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iPhone - page 107

Apple Pay now accepted on Milan metro system

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Apple Pay Milan subway
Tap to pay as you travel Milan.
Photo: Visa

You can now use Apple Pay as you travel Milan on the metro system.

Contactless payment terminals have been installed throughout underground subways, allowing you to pay for tickets using your iPhone or Apple Watch. You can also use compatible MasterCard and Visa credit and debit cards.

This brilliant case packs an airbag for dropped smartphones

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AD Case
The AD Case isn't pretty, but it'll save your iPhone.
Photo: Landesschau Baden-Württemberg

Dropping your $1000 iPhone X can be a costly and traumatic experience, but a clever student in Germany may have found the perfect solution: built-in airbags.

Philip Frenzel, a student from Aalen University in Germany, invented a new form of smartphone protection called the AD Case. Instead of using actual airbags though, AD Case packs built-in sensors that detect when a phone is dropping and then deploys eight springs that actively dampen the fall.

Prepare to be amazed:

AT&T finds sneaky way to squeeze extra $800 million out of customers

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AT&T logo
AT&T is making customers pay for its Time Warner merger.
Photo: Luismt94/Wikipedia CC

AT&T customers might start noticing that their monthly bills just got a little bit more expensive.

In a move to raise some more cash after spending $85.4 billion to buy Time Warner, AT&T has increased the price of its customer service fees. The increase itself is pretty small, but when applied to AT&T’s entire customer base, it could help the telecommunications carrier bring in an extra $800 million in revenue this year.

This tiny cable can charge both iPhones and Android devices

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Incharge cable
One cable to rule them all.
Photo: InCharge

Keeping enough cables around to keep your iPhone and Android-toting friends charged up can be a big tangled pain, but there’s now one cable to rule them all.

inCharge debuted its new tiny charging cable today. Not only does it pack a Lightning connector that also works with Micro-USB ports, but you can also clip on a USB-C port too, making it the most versatile charging cord we’ve ever seen.

How to install iOS 12 public beta on your iPhone or iPad

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The iOS 12 public beta could render your iPhone almost useless.
The iOS 12 public beta could render your iPhone almost useless.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

The iOS 12 public beta is available to download and install on any of your compatible devices. The public beta is essentially the same as the developer beta, only each build is released around a week after the developer version. So far, the develoer beta has been surprisingly stable, but its definitely not ready for regular day-to-day use (more on that in a moment). But if you’re feeling brave, or if you have a spare device you’d like to use to see what all the fuss is about, then installing the beta is easy.

Apple’s new AirPods case could charge your iPhone in a pinch

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AirPower
Will we finally get a release date for AirPower?
Photo: Apple

Apple’s upcoming AirPods case will offer more than just wireless charging for your headphones, according to a sketchy new report.

A source familiar with Apple’s plans claims the case will double as an iPhone charger that will give you a boost in battery life when you’re in a pinch. The device could be available before the end of this year.

Take a sneak peek at the cheaper 6.1-inch iPhone for 2018

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6.5- and 6.1-inch 2018 iPhone models
Complications could keep us waiting for Apple’s more affordable iPhone.
Photo: OnLeaks

Apple will introduce three new iPhones this fall, according to recent reports. Its most popular is expected to be a brand new model with a 6.1-inch LCD screen, which will be more affordable than the rumored iPhone XI and iPhone XI Plus.

We’ve all been wondering what that handset will look like. The render below offers an early sneak peek — and makes us incredibly excited for this September’s big iPhone refresh.

iPhone maker slams China’s overtime caps

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Foxconn
But there's a definite chance of further delays.
Photo: Foxconn

Foxconn could assemble even more iPhones if China eased restrictions curbing factories from abusing overtime, the company’s CEO says.

Billionaire Terry Gou says China’s rules on overtime keep workers from earning more and puts limits on Foxconn’s competitive edge.

AirPower to arrive in September after design problems are solved

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AirPower
Will we finally get a release date for AirPower?
Photo: Apple

Apple will finally deliver its AirPower charger in September after solving “a series of technical hurdles,” according to a new report.

Overheating is one problem company engineers have had to contend with. Another is AirPower’s complex circuitry, which is necessary to allow compatible devices to be placed anywhere on the mat for charging.

Governments start crackdown on smartphone use in schools

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iPhone X standing
There's growing concern about the effects of mobile devices on young people.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The government of southeastern Australian state, New South Wales, has said that it plans to carry out a comprehensive review of smartphone use in schools. This will look at the effects of smartphones on kids in school, both in and out classrooms.

Why is that significant? Because, building on the growing concern about smartphone addiction, it represents a developing trend focused on cracking down on the use of phones. And New South Wales isn’t the only place doing this.

