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Achievements Unlocked: Pedometer++ now gives awards

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pedometer 3 achievements
Health, energy, and a long life are no longer the sole rewards for taking a walk.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Pedometer++, from developer Underscore David Smith, is everyone’s favorite step-counting iPhone app. It’s simple, it is accurate, and it just works. Now, in version 3.0, the four-year old app gets a neat new Today widget, and — brace yourself — Achievements.

Tap into iOS 11’s one-handed keyboard for easier typing

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iOS 11's one-handed keyboard
iOS 11's one-handed keyboard makes typing easier while you sip a coffee with the other hand.
Photo: Cult of Mac

The plus-sized iPhones might be a great fit for media consumption, but the large screen makes one-hand typing inconvenient. It can be a pain to type on your iPhone with one hand while sipping coffee with the other.

Thankfully, iOS 11’s keyboard includes a one-handed mode that shrinks the size of the keyboard, thus making it easier to type with one hand. Here’s how to enable and use iOS 11’s one-handed keyboard.

How to stop your iCloud and Apple ID getting hacked

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don't get hacked
A good password is just the start of good security.
Photo: 1Password

If you have a lame password, then your iCloud account will eventually get hacked. You might not think a hacker is interested in you, but you’re wrong. The good news is that there are several easy steps you can take to lock your Apple ID down and make it safe.

If you don’t think it’s important, consider this: Your photos, your email, all your browsing history, your credit card information, all of the files you have in iCloud, your contacts, notes, calendars, and all your personal messages will all be open to anyone that hacks your account. Not only that, but you can then be impersonated on social media, so that all your other accounts can be hacked too.

Apple joins last-ditch bid for Toshiba’s chip division

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Toshiba
Toshiba is ready to go public.
Photo: Toshiba

Acquiring Toshiba’s chip-making business could still be in play for Apple after all, even though the company’s previous attempts to secure the coveted division with Foxconn fell through.

According to a new report, Apple is part of a “last-ditch” bid to acquire Toshiba’s chip-making ability along with Bain Capital and a few other players. If successful, the acquisition could give Apple a serious weapon in its battle with Samsung for smartphone supremacy.

This fake iPhone looks so good it almost fooled the experts

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From the back, the fake iPhone looks just like the real thing. (The fake phone is on the right.)
From the back, the fake iPhone looks just like the real thing. (The fake phone is on the right.)
Photo: Gabe Trumbo/MyPhones Unlimited

This fake iPhone looks so impressive that it fooled us for a hot minute. A rose gold iPhone 7 Plus clone, it shines just like the real thing. At first glance, it seems to deliver everything you would expect from a real iPhone: Lightning port, dual rear cameras, even a touch-ready Home button.

In short, this is the highest-quality iPhone clone we’ve ever seen. It’s a surprising indicator of just how good Chinese manufacturers are getting at reproducing Apple products. And it’s also a cautionary tale for anybody looking to buy a used iPhone.

Rescue your data from a dysfunctional hard drive [Deals]

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Data Rescue 4
This award-winning data recovery software can make sure you keep your most important files.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Every hard drive is like a time bomb of inconvenience, just waiting to go off. If you’ve backed up your Mac’s drive onto an external drive, that’s good. But if you’ve been using computers long enough, you know that the day may come when both go kaput.

Augmented reality Walking Dead game brings zombies into our world

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Walking Dead
A version of Pokémon GO for the grown-ups? Yes please!
Photo: Walking Dead: Our World

AR has a bunch of real-world uses that will help make our lives easier. Sometimes, though, you just want to use cutting edge technology to blow away a few brain-hungry zombies.

That’s a noble goal that upcoming iOS game The Walking Dead: Our World is more than willing to make a reality. Well, an augmented reality, at least.

Check out the super atmospheric trailer below.

New Carpool Karaoke ads show off the most oddball pairing yet

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Carpool Karaoke
Carpool Karaoke's best combination yet?
Photo: Apple

Apple has released two new trailers showing a preview of next week’s episodes of Carpool Karaoke: The Series.

One ad shows the pairing of Michael Strahan and Jeff Gordon as they sing songs like the 1980s classic “Physical” by Olivia Newton-John. The other depicts what may be the most fun oddball pairing so far as Shaquille O’Neal goes on a drive with one of WWE’s most popular wrestlers — and his name is John Cena.

Check out the ads below.

Without a Home button, here’s how the new iPhone 8 UI will work

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iPhone color
iPhone 8 will feature Apple's biggest redesign in years.
Photo: Ben Miller

It’s no secret that Apple is planning to ditch its Home button for the next-gen iPhone 8, but with the exception of how Touch ID will be replaced by facial recognition, very few details have been circulated about how the move will impact the iPhone UI.

