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News - page 698

The spectacular Louvre Apple Store is closing

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Apple Carrousel du Louvre 1
But don't worry: you'll get an even better Apple Store.
Photo: David McKelvey/Flickr CC

Apple has revealed that it will shutter its Apple Carrousel du Louvre retail store in Paris later this month.

The Apple Store, which has been open for nine years, is located beneath the pyramid in front of the world-famous, iconic Louvre museum. Don’t fret, however: If you live in the area, Apple is about to open new, better retail store in the area.

‘Highly plausible’ Apple servers could be infected with spy chips, says former Apple hardware engineer

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Instrumental founder and CEO Anna Katrina Shedletsky
Instrumental founder and CEO Anna Katrina Shedletsky, who is using her experience as an Apple product design engineer to bring AI to manufacturing.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Despite Apple’s denials, it’s “highly plausible” that secret spy chips could have been planted on the company’s servers, said a former Apple hardware engineer.

Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, who spent nearly six years at Apple helping build several generations of iPod, iPhone and Apple Watch, said spy chips could have been slipped into the design of servers used for Apple’s iCloud services, as alleged in a Bloomberg Businessweek story.

“With my knowledge of hardware design, it’s entirely plausible to me,” she said. “It’s very highly plausible to me, and that’s scary if you think about it.”

Samsung reports record earnings — and Apple’s a big reason why

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Samsung
Quick, send Tim Cook a thank you note!
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Samsung is expecting to rake in record operating profits for the three months ending in September — and it owes Apple a debt of gratitude for helping.

The South Korean tech giant said on Friday that it’s expecting to pull in $15.6 billion in operating profits for the most recent quarter. This would be a jump of more than 20 percent compared to the same quarter in 2017, and Samsung’s highest ever quarterly earnings. They should send Tim Cook a bottle of champagne to thank him!

Mac software locks will hit third-party repair shops

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Repair shop
New rules affect Macs with the T2 chip.
Photo: Streetpho/Flickr CC

In the event that your 2018 MacBook Pro or iMac Pro runs into problems outside warranty, would you try and save money by going to third-party repair shop? If so, Apple seemingly has some bad news for you.

According to a new report, Apple has introduced new software locks that will brick these machines if they’re operated on by anyone not using Apple’s proprietary diagnostic software. Failing to do so will, “result in an inoperative system and an incomplete repair.”

Apple denies its server hardware was infected by Chinese spy chips [Updated]

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This isn't actually Apple's data center, but it's close.
Did the chips really make it into Apple's data centers?
Photo: Pexels

Update: Apple and Amazon both issued lengthy statements Thursday concerning the Chinese spy chip allegations. We updated this post to include those statements.

Apple denies that Chinese spy chips infiltrated its iCloud server hardware after claims that motherboards used by Apple, Amazon and dozens of other tech companies contained microchips used for surveillance purposes.

Cupertino insists the story is “wrong and misinformed.” Apple also says Chinese spying had nothing to do with the company’s decision to cut ties with a supplier.

Bulletproof privacy makes price of iPhone worth it

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data privacy
Apple CEO Tim Cook discusses his company's data privacy philosophy on VICE News Tonight.
Screenshot: VICE News Tonight/You Tube

Android users can pat themselves on the back for paying less for a smartphone. Apple fans can rest easy knowing the steeper price they paid for their iPhones came with better data privacy.

This was a point Roger McNamee, an Apple investor and co-founder of the private equity firm Elevation Partners, delivered Wednesday during a discussion on CNBC about where the big tech companies stand on privacy.

Jimmy Kimmel turns Trump’s nationwide text into a Hollywood blockbuster

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Trump text
Trump's texts cause nationwide mayhem in Kimmel's hilarious video.
Photo: Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Giving Donald Trump the power to send a text to every person in the U.S. is a horrible idea, but as Jimmy Kimmel has shown, it could make for a great movie.

Everyone was talking about the first-ever nationwide Presidential alert. Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as bad as Trump’s tweets. However, during Jimmy Kimmel’s show last night, the late night comedian showed what type of mayhem could ensue if Trump could text whatever he wanted. From cops shooting their iPhones to a man chopping his arm off to get away from Apple Watch alerts, the entire movie concept is truly phenomenal.

