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iPhone 6 had Bendgate, 6s gets Chipgate, this week on The CultCast

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6s battery life not great?  It could be your processor.
6s battery life not great? It could be your processor.
Photo: iFixit.com

This week: we celebrate CultCast 200! And just in time for the party—it’s the iPhone 6s scandal we all knew would someday come… #CHIPGATE. We’ll tell why the internet is nerd-raging over this newest iPhone scandal, and why it might just be diminishing your iPhone 6s’ battery life. Plus: the new Jobs movie is generating Oscar buzz. Seriously! And since he’s seen it—twice—Alex E Heath is here to give us his review. And stay tuned till the end for our favorite memories of CultCast’s past. It’s CultCast 200!

Our thanks to Harry’s for supporting this episode. Harry’s super-sharp, German-made razors ship free right to your door and for way less than the drugstore razors. And be sure to use code CultCast at checkout save $5 off your first order.

Cult of Mac Magazine: All you need to know about Chipgate

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Another year, another -gate.
Another year, another -gate.
Cover Design: Stephen Smith

Another week, another fantastic Cult of Mac Magazine ripe for your perusal! We’ve got a ton of stuff on the latest iPhone 6s controversy, unfortunately dubbed “Chipgate,” as well as a deep dive into OS X El Capitan with a tour and some great tips, a head-to-head comparison of Apple TV versus its next big rival, Roku 4, some fear and loathing over the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic, and a sexy (?) power strip and some other fantastic product reviews.

Check it all out in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine, available for download at the incredibly low price of free!

Here’s the rundown for this week’s issue:

Future of fitness apps lies in understanding human movement

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Can the Workout app's
Can you log a weightlifting workout with the Workout app's "Other" option? Not really.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

Some Apple Watch users are apparently confused over what types of exercise the wearable’s Workout app can track. Many people are using it to log weightlifting or stretching sessions, even though Apple only claims the app is suitable for “dedicated cardio workouts.”

Fortunately, a new breed of fitness apps is emerging that uses the accelerometer access enabled by the recently released watchOS 2 to track strength and flexibility workouts more effectively.

How to use Overcast to maximize your podcast fun

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Overcast is the best podcast app for iOS.
Overcast is the best podcast app for iOS.
Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac

The best podcast app for iOS — Overcast — got a huge update today, and best of all, its creator has decided to drop the in-app purchases and make it completely free for everyone.

The popular Overcast 2.0 app now includes streaming, chapters, storage management smart speed and tons of other optimizations. Even though there aren’t any in-app purchases, creator Marco Arment has included a patronage option where customers can support the app with a small monthly donation.

With all the free new features, there’s really no reason not to use Overcast over Apple’s Podcast. One of the app’s best features  is that it makes listening to podcasts a bit more social by allowing users to recommend podcast episodes to followers.

Here’s how to get the most out of Overcast recommendations:

Controversial Steve Jobs movie gets love from Apple PR vet

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Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs movie is coming to Netflix
Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs movie is coming to Netflix
Photo: François Duhamel/©2015 Universal Studios

The new Steve Jobs movie gets just about everything wrong, says the PR veteran who worked with the Apple CEO during the first Macintosh’s launch. From the situations to the dialogue, almost nothing’s accurate.

“How many things are not true in the movie?” laughed Silicon Valley PR vet Andrea “Andy” Cunningham during a phone interview with Cult of Mac. “Several hundred!”

But Cunningham said she loves the new Steve Jobs biopic anyway, because it captures the truth — a truthier truth.

iPad Pro looks awesome, but is Surface Pro 4 even better?

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fnf_1024
Which one is your money on?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Whether you like it or not, 2-in-1 tablets that turn into laptops are a thing. Microsoft’s Surface was one of the first to kick off this trend, and with the Surface Pro 4 that was announced this week, it is making the 2-in-1 an even more compelling device.

Friday-Night-Fights-bug-2For the same price as an iPad Pro with Apple Pencil, you can get a Surface Pro 4 with powerful notebook internals that runs desktop-class software when you need it. So, why wouldn’t you?

