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News - page 1246

Short trailer for Jurassic World teases … another trailer

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Chris Pratt seems concerned. Photo: Universal Studios
Chris Pratt seems concerned. Photo: Universal Studios

The fourth movie in the Jurassic Park series is slated to terrorize movie screens a full year from now. In order to drum up some excitement for Jurassic World, then, Universal has created this tiny trailer to advertise yet another trailer for the upcoming blockbuster.

The new trailer for a trailer shows very little, with some dinosaurs, a bubble car, an inquisitive Bryce Dallas Howard, and megastar Chris Pratt looking determined. Check it out.

For Black Friday, Apple’s iPhone 6 deal shines in sea of meh

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The iPhone 6s is selling like hotcakes.
Apple wants you to buy an iPhone this Black Friday Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Americans are four days away showing how grateful they are for the biggest shopping day of the year, and to draw in more upgrades than ever, Apple is giving away $50 iTunes gift cards with the purchase of every iPhone and iPad.

Continuing its huge (RED) promotion announced yesterday, Apple will dole out (RED) iTunes gift cards in varying amounts to shoppers who pick something up on Black Friday. The deals aren’t much more impressive than last year’s meager offerings, but for the first time ever, Apple is including the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in the deal.

You can also get an iTunes gift card for buying a Mac, iPod, Apple TV, or Beats product. Here’s how much iTunes cash you’ll get for each:

Apple Pay is so cool, even hipster rockstars are using it

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Live fast, die young, pay for your purchases using Apple Pay. Photo: Chase.
Live fast, die young, pay for your purchases using Apple Pay. Photo: Chase.

NFC payments might be easy, but up until now it’s fairly safe to say that they’ve never been cool in the conventional sense. Hoping to change that perspective is a new TV spot by Chase bank, which shows Apple Pay being used by super-cool indie band Bleachers.

The ad shows the indie band travelling around Los Angeles, buying items with their iPhones. In a sense, it’s a bit similar to Eddy Cue’s recent Apple Pay demo, except instead of being a middle-aged man buying Frozen toys, it’s a rockin’ pop band buying custom guitars, cool haircuts and nachos.

Check out the ad after the jump.

Apple’s expected to sell a whopping 71.5 million iPhones this Christmas

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Product image of iPhone 6 Plus, which set a new sales record for Apple by selling 10 million over its launch weekend.
Apple execs are in for a happy holiday if leading analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is to be believed. Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is one of the most reliable analysts out there as relates to upcoming Apple products. Having called various things correctly in the run-up to the iPhone 6’s release (such as Apple’s sapphire manufacturing issues), he’s now forecasting numbers for the handsets over the holiday season — And they’re big!

In a new report to investors, Kuo predicts that Apple will sell a giant 71.5 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units over the 3-month holiday period. By comparison, one year ago the company sold 51 million iPhones during that same period.

Kuo’s research note also touches on several other topics, including the future of the iPhone 4s and 5c, as well as early speculation about the iPhone 7.

Here’s what Apple is doing for World AIDS Day

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In previous years, Apple Stores around the world have turned their logos red to mark World AIDS Day. Photo: Onguito/Iconosquare

Apple has announced plans for its “biggest fundraising push yet” for this year’s World AIDS Day on December 1 — with a dedicated new section of the App Store, and plans to donate a portion of all sales on two of the year’s busiest shopping days.

“Apple is a proud supporter of (RED) because we believe the gift of life is the most important gift anyone can give,” Tim Cook said in a statement. “For eight years, our customers have been helping fight AIDS in Africa by funding life-saving treatments which are having a profoundly positive impact.”

“This year we are launching our biggest fundraising push yet with the participation of Apple’s retail and online stores, and some of the brightest minds in the App Store are lending their talents to the effort as well.”

So how can you help?

Why does Apple strip dictation from third-party keyboards in iOS 8?

