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How to use iCloud Drive to free up storage on your Mac

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clouds
Clouds. Perfect for the storage of information.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Is your Mac stuffed fit to burst? Do you look at the Finder’s Status Bar, see “1GB available,” and then give up what you were doing and go check Twitter instead? What if I told you that you could offload much of the junk/important data on your Mac to iCloud, just like you do with your iCloud Photo Library? Well, you can, and it’s easy. It’s called Optimized Storage.

Family blames iPhone for house fire, wants Apple to pay

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iPhone fire
A Canadian couple says this iPhone sparked a blaze that destroyed their home.
Photo: Langley Township Fire Department

A Canadian farm couple is demanding Apple pay them $600,000 because a fire they claim was caused by an overheated iPhone destroyed their home.

Ian and Cathy Finley of Langley, British Columbia, say the October 2016 fire was sparked by a three-month-old iPhone 6 left charging on a leather living room chair. Local fire investigators found a charred handset and cord and believe the device “generated enough heat to ignite” the chair.

How to save $1 on every coffee you buy [Review]

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The Square Cash Card is changing the game with coffee discounts.
It's shockingly simple to save $1 on every coffee you buy.
Photo: Chevanon Photography/Pexels CC

Square Cash is the world’s best coffee loyalty program — and it’s time you knew about it.

The Square Cash Coffee Reward program has been the highlight of my last six months. You can either take that as an indictment of my quality of life, or a resounding recommendation for this coffee cash-back program.

Leaked Apple email hints at the possible end of iTunes

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iPod silhouette ad, part of the marketing campaign that boosted iTunes Music Store sales
iTunes LPs won't make it out of 2018. Is the rest of iTunes next?
Photo: Apple

Apple could kill off iTunes in the near future, a new report suggests.

It cites an email that Apple reportedly wrote to people in the music industry recently, announcing the “end of iTunes LPs.” The iTunes LP format was first introduced in 2009 and let publishers add interactive artwork, along with assorted iTunes Extras, with their content.

The LP format never achieved great popularity. However, the fact that Apple plans to ditch iTunes LPs in 2018 potentially hints at the possibility that Apple may stop selling iTunes music downloads in the near future.

Apple reseller forced to close after 11,000 fans turn up for sale

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Sale from hell
Store had 200 products to sell. 11,000 people turned up.
Photo: Switch

An Apple reseller in Malaysia had to temporarily close after 11,000 would-be customers turned up to buy a small selection of discounted iOS and Mac products.

The incident took place over the weekend after the Switch store announced that it was selling off its stock of demo products, including iPhone models 5s to 7, iPads, Apple TVs, MacBooks and more. These devices were discounted to as little as $25 and as much as $514. Unfortunately, it seems that someone underestimated demand.

iOS 11.3 beta 4 brings back ‘iBooks’ app

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iBooks
iBooks may not be ready for a big revamp.
Photo: Apple

The latest iOS 11.3 beta, rolled out to registered developers Monday, includes a small but significant change to one of Apple’s apps. “iBooks” has returned after briefly being renamed “Books.” The move could suggest a rumored revamp is currently on hold.

Here’s how much a new iPhone battery boosts performance

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iPhone
A battery replacement can make a big difference.
Photo: Apple

Want to know how much difference replacing the battery in an old iPhone makes to the overall speed of the handset? A new video posted online by Bennett Sorbo compares an iPhone 6s with depleted battery against one with a fresh battery.

The two iPhones are then put head to head as they run through a variety of CPU-intensive tasks, including opening apps, using the internet, playing games and videos, and more. Check out the video below.

Chinese woman locked out of iPhone for 47 years

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iPhone China locked
Not a message you want to see on your iPhone.
Photo: Kankanews

Do you want to continue being able to unlock your iPhone in a timely manner? Then maybe don’t leave a 2-year-old child playing with your handset.

That’s the lesson learned by a mom who ended up locked out of her iPhone for 47.5 years because her son entered the passcode incorrectly enough times.

Apple’s brilliant new HomePod ad brings the Spike Jonze magic

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2019 Creative Marketer of the Year
Spike Jonze is the perfect fit for Apple.
Photo: Apple

Spike Jonze’s surreal new short film about the HomePod is likely to go down as one of the year’s best Apple ads.

