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News - page 517

‘Allo, guv’nor: Mario Kart Tour is heading to London, England

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Mario Kart Tour is heading to London, England
The world tour continues.
Image: Nintendo

Mario Kart Tour has already taken players to New York, Tokyo, Paris and, err, Halloween and winter. Now its latest update is sending gamers to London, England.

From red buses to Big Ben, the new courses should offer a fun whistle-stop tour of the UK’s capital city. With some other tracks thrown in for good measure. And that’s not all.

BMW cancels its ridiculous CarPlay subscription fee for new vehicles

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BMW cancels its ridiculous CarPlay subscription fee
BMW was the only automaker to charge for CarPlay.
Photo: Apple

BMW has confirmed that it is ditching its ridiculous policy of charging an annual subscription fee for Apple’s CarPlay.

Yesterday, I wrote about how BMW was rumored to be getting rid of subscription fees in the UK. Now it seems that BMW has confirmed that the changes are confirmed. And, yes, they cover the US as well.

Get rich or cry tryin’ in brand-new Monopoly for iOS

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Monopoly-iOS
Monopoly looks better than ever.
Photo: Hasbro/Marmalade Game Studio

Don’t have anyone to play board games with over the holidays? Now you can enjoy one of the biggest by yourself with the brand-new Monopoly game for iPhone and iPad.

It takes the timeless classic, enjoyed by more than a billion people worldwide, and brings it to life in your palms. And it’s exactly as Hasbro intended it.

Tidal one-ups Apple Music with even better student deal

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Tidal-macOS
Sign up today for as little as $4.99 a month.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Tidal today one-upped Apple Music with an even better student deal. Its 50% discount now extends to high-schoolers — not just college attendees.

Qualifying members will pay just $4.99 a month for Premium access, or $9.99 a month for the Hi-Fi plan. The discount is available to new and existing subscribers who verify their student status.

Billie Eilish performs at Apple Music Awards, Apple bids for her documentary

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Apple and Genius team up to bring Verified episodes on Apple Music
Eilish is Apple's favorite artist right now.
Photo: Apple

Billie Eilish kicked off the Apple Music Awards Wednesday night with a live performance. The show streamed live from the Steve Jobs Theater.

Eilish is Apple’s Global Artist of the Year, along with Songwriter of the Year, shared with brother Finneas. And that’s not all Apple’s Billie Eilish news, either.

Anti-robocall bill moves one step closer to being passed into law

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Anti-robocall bill is one step closer to being passed into law
The US House of Representatives approved the bill by a nearly unanimous vote.
Photo: rawpixel.com/Pexels CC

The US House of Representatives has approved an anti-robocall bill by a nearly unanimous vote of 413-3. The bill will require phone carriers to block robocalls as well as giving the government more power to punish scammers.

It will next make it to the Senate. Its bipartisan support means it has a good chance of being signed into law by the end of 2019.

Craigslist’s first iPhone app is totally basic (and that’s fine)

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craigslist
The original online classifieds now has an app.
Photo: Craigslist

It seems like Craigslist has been a cornerstone of the Internet for practically forever. The site pretty much single-handedly killed white pages during the rise of the world wide web, but for some reason, it took until the end of 2019 for Craigslist to finally create its own iPhone app.

As you’d expect, it’s totally basic.

Apple Activation Lock: Security feature or recycling roadblock?

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Activation Lock on iPad and iPhone
Activation Lock is apparently a surprisingly controversial security feature.
Photo: Apple

An editorial by an iFixit employee condemns Activation Lock, a security feature of iPhones and recent Macs because it makes these computers hard to recycle.

But Walt Mossberg, well-known journalist formerly of the Wall Street Journal, calls the editorial “outrageous.”

Chrome extension brings ‘Likes’ back to Instagram, sort of

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Instagram lawsuit
A Chrome extension can bring your hidden "Likes" out in the open.
Photo: Pixabay

The “Like”-minded Instagram influencer didn’t have to wait long to get a work-around to the social media app’s experiment with hiding the number of “Likes” on posts.

A company known as Socialinsider has created a free Google Chrome browser extension called “The Return of the Likes.”

Apple supplier unlocks space-saving capacitors just in time for 5G iPhone

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Murata
So tiny you can barely see them.
Photo: Murata

One of Apple’s key suppliers may have just found a way to free up a bit more space inside the 2020 iPhones.

Murata Manufacturing claims it has created ultrasmall capacitors that are one-fifth the size of current capacitors. With 5G capable iPhones set to gobble up battery power next year, Apple needs every extra square millimeter it can get.

Apple fills out cast of Foundation adaptation

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Foundation was a major influence on Star Wars, and now it's coming to Apple TV.
Foundation is considered one of the greatest sci-fi series of all time, and it’s being adapted for Apple TV+.
Photo: Bantam Spectra Books

The actors that will bring Isaac Asimov’s Foundation to Apple TV+ are starting to come together. Five more cast members of this sci-fi epic have been named.

