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More iPhone 6s components leak online

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

The iPhone 6s is just weeks away (okay, two months, but saying “weeks” makes it sound closer), and so it stands to reason that more leaked components from Apple’s supply chain would start finding their way online.

Check out the latest pictures below:

Angry Birds 2 flings its way onto the App Store

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The thirteenth Angry Birds game is here.
The thirteenth Angry Birds game is here.
Photo: Rovio

Rovio has churned out more sequels to its Angry Bird franchise than any developers on the planet. They even have sequels to the sequels (we see you Angry Birds Star Wars II), but six years after the original was released, Angry Birds 2 is finally here.

The thirteenth title in the Angry Birds franchise is packed with new puzzling towers to topples, missile birds, and boss piggies. There’s also a new feature that lets you challenge your friends over Facebook to see who’s the true master at flinging birds.

Check out the first gameplay teaser:

Apple invents texture-sensing stylus for future iPads

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Screen Shot 2015-07-30 at 14.35.16
This stylus would add new meaning to the word touchscreen.
Photo: USPTO/Apple

Steve Jobs was famously opposed to including a stylus with the iPad, but even he might have changed his mind had he caught a glimpse of the futuristic texture-sensing input device Apple just patented.

According to a pair of patent applications published today, Apple is working on stylus with in-built camera which would allow it to detect the surface over which it is passed and reproduce these textures for the user — even down to replicating the feel of different fabrics.

Leica invented autofocus, then abandoned it

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Leica invented the autofocus camera system with the Correfot in 1976.
Leica invented the autofocus camera system with the Correfot in 1976.
Photo: WestLicht Camera Auction

Legendary German camera maker Leica spent nearly 20 years patenting technology that would take focusing out of the hands of photographers. As with the 35 mm still camera the company created in 1925, Leica stood ready to once again revolutionize photography, this time with an autofocus system.

But after spending the last part of the 1970s working on prototypes, Leica dropped plans to bring autofocus to consumers. Leica figured its customers already knew how to focus their cameras.

“There’s an element of truth in that,” said Heinz Richter, who was a member of the Leica Historical Society of America when he held one of the first autofocus cameras at a meeting in Minneapolis in 1980. “Leica used to be an extremely conservative company. The autofocus mechanism as they were available then didn’t fit into the company’s ideal of precise focusing.”

Apple’s the No. 1 IoT company, despite not making any devices

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Sorry Tony Fadell. Better turn up the temperature if you want to win customers!
Apple's rivals better turn up the temperature to compete with Apple.
Photo: Nest

Google may have poured billions into buying smart thermostat maker Nest Labs, but according to a new piece of consumer research, Apple’s the company most people think of when it comes to Internet of Things devices.

Conducted by ThroughTek, a leading Machine-to-Machine (M2M) solutions provider, almost half of consumers (48 percent) aware of IoT devices on the market are said to be familiar with Apple’s devices in the category, while just 22 percent know Samsung’s, 15 percent know Amazon’s, and 13 percent know Google’s.

Despite, you know, the fact that Apple’s not really an Internet of Things company at all!

Hollywood badasses swap their weapons for selfie sticks

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban selfie stick
Harry Potter really loves magic, it seems.
Photo: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

The Internet has gone crazy for selfie sticks ever since a couple of Twitter users posted modified images of Hollywood’s toughest characters with their guns swapped out for the hated tech accessories.

The Photoshop swap really has a way of removing all the menace from a person — especially if their new phone has a ladybug case on it. You can see some examples below (as well as some we put together because we just couldn’t help ourselves).

Apple will let visitors drop in for coffee at its ‘spaceship’ campus

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visitor-center-map
Come and hang out with Tim Cook and co.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s forthcoming $5 billion “spaceship” Apple campus may be designed to squeeze in a massive 13,000 employees, or the equivalent of 35 fully-filled Boeing 747s, but don’t worry: it’s got plenty of space for you, too.

According to Apple’s plans for the new headquarters, the Apple 2 campus will include a glass-walled structure for visitors, boasting a 2,386-square-foot cafe, 10,114-square-foot gift shop, and rooftop viewing space, where visitors can gaze out over Apple’s domain while Tim Cook tells you that everything the light touches is his kingdom.

Russia is Putin its foot down about gay emojis

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Everybody loves emoji. Even the weird ones.
Emojis are the new subliminal messaging.
Photo: Technewz

When iOS 8.3 introduced new gay-friendly emojis, one person no doubt responding with a :( sad face was Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin’s not taking it lying down, however. According to Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor, the President has requested a full pro-Kremlin group investigation and crackdown on same sex emojis, concerned that they violate the country’s ban on “gay propaganda.”

Because if there’s one thing proven to make you trade girlfriends for boyfriends, it’s someone sending you a picture of two male smiley faces holding hands.

Apple still determined to bring sapphire displays to iPhone

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Apple is gobbling up sapphire supplies at an alarming rate of knots. Photo:
It's coming. One day.
Photo: GT Advanced Technologies

It would be easy to think that Apple’s sapphire iPhone dreams went down the pan when GT Advanced Technologies went bust, but Apple’s nothing if not persistent.

Today, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple describing a new method for manufacturing sapphire displays by irradiating the sapphire crystal and then using a laser and “second gas medium” to slice it into the super-thin sheets Apple requires.

AT&T pushes back on $100 million throttling fine

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at&t
AT&T is at war with the FCC.
Photo: AT&T

AT&T is asking the FCC to not make it pay the largest proposed fine in the agency’s history as punishment for throttling customers’ data speeds.

