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Ring in Memorial Day with massively discounted gear and gadgets [Deals]

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We've rounded up some great deals on gear, gadgets, and lesson bundles.
We've rounded up some great deals on gear, gadgets, and lesson bundles.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Memorial day weekend is upon us, so there’s plenty of time to peruse this massive roundup of deals we’ve pulled together. Below you’ll find massive discounts on a top shelf-VPN, a solar powered lamp, Raspberry Pi lessons and lots more. These are already discounted deals, but you can save even more by using the coupon code ‘MEMDAY15’ at checkout. Read on for more details:

Apple frequently forced to give customer iCloud data to police

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Police Car. Berlin, 2013
Apple strives to protect the privacy of its customers, but it's also required to comply with legal requests for information from law enforcement.
Photo: Stefan Draschan

A locked iPhone can’t be accessed without the passcode, and even Apple can’t unlock it. But Apple has to comply with government requests for iCloud information.

And there are a lot of them. The company received 3,358 requests to access personal data in the second-half of 2017, with about half of these coming from the United States.

Save 15 percent on a refurbished Apple Watch LTE

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Refurbished Apple Watch LTE units are available.
Pick up your new Apple Watch for $75 less.
Photo: Apple

Apple began offering 4G-enabled smartwatches last fall, but it seems people don’t return them very often. It’s taken this long to build up a large enough supply of refurbished Apple Watch LTE units that they can finally be offered to the public.

Those who don’t mind a refurb can get this wearable at 15 percent off the regular price.

How to replace Instapaper with Pinboard

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Instapaper punishes its European users use
Instapaper Premium unlocks awesome features.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Instapaper has shut down in Europe. Instead of complying with the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which forces internet companies to stop hoarding your data, the read-later service has closed access for anyone trying to access their account from Europe. Clearly the two-years since the GDPR was announced wasn’t enough time to get ready.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that you can still download all your saved articles from Instapaper, and you can import them into am alternative. One option is Pocket, another read-later service, but that might leave you in a similar situation sometime in the future. Better to take care of business now, and move everything to Pinboard.

iOS 12 wish list: All the features we absolutely need

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iOS 12 wish list
Here's everything we want from Apple's next major update.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

WWDC is right around the corner, which means we’re about to get our very first look at Apple’s next major update to iOS.

We’re expecting big things from iOS 12, including a whole host of improvements that will make our devices more stable, and plenty of welcome bug fixes. Apple will surely surprise us with some nice new features, too.

Here’s our lengthy wish list for this update, which includes a Home screen overhaul, a more powerful FaceTime, better multitasking, and more!

Obscura 2 is a manual camera app you can understand [50 Essential iOS Apps #18]

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Obscura 2 camera app taking a photo of a dog
Obscura 2 gives you powerful camera controls in an easy-to-use package.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: Obscura Camera For several years in a row, the iPhone has been one of the most popular cameras in the world. Apple’s image sensors, paired with top-notch image processing, results in exceptional photos time and time again.

One thing absent from the default camera app, though, are manual settings. With Obscura 2, you get all the manual controls you want, plus a wide range of image-processing features, perfectly implemented haptics, and a slew of vintage filters to make your photos pop.

Services could push Apple past $1 trillion valuation in next year

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What’s it like to have your startup bought by Apple? Stressful
Apple could be about to make history!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The giants of the financial world are firmly in Apple’s corner. First, mega investor Warren Buffett‘s company became Apple’s third-biggest public shareholder. Now investment titan Morgan Stanley has issued a note to clients, outlining why Apple is likely to pass a major financial milestone in the next year.

At time of writing, Apple is trading at $188.51. However, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty the stock has the potential to hit a price target of $214. Should it manage this feat, Apple will become the first company in history to surpass $1 trillion in market cap.

Mechanical keyboard gives your iPad a Mad Men makeover

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Rymek
Typing on your iPad is about to get a whole lot louder.
Photo: Rymek

Not garnering enough attention tapping away at your unfinished novel on your iPad in your local Starbucks? That will certainly change if you invest in Rymek’s latest keyboard accessory.

Designed to replicate the look and feel of a vintage typewriter, Rymek’s iPad-compatible mechanical keyboard will let you bash out the words between sips of whisky, while pretending you’re Mad Men‘s Don Draper.

Silly App Store bans have gone too far with Steam Link

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Steam Link iPhone iPad Apple TV
Steam Link’s first big update is great for controller users.
Photo: Valve

Apple has decided that it won’t allow iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV owners to play PC games through Steam Link.

Valve’s new app, which is now available in beta on Android, has been banned from the App Store because of “business conflicts.” Apple has also turned down Valve’s appeals.

It’s yet another example of Apple customers being hurt by its often farcical App Store rules. What makes this ban even more ridiculous is that there are so many apps similar to Steam Link already available in the App Store.

New to iCloud? Apple will give you the first month’s storage for free

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Hacker who tried to extort Apple for $100k is spared prison
Apple wants more iCloud subscribers.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple is looking to hook more people to subscribe to its iCloud storage service — and like good salespeople they’re willing to give you the first hit for free, after which you’ll have to start paying.

At present, Apple offers you a tiny amount of storage for free as a preview of its iCloud storage. However, this is such a small amount that users will run out even if they’re only backing up the videos and photos on their iPhone. For most customers, it’s therefore necessary to pay a monthly subscription fee to Apple to cover all your storage needs.

Samsung must pay Apple $539 million for violating iPhone patents

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Samsung
Samsung argued it should pay just $28 million.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

A jury has decided that Samsung must pay Apple $539 million in damages, following four days of deliberation — and years of ongoing legal battles.

