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iPhone - page 100

Fortnite is killing it on iOS, but it could be so much better

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Fortnite
Team Rumble just got a lot better.
Photo: Epic Games

I’ve been encouraging every gamer I know to play Fortnite on iOS since it made the leap to the App Store back in March. I’ve gushed about how spectacular the game is on mobile, and how it keeps up with its console counterparts.

I’m not at all surprised that the game is making an absolute killing on iPhone and iPad, raking in more than $25 million in revenue during its first month of availability. I’ve played it almost every day, and spent more than I’d like to admit on items I don’t really need.

But two months on, now that the novelty has worn off, I have some complaints to make. Fortnite could be so much better on iOS if Epic was to give it the attention it really deserves.

Iron Man’s iconic head-up display was inspired by the first iPhone

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Marvel Studios
Save the world? There's an app for that!
Photo: Marvel Studios

Apple’s design principles make it into all sorts of areas of pop culture — from the robots in Pixar’s Wall*E to the Stormtroopers and lightsabers in the Disney Star Wars movies to… Iron Man’s head-up display (HUD)?

According to a new oral history of Tony Stark’s instantly recognizable HUD, the computer interface’s design was greatly influenced by Apple’s then-brand new handset, which had only just shipped when the first Iron Man movie was in production.

Apple resists government’s proposed iPhone ‘backdoor’

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GrayKey can bypass iPhone security
A computing pioneer suggested a way to make the iPhone safely unlockable by law enforcement. Apple isn't buying it.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Apple and other tech companies are fighting back against a newly proposed method for giving law enforcement access to encrypted smartphones, bypassing users’ passcodes.

The iPhone backdoor proposal comes from Ray Ozzie, who was once chief technical officer at Microsoft, and its chief software architect.

Pro Tip: Use emoji labels in Safari’s Favorites bar

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emoji-bookmarks
Emoji bookmarks labels look great.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Pro Tip Cult of Mac bug Safari’s Favorites bar is the handiest part of the whole app. On Mac and iPad, it sits permanently at the top of the screen, ready for you to tap bookmarks and bookmarklets, either for fast access to a site, or to execute some neat JavaScript trick. But it can get cluttered up there.

By using Emojis instead of text to label your bookmarks, you can fit more of them in, and you can easily identify them by sight.

iPhone suppliers rebound after Apple’s monster earnings

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Apple waives developer fees for nonprofits, others in 8 additional countries
A giant ecosystem of companies rely on Apple.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Reports about lower-than-expected demand from Apple’s suppliers was one of the reasons so many people were predicting doom for the iPhone X.

But now that Apple has announced its crazy strong earnings for the quarter, Apple’s suppliers are enjoying a welcome boost to their stock prices — with shares rising by more than 14 percent in one case.

Apple could be using shady tactics to cash in on iPhone battery replacements

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iPhone battery
Find new ways to make money? That doesn't sound like the world's most profitable company.
Photo: iFixit

Apple’s iPhone battery replacement initiative was supposed to be a way of Apple getting out of trouble, after news about its iPhone battery throttling was released last year.

But according to a new report, Apple is being a bit shady about its replacement policy by finding minor faults with iPhones that it charges users to correct before giving them their replacement batteries.

Apple drops big batch of betas for iOS and macOS developers

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iPhone X Product Red Wallpaper
Beware this iOS 12.1 bug.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Developers received a big batch of updates this morning as Apple dropped the third set of betas of its upcoming software updates for iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS.

iOS 11.4 beta 3 was made available to developers today, bringing a host of bug fixes and performance improvements to the iPhone and iPad. The new update adds a number of features that were missing from iOS 11.3 while also adding some crucial new goodies.

Lumos Helmet gets gesture controls with help from Apple Watch

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Lumos Helmet
Lumos Helmet now works with Apple Watch.
Photo: Lumos

If you want to be seen and safe on the road when you’re cycling, you need a Lumos Helmet. The world’s first smart bike helmet offers more than just protection, with built-in lights, brake and turn signals. And now it’s even better, thanks to Apple Watch.

Lumos today launched its new watchOS app, which lets you control your helmet’s lighting using simple gestures. The company also confirmed that the Lumos Helmet will soon become the first bike helmet to be sold in Apple stores throughout the United States and Europe.

Apple VR headset might sport two 8K displays

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VR
Will Apple be the company that finally makes VR cool?
Photo: Cult of Mac

Apple’s next big thing could be a virtual reality headset.

According to a new report, the iPhone-maker is planning to launch its own headset in 2020 that can handle both AR and VR technology. And in true Apple fashion, it’ll pack some innovations that could finally bring VR into the mainstream.

Tim Cook vs. Steve Jobs: Who is Apple’s best CEO ever?

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And the winner for best Apple CEO is ...
Both great leaders, but who managed Apple better?
Photo illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Steve Jobs was a mercurial genius with a singular knack for turning bright ideas into shiny new products. Tim Cook is an operations wizard who hammered Apple’s supply chain into a manufacturing powerhouse.

If you’re an Apple fan, you know the widely accepted narrative. You’ve heard the stories about these powerful CEOs and their various strengths and weaknesses. But who helmed Apple most successfully?

We put Cupertino’s most capable execs head-to-head to determine which Apple era was really the best. Get ready to settle things once and for all!

iPhone shipments up significantly in China

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Hong Kong police arrest smugglers with $1 million of iPhones and other devices
Hong Kong police arrest smugglers with $1 million of iPhones and other devices
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Shipments of iPhone in China increased 32 percent in the first quarter of this year. This was during a period when the overall Chinese handset market declined. 

