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Satechi’s new extended keyboards gives you Apple looks on a budget

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Satechi Aluminum Bluetooth Keyboard
Satechi's Aluminum Bluetooth Keyboard is the perfect match for your Apple setup.
Photo: Satechi

Accessory maker Satechi has been around for years, offering a wide range of charging solutions, headphones, dongles, and computer peripherals for both Mac and PC. Their newest Mac accessories, the Aluminum Bluetooth keyboard and Aluminum USB keyboard offer Apple-inspired design at a fraction of Apple’s keyboard prices.

EU finally gives its blessing to Apple buying Shazam

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Shazam iPhone
Apple nabbed Shazam for a reported $400 million.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

The European Union has given its official stamp of approval to Apple’s acquisition of UK-based music discovery app Shazam.

While the deal was announced way back in December, it has been held up until now by an EU antitrust investigation, based on the popularity of Shazam and the amount of data it holds. This investigation was requested by seven European countries, including France, Italy, Spain and Sweden.

Inexpensive Logitech Crayon iPad stylus available to all

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Logitech Crayon
The Logitech Crayon was designed for the classroom, but soon anyone can purchase this Apple Pencil alternative.
Photo: Logitech

This spring, Logitech introduced an active stylus for iPad. People were excited that this was half the price of an Apple Pencil, but frustrated that the Logitech Crayon could only be purchased by schools.

Turns out both of those are about to change. This digital pencil will go on sale to the general public beginning September 12. And the price is going up.

How Steve Jobs poached a Microsoft employee with a restaurant menu

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A successful Steve Jobs recruitment pitch came from an Il Fornaio menu. (It's an Italian restaurant in Palo Alto, California.)
"Do you want to eat pasta all your life, or join me and change the world?"
Photo: Lou Stejskal/Flickr CC

It’s not exactly breaking news that Steve Jobs was a great salesman. But a hilarious anecdote from Adam Fisher’s recent oral history of Silicon Valley, Valley of Genius, gives a great example of Jobs’ next-level skills.

Want to know how Jobs persuaded a product marketing expert from Microsoft to join his company NeXT? It turns out it involved little more than a bit of patented Steve Jobs charm — and a helping hand from a local Italian restaurant menu.

This 1000X microscope connects straight to your computer [Deals]

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This USB-connected microscope lets you get up close and personal with any object.
This USB-connected microscope lets you get up close and personal with any object.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Digital cameras sure have come a long way, but they’re limited by the realities of glass and plastic. So if you want to capture far-off subjects, you need a telephoto lens. If you want to photograph something close up, you get a macro lens.

If you want to get really close, you want a microscope.

6.1-inch iPhone for 2018 pictured in fancy new color options

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6.1-inch iPhone color options
This could be an early glimpse of the iPhone 9.
Photo: Slashleaks

The more affordable 6.1-inch iPhone expected to launch this year won’t be as exciting as its pricier siblings, but it seems Apple has some tricks up its sleeve to make it more appealing.

New photos reveal some of the fancier color options buyers will be able to choose from, including red and blue.

Apple hiring a neuroscientist, possibly for its mystery AR headset

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Apple glasses
Apple has high expectations for its products, and it might take a neuroscientist to build its augmented reality glasses.
Photo: Martin Hajek

Apple employs a broad range of people, from software developers to retail staff. And soon, at least one neuroscientist.

The company is seeking an expert in sensory perception, suggesting the scientist will be employed developing its mysterious augmented reality glasses.

Why you couldn’t type the F-word on iPhone and other fascinating facts from Apple book

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Ken Kocienda's book, Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Stave Jobs.
Ken Kocienda's book, Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Stave Jobs.
Photo: St. Martin's Press

Why couldn’t you type the F-word on the iPhone? Why did Steve Jobs make weird eye movements during demos? What kind of manager was Scott Forstall?

These and other questions are answered in a new book by Ken Kocienda, a former iPhone programmer who spent 15 years at Apple helping to develop the first iPhone, iPad and Safari web browser.

Published this week, Creative Selection, Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs, is a fascinating account of Kocienda’s career that focuses on how Apple makes great software. (read our review here)

Here are some of the most interesting things we learned from the book.

Apple Pay won’t be launching in India any time soon

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Apple in talks to bring Apple Pay to Israel
Apple has run into more regulatory problems in India.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple is supposedly cooling its plans to bring Apple Pay to India, despite having discussions with leading banks and the National Payments Corporation of India.

Eddy Cue previously said that Apple hoped to bring Apple Pay to India sooner rather than later. “It is great that all of these payment mechanisms are coming out in India because it empowers people to be able to pay,” Cue said last year. “What Apple Pay does is make that process easy, integrated and safe. We absolutely want to bring Apple Pay to the market here.”

Apple has cash to splash at the Toronto film festival

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Sony Pictures Television
Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht are two of the masterminds behind Apple's original content strategy.
Photo: Sony Pictures Television

Apple may be commissioning its own TV shows, but it’s also picking up finished productions, too. With that goal in mind, Apple is sending some of its top production names to the Toronto International Film Festival this week to try and acquire new content.

According to trade magazine Variety, at least one of Apple’s top entertainment programming execs, Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, will be in attendance at the festival — and they’ll have “checkbooks in hand.”

Lisa Brennan-Jobs’ memoir seems to confirm an old rumor about Steve

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A photo of Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Steve Jobs' first daughter
Back in 1996, a story very similar to Lisa's was told in the form of a novel.
Photo: Lisa Brennan-Jobs/Wikipedia CC

Back in 1996, Steve Jobs’ sister, Mona Simpson, wrote a novel about a Silicon Valley tycoon who has a difficult and distant relationship with his oldest daughter. He even denies her paternity altogether, and then hands out meager amounts of child support to look after her and her mom.

