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News - page 1047

Google swipes iPad’s killer work features for Android N preview

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google-swipes-ipads-killer-work-features-for-android-n-preview-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201603split-screen-Android-N-png
Split-screen finally comes to stock Android.
Photo: Google
Split-screen finally comes to stock Android. Screenshot: Google
Split-screen finally comes to stock Android. Photo: Google

Google I/O doesn’t kick off for another two months, but Google won’t wait that long to drop its next-generation Android N upgrade.

Its first developer preview is out today for Nexus devices, and it comes packing a number of features swiped from iPad Pro and iOS, including split-screen multitasking, picture-in-picture mode, and bundled app notifications.

Facebook plans to let you skip Live Video notifications

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You'll be able to disable all notifications for Live Video on Facebook soon.
You'll be able to disable all notifications for Live Video on Facebook soon.
Photo: Thomas Ulrich/Pixabay

Live Videos might be a boon to content creators who want to capture the attention of more of Facebook’s teeming throngs of users, but getting a ton of notifications from all the sources you’ve previously liked can be a serious pain in the pants.

Luckily, Facebook plans to release a new update that will let you turn off Notifications for Live Videos altogether, which should please most of the people complaining about it on Twitter.

AmpMe’s new offline mode turns friends’ phones into a giant boombox

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No stereo? No problem. AmpMe app creates a sound system with all the phones at a party.
No stereo? No problem. AmpMe app creates a sound system with all the phones at a party.
Photo: AmpMe

AmpMe, the magical app that syncs multiple phones together to create one giant speaker, is getting a much needed update today that lets you take the party anywhere, even if you don’t have internet.

The Montreal-based startup revealed today that it has added a new ‘Offline Mode’ that will let users sync an unlimited number of phones together regardless of whether or not you have a data connection. And to make it easier to get the party started, the app has add a new ‘Auto-Join’ mode that makes it easier than ever to get the music listening party started.

Borat creator uses hilarious Apple parody to promote new movie

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Screen Shot 2016-03-09 at 12.08.32
Look familiar?
Photo: The Brothers Grimsby

Parodies of Jony Ive and Apple’s rarefied advertising are nothing new, but you rarely get to watch a spoof featuring a comedian as talented as Sacha Baron Cohen.

To promote his new movie The Brothers Grimsby, the creator of Ali G, Bruno and Borat recorded a spot-on Apple parody, which shows that — despite the many who have aped it in the past — there’s still mileage in poking some good-natured fun at Apple’s way of selling us on its latest revolutionary products.

Check it out below.

Edward Snowden says FBI’s claims against Apple are ‘bull****’

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Edward Snowden.
The government is lying to us? Color me surprised!
Photo: Laura Poitras / Praxis Films

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden made a (virtual) appearance at yesterday’s “Blueprint for Democracy,” during which he threw some shade on the FBI’s claims that only Apple has the power to help it unlock the iPhone at the heart of the San Bernardino shooting case.

“The FBI says Apple has the ‘exclusive technical means’ to unlock the phone,” Snowden told the audience. “Respectfully, that’s bullsh*t.”

We won’t get to watch Steve Jobs battle Bill Gates on Broadway

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Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, rivals and friends.
This is presumably before they break into the big tap-dancing number.
Photo: AllThingsD

If you’ve long dreamed of seeing the epic tech rivalry between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates staged as a Broadway musical, written by two of the writers from Cartoon Network’s Robot Chicken (and who hasn’t?), well, I’m afraid you’ll be waiting a bit longer.

That’s because the somewhat unflatteringly-titled Nerds has seen its Broadway opening — originally scheduled for April — cancelled after one of the sources of funding pulled out of the project.

No, Siri won’t let people break into your iPhone

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Siri interrogation video The Daily Show
Siri don't snitch.
Photo: Comedy Central

The Internet has exploded recently over reports claiming that evildoers can trick Siri, Apple’s digital assistant, into giving them access to your iPhone without entering your passcode. But our own testing confirms that these claims aren’t just exaggerated; they’re hilariously mistaken and wrong.

