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This digital guitar turns your iPhone into a music teacher [Deals]

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This combination of app and digital axe makes learning guitar extra portable.
This combination of app and digital axe makes learning guitar extra portable.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

It’s all too common to hear people say they wish they’d learned an instrument. Even when someone commits to learning guitar, the vast majority don’t stick with it. But we live in the digital age, and there are new ways to keep you engaged and learning.

Apple hypes good iPhone X reviews

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iPhoneX
Apple is clearly hoping for big things with the iPhone X.
Photo: Apple

Apple is following an unorthodox word-of-mouth marketing campaign for the iPhone X, and that has continued with a new press release issued by Apple — showing off the best review soundbites from the first reviews for its next-gen handset.

The press release is accompanied by a movie-style poster with quotes from outlets such as Mashable, TechCrunch, and others.

tvOS 11.2 fixes Apple TV 4K’s biggest problem

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Apple TV Siri Remote
Sound sync woes will be a thing of the past.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple TV 4K has a video output problem. It’s pretty serious when your main purpose is to output video. But after listening to user complaints, Apple has fixed the issue in tvOS 11.2, its next major software update.

High Court rejects objection to Apple’s Irish data center

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Politicians receive frightening threats about cancelled Apple data center
A mock up of Apple's proposed data center in Ireland.
Photo: Apple

Ireland’s High Court has rejected an appeal against Apple’s plans to build an 850 million euro ($960 million) data center in Athenry, County Galway. The rejection means that the project should finally, after much stalling, go ahead.

The appeal filed by several local residences objected to Apple’s plans due to their belief that it would have a negative impact on the environment. The judge said there was no basis for the objection being valid.

iPhone X price could hurt it in Greater China region

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iPhone sales
The iPhone X is even pricier in Greater China.
Illustration: Cult of Mac

Having experienced declining iPhone sales in the Asia Pacific region, Apple is confident that the iPhone X will help turn things around — although local retailers are still fearing the worst.

According to a new report, iPhone X pre-orders have exceeded one million units in China, representing more than 1/6 of the total 5.5 million+ units supposedly already demanded by customers. Those kind of brisk sales are good for Apple, but sources in the Taiwanese retail channels think that this kind of “phenomenal demand” could soon fade away.

Apple originally planned iPhone X for 2018

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iPhone X
Think you're having to wait to get an iPhone X? You could've been waiting even longer.
Photo: Apple

Does it seem strange that Apple would release two markedly different iPhone models, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus and the radically different iPhone X, in the same year? If so, a new interview with Apple executives may help explain it: it wasn’t Apple’s original plan.

According to Dan Riccio, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, the company originally planned to deliver the iPhone X in 2018, a full twelve months later than it wound up introducing it. However, “with a lot of hard work, talent, grit, and determination we were able to deliver them this year.”

Why Apple short-circuited the media machine for iPhone X reviews

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Apple's new strategy for iPhone X reviews blew up the system.
Apple's new strategy for iPhone X reviews blew up the system.
Photo: Gerd Altmann/Pixabay CC

Anybody who thinks Apple can’t innovate should look in awe at the fecal hurricane whipped up by the company’s unorthodox iPhone X marketing plan.

By giving popular YouTubers early access to the next-gen iPhone, and allowing them to “scoop” the old-school journalists traditionally granted such preferential treatment, Cupertino upended the typical review cycle.

Apple apparently bruised a few fragile egos in the process. Frankly, it’s hilarious watching the ensuing media meltdown.

watchOS 4.1 arrives with LTE Apple Music streaming

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Apple Watch Music
Grab the new watchOS update while it's hot.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple Watch Series 3 owners can now get all the features they were promised from Apple’s new wearable at launch, thanks to a new watchOS update that brings some big new additions.

After months of testing, watchOS 4.1 was released to the public this morning. The update adds a number of performance improvements and changes, including LTE streaming for Apple Music.

3 ways to recover deleted contacts on iPhone

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Wondershare dr.fone — iPhone Data Recovery
Lost iPhone contacts don't need to stay lost forever.
Image: Wondershare

This post is brought to you by Wondershare.

Losing iPhone contacts can be quite a nuisance. You have to collect contact details from all the important people in your life again. You can never recover some old contacts, and if you lose your business contacts that’s even worse.

However, if you’ve accidentally deleted your iPhone contacts, all hope isn’t lost. There are three convenient means of recovering deleted contacts on iPhone.

2018 iPhones won’t get rear-facing TrueDepth camera

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Face ID
These are the sensors that power Face ID.
Photo: Apple

The 2018 iPhone won’t come with a rear-facing TrueDepth camera, according to one of the most accurate Apple analysts in the business.

