely issue, something that we really wanted to address now, in the hopes of being able to play some small part in how this issue unfolds for people and evolves.”

 

TMO Deals

12' Extra Long Lightning Cable: $22.99

Bryan Chaffin ·

We have a deal on the Naztech USB to MFi Lightning 12′ extra long cable. That’s a twelve foot Lightning cable! I imagine that many of us haven’t needed such a thing, but those who do really needed one. And, you can get it for $22.99 through our deal.

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Apple Files Update to 'Final Cut Pro' Trademark Allowing For Cloud Subscription Option

Charlotte Henry ·

Apple updated the Final Cut Pro trademark earlier this week. Spotted by Patently Apple, it indicated that Apple could introduce a subscription model for the video editing software.

On Monday Apple filed an update to their trademark ‘Final Cut Pro’ in Europe adding Nice Classification #42 that hints that Apple could decide to go the way of Microsoft’s subscription model for Final Cut Pro by adding in that class verbiage covering “rental of software.” When you go directly to the WIPO IP Portal under Class 42 one of the first things that you’ll see listed is a header titled “This Class includes, in particular.” Under its third point it states: Class 42 covers Software as a service (known as SaaS). So it’s not just a boiler plate entry from Apple, it’s a core value.