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You can now preorder accessories for this year’s ‘iPhone XI’

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Olixar iPhone XI screen protectors
Please don’t use these names, Apple.
Photo: Olixar

One retailer has already started taking preorders for new accessories made for this year’s “iPhone XI” and “iPhone XI Plus.”

Those are the names that will be given to Apple’s new flagships, according to one accessory maker. A more affordable device with a 6.1-inch LCD screen, believed to be called the “iPhone XS,” is also on the way.

We hope for Apple’s sake that these names are inaccurate.

Gaze detection could give iMacs a sixth sense

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iMac
Maxing-out your new Mac is now a lot more affordable.
Photo: Apple

Down the road, as you gaze into the monitor of a new iMac, the screen could gaze back.

Apple was awarded a patent Thursday by the United States Patent & Trademark Office for adjustable reflective display technology that can track your gestures, including eye and head movements.

Apple Maps suffers widespread search and directions outage [UPDATED]

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Apple Maps outage
Save us, Google Maps!
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Good luck finding your way with Apple Maps today.

The service is suffering a widespread outage that is preventing many users from using search or directions. The problem seems to be affecting iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac users around the world, but Apple says all services are operating normally.

UPDATE: As of Friday afternoon, whatever the earlier problem was, this service appears to be working normally again.

Alto’s Adventure is the perfect zen iPhone game [50 Essential iOS Apps #26]

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Alto's Adventure on iPad and iPhone
Alto's Adventure is the perfect kind of iOS game for passing time on iPhone or iPad
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Alto's Adventure gameGaming on iPhone and iPad has been something that has often gone overlooked. While big name titles haven’t typically made an appearance on iOS Devices, occasionally a game comes to the platform that is both visually amazing and a joy to play. Alto’s Adventure is incredibly fun, surprisingly delightful, and perfectly addictive, making it a rare gem in the iOS game library.

Gmail for iOS just got a big notifications upgrade

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Gmail iOS
View all your messages individually if you prefer.
Photo: Google

Some of us need to have email notifications enabled, but we don’t want our iPhone to ping every time a spam message hits out inbox. Gmail just got a big notifications upgrade that solves this problem.

Its official iOS app now uses artificial intelligence to provide notifications for your most important emails only.

Apple could be about to enter movie business with animated feature

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Cartoon Saloon
A shot from Cartoon Saloon's "The Breadwinner."
Photo: Cartoon Saloon

Apple is reportedly negotiating with Cartoon Saloon, an Irish Oscar-nominated animation studio, for the distribution rights for what would be Apple’s first animated feature film.

A deal is supposedly close to being reached, although there are scant details beyond this. Cartoon Saloon has previously produced three Academy Award-nominated animations including Secret of Kells, The Breadwinner and Song of the Sea. Its preschool series, Puffin Rock can be found on Netflix, and is also popular in China.

Score a free Super NES Classic [Deals]

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Now's your chance to win a Super NES Classic, loaded with 20 genre-defining games and endless hours of nostalgia.
Now's your chance to win a Super NES Classic, loaded with 20 genre-defining games and endless hours of nostalgia.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Ah the ’90s, a time when things were simpler, including the video games. Anyone who played SNES has fond memories of dozens of games that are now bona fide classics. Being 16-bit didn’t make them any less fun, which explains the excitement over Nintendo’s Super NES Classic.

It’s a nostalgia-packed gaming machine, and right now you can enter to win a Super NES Classic for free.

Intel cranks out speedy new modems for 2018 iPhones

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intel
Intel will take the majority of orders from Apple.
Photo: Thomas Hawk/Flickr

Intel has reportedly started production of the new faster XMM 7560 modem chips for Apple’s 2018 iPhones, marking the first time Intel has manufactured modem chips in-house for Apple.

While Intel has supplied Apple with modem chips for the past couple of years, previously it has outsourced production to TSMC.

iPhone’s transition to OLED displays won’t be complete until 2020

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iPhone X home screen
iOS 14's Home screen could be very different.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s more affordable iPhone models with LCD displays will remain its best-selling devices with the transition to OLED technology slower than expected.

A new report claims Apple will continue to offer an iPhone with an LCD in 2019 and beyond. One analyst warns that the iPhone lineup won’t switch to OLED displays entirely until 2020 at the earliest.

Spike Jonze’s brilliant HomePod ad wins major advertising award

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2019 Creative Marketer of the Year
Spike Jonze created one of Apple's all-time great ads.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s brilliantly creative HomePod ad, directed by Being John Malkovich helmer Spike Jonze, has won a top prize at the Association of Independent Commercial Producers Show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The awards were handed out on Thursday night. Apple shared the “Advertising Excellence/Single Commercial category” top spot with the absolutely hilarious “It’s a Tide Ad” Super Bowl series of ads for Tide. If you haven’t seen Apple’s excellent HomePod ad before, you can check it out below.