After being slammed with the $100 million fine by the FCC last month when the government agency found the carrier had throttled speeds for customers with ‘unlimited’ data plans, AT&T says it didn’t really harm anyone, so it shouldn’t have to pay up.

iFixit can now help you repair more broken gadgets than ever

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iFixit's Kyle Wiens.
iFixit's Kyle Wiens.
Photo: iFixit

iFixit has made repairing broken iPhones as simple as setting up Ikea furniture thanks to the site’s easy-to-follow guides and excellent repair tools Apple doesn’t really want you to use. Now the company is about make it easier to fix even more broken gadgets by partnering with Electronic Recyclers International.

Finding parts to fix broken Kindles, GoPros, and Nexus devices can be practically impossible, but now that iFixit and ERI are teaming up, consumers will have a way to keep more of their busted gizmos alive, instead of tossing them in the wood chipper.

Custom ID chip is key to Apple’s HomeKit

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Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Our house of tomorrow is going to have to wait.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple’s HomeKit connected devices are rolling out slower than expected, and one reason for this is that Apple reportedly requires that anyone making a third-party HomeKit device buy and use a special identity chip — a fact that caught many devs unawares.

“I know a lot of people who have been surprised by this requirement and had to re-spin boards for the chip,” said Michael Anderson, chief scientist of engineering firm PTR Group during a recent talk. “A lot of manufacturers are up in arms [about the] Apple silicon [that makes their] device more expensive.”

iPad still has biggest slice of the (crumbling) tablet pie

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3-American-Pie-quotes
The tablet pie's not what it used to be.
Photo: Universal Pictures

The tablet market continues to plummet worldwide, but Apple’s still leading the pack, thanks to the iPad.

According to new figures released by the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker, tablet shipments fell 7 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2015 to a total of 44.7 million units.

This is what Boot Camp looked like in the 1980s

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The original Boot Camp ran on an Amiga.
The original Boot Camp ran on an Amiga.
Photo: Reddit

Does your Mac also boot into Windows? Mine does, and it’s a pretty great perk of owning a Mac since 2006. But modern Intel-based Macs aren’t the only ones that can dual boot operating systems.

Proof? This Amiga from the 1980s booting up Mac OS 6.0.1, the result of a particularly clever hack from the vintage computing archives.

42% of iPhone 6 owners in the U.S. say they’ve used Apple Pay

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Apple Pay is ready to dominate CurrentC.
Approaching half of iPhone 6 users have tried Apple Pay.
Photo: Wells Fargo

42 percent of iPhone 6 users in the U.S. have used Apple Pay, according to new research from analysts at the The Auriemma Consulting Group.

The same study suggests that Apple Pay is no one-off novelty either, since 84 percent of these users have used Apple Pay for more than three transactions in store, while 76 percent have used it to pay for items in-app.

Migrating from Rdio or Spotify to Apple Music now takes just one click

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Moving to Apple Music is just a click away.
Moving to Apple Music is just a click away.
Photo: Move To Apple

Maybe you’re like me, and you’re interested in trying Apple Music. Maybe, though, you feel locked in to Rdio or Spotify, because over the years you’ve set up an extensive library of favorites and playlists. Favorites and playlists you count on.

Well, good news! Migrating your whole life to Apple Music is just $4.99 away.

Alympus is the newest best reason to jailbreak your iPhone right now

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Alympus is the new jailbreak tweak to beat.
Alympus is the new jailbreak tweak to beat.
Photo: Alympus

iOS engineers must keep their eyes on the jailbreak scene. In the past, popular jailbreak tweak Auxo showed what iOS’s approach to multitasking should be like years before Apple made its best ideas part of the core operating system.

Let’s hope this pattern holds with Alympus. It’s a new tweak that radically improves, for the better, iOS 8 multitasking.

Great new iOS puzzle game is steampunk Flappy Bird with a twist

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RedGamePlay
This year's most enjoyable iOS puzzler?
Photo: iFun4all

Anyone who enjoyed last year’s smash hit Flappy Bird should take a minute to check out the excellently (if ironically) titled new iOS puzzler, Red Game Without a Great Name.

Putting you in control of a mechanical bird maneuvering its way through 60 levels of steampunk-inspired obstacles, the game takes a page from the Flappy Bird playbook, but tacks on the challenging addition of swipe-based teleportation for a genuinely original proposition.

Trust me, it’s a lot of fun!

Apple increases its presence in China with new flagship Hong Kong store

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apple-1
Apple's new Hong Kong store in all its glory.
Photo: Bien Perez

Apple is set to open its 23rd Apple Store in China this week — with Hong Kong’s fourth retail outlet opening its doors, Thursday local time, in the city’s tourist-heavy Tsim Sha Tsui district.

This represents another step in Apple’s massive Chinese retail expansion, which Tim Cook has said will result in 40 stores in China by the middle of 2016.

Teenage scammers busted for selling iPhone boxes filled with Play-Doh

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iPhone
An artist's impression of an iPhone made from Play-Doh. No wonder the buttons don't work!
Photo: Gapake Dolls and Cars Toys Collector GDCTC/YouTube

Would you buy an apparently new iPhone from a random person on the street without thoroughly checking out the contents of the box first?

If you answered “obviously no,” then you’re certainly smarter than the Detroit Metro PCS business which bought “iPhones” from a group of three Detroit-area teenagers only to discover, upon opening them, that they were filled with Play-Doh bricks instead of smartphones.