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Luke Dormehl - page 155

Next-gen Apple Watch could use solid-state haptic buttons

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Apple Watch goal
Wave goodbye to physical buttons!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The next-gen Apple Watches have so far avoided physical redesigns in favor of under-the-hood improvements. That could change this year, however, according to a new report.

Sources in Apple’s supply chain claim that the Apple Watch Series 4 will replace the current physical buttons on the device for solid state buttons with haptic feedback. While the device will retain the same button configuration as existing Apple Watches, these buttons won’t physically click as before.

Anti-racism advocacy group is upset at Apple’s location for new HQ

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Color of Change
North Carolina has a history of controversial laws.
Photo: Color of Change

Apple’s announcement about its proposed North Carolina East Coast headquarters is supposedly “imminent,” but not everyone is happy about it. Last month, activists were reportedly “livid” about the location due to its history of LGBT-unfriendly laws. Now another advocacy group is accusing the region of racism, related to the state’s new voter ID proposal.

The advocacy group in question is a civil rights group called Color of Change. It is upset about North Carolina’s voter ID bill on the grounds that it allegedly discriminates against African-Americans. This bill was announced by the state’s House Republicans on Thursday.

Apple share price falls as iPhone component orders decline

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iphone x
Don't be quite so quick to judge, though!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple has reportedly warned its supply chain of plans to cut 20 percent of new iPhone component orders. This news triggered a drop in Apple’s valuation, with shares falling 2.1 percent in U.S. pre-market trading.

Shares in Apple suppliers including AMS AG, Dialog Semiconductor, STMicroelectronics and Infineon Technologies also fell as a result of the news.

Apple boosts pay for writers on its original TV shows

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apple tvPIC
Apple is continuing to invest in original TV content.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

As part of its push into original video content, Apple signed a Writers Guild of America master contract promising writers greater benefits.

The deal means that scribes employed by Apple to work on its growing list of projects will receive script fees, weekly payments and residuals on shows that air for free. This is a better deal for writers than the current baseline agreement on offer.

You can now embed Apple Maps into websites

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MapKit
MapKit JS is Apple's latest attempt to improve Apple Maps.
Photo: Apple

Despite Apple Maps being found on every iPhone and iPad, Google Maps has a few big advantages.

One thing helping Google Maps’ visibility is the fact that it can be easily embedded into websites. That means that if you’re using a website to navigate to, say, an Airbnb online, there’s a good chance you’ll be directed to Google Maps. But Apple is taking steps to change all that.

North Korean elites sure love their Apple devices

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North Korea
North Korean citizens paying respect to the statues of Kim Jong-un's ancestors.
Photo: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen/Wikipedia CC

When Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un meet, they could always break the ice by talking about their favorite Apple devices.

While Trump has expressed his admiration for Apple in the past, it turns out that North Korea’s top officials are also quite the fans of the Cupertino tech giant. According to research firm Recorded Future, analysis of the devices being used by North Korea’s elite include numerous iPhones and a MacBook.

Lawsuit alleges that every Apple Watch contains the same defect

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apple watch 1
The Apple Watch is the subject of a new legal case.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Every Apple Watch that Apple has made is defective. At least, that’s the argument made by a new class action lawsuit, asking Apple to pay $5 million in damages for refusing to acknowledge an issue which affects its wearable devices.

According to Kenneth Sciacca of Colorado, who filed the suit, Apple Watches contain a flaw “which causes the screens … to crack, shatter, or detach from the body of the Watch, through no fault of the wearer, oftentimes only days or weeks after purchase.”

Legal battle may be to blame for Apple breaking its FaceTime promise

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FaceTime
Apple's open wish for FaceTime never happened.
Screenshot: Apple

At WWDC, Apple revealed that it will finally make it possible to do FaceTime group calls for up to 32 people. That’s great news — provided that all your friends, family and co-workers use Apple devices.

But it didn’t have to be like this. Back in 2010, when Steve Jobs introduced FaceTime, he made a big point about how it was set to become an open industry standard that could be used by Apple’s competitors, as well as Apple. Nearly a decade on, that still hasn’t happened. And now a theory has emerged as to why.

