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News - page 608

Google’s wireless phone service adds Visual Voicemail for iOS

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Google Fi 1
Have you tried Google Fi yet?
Photo: Google

Google brought its wireless phone service, Google Fi, to iPhone late last year. Now it’s given it an update — bringing Visual Voicemail to the iOS app for the first time.

That means that you can get information on the caller, call date, call length and preview of the transcribed message inside the app. This interface easily allows you to expand the preview to read the full message or hear the audio.

FCC tries to confirm carriers stopped selling phone location data

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Apple Maps reservation OpenTable
You can’t escape your phone company tracking you, but the FCC can make them stop selling the information.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The CEOs of the big four US wireless carriers were asked by an FCC commissioner whether they’ve stopped selling their customers’ real-time location data, as they had promised to do.

Published reports in recent months indicated that the locations of Americans were being sold without their permission of even knowledge.

AirPod survives trip through man who swallowed it

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AirPods sales
Do not eat your AirPods.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple may need to update the specs for AirPods to include one new surprising feature: “stomach-proof”.

One unlucky Taiwanese man discovered this the hard way. After falling asleep, Ben Hsu woke up with one of his AirPods missing. Using Find My iPhone to track down the missing earbud, he started hearing a beeping sound that followed him around the room and realized he made a serious mistake. The AirPod was in his stomach.

Apple videos explain iPhone AssistiveTouch, VoiceOver, Magnifier accessibility features

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Apple video demonstrates how to use iOS accessibility features
Apple demonstrates how to use AssistiveTouch, which adds a virtual Home button that can perform multiple functions.
Screenshot: Apple

A series of videos from Apple Support walks users through setting up and using some of the features created for users with limited dexterity or vision. These explain AssistiveTouch, VoiceOver, Magnifier and inverted colors.

Watch them now:

This single iPad knob costs almost $400

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My, what a beautiful knob!
My, what a beautiful knob!
Photo: Synclavier

The Synclavier is a digital synthesizer from the early 1980s. Synclavier Go! is an iPad app that mimics the classic synth. But this post isn’t about those. It’s about the Synclavier Knob, an accessory for the app.

The Synclavier Knob is a single knob on a mounting plate the size of an iPad mini. That’s it. Oh, and it costs $399.

Apple Watch shipments shot up 49% last quarter

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Apple Watch in Singapore
When you see someone wearing a smartwatch, there’s a good chance it’s made by Apple.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s wearable is turning into a real success. Shipments of Apple Watch grew 49 percent in the first three months of this year.And it makes up the lion’s share of all smartwatches.

This company’s revenue for this product category grew 30 percent last quarter.

Overcast comes to Mac in impressive Marzipan concept

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Overcast running on macOS
Marzipan is going to bring some great apps to the Mac when it launches.
Screenshot: Steven Troughton-Smith

At WWDC last year, Apple shared a glimpse at the future of macOS. With their “Sneak Peek” of a framework, codenamed Marzipan, they previewed how macOS could support iOS apps in the future.

In macOS Mojave, Apple included a small set of “marzipan” apps – News, Stocks, Voice Memos, and Home – but the thing most people want to see is their favorite iOS apps on the Mac. Thanks to iOS developer Steve Troughton-Smith, we’ve started to get a pretty interesting idea.

Company in unproven spy chip story moving business out of China

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MacStadium Mac mini server racks
Chips were rumored to have found their way into servers used by the likes of Apple.
Photo: Apple

California-based Super Micro Computer is moving server production out of China. The company was last year at the center of a damaging story from Bloomberg.

The article alleged that spy chips had been placed into server motherboards, including those used by Apple, manufactured by Super Micro. Despite the story appearing to be highly dubious, it seems Super Micro is still having to take action.

Apple wants a German tourist association to change its logo

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Apfelroute logo 1
Do you think this looks like Apple's logo?
Photo: Apfelroute

Apple is pressuring a German cycle path over its logo, which Apple claims is too close to its own iconic logo.

The Apfelroute logo was intended for a cycling path in the Rhine-Voreifel region of Germany. It is scheduled to open on May 19. The logo has already been slapped on uniforms, bike racks, maps and banners by tourism company Rhine-Voreifel Tourism.

Removed parental control app says Apple is being misleading

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Screen Time 1
OurPact was recently booted out of the App Store.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

One of the parental control apps removed from the App Store has hit out at Apple’s “misleading comments.”

A New York Times report initially claimed that Apple had removed apps offering similar features to its own Screen Time tool. Apple then issued its own statement, saying that it removed them due to privacy and security risks.

But the makers of OurPact says it’s not that simple.

Share buybacks mean that Apple hasn’t actually reclaimed $1 trillion crown

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European Commission could get even tougher on tech in 2020
There's still a bit more that Apple needs to do.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Yesterday, numerous news outlets (including ourselves, based on data from Yahoo Finance) reported that Apple had reclaimed its $1 trillion crown.

However, a filing made late Wednesday reveals that Apple has not actually hit that milestone just yet. A company’s market cap is calculated by multiplying a company’s outstanding shares by the market price of one share. As a result of Apple’s continuing share buyback program, there are fewer outstanding shares available.

Apple lobbyist helps push back Right to Repair vote in California

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Cult of Mac's buyback program pays good money for your gear, even broken ones.
Laws will be pushed back to 2020 at least.
Photo: Warren R.M. Stuart/Flickr CC

Right to Repair legislation in Apple’s home state of California has been successfully pushed back to at least January 2020. After intervention by an Apple lobbyist, the co-sponsor of the bill pulled it from committee on Tuesday.

“While this was not an easy decision, it became clear that the bill would not have the support it needed today, and manufacturers had sown enough doubt with vague and unbacked claims of privacy and security concerns,” said California Assembly member Susan Talamantes Eggman.

