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Google Inbox will get iPhone X support ‘soon’

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Google Inbox iPhone
We don't need two Gmail clients anymore.
Photo: Google

Google Inbox will finally be optimized for iPhone X “soon,” according to a new report.

Google has been working hard to update its most important iOS apps for Apple’s flagship smartphone since it made its debut last November — but Inbox, its nicest Gmail client, has somehow been neglected. Now that Gmail’s big redesign is out of the way, that’s set to change.

Amazon could soon be worth even more than Apple

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Amazon
Amazon has had one heck of a 2018 so far!
Photo: Mike Seyfang/Flickr CC

Apple has pretty much clung onto its title of world’s most valuable company since early in Tim Cook’s reign at the top. However, it may not hold that claim for too much longer if Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has much to say about it!

Amazon shares rose 7.1 percent for a record high in premarket trading today, following the company’s massive Q1 earnings. That narrows Apple’s market cap lead to less than $50 billion.

Apple may have wildly misjudged iPhone X demand

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iphone x
Apple has pared iPhone X production way back.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple is usually pretty great at gauging demand for its products. Something seems to have gone wildly wrong for the iPhone X, however, since the company is now reportedly trying to “burn off” its excess supply of the devices after disappointing adoption rates.

According to a source speaking with Fast Company, Apple ordered the production of way too many iPhone X units in the last calendar quarter of 2017, and is now dealing with excess supply.

iTunes arrives in the Microsoft Store after lengthy delay

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iTunes Microsoft Store
Windows 10 S users can now enjoy iTunes, too.
Photo: Microsoft

iTunes is finally available to download from the Microsoft Store for the first time.

The release makes it possible for Windows 10 S users, who cannot install applications obtained from third-party sources, to get their hands on Apple’s popular entertainment platform. This version of iTunes is exactly the same as the one available through Apple’s website.

Tim Cook was ‘very helpful’ in Trump meeting at the White House

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President Trump: Apple encryption could protect ‘criminal minds’
Tim Cook met with President Trump earlier this week.
Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr CC

Apple CEO Tim Cook was reportedly “most helpful” during his White House meeting with President Donald Trump earlier this week. Cook was enthusiastic about the Trump administration’s recent tax cuts, and also had some advice about business dealings in China.

“I really enjoyed the meeting,” Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, told CNBC’s Squawk on the Street. “I spent a good amount of time with [Cook], and then we came back and we visited the POTUS.”

iPhone shipments up significantly in China

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Hong Kong police arrest smugglers with $1 million of iPhones and other devices
Hong Kong police arrest smugglers with $1 million of iPhones and other devices
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Shipments of iPhone in China increased 32 percent in the first quarter of this year. This was during a period when the overall Chinese handset market declined. 

Many Chinese see Apple devices as status symbols and pick them over local brands that cost significantly less.

Apple’s AirPort router lineup is officially dead

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AirPort Express
Apple is getting out of the router business.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

The biggest tech company in the world is getting out of WiFi. Kind of…

Apple decided to finally put the nail in the coffin for its lineup of AirPort routers that haven’t been updated in years. We’ve known this day has been coming for nearly two years, but Apple just officially gave us the bad news.

Here’s the official statement:

Death of 3D Touch starts with 2018 iPhone

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3D Touch
The handy but not vital tricks that come with 3D Touch are reportedly going away.
Photo: Apple

Say goodbye to 3D Touch. A very reliable analyst predicts one of the iPhones coming in autumn won’t have this pressure-sensitive technology, and none of the 2019 devices will.

Ming-Chi Kuo says it’s all because Apple is changing the components of its displays to make them lighter and less likely to break.

New Opera Touch browser designed for one-handed use

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Opera Touch
Maciej Kocemba, Opera Touch product manager, demonstrates how easily this mobile browser does a search.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

The Opera Touch web browser tries to solve one problem: people want to use their phone one-handed, but searching the Web takes both hands. The whole focus of this just released app is one-handed searching and browsing.

Also announced today was Opera Flow, a simple method for synchronizing the new mobile browser with this company’s desktop one.