The Oscar-winning director’s four-minute creation is unabashedly joyful, which is a feeling that sometimes can get lost in all the Apple minimalism. Check out Jonze’s playful and creative HomePod ad below.

Pro Tip: How to add blank spaces to your iPhone home screen grid

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blank icon
A blank row helps organize your home screen.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Pro Tip Cult of Mac bug Some of the most creative iPhone home screen designs we’ve ever seen use blank gaps to separate icons into groups or to create interesting stepped patterns. But how is that even possible? After all, if you delete a home screen icon, the others close ranks to fill in the space.

The answer is to add blank icons to create those gaps. Then, you can add a blank row to organize your iPhone home screen, or move all your apps the the bottom of the screen instead of the top.

Google iOS app adds features Apple fans will love

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The Google iOS app adds drag-and-drop.
The Google app adds drag-and-drop.
Photo: Google

The Google iOS app just added an iMessage extension that lets users conduct searches without leaving Apple’s chat app. Google also added a couple other features that should make life easier for Apple fans: a Safari plugin that serves up related content, and iPad drag-and-drop support.

How to control any app or website with your Mac’s media keys

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BeardedSpice
Take back control of your Mac's media keys with BeardedSpice.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Did you ever hit your macBook’s play/pause key to pause that YouTube video, only to have iTunes launch instead, and start playing that embarrassing tune from your last home workout session? Then you may be interested in a way to have your media keys control the site or app you want to control, instead of the app that Apple decides it will control. Luckily, there’s an app for that, called BeardedSpice.

Why iPhone X fails to win some Apple loyalists

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iphone x
The iPhone X is the new Apple flagship. But some like their old iPhones just fine.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

A Piper Jaffray survey of iPhone users who did not upgrade to the iPhone X came to a predictable conclusion: Most were satisfied with the performance of their current model and many find the X too expensive.

However, the financial services firm predicts Apple will coax some upgrades out of these users with a line of new iPhone models this fall, one of which is expected to be more affordable.

iPad magician wows Oscars crowd

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Simon Pierro
The iPad magician liked this woman's outfit, so he gave her an Oscar out of his iPad.
Photo: Simon Pierro/YouTube

Simon Pierro presented an Oscar for a new category: best reaction to a magician pulling an actual golden statuette from an iPad.

Pierro, who travels the world as the iPad magician, capitalized on the buzz leading up to Sunday’s Academy Awards by strolling the Walk of Fame performing tricks for dumbfounded onlookers.

Here’s what Rome: Total War looks like on iPhone

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Rome: Total War
Coming soon to an iPhone near you.
Photo: Rome: Total War

The classic PC strategy game Rome: Total War is coming to iPhone, and we couldn’t be more excited. The bad news? Developers Feral Interactive have announced that it is taking them a bit longer than expected. The good news? They’ve shared a gameplay video to keep us sweet, and it looks pretty darn awesome.

Check it out below.

This awesome iPhone case doubles as a retro gaming console [Deals]

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Turn your iPhone into a game machine.
Turn your iPhone into a game machine.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

There was a time when the little glowing bricks we carried around were called Game Boys. In those simpler days, passing time meant burning through Tetris, not swiping through Tinder. The graphics weren’t great, but the gameplay sure was.

With the Wanle Gamers Console, you can reclaim the nostalgia of portable gaming, and protect your iPhone at the same time.

Apple isn’t taking its power management chips in-house just yet

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chips
Apple's relationship with Dialog Semiconductor will continue for now.
Photo: Intel

Apple’s apparently not ready to produce its own power management chips, based on the fact that it has commissioned the design of new chips from partner Dialog Semiconductor, a new report claims.

That’s significant because a report from last year suggested that Apple planned to use its own chips starting 2018 or 2019. Instead, today’s news claims that Apple will continue using Dialog chips through 2019 or 2020.

European Union could charge Apple tax based on its global revenue

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Apple waives developer fees for nonprofits, others in 8 additional countries
The EU is looking for a way to clamp down on tax avoidance.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple is among the tech giants which could be affected by a new European Union initiative that aims to tax tech multinationals at between 2 to 6 percent of their global revenue.

News of the massive potential tax shift was shared by French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire in a newspaper interview. Le Maire said that the total amount is likely to be “closer to 2 percent than 6 percent,” and will be announced in the coming weeks.