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Why Control Center no longer turns off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in iOS 11

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Bluetooth in iOS 11
In iOS 11, AirPods (and other Apple accessories) remain connected, even when you hit the Bluetooth "off" switch.
Photo: Cult of Mac

It used to be so simple: If you swiped open the iOS Control Center and tapped the Bluetooth icon, then Bluetooth would be toggled on or off. That was it, and the same went for Wi-Fi.

In iOS 11, tapping the same Bluetooth button doesn’t do that. Instead, the Control Center Bluetooth button disconnects your iPhone or iPad from connected Bluetooth accessories, leaving the actual Bluetooth radio on. What’s more, not all accessories get disconnected. Just what in the blazes is going on here?

Apple TV is finally back on Amazon

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Apple TV Siri Remote
You can buy the new Apple TV 4K from Amazon.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Amazon’s boycott on Apple TV sales appears to finally be over.

After removing Apple’s set-top box from its website in 2015, the online retail behemoth has given in and created a listing for the new Apple TV 4K this morning.

FDA fast-tracks Apple health products

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Apple Watch Series 2 will still make you stare at their wrists waiting for it to wake, when you should be watching where you are running
The FDA is easing up on digital health tools like Apple Watch.
Photo: Graham Bower / Cult of Mac

The Food and Drug Administration is making it easier for Apple and other tech companies to get health-related products out to the public faster.

Apple will be part of a new pilot program aimed at rapidly advancing the development of digital health applications. If the program works as intended, it could mean we’ll see new Apple Watch applications and other Apple-made health accessories a lot sooner.

Bill Gates ditches Windows Mobile, but not for iPhone 8

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Bill Gates Fox News
Gates revealed to Fox News he's now an Android user.
Photo: Fox News

Bill Gates just got himself a brand new smartphone, and it isn’t an iPhone 8.

The Microsoft co-founder has ditched Windows Mobile for Android. Despite getting closer to Steve Jobs before he died in 2011, Gates still has no interest in using iOS.

Apple’s quick iOS 11.0.1 release is here to kill some bugs

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iOS 11
The first iOS 11 update is here.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

iPhone and iPad users that upgraded to iOS 11 last week are already getting their first update even though Apple didn’t release any beta builds to developers yet.

The new iOS 11.0.1 update was pushed out to devices this morning exactly one week after the big release of iOS 11. It’s not clear if there are any major changes, but it looks like it may come with some important bug fixes.

Face ID sensor is latest pain point for iPhone X production

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Face ID
iPhone X production is no walk in the park for Apple.
Photo: Apple

If you wonder why you can’t get your hands on an iPhone X until well into 2018, you may have its facial recognition 3D sensor to blame, a new report claims.

Citing two executives working for iPhone X suppliers, the report states that the new sensor’s yield rate is failing to reach a satisfactory level. As a result, just “tens of thousands” of iPhone X handsets are currently being produced daily. For a handset that could have preorders of 40-50 million that’s not good!

iPhone 8’s pricier components nibble away at Apple’s margins

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What’s it like to have your startup bought by Apple? Stressful
Apple still makes a killing on its new handsets. But a bit less than before.
Photo illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Each iPhone 8 costs Apple approximately $288.08 to build, while iPhone 8 Plus handsets cost an estimated $295.44, according to a new breakdown by IHS Markit. On top of this, Apple pays around $7.36 in basic manufacturing costs per device.

The new handsets are slightly more expensive than Apple’s previous generation of iPhones, with the smaller iPhone 8 costing around $9.57 in components more than the iPhone 7 did upon release.

This thermal pouch works like a spacesuit for your iPhone [Deals]

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This space-age thermal pouch protects your iPhone from overheating
This space-age thermal pouch protects your iPhone from overheating
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

You don’t need to go to outer space to find damaging extremes of heat and cold. Just forgetting to cover your phone at the beach can fry it to the point where it goes into a coma, or worse. But just like people, a simple layer of thermal shielding can go a long way towards keeping our phones healthy.

Apple’s biggest spoilers: The devs who cracked the code on iPhone X

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Apple keynote spoiler, Steven Troughton-Smith.
One of the devs who helped crack Apple's code. Literally.
Steve Troughton Smith/Flickr

When Apple execs stepped onstage for September’s big iPhone X unveiling, they had precious few surprises up their sleeves. This year’s iPhone keynote became one of the most spoiled in history, thanks to major software leaks — and a pair of industrious young developers who dug into Apple’s code to pierce the veil of Apple’s vaunted secrecy apparatus.

Steven Troughton-Smith and Guilherme Rambo, who live thousands of miles apart in Ireland and Brazil, dutifully combed through the leaked code. Working separately but in parallel, they pieced together clues that allowed them to reverse-engineer Apple’s plans. Then they released their findings on Twitter, painting an incredibly accurate picture of the iPhone X in a drip-drip-drip of juicy, spoiler-filled tweets.

The end result? An Apple event upstaged by leaks, and by the hard work of two curious coders. Cult of Mac talked with Troughton-Smith and Rambo to find out how they uncovered some of Apple’s most closely kept secrets.

Apple TV 4K teardown reveals powerful new internals

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Apple TV
You don't even own an Apple TV 4K yet. These folks have already broken one.
Photo: iFixit

The new fifth-generation Apple TV 4K brings impressively sharp ultra HD video to Apple’s set-top box, but what changes has Apple made the internals of its latest Apple TV model?