What makes the iPad Pro a better option? And did Apple miss a trick by not making the iPad Pro the ultimate 2-in-1 for iOS and OS X users?

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

Super-sexy DJI camera promises super-steady video

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The Osmo by drone makers DJI is a camera steadied by a three-axis gimbal.
The Osmo by drone makers DJI is a camera steadied by a three-axis gimbal.
Photo: DJI

DJI, which has taken our filmmaking aspirations airborne with its popular line of Phantom drones, has brought its tech genius back to Earth with a new handheld camera with three-axis gimbal stabilization.

The Osmo can record 4K video or 12-megapixel still images all atop a grip with built-in controls, a stereo microphone plus an audio jack for more sophisticated sound recording.

Wind turbine promises to blow away your utility bills

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A Trinity turbine powering a house and an electric car.
A Trinity turbine powering a house and an electric car.
Photo: Janulus

You’ve spared no expense in creating a smart home. You bought smart lightbulbs, a smart TV and smart appliances. All that’s missing is a device that makes you look smart when the electric bill comes in the mail.

The Agustsson brothers of Iceland may have figured out that part. They are the creators of Trinity, an affordable line of portable wind turbines, some of which can power the entire home.

Steve Jobs‘ Aaron Sorkin apologizes to Tim Cook. Sort of.

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Screen Shot 2015-10-09 at 16.57.04
Sorkin's a great writer but, man, is he orange!
Photo: Conan

Steve Jobs writer Aaron Sorkin has been doing the media rounds as of late. Last night he appeared on Conan, where he made a kinda-sorta apology to Tim Cook for their recent falling-out — only to then turn around and joke about Apple hacking his personal files.

As you do.

iPhone 6s now available SIM-free from the Apple Store

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The iPhone isn't ditching LCD screens.
The 's' stands for SIM-free. Or something like that.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

People who have been waiting to pick up their iPhone 6s or 6s Plus without a SIM card can start planning out their weekend — because Apple has just started offering unlocked, carrier-free, SIM-free versions of its next-gen iPhones direct from the Apple Store.

Elon Musk: We call Apple the ‘Tesla graveyard’

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tesla
Relations between the two companies sound a bit frosty right now.
Photo: CC Wikipedia

Elon Musk has hit out at Apple’s rumored electric car project, saying that it’s filling its ranks with second rank people — who Tesla has already tried out and then gotten rid of.

“They have hired people we’ve fired,” Musk told German newspaper Handelsblatt. “We always jokingly call Apple the ‘Tesla Graveyard.’ If you don’t make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple. I’m not kidding.”

Chipgate FAQ: Everything you need to know about iPhone 6s controversy

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battery
"Variable performance depending on who made your processor" was maybe not high on Apple's feature list.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

If you’re confused about the so-called ‘Chipgate’ controversy swirling around the Internet today, we’re here to help.

It just wouldn’t be an iPhone launch without something going awry, and the latest outcry concerns the relative performances of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus’ A9 processors, especially their effects on the phones’ battery lives. And if that all sounds a bit technical and boring, it is. But it’s not too hard to understand.

Chipgate stokes anxiety, relief and some laughs over iPhone 6s

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Which chip is in your iPhone 6s?
Which chip is in your iPhone 6s?
Photo: techfast Lunch & Dinner/YouTube

Heading to social media to vent about Chipgate, some iPhone 6s owners are upset to discover that not all A9 chips are created equal.

Worse, some feel duped by Apple, which used two vendors to supply different versions of the chips in “identical” phones. Others worry about reports of inferior battery life — and some are thinking seriously about returning their new iPhones. Still others are playing the latest Apple controversy for laughs.