Proposed EU law changes how Apple deals with smaller rivals

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Spotify
If an EU law goes into effect, a dispute between Apple and Spotify over subscription fees would go to mediation.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Spotify objects to Apple collecting a share of all the subscription fees paid by iOS users.  A law proposed today in European Union would force Apple and Spotify into mediation on this issue.

And it’s not just Spotify. Under the proposal, Apple, Google, and other tech giants would have to appoint mediators in all their disagreements with smaller companies.

Possible iPhone SE 2 photos show off a couple of big surprises

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Letemsvetemapplem
Two of the iPhone SE 2 images shared online.
Photo: Letemsvetemapplem

If you’re on the lookout for a new iPhone with 3.5mm headphone jack, your dream may be answered with the upcoming iPhone SE 2.

Despite a previous report stating that Apple would ditch the popular port for the new handset, photos circulating on Chinese social media suggest this may not be the case after all. Whether that’s a good thing or not will largely depend on whether you’re still mourning the arrival of earbuds with a Lightning connection!

And that’s not the only surprise…

Find zero-day vulnerabilities in iOS and bag $3 million

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Apple could be a $2 trillion company by end of 2021
Startup will then sell your solution to (friendly) governments.
Photo illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

A new startup, based in the United Arab Emirates, promises to give $3 million to anyone who can successfully hack iOS devices.

The Crowdfense startup is looking for zero-day exploits, referring to hacking tools which exploit vulnerabilities unknown to the system creators. In addition to iOS, the company is seeking zero-day exploits for Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android.

iPhone movie nominated for celebrated art award

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Charlotte Prodger
Charlotte Prodger is just the latest artist to use an Apple device for her work.
Screenshot: Film London

One of the works nominated for this year’s Turner Prize, an annual award given out to the best British visual artist, is a short film that was shot on an iPhone.

Shortlisted Scottish artist Charlotte Prodger filmed her video Bridgit on an iPhone. It’s just the latest example of how Apple’s devices can be used by creators to make art.

Samsung hit by ‘slow demand’ for iPhone X

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Photo of iPhone X in a person's hand, used to illustrate iPhone X review
The iPhone X hasn't sold in the quantities many expected.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Samsung has joined the chorus of voices complaining about weak iPhone X sales, citing the “slow demand for flexible OLED panels” in its earnings report as one of the reasons for its performance in the past financial quarter.

Although the display making part of Samsung’s business experienced 3.4 percent increased sales over the three month period, this was less than the 20 percent growth of Samsung in its entirety.

Despite lawsuits, Qualcomm will still provide chips for 2018 iPhones

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Qualcomm patents
Qualcomm will share manufacturing duties with Intel.
Photo: Qualcomm

Breakups can be complicated. If you’ve built a life together, then extricating yourself from the other party isn’t necessarily as easy as ripping off a band-aid.

That’s a life lesson which applies to Qualcomm and Apple. Despite spending the last year-and-a-half feuding with one another, it seems that 2018-era iPhones are still going to rely on Qualcomm for a certain number of chips.

Because life is complex that way.

Battle between Apple and Microsoft is over

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Apple and Microsoft cooperate
Office running on a Mac shows that the long fight between Apple and Microsoft has been over for years.
Photo: Microsoft

Microsoft’s head of marketing says his company is no longer interested in battling with Apple. This is surely a shocking statement to anyone who remembers the days when these two brawled relentlessly. But those days are over.

The change was brought about by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who accepted the need to bring his company’s products to whatever devices could run them, not just Windows.

What did Tim Cook and Trump talk about?

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tariffs
Apple CEO Tim Cook has urged President Donald Trump to avoid tariffs with China.
Photos: White House/Apple

Apple’s CEO and the President of the United States took a meeting today in the Oval Office. Trade was at the top of the agenda for Tim Cook and Trump, as the President and China’s leaders increasingly put tariffs on each other’s products.

Cook was already in Washington to attend a White House formal dinner last night to honor the French President.

Google’s got a new challenge for Apple Music

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YouTube Music
Google Play Music is reportedly merging with YouTube Music.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

In the streaming music battle, the competition is between Spotify and Apple Music. Google Play Music is barely a blip, with 4 percent of the U.S. market.

