The CultCast #398 - 16-inch MacBook Pro details and the Apple Car LIVES!
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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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!