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News - page 798

A stunning 2/3 of Apple devices ever sold remain in use

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Apple Customer Satisfaction
Customers keep using Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch
Photo: Cult of Mac

Apple’s devices don’t end up in the rubbish bin very often. In fact, an analyst determined that about 64 percent of iPhones, iPads, Macs and Apple Watches ever sold remain in active use.

This might be the most accurate way of measuring just how satisfied people are with Apple’s products. Far better than customer surveys!

10 Apple Watch Series 3 bands our Watch Store customers love

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best apple watch straps
These are some of the best-selling straps for Apple Watch — bands we personally love and recommend for their quality, craftsmanship, value and style.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Whether you got the Apple Watch Series 3 or just want to up the game of an older model, we’ve got you covered with our Watch Store customers’ favorite bands. These are some of the best-selling straps for Apple Watch — bands we personally love and recommend for their quality, craftsmanship, value and style.

All of the newest bands and many more from each brand are available in our Watch Store. Read on to check out 10 customer favorites.

Galaxy S9 display tops iPhone X for best ever

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Galaxy S9
Galaxy S9 is gorgeous, much like iPhone X.
Photo: Samsung

The iPhone X’s reign as the world’s best smartphone display ever has already been overthrown.

Samsung’s new Galaxy S9 has blown away the display experts at DisplayMate. You’ll have to wait a few more weeks to see if for your self, but Galaxy S9 matches or broke the record for display performance records, earning it DisplayMate’s highest rating ever.

Apple’s next AirPods may pack health sensors

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Apple AirPods
AirPods could soon do more than just play music
Photo: Apple

Your next set of Apple earbuds might be about to get some serious health upgrades.

Tracking your heart rate while jogging soon may only require using earbuds, as a new patent filing show that Apple seems very serious about adding biometric sensing to its AirPods.

Moby doesn’t want to brag, but he totally invented the iPhone

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Moby
Move over Jony Ive!
Photo: Apple

World-famous DJ Moby may have an estimated net worth of around $32 million, but it could’ve been a whole lot more. You know why? Because according to a new interview with the musician, he helped Apple come up with the idea for both the iPod and the iPhone.

And to think we figured his biggest contribution to the world had been “Southside.”

Apple Pay can save you money at the movies this weekend

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Apple in talks to bring Apple Pay to Israel
Apple Pay can earn you $5 off your movie tickets.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple Pay users can save $5 off movie tickets when they pair two from ticketing company Fandango.

The offer expires this Sunday, March 4. It is tied in with the forthcoming 90th Academy Awards which takes place on that day. Here is how you get to take advantage of the discount.

Galaxy S9 pre-orders may have disappointed on Samsung’s home turf

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Galaxy S9
Samsung Galaxy S9 may struggle against last year's model.
Photo: Samsung

Initial pre-orders of the Samsung Galaxy S9 are proving to be disappointing in Samsung’s home turf of South Korea, a new report claims.

The new handset was only made available for pre-order on Wednesday, but — at least in the first few hours — initial demand seems not to be matching that of last year’s handset. Samsung itself has not yet revealed any figures.

This app rewards you with discounts for not looking at your iPhone

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iPhone Hold
Hold gives discounts on products if you put down your iPhone.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Not looking at your smartphone is the new looking at your smartphone. Or, at least, that’s the idea driving an intriguing app which aims to reward students with discounts on movie tickets and other services if they don’t keep checking their iPhones.

Here’s how it works, and why its creators think it matters.

Developer demos ‘portable hole’ augmented reality effect with ARKit

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TheParallaxView
A portable hole made with ARKit and an iPhone X
Photo: Peder Norrby Peder Norrby

 

Taking a journey down virtual rabbit holes may not be far away.

With the Pokemon Go craze now a thing of the past, developers are looking for other uses for augmented reality. Peder Norrby has created an app that shows off some of the possibilities of Apple’s ARKit and the iPhone X: a portable hole.

Spotify is finally going public

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Spotify
The Spotify IPO is finally here.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple Music’s biggest competition is about to get an influx of Wall Street cash.

Spotify finally filed documents for an initial public offering, after rumors of going public had been floating around for years. According to reports, the company could be worth as much as much as $23 billion, but it’s still not profitable.

