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Galaxy Fold suffers another blow as AT&T finally cancels preorders

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Galaxy Fold front
Are you ready to splash your cash?
Photo: Samsung

AT&T has finally followed Best Buy and Samsung itself in canceling all Galaxy Fold preorders.

The carrier has begun emailing customers to inform them that it is unable to ship their shiny new handset. It promises a prompt refund, and a $100 gift card for the inconvenience.

It is looking increasingly unclear whether the Galaxy Fold will ever make it to market.

Inside Apple’s spectacular new Taipei store, opening Saturday

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Apple Store Taipei
The new store looks spectacular.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s second retail store in Taiwan, located in Taipei, opens this Saturday — and Apple has shared some advance pictures of the new Xinyi A13 store.

The store boasts a glass exterior and roof design reminiscent of Apple’s Chicago flagship store. It consists of two levels, with a pair of marble composite stairs descending to a lower, underground level.

Apple TV’s surging popularity might surprise you

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Apple TV at home
Millions of people sit down in front of an Apple TV every night, and that number is expected to grow and grow.
Photo: Apple

Because Apple TVs aren’t used in public, it’s easy to underestimate how many of them are. A market-analysis firm says that 21 percent of US households regularly use an Apple set-top box.

And the number of households with access to the underlying streaming technology is expected to grow dramatically now that third-party TV makers can integrate it into their products.

Android’s security key tech finally comes to iPhone

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Google two-step verification system with iPad
An Android phone can make accessing Google accounts on iPad even more secure.
Photo: Google

Security on iPhone and Pad is already very robust, but a just-introduced method employs Android phones to add another layer of protection from unauthorized access to Google accounts on Apple’s mobile devices.

Leaked Pixel 4 sports square camera bump like 2019 iPhone

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Pixel 4
Pixel 4 mockup for case makers.
Photo: Unbox Therapy

Square camera bumps are shaping up to be one of the biggest smartphone trends of 2019.

Leaked images of Google’s upcoming Pixel 4 smartphone surfaced online today, revealing some surprising design changes for the handset, including a square in the back that packs multiple cameras. It looks awfully similar to the leaked iPhone 11 renderings we’ve seen so far.

Take a closer took:

Catalyst case makes your 2018 iPad Pro waterproof

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Catalyst-case-2018-iPad-Pro
You can finally swim with iPad Pro. If you really want to.
Photo: Catalyst

Apple made the iPhone water-resistant years ago, but the iPad lineup is yet to get the same treatment. If you have a real urge to take yours swimming despite this, you need the new rugged case from Catalyst.

With an IP68 rating, the Catalyst case protects your iPad Pro in water more than six-feet deep. It also offers military-grade drop protection.

Memos app makes the text in your photo library searchable

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Memos recognizes pretty much everything.
Memos recognizes pretty much everything.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Memos is a new iOS app that scans your entire photo library, looking for text. That text could be a shop sign in a vacation photo, a paragraph from a magazine page you snapped, or the entirety of a screenshot of a newspaper article. It could be a Wi-Fi password jotted onto a scrap of paper, or a logo on a t-shirt label.

The app is far from perfect, but it’s already amazing.

DJI’s new customizable robot teaches kids to code

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RoboMaster S1
The RoboMaster S1 is ready for battle
Photo: DJI

DJI is unleashing a new drone on the world this week, only instead of taking to the skies, this little robot stays on the ground.

The new RoboMaster S1 is an educational robot designed to teach kids how to code. It packs brushless motors, a gimbal and chassis that can move in all directions. DJI built S1 to be used in interactive modes for programming as well as play. Once you assemble your robot you can battle other S1 owners in Mario Kart style games that look fun as hell.

Take a look at the cool stuff it can do:

Swimmer breaks a record with AirPods in her ears

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Swimmer races with AirPods
Delfina Pignatiello was so pumped up for her race, she forgot to take out her AirPods before the starter's pistol.
Screenshot: Fernando Cicutti/Twitter

Apple recommends keeping AirPods out of the water. But an Argentine swimmer evidently forgot she had them in her ears when she proceeded to break her own record during an international race in France.

Despite finishing second in the 800-meter freestyle, Delfina Pignatiello broke her own national record with a time of 8:24.33. Her AirPods were in her ears tucked under her swim cap the whole way.

iPads help refugee children learn new languages

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Students learn German language on iPad
iPad helps students in Germany learn a new language.
Photo: Apple

Teachers in Europe dealing with a flood of refugees are successfully teaching children new languages with iPads.

After a school in Germany gave every student in its German-as-a-second-language program an Apple tablet, the graduation rate rose to 100 percent.

iPhone XR successor might boast even bigger battery

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iPhone XR successor with big battery
A bigger battery is now on the list of rumored features on the successor to the iPhone XR
Photo: PriceBaba/OnLeaks

One of the iPhone XR’s best features is the battery life. Its successor will reportedly pack a slightly larger battery when its rolled out this fall.

