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Luke Dormehl - page 236

The prospect of Apple Stores in India just got a whole lot better

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Apple supplier is increasing its ability to build masses of iPhones in India
Apple is focused on the Indian market.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple may become one of the first foreign companies granted a permit to open a retail store in India without sourcing 30 percent of its products from inside the country.

While this rule has previously proven to be a hurdle for foreign brands, in Apple’s case the Indian government appears likely to overlook it on the grounds that Apple is a “state-of-the-art” company manufacturing “cutting-edge technology.”

Apple in talks to open its first retail store in Dublin

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Apple's first Dublin site could be quite spectacular.
Photo: Wanderlustful

Dublin, the largest and capital city of Ireland, may finally be about to get its first Apple Store.

Apple is reportedly in talks with a developer group called the Natrium consortium to open up a flagship retail store in Dublin’s city center —  possibly based on the ground floor of an iconic former department store, bought last year for €29 million ($33 million).

Apple might ditch iPhone 7s and jump straight to iPhone 8

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The iPhone 8 is going to be huge. But what about the iPhone 7?
Photo: Apple

Apple will drop its incremental “s” iPhone release next year in favor of jumping straight to the iPhone 8, claims Barclays analyst Mark Moskowitz.

Moskowitz backs up previous suggestions that the iPhone that launches in 2017 will boast the biggest upgrade since 2014’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus — with OLED displays and wireless charging, but lacking a physical home button. He predicts the massive revamp will lead to what he calls a “mega cycle” upgrade.

As for this year’s iPhone 7? He’s not so optimistic.

Woz: Apple should be forced to pay a lot more tax

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Steve Wozniak wax sculpture fake eyes
Steve Wozniak wants Apple to pay its fair share.
Photo: Madame Tussauds

From saying that he doesn’t want to be stuck in the Apple ecosystem to advising Apple to build an Android phone, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has said a lot of things that probably don’t go down too well at his former company.

His latest comments, however, put him more directly in the sights of Tim Cook — as Woz uses a new interview to take a shot at Apple’s tax payments. His thoughts? The company should pay more than it does. Half of everything it earns, in fact!

Chinese government shuts down iTunes Movies and iBooks Store

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China iPhone sales
Tim Cook meets with Apple Store employees in China.
Photo: Apple

In its biggest move yet to regulate Apple in China, the Chinese government has forced Apple to shut down its iBooks Store and iTunes Movies in the country — just six months after the services were first made available.

While the government initially approved the launch, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television reportedly changed its mind and demanded that Apple shutter the service.

Apple’s post-3.5mm jack headphones sure sound smart

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New headphones will switch between wired and wireless modes without dropping audio.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

In advance of the next-gen iPhone, which will reportedly ditch its 3.5mm headphone jack in favor of wireless or Lightning EarPods, Apple had filed a patent application for hybrid headphones capable of switching between wired and wireless options without dropping audio in the process.

What a $1,000 investment in Apple in 1996 looks like today

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Note to self: always bet on Apple.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

As a tech fan, there are plenty of times — particularly when you hear about billionaire investors and record-breaking stock prices — when you wonder whether you would have had the foresight to predict things turning out the way they have.

Would you have bet big on Apple around the time of its 1980 IPO? Was it obvious that Steve Jobs was going to turn around the company in 1997? Or would you have been the equivalent of folks calling the Titanic an unsinkable ship, and pouring your life savings into pre-crash dot-com companies?

An amazing new data-viz shows how the returns on a $1,000 investment made in Apple, Microsoft and IBM would have fared over the next 20 years following January 1, 1996. Check it out below:

Apple settles ‘unfair’ service agreement on Samsung’s home turf

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South Korea's fair trade watchdog persuaded Apple to change its conditions.
Photo: Olly Browning/Pixabay

Apple has revised a so-called “unfair” business agreement concerning the conditions South Korean repair service providers must work under in order to do business as part of the Apple Authorized Service Provider Program.

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) had complained that Apple had the ability to terminate contracts with local businesses without any prior notification, and without taking responsibility for losses incurred by its withdrawal of the Authorized Service Provider label.

Zombie-hunting platformer channels the spirit of Metal Slug

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Coming Thursday to an iOS device near you.
Photo: Zombie Hunter: Death to the Undead

I love the Metal Slug franchise. I don’t think there’s anyone my age (early thirties), who grew up on a diet of comic books and testosterone-fuelled action movies from the 1980s, that doesn’t.

But while the franchise’s iOS efforts have so far been confined to diverting spinoffs like tower defense games, a new title promises to take the classic Metal Slug spirit (even if it’s not an official game in the series) and pour it into an all new balls-to-the-wall action-platformer-shooter.

Check out the trailer below.

FBI found no new information on San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone

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After all that effort, the San Bernardino iPhone turns out not to be what the FBI was hoping for.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The FBI has had three weeks to examine the unlocked iPhone belonging to San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook, and U.S. law enforcement officials are finally ready to say whether they were able to find anything of use on the handset.