Foundation follows the fall of a galactic empire, and centers on a group of scientists trying to save civilization from chaos.

Hacker revives dead devices with iPhone and Apple Watch

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Mac keyboard and mouse running an iPhone
Tap through your iPhone, 1980s-style, with a vintage Mac keyboard.
Photo: Niles Mitchell/YouTube

The living can communicate with the dead — and Niles Mitchell regularly holds seances on YouTube to prove it.

Mitchell is a true medium, putting contemporary technology like the iPhone or Apple Watch in touch with obsolete hardware. He connects the two worlds and gets devices, old and new, to work together in ways likely never imagined by their creators.

Apple News now sends daily email newsletters nobody asked for

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Apple News+ in Australia
Another email you didn't want.
Photo: Apple

No, you didn’t ask for it, but you might soon start receiving a daily Apple News newsletter by email.

“Good Morning” features top news, analysis and features pulled from various sources around the web. You could find all this inside Apple News yourself, at your own convenience, but Apple negates the need to do that by forcing it down your throat.

And good luck trying to unsubscribe.

Apple Music loses its exclusive on Ministry of Sound playlists

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Apple Music loses its exclusive on Ministry of Sound playlists
Exclusive no more.
Photo: Ministry of Sound/Flickr CC

Apple Music’s exclusive playlist deal with popular music label and nightclub owner Ministry of Sound has expired. A new report notes that the full set of Ministry of Sound playlists are now available on rival streaming music services like Spotify.

Apple Music’s deal with Ministry of Sound was announced a little over a year ago. Apple debuted its first Ministry of Sound exclusive playlist on October 4, 2018.

iPhone 11 uses your location even after you block access

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Analyst complains iPhone’s average selling price is slipping
iPhone 11 keeps tabs on your whereabouts.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

iPhone 11 units are using location services even after access has been blocked by the user, a new report reveals.

Security researchers have discovered that Apple’s latest handsets intermittently seek location information regardless of the user’s privacy settings. Apple says it is “expected behavior.”

BMW could ditch its pricey annual subscription for CarPlay

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BMW could ditch its pricey annual subscription cost for CarPlay
No other automotive has charged users a direct subscription fee for CarPlay.
Photo: Sony

BMW might abandon its controversial policy of charging customers an annual fee to use Apple’s CarPlay platform in its vehicles, an automotive publication claims.

According to AutoCar, a BMW representative revealed that CarPlay will be free for life on its newest cars. Owners of older cars can pay a discounted fee in the region of $300 for a lifetime subscription.

Man’s brand-new Apple Watch turns out to be toilet plunger

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Man’s brand new Apple Watch turns out to be toilet plunger
This is what it was supposed to look like.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

You’ve hung on until Black Friday, ordered your long-awaited Apple Watch online, and get it sent to your office, proudly opening it up in front of your colleagues. What could go wrong? Well, it could turn out to be a toilet plunger instead.

This unfortunate scenario befell one U.K. Amazon customer. He scored a 100 British pounds ($130) discount on an Apple Watch Series 4. Only it turned out not to be such a great deal when he finally received his package.

Apple shares suffer biggest decline since August

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Apple shares suffer biggest decline since August
President Trump says no immediate end in sight to trade tensions with China.
Photo: White House

Apple shares suffered their biggest decline since August on Tuesday, due to trade tensions between the United States and China.

President Trump told reporters that he had “no deadline” on agreeing a trade deal with China. Many people had hoped that a deal could be reached within weeks.

Tech giants accused of dodging $100 billion in taxes over past decade

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International governments plan to rethink tax rules for the ‘digital age’
Report looked at Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google and Microsoft.
Photo: Pixabay/Pexels CC

Tech giants, including Apple, have avoided more than $100 billion in taxes over the past decade, a report claims.

British organization Fair Tax Mark looked at the 10-K filings of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google and Microsoft between 2010 and 2019. On its website, Fair Tax Mark notes that tax “helps to fund vital public goods and services and when paid fairly, it ensures a level playing field for businesses large and small.”

Amazon’s new battery-powered Echo can go with you everywhere

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Echo-Input-Portable-Edition
You can't own one yet.
Photo: Amazon

Those who consider Amazon Alexa one of their closest friends can now take her almost anywhere with the new portable Echo speaker.

The confusingly named Echo Input Portable Smart Speaker Edition has a built-in battery that lasts up to 11 hours in between charges. But you can’t buy one (yet) if you don’t live in India.

Save $11 on Zens Dual+Watch, the best all-in-one wireless charger

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Zens-Wirecutter
Dual+Watch tops up iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods in one.
Photo: Zens

Looking for the best wireless charger money can buy this holiday? Pick up the brilliant Zens Dual+Watch. It charges iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods simultaneously — and it looks terrific.

It’s so good, in fact, that the Dual+Watch was just named the best wireless charger of 2019 by Wirecutter. And you can save $11 on yours today by ordering it from the Cult of Mac Store.