Apple denies Chipgate means iPhone 6s battery woes

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iphone-6s-3d-touch
Chipgate won't drain your battery, says Apple.
Photo: Apple

The Chipgate controversy upsetting iPhone 6s owners over the past 48 hours is completely overblown, Apple said this afternoon, claiming battery life on iPhone 6s units varies only slightly.

iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus owners have discovered that devices with a TSMC A9 chip get considerably better battery performance than ones sporting an A9 made by Samsung, based on GeekBench 3 scores and some real-world testing. However, Apple says that “manufactured lab tests” that continuously run a heavy workload don’t represent the iPhone 6s’ true capabilities.

Here’s Apple’s full statement on Chipgate:

Watch Woz warn Jobs he’s going to get killed in new Steve Jobs clip

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Steve Jobs (played by Michael Fassbender) and Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) before a NeXT keynote in a scene from Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs (played by Michael Fassbender) and Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) before a NeXT keynote in a scene from Steve Jobs.
Photo: Universal Pictures

Steve Wozniak lashes out at his Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, asking the Apple CEO what he actually does, in a just-released scene from the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic.

While the pair remained close friends until Jobs’ death in 2011, the scene shows the two meeting before the unveiling of the NeXT Computer. After confronting Jobs about his roll in creating computers, Woz warns Steve that he’s about to get killed for releasing the NeXT, which was marketed toward schools and students — but came with an ungodly $6,500 price tag.

Watch the heated exchange below:

MiMedia wants to simplify cloud storage

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MiMedia is a cloud-based storage service that keeps the storage space on your device from filling up.
MiMedia is a cloud-based storage service that keeps the storage space on your device from filling up.
Photo: MiMedia/iTunes

The cloud is a pleasant yet mysterious name for that place our pictures, videos, emails and other digital bits of life go to be stored. With our vibrant lives taking up all the storage on our devices, we are slowly warming to cloud-based services that promise to keep our stuff safe and accessible.

A company called MiMedia has designed a cloud service it hopes allays reluctance with a clean user interface, quick uploading and easy, private sharing. Best of all, it can immediately free up storage space on your phone.

Real-world tests show benefits of iPhone 6s with the ‘good’ chip

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iPhone 6s teardown
Pegatron will team up with an Indonesian manufacturer..
Photo: iFixit

iPhone 6s units with a TSMC A9 processor score two hours’ better battery life over those with Samsung chips in GeekBench test scores, but real-world gains of the “good” chip might be much less significant.

Several YouTubers have put the iPhone 6s TSMC and Samsung A9 chips to the test in real-world scenarios to get to the truth of Chipgate — and what they discovered was quite surprising.

No, Apple didn’t purge ‘Chipgate’ app from App Store

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The A9 processors inside Apple's new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus come from two different manufacturers and appear to perform differently. And thus
The A9 processors inside Apple's new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus come from two different manufacturers and appear to perform differently. And thus "Chipgate" is born.
Image: Austin Evans/YouTube

As iPhone 6s owners freak out over whether their new smartphones might be saddled with a performance-deficient chip, an app that makes it easy to identify the type of chip inside the new smartphones mysteriously vanishes from the App Store.

It’s enough to get “Chipgate” conspiracy theorists churning, but the reality is a little less dark than all that.

Steve Jobs movie is dramatic, but Michael Dell’s is hilarious

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Screen Shot 2015-10-08 at 13.27.13
"Don't think different; think same."
Photo: Conan

Michael Dell is most familiar to long-time Apple fans as the man who told a crowd in the late-1990s that, if he was running the company, “I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.”

With Aaron Sorkin and Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs movie currently making waves, Conan yesterday unveiled his hilarious trailer for what a Michael Dell biopic might look like.

If you ever wanted to see a Hollywood version of the Dell story — complete with inspirational lines like “Don’t think different; think same” — this is probably the closest you’re ever going to get. Check it out below.

Exclusivus iBookus! Apple magics up special edition Harry Potter books

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Should we call him Harr iPotter now?
Photo: Warner Bros.

Apple today announced the launch of special “Enhanced Editions” of all seven Harry Potter books, exclusively on iBooks.

Featuring interactive animations, elaborate artwork, custom covers, exclusive annotations by J.K. Rowling, and, of course, the original text, the books can be downloaded individually for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.