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Apple preps Beats Studio Buds to compete against AirPods

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Apple preps Beats Studio Buds to compete against AirPods
Apple could soon offer AirPods and Beats Studio Buds to rival each other.
Photo: 9to5Mac

In a brewing Apple vs. Apple battle, the iPhone-maker is reportedly working on Beats Studio Buds — a pair of in-ear wireless headphones with a lot in common with AirPods.

The odd circumstance comes because the company releases headphones under its own brand and also under the Beats brand.

AirPods, HomePod lose out on Apple Music lossless audio streaming [Updated]

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AirPods Max connected to iPhone
AirPods Max have a lot to offer, but not the upcoming Apple Music lossless option.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

Apple Music fans who are super-excited about the just-announced lossless audio option should be aware that it won’t work with AirPods or HomePod. Not even the $549 AirPods Max.

But Apple’s headphones and smart speaker do support Spatial Audio for songs mixed in Dolby Atmos, another new feature of Apple Music.

Dress it up with a deconstructed iPhone, a drone and custom wallpapers [Setups]

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This artfully executed setup is supposedly in someone's home, not a design museum.
This artfully executed setup is supposedly in someone's home, not a design museum.
Photo: diotav@Reddit

It’s only Monday, but Dutch videographer, designer and web production artist Dion Tavenier probably wins this week’s award for setup design. Cool, spare, architectural — get the Museum of Modern Setups on the phone!

If only there was such a museum. Or such an award.

Apple Music will add lossless audio, Spatial Audio for no extra cost

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Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio are coming to Apple Music subscribers beginning June 2021.
Higher-def music is coming soon to an Apple device near you.
Photo: Apple

Apple Music is going lossless — at no extra cost to subscribers. Apple revealed the free upgrade Monday, a day ahead of its rumored launch. The company said Apple Music will bring lossless audio to more than 75 million tracks starting in June so listeners can hear songs “the way the artists created them in the studio.”

In addition, Apple Music will add Spatial Audio support for songs mixed in Dolby Atmos. That means customers who own AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max and Beats headphones featuring an H1 or W1 chip — or using the built-in speakers in the newest iPhone, iPad and Mac — will be able to hear certain songs in the immersive format.

Things get savage in an action-packed Mosquito Coast [Apple TV+ review]

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Aunt Lucretia (played by Ofelia Medina) and Enrique (Bruno Bicher) heat things up in this week's episode of The Mosquito Coast (review).
Aunt Lucretia (played by Ofelia Medina) and Enrique (Bruno Bicher) heat things up in this week's episode.
Photo: Apple TV+

Thanks to a last-minute call to a new ally, things seem to be looking up for the Foxes in this week’s episode of The Mosquito Coast. Or have they left the frying pan and stepped into the fire?

Time will tell, but it seems likely that Allie Fox will find some way to slip out of the noose if that’s what waiting for him. Director Rupert Wyatt is back behind the camera for an exciting new episode of Apple TV+ drama.

50% smaller Face ID sensor could shrink iPhone 13 notch

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This concept image shows how the iPhone 13 notch might shrink.
Are you fed up with the iPhone notch?
Artists concept: Cult of Mac

Apple could shrink this year’s iPhone “notch” thanks to a 40% to 50% smaller VCSEL chip in the Face ID sensor, Digitimes reported Friday. According to the report, the smaller die size could show up as soon as the “new iPhone and iPad devices to be rolled out later in 2021.”

New AirPods and lossless Apple Music HiFi rumored for next week

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AirPods 3 might borrow some features of AirPods Pro.
Coming soon to an ear (or even two) near you.
Graphic: Cult of Mac

New AirPods could be on their way next Tuesday, a sketchy rumor shared by AppleTrack suggests. The rumor comes from a YouTuber named Luke Miani, who doesn’t have a record when it comes to Apple rumors.

AppleTrack, which tracks the validity of Apple rumors, says it has heard “privately” that Apple is set to release new AirPods in the coming weeks. According to the report, Apple will make the announcement on May 18 in a press release.

Mix and match modular wireless chargers with RapidX Modula5 [Review]

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RapidX Modula5 review
Daisychain RapidX Modula units to build a custom wireless charging station.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Many homes and offices have a collection of iPhones, Apple Watches and AirPods that need charging every night. Rather than a collection of these cluttered together, the RapidX Modula5 system offers wireless chargers that magnetically snap together and run off a single cable.

I used Modula5 in my multi-device home. Here’s why I like it.

Putting macOS on iPad is a terrible idea

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Putting macOS on iPad is a terrible idea
No. No, no, no, no. No.
Graphic: Cult of Mac

Apple’s smart decision to build an M1 processor into the 2021 iPad Pro renewed calls to port macOS to the tablet. “Put macOS on the iPad, you cowards,” read one particularly misguided headline.

Doing so would be a mistake so severe it would damage sales of both iPad and Mac. It would take years to clean up the mess.

No matter that Macs and iPads run on the same chip. macOS isn’t designed for a touchscreen. Apple would need to redesign the operating system to run on a tablet, and devs would need to alter third-party applications, too. And that would anger people using non-touchscreen laptops and desktops.

Plus, people happy with the iPad now wouldn’t like the change either.