Remaster music on your iPhone or iPad with Grand Finale

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mixer
Mastering music mixes makes musicians mad.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Mastering is the final stage of making a record. After all the playing, recordings, and mixing is done, you send the stereo track off to the best mixing guru you can afford, and they work their special magic, probably surrounded by all kinds of fancy machines.

And while you probably don’t have the experts’ golden ears, or their golden years of experience, now you can have a crack at mastering right there on your iPad (or even iPhone), with Klevgränd’s new mastering app, Grand Finale.

Cool new HealthKit gadgets can measure practically anything

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Cool new HealthKit-compatible gadgets at MWC
New HealthKit gadgets make health and fitness easier than ever.
Photos: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

Mobile World Congress 2018 BARCELONA, Spain — Smart sperm testers, body cavity inspectors, Bluetooth pillows, holographic jump ropes and contactless thermometers. It’s all just another day at Mobile World Congress, where more and more companies show off their new HealthKit-compatible gadgets.

If you want your iPhone to know absolutely everything about what’s going on with your body, these handy medical devices are for you. Here’s what they do — and why they’re cool.

6 things Apple should do to fix Siri

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Siri display
"I don't have these features. Would you like me to search the web for you?"
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Siri kind of sucks, despite its increasingly prominent role in the Apple ecosystem.

With the general verdict on the HomePod being “great speaker, shame about Siri,” what does Apple need to do in order to catch up with its rivals? Here are six Siri improvements we’d love to see Apple implement as soon as possible.

Worries arise as Apple hands over iCloud accounts to China

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Apple Store
Apple has had a number of challenges growing its market in China.
Photo: Apple

Apple has completed the transition of iCloud accounts registered in China to state-run Chinese servers, and privacy and human rights advocates are (rightfully) worried.

In addition to transferring the accounts to state-run servers, Apple may have also transferred the digital keys to Chinese jurisdiction, although Apple says it retains control of them. Nonetheless, it’s a concerning event — especially at a time when people are already worried about Xi Jinping, ruler of the Communist Party of China, ramping up censorship as part of the bid to establish himself as president for life.

Apple Watch can now track snowboarding and skiing activities

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Skier
The Apple Watch is an incredibly versatile fitness tracker.
Photo: Apple

The Apple Watch continues its mission to become the most versatile fitness trackers around, with Apple today introducing the ability for Apple Watch Series 3 wearers to track detailed information about both snowboarding and skiing runs.

Skiers and snowboarders running watchOS 4.2 can now use their Apple wearable to measure these activities, via new updates to apps available in the App Store. Users can record runs, see vertical descent and other stats, and contribute active calorie measurements directly to the Apple Watch Activity app.

Tekken card battler smashes its way onto iPhones

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Tekken Mobile
It's just like the fighting game you know... but with cards.
Photo: Bandai Namco

Like Tekken? Have an iPhone? Then you might just want to check out Tekken Mobile, a new worldwide release of the iOS fighting game that soft-launched this past summer.

Unlike it’s console big brother, however, this isn’t a direct port of Tekken in the style of, say, Street Fighter IV: Champion Edition. Instead, it’s a simpler card-based “swipe fighter” game reminiscent of a title like the mobile version of Injustice 2. Check out a couple of videos below.

Activists want you to boycott Apple over NRA app

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NRA app
Celebrities and activists want Apple to ditch its NRA apps.
Photo: NRA

Apple is one of three companies, including Amazon and FedEx, named in a celebrity and activist boycott of companies with supposed ties to the National Rifle Association (NRA).

If you’re wondering about what possibly links the typically progressive Apple could have with the more conservative NRA, it’s apparently related to Apple’s silence over whether it will remove the NRAtv streaming TV station.

Vintage computer museum on sale with 80 classic Macs

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Benj Edwards Computer Collection
This is about half of Benj Edwards‘ computer collection
Photo: Benj Edwards

Many people can’t bear to part with their old computers, and slowly build a collection of aging models in their basement. Benj Edwards took that impulse to the next level: He owns at least 228 unique devices, many of them classic Apple products going back to the 1980s.

Now he’s put them all up for sale. Ready to start your own computer museum?