The verdict is almost exactly in the middle of the $1 billion in damages Apple was requesting, and the $28 million Samsung’s lawyers felt the South Korean tech giant should pay.

5 ways HomePod could catch up with its rivals

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HomePod Close Up
We like the HomePod. We just think there's a lot more Apple could do with it.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The iPhone dominates smartphone sales charts. The iPad is so ubiquitous that, for many, its name is a catch-all term for any tablet. The Mac is the most desirable computer out there. But the HomePod? Not so much.

According to figures released this week, Apple’s smart speaker made up just a tiny 6 percent share of all smart speaker shipments for the first quarter of 2018. What is Apple doing wrong? And what could it do to turn things around? Here are five suggestions for HomePod improvements we’d like to see.

How to use the Mac’s secret emoji panel

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emoji text replacements
The Mac's emoji panel is even better than the iOS emoji keyboard.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Finding emoji on the iPhone and iPad is easy — you just tap the little emoji key in the corner of your keyboard, and there they are. Emoji are fully supported on the Mac, too, but where do you find them? If you don’t already know, then this trick is going to blow your mind, because it’s just as easy to get to the emoji panel on the Mac as it is on the iPhone.

Court documents reveal Apple knew iPhone 6 was bendy

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Bendgate
Tests prior to launch showed the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus could have bending issues.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Bendgate is back in the news and this time, court documents show Apple knew about structural problems with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus prior to release.

Apple’s own tests revealed the handsets might have a bending problem but publicly defended the structural soundness despite widespread customer complaints of frozen or unresponsive touchscreens. As the complaints piled up, Apple quietly corrected the defect, the documents show.

Creative Block: Roli’s expressive MIDI keyboard goes portable [Review]

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Roll seaboard block review
That's the Seaboard sat on a 12-inch iPad.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Imagine a piano keyboard that is also a multitouch surface, like the screen on an iPad. Now imagine that this is a tactile silicone surface with bumps and dips so you can feel the keys, just like a piano. Hold that image in your mind — you are currently imagining the Roli Seaboard Block, backpack-sized Bluetooth MIDI keyboard that will change the way you play music.

How Apple could smartify iOS’ Do Not Disturb feature

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Patent
"Do Not Disturb" could get a lot more intelligent.
Photo: Apple/USPTO

With iOS 11, Apple introduced a “Do Not Disturb” feature that texts callers to let them know you’re driving or otherwise engaged if they try and phone when you’re busy. But a future version of the technology could perform a more useful feat by texting context-specific responses to the person calling.

In a patent application published today, Apple describes how your iPhone could analyze available information — ranging from fitness tracking apps to your calendar and location information — to figure out the most useful response to a message.

iPod shuffle and Spotify merge in this portable player [Deals]

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This little music player combines a classic form factor with modern music streaming.
This little music player combines a classic form factor with modern music streaming.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Media formats and devices have a way of circling back into relevance. Vinyl, cassette tapes, heck, even VHS are making comebacks. So it should be no surprise to see the handy iPod shuffle style of music player back on the scene. This time, it’s with an eye to streaming music, courtesy of Spotify.

OS X has now outlasted Apple’s classic Mac OS

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os x
OS X passed a major milestone this week.
Photo: Olarila

Call it macOS or OS X if you want, but today Apple’s Mac operating system passed a major milestone: overtaking Apple’s classic Mac OS by a single day.

Pointed out by Jason Snell of Six Colors, the original Mac operating system lasted 6,269 days from January 24, 1984 to March 24, 2001. The current operating system, meanwhile, has lasted from March 24, 2001 to the present day — a total of 6,270 days! Time sure flies, right?

Facebook two-factor authentication no longer needs a phone number

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Facebook two-factor authentication
You can now make Facebook more secure without handing over your number.
Photo: Facebook

You can now secure your Facebook account with two-factor authentication without handing over your phone number.

The social network now works alongside apps like Google Authenticator, Duo Security, and more. Its setup process has also been refined to make bolstering security a simpler experience.

Latest Apple Pay promotion gives you free food delivery from Postmates

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Apple Pay
This is just the latest in a long-running series of Apple Pay promotions.
Photo: Apple

Apple wants you to use Apple Pay and it’s willing to reward you if you’ll give it a shot. The company’s latest Apple Pay promotion offers free delivery on food ordered from food delivery service Postmates through its app.

Unlike many of the one-week promotions Apple runs for Apple Pay, this offer runs through the end of June.

Apple is missing out on billions in subscription fees

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Apple waives developer fees for nonprofits, others in 8 additional countries
Apple should be squeezing more money out of customers. Or so one analyst thinks!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s Services division is growing rapidly, but according to analyst Gene Munster it is still leaving billions of dollars on the table by failing to monetize its software in the way that it could.

Munster says that Apple should be following other high tech companies by charging monthly subscription fees for Pro Apps, aimed at audio and visual professionals. These apps include Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro X, Motion, Compressor and MainStage 3, each of which Apple currently sells for a one-off fee.

iPhone SE 2 stars in beautiful concept TV ad

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Watch a iPhone SE 2 TV ad
No, the new iPhone SE won't look like this.
Screencap: Creative Concepts

The look of iPhone ads is familiar. A cool song blares while the device sleekly moves before the camera. An artist has used that formula to create an ad for the iPhone SE 2, a smartphone not yet released.

The look of the phone matches the latest rumors of this upcoming budget model. It seems almost real.