Smart toilets might keep Apple manufacturer flush

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iPhone sales drive Apple’s biggest supplier to big profits
Foxconn is planning for life after Apple.
Photo: CBS

Foxconn has been working with Apple for the past couple of decades, and together they have raked in billions of dollars. However, with smartphone sales plateauing and Apple looking to broaden its supplier base, Foxconn is trying to reinvent itself.

Speaking at a 30th anniversary event for the manufacturing giant on Wednesday, founder Terry Gou described how Foxconn plans to get further into making its own hardware as well as embracing software options like cloud computing. Including one slightly unusual idea.

Conan hilariously skewers iOS 12’s Screen Time feature

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Conan
No distractions here!
Photo: Conan

At Monday’s WWDC keynote event, Apple introduced its new Screen Time initiatives which will help users keep tabs on just how much they use their iPhones. It’s something that people have been pushing for a while, and it’s absolutely the right move on Apple’s part.

But that doesn’t mean it can’t be the source of humor. In a new skit, late night talkshow host Conan O’Brien skewers the concept with his idea for an iPhone Basic — with no screen, no buttons, and basically nothing that could distract you from living in the real world. Check it out below.

How John Perry Barlow once roasted Steve Jobs

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John Perry Barlow
John Perry Barlow passed away earlier this year.
Photo: Crown Archetype

Given his influence and notorious temper, hosting a celebrity roast of Steve Jobs would have been pretty darn scary. But that’s what EFF co-founder, Grateful Dead lyricist and cyberlibertarian John Perry Barlow was once asked to do.

Even worse, it came at a time in Jobs’ career when seemingly everything was going wrong. The results earned Barlow — who passed away earlier this year — a severe telling off from Jobs’ wife, Laurene.

watchOS 5 makes those pricey $10,000 Apple Watch Editions obsolete

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Apple
Three years later, it's all over for the first-gen Apple Watch Edition.
Photo: Apple

The idea of luxury watches is that they last a lifetime, maybe more. Patek Philippe makes this explicit with its tagline, “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation.”

Clearly Apple didn’t get the memo, though. The company’s ultra-expensive Apple Watch Edition — which started at $10,000 and ran up to $17,000 — will soon be obsolete, thanks to Apple introducing watchOS 5 at this week’s WWDC event.

Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE Cellular is coming to four new countries

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Refurbished Apple Watch LTE units are available.
Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates can soon join in the LTE fun.
Photo: Apple

Nine months after debuting in the U.S., the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE Cellular is set to arrive in four new countries, starting next week.

The countries include Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates. The device will be made available for pre-order on Friday, June 8. Last month, Apple rolled out the LTE Apple Watch Series 3 to Denmark, India, Sweden, and Taiwan.

At WWDC, Apple atones for Silicon Valley’s sins

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Apple revenues
With its upcoming software, Apple addresses some Silicon Valley's most egregious abuses.
Photo: Apple

WWDC 2018 bug Cult of Mac After a particularly rough patch for the tech industry, Apple used yesterday’s WWDC keynote to atone for some of Silicon Valley’s biggest sins. The company showcased key features in its upcoming operating systems that reinforce the fact that it thinks different about how technology should work.

Undoubtedly eager to position itself as one of the good guys, Apple directly responded to some of the biggest tech scandals of the past year.

Apple’s biggest manufacturer is buying Toshiba’s PC business

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Toshiba
Toshiba was once a leader in the PC industry.
Photo: Toshiba

The Foxconn-owned Sharp Corp. has agreed a deal to acquire an 80 percent share in Toshiba’s PC business. Foxconn currently assembles Macs for Apple, while Sharp is an iPhone display maker.

The move won’t compete directly with Apple, although it puts Foxconn and Sharp in charge of a company which, at its 2011 peak, sold 17.7 million PCs in a year. That number fell to just 1.4 million units last year. Toshiba led the world in producing some of the earliest laptops. Its first laptop launched in 1985.

‘And the winner is…’ Apple celebrates 2018 Design Awards

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apps wwdc screenshot
Apple rewarded the best apps of the 2018 crop.
Photo: Apple

Apple has revealed the winners of its prestigious 21st Apple Design Awards, offering a nice boost to the indie developers in question and some good recommendations for users.

The awards span nine different countries and a variety of app types, from note-taking apps to games. Check out the winners below.

