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Surprise! Siri’s hints about Apple event aren’t that helpful

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Don't even bother asking Siri for a hint.
Don't even bother asking Siri for a hint.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple just confirmed its big iPhone 6s event will take place September 9, and while the art on the invite didn’t offer any clues, Apple did give us one tip: Try asking Siri for hint.

Tim Cook’s not about to let his digital assistant leak details of the big event, but we decided to give it a try anyway. After begging Siri to give us a hint, a tip, anything, all we got back was more shade. But at least the replies were pretty funny.

Here are all of Siri’s hints:

Take a closer look at iPhone 6s Force Touch display

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IPhone 6s parts are leaking like crazy.
IPhone 6s parts are leaking like crazy.
Photo: Cult of Mac

The iPhone 6s keynote might be less than two week away, but we’ve already seen a bunch parts leak out of upcoming smartphone. A source provided Cult of Mac with the images above of an iPhone 6s screen assembly. The new assembly is slightly thicker than the iPhone 6 screen assembly, which is in line with previous rumors that the new device won’t have the same width as the iPhone 6.

We haven’t been able to take a closer look at the screen assembly, but another leak this morning takes a closer look at a mysterious new chip on the iPhone display that appears to confirm Force Touch is coming.

Wearables soar in Q2 2015 as Apple Watch aims for the top

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Not everybody who bought the Apple Watch is wearing it.
Not everybody who bought the Apple Watch is wearing it.
Photo: Apple
Apple Watch is off to a great start. Photo: Apple
Apple Watch is off to a great start. Photo: Apple

Don’t believe the critics who tell you wearables will never take off, because they’re wrong. During the second quarter of 2015 alone, the wearables market grew a staggering 223.2 percent, according to the latest figures from IDC, and Apple Watch is working its way to the top to tackle Fitbit.

Android Wear, on the other hand, is nowhere to be found.

Apple Music brings the Latin groove with new partners

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Less playlist, more olé-list, amirite? Sorry about that.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple has signed a deal with Latin American “cultural outlet” Remezcla to create playlists for Apple Music.

The company, which began as a Latino events guide for New York, specializes in Latin America’s musical “new wave.” It regularly produces content for brands and festivals eager to reach young Latino audiences — something Apple is more than keen to do with its new streaming music service.

Amazon shrinks hardware efforts following Fire phone flop

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Amazon makes drastic changes to prevent another Fire phone disaster.
Photo: Amazon
Amazon makes drastic changes to prevent another Fire phone disaster. Photo: Amazon
Amazon makes drastic changes to prevent another Fire phone disaster. Photo: Amazon

Amazon has dismissed dozens of engineers and ditched a handful of hardware projects following its dismal attempt at tackling the smartphone market, according to a new report.

The retail giant has also restructured what’s left of its hardware division, combining what was two separate units into one.

A baseball coach changed the game with a little police work to solve fastball mystery

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An early radar gun used by a Dodgers scout during the 1970s.
An early radar gun used by a Dodgers scout during the 1970s.
Photo: efastball.com

Michigan State University baseball coach Danny Litwhiler was reading the campus newspaper one day in 1974 when he decided to call the cops on some of his pitchers.

An article and photo of campus police showing off the department’s new radar gun to catch speeders caught Litwhiler’s eye and he wanted police to swing by the ballpark with the new toy to see if it could read the speed of a pitched baseball.

Litwhiler – a flawless defensive player in the bigs who evolved into a beloved college coach – changed the game of baseball that day. No longer would myth and mystery surround the fastball. Pitchers, for better or worse, would be scouted and evaluated based on a new number – miles per hour.

Premiership soccer player faked injury to grab the latest iPhone

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Would you take a dive for a brand new iPhone?
Photo: top2best

Anyone who has ever watched a soccer game knows that players will take a dive for any possible strategic advantage. But what about to get their hands on the latest iPhone?

According to a new report, the answer is a resounding yes. Highly-paid Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli — a man known for his erratic behavior — is said to have feigned an injury during a training game in 2014 so as to get hold of Apple’s latest handset.

Get your first look at the iPhone 6s Plus packaging

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iPhone camera
The iPhone 6s is on its way.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

We’ve had various glimpses of the iPhone 6s itself, but until now we’ve not seen the beautiful, crisp white packaging it will come in.

That (may have) changed, with a new leaked photo appearing to show the box for the phablet-size iPhone 6s Plus. Like the next-gen iPhone itself, the box doesn’t differ substantially from the design of its predecessor, although the packaging does feature a few revealing details.

Check it out below:

Pessimistic analysts miss the point of iPhone 6c

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An iPhone 6c concept.
Coming soon to a pocket near you?
Photo: iPhonesoft

The much-rumored iPhone 6c won’t be enough to let Apple compete for marketshare with super-low-cost Android smartphone makers, claims analyst group IDC — a.k.a. commentators who appear to have totally misunderstood Apple’s entire business model.

Meet the cheap, stylish smartphones backed by ex-Apple CEO John Sculley

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meet-the-cheap-stylish-smartphones-backed-by-ex-apple-ceo-john-sculley-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201508Obi-Worldphone-940x504-jpg
Obi Worldphone’s first smartphones are here.
Photo: Obi Worldphone
Obi Worldphone's first smartphones are here. Photo: Obi Worldphone
Obi Worldphone’s first smartphones are here. Photo: Obi Worldphone

Backed by ex-Apple CEO John Sculley, Obi Worldphone is a startup company that’s hoping to shake up the affordable Android market with two new devices that combine stylish designs and decent specifications with even more attractive price tags.

