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David Snow - page 108

Celebrate Earth Day the Apple Pay way, auto-donating $1 at a time

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Use Apple Pay to donate to a good cause this year around Earth Day.
Use Apple Pay to donate to a good cause this year around Earth Day.
Photo: Apple

If you care about environmental causes, Apple just gave you a pretty painless way to give. Starting Thursday and running through Earth Day on April 22, Apple will donate $1 to the World Wildlife Fund for every Apple Pay transaction in Apple stores, on the store app or on Apple.com.

So start buying stuff and join the fight to save the planet’s beleaguered species.

WhatsApp finally adds emoji reactions and features for groups

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At first, WhatsApp users will have just six emojis to choose from.
At first, WhatsApp users will have just six emojis to choose from.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Looks like secure chat client WhatsApp just got a little livelier. Its long-promised emoji-based Reactions and newly developed Communities features for organizations rolled out on Thursday.

Users will have six emojis to play with to start. And in addition to new Communities, WhatsApp’s Groups functionality gets a revamp, too.

New signs point to periscope lens coming to iPhone 15

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Apple may have found a new periscope lens supplier for iPhone 15.
Apple may have found a new periscope lens supplier for iPhone 15.
Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac

It looks like the rumored periscope lens in iPhone 15 just took a step closer to reality. Jahwa Electronics in South Korea said it plans to expand production on new models and invest $155.7 million in new facilities. A new report suggested the company’s new customer is Apple, for whom it will supply periscope lens components.

Jahwa currently supplies such tech — optical image stabilization (OIS) actuators — for Samsung’s Galaxy S22 lineup.

Jack up efficiency with Satechi’s slick new laptop accessories

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You can get Satechi's speedy new HDMI 2.1 cable and dual vertical laptop stand at a 20% off discount for launch.
You can get Satechi's speedy new HDMI 2.1 cable and dual vertical laptop stand at a 20% off discount for launch.
Photo: Satechi

If you make your MacBook Pro or other laptop the center of your office, Satechi rolled out new accessories Thursday that can help increase your efficiency factor.

The company launched its new 8K Ultra HD High Speed HDMI 2.1 Cable for fast display connections and Dual Vertical Laptop Stand to keep your gear neatly housed out of the way while you work.

Back up and protect cherished family photos and data with pCloud

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pCloud's Easter promotion gives you a great deal on a family plan.
pCloud's Easter promotion gives you a great deal on a family plan with strong security.
Photo: pCloud

This cloud storage post is brought to you by pCloud.

There’s nothing like breaking out family photo albums and reliving memories with the clan. Or looking back at treasured mementos like holiday cards, diplomas and wedding invitations. And this is true even if it’s all digital rather than physical.

But just as a family can lose photos and papers to fires and floods, it can lose digital items, too. And that’s why it’s crucial to have a backup, like secure cloud data storage from pCloud. The company’s Family Plan, which lets everyone share in the fun, is deeply discounted for a short time. Plus, it comes with extra security in a special Easter promotion campaign.

Nomad’s swanky new MagSafe charger makes room for Apple Watch

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At the price, the new Nomad Base One Max had better be this good looking.
At the price, the new Nomad Base One Max had better be this good looking.
Photo: Nomad

Maybe you thought about snapping up the exceedingly nice-looking Nomad Base One MagSafe charger for iPhone when it came out in March. But what about charging my Apple Watch, too, you asked.

Well, Nomad must’ve been listening, because it launched the Nomad Base One Max on Tuesday. It adds an Apple Watch stand to the Base One’s wireless charging pad.

New Eufy smart scale could be your closest health adviser

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It does more than weigh you.
It does more than weigh you.
Photo: Dufy

A smart scale sitting on the bathroom floor is never going to replace your doctor — or at least, not yet. But devices like the new Eufy Smart Scale P2 Pro do more in the realm of health than just weigh you.

You may not be in a big hurry to find out about things like your bone mass, but at least you can if you want or need to. And you can do it in the comfort of your own home.

Go off-grid with Anker’s new portable power station

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Need to live in the woods for a while? This could help.
Need to live in the woods for a while? This could help.
Photo: Anker

Whether you’ve suffered a power outage, decided to go on a camping trip or finally realized you need to ditch civilization once and for all, Anker’s burly new 757 PowerHouse portable power station can help.

With a powerful battery and loads of ports, it’s for anytime you go off-grid.

Graphic designer runs racy dual-monitor MacBook Pro rig [Setups]

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Look at that wallpaper! Oh, and there's also a computer setup.
Look at that wallpaper! Oh, and there's also a computer setup.
Photo: [email protected]

Ever show off your painstakingly constructed computer setup only to have everybody race past the gear just to ogle what’s showing on the screen(s)? The desktop wallpaper.

It’s kind of like that with today’s featured setup, the brainchild of a graphic designer.

He put together the dual-monitor setup around a 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro with a lineup of nice touches. And he also made the neato race-car wallpaper that got most of the attention.

Ready for your close-ups? See the Shot on iPhone Macro Challenge winners.