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Why won't Apple let keyboards (like Fleksy, above)  access dictation? Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Why won't Apple let third-party keyboards offer dictation? Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

If you’ve installed a third-party keyboard on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 8, you might have noticed a strange omission: While you can communicate in animated GIFs or Klingon, you can’t dictate into any keyboard not made by Apple.

Reddit user 11011 sums up the puzzling situation nicely: “I can’t get myself to stick to alternate keyboards because I use dictation way too much and switching keyboards is a hassle.”

Why iPhone 6s could get a massive camera upgrade, this week on The CultCast

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cultcast-phone-Bend

This week: the next iPhone might feature a massively improved camera; Uber’s super bro culture gets bad press, but we want to party with their brogrammers; why we’re not so jazzed on Apple Watch apps; Steve Jobs drowns the first iPod prototype to prove a point; and finally, what we like and don’t about the gadgets and Apple accessories we’re reviewing—it’s an all-new Under Review.

Chuckle your way through each week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the chuckles begin.

Our thanks to lynda.com for sponsoring this episode! Learn virtually any application at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials at lynda.com.

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Click on for the show notes.

Dirty emoji make sexting simple (NSFW)

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Sexting made visual with the help of Flirtmoji. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Sexting gets visual with Flirtmoji. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

With packages of dirty emoji filed under group headings like Teen Dream and Fetish 101, the artistically perverted designers at Flirtmoji are ready to help the masses up their sexting game.

Anatomically correct emoji, plus classic icons of the sexual revolution such as the rainbow flag and a banana wearing a condom, will make it easy for you to make yourself perfectly clear.

Amazon unleashes more deals than you can handle for Black Friday week

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Amazon-Black-Friday-Deal

blackfriday logoWhen it comes to Black Friday shopping online, no one does it bigger than Amazon. Starting today, Amazon’s Black Friday hub will be featuring new deals literally every 10 minutes, which is probably too much for the feeble human brain to handle.

There will be limited-time Lightning Deals, Deals of the Day, and a slew of discounts for everything from 4K TVs to Rubik’s cubes. And of course Amazon Prime customers will be treated like royalty with free shipping and the ability to get deals before everyone else.

Siri uses sick rhyming skills to dis Cortana

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Siri

Microsoft has assaulted Siri with a wave of ads pitting the popular digital assistant against Windows Phone’s Cortana, and while Siri repeatedly gets topped in areas like traffic alerts and reminders, she’s got some secret rhyming skills Cortana can’t top.

To showcase Siri’s mad ability to flow like lava, hip-hop producer Skeewiff featured her skills on his latest track “Know How.” Turns out Siri had the busiest rhymes ever made by man after all, and she’s got some harsh words for Cortana and Google Now.

Check the rhymes below the break:

Goat Simulator gets even weirder with MMO herd mode

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Awwww, yiss! New MMO mode for Goat Simulator is free to current Steam owners. Photo: Goat Simulator
Awwww, yiss! New MMO mode for Goat Simulator is free to current Steam owners. Photo: Goat Simulator

What’s better than goats? Goats you can control in a weird physics-simulator, of course.

What’s better than that? A full-on massively multiplayer online version of the goat sim. Duh.

The hilarious developers at Coffee Stain Studios (Sanctum, Sanctum 2) just offered up a free patch to all current owners (via Steam, not iOS) of the game, turning a wacky game jam cult hit into an MMO with various classes, like the Tank, or Magician.

Shit just goat serious, guys. Check out the sweet trailer below.

From pixels to polygons: The fascinating evolution of video game graphics

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The first successful full-color video game came out in 1979. Photo: Stuart Brown
The first successful full-color video game came out in 1979. Photo: Stuart Brown

If you’ve been alive in the past fifty years or so, you’ve played a video game. It’s a primarily visual art form that uses current-day technologies to provide ever-evolving gaming experiences across generations.

This new series of short, ten-minute videos written and produced by Stuart Brown aim to take a closer look at the evolution of video game graphics, from the simple monochromatic lines of Pong to the incredibly rich and detailed photo realism of today’s games like Crysis, Destiny, and Far Cry 4.

