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North Korean elites sure love their Apple devices

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North Korea
North Korean citizens paying respect to the statues of Kim Jong-un's ancestors.
Photo: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen/Wikipedia CC

When Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un meet, they could always break the ice by talking about their favorite Apple devices.

While Trump has expressed his admiration for Apple in the past, it turns out that North Korea’s top officials are also quite the fans of the Cupertino tech giant. According to research firm Recorded Future, analysis of the devices being used by North Korea’s elite include numerous iPhones and a MacBook.

Lawsuit alleges that every Apple Watch contains the same defect

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apple watch 1
The Apple Watch is the subject of a new legal case.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Every Apple Watch that Apple has made is defective. At least, that’s the argument made by a new class action lawsuit, asking Apple to pay $5 million in damages for refusing to acknowledge an issue which affects its wearable devices.

According to Kenneth Sciacca of Colorado, who filed the suit, Apple Watches contain a flaw “which causes the screens … to crack, shatter, or detach from the body of the Watch, through no fault of the wearer, oftentimes only days or weeks after purchase.”

Valve makes controversial decision to ‘allow everything’ in Steam Store

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Valve Steam
Enjoy Remote Play Together today.
Photo: Valve

Valve is making a huge change that’s going to have a massive impact on the content you see in the Steam Store. The company is doing away with human curation and allowing everything to be sold through its platform.

Valve says it should be up to players to decide what kinds of games they play, while developers should have the freedom to choose what kinds of games they make. However, it will be creating new tools that give shoppers greater control over what appears in their Steam Store.

Another Fortnite update arrives with more weapon changes

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Fortnite gold weapons
Shotguns are weaker but damage traps are back!
Photo: Epic Games

Epic Games is rolling out another Fortnite Battle Royale update with big weapon changes.

It is the second patch to arrive this week after bouncer traps and other weapon tweaks were introduced on Wednesday. This release focuses on reducing shotgun damage for both the pump and tactical variants, and reversing the decrease recently made to trap damage.

Epic has also confirmed it will be sending the jetpack to the vault this month.

Legal battle may be to blame for Apple breaking its FaceTime promise

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FaceTime
Apple's open wish for FaceTime never happened.
Screenshot: Apple

At WWDC, Apple revealed that it will finally make it possible to do FaceTime group calls for up to 32 people. That’s great news — provided that all your friends, family and co-workers use Apple devices.

But it didn’t have to be like this. Back in 2010, when Steve Jobs introduced FaceTime, he made a big point about how it was set to become an open industry standard that could be used by Apple’s competitors, as well as Apple. Nearly a decade on, that still hasn’t happened. And now a theory has emerged as to why.

Beautiful new renders show upcoming 6.5- and 6.1-inch iPhone models

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6.5- and 6.1-inch 2018 iPhone models
Complications could keep us waiting for Apple’s more affordable iPhone.
Photo: OnLeaks

Apple’s 2018 iPhone plans reportedly include three models launching this September. One will be an upgraded version of the iPhone X, but the other two are more interesting. They’re months away from being announced, but a new render shows what both might look like.

The 6.5-inch version on the left has been called the iPhone X Plus, as it’s larger than last year’s 5.8-inch one. In the artist’s concept image, it sits next to a 6.1-inch iPhone that, unfortunately, might not look like this.

iOS 12 definitely speeds up your iPhone

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iOS 12
So far, the iOS 12 performance increases seem to living up to Apple's promises.
Photo: Apple

WWDC 2018 bug Cult of MacApple took to the WWDC stage to promise that iOS 12 would offer better performance than the iPhone’s current operating system. And tests on the first beta seem to bear this out, even on older devices.

Side-by-side comparisons between iOS 12 beta 1 and version 11.4 show clear speed improvements. Benchmark scores show marginal increases.

Grab all 16 macOS Mojave dynamic wallpapers right here

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Mojave wallpapers
Mojave's wallpapers are gorgeous.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Dynamic wallpapers are about to change the look of your Mac once Mojave launches to the public, but you don’t have to wait until this fall to get that new new right now.