Strong interest in AirTag shows Apple could have a winner

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Apple AirTag finally jumped from rumor to reality.
Lots of Apple users say they’re interested in getting an AirTag.
Photo: Apple

The Apple AirTag tracker will be a huge hit, if a new survey of iPhone and iPad users is correct. More than 60% of respondents said they planned to buy the accessory.

Most people in the survey said they were satisfied with AirTag’s $29.99 price. But they were mostly drawn to the item tracker because it’s tied into Apple’s global Find My network.

Return of Touch ID is the most-anticipated feature for iPhone 13

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Touch ID might be back in the iPhone 13
People sure like their fingerprint sensing.
Concept image: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Apple customers are seemingly always on the lookout for the next big thing when it comes to new products. That may not be quite true for the iPhone 13, though.

According to a survey by SellCell.com, the feature most Apple customers look forward to is actually the return of Touch ID, the fingerprint sensor Apple has been phasing out in favor of Face ID.

This leather iPhone 12 Pro Max case won’t leave you feeling blue [Review]

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Woolnut iPhone 12 Pro Max leather case review: Blue to the max!
Woolnut's leather iPhone 12 case takes blue to the max.
Photo: Lewis Wallace/Cult of Mac

Woolnut’s slim leather cases look fantastic enough that you might not mourn covering up your beautiful iPhone. And when I put a blue one on my ridiculously huge iPhone 12 Pro Max, it did more than provide an acceptably luxurious layer of protection.

It actually made my phone feel better.

You’ve got to see this iPhone notch ‘fix’ to believe it

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This iPhone M1 concept is by Antonio De Rosa from ADRStudio.
A new concept design thinks outside of the box on removing the iPhone notch.
Screenshot: ADRStudio/ConceptsiPhone

The screen notch isn’t anyone’s favorite iPhone feature, and an iPhone concept makes a radical suggestion for repositioning it: the artist suggests stretching the top of the handset to make room for the front-facing camera and other sensors.

Watch a pretend Apple advertisement from the concept artist demonstrating the innovative new device now:

Prevent downloaded music from taking up too much storage on iPhone

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Optimize music storage iPhone
Don't let songs take up all your space.
Image: Apple/Cult of Mac

If you like to store music locally on your iPhone so you don’t need a data connection to listen to your favorite tracks while you’re on the go, you may find that, over time, your music takes up too much space.

You can prevent that from happening by optimizing music storage on your device so the songs you don’t listen to anymore are automatically deleted to make room for other content. We’ll show you how.

High school student makes impressive 3D renders of big-time Mac leaks [Setups]

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Ian Zelbo's monitor shows a render of a leaked MacBook Air concept he worked on with Jon Prosser. on.
Ian Zelbo's previous monitor shows a render of a leaked MacBook Air concept he worked on with Jon Prosser.
Photo: Ian Zelbo

It’s not every day you come across a high school student running a successful tech-based business – never mind one whose 3D renderings are routinely seen by thousands of people. But that’s the case with 17-year-old New Yorker Ian Zelbo and his RendersbyIan.

His detailed and realistic renders of leaked tech products, including Macs, get loads of exposure on social media from his clients, the likes of Jon Prosser of @FrontPageTech and Sam Kohl of iupdate.

Take push-button control of HomeKit accessories with Belkin remote [Review]

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Belkin Wemo Stage Scene Controller review
Press any of the three buttons on Belkin’s Wemo Stage Scene Controller to activate HomeKit accessories.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

You can activate up to six preprogrammed HomeKit scenes or accessories with the push of a button on Belkin’s Wemo Stage Scene Controller. The palm-size remote sits on a table or hangs on a wall, and lets you easily control HomeKit accessories all over your home. No wiring involved.

I’m fully committed to Apple’s home-automation system, and Belkin’s latest HomeKit gadget fit neatly into my setup. Here’s why.

iPadOS 15 concepts showcase features fans crave

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iPadOS 15 concepts showcase features fans crave
iPad users would be pleased if all these proposed features make it into iPadOS 15.
Photo: The Hacker 34

A pair of concept artists want Apple to bring dramatic improvements in iPadOS 15. They separately created videos with specific suggestions on how iPad could become a more useful computer with the operating system update expected this autumn.

Both agree that the iPad should gain better support for external screens — though they came up with different ways to implement the feature.

New MacBook Air renders look thin, flat and colorful

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Apple reportedly plans to release new laptops in colors that match the iMac lineup.
Apple reportedly plans to release new laptops in colors that match the iMac lineup.
Concept: Ian Zelbo

Apple plans to release a surprisingly thin MacBook Air in the same colors as the current iMacs, according to leaker Jon Prosser.

The redesign, as shown in renders produced by Ian Zelbo in collaboration with Prosser, abandons the MacBook Air’s classic tapered design. Prosser said the renders are based on images shared with him by a reliable source.

What good are monitor light bars? [Setups]

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What good is a monitor light bar? Time to shed some light on the matter.
What good is a monitor light bar? Time to shed some light on the matter.
Photo: Strigga@Reddit

When you look at lots of computer setups people pimp out on social media, you see the same questions cropping up among the comments. One common query: What good are monitor light bars? And what are they for, exactly?

It came up again the other day when Redditor Strigga posted about their MacBook Pro-based setup. Almost at the same time, we saw it again in Maize-Calm’s post about finishing up a setup with, guess what, a light bar.