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News - page 638

Foldout wireless charger can juice three Apple devices

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Unravel wireless charger
Unravel will keep tight rein on charging devices.
Photo: Ampere

Charging solutions are the foot soldiers in our growing army of devices. They’re just expected to work and don’t get full-throated praise we lavish on the iPhone or Apple Watch.

But that could change with a wireless charger called Unravel, a misleading name for a versatile gadget that cooly and simultaneously charges an iPhone, AirPods and Apple Watch.

Apple Pay Cash can’t come from credit cards [Updated]

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Pay for your doughnut dash with help from Apple Pay.
You can still send money to friends and family with Apple Pay Cash. You just can’t get the cash from a credit card.
Screenshot: Apple

It is no longer possible to transfer money into an Apple Pay Cash account from a credit card. Transferring funds in via a debit card from another bank is allowed, however.

The service still enables users to make person-to-person payments, but the money cannot come from a credit card.

Huawei smartphone cameras beating iPhone at its game

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Huawei Pro30 Pro
That's some good bokeh.
Screenshot: Huawei/YouTube

The devoted iPhone photographer mostly shrugs at the camera tests of DxOMark, but the growing number of smartphones ranking above the best iPhone is hard to ignore.

With the recent release of the Huawei P30 Pro, there are now five smartphone cameras that best the iPhone XS Max in the independent lab’s gauntlet of tests. The top three spots belong to Huawei.

Apple Watch’s fashion ambitions have virtually vanished

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Apple
Remember the Apple Watch Edition?
Photo: Apple

Today, the Apple Watch is the world’s best-selling smartwatch by a wide margin. But Apple’s strategy for convincing users that it’s important has certainly changed.

A new article notes how Apple has dropped its original ambitions for the Apple Watch as being a fashion-oriented product. And we don’t blame Apple!

Apple Pay is about to spread its reach across Europe

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Apple Pay Terminal
¡Es inminente!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple Pay is on its way to seven new markets across Europe.

A number of banks serving Greece, Portugal, and other territories have already confirmed their support for the service. The launch is “coming soon,” but a more specific date hasn’t been announced just yet.

App Store Search Ads expand to 46 more countries

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App Store Search Ads
Ads are coming to an iPhone near you.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

App Store users in a bunch of new countries will now see ads when searching for apps and games.

Apple on Tuesday expanded App Store Search Ads to 46 new territories. Developers can bid to have their titles appear in search results for specific keywords, which brings more attention to their apps.

Song pays tribute to Wyatt Mitchell’s keynote boiler suit

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Jumpsuit 2
Remember this guy from Monday's event? How could you forget?
Screenshot: Apple

Monday’s “show time” event might not have been Apple’s greatest keynote in living memory, but it did give us one thing we can all agree on. That’s the undisputed awesomeness of Apple’s director of design for applications Wyatt Mitchell’s white boiler suit.

A sartorial choice that steals the show from names like Steven Spielberg and Oprah isn’t easy to do. And yet thats exactly what Mitchell’s wardrobe decision managed. And now a long-time Apple fan has immortalized it in the medium of song. Check it out.

Apple’s ‘show time’ keynote leaves Wall Street cold

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Apple TV+ could have 26 million paying subs by 2025; 2.6 million currently
Apple's TV+ service has promise. But is it enough to excite investors?
Photo: Apple

Apple stock closed down 1.03 percent yesterday as Wall Street continues to show relative indifference to Monday’s “show time” event.

While AAPL share prices hit $190.57, it finished out the day at $186.79. This came after a 2 percent dip the day before. It follows a media event that was big on talk, but relatively small on detail.

Apple’s VP of Services unlikely to ‘take on the plight of publishers’

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Keynote pic
Peter Stern at Monday's event.
Screenshot: Apple

Monday’s “show time” keynote introduced plenty of new faces to Apple fans when it came to presenters. One of them, Peter Stern, is the VP of Services in charge of the company’s Apple+ and Apple News+ services.

Having joined Apple in 2016, he’s a relatively new arrival. However, he’s someone we’re likely to see a lot more of — as a new profile makes clear.

Don’t fall for the Twitter prank that locks you out

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Twitter has changed its mind on deleting inactive user accounts (for now)
Twitter is crushing dreams in 2020.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

A viral prank is getting some Twitter users locked out of their accounts.

