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Beware, this apple pop-up shop isn’t selling iPhones

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Apple popup shop
This is not a real Apple store.
Photo: Ashley Carman/The Verge

Apple fans in NYC eager to visit the company’s first ever pop-up shop in The Big Apple are going to be in for a rude surprise when they show up to the doors tomorrow morning.

A new store has popped up in the Big Apple this week promising to provide a taste of the future. The logo and font on the outside is minimalist and very Apple-esque, but instead of selling limited editions iPhones or Apple Watches, the shops are promoting actual apples.

Google One brings cheap cloud storage to the masses

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Google One is apparently going to replace Google Drive.
Google One replaces Google Drive, and it offers cloud storage plans that actually compete with Apple iCloud.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Google One was unveiled this spring, promising 2TB of online storage at half the cost of the old Google Drive. As of now, you can actually subscribe to this service, which wasn’t possible before.

This revamp of this company’s cloud storage options seems to be intended to make them more competitive with Apple’s.

Casetify stainless steel Apple Watch bands get colorful

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casetify
Brand-new to Casetify's Stainless Steel Mesh Band lineup are Space Gray, Yellow Gold and Fuchsia Purple.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Stainless steel meticulously weaves its way through the Mesh Band for Apple Watch — Casetify’s answer to the significantly more expensive Milanese Loop by Apple. Casetify’s version is just as stylish and functional as the behemoth brand’s band, and now comes in three brand-new finishes: Space Gray, Yellow Gold and Fuschia Purple.

And, through August, you’ll save 20 percent when you purchase two (2) Casetify Apple Watch bands using this code at checkout: CULTOF20.

Apple yanks Group FaceTime from the Mac, too

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Group FaceTime Mac
As with iOS 12, support for FaceTiming multiple people simultaneously won't be a part of macOS Mojave when it first launches.
Photo: Apple

Apple just released a fresh beta of macOS Mojave to the public, on the way to a full launch this fall. While betas usually bring new capabilities, the one just introduced is missing a feature.

Earlier this week, Apple said Group FaceTime won’t debut until later this year. It’s now been pulled from the latest iOS 12 and macOS Mojave betas.

Everything you need to know about your iPhone camera’s shutter speed

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iPhone shutter speed
Camera blur can be your friend.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Your iPhone camera is pretty good at taking photos automatically. You just point it, shoot, and the camera works out all the tricky stuff. But what is actually going on in there? How does it take the light that you see and render it as an image on the screen?

In this short series, we’ll look at the physical parts of a camera — the aperture, the shutter, the magnification of the lens, and so on — and see how they affect the final image. Today’s topic: shutter speed.

Popular quiz game HQ Trivia goes big with new Apple TV app

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HQ Trivia
HQ Trivia is now on Apple TV.
Photo: HQ Trivia

One of the most popular new iPhone games of the last year is set to take over your living room.

HQ Trivia, the popular mobile trivia game that offers cash prizes to participants, is making the leap from the small screen to the big one with a new Apple TV app that launched this week.

New MacBook Air reportedly slated for Q3 launch

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air
The MacBook Air hasn't been updated in over a year!
Photo: Apple

New MacBook Airs could launch as soon as the end of Q3 2018, according to a new report out of Taiwan that signals the wait for an affordable new MacBook is nearly over.

Apple hasn’t updated the MacBook or MacBook Air since June of 2017, but with a new update on the horizon, it could bring a big boost to Apple’s market share.

Apple replaces flawed iOS 12 beta

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iOS 12 features
Developers, you can now grab iOS 12 beta 8. This is the replacement for a version that only lasted a few hours on Monday.
Photo: Apple

Just two days after hastily withdrawing a beta of iOS 12, Apple is back with a new version that hopefully fixes the problems in the original.

No one expects betas to be perfect, but iOS 12 beta 7 had significant performance issues. So significant that it was only available for a couple of hours.

These celebs get paid by Android but got caught using iPhones

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When paid celebrity endorsements go wrong.
When paid celebrity endorsements go wrong. Here's Gal Gadot complimenting a Huawei device from her iPhone.
Photo: Gal Gadot

Paying a celebrity to be seen using your product is a fairly common practice. Apple doesn’t make a habit of it, but other companies do.

