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See a dreamy underwater film shot with naked iPhone X

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Frederic Van Strydonck
Shot on iPhone X underwater without a case.
Photo: Frederic Van Strydonck/Vimeo

We can be fairly confident that the iPhone X can survive a quick dunk underwater. Frederic van Strydonck did more than quick dunks when he used an iPhone X without any case to make an ethereal short film below the surface in various watery locations.

The iPhone X is not technically considered fully waterproof. It’s rated to be water-resistant when submerged at a maximum depth of 1 meter.

Pro Tip: Reject Robocalls at the squeeze of a hardware button

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Reject robocalls on with a double-tap of the power button.
Reject robocalls on with a double-tap on the power button.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Pro Tip Cult of Mac bug Did you know that, if you have your iPhone set to share incoming calls with your Mac, your iPad, and/or Apple Watch, then the iPhone won’t let you reject incoming calls? The red telephone icon isn’t there. You have to either answer the call, or scramble to another device in order to bump the call without picking up first.

But there’s a great hidden trick that lets you reject any call from your iPhone, without even touching the screen.

Here’s how much each country makes off the iPhone 7

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iPhone-7
The major components for the iPhone 7 come from a variety of counties. Most at of the profit still goes to the U.S.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The iPhone is made in China, so most of the profit stays over there, right? Actually, everything in that sentence is wrong.

A new study finds that China makes less than $9 from each iPhone 7. Some of the rest goes to other Asian countries, but the lion’s share is earned by Apple and other U.S. companies.

Cheap-ass case helps iPhone X survive deathly drop

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GizmoSlip
The iPhone X is more useable than what it was encased in.
Photo: GizmoSlip/YouTube

The patent for a case that can protect an iPhone X from a 100-foot drop was filed in 1883 – toilet paper on a roll.

Admittedly, the history isn’t quite right, but the hosts of the YouTube channel GizmoSlip did discover that an iPhone X nestled in two rolls of toilet paper can fall form a drone high in the sky and look and work like new.

Artist re-creates Childish Gambino’s ‘This Is America’ video on vintage Mac

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This Is America recreation
Donald Glover looks even cooler in pixel form.
Photo: Wahyu Ichwandardi

Donald Glover’s video for “This Is America” is one of most talked-about music videos of the year, but one brilliant animator is adding an extra dose of old-school cool by painstakingly re-creating it on a vintage Mac and software from the ’80s.

New York City illustrator Wahyu Ichwandardi (aka @pinot) is animating the entire “This Is America” video pixel by pixel. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but he’s currently 375 frames deep — and it looks incredible.

Watch the first minute of the video:

Vintage Apple inspires line of toy robots

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Classicbot
This toy Classic is ready to travel with a Font Suitcase and pet mouse.
Photo: Classicbot

Philip Lee is an ad man, a great admirer of vintage Macs and a lifelong collector of toy robots. From those three pieces of Lee’s life comes Classicbot, a line of designer toys that turns historic replica Apple hardware and desktop icons into adorable characters.

His first, the Classic, looks like the original Macintosh computer except with a friendly face, arms and legs. There’s even a cute mouse, a Font Suitcase that fits in the toy bot’s hand and a cardboard box reminiscent of the original packaging.

Understand your sleep patterns with Pillow [50 Essential iOS Apps #35]

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Pillow on Apple Watch report
Pillow users your Apple Watch or iPhone for sleep tracking and reporting your sleep quality.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: pillow sleep tracker appDo you ever wake up feeling exhausted, even though you are sure you slept well the night before? Or do you find yourself getting that 2:30 feeling a few hours early without any clear explanation? With the Pillow sleep app for iPhone and Apple Watch, you can get detailed analysis of your nightly slumber. Even better, you can gain insight into your body’s ideal sleep and wake times.

HomePod will never become the iPhone of smart speakers

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The HomePod -- a beautiful body with the brain of an idiot.
Doomed to remain a minor player? We'll see.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

The smart speaker install base will approach 100 million units by the end of 2018 — but Apple will make up only a tiny piece of the market.

At least, that’s according to analysts at Canalys, who forecast how things are shaping up for the various Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod devices currently winding their way into kitchens and living rooms around the world. Their take home message? That, unless something big changes, Apple is kinda screwed!

Crazy GIF shows how iPhone X may pave the way for Apple Glasses

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smart glasses
Will smart glasses replace iPhone as our main communication device?
Photo: uMake

The iPhone X’s ugly notch could pave the way for Apple to dominate the smart glasses market.

Augmented reality glasses are poised to become the hottest tech gadget of the next decade and Apple’s already laying the foundation with the iPhone X. It may not seem like the two will be directly related, but this clever concept shows how the key lays in the TrueDepth camera hidden in the notch.

Check it out:

Stylish new ads showcase how iPad can simplify your life

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iPad
The iPad and Apple Pencil is a winning combo.
Photo: Apple

The iPad is an extraordinarily versatile productivity tool, and Apple is keen to showcase that fact in a series of stylish new ads. The 15-second spots demonstrate the way that Apple’s tablet — alongside the Apple Pencil — can be used to make it easier to deal with your paperwork or computing on the move.

Check them out below.

