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News - page 1098

Samsung’s super-sized iPad Pro competitor to pack disappointing specs

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samsungs-super-sized-ipad-pro-competitor-to-pack-disappointing-specs-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201507samsung-galaxy-tab-s2-2015-07-20-02-jpg
Samsung's massive tablet could be a massive disappointment. Photo: Samsung
Samsung’s massive tablet could be a massive disappointment. Photo: Samsung

Samsung’s super-sized iPad Pro competitor will come packing painfully disappointing specifications, according to the latest leak.

The slate’s 18.5-inch display is to be accompanied by a speedy octa-core Exynos processor — but it’s lacking in RAM, cameras, and motion sensors.

Bridget Jones ditches her diary for an iPad in new movie

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Move over Darcy, Bridget Jones only has eyes for her iPad.
Photo: Universal Pictures

Is there a single company existence which manages to get more publicity from third parties than Apple?

Universal Pictures has just released its first image for the upcoming Renee Zellweger movie Bridget Jones’ Baby, and… frankly, it looks a whole lot like an advert for the iPad Air 2.

Tim Cook commemorates Steve Jobs on fourth anniversary of his death

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Steve
Steve Jobs connects the dots in his commencement speech at Stanford in 2005.
Photo: Stanford University

It may not seem like it, but Steve Jobs passed away four whole years ago today — leading to his colleagues paying tribute to the late Apple CEO.

In an email sent out to employees, Tim Cook praised Jobs as a “visionary,” reminding people that Jobs’ office remains untouched at Apple, and encouraging people to post their own memories to Apple’s internal AppleWeb intranet and messaging system.

Check out Cook’s complete message below:

iPhone 6s sales may be up to 15% weaker in Japan

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iPhone 6s
Are iPhone sales finally starting to slow down?
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple has praised the iPhone 6s for selling a record-shattering 13 million units in its first three days. However, a new report suggests that in Japan the 6s and 6s Plus actually sold 10-15 percent fewer units than last year’s iPhone 6.

How can both of these reported facts (record-breaking sales figures and lower demand) be true at the same time? There is an answer — and, no, it’s not Schrödinger’s iPhone.

Tim Cook receives award for his LGBT activism

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Tim Cook has been a tireless champion of the LGBT community.
Photo: Human Rights Campaign

Over the weekend, Tim Cook received the Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award in Washington D.C. for his work as an outspoken voice in support of the LGBT community.

Cook — who came out as gay last year — delivered a great acceptance speech in which he talked about his decision to publicly reveal his sexuality as well as talking about the numerous advances LGBT rights have made within his lifetime.

Check it out below.

Jobs’ widow tried to block the release of Steve Jobs movie

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Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs.
Laurene Powell Jobs probably won't be lining up to watch the movie opening weekend.
Photo: Universal Pictures

Could the story behind the upcoming Steve Jobs movie be even more exciting than the movie itself?

Having seen the movie dropped by its original backers, experienced damaging leaks as a result of the Sony hack, and topped off by a recent war of words between Tim Cook and writer Aaron Sorkin, now a new report claims that Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, tried to block the film’s release altogether.

Cult of Mac will pay top dollar for your used iPhone 

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Every year, millions of older smartphones are dumped. We hope to help change that. Cult of Mac is launching a trade-in service that pays more than almost all the other gadget buy-back programs out there. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Every year, millions of older smartphones get dumped. Cult of Mac hopes to change that with a new buyback service that pays more than similar programs.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

I’m super-excited to announce that Cult of Mac is launching a gadget buyback program that promises to pay more for used and broken Apple devices than Gazelle, Walmart and even Apple itself.

As we enter the annual upgrade season, we’ve teamed up with a U.S. recycling company to offer what we believe is the highest-paying buyback program right here at buyback.cultofmac.com.

We pay cash for old iPhones, iPads, iPods and MacBooks. We accept both used and broken devices — even dead iPhones that have fallen in the toilet.

Lollicam, Starseed: Origins and other awesome apps of the week

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

Somehow it’s the weekend again already, and to help you celebrate we’ve combed through the week’s best apps to help you sort the wheat from the chaff.

Whether it’s a great retro-style iOS action game or a superb Twitter client, we’re confident we’ve got what you’re looking for.

Check out our list below.

Our fave El Capitan tricks plus seven days with the 6s on The CultCast

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Your Mac—it just learned some new tricks.
Your Mac—it just learned some new tricks.
Photo: Library of Congress

This week: we’ve spent seven full days with iPhone 6s and we’re ready to report what we love and what we don’t. Plus: El Capitan just made your Mac a lot better! We’ll cover the cool tricks your Mac just learned. And then, how does $9 for an Apple Watch Sport band sound? How about $28 for a Leather Loop? Sure, the fake Apple Watch bands are 1/5 the price of genuine bands, but are they any good? We’ve been testing two fakes to find out, and the results might surprise you.

