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Samsung’s sad new ad is packed with iPhone disses

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Samsung ad
Samsung's not pulling any punches in its latest ad.
Photo: Samsung

The life of an iPhone owner is a truly miserable experience, according to the Android smartphone makers at Samsung.

Apple’s big Android rival put out a new ad today titled “Moving On” that attacks the iPhone for taking a few seconds to load a boarding pass and if you’re not careful you might totally get caught in the rain with one while waiting for an Uber.

Take a look at the sad life of an iPhone user:

Fortnite’s new Solo Showdown game mode offers big prizes

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Fortnite Solo Showdown game mode
Get your V-Bucks back for unwanted Fortnite purchases.
Photo: Epic Games

Fortnite Battle Royale is getting a new limited-time game mode that awards big prizes.

Solo Showdown places players against self-selected competitors in “the ultimate test of survival.” The best performers are rewarded with free V-Bucks, and a whopping 50,000 are up for grabs if you can secure first place. You’ll also get a unique spray just for taking part.

Apple welcomes deaf and blind students to Everyone Can Code initiative

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Everyone Can Code
Apple is doing its bit for Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
Photo: Apple

Apple has been pretty outspoken about bringing coding classes to everyone — and that most assuredly includes the deaf and blind communities, too.

Timed to coincide with Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Apple has revealed that it is making it easier for students with vision, hearing or other assistive needs to take part in its Everyone Can Code curricula for Swift.

Apple’s proposed North Carolina campus is almost a ‘done deal’

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Research Triangle
The Research Triangle Park headquarters as it is today.
Photo: Ildar Sagdejev/Wikipedia CC

Apple’s decision to open a new HQ in North Carolina is reportedly a “done deal” as soon as a bill is passed approving a series of incentives for Apple.

The location of Apple’s proposed new headquarter has been speculated upon, with North Carolina and Northern Virginia emerging as the two most likely candidates.

Apple Pay goes live in Ukraine

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Apple in talks to bring Apple Pay to Israel
Apple Pay continues its growth around the world.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple Pay has launched in Ukraine, a move that was officially announced by the country’s finance minister Oleksandr Danyliuk on Facebook.

At present, Apple Pay is supported by Ukraine’s nationalized PrivatBank, with the State Savings Bank of Ukraine, a.k.a. Oschadbank, set to follow in the near future.

Stunning OnePlus 6 wallpapers look awesome on iPhone X

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iPhone X
Make back some of the money you just spent by selling your old iPhone.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

OnePlus revealed its latest flagship on Tuesday with an edge-to-edge display inspired by iPhone X. The OnePlus 6 is the Chinese company’s prettiest smartphone yet, and it ships with a bunch of gorgeous wallpapers that look awesome on any home screen.

Download them for your iPhone right here.

New YouTube Music streaming service goes live this month

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YouTube Music
YouTube will take on Apple Music (again).
Photo: Google

YouTube Music, a new service that will take on the likes of Spotify and Apple, goes live next week.

Listeners will be able to enjoy the service for free if they don’t mind their music interspersed with advertisements. An upgrade to YouTube Music Premium, priced at $9.99 a month, will remove those ads and allow for background playback and music downloads.

Apple can finally replace batteries in older MacBook Pro models

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MacBook Pro
Replacements for a 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro battery from five years ago are available with no waiting.
Photo: Apple

Apple ran short on a very vital part of the Mid 2012 and Early 2013 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display for over a year. But it now reportedly has plenty of batteries for these models in stock once again.

For months, Apple had been forced to waive the fee on battery replacements on these older models because customers were having to wait so long for the part to become available. 

OnePlus 6 has a notch because it just makes sense

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Although the OnePlus 6 has a screen cutout like the iPhone X, it's not a copycat.
Although the OnePlus 6 has a screen cutout like the iPhone X, it's not a copycat.
Photo: OnePlus

OnePlus isn’t as well known as Samsung, but its Android devices have a following. Its newly-announced flagship has a screen cutout, which will cause many people to call the OnePlus 6 an iPhone X clone.  

But Apple didn’t put the “notch” in its device for esthetics. There’s good reason for it. And that’s the same reason it’s in the OnePlus 6, as well as other Android devices with the same feature expected later this year.

Caviar’s solar-powered iPhone X Tesla costs a paltry $4,600

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iPhone X Tesla
The iPhone X Tesla is solar powered, with gold trim. Each is hand delivered to its buyer.
Photo: Caviar Globsl

Russian luxury brand Caviar just launched the iPhone X Tesla, a solar-powered version of Apple’s flagship device. Parts are gilded in gold, and the whole deal costs 284,000 ₽ ($4600) for a 64GB version.

It’s a device any Russian oligarch would be proud to own.

Beautiful concept images show 2018 iPhone in its full glory

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An artist compiled various rumors about the 2018 iPhone into images, including this one.
An artist compiled several rumors about the 2018 iPhone into images, including this one.
Photo: DBS Designing

Rumors of the next iPhone are running hot and heavy, and an artist has assembled the various unconfirmed reports into concept images of the device Apple might release this fall.

