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News - page 602

Apple supports more than 325,000 jobs in South Korea

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Apple-Garosugil-Seoul
The Apple Store in Garosugil, Seoul.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s impact on South Korea is much larger than most fans will have anticipated.

Cupertino directly employs 500 workers of its own, and has created hundreds of thousands of jobs on Samsung’s home turf. Local App Store developers have earned a whopping 4.7 trillion won.

Amazon wants to challenge CarPlay and Android Auto

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Connect the Amazon Echo Dot to your existing speaker system, and you bingo! -- your speakers just got smarts.
Amazon wants to move Alexa from the home into our cars.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Amazon is trying to move in on Apple’s CarPlay and Android Auto by convincing carmakers to bake in Alexa as an in-car infotainment technology.

According to a new report, Amazon is scaling up its Echo Auto ambitions. It has already convinced BMW and Audi to adopt the tech. It is now supposedly trying to get other automakers to sign up as well.

Learn from the pros about how to get into the podcasting game

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Podcast
Learn from industry leaders about the many aspects of launching and growing a successful podcast.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

These days, seems like everybody has a podcast, but that doesn’t mean they’re doing it right. Podcasting remains one of the most vibrant and growing areas of media, so there’s plenty of opportunity to make a mark and build a business. You just need to learn the ropes.

Apple will donate to US National Parks for Apple Store purchases

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Apple Pay
Apple pays $10 for every Apple Pay purchase you make from, well, Apple.
Photo: Apple

Apple will make a $10 donation to the National Park Foundation for every Apple Pay purchase in the Apple Store.

The charitable donation program runs through this week, concluding on Sunday, August 25. It covers purchases made via both Apple’s online and physical retail stores.

Spotify Family Plan is finally getting explicit content filters

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Spotify is adding 2x as many monthly subscribers as Apple Music
Spotify is adding 2x as many monthly subscribers as Apple Music
Photo: Spotify

Spotify is finally making its Family Plan more family-friendly by giving parents greater control over the music their kids can listen to.

It will soon be possible to block out explicit tracks with a password-protected setting that only parents have access to. Spotify is also adding a “Family Mix” playlist.

Employees put Apple Arcade subscription gaming service through its paces

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Apple Arcade is something of a loot box for Apple.
Coming this fall.
Photo: Apple

Apple has kicked off internal testing of Apple Arcade, putting the upcoming subscription gaming service through its paces before it launches to the public.

For the preview, Apple employees can pay 49 cents for a one-month trial. That includes access to early builds of games including Way of the Turtle, Down in Bermuda and Hot Lava.

Trump admits his tariffs could give Samsung an advantage over Apple

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Apple shares suffer biggest decline since August
Apple CEO Tim Cook and President Donald Trump appear to have a good working relationship.
Photo: White House

During a Friday-night dinner with Donald Trump, Apple CEO Tim Cook very nearly convinced the president that import taxes planned for iPhone and other products would benefit Samsung.

Apple will pay proposed tariffs on products imported from China, while Korea-based Samsung — Cupertino’s chief competitor — will not.

Expect ceramic and titanium Apple Watch Series 5 casings

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Apple Watch Edition
Ceramic Apple Watch casings are much harder than aluminum ones. The same would go for a titanium casing.
Photo: Apple

Buried in the watchOS 6 beta are a couple of images showing that this fall’s Apple Watch will be apparently available with titanium and ceramic casings.

It seems early details about Apple’s 2019 wearable are finally starting to trickle out.

iOS 13’s best secret features [Cult of Mac Magazine 310]

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iOS 13's best secret features.
These great iOS 13 features fly under the radar.
Cover: Marty Cortinas/Cult of Mac

Little tweaks can be a big deal. When Apple showcased the top-level changes coming soon to iPad and iPhone, these secret iOS 13 features flew below the radar. Find out why we like them — and see them in action in our video walkthrough.

Get in on the iOS 13 goodness in this week’s totally free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Elsewhere in our iOS mag, you’ll find an Apple Card review and plenty of Apple-oriented how-tos. (If you prefer to read in your browser, you’ll find the stories linked below.)

Apple chip supplier says Moore’s law still holds true

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Apple A14 processor
The A14 won‘t be out until 2020, but TSMC explains why it’ll be plenty fast.
CGI: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Gordon Moore famously predicted back in 1965 that the number of transistors in a chip would double every 2 years. This held true for decades but there’s pessimism if it can continue.

TSMC, the company that’s produced every iPhone and iPad chip for years, disagrees. It’s loaded with optimism about the future of processor design.