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“Hidden Gem” (water bead in leaf) by Jirasak Panpiansin (@joez19). Shot on iPhone 13 Pro Max.
“Hidden Gem” (water bead in leaf) by Jirasak Panpiansin (@joez19). Shot on iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Photo: Apple

Apple unveiled its top 10 extreme-close-up photo selections Wednesday from the Shot on iPhone Macro Challenge, in which photographers from all over the world submitted epic miniatures over several weeks starting January 25.

All the shooters used iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max to take their pics. Photographers hailed from China, Hungary, India, Italy, Spain, Thailand and the U.S. Apple plans to feature their images on apple.com, on Instagram (@apple) and on billboards in select cities.

Check out the stunning shots — captured with iPhone’s most-advanced cameras ever — below.

Take a first look at new Maya Rudolph comedy series Loot on Apple TV+

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Joel Kim Booster, Maya Rudolph and Ron Funches in “Loot,” premiering globally June 24, 2022 on Apple TV+.
Joel Kim Booster, Maya Rudolph and Ron Funches in “Loot,” premiering globally June 24, 2022 on Apple TV+.
Photo: Apple TV+

Apple TV+ said Tuesday its new workplace comedy Loot, starring Emmy Award winner Maya Rudolph, premieres Friday, June 24.

The accompanying first-look photo shows Rudolph and costars Joel Kim Booster and Ron Funches standing all in a row in an office. It looks like it could be an awkward moment. And isn’t that the bread and butter of workplace comedies?

Now you can grab Beats Studio Buds in 3 new colors

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Get Beats Studio Buds in three sassy new colors.
Get Beats Studio Buds in three sassy new colors.
Photo: Apple

As promised last week, Apple rolled out three new colors of its Beats Studio Buds wireless earbuds, saying you can buy them starting Wednesday (though you can find them Tuesday at the links below).

The new colors are Ocean Blue, Sunset Pink and Moon Gray. They’ll cost $149.99, just like the original colors available since the product’s launch in 2021 (black, red and white).

But with the new hues, you can only get certain colors from certain retailers.

Magically enhance many photos at once with the new Batched app

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Batched lets you edit many photos as once.
Batched lets you edit many photos as once.
Photo: Adva Soft

This post is brought to you by Adva Soft.

Sometimes you want to make changes to just one of your treasured digital photos. Other times you wish you could modify a whole bunch of them at once, quickly and easily. With the new multi-photo-editing app Batched, you can do it either way.

Available for iOS and iPadOS, the tool makes it much easier to enhance scads of your cool pics to a variety of interesting degrees, including color-transfer functionality and numerous filters and effects.

And did we mention that most of the tools in the Batched app are free? They are, although some premium features can be unlocked with a subscription. Let’s take a look at what Batched can do for you.

Tim Cook’s privacy summit keynote condemns app sideloading

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Tim Cook delivered a keynote address at the International Association of Privacy Professionals Global Privacy Summit on Tuesday.
Tim Cook delivered a keynote address at the International Association of Privacy Professionals Global Privacy Summit on Tuesday.
Photo: IAPP

Apple CEO Tim Cook called privacy a key battle of our time during a speech Tuesday. He extolled Apple’s commitment to protecting its users’ data and condemned regulations that would force Cupertino to accept app sideloading on iPhones.

“We are deeply concerned about regulations that would undermine privacy and security in service of some other aim,” he said, referring to legislation that would force Apple to allow apps for its devices to bypass the App Store.

Cook made the comments during a wide-ranging keynote address at the International Association of Privacy Professionals Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C.

Read more about what he said and watch video of his speech below.

New Apple Watch health features: What’s in, what’s out

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Apple Watch won't get blood pressure and blood sugar monitoring soon, but other new health updates are coming.
Apple Watch won't get blood pressure and blood sugar monitoring soon, but other new health updates are coming.
Photo: Lewis Wallace/Cult of Mac

Cupertino is likely to add body temperature readings and other new health features to Apple Watch and the Health app in 2022, but it looks like blood pressure and blood glucose monitoring will have to wait, according to a new report.

For a look at those delays to blood pressure and blood sugar monitoring, as well as the expected new features for women’s health and sleep-, fitness- and medication management, read on.

watchOS 9 may expand low-power mode, add new faces and more

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Look for watchOS 9 to do more in Power Reserve mode.
Look for watchOS 9 to do more in Power Reserve mode.
Photo: Apple

Right now, when your Apple Watch enters Power Reserve mode because its battery is almost out of juice, the time appears on the face as a simple digital clock — and that’s it. The wearable’s other features are temporarily disabled. But Cupertino may expand Apple Watch functionality in low-power mode in the upcoming watchOS 9, according to a new report.

In addition, updates could include new workout types, additional workout metrics, expanded sleep tracking and new watch faces.

Easter sale: Take 25% off Carterjett and Wiplabs Apple Watch bands and more

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Looking for an Apple Watch band? You can get 25% Carterjett and other products in the Cult of Mac Store.
Looking for an Apple Watch band? You can get 25% Carterjett and other products in the Cult of Mac Store.
Photo: Carterjett

When Easter rolls around, you know how easy it is to find chocolate bunnies, candy eggs and the notorious marshmallow Peeps — if you’re into that sort of thing.

