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News - page 1073

TSOLife is a place where your story can live long after you do

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Your memories become precious stories for future generations with TSOLife.
Your memories become precious stories for future generations with TSOLife.
Photo: TSOLIfe

David Sawyer knows two very interesting things about his grandfather: he ran track fast enough to qualify for the Olympics and he once saved two men drowning at sea while working on a lobster boat.

But the details that would make those two events precious stories for generations to come were never shared. When Sawyer’s grandfather died, it was as if he died twice.

Make light paintings on your iPhone with this amazing app

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Air Pencil is an amazing app that lets you recording light paintings in the air.
Air Pencil is an amazing app that lets you recording light paintings in the air.
Photo: AdTile

Light paintings are a fun technique, dating back to the 19th century and used by luminaries such as Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol. By waving a light source, like a flashlight, in front of a camera set for a long exposure, you can seemingly create static paintings of light in mid air.

Your iPhone is both a camera and a flashlight, but you usually need two of them to make a light painting. Now a new web app called Air Pencil is set to change that, allowing you to create incredible three-dimensional light paintings, no external camera required.

British Airways app takes off on Apple Watch

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As smartwatches grow in popularity, the Apple Watch will continue to be the hands-on - or wrist-on - favorite.
App usage is sky high right now.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s refusal to release any hard and fast Apple Watch figures (it has most likely sold in the region of 7 million) has led some people to dismiss the wearable as a failure, despite the company’s vague assertions otherwise.

Now British Airways has thrown out its own stats, noting that its Apple Watch app saw usage increase by a massive 386 percent between June and October, demonstrating that Apple Watch app usage is most definitely on the rise.

Apple is testing ‘at least’ five radically different iPhone 7 prototypes

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iPhone 6s
iPhone 6s is sticking around for now.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

What will the iPhone 7 look like? Even Apple doesn’t know. According to a new rumor out of China, Apple is currently experimenting with at least five distinct iPhone 7 models, each with a totally different combination of hardware, including a possible AMOLED screen, a USB Type-C connector instead of Lightning, and a fingerprint reader built into the display.

Apple’s Plus-size iPhones grow ever more popular

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The iPhone 6 Plus is already king of the phablets. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Apple's larger iPhones are becoming more popular than ever.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

The share of Apple’s iPhone Plus models is gradually growing compared to “regular size” iPhones, according to a new report.

Research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners notes that the percentage of iPhone customers who bought the larger iPhone 6s Plus in its first 30 days on sale increased to 37 percent, up significantly from the 25 percent who bought the iPhone 6 Plus.

Apple would be stupid to drop the iPhone headphone jack

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iPhone 6 headphone jack
Gone and almost forgotten.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

If Apple is really planning to kill the iPhone headphone jack in the model it reveals next year, it’s ditching 60 years of history.

Rumors that the next iPhone could do away with the industry-standard 3.5mm port in Apple’s relentless pursuit of thinness have been around for a while, but they’re seeing a resurgence thanks to a post on a Japanese blog. The article cites “a reliable source” that claims the Cupertino company will shave 1mm off the phone’s thickness by dropping the just-way-too-fat jack in favor of proprietary Lightning connectors.

But if Apple actually does this, it’s kind of a huge deal.

Apple launches Personal Pickup in six E.U. countries

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Members of the press were given a preview of the new Apple Store in Brussels, which official opens Saturday.
Apple is making its retail store services more consistent around the world.
Photo: Photo Bruno Dalimonte/macplus.net

Apple has expanded its Personal Pickup scheme — which allows customers to order products online and then pick them up in their nearest brick-and-mortar Apple Store — to six new countries in the European Union, including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.

OnePlus launches a new case for … iPhone?!

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oneplus-launches-a-new-case-for-iphone-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads2015122015-12-01-112229-jpg
The OnePlus iPhone case boasts a grippy finish.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

OnePlus is today launching a new smartphone case with its signature Sandstone finish — but it isn’t compatible with any of the company’s own devices. Instead, it’s made for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s, and we love it!

Check out our hands-on gallery below.

Apple scores its strongest Black Friday sales in history

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Apple raked in the cash last quarter.
Apple raked in more cash than ever over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Black Friday may have handed Apple its strongest Friday sales in history, thanks to third party retailers heavily featuring the company’s products in their own promotions.

According to a note sent out by analyst Trip Chowdhry from Global Equities, the Apple Watch is likely to emerge as the M.V.P. of the shopping holiday — as the result of retailers offering big discounts on the device, as well as free shipping and zero sales tax.

Apple pays $1,800 damages after retail store wiped pensioner’s iPhone

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Cydia-iPhone-5
The problem occurred on a 2012-era iPhone 5.
Photo: Cult of Mac

A 68-year-old O.A.P. has been awarded £1,200 ($1,800) in compensation after Apple Store employees accidentally deleted the photos and contacts on his iPhone.

Newly-married Deric White took his iPhone 5 to the Genius Bar at Apple’s flagship London retail store after it suffered a technical fault — only for staff to delete his data, which contained photos of his recent honeymoon and 15 years of contacts, without White having a backup. A judge ruled that Apple staff had been “negligent.”

Amazing infographic shows how many Nokia 5110 displays fit in an iPhone

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Screen Shot 2015-12-01 at 09.59.29
Each of those tiny green squares is a Nokia 5110 display.
Photo: GoCompare

Anyone who remembers the days of brick-like Nokia 5110 cellphones, where the “killer app” was the puzzle game Snake, will know that modern smartphones have come quite a way since then.

But on a pixel by pixel basis, how much better is the display of a current-generation iPhone 6s Plus compared to the Nokia 5110 of yesteryear? Check out the below infographic to find out.