Posts warn against the “terrifying new way” that teh haxxorz can get into all of your secret data, but the people reporting on and testing the supposed methods are really just taking a really long path to unlocking their own phones normally.

Check out the creation of the Steve Wozniak wax sculpture

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Steve Wozniak Madame Tussauds San Francisco
Are you ready for The Woz in wax?
Photo: Madame Tussauds

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is well on his way to becoming a life-sized action figure.

Not really, but we’re nerds, and that’s how we prefer to think of the prospect of Madame Tussauds’ waxperts immortalizing a person. Woz’s statue is set for an unveiling later this month, and the museum has published some great footage and pictures of the subject’s sitting, which included a lot of photographs and measurements as well as a healthy dose of green gloop.

Check it out below.

March Madness app brings split-screen glory to Apple TV

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Apple TV is the home of March Madness.
Apple TV is the home of March Madness.
Photo: Cult of Mac

When the NCAA Men’s Basketball championship tips off on March 15th hoops fans will have an all-new way to get their fix using Apple TV.

The new March Madness Live streaming app will contain an exclusive Apple TV feature that lets users watch two games side-by-side, but you’ll need to be a paying TV subscriber to use it.

Apple Watch concept is a wrist-mounted life remote

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Berr's design is one of the best Apple Watch concepts we've seen.
Berr's design is one of the best Apple Watch concepts we've seen.
Photo: Adrian Berr

When it comes to Apple Watch concepts, they tend to be conservatively similar to the current Apple iteration of its wrist computer.

Adrian Berr has come up with a new concept for an Apple Watch that actually takes the concept further: it looks like an Apple Watch, just evolved.

Instead of trying to replicate all the function of an iPhone, this concept is more like a wrist-mounted remote control for your life.

Chinese couple sold 18-day old daughter for iPhone

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baby-iphone
Sorry, baby. Daddy needs an upgrade.
Photo: Tatsuo Yamashita/Flickr CC

A young man in China was found guilty of selling his 18-day old daughter in exchange for enough money to buy himself a new motorcycle and iPhone.

The 19 year-old man identified as ‘A Duan’ by local Chinese media reportedly found a buyer for his newborn through the popular messaging app QQ and negotiated the entire deal without the consent of the child’s biological mother.

5 ways the Galaxy S7 beats the iPhone 6s

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Samsung-Galaxy
Yup, water-resistance is one of them!
Photo: Samsung
Yup, water-resistance is one of them. Photo: Samsung
Yup, water-resistance is one of them. Photo: Samsung

As the iPhone’s biggest rivals, Samsung’s latest Galaxy smartphones have to be good enough to convince consumers that they’re a better buy. None do that better than the new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge.

According to the overwhelmingly positive reviews published today, the duo have a number of big advantages over the iPhone 6s. Here are 7 of them.

Facebook algorithm will learn new slang before you do

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Wonder how Facebook users will react to this new software.
Wonder how Facebook users will react to this new software.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Spend some time around any teenager and you’ll probably hear some new slang that you don’t understand. If you do get it, and you’re not a teenager or young adult yourself, chances are it’s already gone the way of the dodo in the minds and twisted hearts of said youngsters.

Facebook is hoping to combat this with a new software patent that would detect and gather new lingo as it appears on the social network, making it available to everyone.

As if we needed one more reason to feel old.

iPhone may get even bigger in 2017 with 5.8-inch OLED screen

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Does iPhone really need to get bigger?
Does the iPhone really need to get bigger?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

If the iPhone 6s Plus seems just a little bit too small in your monstrous hands, fret not dear giant friends: Apple may be planning to go even bigger with a super-sized iPhone 7s Pro.

Apple is looking to add a 5.8-inch OLED display to the iPhone in 2017 or 2018, according to a new rumor that claims Samsung is already on board to supply the screens.