“Graphics are absolutely important,” says Brown in the fifth and final video. “They are an essential part of video games. A window into another world and a prime indicator of the technology that powers it.”

Check out the first two installments below.

Apple Pay will work on Square registers starting in 2015

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Square is getting Apple Pay in 2015. Photo: Square
Square is getting Apple Pay in 2015. Photo: Square

The launch of Apple Pay last month was seen by many as a possible deathblow to Square’s mobile payments service, but CEO Jack Dorsey told CNN today that he doesn’t view Apple Pay as a competitor at all. In fact, Dorsey says his company is open to all forms of payment methods, and they plan to start accepting Apple Pay next year.

Rules to live by if you want to be an Apple supplier

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Some of GT Advanced Technology's failed attempts to create sapphire for future iPhones. Photo: WSJ
Some of GT Advanced Technology's failed attempts to create sapphire for future iPhones. Photo: WSJ

Depending on whether or not you can fulfil what is asked of you, being an Apple supplier sounds like it’s either the best or worst experience imaginable.

In the wake of the crashing and burning of Apple’s former sapphire supplier GT Advanced Technologies, some of Cupertino’s other contractors have pitched in with their take; filling the Wall Street Journal in on a few of the lessons they’ve learned along their roller coaster rides with Apple.

The two biggest take-homes? Don’t make promises you can’t keep, and don’t rely too much on Cupertino.

Crystal Baller: iPhone 7’s astonishing camera and other tantalizing Apple rumors

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The Rumor: Arch-rival Samsung will remain Apple's top chip supplier. 
The Verdict: Most likely. Apple's been trying to reduce its dependency on Samsung components and manufacturing for years, but the problem is there's just not another company that can compete with Samsung's chipmaking biz. TSMC tried but they're still not able to handle as much of the load as Apple would like, so Apple's stuck with Samsung, for better or worse.

The Rumor: Arch-rival Samsung will remain Apple's top chip supplier.

The Verdict: Most likely. Apple's been trying to reduce its dependency on Samsung components and manufacturing for years, but the problem is there's just not another company that can compete with Samsung's chipmaking biz. TSMC tried but they're still not able to handle as much of the load as Apple would like, so Apple's stuck with Samsung, for better or worse.


ICYMI: Gaming’s most innovative players, Apple Watch secrets, and more!

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Gaming, Apple Watch, Black Friday. what more do you need? Cover Design: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac
Gaming, Apple Watch, Black Friday. what more do you need? Cover Design: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Hey, guess what? It’s yet another fantastic round up of great stories from Cult of Mac, so time for another special Newsstand issue just for you!

We’ve got all of the best news stories and features compiled in one place to easily read on your iPad or iPhone, like: New innovations in gaming include hot upcoming game Subterfuge, currently available MOBA Vainglory, and a new ex-Pixar-employee-led studio, plus news on the Apple Watch, some amazing gift guides, and a Black Friday special report that you won’t want to miss.

Dig into Cult of Mac Magazine November 21 Edition, Free on iTunes

Apple celebrates the National Book Awards with huge iBooks sale

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Screen Shot 2014-11-21 at 8.49.52 AM
Photo: Cult of Mac

Last night, Ursula K. Leguin, the author of seminal fantasy and science-fiction books like The Left Hand of Darkess and the Earthsea series, won a National Book Award for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

During her speech, she made an impassioned defense of fantasy books, saying we needed such literature because “hard times are coming” when novels that can transport the mind will have actual social value.

It sounds like Apple might have been listening, because they are currently promoting the winners of the National Book Award, past and present, on the iBooks Store.

Got an iPhone 4s or iPad 2? Why you should never upgrade from iOS 7

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iOS 8.1.1 is still a bad choice for iPhone 4s owners. Photo: Ars Technica
iOS 8.1.1 is still a bad choice for iPhone 4s owners. Photo: Ars Technica

When Apple first released iOS 8 to the general public, more than a few people with older devices such as the iPhone 4S, iPad 2, and iPad mini noticed that it slowed their devices down to a crawl.