Companies scrabbling to create Apple’s abandoned in-screen Touch ID

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iPhone
Coming soon to an iPhone near you? Probably not.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

How much influence does Apple have when it comes to which technologies get popular? Apparently enough that even those technologies Apple doesn’t use get a boost of credibility, courtesy of their association with the Cupertino tech giant.

At least, that’s our take-home message from a new report suggesting that a number of manufacturers are ramping up their development of in-display fingerprint sensors, the technology that Apple considered before settling on Face ID facial recognition instead for the iPhone X.

Apple expecting iPhone XI Plus to be its most popular new handset

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iphone x
The plus-sized 2018 iPhone could be Apple's biggest handset in every way.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple is expecting its 6.5-inch iPhone XI Plus to be its most popular new handset of 2018, a new report claims.

The Korean language article claims that Apple is forecasting 45 million iPhone XI Plus shipments for later this year, around 25 million for the 5.8-inch iPhone XI, and 30 million for the 6.1-inch LCD iPhone 9. The iPhone XI Plus is set to be easily Apple’s largest iPhone of all time — and close to twice the size of the original first-gen iPhone.

Trump promises Apple he won’t put tariff on iPhones

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

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been hard at work trying to make peace before the brewing trade war with the U.S. and China blows up.

In a new profile by the New York Times, details have emerged of how Tim Cook has been talking to both Trump’s administration and leadership in China to ensure Apple’s stability in both countries.

Apple Camp now taking reservations for summer fun

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Apple Camp
This summer camp will teach you to create music, video stories and control robots the Apple way.
Photo: Apple

Sign-ups began today for Apple Camp, a free three-day summer program for kids at Apple Stores across the globe.

The camps, designed to expose kids to the many ways to get creative with Apple products, run July 9 through 27. Reservations tend to fill up fast.

Apple drops new betas for iOS 11.4.1 and tvOS

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Developers must support iPhone X screen iOS 11 SDK
iOS 11 is getting a little bit of love before iOS 12 comes out.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Developers received a fresh batch of beta software from Apple this morning, only it wasn’t the iOS 12 beta 2 that everyone was hoping for.

iOS 11.4.1 beta 3 was released to developers this morning, alongside a new beta for tvOS 11.4.1. Both builds bring a bunch of bug fixes to iPhone, iPad and Apple TV as Apple gets ready to move onto iOS 12 and tvOS 12.

iOS 12 automatically shares your location when you call 911

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iOS 12 911 calls
iOS 12 will help you get faster emergency services.
Photo: Apple

Apple is making it easier for iPhone users in the United States to be located by the emergency services with iOS 12.

When the update rolls out to everyone this fall, users will be able to automatically and securely share their location data with 911 first responders to help reduce emergency response times, Apple confirmed today.

5G standard completed, ready to provide ubiquitous gigabit internet

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iPhone 5G
A 5G iPhone isn't right around the corner, but it just moved a lot closer.
Graphic: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

4G LTE will soon be supplanted by something better, stronger, and faster. But before 5G can be rolled out, it had to pass an important hurdle: a final design needed to be agreed apron.

The 3GPP agreed on a standard this week, opening the way to significantly faster browsing and downloads.

Apple Maps suffers widespread search and directions outage [UPDATED]

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Apple Maps outage
Save us, Google Maps!
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Good luck finding your way with Apple Maps today.

The service is suffering a widespread outage that is preventing many users from using search or directions. The problem seems to be affecting iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac users around the world, but Apple says all services are operating normally.

UPDATE: As of Friday afternoon, whatever the earlier problem was, this service appears to be working normally again.

Gmail for iOS just got a big notifications upgrade

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Gmail iOS
View all your messages individually if you prefer.
Photo: Google

Some of us need to have email notifications enabled, but we don’t want our iPhone to ping every time a spam message hits out inbox. Gmail just got a big notifications upgrade that solves this problem.

Its official iOS app now uses artificial intelligence to provide notifications for your most important emails only.

Intel cranks out speedy new modems for 2018 iPhones

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intel
Intel will take the majority of orders from Apple.
Photo: Thomas Hawk/Flickr

Intel has reportedly started production of the new faster XMM 7560 modem chips for Apple’s 2018 iPhones, marking the first time Intel has manufactured modem chips in-house for Apple.

While Intel has supplied Apple with modem chips for the past couple of years, previously it has outsourced production to TSMC.

iPhone’s transition to OLED displays won’t be complete until 2020

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iPhone X home screen
iOS 14's Home screen could be very different.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s more affordable iPhone models with LCD displays will remain its best-selling devices with the transition to OLED technology slower than expected.

A new report claims Apple will continue to offer an iPhone with an LCD in 2019 and beyond. One analyst warns that the iPhone lineup won’t switch to OLED displays entirely until 2020 at the earliest.