Promising Apple TV+ show Shantaram starts filming in October

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Apple TV+ series Shantaram seeking incentives in India
Published in 39 languages, Shantaram sold 6 million copies.
Photo: St. Martin's Griffin

Apple TV+ series Shantaram, about an Aussie bank robber who becomes a gangster in the slums of Mumbai, will start filming in Australia this October.

The 10-episode series is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Gregory David Roberts. If the show is anything like the book, Shantaram will combine nail-biting action with stunning scenery and thought-provoking philosophy.

That’s a whole lot to cram into 10 episodes. But a few key players stepped up to make one of Apple’s first international productions a reality.

Apple Watch Series 5 could save a struggling display-maker

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Watch out!
An analysts’ note makes a rare mention of Apple Watch Series 5.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

An updated Apple Watch could launch as early as next month but almost nothing has leaked out about it so far. That makes a reputable analyst’s prediction that struggling Japan Display could make OLED screens for Apple Watch Series 5 something worth taking note of.

Siri gets smarter, but still can’t keep up with Google Assistant

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Scorsese Siri
Director Martin Scorsese can count on Siri. Even more so than in the past.
Photo: Apple

Siri doesn’t have all the answers, but Apple’s digital assistant continues to get smarter.

Loup Ventures fires 800 questions at the leading digital assistants for its twice-a-year IQ Test to measure the practical use of voice as a means of computing input on smartphones. They are all improving, but not at the same rate.

5 million people rush to preorder Pokémon Masters

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Pokémon Masters
Coming soon to an iPhone near you.
Photo: The Pokémon Company

The folks at The Pokémon Company are sure taking the “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” catchphrase to heart — at least when it comes to hooking preorders for its latest mobile game.

With two weeks to go until Pokémon Masters launches on iOS and Android, the game already racked up 5 million preorders.

Insider iPhone 11 leaks, plus the pros and cons of Apple Card! This week, on The CultCast

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CultCast 401
Some big changes may be coming to iPhone...
Photo: Apple

This week on The CultCast: A Foxconn insider spills big iPhone 11 secrets. Plus: the pros and cons of Apple Card, and Apple’s new maps start rolling out across the country. And finally, a strange twist in the MoviePass story unveils the unbelievable shenanigans the company pulled to stayed in business — and they are far worse than we ever imagined!

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain..

Huawei delays first foldable phone for a second time

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The Huawei Mate X folding phone
The wait for the Mate X continues.
Photo: Huawei

Huawei this week delayed its first foldable smartphone … again. The Chinese company says there is “no possibility” of the Mate X making its debut in September.

The exciting new handset was originally scheduled to launch in June. Huawei pushed back its launch and admitted it was taking a “cautious” approach after Samsung’s struggled with the Fold.

Apple sues company that lets users run iOS in a browser

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Company that ported iOS to browsers hits back at Apple
Company that ported iOS to browsers hits back at Apple
Image: Corellium

Apple is suing Corellium, a company founded by former iPhone jailbreakers whose product lets users run iOS firmware in a web browser.

“There is no basis for Corellium to be selling a product that allows the creation of avowedly perfect replicas of Apple’s devices to anyone willing to pay,” Apple’s lawyers argue in the suit.

2.4 million Americans depend on Apple for their jobs

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Finisar makes Face IS lasers
Employees at Finisar in Texas will soon start shipping to Apple lasers used in Face ID.
Photo: Apple

Directly or indirectly, Apple is responsible for 2.4 million American jobs. The company says 450,000 of these are at the thousands of US companies that supply components for Apple computers, phones and tablets.

iOS 13 inches closer to launch with new beta [Updated]

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Buggy iOS 13 made Apple rethink how it develops software
Apple has made great strides in debugging iOS 13.
Screenshot: Apple

Apple just seeded the seventh Developer beta of the next iOS and iPadOS version. This is the latest stage of a debugging process expected to end in September.

UPDATE: iOS 13 Public beta 6 just launched as well, so anyone who wants to try this new version can. The same goes for iPadOS Public beta 6.

Fake AI skies look amazing, but not everybody’s thrilled

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sky replacement tool in Luminar 4
Pick a sky that wasn't there when you took the photo.
Photo: Skylum

Imaging software company Skylum markets its photo editing tools as huge time savers. Just click a preset look or move a few slider bars and you have a beautifully styled final image within minutes.

Skylum was on message when it announced an upcoming AI tool for instantly replacing the sky. The company declared, “The days of spending a lot of time manually creating a complicated mask to replace skies in an image are over.”

Yet the debate over artificial intelligence’s role in photography is only beginning. In the week since Skylum announced and demoed AI Sky Replacement, photographers have spent considerable time in online forums drawing lines between ethics and creativity.