ExxonMobil finally brings Apple Pay to the gas pump

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Apple Pay iPhone
Paying at the pump is about to get a lot easier.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Filling up your car with gasoline is about to get a lot quicker, now that the world’s biggest oil company is finally adding Apple Pay to its pumps.

Starting today, ExxonMobil is activating Apple Pay at more than 6,000 gas stations across the U.S., allowing customers to buy gas or a car wash without having to bust out their wallets.

Steve Jobs movie finally gets some love

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Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs.
Another shot at glory?
Photo: François Duhamel/© 2015 Universal Studios

Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs movie bombed hard at the box office and failed to win anything at the Oscars, but the MTV Movie Awards are apparently a bit kinder than the Academy and the movie-going public. The Jobs semi-biopic just got nominated for the movie awards show’s Best True Story prize.

Kind of ironic, given Steve Jobs’ myriad inaccuracies, don’t you think?

Hillary Clinton weighs in on Apple’s FBI standoff. Kind of.

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iPhone 6 Plus_8
Clinton had no-so strong words for followers of the current privacy debate.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Other than a lasting love of Wall Street, Hillary Clinton’s poll-driven opinions on hot-button issues change as often as most people change their underwear.

But saying whatever the popular opinion is poses a problem when, as with Apple’s current privacy vs. “national security” standoff with the government, people voters are undecided on the issue. What do you do when someone asks you about it on the campaign trail, then?

If you’re the possible future POTUS, you take the bull by the horns and, well, offer an opinion that’s about as inoffensively middle-of-the-road as a Coldplay song in a wallpaper commercial.

Justice Department hopes to overturn Apple’s privacy win in New York

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iPhone mobile encryption touch id
The government would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for those meddling iKids.
Photo: Olly Browning/Pixabay

The U.S. Justice Department is seeking to overturn a ruling protecting Apple from unlocking the iPhone at the center of a New York drug case. The recent ruling from a New York magistrate judge stated that the government can’t compel Apple to unlock an iPhone involved in a criminal investigation, using the All Writs Act.

So the decision must have been wrong, of course!

Tim Cook involved in secret meeting to stump Donald Trump

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This story is going to be a Hollywood movie in 20 years, isn't it?
Photo: Michael Vadon/Flickr CC

Donald Trump doesn’t seem to like Apple much, and apparently the feeling is mutual. A new report claims Tim Cook joined an exclusive group of billionaires, tech CEOs and politicians who flew to a private island resort over the weekend to talk about how best to stump Trump.

Am I the only one who thinks this sounds like the opening of a Tom Clancy thriller?

Woz takes up ‘Innovator in Residence’ post at High Point University

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InnovatorInResidence_Outlines
Apple's co-founder has a new role.
Photo: High Point University

Compared to his Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak has always seemed more of a bumbling academic type: the sort who would much rather be getting his fingers dirty in research labs than flying in a shiny Gulfstream jet to negotiate new iTunes terms with a music label.

Which is why Woz would appear to be a perfect fit for his newly-announced role as North Carolina-based private liberal art college High Point University’s latest “Innovator in Residence.”

What’s the betting that theses dedicated to why the Apple II was the best computer ever suddenly get a major boost in numbers?

Square payments reach Australia without Apple Pay

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Square personal payment
Square's point-of-sale system is headed to Australia, but Apple Pay is a didgeri-don't.
Photo: Square

Australian small-business owners can now avail themselves of Square’s personal-payment system, which should make their lives slightly easier. And they could use all the help they can get considering they live in a country whose ecosystem was apparently designed by a comic-book supervillain. But vendors who have been looking for a way to accept credit cards can now breathe a little easier — once they’ve checked their shoes for deadly, deadly spiders.

A notable omission, however, is that Square’s restricting its offerings in that country to the older reader, which only accepts magstripes and chip cards. So unfortunately, our friends down there will have to wait a little longer for Apple Pay.