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News - page 1085

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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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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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.

Apple working on new MacBook Airs to debut at WWDC

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Photo: Apple
Apple may replace 11-inch MacBook Air with a 15-inch model.
Photo: Apple

Apple is reported to be working on new MacBook Air models to launch at the 2016 WWDC event, most likely to be held in June.

Citing sources in the supply chain, the report claims that Apple may ditch the smaller size 11-inch MacBook Air, but add a 15-inch model, much as it currently offers with the MacBook Pro.

Jeremy Clarkson shows off Amazon’s drone delivery system

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Amazon Prime Air
Coming soon to a garden near you?
Photo: Amazon

It’s been a hot minute or two since Amazon last released any information about its proposed drone-based delivery system, Amazon Prime Air, which may one day be dropping off our new iPhones and iPads in the most gravity-defying way possible.

That changed late Sunday when the mega retailer released a brand new video preview showing how the system may work — delivering our new purchases within an impressive 30-minute window. Check it out below.

Lara Croft Go, Reeder 3 and other awesome apps of the week

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'Appy weekend everyone!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Another weekend is whizzing by and — with evenings continuing to draw in and memories of summer sun a distant memory — it’s the perfect time to catch up on the best apps currently circulating in the iOS App Store ecosystem.

Whether you’re planning on a lazy game-playing Sunday, or want to be up on the latest secure messaging app, we’ve got something for you. Read on to find out what we’ve picked.

78% of Thanksgiving mobile shopping took place on iOS devices

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Apple raked in the cash last quarter.
iOS users are more likely to shop online than Android owners.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Early Thanksgiving online sale reports suggest that Apple devices were once again the platform of choice for people doing their holiday shopping.

How dominant were Apple devices in this category? Well, according to analytics firm Custora E-Commerce Pulse, iOS devices accounted for a massive 78.3 percent of all mobile e-commerce orders in the U.S., compared to 21.5 percent for Android devices.

Has Apple given us much to be thankful for this year?

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Are you pleased with what Apple delivered this year?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

You might be sick of the sight of Turkey by now, but you can’t spend enough time being thankful. The big question we have is: Should we be thankful to Apple for the lineup it has delivered in 2015, or was this a year to forget?

Friday-Night-Fights-bug-2Apple certainly hasn’t been slow this year; we’ve had the Apple Watch, Apple Music, iPhone 6s with new technologies like 3D Touch, the new Apple TV, and the giant iPad Pro. But will any of these things stand out as smash-hits in a decade?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over these questions and more!

Beats sponsors a Snapchat lens for Black Friday

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snapchat
Beats is only the second company to sponsor a Snapchat lens.
Photo: Snapchat

The Apple-owned Beats brand has become the second company (after Fox Studios) to sponsor a Snapchat lens, with a one-day-only Black Friday deal that lets you animate your face bopping along in time to rapper Drake’s new song “Big Rings.”

Australian banks accused of freezing out Apple Pay

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Apple partners with Red Cross to accept donations to fight Australia bushfires
Australian banks aren't ready to hop on the Apple Pay bandwagon yet.
Photo: Cult of Mac / Picturesofmoney

Australia may recently have said “G’day” to Apple Pay, but when it comes to the country’s overall embrace of Apple’s NFC payment platform, well, let’s just say that a few more shrimps could be tossed on the proverbial barbie.

That’s because, despite now being available to Amex customers Down Under, Australia’s Reserve Bank is being pushed to examine anti-competitive behavior due to Australia’s major banks allegedly freezing out Apple Pay — and thereby denying choice to customers in terms of digital payments.

Sony is bringing PlayStation 4 Remote Play to your Mac

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PS4 Remote Play in action on Sony's Xperia Z3.
Photo: Sony

Sony has revealed that it is developing an official PlayStation 4 Remote Play app for Mac and PC, giving gamers the ability to play their favorite titles on their desktop. The announcements comes just days after an unofficial Remote Play app was made available for Windows.

iPhone 7s may be the first iPhone to boast an OLED display

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iPhone 6s
OLED displays could come to the iPhone sooner than we thought.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple has reportedly confirmed to its supply chain that it plans to switch from LCD panels to OLED ones for iPhones released in 2017-2018. This potentially means that we might get an OLED Apple handset as early as the iPhone 7s — and not the iPhone 8 as previously thought.

Cupertino is said to be asking display makers in both Korea and Japan to start expanding their OLED manufacturing capabilities to fit its needs.

Jobs would’ve despised this BlackBerry-inspired iPhone concept

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Why Salesforce chief gave up AppStore.com for Apple
Yep, I somehow don't see this concept meeting with Steve's approval.
Photo: Ben Stanfield/Flickr CC

The Apple-watching world just about blew a gasket when the Apple Pencil was first announced for the iPad, given Steve Jobs’ famous assessment that, “If you see a stylus, [Apple engineers] blew it!”

With that in mind, how would people react if the next iPhone went again Jobs’ wishes by taking a note out of BlackBerry’s playbook and included a physical keyboard as part of the handset? Not too well, we’re guessing, but you can make up your own mind about whether or not it would be a good thing or not by checking out the below concept video.

(Hint: it isn’t a good thing.)

These are the features Apple Watch owners love most

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apple-watch
Which of these apps sums up your Apple Watch experience?
Photo: Apple

The average Apple Watch user checks his or her timepiece four to five times an hour, and are most likely to use the device’s Maps function, according to two separate studies.

Carried out by Wristly.com and researchers at the University of Stockholm’s Mobile Life Centre, the two surveys quizzed Apple Watch owners on their typical usage, and discovered a few interesting observations in the process.