Swatch and Visa partner to one-up Apple Pay

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Apple Pay iPhone
Swatch isn't going to let Apple have all of the contactless-payment fun.
Photo: Apple

Like the Borg, Star Trek‘s race of cybernetically enhanced humanoids, Swiss watch maker Swatch is attempting to have the best of both worlds as it rolls out a partnership with Visa to bring Apply Watch-style contactless payment to its new line of analog timepieces.

Swatch announced the deal today, and the program will roll out early next year.

iPod Pro’s A9X processor packs gigantic 12-cluster GPU (but no L3 cache)

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The A9X chip puts iPhone 6s graphics to shame.
The A9X chip puts iPhone 6s graphics to shame.
Photo: Apple

The enormous iPad Pro has an appropriately huge graphics processor.

A teardown analysis by electronics firm Chipworks has revealed details of the new A9X processor that powers the Apple’s plus-size tablet, including the 12-cluster GPU that’s twice as powerful as the A9 processor found in the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.

Here’s a closer look at the chip:

Amazon is bringing Instant Video app to Apple TV

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Apple TV 4 brings iOS apps to the big screen.
Apple TV 4 brings iOS apps to the big screen.
Photo: Apple

Amazon’s Instant Video service has one of the best libraries in the world, but if you’re an Apple user, it has a crucial weakness: the only way to get it on Apple TV is to AirPlay it from an iOS or OS X device.

AirPlaying can be unreliable at times and you can’t use certain apps without cutting off your Amazon stream. That could change in just a few weeks though, according to an Amazon employee who let it slip that the company is working on an app for the new Apple TV.

Cyber Monday liveblog: Great deals on Macbooks, Bluetooth speakers, iPad cases and more

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Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

cybermondaybug

Black Friday was great, but there are even more killer sales for Cyber Monday. Check out the most spectacular deals below, like huge deals on rugged Bluetooth speakers, still-useful discounts on Macbook and Macbook Air, and a super useful iPad keyboard case for less.

Cult of Mac will keep digging through Cyber Monday ads to find the best deals on Apple products, electronics and gifts for everyone on your list. The deals are all piping-hot and ready for your online shopping blitz.

Apple Music is coming soon to Sonos’ awesome speakers

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The new Play:5 speaker is a great update to Sonos' top-of-the-line box.
Sonos will bring sweet Apple Music to its line of speakers soon.
Photo: Traci Dauphin/Cult of Mac

Sonos, maker of some the best wireless speaker systems in the world, revealed today that it will add support for Apple Music by the end of the year.

The says a public beta for Apple Music on Sonos will be made available December 15. Sonos’ integration with Apple Music will allow subscribers to access the For You, My Music, New and Radio features of the service. A general availability to all users is scheduled for an early 2016 launch.

OS X 10.11.2 beta 5 is now available

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el-capitan-beta
New El Capitan beta is here.
Photo: Apple

The fifth beta for OS X El Capitan 10.11.2 was seeded by Apple to developers and public beta testers today.

The new beta build 15C47a comes over two weeks after the previous beta was released, and should be one of the final beta builds before the update is released to the public.

Apple’s R&D spending proves innovation isn’t all about money

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Apple hQ
Apple's building a new office in San Jose.
Photo: Apple

When it comes to innovation, Apple is proving that it’s not all about the money.

While competitors like Google, Facebook and Qualcomm dump huge percentages of their revenue back into R&D on projects like autonomous cars and Internet drones, a recent Bloomberg report highlights how Apple has gotten the biggest bang for its buck in R&D, despite spending less than any other major tech company.

Steve Jobs director: We were arrogant to release movie like we did

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Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs movie is coming to Netflix
Danny Boyle thinks movie should never have been released wide so quickly.
Photo: François Duhamel/©2015 Universal Studios

Danny Boyle, director of the unfortunate box office bomb Steve Jobs, has said that people involved with the movie were guilty of behaving in an “arrogant” way.

Why? Not through twisting the truth, or painting an unfairly unflattering portrait of Apple’s late CEO as some have suggested — but rather opening the movie wide as quickly as they did.

Target sold one iPad per second on Thanksgiving

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iPad mini 4
iPads were flying off the shelves on Thursday.
Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac

We’ve written about how the overwhelming majority of Thanksgiving mobile shopping was done using iOS devices, but Apple devices themselves were (perhaps unsurprisingly) highly in demand during last week’s big U.S. holiday.

According to one report, Target managed especially impressive sales of both iPads and Apple Watches during Thanksgiving — with Apple’s debut wearable device proving very popular, while iPads sold at the rate of one per second throughout Thursday.

Apple could sell up to 6 million Watches over holiday season

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Space black link bracelets kits now available.
Interest in Apple Watch could double over holiday season.
Photo: Apple

Compared to the massive numbers of iPhones it unloads each year, Apple has “only” sold around 6-7 million Apple Watches since the device’s launch earlier this year.

Granted, that’s still more than the entire rest of the smartwatch industry combined, but a new report suggests that Apple could be on course to sell almost the same quantity again over the holiday quarter — signalling a near-doubling of sales for Apple’s debut wearable device.

Unhappy customer sues Apple for deleting his iPhone photos

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Apple is the U.K.'s top tech employer.
Staff at the Regent Street Apple Store accidentally deleted 15 years' contacts and photos.
Photo: Apple

A 68-year-old pensioner is suing Apple for “[wiping] away his life” after staff at the Regent Street Apple Store in London accidentally deleted his photos and contacts while fixing his iPhone 5.

Londoner Deric White lost photos from his honeymoon, along with 15 years’ worth of contact numbers.