When it gets funny is when the celebs are caught using their iPhones to endorse rival devices. A Reddit user compiled a list of people who got caught not being able to give up their favorite device.

Henry Ford Museum celebrates iMac G3 birthday by exhibiting all 13 ‘flavors’

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iMac
People could peer into the iMac G3 to see its internal workings.
Photo: Apple

Do you know your Sage from your Grape? How about your Bondi Blue from your Graphite? And who in their right mind could forget Flower Power or Blue Dalmatian? A new iMac museum exhibit will help you sort that all out.

If you know your Apple trivia, you’ll recognize all of those as “flavors” of the iconic iMac G3, which launched 20 years ago today. To celebrate the occasion, the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Michigan, is showing off all 13 colors of the iconic “computer that saved Apple.”

These pillows will help the Apple geek dream different

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Apple pillows
This Iconic hardware will make your Apple dreams soft and sweet.
Photo: Throwboy

Five of the most historic pieces of hardware are back as soft plush pillows cuddle-ready for all Apple geeks.

The Iconic Pillow Collection, designed to resemble the Apple II, Apple Macintosh, the Bondi Blue iMac, the iPod and the first iPhone, is the latest line of plush pillows from digital lifestyle company Throwboy.

Save your reading list for later with Pocket [50 Essential iOS Apps #49]

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Pocket app article view
Pocket makes it easy to catch up on the articles in your reading list on your own schedule.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: PocketStaying informed and up-to-date with the latest news is tough. Scrolling through Twitter or browsing the web can often lead to news stories that you want to read, but can’t be bothered to read RIGHT NOW. With Pocket, you can save those stories for later and catch up on the stories you want to read on your schedule.

Simply drag and drop music, videos and photos onto your iPhone with Waltr 2 [Deals]

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Easily transfer all your media between all your Apple devices without wires, converters, and other headaches.
Easily move files among all your Apple devices without wires, converters or other headaches.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

When you want to move files among your Mac and iOS devices, you probably use iTunes. But Apple’s software isn’t always cooperative, especially if your files need converting. Luckily, there’s another option that skips all the fuss.

Rome: Total War marches onto iPhone this month

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Rome: Total War
Coming soon to an iPhone near you.
Photo: Feral Interactive

The classic PC strategy game Rome: Total War is coming to iPhone — and you don’t have long to wait. Well, technically you may have been waiting since the game arrived on PC more than a decade ago, but it’s finally almost here. Honest!

Check out the eagerly anticipated trailer below, ahead of the game’s August 23 debut on iPhone.

Fat cats can order their gold-dipped 2018 iPhones right now

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Goldgenie
But how will people know you're filthy rich unless you tell them in the loudest way possible?
Photo: Goldgenie

Apple’s next-gen iPhones haven’t even been announced yet, but already a few rich folks are seemingly worried about how they’ll stand out from the pack with a boring old regular 2018 Apple handset. Fortunately, the gold-plating firm Goldgenie has a six or even seven-figure answer for them.

Currently available to pre-order are both the 5.8 and 6.5-inch OLED iPhones heavily rumored for next month — with a glitzy gold finish.

Apple Car could drive off the lot in only 5 years

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Here's how Apple Car might eliminate blind spots
If an analyst is correct, the Apple Car could be your next vehicle.
Image: Aristomenis Tsirbas/Freelancer

One of the secret-but-not-really-secret projects Apple is working on is a self-driving vehicle. A well-respected analyst just gave his estimate of when this will be released.

Not only does Ming-Chi Kuo indicate that the “Apple Car” will debut between 2023 and 2025, he also lays out reasons why the product will be a success.

As a bonus, Kuo indicates when to expect Apple’s augmented-reality headset.

Warren Buffett’s firm just can’t stop investing in Apple

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money
Berkshire Hathaway has made crazy amounts of money from Apple.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

If a company made you $2.6 billion in a single day, you’d probably want to continue investing in it. That’s what Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway firm has done with Apple, according to its latest regulatory filing.

In the second quarter of 2018, Berkshire Hathaway boosted its stock in Apple by 5 percent, upping its holding from 239.6 million shares to 252 million. According to current valuation that means the firm’s Apple investment is worth around $47 billion.

