Apple is donating 1,000 Apple Watches for a new study intended to track binge eating. The Binge Eating Genetics Initiative (BEGIN) is being run by the University of North Carolina. The Apple Watches will be used to track the heart rate of participants when they binge on food.

This is just the latest example of how Apple’s wearable device is being used in research studies.

Apple has acquired a music analytics startup called Asaii, according to a new report.

It is believed the acquisition, which could help Apple deliver better recommendations to Apple Music subscribers, cost less than $100 million. Asaii claims its platform can pick out the hottest artists “10 weeks to a year” before they even hit the charts.

With the Apple Watch Series 4, Apple’s wearable devices have moved firmly into the territory of “must have” tech products. And Apple wants to make sure that potential customers know everything they can do!

As a result, the company unleashed a pair of new “How to” videos over the weekend — showcasing how to use the Apple Watch’s Workout feature and its Emergency SOS mode. Check them out below.

After a week of being spoiled rotten by the iPhone XS Max’s big, beautiful screen, Cult of Mac writer Killian Bell did the unthinkable. He returned his iPhone XS Max to its rightful owner.

You’ll find that heartbreaking story and much more in this week’s issue of our magazine. It’s free and it’s fun to read on an iPad or iPhone. Get your free subscription to Cult of Mac Magazine from iTunes now. Or read on for this week’s top stories.

This week it’s all about awesome updates. Spark adds Siri shortcuts to your email, Halide adds Smart RAW to make your iPhone XS camera even better, and Fiery Feeds gets a makeover and Pinboard support.

Hear about all that and more in this week’s app roundup.

Face ID brings a special challenge for law enforcement. Police need to be careful to not do anything that an iPhone might use as an attempt at facial recognition. They risk the phone locking itself in a way they can’t easily circumvent.

It all comes down to contradictory laws on passwords and biometric security systems.

For much too long, the best key finder had a significant flaw. A Tile Pro or Tile Mate helps you keep track of your keys, the remote, or other items, but each only lasts a year. Then you have to buy another one because the battery can’t be replaced. That finally changes in the new 2018 version. Plus they have a greater range.

We tested the latest versions of the regular and Pro versions of the Tile tracker to see if they live up to their promises. 

To make the most of your Mac, you’ve got to have the right apps. So we’ve rounded up four top-shelf apps at super-low prices. There’s a pair of powerful iTunes alternatives, a superpowered calendar app, and an enhanced contacts app.

Best of all, each is going for less than half the usual price!

Apple’s mapping fleet is moving on two feet to get a closer look at your local streets.

We’ve seen Apple’s mapping vans roaming the U.S. for years now, but this week an Apple employee was spotted walking around San Francisco with a huge backpack that packed a bunch of sensors to gather data for the Apple Maps revamp.

Check out the setup:

The pressure is building on Apple to finally add third-party watch faces to the Apple Watch after a couple of developers have shown how easily they can be made.

Custom watch faces have been the most-requested feature for the Apple Watch since the original version came out in 2015. Nike and Hermes have been the only sources for third-party watch faces, but iOS developer Steve Troughton-Smith has found a hack around that. If you’re curious about the best Apple Watch face options available, there are some fantastic choices.

Today we’re going to make a Siri Shortcut that takes a bunch of photos you took — today, or any day — and combines them into a great-looking photo grid. It then shares that grid with friends. All you have to do it tap a button or speak a Siri command.

This is a really great way to share photos of an event, a trip to a fancy restaurant, or just an overview of your day. It also shows how easy it is to build a powerful shortcut to perform a task that would take forever to do manually in Photoshop. Let’s check it out.

Apple’s iconic notch on the iPhone X and iPhone XS has already spawned a number of Android imitators, but concept designer Antonio De Rosa has an idea that could throw a curveball at the competition: move the notch to the left.

In a series of new concept renderings, De Rosa argues that Apple should change the name of the iPhone to Apple Phone while also giving it a new look and a fancy stylus.

Take a look:

This post is presented by Totallee.