But if you’d rather hunt for great deals on Apple accessories — especially Apple Watch bands — check out the Cult of Mac Store’s 25% discount across the board on products from Carterjett and Wiplabs.

Apple re-signs iOS 15.4 to fix Studio Display update issue

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Firmware updates for Studio Displays failed over the weekend but they're fixed now.
Firmware updates for Studio Displays failed over the weekend but they're fixed now.
Photo: Apple

Late last week, Apple stopped signing iOS 15.4 following the release of iOS 15.4.1, making it impossible for users to downgrade their iPhones’ software. But the change also inadvertently stopped people from updating their new Studio Displays’ firmware, based on iOS.

Complaints ensued on Sunday. And before the end of the day, Cupertino re-signed iOS 15.4, making it valid and verifiable to servers again.

Did Apple release the $1,599 Studio Display with so much fanfare only to forget about it when it launched iOS 15.4.1?

Hey, maybe you can afford a ‘Mini Pro Display XDR’ with your Mac Studio [Setups]

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It may be small, but it's a Liquid Retina XDR Display.
It may be small, but it's a Liquid Retina XDR Display.
Photo: Tom@bytereview@Twitter

Anyone who buys a desktop Mac or wants a desktop feel using their MacBook is going to need a decent-sized external display. And wouldn’t it be grand if we all had $5,000 to spend on an Apple Pro Display XDR? Well, we don’t. In fact, scratching together enough cash to buy a new, more-affordable Studio Display can feel like a stretch for many folks.

The owner of today’s featured computer setup figured out a clever way to run a brilliant Liquid Retina XDR Display at much less cost with their new Mac Studio. What’s the catch? Well, it’s only a 12.9-inch display. Because it’s an iPad.

Crank it up: Klipsch overhauls 10 speakers in its best-selling Reference series

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Klipsch speakers in the Reference line include floor-standing models.
Klipsch speakers in the Reference line include floor-standing models.
Photo: Klipsch

If you’re in the market for new speakers for home use, consider waiting to buy until next month, when Klipsch rolls out 10 overhauled speakers from its iconic, affordable Reference line. If you live in the Europe or the U.K., you can get them now, but the U.S. launch is in May.

Klipsch, which features the slogan “Pissing off the neighbors since 1946” on its website, overhauled the series for use in hi-fi, home theater and Dolby Atmos systems.

Which monitor gets the boot when the new Studio Display shows up? [Setups]

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One of these two displays is not long for this setup.
One of these two displays is not long for this setup.
Photo: [email protected]

The Mac Studio desktop computer and Studio Display came out on March 18 to (mostly) good reviews. And they’re showing up all over the place in people’s computer setups — especially the displays, according to our unscientific observations, as we scour the internets for interesting gear.

Today’s featured setup is a dual-display workstation. The owner said he’s expecting a new Studio Display to arrive soon. Sounds like it already shipped.

He said he’s going to stick with two screens, so which one of his current monitors is going bye-bye?

Apple leaves privacy trade group it sees as too ‘industry-friendly’

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Apple's decision to drop out of the privacy trade group comes ahead of Tim Cook headlining a global privacy summit.
Apple's decision to drop out of the privacy trade group comes ahead of Tim Cook headlining a global privacy summit.
Photo: Fortune Global Forum/Flickr CC

Apple dropped out of a privacy trade group that pushes increasingly “industry-friendly data privacy laws.” The move comes ahead of Apple CEO Tim Cook headlining the International Association of Privacy Professionals Global Privacy Summit next Tuesday.

Cupertino confirmed it will leave the trade group, known as the State Privacy and Security Coalition, through a spokesperson following an initial report about it in Politico.

Protect your AirTag and AirPods 3 with stylish new Incase accessories

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Safeguard your AirTag and AirPods 3 with Incase's new accessories.
Safeguard your AirTag and AirPods 3 with Incase's new accessories.
Photo: Incase

Building out its line of accessories for Apple products, Incase rolled out new protective cases Thursday for Apple AirTag tracking devices and AirPods 3 earbuds. Now you can take your gear safely on the go with the new Incase Key Clip with Woolenex for AirTag, Woolenex Case for AirPods and Reform Sport Case for AirPods.

Pics and K-pop: Cupertino shows off big new Apple Store opening in Seoul

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Apple Myeongdong, Apple’s newest location in South Korea, opens Saturday, April 9.
Apple Myeongdong, Apple’s newest and largest store in South Korea, opens on Saturday in Seoul.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s newest retail location, Apple Myeongdong, opens on Saturday in South Korea’s capital, Seoul. Ahead of the opening of its biggest store in the country, Apple showed off a preview with photos and descriptions of the store’s Today at Apple programs celebrating Korean culture, including a new K-pop session.

Remarkably, the new, two-level Apple Store will employ a whopping 250 people who, collectively, speak 11 languages. So, wherever you’re coming from, you’re likely to be understood as you drop a bundle on new Apple gear!