Joel Kinnaman joins Apple’s space race sci-fi series

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Joel Kinnaman starred in the 2014 RoboCop reboot. Next he'll star in the Apple sci-fi series from Ronald D. Moore.
Joel Kinnaman starred in the 2014 RoboCop reboot.
Photo: Sony Pictures

Apple is reportedly fleshing out the cast for its original sci-fi series from Ronald D. Moore, adding Joel Kinnaman, Michael Dorman and Sarah Jones in lead roles. The as-yet-untitled show takes place in a world in which the global space race never slowed down.

Kinnaman, who previously appeared in the RoboCop reboot and Netflix’s Altered Carbon, will play Edward Baldwin, one of NASA’s top astronauts. Dorman (who starred in Amazon’s Patriots) and Jones (USA Network’s Western drama Damnation) will play Gordo and Tracy Stevens, a prominent NASA couple.

Verizon 5G package will include 4K Apple TV and YouTube TV

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Apple TV 4K sale. Get yourself a good deal on the latest Apple TV 4K.
Get yourself a good deal on the latest Apple TV 4K.
Photo: Apple

As part of its effort to get a jump on the competition when it comes to 5G networks, Verizon reportedly plans to offer a free 4K Apple TV to customers.

Verizon will be the first mobile carrier to offer 5G residential broadband service in the U.S. later this year, and it’s trying to lure subscribers in with a deal on Apple TV 4k plus discounted YouTube TV, which usually costs $40 per month.

US government bans employees from using risky Chinese phones

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Chinese company Huawei wants the media buzz that would come with releasing the world's first foldable phone.
Huawei is the second-largest phone maker globally, but it just became illegal for the US government to buy its products.
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns/Flickr CC

By law, anyone who works for the U.S. government must give up their phone if it was made by Huawei or ZTE. And federal agencies must get rid of routers and other networking equipment made by the two Chinese companies as well. This is a requirement in the Defence Authorization Act just passed by Congress.

The rule came because both Huawei and ZTE are considered to be too closely tied to the Chinese government to be trusted.

How to rip and save audio from YouTube videos with your iPhone

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rip youtube audio
This screen represents YouTube, and the telephone represents audio. Or something.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Editor’s note: As of Feb. 10, 2010, the tip outlined below no longer works. However, we published a new post about an iOS shortcut that currently does work: “Finally — a YouTube download shortcut for iOS that actually works.” Enjoy.

YouTube isn’t just for video. Lots of folks use it to post audio files, only they gum up the songs with slideshows so they can upload them to the video-publishing service. There are all kinds of apps that let you convert a YouTube video back into an MP3, but today we’re going to see how to convert a video to an MP3 right in Safari, using Apple’a own Workflow/Shortcuts app.

‘Loop disease’ could kill your iPhone 7 or 7 Plus

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5ymx4dfbrmxt6bv1-huge
Fixing 'loop disease' requires disassembling the iPhone 7 or 7 Plus.
Photo: IFIXIT

It has a ridiculous name, but it’s a serious problem. Incidents of “loop disease’ are reportedly sending growing numbers of iPhones to the repair shop.

This isn’t a new virus or an iOS bug. Instead, it’s a hardware problem affecting older iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus units.

VPNs make browsing safer. Why don’t more people use them?

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HideMy.name VPN can hide your deepest, darkest secrets.
HideMyName VPN can hide your deepest, darkest secrets.
Image: HideMy.name

This post is presented by HideMy.name VPN.

For all the regulations and constraints creeping onto the internet, it remains a pretty wild place. You can still find almost any information you want (unless you’re in a blocked country). And if you’re not careful, someone else can access your personal information in a flash.

Custom chips could make Apple Watch even better

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Join the crew with Apple Watch
Apple's got a gutsy move to make Apple Watch a better health machine.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of MAc

Custom health chips could be the next big piece of silicon to come out of Apple’s labs.

Apple reportedly has a team of engineers exploring the creation of a customized processor is optimized to make sense of health information from sensors at a faster rate than the S series processors found in the Apple Watch.

Siri may soon recognize different voices

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Spanish Siri labels Bolivian president a ‘dictator’
Siri's voice is changing.
Photo: Apple

Apple engineers are preparing for the day Siri can reliably recognize voices. They’re working on how this digital assistant will respond to requests from multiple users.

This issue became important with the release of Apple’s HomePod earlier this year, as smartspeaker are used in shared spaces.