Watch the craziness unfold:

Epic will let Fortnite players merge multiple accounts

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Fortnite
Rescue your purchases from an old Epic account.
Photo: Epic Games

Epic Games is giving Fortnite players a new tool that will allow them to merge multiple accounts.

The merge will combine all item purchases, V-Bucks, game stats, and Save the World campaign access. It’s perfect for those who were forced to set up a second Epic account to play Fortnite on the Nintendo Switch, or because they were locked out of their original.

UK hip-hop DJ Charlie Sloth leaves BBC for Apple Music

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Charlie Sloth 1
Sloth during one of his famous "Fire in the Booth" segments.
Screenshot: BBC/YouTube

Following in the footsteps of fellow ex-BBC presenter Zane Lowe and others, UK-based hip-hop DJ Charlie Sloth will be leaving his job presenting on the BBC to join Apple Music.

Sloth is a presenter on both BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra. He has been a BBC broadcaster for the past decade, and is best known for hosting the popular rap freestyle segment, “Fire in the Booth.”

Apple tops Best Global Brands list for 6th consecutive year

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Apple adds 5 new vice presidents to its executive lineup
Apple is way ahead of the competition in value.
Photo: Lyle Kahney/Cult of Mac

Apple has topped Interbrand’s annual list of the Best Global Brands for the sixth consecutive year.

The iPhone-maker, which has seen its brand value increase 16 percent this year, ranked highly in consistency, engagement, and differentiation. It is followed by Google, while Amazon has quickly climbed into third place after its brand value increased an impressive 56 percent.

Facebook ‘borrows’ from Snapchat for updated Nearby Friends feature

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Facebook owns 4 of the top 10 apps of the past decade
Facebook wants to get some of that Snapchat cool!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Facebook is taking another crack at providing a way to help us meet up with friends offline. Having seen its “Facebook Nearby Friends” feature fail to gain much traction, the social media giant is now supposedly planning on a Snapchat-inspired redo to try and change its fortunes.

According to TechCrunch, Facebook is testing a redesign of its “Nearby Friends” that looks a whole lot like Snap Map. This feature will replace the list view of “Nearby Friends” with a map that shows friends grouped according to their city.

‘Patent troll’ sues Apple over AirDrop technology

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AirDrop shortcut
AirDrop lets you send files between devices.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Apple introduced its super useful AirDrop file transfer feature way back in 2011. However, a patent licensing company called Uniloc — sometimes referred to as a “patent troll” by critics — claims that Apple is infringing on its intellectual property.

Uniloc says that Apple’s AirDrop tech infringes on a patent first filed in 2000, a decade before Apple debuted AirDrop. And it wants some sweet Apple cash for its troubles!

Apple hires police to watch over its Apple Stores in Sacramento

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Thieves grab MacBooks from an Apple Store
This is the kind of situation Apple wants to avoid.
Photo: CBS New York/Apple

Police might have cracked the crime ring behind the spate of snatch-and-grab robberies in Apple Stores across California, but Apple’s taking no chances. According to a new report, it has contracted local police departments to bring officers in as extra security in some of its stores.

Specifically, the report notes that Apple is doing this in Sacramento. However, we wouldn’t be surprised if Apple followed a similar strategy in other locations which have been the target of criminals.

Civilization VI marches onto iPhone

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Civlization VI
Get ready to give up hours on end!
Photo: Aspyr Media, Inc.

There are some technological feats that just hammer home how far we’ve come in a few short years. One of those is the fact that, through what we can only presume is the software engineering version of witchcraft, Sid Meier’s epic Civilization VI game has been squeezed onto iPhone.

And it’s available in the App Store right now — with a 60 percent price discount if you hurry!

People love declining phone calls on their Apple Watches

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Man’s brand new Apple Watch turns out to be toilet plunger
Here's what people regularly do with their Apple Watch.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple made a big deal of people being able to make and receive phone calls with your Apple Watch, but you know what it turns out people prefer doing to answering calls with their Cupertino smartwatch? Declining them, you unsociable bunch!

