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PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and other awesome apps of the week

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Awesome Apps
'Appy weekend, everyone!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Awesome Apps

A great battle royale game that’s sure to become one of the year’s most popular titles (and isn’t Fortnite!) is just one of our picks for this week’s “Awesome Apps of the Week.”

In addition, we’ve got a great update for a tremendous iPad drawing app, a minimalist puzzle game, and more. Check out our selections below.

Cult of Mac Magazine: What to expect from Apple’s big ‘field trip’ event, and more!

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cover
In this week's Cult of Mac Magazine: Apple will take a field trip out of Silicon Valley to host its first major event of 2018 next week, and much more.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

In this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine: Apple will take a field trip out of Silicon Valley to host its first major event of 2018 next week. Instead of focusing on iPhones and Apple Watches, this keynote will be all about education and creativity.

Rumors have been swirling for months that new MacBook Airs and an updated, inexpensive iPad could arrive this spring. We might see those, but Apple probably has a couple other surprises in store that you haven’t heard of. Here’s what to expect from Apple’s education event next Tuesday.

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.

Juuk’s Ligero Apple Watch band in Cosmic Grey is back

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juuk
The Ligero is built from robust 6061 series aluminum — the same aluminum used in the aircraft, automotive, boating and diving industries.
Photo: Juuk

When Eugene Ho first saw the Apple Watch, it made him think of a jukebox. If the watch piece is the player then the wristband is like a song that can be changed according to taste and mood.

Ho is building a band brand, Juuk Design, that acknowledges the watch wearer who likes to change bands on a whim. The Ligero is an aircraft-grade aluminum link band designed in vibrant finishes that will complement the aluminum Apple Watch model in Series 1-3.

Give your iPhone X an exoskeleton with the Radius X [Review]

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exoskeleton
Is this the most unusual iPhone X case ever?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The futuristic design of Mod-3’s Radius X makes it one of the most unusual iPhone X cases I’ve seen. If you’re after the ultimate minimalist case, or don’t like having a case on your phone but still want to protect it, the Radius X could be the perfect candidate.

In fact, it’s less of a case and more of an exoskeleton (or an updated version of a bumper case). Find out what makes this case special in our video, or read our full Radius X review below.

Apple wants to bring these accessibility emoji to iOS

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Apple accessibility emoji
Apple's new emoji suggestions, designed to better represent those with a disability
Photo: Apple

Apple has proposed a bunch of new accessibility emoji that it wants to bring to iOS.

There are nine altogether — some of which are available in different genders and skin tones — including guide dogs, a heading aid, prosthetic limbs, and more.

How to customize text in Safari for Mac

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Customize text in Safari.
Customize text in Safari.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

You probably spend more time in Safari than in any other app on your Mac. Some people I know almost never use anything else, even typing their blog posts into a text field in the browser. The good news is that Safari is an excellent browser, and makes it really easy to read most sites on the web. Today, though, we’ll see how to make things even easier to read. With a few quick tweaks in Safari’s settings, we can customize text for any website.

How to customize Mail swipe gestures on iPhone

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A mail box
Mail used to be such a pain to use.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Apple’s Mail app has gotten pretty good. And one of its best features is mail swipe gestures: being able to swipe an email in your message list and quickly delete, archive, move, or flag that message, and lots more besides.

With gestures, you can speed through your inbox, deleting the cruft, archiving boss mails, and filing messages, all with single swipes. It makes dealing with mail easy, if not actually fun.

The default swipes gestures are fine, but you can customize them to do exactly what you want. Let’s see how.

Folding iPhone might land in 2020

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Learn valuable coding skills by building working apps in iOS 11.
Apple wants to make iPhones that double as iPads.
Photo: Ste Smith

Your next iPhone could soon double as an iPad.

According to the latest Apple rumor, the company plans to launch a folding iPhone in the next two years, bringing Westworld-style tablets to the real world.

AR app solves life’s greatest mystery: How to assemble Ikea products

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Dezeen
Talk about a killer app!
Photo: Adam Pickard

Augmented reality is still waiting on its “killer app,” but a new demo from Toronto designer Adam Pickard shows off a use-case we could likely all get on board with: turning paper Ikea manuals into animated demonstrations.

For anyone who has ever looked, with growing bafflement, at the blueprints for assembling their coffee table or new chest of drawers, this proof-of-concept demo is enough to have you gratefully reaching for your iPhone.