An electronics industry news site out of South Korea says China’s Ameperx Technology Limited recently began mass production of a 3,110mAH battery for the second-generation iPhone XR.

Powerbeats Pro delayed in several countries

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Powerbeats Pro
The wireless earbuds release is delayed in Australia, Japan, and multiple other markets.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s wireless Powerbeats Pro headphones were supposed to launch in Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, and Taiwan in June. However, that date has now been pushed back to July.

It’s not 100% clear why the release date was pushed back. But it likely has something to do with the popularity of the headphones, with new orders in the U.S. only shipping at the very end of June at the earliest.

Ikea ad teases Apple for Mac Pro cheese grater design

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Mac Pro cheese grater
The new Mac Pro's price tag grates on some people's nerves.
Photo: Apple

The cheese grater jokes will eventually die down, so Ikea’s Bulgaria stores this week quickly joined the fun of teasing Apple for its new Mac Pro.

The Ikea ads feature, of course, a four-sided metal grater against a white backdrop under the headline, “Designed for apples.” But the joke doesn’t stop there.

iPhone shipments suffer shocking decline in Europe

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The iPhone XS Max is 25 percent larger than any previous iOS handset. So how is it as an iPad mini replacement?
There were problems in the Middle East and Africa, too.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

China might be the focus of Apple’s iPhone sales woes, but it’s not the only market where Apple’s smartphones are running into problems.

According to new IDC figures, during the first quarter of 2019 Apple shipped 2.4 million fewer iPhones to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa than it did during the same three-month span in 2018. That’s a decrease of 22.7%.

2019 iPhone could finally take on Google Pixel’s amazing Night Sight

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Pixel 3 Night Sight
The Pixel 3 destroys iPhone in low-light performance.
Photo: Google

Apple is developing its very own Night Sight feature for the next-generation iPhone lineup, according to a new report.

Google’s Pixel handsets have been well and truly beating rivals on low-light camera performance for years now. But it is claimed Apple has a similar feature up its sleeve called “Night Mode” — and we should see it this year.

The antitrust arguments that could hobble the tech giants

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Apple adds 5 new vice presidents to its executive lineup
Apple could be the potential recipient of an antitrust investigation.
Photo: Lyle Kahney/Cult of Mac

Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim has laid out some of the potential antitrust arguments that could be made against tech giants.

Delrahim’s office is reportedly in charge of investigating Google parent company Alphabet, as well as a potential investigation into Apple.

Dropbox overhauls its Mac app, adds a bunch of awesome features

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Dropbox-overhaul
Try it out today.
Photo: Dropbox

Dropbox wants to be the only app you use on your Mac to access your most important files — wherever they are stored.

Its overhauled desktop client brings all your favorite cloud services together inside an all-new design with a bunch of awesome new features. It’s more than an app, Dropbox says, “it’s a completely new experience.”

PBS president says new App Store rules will hurt its educational app

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Recode PBS president 1
PBS's Paula Kerger and Yamiche Alcindor.
Screenshot: Recode

Apple’s efforts to limit data sharing on kids’ apps will hurt one of PBS’s educational apps, the broadcaster’s president and CEO has revealed.

Speaking at Recode‘s Code Conference 2019, PBS’s Paula Kerger said the company’s PBS Kids steaming app will be affected by new Apple restrictions. These stop developers of kids’ apps from including third-party ads and analytics tools. These rules will go into effect on September 3.

Goldman Sachs CEO says he’s already using Apple Card

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Apple Card
Are you excited about Apple Card?
Photo: Apple

The Apple Card hasn’t publicly launched yet, but employees at both Apple and its partner Goldman Sachs are already publicly testing out the credit card.

In an interview at Recode’s Code Conference, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon talked about his experience of using the joint credit card. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he really, really likes it.

Apple looking to snap up a piece of Intel’s smartphone modem business

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intel
Intel has plenty of modem-making expertise.
Photo: Thomas Hawk/Flickr

Intel is reportedly looking to sell its struggling smartphone modem business in several pieces — and Apple could be one of the buyers.

According to a new report, Apple has designs on acquiring Intel’s German modem business. This is one of the most sought-after pieces, and would give Apple a big boost in potentially developing its own 5G modems.

Meet the new head of testing for selfie cameras

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mannequin for selfie camera tests
Sienna never blinks.
Photo: DxOMark/YouTube

The automotive industry has crash test dummies. The lab testing virtually every kind of digital camera made has Sienna, a lifelike mannequin created to measure the quality of a smartphone’s selfie camera.

DxOMark has been an independent tester of conventional digital and smartphone cameras since 2008. Sienna is the newest addition to the team because the French lab only started testing front-facing cameras this year.

iMovie for iOS adds sweet green screen effect

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iMovie on iPhone X
iMovie just got some major updates.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Apple is out with a huge update for the iMovie app on iOS that makes it easy to use your own green and blue screen effects.

Using the new green screen tool, iPhone and iPad users can now swap out a background for something new. This allows you to insert logos, photos or background videos into your videos.