Apple supplier CEO meets with President Donald Trump

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Terry Gou
Terry Gou is running for president of Taiwan.
Photo: Voice of America/Wikimedia Commons

Foxconn CEO Terry Gou visited President Donald Trump at the White House yesterday. Foxconn, which was founded by Gou, is one of Apple’s biggest manufacturers.

Gou discussed his plans to run for office in Taiwan, where he hopes to become president in next year’s elections. He assured Trump that he would be a friendly partner of the U.S. if elected. “If I am elected, I would be seeking to go to Washington,” he reportedly told the U.S. President.

Google enabling auto-delete of search and location history

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Setting your Google account to automatically delete old information about you will soon be possible.
Setting your Google account to automatically delete old information about you will soon be possible.
Photo: Google/Cult of Mac

Everyone who uses Google services, whether on iPhone or Android, will soon be able to have some of the data being collected about them automatically erased after a span of time.

It’s already possible to order Google to erase everything it stores about your search history, but this new feature will allow for on-going deletion.

Apple paying Qualcomm $4.5 billion to end legal war

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Qualcomm headquarters
Apple's giant payoff leaves Qualcomm sitting pretty.
Photo: Qualcomm

Apple will pay Qualcomm a lump sum of $4.5 billion to $4.7 billion as part of as legal settlement the two companies recently reached.

This is almost as much as Qualcomm’s entire revenue for its current quarter, showing Apple’s importance to the chipmaker.

Apple Music apparently isn’t as ‘intimate’ as Spotify

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Apple Music brand intimacy
How does Apple Music make you feel?
Photo: Apple

We make choices based on emotion and feelings can change on a whim. The best brands understand this as a science and if bonded closely with its customer base, can successfully influence its purchasing choices.

So the marketing team in charge of Apple Music may want to huddle up after a report on brand intimacy released today saw the music streaming service drop from its No. 1 spot from last year to No. 5.

iPhone shipments dropped a ‘staggering’ 30% last quarter

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iPhone XR Spectrum ad
Those iPhones aren’t floating upward.
Photo: Apple

Although Apple no longer reports the number of iPhone units it sells, the company did admit there was a steep decline in handset revenue in the first three months of this year. Analysts are out with their exact estimates, and the number of iPhones shipped last quarter could have dipped as much as 30 percent.

Rumor roundup: What to expect in iOS 13 and macOS 10.15 [Video]

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holding iPhone with
iOS 13 could offer tons of huge improvements to Apple's mobile operating system.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

The last few weeks have been packed with rumors and leaks about what Apple may have in store for us with iOS 13 and macOS 10.15. With so much information coming out day after day, it’s hard to keep track of all the possible rumors.

Fortunately for you, we’ve compiled the full list of expected features coming this year to iOS and macOS. From dark mode to iPad updates, and new Mac apps to Siri improvements, here’s everything we are expecting (so far) in iOS 13 and macOS 10.15.

Ridiculous modern offices fueled AirPods’ success

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AirPods in ear
“Don’t talk to me, I’m wearing AirPods” said just about everyone who’s ever worked in an open office.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Open offices were supposed to get employees to interact with each other more, but a recent study shows it hasn’t worked out that way. Instead, workers have turned to AirPods to give themselves some privacy.

This has helped fuel the rise of wireless hearables, especially Apple’s.

Apple is valued at $1 trillion once more

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Cash app with cash money
That sound you hear is glasses clinking in Cupertino!
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

Apple has won back its hard-fought $1 trillion market cap, after share prices rose following yesterday’s earnings triumph.

AAPL is currently trading at $213.20, giving it a market cap of just over $1 trillion. Shares rose 6% in early morning trading. This is a particularly triumphant moment for Apple after its stock price temporarily tanked at the end of last year.

This Pro Camera app is a master of both stills and video

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Moment Pro Camera app
The Moment Pro Camera app lets you have command of how your stills and videos look.
Photo: Moment

You’re a gifted content creator, shooting great stills and compelling video with your iPhone. But for complete creative control, some rely on separate camera apps for each discipline.

Moment, the maker of premium quality lens attachment for both, now has an all-in-one program app making switching from stills to video quick and seamless.

A beefed up Pro Camera app hits the App Store today, offering full manual control and with features making it difficult to have a bad shoot.

Apple spends millions lobbying lawmakers about tax

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Apple is worth more than the entire US energy sector combined
Here's what Apple spends money on when it lobbies Congress.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

When it comes to lobbying Congress, Apple’s biggest focus by far is on tax laws. Out of 236 lobbying reports since 2005, tax is mentioned in a massive 76%.

This is one takeaway from a new report, analyzing lobbying spend from the big five tech giants, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. Between them, they have spent $582 million on lobbying since 2005. According to the report, Apple spent $9.6 million on lobbying last year, and $59.9 million since 2005.

Apple Pay prepares to go live in the Netherlands

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Apple Pay Netherlands
Soon you'll be able to pay for your smoke and a pancake using your iPhone.
Screenshot: ING

Shortly after going live in Austria, Apple Pay is also set to commence operations in the Netherlands.

The information was shared by Dutch bank ING on its website. While it doesn’t give an exact date, it does note that Apple Pay is coming “soon.” That suggests that all the necessary negotiations have been completed, and it’s just a matter of flicking the switch to send it live.

Apple’s second ever iPad is officially obsolete

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iPad 2 ad
We can't hate on that price, though!
Photo: Apple

As we noted earlier this month, one of Apple’s earliest tablets is now officially classified “obsolete” by the company.

Apple’s iPad 2, released in 2011, packed a dual-core A5 processor, thinner form factor, and VGA front-facing and 720p rear-facing cameras. However, what was state-of-the-art almost a decade is ago is now considered so old that Apple Stores will no longer service it.