At least, that’s according to a new Creative Strategies survey of Apple Watch users, shared by researcher Ben Bajarin. Based on the Silicon Valley research firm’s analysis, here’s what else they found Apple Watch owners do on a regular basis:

Google Translate for iOS can speak in Australian, Indian, Spanish accents

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Google Translate can speak in a variety of accents. And it's not just English.
Google Translate can speak in a variety of accents. And it's not just English.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

The days are over when Google Translate could only provide spoken translations with an American accent. The latest iOS version adds regional accents from the former British Empire.

And it goes beyond English. French translations can be said in a Canadian accent, for example.

LG’s horrible hybrid watch shows how bad Apple’s competition is

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lg
LG's smartwatches have always been bad, but the W7 is even worse.
Photo: LG

Apple has quickly become the world’s biggest watch company and based on its latest competition from Android smartwatch maker LG, the company’s not in danger of losing its title anytime soon.

LG’s new Watch W7 was unveiled today with a hybrid design that makes it half smartwatch, half mechanical watch. The watch face has mechanical hands so that you can always see what time it is. To keep them from blocking the display, LG put a little feature in it that makes the two hands fold horizontally but the execution of the idea is quite atrocious.

Look at how dumb this thing is:

Apple cuts price of BeatsX headphones

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beatsx wireless
The BeatsX Wireless earbuds charge via Lightning.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The good news is that Apple just significantly cut the official price of BeatsX wireless headphones. The bad news is that half the color options also just went away.

These in-ear headphones compete with Apple’s own AirPods but, unlike their rivals, are permanently connected to each other.

iPhone XS first week sales solidly outpace iPhone 8

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iPhone XS box gold
People around the world snapped up the iPhone XS models more quickly than they did the iPhone 8 series last year.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The iPhone XS and XS Max debuted last month, and some versions sold out almost immediately. But that doesn’t automatically mean they’re a huge hit. Still there’s new evideance that sales are strong.

Drawing on data compiled from over 1 million mobile apps, an analyst says that, during the first week they were available, Apple’s XS series outsold last year’s iPhone 8 and 8 Plus by 45 percent.

Wi-Fi version names finally make sense

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home Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi 6 is coming, and you don't have to care which version of 802.11 it is. You will care that it'll make public Wi-Fi better, though.
Photo: Alan Levine/Flickr

802.11ax will soon get a public release, but you won’t be left trying to remember if it’s better than 802.11ac or 802.11n. That’s because every version of Wi-Fi is getting renamed with a simple system that anyone can understand.

The next generation is going to be called Wi-Fi 6, which is obviously better than its predecessor, Wi-Fi 5.

iPhone XS Max camera takes second place in DxOMark rankings

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iPhone data privacy
Data privacy comes with the price.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

The iPhone XS Max camera is one of the best mobile cameras ever tested by the digital camera testing lab DxOMark. It’s just not as good as Huawei’s triple-camera P20 Pro, the tests show.

The XS Max scored a 105, four points less than the flagship of its Chinese competitor, a result only wonky photophiles are likely to debate ad nauseam.

Hundreds of people are dying from selfies

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iPhone X portrait lighting ad
Be careful where you selfie.
Photo: Apple

Think twice before you take your next selfie because it could be your last.

Selfie-related deaths are on the rise, according to a new study that found there were over 250 reported deaths from October 2011 to November 2017 that happened while the person was trying to snap a selfie.

Everyone can get the latest iOS 12.1, macOS, tvOS betas

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Apple Beta Software Program
Get in on the new betas while they're hot.
Photo: Apple

Apple isn’t wasting time getting out the next versions of all its operating systems. Yesterday, it introduced fresh betas of iOS 12.1, macOS 10.14.1, and tvOS 12.1 just for developers, and today these are all available to the general public.

This is the second round of betas of all this pre-release software. It comes two weeks after the initial round.

Brass grip gives iPhone camera feel and control of a DSLR

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Pictar Pro
Get a grip on your iPhone when shooting pictures or video with the Pictar Pro
Photo: miggö

Each new iPhone and its ever-improving camera tends to stir up talk about the demise of the DSLR.

Yet, there are just some key features of a conventional camera’s form factor that relegates the iPhone to the casual camera category.

But the photography accessories company miggö has developed – and now improved – a nifty attachment dubbed Pictar tp bring DSLR-like speed and ergonomics to the iPhone.