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News - page 1076

Target hopes for bull’s-eye with its mobile wallet

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target-hopes-for-bulls-eye-with-its-mobile-wallet-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads20151214206310981_090d141772_o-jpg
Apple Pay, Android Pay, Walmart Pay... and now Target Pay?
Photo: Mike Mozart/Flickr CC
target-shopping-mobile-wallet-pay
Apple Pay, Android Pay, Walmart Pay… and now Target Pay? Photo: Mike Mozart/Flickr CC

Target is reportedly looking to become a player in the mobile wallet game. The fourth largest retailer in the U.S. would be joining a market that’s quickly becoming pretty crowded. The next mobile payment solution on your smartphone very well could be Target Pay, though it can’t be confirmed at this time.

Take a video tour of Apple’s secret design studio

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Take a peek inside Jony Ive's design lab.
Apple's secretive Industrial Design Studio is on the ground floor of Infinite Loop II, one of the main buildings on the Cupertino campus.

Very few outsiders have been inside Apple’s Industrial Design Studio, the amazingly creative product lab behind the company’s blockbuster hardware.

That may change this weekend, when 60 Minutes broadcasts a tour of the design lab. Apple’s lead designer, Jony Ive, gave journalist Charlie Rose a peek at the facility earlier this year — and his report airs this Sunday.

But you can take a tour of Apple’s secret Industrial Design studio right now. A virtual one, anyway.

Get a 16GB iPhone 6s for just $1 at Best Buy

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The iPhone isn't ditching LCD screens.
Just one dollar, people!
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Big savings on Apple products have meant that Best Buy is increasingly living up to its name, but today’s iPhone deal may be one of the best yet for the cash-starved.

The retailer is selling the 16GB iPhone 6s for $1, while also throwing in a $200 gift card if you trade in a working iPhone 5 as part of the deal.

iOS 9 adoption slowing, but still faster than iOS 8

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Here's what time iOS 9 is landing in your area.
More than 7 out of 10 users are running iOS 9.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

71 percent of iOS users are using the latest version of the mobile operating system, according to stats released by Apple. Measured by visits to the App Store this week, the stats also show 21 percent of users are running iOS 8, while 8 percent are running previous versions of iOS.

Use your words to save your sister in Scribblenauts Unlimited

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This is what it sounds like when pigs fly.
Photo: Warner Bros./5th Cell

Scribblenauts Unlimited, the latest version of a fun game that’s been on one device or another since 2009, is headed to mobile.

Main character and magic notebook owner Maxwell’s got a sister, Lily, who he’s gotten cursed, thanks to his smart-ass ways. The pair go to see Edwin, one of the 40 other brothers and sisters of Maxwell and Lily (go figure), and find out that doing nice things for people is the only way to earn starite, the magical cure for Lily’s curse.

Auto-pausing Netflix socks make a great gift (if you have the skills)

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With socks like these, you'll be the hit of any Netflix party.
With socks like these, you'll be the hit of any Netflix party.
Photo: Netflix

So there you are, watching Netflix, binging on some TV series that everyone’s talking about when you suddenly fall asleep. What happens? Netflix keeps playing, running through a few more episodes while you catch some Zs.

Imagine, though, having a garment — socks, for example — that can automatically detect when you fall asleep and pause that Netflix stream for you. How great would that be?

If you’re comfortable around a pair of knitting needles as well as an Arduino mini-computer controller, some IR hardware and a soldering gun, you just might be the kind of person who should make these socks for a last-minute holiday gift.

Apple’s management shake-up could make great gadgets even greater

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New titles and responsibilities in management could reshape Apple.
New titles and responsibilities in management could reshape Apple.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple made some promotions and tweaked the responsibilities of some of its managers Thursday. Companies do it all the time without much notice or disruption to the goods and services they create.

But this is Apple. Any change in the way it does business could ultimately change our experiences with its product. That is the point behind CEO Tim Cook shifting and shoring up duties for some of his closet managers.

The sequel to the best iOS game of 2013 is finally here

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Badland 2 is here!
Badland 2 is here!
Photo: Frogmind

Badland 2, the sequel to popular game that won Apple’s iPad Game of the Year award in 2013, is now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.

The new fantasy adventure game comes just in time for Christmas, sending you on a wild ride through a dark alien wasteland full of flamethrowers, buzzsaws, lava, oil and more obstacles to thwart your progress.