KGI Securities analyst Ming Chi-Kuo sent investors a note today that the array of sensors that power Face ID and animoji will stay at the front of iPhones, for now.

Apple’s latest acquisition could be game changer for iPhone camera

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sensor technology
An iPhone 6 shooting along side a camera modified with a Quantum Film Sensor in 2015.
Photo: InVisage/YouTube

Apple has reportedly bought a California startup that developed new image sensor technology that could boost the iPhone’s photo and video capability.

A news website that covers the digital imaging space reported on Apple acquisitions of InVisage, citing unnamed sources that said the deal was completed in July. Some former InVisage employees are already working in Cupertino, according to the report.

Nintendo disappointed with Super Mario Run profit

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Super Mario Run on iOS
200 million downloads haven't pulled in enough cash.
Photo: Apple

Super Mario Run was the hottest game on iOS for months after it hit the App Store. It has now been downloaded more than 200 million times on mobile, and yet, the title is yet to reach “an acceptable profit point,” Nintendo says.

That’s bad news for fans of Nintendo’s mobile games.

Apple denies it tried to put Touch ID in iPhone X

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Touch ID
Rumors claimed Apple was trying to embed Touch ID into the iPhone's display.
Photo: Apple

Apple has denied that it ever considered embedding its Touch ID sensor into the display for its iPhone X, before running into problems and adopting Face ID instead.

In an interview with  Dan Riccio, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, Riccio “flatly counters the narrative” that Apple ever considered using Touch ID for its tenth anniversary iPhone.

Leaked HomePod sounds are absolutely delightful

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Apple's new HomePod smart speaker is ready to rock your house.
HomePod will launch in December, but supplies will be constrained.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s latest firmware for the unreleased HomePod revealed a new set of sounds that the smart speaker will use to indicate various user interactions.

The new tones for the Siri-powered speaker sound different from the ones leaked in a previous firmware build. They also serve different purposes. While the sounds are simple, they are quite lovely — and worthy of a $350 speaker.

Take a listen:

No, Apple’s not building a massive archive of bra pictures

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bra
The internet is upset at one of Apple's machine learning applications.
Photo: Michael Summers/Flickr CC

Is Apple building up a massive centralized archive of bra pictures belonging to its female users? To invoke Betteridge’s law about attention-grabbing headlines that end with a question mark, no, it’s not.

The internet went crazy yesterday after a tweet from one internet user pointed out that typing “brassiere” into the Photos app search bar of her iPhone brought up what appeared to be a folder showing various images of her in a state of undress. As it turns out, though, that’s not exactly the case.

Cyberpunk meets horror in this addictive detective game

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Play the role of a neural detective in this genre-defining cyberpunk horror game.
Play the role of a neural detective in this genre-defining cyberpunk horror game.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

As reality gets weirder, our ideas about the future get weirder still. The cyberpunk genre deals with ideas about what would happen when humans became enmeshed with computer networks. Now that that’s happening, the genre is asking new questions, like, what if you could hack people’s fears?

How to use Reachability on the iPhone X

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iPhone X Reachability
Reachability is present on iPhone X.
Photo: Engadget

iPhone X’s 5.8-inch Super Retina HD display is the largest screen Apple has ever packed into a smartphone. That means using it with one hand could prove difficult. Fortunately, Reachability is still baked in — even without that physical Home button.

Here’s how you enable and use it.

Stylize Apple Watch with stainless steel stacking bracelets [Watch Store]

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rilee & lo
Rilee & Lo's gender-neutral Apple Watch bands fit like a glove.
Photo: Rilee & Lo

Fusing tech and fashion is the cornerstone of Rilee & Lo, designers of stylish stainless steel accessories for Apple Watch. We recently reviewed their beautiful Apple Watch bands, which proved to be a hit with readers.

Taking Rilee & Lo’s fashion ethos a step further, and at customer request, we’ve added something a little different to Cult of Mac’s Watch Store — stacking bracelets!

On trend this fall, stacking bracelets are everywhere — it’s not uncommon to see women with two, three and four bracelets adorning their wrists in different styles, textures and colors. Made from the same stainless steel as its gender-neutral Apple Watch bands, Rilee & Lo’s stacking bracelets are a comfortable, easy way to punctuate any outfit. Check them out in the Watch Store.

iPhone X’s Face ID can’t be fooled by identical twins

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Face ID iPhone X
Ensure Face ID is as fast as it can be.
Photo: UrAvgConsumer

Face ID on the iPhone X is so accurate, not even identical twins can fool it.

Reviewers now have their hands on the device ahead of its launch on Friday, which means we’re finding out new things about its awesome new features. Its Touch ID replacement isn’t perfect, it seems, but it’s darn impressive.