Mojave includes 16 variations of the same majestic sand dune Apple showed off at WWDC 2018. If you can’t install Mojave on your Mac, you can download the Mojave dynamic wallpapers below.

Parrot’s new drone wants to compete with the Mavic Air

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Anafi
Anafi's 180-degree camera looks amazing!
Photo: Parrot

Drone manufacturer Parrot looks like it may have finally put together a pretty good drone to rival DJI’s popular Mavic Air quadrocopter.

Parrot unveiled its new $700 drone this morning dubbed, Anafi. The name isn’t the only thing that’s a little bit odd about the super-portable drone, but it packs some pretty interesting features even DJI can’t match.

Americans are insanely addicted to their phones

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iPhone Hold
Check Facebook in the bathroom? That doesn't make you weird, just an average American. But maybe we all have phone addiction.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

We really love our phones. Maybe too much. 10 percent of respondents to a recent survey have checked their phone during sex. Almost a quarter (22 percent) can’t make it through a shower without a look. But Apple is trying to help.

The survey also took a quick look at American’s attitudes toward 5G. Even though this ultra-fast cellular wireless network technology is going to start rolling out later this year, 44% of U.S. adults have never heard of it.

Parkinson’s disease symptoms tracking is coming to Apple Watch

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ResearchKit
ResearchKit is getting better at tracking Parkinson's disease.
Photo: Apple

WWDC 2018 bug Cult of MacYour Apple Watch will soon be able to track symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, thanks to a new API from Apple.

Details of Apple’s big software updates are still flowing out of the San Jose convention center as Apple dives into the details during sessions. During its session on advances in research and card frameworks Tuesday the company revealed it’s developed a new Movement Disorder API that could be groundbreaking for people with the disease.

J.J. Abrams and Sara Bareilles team up Apple musical dramedy

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JJ Abrams
Jony Ive's buddy J.J. Abrams is going to make a TV show for Apple.
Photo: Gage Skidmore/Wikipedia CC

Apple has tapped J.J. Abrams to executive produce its latest straight-to-series order for the half-hour dramedy show called Little Voices.

Abrams’ and Apple have reportedly discussed working together on a number of his projects in the past. This is the first Apple has been able to ink a deal with J.J., but considering his close ties to Jony Ive, we’re surprised it took this long.

Theoretical improvements: The status of Siri in iOS 12

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The iPhone's home button could be going away.
Siri should be a lot smarter.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

WWDC 2018 bug Cult of Mac In the battle of digital voice assistants, people often mock Siri for lagging behind competing products from Amazon and Google. During Monday’s WWDC 2018 keynote, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, glossed over those failings, calling Siri the “world’s most-used digital assistant.”

What he neglected to mention was the increasing frustration of Siri users expecting more from a voice assistant. From simple requests returning inaccurate results to the inability to performthat he compound actions, Siri was in desperate need of attention going into WWDC. But will the Siri upgrades in iOS 12 do the trick?

Sonos busts out new Beam sound bar, plus AirPlay 2 support

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sonos beam
Sonos Beam is sleek but packs a punch.
Photo: Sonos

Sonos is making a power play to take over your living room with its latest smart speaker called Sonos Beam.

Beam is a new sound bar that is smaller than Sonos’ Playbar and Playbase, but it also packs some new features like a five-microphone array and it plays well with Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa and of course, Siri.

Watch out HomePod, this thing looks amazing:

macOS Mojave changes spell doom for indie Mac games

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Steamcrate game subscription offer
Apple is making life a lot harder for smaller game studios.
Photo: Cult of Mac

A big change Apple is making with macOS Mojave could make it more difficult for indie developers to build cross-platform games.

Apple is pushing game creators to drop OpenGL in favor of its own Metal API, which isn’t supported by third-party platforms. It may mean smaller game development teams are forced to choose between releasing on macOS or other operating systems.