Apple devices are appealing for many reasons, and chief among them is their exacting design. The in-hand feel of an iPhone is as key to owning one as any other hardware or software features. So why would you want to hide that subtlety inside a bulky case?

30 million accounts on Facebook were recently hacked with attackers gaining access to highly sensitive personal information.

The FBI is investigating the hacking an has asked the company not to reveal who was behind it. Facebook originally disclosed the hack to the public two weeks ago saying 50 million accounts were compromised. That number has now been reduced to just 30 million, but the amount of data stolen makes it the worst attack in Facebook’s history.

The days of scrolling through your entire Instagram feed may soon be coming to an end.

Instagram is reportedly testing a new feature that would allow users to move through posts by tapping on the screen. The feature works similar to the way you currently navigate through Stories and could make people spend even more time in the app.

In 2015, I purchased my wife a stainless steel Apple Watch (series 0) for her birthday. Since then, she’s used it to track hundreds of workouts, reply to thousands of texts, and triage countless notifications. She’s also told me nearly every day for the past year that she hates it and it never works right.

While that might be a bit of an exaggeration, she has a point. The original Apple Watch is slow and unresponsive. Plus, some features have become frustratingly unreliable (looking at you, Siri).

This year, we decided to upgrade her Apple Watch in time for our family vacation to Disney World. It was the perfect opportunity to test Apple’s magical wrist communicator at the most magical place on Earth.

Apple didn’t make a big thing about iPhone XR accessories that will be available when the less-expensive device launches later this month. However, an eagle-eyed iPhone XR fan (try saying that several times fast) spotted a new clear iPhone XR case mentioned in one of Apple’s regional press releases.

In Canada, and potentially other locations, a line tucked away in the iPhone XR press release notes that Apple will release a clear case for its LCD handset. We presume it will be available in the U.S. as well.

Just a couple years ago, few imagined owning a HomePod or Echo, but now we’re shouting to one from the kitchen asking for recipes. Everything’s going smart these days, from refrigerators to light bulbs and everything between. So don’t be surprised if soon you find yourself plugging in a smart surge protector.

CVS Pharmacy has finally completed its Apple Pay rollout in stores across the U.S.

It slowly started adding support a few weeks ago, but customers should now be able to enjoy it at all locations nationwide. The rollout comes several months after Tim Cook promised that CVS and 7-Eleven would be adopting Apple Pay.

This week on The CultCast: Is Apple preparing to dump a bunch of much-needed Mac updates on us? We discuss. Plus: Something very strange is going on with the Mac — we fill you in. And is MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar actually useful? We give you our brutally honest opinions. And stay tuned for another episode of CultCast 2nd Hour. This time: Siri Shortcuts, explained!

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to accept Apple Pay and sell your wares with your very own Squarespace website. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first hosting plan or domain.

Dragalia Lost, the latest mobile game from Nintendo, has been killing it during its first two weeks of availability — despite being available only in a handful of markets.

New data reveals the action RPG pulled in an estimated $3.5 million during the first five days alone, making it more successful than the beloved Animal Crossing: Fire Camp. More than half of its players are on iOS.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has been the exclusive manufacturer of Apple’s A-series mobile chips since 2016, and it appears that this arrangement will continue on into 2019.

According to a new report, TSMC will be producing all of the orders for Apple’s A13 series chip next year, thereby continuing to cement its position as one of the most dominant chipmakers in the industry.

We may well have confirmation of the opening of the first Apple Store in Thailand, thanks to an image shared on social media. While it doesn’t reveal the retail store in all its completed grandeur, it does show a building with recognizable glass exterior and, of course, that all-important logo.

Everyone loathes telemarketers, but  phone scammers are much worse. Spoofers are people who trick the phone system into mis-identifying the number they are calling from. This causes people to believe they are talking to their bank or credit card company, not a criminal. Apple wants to help prevent phone spoofing.

The company filed a patent application for a system to automatically identify when an incoming call isn’t coming from where it says it is.