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Luke Dormehl - page 39

Pascal’s Wager brings mouse and keyboard gaming to iPad

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Pascal's wager
The best looking game on iPad just got better.
Photo: TipWorks/Giant Network

Want to take iPadOS 14’s keyboard and mouse support for a gaming spin? Pascal’s Wager has you covered.

The dark fantasy action RPG, showcased at Apple’s 2019 iPhone event, is reportedly the first iPad game to benefit from this treatment. Apple said it would bring keyboard and mouse support to iOS devices at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

New lockdown measures close all Apple stores in the UK

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apple.store.regent.street.london.1
It's not clear when Apple Stores in the UK will open again.
Photo: Richard Shrum for Cult of Mac

Apple temporarily closed all its brick-and-mortar stores in the United Kingdom on Tuesday as a result of new COVID-19 lockdown measures imposed by the government.

Twenty of the 38 U.K. Apple stores were already closed due to coronavirus. However, new national lockdown measures that came into place Tuesday shuttered the other 18.

Awesome macOS concept imagines the AR iMac of the future

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AR Mac
Could this be the Mac setup of tomorrow?
Photo: Dominik Hofacker

A designer’s radical new concept shows what future Macs could look like if augmented reality glasses replaced the computers’ physical screens.

Dominik Hofacker, a 24-year-old designer who just landed a job at Facebook, calls his well-thought-out virtual Mac concept “macOS reality.”

“With AR glasses on the verge of release, and eventually replacing our smartphones for almost all tasks, I asked myself, ‘How does productivity look like in the future?'” he told Cult of Mac. “GlassOS that runs on Apple Glasses is one thing, but nobody has ever thought about the next generation of Macs.”

Apple’s biggest manufacturer may invest $200 million in electric car startup

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Byton Byte
The Byton M-Byte was publicly unveiled at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show.
Photo: Alexander Migl/Wiki CC

Foxconn, Apple’s largest supplier, looks to be getting in on the electric vehicle business. According to a Monday report from Bloomberg, the Taiwanese manufacturer is in talks to invest in Chinese EV startup Byton.

Foxconn reportedly plans to invest around $200 million in the company to begin mass-manufacturing the anticipated Byton M-Byte car by Q1 2022. An announcement could come as early as today.

Apple backtracks after threatening to boot Amphetamine out of Mac App Store

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Amphetamine
No, it's not the drug-promoting nightmare app Apple feared.
Photo: Amphetamine

A Mac app that raised Apple’s ire with its drug-referencing name won’t be pulled from the Mac App Store, its developer says.

Apple reportedly threatened to remove utility app Amphetamine, which stops your Mac from going to sleep. The reason? Violating rule 1.4.3 of the App Store guidelines, which prohibits apps relating to “consumption of tobacco and vape products, illegal drugs, or excessive amounts of alcohol.”

Apple can take years to part ways with rule-breaking suppliers, report claims

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Apple's relationship with Foxconn on the rocks
Tim Cook meeting with a worker in the supply chain.
Photo: Apple

Apple can reportedly drag its feet when removing repeat labor violation offenders from its supply chain, a new report from The Information claims.

Cupertino supposedly postpones taking action when it has no other companies lined up to pick up the slack, or in other scenarios that would cause financial damage due to delays or higher costs.

Privacy-focused Brave browser adds native support for Apple Silicon

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Brave
Brave is a speedy browser with a focus on privacy.
Photo: Brave

Brave, a privacy-oriented, Chromium-based web browser, has been updated to add native Apple Silicon support for first-gen M1 Macs.

Brave’s big claim to fame is that it blocks ads and website trackers by default. It also lets users compensate creators by sending them cryptocurrency contributions, called Basic Attention Tokens.

Apple removes massive 39,000 games from App Store in China

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App Store image
All but 74 of the top 1,500 games vanished.
Photo: James Yarema/Unsplash CC

The App Store in China had its biggest single-day removal of apps ever — with a massive 39,000 games given the boot by Apple on Thursday alone. This is as a result of Chinese laws stating that all game publishers must obtain a special license in order to distribute their titles.

According to research firm Qimai, only 74 of the top 1,500 games in the App Store survived the massive app bloodbath. Major titles that vanished included the likes of Assassin’s Creed Identity and NBA 2K20.

App Store spending booms on Christmas Day in Europe

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TikTok continues to dominate the App Store in 2020.
The App Store had a great day December 25.
Photo: Kon Karampelas/Unsplash CC

For many people, Christmas was a bit more of a subdued affair in 2020 than in other years. But things were far from subdued in the App Store. According to new figures published by Sensor Tower, spending on mobile apps hit a big high point on Christmas Day in Europe.

The iOS App Store accounted for 60% of total app spending, adding up to almost $32.7 million on Christmas Day alone. That’s a massive 39% increase year-over-year. Android, by comparison, rose 17.4% year-over-year to hit $22 million on December 25.