Your AirPods just got way more useful with Live Listen

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airpods
AirPods can help you hear in a crowd thanks to Live Listen, coming in iOS 12.
Photo: Ste Smith/ Cult of Mac

WWDC 2018 bug Cult of MacYou’re in a noisy bar or restaurant and can’t hear the person across the table from you. Good news: With a feature added in iOS 12, you can use your AirPods and iPhone as a low-cost hearing aid.

This feature is called Live Listen, and it’s been available for certain hearing aids for some time. But soon, anyone with a pair of Apple’s wireless headphones will be able to use it.

Fortnite update brings rare bouncer trap and big adjustments

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Fortnite bouncer trap
Things that make you go boing!
Photo: Epic Games

Fortnite Battle Royale’s weekly content update is rolling out across all platforms, including iOS. The latest release adds a new bouncer trap and makes big adjustments to address “a few top concerns.”

No, there’s still no controller support on mobile — but there is strong evidence to suggest Fortnite is about to drop onto the Nintendo Switch.

Smart toilets might keep Apple manufacturer flush

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iPhone sales drive Apple’s biggest supplier to big profits
Foxconn is planning for life after Apple.
Photo: CBS

Foxconn has been working with Apple for the past couple of decades, and together they have raked in billions of dollars. However, with smartphone sales plateauing and Apple looking to broaden its supplier base, Foxconn is trying to reinvent itself.

Speaking at a 30th anniversary event for the manufacturing giant on Wednesday, founder Terry Gou described how Foxconn plans to get further into making its own hardware as well as embracing software options like cloud computing. Including one slightly unusual idea.

Instagram wants to battle Apple and Netflix with original content

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Cult of Mac Instagram profile
Instagram could soon offer original shows of its own.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

After beating out every other photo-sharing platform and stealing Snapchat’s lunch money, Instagram is jumping into video.

A new report claims the service is adding support for uploading videos up to an hour in length. It is also in talks with content creators and publishers about the possibility of delivering original long-form videos that could compete with shows from the likes of Apple and Netflix.

Conan hilariously skewers iOS 12’s Screen Time feature

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Conan
No distractions here!
Photo: Conan

At Monday’s WWDC keynote event, Apple introduced its new Screen Time initiatives which will help users keep tabs on just how much they use their iPhones. It’s something that people have been pushing for a while, and it’s absolutely the right move on Apple’s part.

But that doesn’t mean it can’t be the source of humor. In a new skit, late night talkshow host Conan O’Brien skewers the concept with his idea for an iPhone Basic — with no screen, no buttons, and basically nothing that could distract you from living in the real world. Check it out below.

How John Perry Barlow once roasted Steve Jobs

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John Perry Barlow
John Perry Barlow passed away earlier this year.
Photo: Crown Archetype

Given his influence and notorious temper, hosting a celebrity roast of Steve Jobs would have been pretty darn scary. But that’s what EFF co-founder, Grateful Dead lyricist and cyberlibertarian John Perry Barlow was once asked to do.

Even worse, it came at a time in Jobs’ career when seemingly everything was going wrong. The results earned Barlow — who passed away earlier this year — a severe telling off from Jobs’ wife, Laurene.

Apple finally brings free trials to App Store

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Mojave
Dark view isn't the only great new feature coming to the App Store.
Photo: Apple

Apple has finally fixed one of the biggest complaints about its Mac and iOS App Stores: free trials. Developers can now offer free time-limited trials of their apps, with a one-time in-app purchase to unlock the full version. This little amendment to the App Store guidelines may prove to be huge, paving the way for developers to make much better, pro-level apps for iOS.

watchOS 5 makes those pricey $10,000 Apple Watch Editions obsolete

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Apple
Three years later, it's all over for the first-gen Apple Watch Edition.
Photo: Apple

The idea of luxury watches is that they last a lifetime, maybe more. Patek Philippe makes this explicit with its tagline, “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation.”

Clearly Apple didn’t get the memo, though. The company’s ultra-expensive Apple Watch Edition — which started at $10,000 and ran up to $17,000 — will soon be obsolete, thanks to Apple introducing watchOS 5 at this week’s WWDC event.