When Apple released iOS 8.1.1, they promised that the update would fix some of the speed issues that iOS 8 had on older devices.

So how’d it work out? iOS 8.1.1 is sometimes an improvement. Sometimes, but not always. And even then, it’s not a huge leap.

Sci-fi novel that inspired Apple’s iconic Mac ad is hitting the big screen

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Apple's vision of a possible 1984-style dystopian future. Photo: Apple
Apple's vision of a possible 1984-style dystopian future. Photo: Apple

George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of my favorite dystopian sci-fi novels, and according to Hollywood magazine Deadline, it’s about to be brought to the screen courtesy of the Jason Bourne movies’ director Paul Greengrass.

For those who are unfamiliar with it, Nineteen Eighty-Four tells the story of a surveillance heavy future (well, technically the past at this point) in which an everyman named Winston Smith rebels against an all-knowing government in an age of omnipresent surveillance and perpetual war.

Apple-backed patent consortium settles lawsuit with Google

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googleiOSsearcheasteregg

The patent-holding consortium Rockstar — which includes Apple among its members, alongside Microsoft, BlackBerry and others — has reached a settlement with Google.

In a lawsuit filed last October, Rockstar alleged that Google was infringing on 7 different search-related patents, which had been acquired by Rockstar in 2011 following the bankruptcy of networking products supplier Nortel.

Rockstar outbid Google to acquire the patents, for which it paid $4.5 billion. Some reports put Apple’s contribution as high as $2.6 billion.

This bizarre drone decomposes upon impact

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Photo: CNASA/Ames
This drone will decompose in T-minus 10, 9, 8 ... Photo: NASA Ames Research Center

While we wait for Amazon to figure out how to drone-deliver our next order of energy drinks or iPhone cases, NASA has been busy coming up with a way to make sure when a quadcopter crash-lands somewhere there will no need to panic about the environmental impact.

That’s because they have made a drone from fungus.

First trailer for Breaking Bad spinoff leaves us tingly with dread

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AMC's 'Breaking Bad' spinoff is ready for the spotlight. Photo: AMC
AMC's 'Breaking Bad' spinoff is ready for the spotlight. Photo: AMC

AMC’s highly anticipated prequel spinoff to ‘Breaking Bad’ is starting to come into focus this week, with news that the two-night premiere of ‘Better Call Saul’ is set for February 8th and 9th. AMC will broadcast back-to-back episodes starting at 10PM, and then settle into the Monday’s at 10PM slot for the rest of the series.

The show stars Robert Odenkirk as Saul Goodman, the crooked lawyer that helped Heisenberg build his Southwest meth empire, and is set six years before Saul met Walter White. To go with the premiere date announcement, AMC released a new 30-second trailer that’s hints of dark things to come.

Check it out below:

‘Fake Steve Jobs’ lands new gig as Silicon Valley’s sharpest tongue

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Dan Lyons, formerly known as 'Fake Steve Jobs'. Photo: Dan Lyons
Dan Lyons, formerly known as 'Fake Steve Jobs'. Photo: Dan Lyons

Dan Lyons, the tech blogger who skewered Apple for years on the popular blog ‘Fake Steve Jobs‘, is making a return to tech blogging as editor-in-chief of Gawker’s anti-Silicon Valley site, Valleywag.

Current Valleywag EIC Nitasha Tiku is leaving the site next month, but after years in self-imposed exile, Lyons will take over the reigns to smatter the pending tech bubble implosion his sardonic wit. Lyons, who currently works as a ‘marketing fellow’ for Hubspot, also just helped write season 2 of HBO’s “Silicon Valley.” He’ll make his return as Silicon Valley’s #1 critic in January.

Lyons wrote his new Gawker Media co-workers the following after news broke of his hiring: