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Celebrate diversity with Juuk’s limited-release Apple Watch band [Pride Month]

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This beautiful limited-edition band by Juuk will be unavailable after May, so grab one now.
This beautiful limited-edition band by Juuk will be unavailable after May, so grab one now.
Photo: Juuk

Juuk’s steel bands for Apple Watch have always impressed us. June is LGBT Pride Month, and Juuk’s hard-to-get Rainbow Ligero Apple Watch band in 42 mm is back in time for the celebrations.

After months in production, we’re happy to have the 42 mm Juuk Rainbow band in stock once more in addition to the 38 mm. Also, Juuk is donating $20 of proceeds for each Rainbow Ligero purchased to Amnesty International Hong Kong to support their efforts to combat discrimination.

Grab one for Pride! Check out the entire Ligero collection in our Watch Store, and read further to learn more.

Name your price for 10 top-shelf Mac apps [Deals]

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The Pay What You Want 2018 Super Mac Bundle
Beat the average price and score these 10 Mac apps, including: Disk Drill Pro 3
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Every Mac comes with massive potential for creativity, productivity, and fun. But all of that requires getting the right apps. There are tons to choose from, and most of us only have so much money to spend on software. So we’re excited to share a bundle of 10 top notch apps that’s yours for whatever you want to pay.

2018 iPhone really needs a feature you’ve never heard of

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6.5- and 6.1-inch 2018 iPhone models
The 2018 iPhone offerings supposedly will include these 6.5- and 6.1-inch models. Hopefully, a behind-the-screens feature will make them faster.
Photo: OnLeaks

The 2018 iPhone models are rumored to have larger screens, better processors, and other enhancements. But there’s one feature that, even though we’ve heard nothing about it, we should strongly hope is in Apple’s next smartphones: 4×4 MIMO.

This is a cellular wireless data technology that gives the Samsung Galaxy S9 a substantial speed advantage over the iPhone X.

2018 iPhone lineup will bring even faster charging

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Belkin-Boost-Up-Dual
Topping up your iPhone could be faster than ever this fall.
Photo: Belkin

The 2018 iPhone lineup will pack improved charging technologies to make topping up faster than ever, according to a new report.

Apple might team up with new suppliers who can provide higher-powered charging components. The upgrade should finally allow the iPhone to compete with its Android rivals when it comes to charging speed.

Leather case gives iPhone X a racing stripe and a vintage vibe [Review]

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Sena Racer review: An iPhone X case with a vintage rock 'n' roll and hot rod vibe.
If you want to give your iPhone X a vintage vibe strap it into a Sena Racer case.
Photo: Lewis Wallace/Cult of Mac

Best List: Racer iPhone X case by Sena

Even someone who doesn’t suffer from a Jony Ive-style obsession with slimness wants an iPhone case with style. The Sena Racer — a leather iPhone X case with a rad racing stripe running up its back — adds bulk for sure. But its pleasantly puffy profile throws off a vintage ’70s vibe that looks killer and feels good in your hand.

It offers protection, sure. But, more importantly, it makes your iPhone stand out in a sea of svelte sameness.

Why Apple Watch Series 4 will probably get better GPS

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New running features coming in watchOS 5 are all about pace -- the Achilles' heel of Apple Watch.
New running features coming in watchOS 5 are all about pace -- the Achilles' heel of Apple Watch.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

Apple took the wraps off watchOS 5 last week at WWDC, revealing loads of new features that we can look forward to this fall. Among them were some big improvements for runners: Cadence, Rolling Mile Pace and Custom Pace Alerts.

What I find most exciting about these new features is that I think they hint at a much-needed hardware upgrade coming in Apple Watch Series 4, which is expected to debut this fall. Here’s why.

GoodNotes 4 is the paper notebook of the future [50 Essential iOS Apps #24]

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GoodNotes 4 notebook with Apple Pencil on iPad Pro
GoodNotes 4 is perfect for writing notes, regardless of the topic.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: GoodNotes 4 The iPad has become a workhorse in the last few years. Since the introduction of the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, the transition from pen and paper to digital note-taking is more feasible than ever. GoodNotes 4 is one of the best digital note-taking and document-annotation apps available on iOS.

Next-gen Apple Watch could use solid-state haptic buttons

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Apple Watch goal
Wave goodbye to physical buttons!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The next-gen Apple Watches have so far avoided physical redesigns in favor of under-the-hood improvements. That could change this year, however, according to a new report.

Sources in Apple’s supply chain claim that the Apple Watch Series 4 will replace the current physical buttons on the device for solid state buttons with haptic feedback. While the device will retain the same button configuration as existing Apple Watches, these buttons won’t physically click as before.

Go the extra mile with Nike+ Run Club [50 Essential iOS Apps #23]

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Nike+ Run Club app run tracking
Nike+ Run Club offers detailed run tracking whether you're new to running or an experienced marathon runner.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Nike+ Run ClubRunning is a great form of exercise, regardless of your fitness level. Getting motivated to run is a different story. Some running apps are designed for run tracking, others offer training, or make exercise a game. Nike+ Run Club blends all three to get you started and keep you moving, from your first run to your thousandth mile, and beyond.

We tell you all the best stuff announced at WWDC ’18, this week on The CultCast

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lisa cultcast lisa
Catch our WWDC '18 reactions and best-of-show picks on our newest CultCast.

It may not have been action-packed, but this week’s WWDC was bursting with great stuff. Don’t miss our WWDC 2018 reactions on this week’s episode of The CultCast. Then stick around for our list of all the best new iOS 12, watchOS, and macOS features announced at the keynote.

Our thanks to Casper for supporting this episode. Learn why Casper makes the internet’s favorite mattress, and get $50 toward select mattresses at casper.com/cultcast.

How to switch on Safari favicons in iOS 12 and macOS Mojave

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google chrome favicons
Chrome has managed to display favicons since, like, forever.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

It’s 2018, and yet Safari still wouldn’t show you website icons, aka favicons, in its tabs. But that has — finally — changed. In both iOS 12 and macOS Mojave, Safari can now display favicons. All you need to do is toggle one setting.

Who cares? Well, favicons make it much easier to identify the site you want among a whole mess of open tabs. You can simply look for a site’s colorful logo icon, instead of squinting at a few letters of truncated text when trying to find the right tab.

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?

Avoid road hazards and slowdowns with Waze [50 Essential iOS Apps #22]

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Waze on iPhone in a car GPS mount
Waze provides clear turn-by-turn navigation and alerts you to potential hazards.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Waze map and navigation All across the country (and the world), people depend on cars to get from place to place. Unfortunately, not knowing where traffic is slow, or where a police officer is hiding, can cause serious delays. The Waze navigation app takes out the guesswork.

It tells drivers where traffic, construction or the 5-0 might turn a drive into a total bummer. Better yet, the navigation app’s huge user base means real-time data that lets you change course to avoid slowdowns.

We have the wireless charger you’re looking for [Deals]

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CoM - Zendure 40W Max A-Series 4-Port USB Wall Charger
Liberate your iPhone with these wireless charging solutions.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Wires are out, wireless charging is in. Now pretty much every new phone can juice up without being plugged in, which is as convenient as it is cool. There are many options out there, so we’ve rounded up awesome deals on six different wireless charging solutions. Each is discounted by half off or more, read on for more details:

Why Apple’s low-energy WWDC is actually totally exciting

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iOS 12
Apple's focus this year is on performance improvements in iOS 12, as well as improvements in macOS Mojave, not new features. And that's a good thing.
Photo: Apple

WWDC 2018 bug Cult of MacApple put on a good show for its WWDC keynote, but realistically it was a lot of hype without much substance. Dark Mode for macOS Mojave and Memojis for iOS 12 was about as exciting as it got. And you know what, that’s a good thing.

Both these operating systems have serious problems, and it’s far more important for Apple to spend a few months fixing them than adding new bells and whistles.

All the iOS 12 features Apple didn’t mention

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iOS 12
iOS 12 rolls out to all this fall.
Photo: Apple

WWDC 2018 bug Cult of Mac iOS 12 is shaping up to be one biggest software updates Apple’s ever released and it’s so stuffed with major and minor new additions there wasn’t time to go over a lot of them at the WWDC 2018 keynote.

We’ve been combing through the first iOS 12 beta looking for all the new goodies and have found some underrated new features that will totally change how you use your iPhone and iPad this fall.

These are the little iOS 12 features you need to know:

At WWDC, Apple atones for Silicon Valley’s sins

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Apple revenues
With its upcoming software, Apple addresses some Silicon Valley's most egregious abuses.
Photo: Apple

WWDC 2018 bug Cult of Mac After a particularly rough patch for the tech industry, Apple used yesterday’s WWDC keynote to atone for some of Silicon Valley’s biggest sins. The company showcased key features in its upcoming operating systems that reinforce the fact that it thinks different about how technology should work.