Save massively on a whopping 3TB of cloud storage

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Zoolz 3Tb
Backup all of your summer photos with Zoolz Cloud Storage
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Cloud storage is super convenient, and often super expensive. When you get into the realms of terabytes, which is necessary for serious backups, the prices can be downright prohibitive. Improving storage capacity shouldn’t mean emptying your wallet

Gang of thieves snatches $19,000 of iPhones from Apple Store

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Suffolk County Police
A frame of security footage from the raid.
Photo: Suffolk County Police

A group of hooded thieves snatched $19,000 worth of iPhones from a New York Apple Store late last week.

Five men were recorded on CCTV during the raid at the store in Huntington Station, NY. Police are offering $5,000 for any information that will allow them to apprehend the criminals.

This foot-based iPhone holder makes the selfie stick look sane

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Foot Shoe
Or you could just wear something with pockets.
Photo: ErrorDigital/Instagram

Remember the bemused reaction you had to the selfie stick the first time you saw one? Remember how that feeling gradually changed to begrudging acceptance as they became standard issue over the months that followed?

Get ready for the next creation in that line of “are they kidding?” thinking: the iPhone foot mount for the person who doesn’t want pockets in their clothing. They’ll be everywhere in 2019. Maybe.

One-time Apple copycat Xiaomi goes public

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Xiaomi Mi Mix 2
Its debut wasn't an unequivocal success, however.
Photo: Xiaomi

Chinese smartphone manufacturer and occasional Apple tribute act Xiaomi has made its debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange — officially making it the world’s third largest phonemaker.

Xiaomi is one of the world’s most hotly anticipated stock market listings, having risen to prominence in developing markets, such as China. CEO Lei Jun, who was present at the company’s IPO launch today, has admitted that his founding the company was heavily inspired by the story of Steve Jobs.

Hilarious new iPhone X ad imagines life as a quiz show

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Apple's new iPhone X ad shows the struggle we go through trying to remember passwords.
Apple's new iPhone X ad shows the struggle we go through trying to remember passwords.
Screenshot: Apple

Imagine you’re on a game show and the trivia answer you need to win is… the password you created for your online banking account.

This isn’t an elaborate form of hacking, it’s a funny new Apple advertisement that points out that Face ID saves us from ever having to remember passwords.

Your iPhone or iPad probably indicates you’re well off

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pad&quill
Just by looking at her with an iPad tells you there's a good chance she's well off.
Photo: Pad & Quill

Researchers investigating differences between groups of Americans have an interesting observation: owning an iOS device is the best indicator that someone is in one of the top income brackets. Even better than using Grey Poupon.

They are trying to discover whether rich and poor, white and minority, men and women have less in common now than they did in the past. Studying the products they buy is part of this process.

Steve Jobs envisioned the App Store in 1983

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Steve Jobs on the cover of Time magazine in 1982.
Steve Jobs on the cover of Time magazine in 1982.
Photo: Time magazine

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was a visionary. That’s a phrase that gets tossed around a lot, but in Jobs’ case we have solid evidence.

Speaking at a conference in the early 1980s, a decade before the Internet became a household name, he described something we do everyday: buy software online.

How to use a blank home screen on iPad, and why you’ll love it

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Look at this blank home screen. Just look at it.
Look at this blank home screen. Just look at it.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

What’s on your main iPad home screen? Is it organized so that you can find your most-used apps quickly? Or have you decided to arrange the icons by color? Or divided up the grid by adding a row of blank spaces? Those are pretty neat ideas, but today I’m going to suggest you do something even more radical. How about keeping your home screen entirely blank? No icons, no folders, nothing. Just the Dock, Spotlight search, and an easier-to-use iPad.

Swipe on the iOS Copy/Paste menu to see hidden extra actions

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Instead of tapping those arrows, you should swipe the whole menu.
Instead of tapping those arrows, you should swipe the whole menu.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Are you still tapping the little arrows to scroll through the sections on your iPhone’s tiny copy/paste menu? Forget about that nonsense. This is 2018, the year of living dangerously, so may as well join in with the world. Did you know that you can just swipe that menu? You’ll never have to tap a tiny arrow ever again.

Microsoft Andromeda folding iPad competitor possibly killed off

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Microsoft Andromeda is a rumored dual-screen folding computer.
This render shows the Microsoft Andromeda, a rumored dual-screen folding Windows computer.
Photo: David Breyer

Don’t expect to see the rumored folding Windows computer any time soon. In fact, Microsoft might have cancelled the device code named Andromeda.

This would have been small enough to be pocketable, but then unfold to become a tablet about the size of an iPad mini.

Cult of Mac Magazine: Why you should be rowing with Apple Watch, and more!

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cover
If running and swimming with Apple Watch don’t rock your boat, you should give rowing a try. It combines all the benefits of cardio and strength training, and you get to do it in a boat.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

In this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine: If running and swimming with Apple Watch don’t rock your boat, you should give rowing a try. It combines all the benefits of cardio and strength training. Whether you get in a boat or use a rowing machine, it’s a great way to get in shape.

You’ll find that story and more in this issue. Get your free subscription to Cult of Mac Magazine from iTunes. Or read on for this week’s top stories.

Save 80 percent on a top-shelf VPN [Deals]

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Get two years of powerful VPN protection for a fraction of the usual price.
Get two years of powerful VPN protection for a fraction of the usual price.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

If you’ve visited this site before, first of all, thanks. Second, you probably know that we endorse getting online through a virtual private network (VPN). It’s a scary place out there on the web, and using a VPN helps protect your privacy and data.