At the time, Jobs denied that the protagonist in A Regular Guy was closely based on him. Others thought differently, however. More than 20 years later, Lisa Brennan-Jobs’ new memoir describes just how accurate Simpson’s novel was. And what she thought of it.

Leaving Apple off the list of most creative companies is unwarranted

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Samsung
Which is more creative, Apple or Samsung?
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

A new study tries to determine which companies are the most creative. The method used is open to dispute, especially as Apple is way back at eleventh place while its chief rival Samsung is in second.

Putting aside questions about methodology, the results are reflective of an attitude many people have about which of these two rivals is more innovative. This is the result of very different ways the two companies design their products. And it’s more than a bit unfair to Apple.

Why USB-C to Lightning cables will be popular in 2019

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USB-C to Lightning
These type of iPhone cables are about to become way more common.
Photo: Apple

Third-party hardware manufacturers have finally been given the green light from Apple to start making USB-C to Lightning cables.

The new Made For iPhone (MFi) certification should open the door for a bunch of faster-charging solutions to come out for iPhone owners, but according to the report out of Asia, the new cables will be a little bit more expensive.

Possible new name for the 6.5-inch iPhone takes it to the Max

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This could be the iPhone XS Plus and iPhone XS, Apple's 2018 iPhone models.
If a new rumor is correct, the device on the left won't be called the iPhone XS Plus.
Photo: Lee Gunho

We’ve already head reports that Apple is going to ditch the “Plus” description for its larger iPhones. Now there’s word that the replacement term could be “Max.”

If true, this means that the company will announce a week from today the iPhone Xs with a 5.8-inch display and the iPhone Xs Max with a 6.5-inch one.

iPhone 9 could cost more than you expect [Updated]

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Here's what the advertising for the iPhone 9 might look like.
Many people are hoping the iPhone 9 will cost less than its predecessor, but it could be priced higher.
Screenshot: Lee Gungho

The main reason the iPhone 9 is hotly anticipated is because it’s rumored to boast a large display but a relatively low price tag. However, some analysts are predicting that this 6.1-inch model will instead cost more than the iPhone 8.

They say Apple can do this because the one feature that consumers want more than anything else: larger screens. And we’re willing to pay more for them.

Update: A separate report coming from Europe indicates that the 6.1-inch LCD iPhone will cost exactly the same as the iPhone 8.

Beats become the official headphones of the NBA

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Beats
2018 Rookie of the Year Ben Simmons with his Beats.
Photo: Beats by Dre

NBA players have rocked Beats by Dre before games for years but now the company is about to have an even larger presence in the world of basketball.

Beats by Dre revealed today that it has struck a deal that will make it the official headphone, wireless speaker and audio partner of the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League and USA Basketball starting when the preseason tips off in October.

Apple’s video empire could rival Netflix by 2025

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apple tv upgrade
Apple might combine video and music into one subscription.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s video offerings could soon rival the biggest streaming service in the game, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley.

Katy Huberty, who has a reputation as one of the best Apple analysts in the industry, thinks video services will be a huge driver of growth for Apple over the next few years. The company’s potential is so huge that Huberty predicts it will rival Netflix by 2025.

Small Fry offers complicated portrait of Steve Jobs as a father [Review]

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Think Steve Jobs was tough as a boss? Lisa Brennan-Jobs memoir
Think Steve Jobs was tough as a boss? Here's what he was like as a father.
Photo: Luke Dormehl/Cult of Mac

Small Fry is the memoir of Lisa Brennan-Jobs, the daughter Steve Jobs didn’t want. Frequently sad and occasionally disturbing, it’s not the airbrushed portrait of Steve that Apple would like to see in print.

But it also relays some charming moments, showing us a side of the Apple co-founder that we’ve never seen before. It’s a glimpse of Steve Jobs at his most personal.

Snap ups fashion factor with new Spectacles

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Spectacles
Discreet filming in two new fashionable frames.
Photo: Snap Inc.

Spectacles by Snap are now a little easier on the eyes thanks to two new styles that add a fashionable flair to the wearable video camera.

The new Spectacles couldn’t look more different. Each has straighter lines and sharp corners, looking more like classic Ray-Ban Wayfarer frames, and should appeal to those turned off by the circular frames.

You’ll be surprised by what fans really want from the next iPhone

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iphone
What’s on your wish list for a future iPhone?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

What do you want from Apple’s next iPhone? A faster processor? A better camera? A truly edge-to-edge screen without the controversial notch?

All of these things would make for nice improvements, but they’re not what most fans are asking for from their next iPhone. Better battery life is actually what tops the wish list in a survey of 1,665 Americans.

Here’s how hackers can install malware on your Mac through Safari

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Lucky 58. The latest Safari Technology Preview adds tab favicons!
Apple can’t protect you from everything.
Photo: Apple

You might consider Safari to be the safest web browser for macOS, but one security researcher has proven it’s not completely bulletproof.

Patrick Wardle has demonstrated how hackers can remotely infect a Mac with malicious software using a Safari vulnerability. Apple’s built-in protections can do nothing to stop it.

Learn how to make Instagram into a marketing powerhouse [Deals]

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Instagram fact checking
Instagram will use fact-checking teams to identify false information.
Photo: Instagram

Instagram is a great way for you and your friends to find expression through images. With a billion monthly users, it’s also one of the most relevant social media platforms, and so a true marketing powerhouse. You might know just which filters to use, but do you know how to market on Instagram?