These visual speculations come from Muhsin M. Belaal Auckburaully of DBS Designing, who gives Martin Hajek some real competition in Apple concept drawings. 

How to take a healthy break when using Mac

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take a break
Not this kind of break.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

When you’re working on playing at your Mac, it’s too easy to just push through the current task, which — at the time — seems like the most important thing in the world. “It’ll only take five more minutes,” you tell yourself, as your carpal tunnels tighten, your back stiffens, and your upper arms atrophy.

What you need is a break. Just two minutes taken every half hour should do you. The problem is remembering. Luckily, there’s an app for that.

New Apple HQ might land in the South

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Apple Park
Apple might be moving into the D.C. area.
Photo: Apple

North Carolina and Northern Virginia have risen as two likely candidates for Apple’s third headquarters.

The new location of the new Apple HQ is supposed to be revealed by the end of 2018. According to a new report, one of the spots Apple is looking at is in the same area that Amazon is eying too.

Best List: FuelBox is the Swiss army knife of iPhone chargers [Review]

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FuelBox PowerStation
The FuelBox PowerStation has built-in cables, a pair of AC outlets and a mobile battery pack.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Best List: FuelBox, a home and mobile charging system

There’s a secret magician lurking in our household. We never see them, but they somehow manage to disappear all our charging cables. It drives me batty. The kids, of course, deny any knowledge of the situation. Yet somehow it’s impossible to keep cables around the house. They just keep disappearing.

That’s why I like the FuelBox PowerStation, a charging system that combines a docking station/charging brick with a mobile battery pack. Both the docking station and the battery pack have built-in charging cables — both Lightning and mini-USB. No matter what, the cables can’t disappear.

Inexpensive Logitech Crayon iPad stylus debuts just for students

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Logitech Crayon
The Logitech Crayon was designed for the classroom. It saves schools quite a bit of money compared to the Apple Pencil.
Photo: Logitech

Logitech’s $49 active stylus for iPad unveiled back in March just debuted. However, at this point the Crayon can only be purchased through Apple’s Education channel.

This accessory for students was created to be a cheaper alternative to the Apple Pencil, which schools can buy at $89.

YouTube for iOS gives you more control over your experience [50 Essential iOS Apps #14]

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Youtube App on iPhone X with Cult of Mac Video
The YouTube app is the best way to keep up with your favorite channels.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: YouTube, the best video app Every day, millions of people watch more than a billion hours of video on YouTube. More than half of those views come from mobile devices.

From tutorials and tech reviews to vlogs and movie trailers, YouTube is the largest video sharing service in the world, growing at a rate of 300 hours of content every minute (that’s an average of 18,000 minutes being uploaded every minute of every day). If you’re not using the YouTube app to dive into this ocean of video content, you’re not doing it right.

Microsoft will take on the iPad with a low-cost Surface tablet

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Microsoft Surface to take on iPad
Microsoft’s next Surface tablet wants to make difficult for iPad.
Photo: Microsoft

Microsoft plans to take on Apple’s popular 9.7-inch iPad with a low-cost Surface tablet, according to a new report.

The device, which will be powered by Intel processors and priced at around $400, is expected to go on sale in the second half of 2018. It will be accompanied by more affordable versions of Microsoft’s keyboard cover, mouse, and Surface Pen.

Want to pit Street Fighter against Power Rangers? Now you can

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PR vs SF Group Shot
The crossover you never thought would happen.
Photo: Power Rangers: Legacy Wars

Two franchises I love, Power Rangers and Street Fighter are crossing over for team-based real-time mobile fighting game, Power Rangers: Legacy Wars.

If you’ve been waiting since the 1990s to pit Chun-Li against the Pink Ranger or Akuma against Lord Zedd, today is your lucky day. Check out the action-packed trailer below.

Turn your iPhone into a handy household hub [Deals]

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Make your phone and your home complimentary with this roundup of awesome accessories.
Make your phone and your home complimentary with this roundup of awesome accessories.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Own an iPhone? Live in a house or apartment? Then you’ve got a match made in heaven. The two can work in harmony, if you have the right accessories. So we’ve rounded up some of the coolest peripherals for bringing your home and phone together, including a wireless charging kit, a robotic vacuum cleaner, a Bluetooth audio hub, and more. Some of these are discounted by more than half off, so read on for more details:

iPhone SE 2 could pack iPhone X features into compact form factor

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iPhone SE CAD
A miniature iPhone X? Yes please!
Photo: Olixar

If you love the design of the iPhone X, but yearn for the smaller form factor of the 2012-era iPhone 5s, you could well find yourself in luck this year.

According to a new report, Apple’s next-gen iPhone SE is set to be the same size as its predecessor, but boast the same edge-to-edge display and “notch” of the iPhone X. This would mean that it would have more screen real estate than the original iPhone SE, although the body would stay the same size.