But the situation is more complex than that. Google’s YouTube video service actually dominates streaming music, though it isn’t supposed to be in that business at all.

According to unconfirmed reports, Google plan is to merge its music service with another, and also turn millions of free YouTube listeners into paying customers.

Pick a side in Avengers: Infinity War with new OtterBox iPhone cases

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Avengers: Infinity War iPhone cases
Choose your favorite hero, or villain, from Avengers: Infinity War.
Photo: OtterBox

In case you’ve been living in a cave in Wakanda, tomorrow is the premiere of Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War movie. Super-fans can celebrate with new Avengers iPhone cases from OtterBox.

These feature characters from Marvel’s highly anticipated movie, including Iron Man, Black Panther, Captain America and Thanos. Plus, there’s one that combines multiple images from this blockbuster superhero team-up flick.

DAW Cassette makes your music sound like it was recorded on tape

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daw cassette
You wouldn't leave your iPhone in the sun like this.
Photo: Jure Cuhalev/Flickr CC

There’s little that’s more hipster than an audio cassette. Its sound is far from perfect, it’s impractical, and — most important of all — it is easy to see that you’re using one. But that doesn’t mean that tapes were all bad. Lo-fi cassette decks actually add some rather pleasant audio artifacts to audio.

So what? Well, now you don’t need to lug around a Walkman and a bag of tapes to enjoy the retro sound of audio cassettes, because there’s a) an iOS audio plugin and b) a website that will tape-ify any track you like.

Putin’s mug and missile give iPhone that Cold War feel

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Caviar
There is now a nuclear option when shopping for an iPhone.
Photo: Caviar

A Cold War is all about rhetoric and saber-rattling. A Russian company called Caviar is taking advantage of growing tension between the United States and the former Soviet Union with a patriotic iPhone celebrating Russian President Vladimir Putin and the country’s newest cruise missile.

It’s called “Putin Ultimatum.”

Apple’s HomePod miscalculation will haunt the company for years

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homepod
Apple's premium pricing strategy for the first-generation HomePod may keep it from ever being really successful.
Photo: Apple

The fact that the HomePod isn’t selling well means that Apple has probably missed its chance to ever be a significant part of the smart speaker market, according to analysts from Deutsche Bank.

Sales of inexpensive rival devices are exploding, while Apple’s very pricy offering sits on the shelf. That may lock customers into non-Apple solutions.

Is this the year Apple fixes its broken iPhone naming strategy?

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iphone glitch
iPhone naming is all kinds of broken these days.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple could be about to change the way it names successive generations of iPhone. The aim would be to simplify a naming pattern that has become increasingly unwieldy in the past few years.

It’s about time — although that doesn’t mean a new iPhone naming system will necessarily make things any less confusing. Here’s why.

Amazon’s Echo Dot Kids Edition gives parents complete control

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Echo Dot Kids
Echo Dot is now child-friendly.
Photo: Amazon

Now your little ones can get to know Alexa with the new Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition.

It’s just like a regular Echo Dot, but it comes inside a colorful protective case and a one-year subscribtion to the “FreeTime Unlimited” service that gives parents complete control over content. You’ll have to pay a premium for those extra features, though.

If Mom loves Apple Watch, she’ll love these gifts! [Mother’s Day Gift Guide]

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mom
The editors of Cult of Mac Watch Store have rounded up a beautiful collection of Apple Watch bands, chargers and stands specifically picked for Mom in our Mother's Day Gift Guide.  
Photo: Lyle Kahney/Cult of Mac

Mother’s Day is on Sunday, May 13 — mark that down and get ready to pay homage to the woman who gave you life. How about a little something for her Apple Watch?

Cult of Mac has rounded up a beautiful collection of Apple Watch bands, chargers and stands specifically picked for Mom in our Mother’s Day Gift Guide.

If you mother is a nerd, a Luddite, a traveler or style maven, we’ve got you covered. There’s a unique gift for every Apple Watch-loving momma out there. Check out Cult of Mac Watch Store’s Mother’s Day Gift Guide, and shop now for on-time delivery.