Latest Apple Pay offer grants 20% off Grubhub orders

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Apple Pay Grubhub
It's not quite a New Year party, but it's not bad.
Photo: Apple

For obvious reasons, New Year’s Eve plans aren’t quite what they normally are in 2020. But thanks to a new Apple Pay offer, at least you can get 20% off a food delivery from Grubhub.

Provided that you pay using Apple’s payment platform, that is.

Mario Kart Tour bids farewell to 2020 with its last update of the year

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Mario Kart Tour
Bidding farewell to a terrible year!
Photo: Nintendo

Mario Kart Tour is so over 2020, and ready to take on the nothing-can-possibly-go-wrong utopia that is 2021.

With that subtext, the popular Nintendo racing game has released its last update of the year, kicking off the New Year’s 2021 Tour. This tour, which runs through January 12 or 13 (timezone depending), features a plethora of new tracks.

Check out the trailer below.

MacBook shipments could jump to more than 17 million in 2021

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MacBook Air M1 2020
MacBooks are in for a good year in 2021.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

It’s more than 10 years since technology writer Nicholas Carr proclaimed the personal computer dead. But don’t tell Apple — since a new report claims that global MacBook shipments are set to skyrocket next year.

According to data from Finaria, global MacBook shipments are expected to hit 17.1 million units in 2021. That’s a 10% year-on-year increase. The firm claims that global MacBook shipments are likely to hit 15.5 million units this year, a 23% leap during the coronavirus pandemic.

Apple boots secret partying app from the App Store

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Vybe Together
No longer to be found in the App Store.
Photo: Vybe Together

Apple has booted an app from the App Store accused of helping promote secret indoor parties during COVID-19 lockdowns.

The Vybe Together app was connected with a TikTok account (also removed) that promoted New York-area parties. While its creators claim that they weren’t encouraging law-breaking behavior, clearly both Apple and TikTok disagreed.

Another company in iPhone supply chain faces accusations of using forced labor

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iPhone 12 box
Lens Technology makes glass used in the iPhone.
Photo: Marco Verch/Flickr CC

Lens Technology, a Chinese company that makes glass for the iPhone, has allegedly made use of Uighur Muslim forced labor, according to a Tuesday report in The Washington Post.

Documents about the use of alleged forced labor were discovered by the Tech Transparency Project. The research organization detailed how “thousands of Uighur workers from the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang were sent to work for Lens Technology.”

Customers spend almost $279 million in the App Store over Christmas

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app-store
Apple had a gold-plated holiday season.
Photo: Apple

It’s been a great, record-busting year for mobile apps — and, unsurprisingly, that translated to a strong Christmas as well.

According to app analytics platform Sensor Tower, customers spent a total of $407.6 million across both the iOS App Store and Google Play over Christmas. This represents a massive 34.5% increase from the $303 million spent this time last year.

Of that, the App Store represented 68.4% of all spending — or $278.6 million in total.

Leaked prototype turns the clock back to early days of Apple Watch

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Apple Watch
The Apple Watch has come a long way since its early days.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

A Twitter user by the name of @AppleDemoYT has posted images online they claim to be an early Apple Watch prototype, built as part of the pre-production process before Apple introduced the device in 2015.

Such prototypes are very rare, with Apple preferring not to show images that shed light on how it develops products. Somehow this one made it out in one piece — provided it’s legitimate, of course.

Netflix could spend a massive $19 billion on shows and movies in 2021

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75% of Netflix users have no plans to jump ship to Apple TV+ (right away)
Netflix spends a whole lot of cash on programming.
Photo: Stock Catalog/Flickr CC

Netflix could spend an estimated $19.03 billion on video content in 2021, data presented by investment bank Bankr suggests.

That would be an increase of 10% from the estimated $17.3 billion it spent this year. It’s also a massive ramp-up from the $2.4 billion Netflix spent in 2013 when it started moving into original productions with shows like House of Cards.

The 10 best Apple ads of 2020

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Damien Chazelle
Apple produced some spectacular ads this year.
Photo: Apple

Apple makes great phones, tablets, computers and smartwatches. It also makes superb commercials — and has done so for years.

What was the cream of this year’s Apple advertising crop? Check out our top 10 picks (in no particular order) below.

Cherk or 8herk? Apple TV+ movie poster leaves fans bemused

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Cherk
"Look what you did, you little Cherk!"
Photo: Apple TV+

Among other things, Apple is known for its clear messaging and high level of quality control. Which is why it was slightly strange when a poster for upcoming Apple TV+ movie Cherry failed totally on both these counts. It featured an all-but-illegible title on its “For Your Consideration” campaign poster for Best Picture.

Don’t worry, though. The flick hasn’t been renamed CHERk, 0HER88 or 8HERK in post-production. Nor is this terrible typeface a marketing stunt. Instead, it seems that trade publication Variety just shared the wrong version of the poster.