Apple rivals still pushing for fingerprint-scanning displays

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Touch ID
Apple may have ditched Touch ID under glass, but Android makers haven't.
Photo: Apple

Apple is reportedly two years ahead of its Android rivals when it comes to the technology behind Face ID, and that’s left the competition scrabbling around trying to find an alternative.

The solution they’re exploring? Fingerprint sensors embedded in smartphone displays, a.k.a. the biometric security system that Apple was reportedly investigating before it turned its attentions to face recognition.

Level up your iPhone photography with these must-have accessories [Deals]

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Take your iPhone photography up a level or two with this roundup of must-have accessories.
Take your iPhone photography up a level or two with this roundup of must-have accessories.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Your iPhone is a content creation machine, especially for photo and video. That’s because it sports powerful cameras and image processing abilities. But it’s also a phone, and aren’t built like cameras with the sole purpose of making great images. So we’ve rounded up some of the top accessories you’ll need to make your iPhone a bona fide photography machine. From shutter grips to detachable lenses, all-terrain tripods and more, this is where you can level up your iPhone for pro-level photography. Read on for more details:

Unsane actor says iPhone movie removes barriers for filmmakers

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iPhone movie
Joshua Leonard on the set of Steven Soderbergh’s thriller Unsane.
Photo: Fingerprint Releasing / Bleecker Street

When director Steven Soderbergh set out to make a movie on iPhone, he cast an actor familiar with surprising audiences with a film shot with lo-tech cameras.

Astute film nerds will make the connection between Joshua Leonard’s first film with his most recent. Leonard, who plays a stalker in Soderbergh’s Unsane, was in The Blair Witch Project, a 1999 indie box office hit shot on digital video cameras.

New hardware at Apple’s surprise education event? Catch our expectations on The CultCast

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Apple Education Event invitation
Are we getting new Macs next week?
Photo: Apple

This week on The CultCast: Apple’s surprise education event could showcase new, cheaper hardware — we’ll fill you in. Plus: A huge upgrade may be coming to the screens of Apple products; why 2018’s iPhone X refresh could cost less than last year’s model; the Fortnite iOS version will totally blow your mind; and you won’t believe how much some Fortnite streamers are earning.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode of our podcast. It’s simple to accept Apple Pay and sell your wares with your very own Squarespace.com website. Enter offer code “CultCast” at checkout to get 10% off any hosting plan.

Tim Cook will co-chair China Development Forum event this weekend

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Foxconn employees accused of $43 million iPhone scam
Tim Cook meeting an iPhone manufacturer in China.
Photo: Apple

Tim Cook is headed to China this weekend, alongside Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, and Ginny Rometty, head of IBM. Cook will be heading co-chairing the China Development Forum, an annual event which aims to build relationships between Western corporations and the Chinese government.

The event comes at a challenging time when the U.S. and China are duking it out concerning trade tariffs and import duties.

Carriers are already discounting Samsung’s Galaxy S9

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Galaxy S9
The Galaxy S9 is one of the year's top handsets.
Photo: Samsung

The iPhone X is far from the only flagship handset to have reportedly suffered disappointing sales. Samsung’s Galaxy S9 may also be proving to be something of a disappointment, according to multiple reports.

One piece of evidence suggesting that this is the case? The fact that Verizon is already offering a buy one, get one free offer on Galaxy S9 handsets, while AT&T is giving customers a reduction of $595 off the price of handsets. That’s not something that’s typically offered for brand new iPhones!

Services poised to overthrow iPhone as Apple’s growth engine

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Apple Music
Apple Music and other services are becoming a huge money maker for Apple.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s long run of being an iPhone company is about to come to an end.

With iPhone X sales supposedly slipping, Apple’s days of depending on device sales for growth are almost over. But according to Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, services will contribute more to Apple’s growth over the next five years than the iPhone will.

How to stop Facebook eavesdropping on your conversations

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facebook eavesdropping microphone
Learn how to stop apps from accessing your iPhone's microphone.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

A few months back, we started hearing a lot of creepy stories about folks having real-life, in-person conversations with friends, and then getting Facebook ads on the same subject soon after. Was Facebook using their iPhone/iPad’s microphone to eavesdrop on them, then serving ads based on what it heard? Technically, it’s not much different to Google scanning your email and serving ads based on their content. In reality, it’s a whole ‘nother level of creepy.