This week: the all-new 16-inch MacBook Pro—a new report gives us a price tag and release date. Then: a new hire signals that the Apple Car is far from dead; and there’s finally a way to get podcasts recommendations tailored just for you. Plus stayed tuned for our favorite shows and comic con trailer in an all-new What We’re Into!

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Cult of Mac's watch store is full of beautiful straps that cost way less than Apple's. See the full curated collection at Store.Cultofmac.com

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On the show this week

@erfon / @lkahney / @lewiswallace

This week's stories

Rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro might start at $3,000

• Anyone eager to get their hands on the much-rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro better be saving their pennies. It could cost as much as $3000, if an unconfirmed report coming out of Asia is correct.
• The Chinese-language Economic Daily News predicts this will be Apple’s most expensive laptop ever. The starting price could be over $2,975, or even as much as $3,300
• The EDN report goes on to say that the 16-inch macOS laptop will have a 3072 by 1920 LCD screen, in line with earlier rumors.
• The largest MacBook in years will supposedly debut in October. New 13.3-inch versions of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air will allegedly launch at the same time.

BMW will charge outrageous annual fee for CarPlay

• BMW has decided that it will charge customers an annual fee if they want to enjoy CarPlay in its newest vehicles.
• It is the first car-maker to turn Apple’s platform into a subscription service. Most now include CarPlay as standard, or as an optional feature that lasts as long as the vehicle.
• It took BMW longer than most automakers to support CarPlay, and it doesn’t come cheap. The company charges $300 to add the platform to existing vehicles with a built-in navigation system.
• If you want CarPlay in a 2019 BMW, you can forget that one-time fee. In fact, you’ll get to enjoy the first year for free. But every year of CarPlay access after that will cost you $80.

Overcast adds fantastic new podcast recommendations feature

• Overcast, the podcast app of choice for lovers of good design, just added a brand-new recommendations feature.
• Previously, Overcast used a Twitter-based recommendation engine. But developer Marco Arment says almost nobody used it. Now, he’s replaced it with recommendations based on users’ personal listening habits, and the result is amazing.
• Other notable features include Smart Speed (which cuts out silences) and Voice Boost (which pumps up spoken audio). Overcast also works great with the Apple Watch.

Apple hires the engineer who led the design of Tesla's car interiors

What we’re into!

Jablinski Games

2019 Tour de France

Peaky Blinders

Star Trek: Picard

This week: FaceApp, the mega viral app that ages your face, might also be stealing your data! Plus: why your next iPhone or Mac may feature Apple’s rainbow logo; Apple might soon make a big move into original podcasts; and we’ll tell you about the wild lengths some Apple factory works go through to smuggle out top secret tech.

This episode supported by

Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Cult of Mac's watch store is full of beautiful straps that cost way less than Apple's. See the full curated collection at Store.Cultofmac.com

CultCloth will keep your iPhone X, Apple Watch, Mac and iPad sparkling clean, and for a limited time use code CULTCAST at checkout to score a free CleanCloth with any order at CultCloth.co.

On the show this week

@erfon / @lkahney / @lewiswallace

This week's stories

Apple’s retro rainbow logo might make a comeback

• There have been some clues earlier this year that Apple might be ready to embrace its old logo again. Apple renewed its trademark on the logo last year. Jony Ive also meticulously created a rainbow stage at Apple Park that used the rainbow Apple logo’s design. Although Ive was a fan of minimalist design, even he seemed to want to bring the rainbow Apple logo back.
• “There is the resonance with the rainbow logo that’s been part of our identity for many years,” Jony Ive recently explained.

Is viral FaceApp stealing your photos? Not all of them

• FaceApp has become incredibly popular in recent weeks. It’s gone viral. You’ve probably see the pictures everywhere. But there’s concern over what happens to your photos when you use the app, particularly since the devs are… THE RUSSIANS!

Apple might soon feature original and exclusive podcasts

• Apple’s growing services business will soon feature original podcasts, according to a report that, if true, amps up the tech giant’s battle with rival Spotify.
• Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, reported Apple executives are in preliminary discussions with media companies to buy the rights to podcasts.
• Spotify has spent millions of dollars positioning itself to be the go-to podcast app. It has acquired three podcast companies, including Gimlet Media, in the last two years to build up premium content.
• The Apple Podcasts app comes with iPhones and is considered the go-to platform for listening to podcasts. However, Apple Podcasts is merely a directory of links for users to download podcasts from other platforms.

