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Qualcomm CEO says war with Apple will end if the money is right

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Qualcomm patents
An end is in sight. Or at least it could be.
Photo: Qualcomm

Speaking on stage at the Wall Street Journal’s D.Live tech conference, Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf said that he thinks that the company’s feud with Apple can be resolved — so long as the right fee is negotiated.

“At the end, the important thing to remember is this is fundamentally a discussion about pricing over the fundamental technology that makes the phone the phone,” Mollenkopf said. “It comes down to, how much are you going to pay?”

Smart speakers could invade homes faster than any other gadget

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Apple's new HomePod smart speaker is ready to rock your house.
Smart speakers could be fastest consumer device ever to hit 50 percent adoption.
Photo: Apple

Smart speakers like the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and forthcoming Apple HomePod could become the fastest consumer device in history to hit 50 percent adoption levels, claims Activate CEO Michael J. Wolf.

For those keeping track at home, that’s faster than smartphones, television, cars, the internet, and personal computers.

How to quickly trim video on Mac and iOS

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How to quickly trim videos on Mac and iOS
Editing your video clips will make them way less boring.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

The secret of a good movie is in the editing. Well, the script, the lightning, the directing, the photography and the acting are all important, but for home movies, you have little control over those.

So it’s down to the edit. And the most basic of edits is to lop the ends off a clip, to trim video and make it shorter. Watching excessively long clips is the equivalent of a conversation with someone who can’t ever get to the point. “Let me tell you about that time I fell out of the plane. It was a Tuesday. No, I think it was Wednesday. Wait, it must have been a Tuesday because …”

It’s painful. So, do yourself a favor and trim your video clips. Even if you’re not planning on combining your edits into a short movie, you should at least remove the cruft from anything you’re going to show. The good news is that it’s dead easy to trim video on Mac and iOS.

AI powers this bike light to make cycling safer

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See.Sense Ace bike light
Ace is the ultimate bike light.
Photo: See.Sense

When you’re out on your bike, you need to be as visible as possible — especially at night. See.Sense ACE is a bike light that uses artificial intelligence that reacts to every moment of your journey, making cycling safer and simpler.

The light improves visibility when you need it most, and ensures you’re seen on the road. It also connects to your smartphone to provide things like theft alerts and cycling stats.

Microsoft’s Surface Book 2 is ready to take on the MacBook Pro

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Microsoft Surface Book
The Microsoft Surface Book 2.
Photo: Microsoft

The MacBook Pro is about to face some tough competition from Microsoft’s newest laptop/tablet hybrid that was just revealed today.

Microsoft’s new Surface Book 2 computers are being billed as the most powerful laptops to come from Microsoft. The company even says they’re twice as powerful as the latest MacBook Pro.

iPhone X will drive a worldwide spike in smartphone sales

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iPhone X keynote
iPhone X is going to have a big impact on worldwide device sales.
Photo: Apple

The expected success of the iPhone X could help drive worldwide device shipments — comprising smartphones, tablets, and PCs — to their highest level of growth since 2015, a new report claims.

Figures released by data analysis firm Gartner suggests that total device shipments are predicted to exceed 2.35 billion units in 2018, an increase of 2 percent from this year. The firm notes that the iPhone X is likely to be a big sales driver in the United States, China and Western Europe, despite its $1,000+ price.

These apps will give your Mac a productivity boost [Deals]

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This bundle of Mac apps adds new ways to work with video, WiFi, PDFs, and more.
This bundle of Mac apps adds new ways to work with video, WiFi, PDFs, and more.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Feel like giving your Mac a new dose of productivity potential? This roundup of apps should do the trick. Included are apps for downloading HD video from the web, and a powerful pair of video conversion apps. Plus, there’s a tool for mapping and optimizing Wi-Fi coverage, and a tool for making any boring PDF into delightful digital magazines. Even better, you’ll get 20 percent off any of these deals when you use the coupon code ‘SOFTWARE20’ at checkout. Read on for more details:

Sci-fi puzzler Returner 77 lands on iOS this week

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games
A treat for the brain and the eyes alike.
Photo: Returner 77

I’m a big sucker for iOS puzzle games, and I love beautiful, sweeping sci-fi games which show off the graphical capabilities of the iPhone and iPad by creating otherworldly space vistas to explore.

Imagine my excitement then at the upcoming Returner 77, an intriguing blend of both genres which will be arriving in the App Store this week. Check out the stunning trailer below.

Google forced to remove new iPhone feature following outrage

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Google Maps calorie count
A calorie count is useful to some, but offensive to others.
Photo: BuzzFeed

Google added a neat new feature to Maps on iPhone this week — then pulled it in under 24 hours following user outrage.

It was seemingly designed to encourage users to walk more frequently by showing how many calories they could burn on their route. But many feel the feature was shameful and judgmental, and a negative trigger for those who suffer from an eating disorder.

Apple’s massive health push could mean its own medical clinics

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apple store
An Apple store-style health clinic, anyone?
Photo: Apple

As part of its push into mobile health, Apple was reportedly in “deep talks” to buy Crossover Health, a health clinic company, which has offered employee healthcare to tech companies including Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and others.