Check out the full trailer:

Apple Watch’s dominance isn’t slowing down any time soon

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As smartwatches grow in popularity, the Apple Watch will continue to be the hands-on - or wrist-on - favorite.
As smartwatches grow in popularity, the Apple Watch will continue to be the hands-on - or wrist-on - favorite.
Photo: Apple

The Apple Watch is the hottest smartwatch on the market. And it looks like it is going to stay that way for a while.

A report by International Data Corporation says the Apple Watch will lead a rapidly growing wearables market through at least 2019 as a skeptical public gets won over by more sophisticated second- and third-generation devices.

IDC projects Apple to sell 13 million watches this year for a little more than 61 percent of the market share. The number of Apple Watches sold will reach 45.2 million by 2019, according to IDC’s report.

Clever selfie stick disguises itself as an iPhone case

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Finally, a selfie stick that's not completely obnoxious.
Finally, a selfie stick that's not completely obnoxious.
Photo: Stikbox

Selfie sticks receive a lot of hate for being annoying instruments of narcissism. They’re inconvinient to carry around and can make you look just plain silly.

A brilliant new selfie stick may have solved the device’s worst problems though with a cleverly designed iPhone case that hides a telescoping 28-inch long selfie stick in the back. It looks like something Data from The Goonies would invent. And for that reason alone, I love it.

Check it out:

Popular fitness app makes U.S. debut in time for New Year’s resolutions

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No weights, classes or gym. The Freeletics app designs a workout program that uses your body weight.
No weights, classes or gym. The Freeletics app designs a workout program that uses your body weight.
Photo: Freeletics

You have a gym membership, but you’ve talked yourself out of going. You paid for a personal trainer and found reasons to cancel.

Maybe fitness can be achieved through your smartphone or smartwatch, but the excuse that now grinds the revolution to a halt is too many apps from which to choose.

Freeletics, a workout app that made its U.S. debut earlier this month, wants to make this an easy choice. First, it invites you to join more than 7 million other users, a community, the company says, grows by more than 6,000 users a week.

Apple’s unsung hero Jeff Williams is named new Chief Operating Officer

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The man described by Fortune as
The man described by Fortune as "Tim Cook's Tim Cook."
Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac

Apple today announced a bit of a corporate reshuffle — with Jeff Williams named Chief Operating Officer, VP of Hardware Technologies Johny Srouji getting a boost up to Senior Vice President level, and Phil Schiller expanding his role as Senior VP of Worldwide Marketing to include running the App Store across all platforms.

BlackBerry CEO: Apple’s privacy stance is unethical

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Is Apple putting its own interests over the public good?
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Is Apple putting its own interests over the public good? Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
Is Apple putting its own interests over the public good? Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

BlackBerry CEO John Chen has waded in on the the question of whether or not Apple is right to refuse to help the government access smartphone data for security purposes.

“For years, government officials have pleaded to the technology industry for help,” Chen wrote in a recent blogpost. “Yet [the requests] have been met with disdain.”

Chen’s position is simple: that, “We are indeed in a dark place when companies put their reputations above the greater good.”

Rival smartphone makers are desperate to rip off 3D Touch

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3d-touch-is-coming-to-android-next-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201510synaptics-png
Everyone wants to get in on the 3D Touch game.
Photo: Synaptics

3D Touch was the single biggest selling point of the iPhone 6s, so naturally every other smartphone vendor is tripping over themselves and each other to add their own version of Apple’s pressure-sensitive iPhone feature to their next handset.

Because of this, a new report claims that force sensing module shipments will grow by a whopping 317 percent in 2016 to reach 461 million units. As a result, almost one in four new smartphones shipped will include the technology.

Apple Music should hit 20 million subscribers within a year

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Apple Music
Apple Music could more than double its subscriber rate next year.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple Music has a respectable 6.5 million subscribers right now, but respected music business analyst Mark Mulligan estimates that Apple’s streaming music service will come close to hitting 8 million subs by the end of this year — and a massive 20 million paying customers by the close of 2016.

Good news for Apple: Free music services must pay higher royalties

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Tired of Apple Music's playlists? Try something even more indie.
Free services must pay higher royalties.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

In news which could well be good for Apple Music, but bad for rival free streaming music services, the federal Copyright Royalty Board has ruled that ad-supported internet radio companies such as Pandora must pay higher royalty rates to artists and record labels.

Starting next year, Pandora, iHeartMedia and others will pay 17 cents for every 100 plays of a song on their free tiers. This fee will increase over the following four years in line with inflation.