Our thanks to Lynda for supporting this episode. Lynda is like the Apple Music of online education, with over 3000 expert-taught video courses you can stream straight to computer or mobile device. Learn how to use Logic’s new super powerful Alchemy synth, or develop Mac apps for OS X—learn all you want for free for 10 days at lynda.com/cultcast.

Where are all the watchOS 2 fitness apps?

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Runtastic's text is sometimes too small to read while running
Runtastic's text is sometimes too small to read while running
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

WatchOS 2 offers cool new features for third-party fitness apps. But a week after its launch, most leading fitness apps have yet to go native and take advantage of the Apple Watch update.

So what’s up? The answer may lie in Apple’s new workout API, which does not provide the GPS coordinates required for apps to map your run or cycle ride.

Apple welcomes new batch of HomeKit-compatible devices

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Apple HomeKit
HomeKit is getting closer to helping you live in the future.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s list of HomeKit-compatible devices is finally starting to look impressive.

The company’s smarthome framework has been off to a bit of a slow start since Apple first unveiled it at its Worldwide Developers Conference last year, but this fall might be when it actually hits its stride. The list of available compatible devices is growing, according to an update on Apple’s website.

Wearable with flexible display set to blow your mind next year

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Wove smart wearable
The Wove, Polyera’s upcoming smart wearable, looks like the future.

A new wearable is set to make devices like the Apple Watch and the LG Urbane look like old-fashioned junk.

Wove might cause a twinge of nostalgia among children of the ’90s who grew up with slap bracelets on everyone’s wrists, but it’s way more impressive than those (which, let’s face it, most things are). It’s a wonder of technology that wraps a full-featured, customizable, multi-touch screen completely around your arm on a flexible display.

Android Authority got its first look at the upcoming gizmo, and you can see it in action in their video below.

Cult of Mac Magazine: iPhone 6s is one sexy beast

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It's all in here.
It's all in here.
Cover Design: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus came out last week, and it’s been a fun ride getting to know what makes these sexy beasts tick.

Check out this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine for all the tips, tricks, reviews, news, and just plain great content with yet another digital issue of your favorite magazine.

Download the brand new Cult of Mac Magazine app from iTunes right now, and you’ll get all this, and more, absolutely free.

How Instagram made 3D Touch pop on iPhone 6s

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3D Touch is awesome on Instagram.
Photo: Instagram

If you’re looking for an app to wow you with the revolutionary powers of 3D Touch, look no further than Instagram. The photo sharing app has already created some great new interactions with 3D Touch by letting users peek at photos and profile info using three new APIs provided by Apple.

We’ve only had 3D Touch iPhones for a week, but Instagram’s engineers have already managed to set a high bar for other apps to aspire to. In a new engineering blog post, the company gives developers a peek at how they implemented the new 3D Touch APIs so seamlessly, and show how other apps can make 3D Touch much more powerful than just a 2015 version of the right click.

Here’s some of the pointers they collected:

Does Apple Watch really need a ‘killer app’?

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What's wrong with thousands of great apps?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple Watch is missing a “killer app.”

At least that’s what some say. Apple’s first wearable has been selling well, but its inability to convince everyone they need a smartwatch since it went on sale in late April is being blamed on its lack of stellar software by some analysts. But are they right?

Friday-Night-Fights-bug-2Does Apple Watch really need a killer app to become the next iPod (in sales terms), or will it do perfectly well with thousands of great apps?

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!

Surprise! $80 iPad lacks key features (like, all of them)

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Photo: Apple
This is what happens when you pay $80 for an iPad in a parking lot.
Photo: Apple

Do you know the difference between a tablet and a tile? If so, then there’s a good chance that you wouldn’t be the target of a scammer in Victorville, California, who this week duped an unsuspecting woman out of $80 by selling her what she thought to be an iPad mini 3.

In the worst plot twist this side of a modern M. Night Shyamalan movie, the “iPad” turned out not to be an iPad at all, but rather a piece of tile in an iPad box.

When it comes to porn, Android users come out on top

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We won again, Android bros! Photo: Cult of Android
We won again, Android bros! Photo: Cult of Android

Android users are into some pretty weird… stuff. I know you’re probably denying that now — I tried, too — but you can’t, because Pornhub has its eye on us all. Sort of.