The acquisition would have put Apple in charge of a string of health clinics, which it could potentially have run like healthcare versions of the Apple store. However, despite stretching on for months, no deal ultimately materialized.

iPhone X component suppliers beat teething troubles

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iphone x
Supply should meet demand early next year.
Photo: Apple

After running into multiple problems building its next-gen iPhone X, Apple’s suppliers have reportedly achieved more stable yield rates for troublesome components.

As we noted yesterday, the first batch of iPhone X handsets has now been shipped out, and further shipments of the device are expected to “grow substantially” after October, according to sources in Apple’s supply chain.

Greenpeace says Apple is almost top of the class, but could do better

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Green
Apple is (almost) leading the pack.
Photo: Greenpeace

Greenpeace has praised Apple’s energy initiatives in its new Guide to Greener Electronics report, although it notes that there is still work to be done in other areas.

Drilling down, Greenpeace awards Apple A- on its efforts involving sustainable energy, a B for its use of hazardous chemicals, and a C for resource consumption. Overall, the environmental non-profit awards Apple a B- for its efforts in this area, which is considerably higher than tech rivals Microsoft (C-), Sony (D+), Google (D+), Samsung (D-), and Amazon (F) — although lower than Fairphone (A).

Apple explains how it tried to prevent Face ID from being racist

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FaceID
The iPhone X's FaceID feature looks impressive.
Photo: Apple

Apple says it has done extensive testing to ensure that Face ID treats everyone equally when the feature launches next month with the iPhone X.

Face ID has attracted a slew of security questions from the public wondering how Apple plans to keep biometric data private. U.S. Sen. Al Franken also asked what Apple is doing to protect against racial, gender or age bias in Face ID.

Apple finally responded to the senator’s question, providing a deeper look into the testing process.

Tim Cook geeks out on AR during Oxford demo

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iPhone 8 Plus
Augmented Reality on the iPhone 8 Plus is a taste of the future.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple CEO Tim Cook is a full-on geek when it comes to augmented reality.

Cook has raved about AR’s potential in a number of interviews the last year, but according to a PhD student at the University of Oxford, Tim actually has a great understanding of the technology. In a story shared on Reddit, the student reveals how Tim Cook dug deep into the details of the tech during a recent demo.

How to add quick keyboard shortcuts for emojis on Mac and iOS

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emoji text replacements
Adding shortcuts for your favorite Emoji is easy.
Photo: Cult of Mac

If you use emojis, the iOS keyboard is fantastic. It suggests emojis for you as you type words, and you can insert them into your messages with a tap. But what about the Mac? How can you add emojis with the keyboard on the desktop? And how can you force iOS to remember shortcuts for your favorite emoji on the iPhone and iPad? The answer to both is Text Replacement, which is built into both macOS and iOS.

This leather case is a perfect fit for iPhone X

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Your iPhone X deserves a super-slim leather case.
Your iPhone X deserves a super-slim leather case.
Photo: Totallee

This post is presented by Totallee.

iPhone X isn’t just a replacement for your old phone. It’s an attempt to dramatically expand the ways we use our personal devices, bringing augmented reality, facial recognition, wireless charging and more. Buying one is an investment in the future of mobile computing. But at more than $1,000 a pop, it’s a very expensive gadget — and it needs protection.

There’s a serious security flaw in Wi-Fi and we’re all at risk

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KRACK Wi-Fi attack
Beware the KRACK attack.
Photo: Mathy Vanhoef

A major security flaw has been discovered in Wi-Fi and we’re all at risk.

Researchers discovered the weakness in WPA2, the protocol that secures all modern Wi-Fi networks. Any modern device with a wireless connection could be open to a KRACK attack that would expose information like credit card numbers, passwords, messages and more.

Apple plans to appeal $439.7 million loss to patent troll

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FaceTime
VirnetX strikes again!
Photo: Apple

Apple has been ordered to pay a patent troll $439.7 million after losing the final ruling in the case being heard by the US District Court.

The legal battle between Apple and VirnetX is far from over though the company says. Even though it lost the ruling related to patented technology used in FaceTime, Apple says it plans to appeal the court’s ruling.

How to use external storage with Files app on iPad or iPhone

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FileBrowser toshiba flashair
You can even browse wireless SD cards from Files app.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Did you ever hold your iPhone in one hand, and a USB hard drive in the other, and look back and forth between them, muttering “Why, oh why?” Well, today we have good news for you. You still can’t hook them together with a wire, but with one app you can browse all kinds of external storage devices right from iOS’s Files app.

Hard drive hooked up to your Time Capsule? Check. USB storage connected to your fancy router? Check. Home network storage devices that work great but have really hideous iOS apps to access them? Check. With this tip, you can put any of these in your Files app’s sidebar using the excellent FileBrowser app. You might not be able to plug a USB-C drive into your 2018 iPad Pro, but until Apple relents on that score, this is the next best thing.