‘Behind the Mac’ ads tell the stories of real Apple users

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Apple ad campaign
Legally blind photographer Bruce Hall is one of the many people who use Macs.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s latest ad campaign focuses on how the Mac can be used by regular people to create music, make art, develop apps and more.

Like classic Apple campaigns such as the “Switch” ads of the early 2000s, or the long-running “Shot on iPhone” ads, the “Behind the Mac” ads focus on real Apple users — thereby making them feel more authentic. They also embrace Apple’s accessibility push, demonstrated through stories like legally blind photographer Bruce Hall, who uses Apple devices.

Check them out below.

Rapha teams with Apple for exclusive line of bags and sleeves

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Apple Rapha Mini Messenger Bag
Apple's Rapha Mini Messenger Bag can attach to your bicycle, or be worn around the waist or over the shoulder.
Photo: Apple

There’s a new line of bags, totes, and sleeves on the Apple Store today. Rapha produced these just for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users.

Rapha is a sportswear brand focused on clothing and accessories related to road bicycle racing. Its new Apple offerings are aimed at commuters, though.

Turns out iOS 12 isn’t safe from ‘brute force’ iPhone unlockers

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iphone-unlock-640x426
Apple and a company that sells an iPhone unlocking tool are in a back-and-forth battle over your privacy.

Apple put a feature in the first iOS 12 beta designed specifically to thwart iPhone unlocking tools that use the Lightning port to get access to the device. But Grayshift, maker of a prominent unlocking tool, says it already has a workaround.

This is good news for the many law enforcement agencies around the U.S.  who’ve invested in Grayshift’s GrayKey unlocker. It’s not so good for anyone who wants to be sure their iPhone can’t be hacked.

iWork for iOS gets audio recording, greater Apple Pencil support

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Smart Annotations in Numbers on iPad
Improvements to smart annotations in Pages are just one of myriad changes in iWork for iOS and Mac released today.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

Updates to all the apps in the Apple iWork for iOS suite boast many additional features. Pages’ and Numbers’ ability to record, edit, and play audio is just the start. In both those, and Keynote too, an Apple Pencil can be used to select and scroll. And the are plenty more.

There are also enhancements in iWork for Mac.

Watch iPhone X take 1,000-foot plunge — and survive!

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screen-addiction
Sometimes this feels like the only way to spend less time with our smartphone.
Photo: TechRax/YouTube

An iPhone X was found in good working order after it survived an extreme drop test off of California’s tallest bridge last week.

With the video button on record, the glass-encased Apple flagship successfully filmed its own dizzying trip as it fell from about 1,000 feet and hit a rocky bottom. Cosmetically, the iPhone looks like a boxers face after 12 rounds of jabs and hooks.

OMFG the Mac’s Calculator has always had a paper tape

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You are the operator of a pocket calculator. The Mac calculator paper tape function is a hidden hoot.
You are the operator of a pocket calculator.
Photo: Jim Champion/Flickr CC

If you don’t already know it, then this tip is about to blow your mind. It’s the paper roll for the Mac’s Calculator app, which has been a feature since, like, forever. You may have been using the Calculator since the very beginnings of Mac OS X, and yet you may still have never seen it.

There’s an old proverb: “The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is today.” That totally applies to the Mac Calculator’s paper toll. Let’s check it out.

Verizon’s new data plan even more unlimited than its other unlimited plans

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verizon-adds-20-fee-to-all-smartphone-upgrades-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads20160314777958118_8f2ab75b15_k-jpg
For about $100 a month, you can use more than 2GB of 4G LTE data each day without worrying about throttling.
Photo: Verizon

Verizon just created a new top tier to its unlimited data plans. It was designed for “super users who want the most,” according to the carrier.

The Above Unlimited plan offers 75GB of unthrottled 4G LTE data, and 20GB of unthrottled hotspot data, for $95 a month.

Ark: Survival Evolved lands on Android and iOS

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Ark: Survival Evolved
Will your survive?
Photo: Studio Wildcard

Ark: Survival Evolved is now available on Android and iOS.

The popular survival game from Studio Wildcard is completely free-to-play and in-app purchases aren’t necessary. The only thing you need to worry about is staying alive in a world dominated by dinosaurs.

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.

One carrier restarts sales of 9-year-old iPhone 3GS

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iPhone 3GS
Get yours for just $40.
Photo: SK Telink

In June 2009, Apple introduced the world to the iPhone 3GS. It was “the fastest, smartest phone yet,” with improved cameras, video recording, and voice control.

Nine years on, smartphones are a lot different — and the iPhone 3GS looks like a relic in comparison. But that hasn’t stopped one carrier from restarting sales at just $40 apiece.

Steam Link update for iOS hints at imminent App Store release

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Valve Steam
Enjoy Remote Play Together today.
Photo: Valve

Steam Link could finally be about to make its debut on iOS.

After Apple updated its App Store guidelines for remote desktop clients, Steam Link for iOS has been updated to prevent players from making purchases on iPhone and iPad. The change almost certainly means that the app is being readied for an imminent App Store release.