Many Chinese see Apple devices as status symbols and pick them over local brands that cost significantly less.

iPhone movie nominated for celebrated art award

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Charlotte Prodger
Charlotte Prodger is just the latest artist to use an Apple device for her work.
Screenshot: Film London

One of the works nominated for this year’s Turner Prize, an annual award given out to the best British visual artist, is a short film that was shot on an iPhone.

Shortlisted Scottish artist Charlotte Prodger filmed her video Bridgit on an iPhone. It’s just the latest example of how Apple’s devices can be used by creators to make art.

Despite lawsuits, Qualcomm will still provide chips for 2018 iPhones

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Qualcomm patents
Qualcomm will share manufacturing duties with Intel.
Photo: Qualcomm

Breakups can be complicated. If you’ve built a life together, then extricating yourself from the other party isn’t necessarily as easy as ripping off a band-aid.

That’s a life lesson which applies to Qualcomm and Apple. Despite spending the last year-and-a-half feuding with one another, it seems that 2018-era iPhones are still going to rely on Qualcomm for a certain number of chips.

Because life is complex that way.

Is this the year Apple fixes its broken iPhone naming strategy?

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iphone glitch
iPhone naming is all kinds of broken these days.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple could be about to change the way it names successive generations of iPhone. The aim would be to simplify a naming pattern that has become increasingly unwieldy in the past few years.

It’s about time — although that doesn’t mean a new iPhone naming system will necessarily make things any less confusing. Here’s why.

Google brings new Tasks app to iPhone and iPad

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Google Tasks iOS
Google Tasks for iOS can help you get stuff done.
Photo: Google

Google has finally decided that Tasks deserves a dedicated app on mobile.

Available now on iPhone and iPad, Tasks boasts a clean and simple interface with all the features you’ll need to stay productive. It also works closely alongside Google Calendar and Gmail to make managing your most important projects as easy as possible.

iPhone suppliers aren’t expecting business to pick up any time soon

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Tweak this iOS setting to make iPhone speakers louder. (Works with iPad and iPod, too!)
This year's iPhone production hasn't been seamless.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

iPhone component orders for Apple’s suppliers aren’t likely to pick up until the third quarter of this year, a new report suggests.

It’s just the latest bit of bad news in a series of recent reports suggesting that Apple is slashing orders for its present generation iPhones, and may be leaving manufacturers with excess inventory.

How to download all your old Instagram photos and videos

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Instagram
Instagram has a new tool for downloading old photos.
Photo: Instagram

Pulling your photos off of Instagram just got a lot easier.

Instagram revealed today that it is finally starting to roll out a new tool that lets any Instagram user retrieve all of the photos, videos, comments, likes and other data stored on Instagram’s servers.

Get your data by following these steps:

iOS 11.3.1 rolls out with iPhone display fix

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iPhone 8 Wireless Charging
Cheap iPhone 8 displays should work with iOS 11.3.1.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple just rolled out iOS 11.3.1 with a fix for third-party iPhone displays that stopped working properly after an earlier software update. The release also promises security improvements for iPhone and iPad.

Apple throws shade at Android in hilarious iPhone ads

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Apple ad
Up your selfie game with Portrait Lighting.
Photo: Apple

Apple is back with a new set of ads aiming to get Android users to switch to iPhone. The two new ads showcase Portrait Mode and Portrait Lightning on the newest iPhones, while also bragging about the App Store’s security compared to Google Play.

Watch them both:

Developers enjoy a huge boost from iOS 11’s App Store redesign

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iPhone App Store
The iPhone App Store is a sort of magazine about iOS software.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

The iOS App Store got a new look last fall, and the change has greatly benefited developers of third-party applications, as Apple intended. A new study found that getting named Game of the Day results in an 800 percent increase in downloads.

Inclusion in the other segments of the App Store Today screen brought improved performance as well.

How to use age restrictions to protect your kids from adult apps and movies

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age restrictions
Children were restricted differently in the past.
Photo: Alisha Vargas/Flickr CC

The iPad and iPhone can be great learning tools for kids, just the same as they are for adults (only with more clowns and talking animals). But even if you don’t want to fully lock-down your iPad to restrict what your kids can do, you might want to stop then from downloading adult-oriented apps. That includes violent games, scary books, and dirty movies.

Doom is not on Apple’s audacious agenda

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iPhone X Product Red Wallpaper
Believe it or not, Apple has a plan.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

With smartphone sales plateauing, the iPhone can no longer propel Apple to the sort of stratospheric success the company (and its shareholders) enjoyed over the past decade.

Is Apple CEO Tim Cook clueless? Will Apple be caught flat-footed, unable to pivot and move to the next big thing? The latest prediction of Apple’s impending doom sounds particularly dire.

LG losing its fight to become iPhone screen supplier

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iPhone X
Ready to ditch your iPhone X already? There's still time to get a great price!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple is having a tough time trying to diversify iPhone screen suppliers and break away from Samsung.

LG Display was lined up to become a second supplier of OLED displays for this year’s iPhone lineup, but after running into manufacturing troubles, it may not be able to meet Apple’s demands.

PUBG Mobile‘s new modes ease you into the battleground

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PUBG Mobile
The new Training Grounds and Arcade modes let you practice PUBG Mobile without getting killed almost immediately.
Screenshot: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

The point of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is to throw you into a battle and see if you survive. But that can be a bit intimidating for those who’ve never played before, so Tencent just added two practice modes to the mobile version. One of these involves playing in a smaller area, and can become its own challenge with the right settings.

Sadly, the iOS version doesn’t have these new modes yet, but an upgrade is expected soon.