The answer? Not much. Although that’s not the way they’re presenting it.

Apple unleashes improved MacBooks, now in rose gold

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12-inch MacBook lineup
Aren't they stunning?
Photo: Apple

Update: As several readers have pointed out, right now Apple’s “buy” page appears to be down for its new MacBooks. Either the company’s not quite ready to make the MacBooks available for sale or someone in Cupertino is costing Apple thousands and thousands of dollars.

Apple today unveiled its new MacBooks, boasting the latest Intel processors, improved graphics, faster flash storage and an additional hour of battery life.

The new 12-inch notebooks are available in four different aluminum finishes, including gold, silver, space gray and — for the first time ever — rose gold.

Futuristic Apple touchscreen will let you feel textures and temperatures

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iPadwood
Got wood?
Photo: Cult of Mac/Oscar Cortez

3D Touch is all well and good, but future Apple devices may incorporate advanced haptic technology which lets software simulate textures ranging from the grain of wood surface to the cold feeling of metal.

That’s according to a new patent published today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, describing a “Touch Surface for Simulating Materials” through the touch-sensitive display or trackpad of an iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

Find My iPad leads police to gang of armed robbers

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iPad mini 4
Gang will have plenty of time to think about their mistakes behind bars.
Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac

From reuniting families separated by a California wildfire to tracking down kidnapping victims, there are plenty of high drama stories concerning Apple’s location-tracking Find My iPhone/iPad feature for iOS.

Well, you can add one more to the list — as police in Bangkok recently captured a violent armed gang responsible for a string of vicious robberies in the country’s northern region — all thanks to their ill-advised decision to steal an iPad mini with the feature enabled.

U.S. government asked Apple for info on 5,192 users over past six months

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iPhone 6s
Apple is being transparent about government requests.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple has released its latest report on government information requests, showing how many times it has been asked to hand over data on its users over the six month span running from July to December 2015.

At a time when Apple was increasingly finding itself at odds with the Justice Department over the topic of encryption (something which exploded earlier this year with the San Bernardino shooting case), U.S. law enforcement made requests relating to 5,192 individual Apple accounts.

Apple Pay is now available to use in Singapore

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Apple in talks to bring Apple Pay to Israel
Apple Pay is available in a new market.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple Pay has made its debut in Singapore, bringing the total number of countries adopting Apple’s mobile payment service to six — also including the U.S., Canada, China, Australia, and United Kingdom.

As in Australia and Canada, the service is initially available only for American Express customers, although Apple says it looks forward to new banks and card providers joining throughout 2016.

Apple has a secret ‘Project Titan’ R&D lab in Germany

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What will the Apple Car look like? And, more importantly, what will it do?
Ich bin ein Apple Car user.
Photo: Motor Trend

It seems that research for Apple’s automotive “Project Titan” is picking up speed, with a newly published report claiming Cupertino has opened a small R&D office in Berlin — with the sole purpose of inventing the electric car of the future.

The new Apple car facility employs between 15 and 20 “top-class” employees, many of whom have previously worked in Germany’s buoyant automotive industry. Skills include everything from creating software to mechanical engineering and sales expertise.

Woz would have disagreed with Jobs about screen time for kids

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Steve Wozniak. Photo:
Woz would never tell his kids to stop being tech addicts.
Photo: HigherEdWeb/Flickr CC

Despite being a veritable genius when it comes to selling the masses on the latest tech product, Steve Jobs once candidly admitted that he set strict guidelines for how much time his own kids were allowed to watch screens at home.

It seems Jobs’ Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, isn’t quite on the same page, however — as Woz argues in a new interview that kids should be able to spend as much time on the computer as they want.

Apple may ditch aluminum for all-glass iPhone casing next year

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iPhone 6 Plus
We may be waving goodbye to Jony Ive's love affair with aluminum.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Jony Ive’s beloved aluminum casing is as about as iconic a part of the iPhone as the Apple logo or a working OS. Despite that, a new report claims that the company will ditch its aluminum look for an all-glass enclosure for next year’s iPhone 7s.

Reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo revealed this tidbit over the weekend in a note to clients, which also reiterated the view that the 2017-era iPhone will sport an OLED display.

vividHDR, Warbits, and other awesome apps of the week

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Have an appy weekend all!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

In a week in which Tim Cook was named the most influential gay man in America, Apple Stores went green in advance of Earth Day and much, much more, app developers continued to do what they do best: to churn out high-quality apps to improve all of our lives.

I’ve chosen four great apps for this week’s app roundup — including a smart calendar app, a truly awesome photography app, and some great new games. Check out our picks below.

Apple Stores go green in advance of Earth Day

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Apple Store
Environmental concerns have been a big theme during Tim Cook's reign at Apple.
Photo: Apple

One week before Earth Day, Apple has changed its iconic one color logo to a green-leafed one at select Apple Stores — echoing Apple’s goal under Tim Cook of leaving the world a better place.

Retail staff will also be rocking special green shirts for the week — celebrating the fact that select brick-and-mortar retail stores belonging to Apple now run on renewable energy.