To answer that question, our friends over at iFixit have carried out a complete teardown of the new device to find out what makes it tick. Or, in this case, quietly whir.

Foxconn chairman will visit site of company’s first U.S. factory next month

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iPhone sales drive Apple’s biggest supplier to big profits
One of Foxconn's many existing factories.
Photo: CBS

Apple supplier Foxconn’s chairman Terry Gou will reportedly visit Wisconsin, site of its first U.S. manufacturing facility, in early October to sign subsidy agreements with the local government.

Wisconsin has recently approved a package of subsidies that will help Foxconn establish manufacturing plants in the state. Ahead of Gou’s visit, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation will meet on September 28 to discuss the arrangement.

iPhone X battery size and RAM confirmed

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iphone x
iPhone X has a bigger battery than all its predecessors.
Photo: Apple

Details on the battery and RAM packed into iPhone X have been revealed ahead of its launch this November.

Apple has registered the device with Chinese regulator TENAA, and its filing confirms the specifics the company doesn’t normally share with the public.

Apple sold an incredible number of Watches over the past year

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apple watch 1
Apple Watch is now outselling Rolex.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

During Apple’s recent iPhone X keynote, CEO Tim Cook noted that Apple Watch has overtaken Rolex to become the biggest watchmaker in the world, although the company still refuses to reveal any actual sales numbers.

According to analysts at Asymco analyst Horace Dediu, Apple has likely sold around 15 million Watches in the past 12 months at an average price of around $330. Rolex, meanwhile, produces around 1 million watches a year, with average cost per watch being in the region of $4,700. Added up, that makes the Apple Watch revenue run rate $4.9 billion, compared to Rolex’s $4.7 billion.

Not bad for a device that’s been around only a couple of years, taking on a business that started in 1905!

iOS 11 lets you customize left and right AirPod double-tap shortcuts

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AirPods
iOS 11 brings independent left/right controls to AirPods.
Photo: Cult of Mac

iOS 11 is full of small tweaks that have a big impact. Today’s tip is one of those. In iOS 10, you can customize the double-tap shortcuts on your Apple AirPods to perform various actions — invoke Siri, or play/pause, for example. But the same shortcut would apply to both AirPods. In iOS 11, you can customize each AirPod independently. So, your left ear could be set to call Siri, and your right ear set to play and pause. That’s double the options, with just a software update!

How to upgrade to macOS High Sierra the right way

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Save $200 on a new iMac
Elevate your Mac to High Sierra.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s latest update for the Mac finally arrived today in the form of macOS High Sierra, bringing a host of improvements to Mac users. While the update doesn’t contain a ton of outward-facing changes, it’s definitely worth taking the time to upgrade if you want your Mac to be faster and more secure than ever.

Here’s how to do it.

Apple ditches Bing for Google on Siri and Spotlight

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Sorry, Alexa: Siri still the most widespread AI assistant
Siri is switching to Google.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple just gave Microsoft’s search engine Bing a huge blow today by replacing it with Google on iOS and macOS.

The company previously used Bing search results as the default when users made a search query via Siri on iPhones or from Spotlight on Macs. Bing will still be around in some capacity, but it appears that the company has given in and turned back to using Google.

Apple Park shines at sunset in latest drone video

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Apple PArk
Apple Park is nearly complete.
Photo: Matthew Roberts

Construction on Apple Park looks to be nearly complete just weeks after the company hosted its first major keynote at the Steve Jobs Theater.

In the latest drone video, crews can be seen putting the finishing touches on landscaping work all around the campus to make it perfect for the 12,000 employees that will move into the office complex by the end of 2017. Drone pilot Matthew Roberts even got some shots of the spaceship campus at sunset with the outer ring aglow.

Take a look:

macOS High Sierra is now available to the public

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macOS High Sierra
macOS High Sierra is ready for primetime.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The wait for macOS High Sierra is finally over.

Apple unleashed its huge update for the Mac this morning bringing a host of new features and UI changes to desktops after months of beta testing. Most of the update contains under-the-hood changes the makes machines faster and more stable, but there are plenty of new additions to love.

Dropbox is now baked into the iOS 11 Files App

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dropbox files
Dropbox is now just another folder on your iPad or iPhone.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Dropbox now shows up as a regular old folder in the new iOS 11 Files app. The latest update to the Dropbox iOS aa brings full integration with Files, making it work much more like it does on the Mac and PC. For instance, now you can drag a file from a Dropbox folder into an iCloud Drive folder, and it just works.

Apple Watch 3 reviews: LTE is big, but battery life suffers

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Apple Watch Series 3
Get yours for as little as $259.
Photo: Apple

Early reviews of the Apple Watch Series 3 are now dropping ahead of its official debut on Friday, September 22. If you’re still in two minds about whether you should upgrade, they should help you make that all-important decision.

The general consensus is that LTE is a great addition to Apple’s wearable lineup. Just don’t expect a drastically different experience, and prepare yourself for some early teething troubles.

iPhone X could rack up giant preorder numbers

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Apple could be a $2 trillion company by end of 2021
Apple's on track to make some serious bank!
Photo illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The iPhone X is Apple’s biggest handset refresh since 2014’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and respected KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo thinks that its highly anticipated status is set to make it a giant hit.

In a new note to investors, Kuo suggests that iPhone X preorders could exceed 40 million, and may even hit 50 million. If true, this would be a massive achievement for Apple, particularly given the high price of the handset, which some predicted would be a major strike against it.