Apple Once Caught Factory Workers 'Digging a Small Tunnel in a Corner' in Attempt to Smuggle iPhone Parts

• After photos of the colorful iPhone 5c leaked in 2013, the report claims Apple created a "New Product Security" team to monitor security at its most sensitive suppliers in China. At one point, the team reportedly topped more than 30.
• The security team is said to have uncovered workers going to extreme lengths to smuggle valuable components out of factories over the years, with some attempting to hide parts in crawl spaces, tissue boxes, shoes, belt buckles, bras, used mop water, under discarded metal shavings, and beyond.

This week: Big Mac updates! But not like a Big Mac. We're talking computers. Never mind, look—Apple just updated the MacBook Air, dropped the price, and supercharged the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Plus: a new report says Apple will finally update the butterfly with the design we were all hoping for. And we wrap with a true story that could save you thousands: how neglecting the batteries in your tech could cost you BIG.

This episode supported by

Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Cult of Mac's watch store is full of beautiful straps that cost way less than Apple's. See the full curated collection at Store.Cultofmac.com

CultCloth will keep your iPhone X, Apple Watch, Mac and iPad sparkling clean, and for a limited time use code CULTCAST at checkout to score a free CleanCloth with any order at CultCloth.co.

On the show this week

@erfon / @lkahney / @lewiswallace

This week's stories

Apple may be gearing up to replace controversial MacBook keyboard

• According to a new research note from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is set to replace them with a whole new keyboard switch mechanism. According to big Ming, this will debut with the 2019 MacBook Air (more on that in a second)
• This would be a return to the previous keyboard design, but with an Apple twist.
• Kuo says the switches in the new scissor keyboards will be made from glass-filled nylon, and material that is stronger than plastic, so it allows Apple to make the internal components stronger and thinner.
• This is the same material used in the switches of the 2015 butterfly keyboard mechanisms.

Latest MacBooks still use Apple’s flawed butterfly keyboard

• Big Ming got it wrong: Apple's newest MacBooks use the same 3rd-gen keybaord as the 2019 MacBook Pro, and are already included in the extended keyboard repair warranty.
• The new keyboard will likely debut in the 16" MacBook Pro.

Apple brings True Tone to MacBook Air, faster chips to MacBook Pro

• Apple has updated the MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro for the back-to-school season. And they’re now more affordable.
• The revised MacBook Air, now starts at $1,099 (down from $1,199) or $999 for college students, and has been updated with True Tone.
• The biggest improvements, however, are to the 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Apple officially ditches the 12-inch MacBook

• Apple has dropped the 12-inch MacBook after introducing an improved MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro.
• The previous MacBook Air without a Retina display, which was Apple’s most affordable notebook, has also been ditched.

This week: A new report details why Jony Ive is departing Apple, and it paints a troubling picture. Plus, Leander tells us about the “fiddle factor,” the unique quality that made Jony Ive our time’s greatest designer.

This episode supported by

Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

CultCloth will keep your iPhone X, Apple Watch, Mac and iPad sparkling clean, and for a limited time use code CULTCAST at checkout to score a free CleanCloth with any order at CultCloth.co.

On the show this week

@erfon / @lkahney

This week's stories

Jony Ive’s absence from Apple caused iPhone X headaches

• A new report from the WSJ paints a bleak picture of Jony’s Ive’s departure, saying he’s been drifting away from the company for years, and it’s because they increasingly are not taking design seriously.

Tim Cook slams alleged rift with Jony Ive as ‘absurd’

Why Apple will miss Jony Ive’s fabulous ‘fiddle factor’

• The fiddle factor cuts to the heart of Jony Ive’s design genius. In a career spanning 30 years, no designer has been more successful at making computers friendly and approachable, largely by adding tactile elements to his designs.
• As a design student back in the 1980s, a teenage Jony Ive spent a semester with a design agency in London, the Roberts Weaver Group. One of his first projects was designing a new pen for Japan’s Zebra Co. Ltd., a pen-maker based in Tokyo.