Tim Cook talks politics, privacy and machines taking over

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Tim Cook and Ivanka Trump
Tim Cook at yesterday's WWDC event.
Screenshot: Apple

Following yesterday’s WWDC keynote, Tim Cook participated in an interview on CNN with Senior Technology Correspondent, Laurie Segall.

In a wide-ranging interview, Cook discussed everything from the threat of machines taking over to the “fundamental human right” of privacy to why he’s not interested in running for office. Here are the big takeaways:

With macOS Mojave, Apple gives Mac some much-needed love

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Mojave
High Sierra is dead. Long live macOS Mojave!
Photo: Apple

WWDC 2018 bug Cult of Mac Developers received an early look at macOS 10.14 today, which bears the far-less-silly-than-last-year’s-High-Sierra name “Mojave.” After what Craig Federighi called a “four year mountain bender” Apple’s heading to the desert for its next-gen Mac OS.

For its 2018 iteration, Apple is introducing a dark mode, some nifty Finder updates, added privacy, and an all new, redesigned Mac App Store. Here’s what you need to know.

ARKit 2.0 will make you actually want to use AR

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ARKit
Apple is taking ARKit to the next level.
Photo: Apple

WWDC 2018 bug Cult of Mac ARKit was last year’s big WWDC announcement. This year Apple introduced ARKit 2.0 and, if we weren’t convinced before about the potential of augmented reality, Apple’s presentation went a long way to changing our minds!

The update to the world’s largest AR platform introduces a new more easily sharable file system, improved face tracking, more realistic rendering, 3D object detection, and — most exciting of all — shared experiences.

Window cleaners look like tiny ants in latest Apple Park flyover

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Apple Park
"What is this, a campus for ants?!"
Photo: Matthew Roberts/Maverick Imagery

Just in time for WWDC, drone videographers Duncan Sinfield and Matthew Roberts have uploaded new drone flyover videos of Apple Park.

The videos show that landscaping is continuing on the spectacular site and more people than ever are working there. Most astonishing of all is a glimpse of the 24-hour window cleaning crew, reminding us of just how massive Apple’s shiny new headquarters actually is. Check out the videos below.

ARKit 2.0 will allow multiplayer games in the same space

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ARkit
AR will no longer be a solo affair.
Photo: Dent Reality

At WWDC, Apple could debut new multiplayer AR tools which allow two iPhone users to share the same augmented reality space.

The news was shared in a recent Reuters report. While short on details, the report suggests that it will be able to do this while minimizing the amount of personal data that is sent to servers.

Apple has a new plan for cutting down manufacturing costs

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MacBook butterfly keyboard
Apple is now handling ordering for even tiny components like MacBook screws.
Photo: Apple

Apple is known for exerting a lot of control over the manufacturing of its products, and it’s reportedly set to ramp up this control even further.

Beginning with its new MacBook models, Apple will reportedly carry out direct pricing negotiations for the screws and assorted non-key metallic and plastic parts used on its devices, which are currently purchased directly by its contracted supply partners.

Woman in Canada is fined for using Apple Watch while driving

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apple watch 1
Don't use the Apple Watch while driving, y'all!
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

A woman in Canada has been fined for using her Apple Watch behind the wheel of her car.

Victoria Ambrose was charged with distracted driving and told that an Apple Watch is no safer “than a cellphone taped to someone’s wrist.” She had argued that the existing 2009 law about distracted driving did not apply because it referred to a “handheld wireless communication device.”

General Magic tells story of Apple spinoff that almost changed the world

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General Magic documentary tells story of the iPhone that never was!
The iPhone that never was!
Photo: Spellbound Productions

How do you follow a project like the Macintosh? A high-flying Apple spinoff called General Magic tried to answer that question in the early 1990s.

After revolutionizing the personal computer, a team of ambitious ex-Apple engineers set out to build a connected touchscreen mobile device that prefigured the iPhone by 25 years. Their startup, General Magic, became one of the hottest ventures in Silicon Valley — before it all came crashing down.

“That period is one of the most important in computing history,” Sarah Kerruish, co-director of new documentary General Magic, told Cult of Mac. “It’s when handhelds were first realized, and when we saw the first early stages of the internet. General Magic combines these profoundly important threads in technology.”