Meet the Obi Worldphone SF1 and SJ1.5, which start at as little as $129.

Can you dig it? Shovel Knight’s getting a free update

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A plague upon all your houses.
A plague upon all your houses.
Photo: Yacht Club Games

Indie favorite Shovel Knight is getting a new, free update based on a popular bad guy from the first release.

Called Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows, the new expansion will include a whole new way to play in the Shovel Knight universe with new levels, music, art, and platforming. The villainous Plague Knight, master of alchemy, is the star of this new addition, which will come along with the original game, Shovel Knight, and as a free update to owners of the original game, which won over 70 Game of the Year awards in 2014.

Check out the video below to see all the chaos of this action-packed expansion.

Ashley Madison hack airs tech’s dirty laundry

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Email addresses from some of the top tech companies are on the list of outed accounts following a hack on the infidelity site, Ashley Madison.
Email addresses from some of the top tech companies are on the list of outed accounts following a hack on the infidelity site, Ashley Madison.
Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac

Some of the tech world’s brightest may have been caught with their hard drives in the wrong place.

Email accounts from some of the biggest technology companies, including Apple and IBM, were among those outed as a result of the recent hack on Ashley Madison, the dating website for infidelity.

iOS 9 code appears to confirm Force Touch for iPhone 6s

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Apple Watch's Force Touch is coming to iPhone.
Apple Watch’s Force Touch is coming to iPhone.
Photo: Apple

The addition of Force Touch on the next iPhone has been churning through the rumor mill practically since Apple unveiled the technology with the Apple Watch last year. We’ve yet to see any component leaks that confirm the tech is actually coming to the iPhone 6s, but one developer may have just found evidence that it’s definitely on the way.

iOS developer Hamza Sood discovered key references to Force Touch in iOS today that appear to confirm the iPhone 6s will indeed come with pressure sensitive technology, and it may also add the new trackpad gestures that Apple is adding to iPad with the release of iOS 9.

Here’s what Hamza found:

With each sip of coffee this cup lid gives you some sugar

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This coffee cup lid will let you drink from its delicious lips and include an awkward touching of noses.
This coffee cup lid will let you drink from its delicious lips and include an awkward touching of noses.
Photo: Jang Woo-Seok

Jang Woo-Seok loves coffee and kisses. But it’s only coffee he gets on a daily basis – that is until he designed a cup lid that provides both.

The designer from South Korea has taken the common coffee cup lid and gave it puckering lips for B2B, a chain of coffee shops in his home country.

Jony Ive will offer another peek behind Apple curtain at Vanity Fair Summit

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Jony Ive
Jony Ive doesn't find failure very interesting.
Photo: Vanity Fair/YouTube

Jony Ive seemed embarrassed when Vanity Fair’s Graydon Carter started their interview by calling Ive the “greatest industrial designer in the world right now.”

The Apple design guru closed his eyes, rubbed his head, and then provided a soft-spoken but enlightening 25-minute peek inside his head during 2014’s Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit. Wonder what he’ll say this year?

First third-party watch accessory hits Apple Store shelves

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NightStand is the first third-party Apple Watch accessory in Apple Stores.
NightStand is the first third-party Apple Watch accessory available in the Apple Store.
Photo: ElevationLab

You no longer have to depend on the Internet to provide you with third-party Apple Watch accessories, as the company has started stocking them in its gleaming, glass-covered retail locations.

The first accessory on offer is a minimalist charging dock that will be compatible with watchOS 2’s Nightstand Mode when the firmware update launches this fall.

Send your photos to a select few with XY Share It

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The XY Share It lets you transmit photos to only those you want looking at them.
The XY Share It lets you transmit photos to only those you want looking at them.
Photo: XY

You have a great picture of your kid on their first day of school and you would like to share it with just two people. You could post to Facebook or Instagram, but then everyone sees it. You could attach it to an email or text or you could just pass the phone over the next time you see them.

The company XY has another option. It has designed a Bluetooth device the size of a keychain that lets you share an album of pictures with select people.

Tablet and PC shipments expected to decline faster than expected

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El Capitan coming to an iPad near you?
El Capitan coming to an iPad near you?
Photo: Cult of Mac

Microsoft recently launched Windows 10 to the public, but it looks like that won’t be enough to help increase PC shipments next year as IDC estimates PC shipments will fall by -8.7% in 2015 and not stabilize until 2017.

PC shipments aren’t the only tech item on the decline either. Tablet sales are expected to decline even faster than IDC’s previous forecast of a 3.8%. The firm currently projects tablet shipments will drop 8% in 2015, however there is a silver lining for Apple.The 2-in-1 tablet market is expected to grow 86.5% in 2015, right as Apple’s preparing to launch the iPad Pro.

Official Steve Jobs movie poster is insanely great

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Ooh, pretty.
Photo: Universal

After years of speculation, we’ve finally gotten the official movie poster for the forthcoming Steve Jobs biopic — and, man, does it ever look great!

Keeping to the same minimalist style as the Walter Isaacson book jacket it’s based on, the poster shows Michael Fassbender striking a typically Jobsian pose, complete with plenty of white space.

Steve would surely have approved!

Court slaps spy who helped Samsung win Apple chip orders

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chips
The battle to win Apple's chip orders is hotter than ever.
Photo: Apple

Taiwan’s top court ruled in favor of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in a lawsuit involving a former employee who allegedly leaked trade secrets to Samsung.

The accused party — TSMC’s former senior director of R&D, Liang Mong-song — allegedly helped Samsung catch up in the chip-fabrication business and win orders for Apple’s A-series processors..