According to the website’s latest browsing statistics, the list of things Android users are into makes for a much more intriguing reading that that for iOS users. Mobile devices are also crushing the desktop when it comes to overall traffic, and Android has the edge.

Yay?

Apple Watch hits Target stores this week

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Apple Watch
The Apple Watch is going mainstream.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Continuing the mass rollout of the Apple Watch, Target announced today that it is ready to start selling the popular wearable device.

Target will begin stocking the Watch in selected stores this week, followed by its website on October 18, and in all retail stores by October 25.

Andy Hertzfeld: Steve Jobs movie is ‘almost nothing’ like reality

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The Woz (left) and Andy Hertzfeld (center) at an original Apple Computer Users Group meeting in the 80s. Photo: Tony Wills
Andy Hertzfeld (center) at an original Apple Computer Users Group meeting in the 80s.
Photo: Tony Wills

Next to Steve Jobs, Andy Hertzfeld is the name I most associate with the original Macintosh project. For that reason, Hertzfeld is one of the characters portrayed in the new Aaron Sorkin Steve Jobs movie, as well as someone who got to see an early unfinished cut of the film.

His take on it? That it’s almost nothing like reality in terms of the events portrayed — but a great movie all the same.

iPhone 6s payment plans: the best way to finance your new iPhone

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iPhone 6s
Where should you buy that fancy new iPhone 6s or 6s Plus from? We've got the skinny.
Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac

There’s never been a more confusing time to buy an iPhone.

If you’re looking for the best deal on a new iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus, you have tons of options. From Apple to AT&T, Verizon to T-Mobile, carriers and retailers have expanded their options for buying a new iPhone. That, plus an upheaval in traditional cellphone pricing and plans led by T-Mobile, has us all rather confused.

Where can you find a comparison of all the major US options? Right here, of course. We spent the time with our spreadsheets and the websites of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Apple, T-Mobile, Cricket Wireless, Boost Mobile, and (yes) Consumer Cellular to help you cut through the confusion and find the best iPhone purchase plan for you.

This is a comparison of buying your iPhone 6s, not the coverage or monthly cost of phone calls, text or data on any specific carriers, though that will factor in to your choice, of course.

Tim Cook: Apple isn’t interested in sharing your data

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Tim Cook takes home $125 million for Apple’s best year since 2009
Tim Cook is a privacy advocate.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Tim Cook participated in a recent interview with NPR’s Robert Siegel, in which he reiterates Apple’s stance on user privacy, discusses what it would take for Apple to bring its overseas cash pile back into the U.S. — and comically avoids talking about the Apple Car.

You can listen to it below.

Dolphin saves Miami Heat dancer’s iPhone from the bottom of the sea

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The dolphin even hung around for a selfie. Not that we blame him.
Photo: Teressa Cee/Instagram

Apple may be working to make its iPhones more waterproof than ever, but that doesn’t help much if your handset gets accidentally dropped into the ocean.

That’s what happened to Miami Heat dancer Teresa Cee, who recently lost her iPhone while diving with dolphins in the Bahamas. Fortunately, one friendly dolphin apparently outed itself as an Apple fan (or a Teressa Cee fan) by diving down to retrieve her handset.

Check out the video below.

Apple set to land another spaceship in Sunnyvale

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Yet another innovative building planned for Apple.
Yet another innovative building planned for Apple.
Photo: Central and Wolfe/Landbank

Apple has just signed a deal to take on a new innovative office building in Sunnyvale, a northern California community that the Cupertino-based company has been keen on inhabiting for a while now.

The agreement is with Landbank Investment LLC’s planned Central & Wolfe campus, a curvy building that’s planned to look out of this world when its 777,000-square-feet of office space on an 18-acre site is completed. It should, if Apple uses the current plan as is, also include 90,000 square-feet of rooftop garden spaces and over two miles of walking and bike paths on the ground level.

Kindness company tries to sell you on paying it forward

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The card inside the Random Act of Kindness Kit.
The card inside the Random Act of Kindness Kit.
Photo: Kindness & Co.

When a man in Australia created a service where you could pay him to send glitter bombs to unsuspecting enemies, his story went viral and a crushing number of requests shut down his website.

Jesse Weinberg wonders if what worked for vengeance might also work with kindness.

Amazon gives Apple TV and Google Chromecast the finger

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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

The most popular online retailer in the world, Amazon, is using its e-commerce powers to put the hurt on Apple and Google’s streaming devices in order to prop-up the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV stick.

In an email sent to marketplace sellers, Amazon told employees it will stop selling Apple TV and Google Chromecast. No new listings for the devices are allowed, and all other existing inventory is scheduled to be removed by October 29th.