Undoubtedly eager to position itself as one of the good guys, Apple directly responded to some of the biggest tech scandals of the past year.

How iOS 12’s smartest features put users firmly back in control

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Time for bed screen time downtime
Time for bed. iOS 12 lets you choose who can disturb you.
Photo: Apple

WWDC 2018 bug Cult of Mac Maybe the most important new feature of iOS 12 is something that helps you to do less with your iPhone, not more.

If any other company had introduced Screen Time, the new system-wide toolset for limiting phone distractions, then it would (rightly) be dismissed as a gimmick, a sop to the increasing worries about phone addiction. But as is typical of Apple, Screen Time looks like it took a lot of work to get just right.

Screen Time may seem to be about combatting app addiction, and reducing the amount of time “wasted” on your iPhone. However, taken together with the new Do Not Disturb settings in iOS 12, it’s more about putting users back in control of their iPhones.

What WWDC’s ‘sneak peek’ at project Marzipan could mean for the Mac

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WWDC 2018
The answer is complicated.
Photo: Apple

WWDC 2018 bug Cult of Mac Near the end of Monday’s WWDC 2018 keynote, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi addressed a question that’s been circulating in the tech press for a while: Are Mac and iOS merging?

His answer was direct and unequivocal: “No.”

Then he delivered a “sneak peek” of Apple’s long-rumored cross-platform project codenamed “Marzipan.” In line with the past six months of rumors, the idea of the framework is to allow UIKit-based iOS apps to run natively on Mac. While that probably sounds exciting to Mac owners, it could yield an unwelcome unintended consequence. It could trigger a “lost year” for Mac apps.

Speed through the WWDC 2018 keynote with sketchnotes

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Apple WWDC 2018 keynote in sketchnotes, Part 1 of 4.
Sketchnotes deliver all the WWDC 2018 keynote highlights the easy, visual way.
Photo: Andy McNally/Cult of Mac

WWDC 2018 bug Cult of Mac It is always exciting to capture the WWDC keynote in sketchnotes, and this year I filled up four pages of my notebook with drawings showcasing the biggest new features coming in iOS 12, macOS Mojave and watchOS 5.

As seen in my first sketchnote, above, iOS 12 makes performance on both old and new devices a priority. ARKit 2 brings more augmented reality goodness to Apple devices, including the ability for up to four people to share the same AR space at the same time.

For a quick and easy recap of the rest of the WWDC 2018 keynote highlights — plus a bonus sketchnote that proved kind of prescient — check out the rest below.

All the important new stuff Apple revealed at WWDC 2018

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WWDC 2018
WWDC 2018 was packed with new software.
Photo: Apple

WWDC 2018 bug Cult of Mac Apple’s WWDC 2018 keynote lasted nearly 130 minutes and was jam-packed with new software goodies for developers and regular old Apple fanboys.

But if you were hoping to see some shiny new hardware unveiled at today’s event, you were in for some big disappointments. Apple is doubling down on its software game. And even though they didn’t have any new physical toys to show off, Tim Cook and company still managed to pull out some big surprises.

This is the most important setting you can enable on your iPhone

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iPhone Data Protection is better than 10 padlocks.
Data Protection is better than 10 padlocks for your iPhone.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

There’s a security setting in iOS that will erase everything on your iPhone, resetting it back to a blank, factory-state slate if you tap in the wrong passcode 10 times. It’s called Data Protection, and I never wrote a how to on this because I figured everyone would have it switched on. After all, who wouldn’t want that kind of excellent security if ever they lost their iPhone?

This hidden Apple Watch stat tells you whether to exercise or rest

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Heart Rate Variability will help make your workouts more effective
Heart Rate Variability will help make your workouts more effective
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

Imagine if your Apple Watch could tell you which days were best for you to do a workout, and what kind of workout you should do. Well it can, sort of, thanks to a hidden feature that few people have yet discovered or know how to use.

Heart rate variability, or HRV, is a new metric that reveals your stress level and whether you have recovered from your last workout. It has been added to lots of high-end sports watches in recent years, including Apple Watch since watchOS 4 & iOS 11.

Here’s how you can use it to optimize your training, reduce your risk of injury, and know when to take a well-earned rest day.