Tweets that promise you’ll receive new color schemes, admin privileges, or even a verified check mark for changing your birthday have been circulating on the platform. But if you fall for the trick, all you will end up with is a Twitter account you can no longer use.

Developers think Apple Arcade is disruptive — for better or worse

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Apple Arcade
Apple Arcade has plenty of promise -- but poses some big challenges, too.
Photo: Apple

Will Apple Arcade turn out to be the game changer that developers are hoping for? According to a new report… maybe.

Speaking to a slew of developers, a news report found that many are cautiously optimistic about what Apple Arcade could mean. In particular, it could help break the stronghold of freemium titles in the App Store. But there are still potential challenges.

Users can’t sign into Gmail in Mail after latest macOS update

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Gmail error macOS
Are you seeing this message in macOS 10.14.4?
Photo: Wesley de Souza

Some macOS users are unable to sign into Gmail inside the Mail app after installing Apple’s most recent update.

The version 10.14.4 release, rolled out on Monday, puts many in an endless sign-in loop when trying to sync their Google accounts. The problem affects new accounts, as well as existing accounts that were already set up in Mail before the update arrived.

Apple AR glasses concept is both futuristic and retro

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Proposed Apple AR glasses would run realityOS, their own operating system.
Proposed Apple AR glasses would run realityOS, their own operating system.
Photo: Dominik Hofacker/ConceptsiPhone

An artist created a vision for a set of augmented reality glasses running a new Apple operating system. His concept video is built around the strong evidence that Apple is designing just such a product.

Watch the video now:

Apple v. Qualcomm: You win some, you lose some

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Qualcomm patents
The ITC sided with Apple over Qualcomm today in one case, but things went the other way in a separate decision earlier in the afternoon.
Photo: Qualcomm

Just hours after an International Trade Commission judge ruled in favor of Qualcomm in a patent infringement lawsuit with Apple, the Commission as a whole made the iPhone maker the winner in a separate dispute between the pair of companies.

This is a demonstration of how much acrimony there is between these two, who were once close allies.

Don’t expect your AirPods to last forever

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AirPods-teardown
The tiny batteries buried in AirPods start to wear out in a few years.
Photo: iFixit

Apple’s second-generation AirPods are arriving just in time for people who are discovering that their first-gen ones are wearing out.

This despite the original AirPods being, at most, 2.25 years old.

Grab the beautiful wallpaper from the new iPad Air

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The new 2019 iPad Air, with its 10.5-inch screen, works with Apple's existing Smart Keyboard.
Like that wallpaper? You can put it on your iPad.
Photo: Apple

Anyone who likes the looks of the sweet wallpaper that comes with the iPad Air 3 doesn’t have to buy a new tablet to get it (Duh).

It’s available to download to your iPad or Mac now. It’s not really shaped right for iPhones.

Judge calls for iPhone import ban due to patent infringements

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Qualcomm patents
Qualcomm scored another victory in its legal battle with Apple.
Photo: Qualcomm

Some iPhone models could soon be blocked from coming into the U.S. after a judge recently ruled that Apple infringed on Qualcomm’s patents.

ITC Judge MaryJoan McNamara found that iPhone infringes on one of three patents in Qualcomm’s case against Apple. She subsequently said she will recommend an import ban on iPhones, but a panel of judges could still save Apple.

Roku CEO explains why Apple TV+ needs Roku support

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Roku
Roku isn't worried about Apple TV+
Photo: Roku

Roku CEO Anthony Wood says Apple’s new Apple TV+ streaming platform is going to be great for his company despite some analysts claiming it could hurt Roku over the long term.

Wood made an appearance on CNBC today talking about the benefits of Apple finally embracing third-party streaming boxes like Roku and Amazon’s FireTV. Even though Apple has hundreds of millions of active iPhones and iPads to push its Apple TV+ service, the way Wood sees it, Apple TV+ needs Roku to be successful.

Is News+ the future of journalism? [Opinion]

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Can News+ succeed where Newsstand failed?
Can News+ succeed where Newsstand failed?
Photo: Takeshita Toyooka/Flickr CC

Apple is here to save the magazine and newspaper industry. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Back in 2011, Apple’s Newsstand made the same promise.

Newsstand was a kind of odd hybrid app/folder, and you could subscribe to individual magazines. Some were specially designed to work on the then-new iPad, and others were repurposed PDFs. Publishers thought it would prop up their failing print sales, but it did nothing of the sort.

Will Apple News+ be any different?