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News - page 1006

Tim Cook’s visit to India will be insanely busy

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Apple supplier is increasing its ability to build masses of iPhones in India
Tim Cook's got big plans while in India.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Tim Cook doesn’t get much downtime to enjoy being the king of all things Apple, does he?

Recently he was troubleshooting in China, and now Apple’s CEO has landed for a week-long stay in India, with five other senior Apple execs, during which time they will meet with top execs and politicians in the country, visit the location of Apple’s new tech development center, and much more.

Apple adds second supplier for iPhone 7 Plus

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Apple is expanding its number of iPhone suppliers.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple has reportedly added Wistron as a supplier for its upcoming next-gen iPhone 7 Plus: the 5.5-inch handset we’re expecting to arrive this September.

Although the companies in question haven’t officially confirmed it, Wistron and Foxconn are said to be sharing orders for the plus-sized phone, while Pegatron and Foxconn will split orders for the smaller-size 4.7-inch iPhone 7.

Apple engineers visit iTunes user to troubleshoot issues

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Apple is trying to solve its music issues.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Never let it be said that Apple doesn’t go above and beyond the call of duty in troubleshooting problems for its users in the name of achieving customer satisfaction.

After James Pinkstone, director of design service Vellum, posted a terrifying story on his company blog claiming that iTunes Match stole his files, Apple sprang into action — sending two engineers to his house to troubleshoot the problem.

The power of bad publicity, eh?

New Apple TV loses to Roku in U.S.

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apple tv and siri remote
The Apple TV had a surge of sales last year.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The fourth generation Apple TV experienced the largest increase in unit sales last year among streaming media players but it hasn’t been good enough to supplant Roku as the top streamer in the U.S. 

Apple TV’s biggest weakness appears to be its price point. New research shows that smaller stick streamers made up half of last year’s sales and Apple’s competition reaped the rewards.

A guide to Apple Pay and its fiercest competitors

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Apple Pay iPhone
Yet another reason to use Apple Pay.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

When Apple CEO Tim Cook announced Apple Pay in October 2014, only about 2.7 percent of retailers that accepted credit cards had the technology to compatible with the mobile wallet. In 2015, only 0.2 percent of sales were made with mobile wallets, according to survey by research firm eMarketer. However, that same research firm predicts that by the end of 2016, nearly one in five smartphone users will use mobile payments.

After several years of various mobile wallets trying to gain momentum, three factors — all are related to the switch most retailers made last October to accept chip cards (also called EMV) — are predicted to drive a big shift towards mobile wallets. Updates at retailers to accept EMV cards also often include compatibility for near field communication (NFC), the tap-to-pay technology used by many mobile wallets.

Watch Tim Cook jam with one of China’s biggest pop stars

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Tim Cook is ready to rock you.
Tim Cook is ready to rock you.
Photo: Apple

Apple CEO Tim Cook will probably never win a Grammy for his erhu skills but he can say that he got to have an erhu jam battle with one of Asia’s biggest popstars.

During his star-studded tour of China, Tim Cook met up with JJ Lin to play a new song on the new Garageband app that’s been updated to celebrate China’s musical history with over 300 musical samples, and new instruments like Chinese percussions, pipa and erhu.

Checkout Cook playing JJ Lin’s new song “The Key” on his iPad:

Apple suppliers bulk up for ‘complex’ iPhone 7

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Foxconn is recruiting early for this year's iPhone.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Apple suppliers in Taiwan are already taking on new recruits in preparation for the iPhone 7. Local sources say that the design of this year’s device is more complex to build than previous models, so manufacturers are getting to work early.

Apple products subject to secretive Chinese security reviews

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Photo of Apple CEO Tim Cook talking with Chinese children to illustrate an Apple history article about the deal that brought the iPhone to China Mobile, the world's largest carrier.
The Chinese government is snooping on Apple devices.
Photo: Apple

Chinese authorities are scrutinizing Apple devices before allowing them to be sold in the country, claims a new report.

The reviews involve Chinese officials requiring executives of foreign tech companies to answer questions in person, with the concern being that companies like Apple may be forced to trade trade secrets for market access.

Android phones crash at almost twice the rate of iPhones

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One of these phones is not like the other.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Android handsets crash far more regularly than iPhones, a new study by the Blanco Technology Group claims.

Measuring the number of failures of Android phones and iPhones during the first three months of 2016, devices running Google’s mobile platform were found to have a failure rate of 44 percent, compared to 25 percent for the iPhone.

Apple Pay rival CurrentC has been delayed yet again

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Apple Pay's biggest competitor has already been hacked. Photo: MXC
This isn't the first time it's been delayed, either.
Photo: MXC

Have companies not yet worked out that trying to go against Apple rarely seems to work out? If not, they may be learning quickly — with Apple Pay rival CurrentC reportedly delaying its arrival yet again, while laying off 30 of its staff.

Hardly a ringing endorsement, is it?

GarageBand celebrates Chinese music with big content update

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GarageBand just got an update with China in mind.
Photo: Apple

Tim Cook’s in China right now, and what better way to showcase Apple’s dedication to growing its Chinese customer base than by updating GarageBand for Mac and iOS with new instruments intended to, “celebrate the rich history of Chinese music?”

The update adds 300 new Chinese musical loops including guzheng, dizi, yangqin and Peking Opera samples, as well as a plethora of Chinese musical instruments such as the pipa, erhu, and Chinese percussion.

Twitter will stop counting links against 140 character limit

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Twitter
Twitter wants to give you more flexibility.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Don’t you just hate it when you compose the perfect tweet and then insert a link that takes it over the 140 character limit? Well, that could soon become a thing of the past.

According to sources familiar with Twitter’s plans, the company will soon stop counting the URLs and photos inserted into your tweets.

Apple’s building a start-up accelerator in India

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The next iPhone will have a huge battery.
Apple plans to help India develop iOS apps.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple CEO Tim Cook will have a lot to talk about with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi when Cook touches down in the country later this week.

The iPhone-maker is ready to make a big push into India, and according to a new report, that will include investing in India’s start-up scene with an incubator focused on helping companies in the country that build iOS apps.

Warren Buffett is betting big on Apple

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Berkshire Hathaway's investment in Apple could send the price back up.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Some of the world’s biggest investors have ditched their Apple shares lately, but where others see doom and gloom Warren Buffett sees an opportunity to make some serious money. 

Warren Buffet’s legendary investment firm Berkshire Hathaway has taken a large position in Apple stock, scooping up 9.81 million shares, worth about $1.07 billion.

How to quickly recover deleted notes on iOS

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Always deleting important notes? Don't worry, we've got you covered.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Notes on iOS is an extremely useful app, and it got more useful with the addition of password protection in iOS 9.3. Keeping bank codes, addresses, passwords and more has never been more secure from outside threats. But that doesn’t mean it’s safe from you.

If you tend to tidy up apps and notes in a rush — as I do — you may end up deleting something you need or want. And if you haven’t finished with that note yet, that becomes a big problem. But it’s one that’s easy to fix.

In this week’s Quick Tips video, I’m going to show you how to recover deleted notes and restore all those personal details you’ve jotted down to their rightful place.

Check the video out below.