A new report may change that, however, by revealing how the removal and replacement of the Home button, which has existed on every iPhone since 2007, will actually work.

Apple just won an Emmy award… for Siri?

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FireWire lands Apple its first Emmy.
This is Apple's third Emmy award.
Photo: The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences/Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s original TV show efforts haven’t exactly set the world on fire, but that didn’t stop the company from being honored with an Emmy award this week.

Apple was among the tech companies who received technical Emmy awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, alongside Microsoft, YouTube, and others.

Skateboard scooters, smart wallets, and more [Crowdfund Roundup]

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Scooterboard
The skateboard that's also a scooter.
Photo: Scooterboard

Crowdfund Roundup bugThe skateboarding experience doesn’t have to come with grazed knees and broken teeth. With Scooterboard, you get the same ride with the stability of a scooter — and a built-in motor that means you don’t have to do all the work.

It’s just one of the awesome ideas in this week’s Crowdfund Roundup. We also have the world’s most powerful smart wallet, a dongle that turns your iPad into a wireless secondary display for your Mac, and more!

Feed Hawk hunts down YouTube channel RSS feeds for you

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feed hawk
Feed Hawk makes subscribing to your favorite sites super easy.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Are you still using RSS? If you are (and you should be, as we’ll see in a moment), then you should use the Feed Hawk app on your iPhone and iPad. Feed Hawk puts itself in your iOS Share Sheet and locates the RSS feed(s) from any website you visit. If you want, it can automatically subscribe you to the RSS feed in your RSS reader of choice.

The latest version of Feed Hawk can even find feeds for YouTube channels. That, in case you’re wondering, is huge.

Apple’s September 12 keynote is all but confirmed

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Tim Cook
Tim Cook and Co. are ready to take the wraps off the next great iPhone.
Photo: Apple

It’s looking increasingly likely that Apple’s next big iPhone unveiling will happen on September 12.

Following a rumor last week that circled the second Tuesday of September as the date for the big iPhone 8 keynote, two more reports from reliable sources have practically confirmed that the next Apple smartphone will be revealed in just two weeks.

How to defeat Google AMP with 3D Touch on iPhone

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google amp iphone
Google AMP is bad for the web, and Apple is fixing it so you don't have to.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Google’s web-hostile AMP scheme makes copies of web pages, shrinks them, and serves them instead of the original when you click on a Google search result. It renders your content in non-standard HTML, and removes the original link to the article’s source. Whenever you share the page you’re reading, it forces you to share a the Google AMP URL instead of the original.

Unless you’re using an iPhone, that is. In iOS 11, Mobile Safari strips AMP from any links you share. And iPhones running iOS 10 will load the non-AMP version (i.e. the original version) of a page if you press a link with 3D Touch.

Samsung’s next stab at Apple Watch lands Wednesday

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Samsung Gear S3
Samsung's fight against Apple Watch won't end.
Photo: Samsung

Samsung will take a new stab at Apple Watch on Wednesday.

The South Korean company has scheduled an event in Berlin on August 30, where it will unwrap a brand new wearable. A teaser animation posted on Twitter backs up recent rumors that have claimed health and fitness will be its primary focus.

Leaked iPhone 7s dimensions are bad news for your wallet

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iPhone 7s dimensions
iPhone 7s is taller, wider, and thicker than iPhone 7.
Photo: TechnoBuffalo

iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus might be more affordable than the swankier iPhone 8, but it certainly won’t be cheap upgrades. If you were hoping to hold onto all the accessories you have already purchased for iPhone 7, you can think again.

Leaked schematics for both devices suggest all your existing cases might not fit.

Grab these top iPhone accessories for less than $20 [Deals]

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collage-2017-08-22 (1)
From rugged mobile mounts to keychain Lightning chargers, these are some of the top iPhone accessories for under $20.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

iPhones are great, but to get the most out of them you’ve got to have the right accessories. But when you’ve already dropped coin for a new phone, it’s hard to think about shelling out even more cash. So we’ve rounded up some of the best iPhone peripherals you can get for under 20 bucks. That includes a tough but flexible mini tripod, and a set of keychain-sized Lightning cables. Plus, we have a set of premium Bluetooth earbuds, and a device to turn any iPhone into a universal remote. Read on for more details:

Amazon matches Apple Music on subscription fees for students

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Amazon Music
Amazon's music service has competed with Apple since day one.
Photo: Amazon

If you’re a student in the U.S., you can now get Amazon’s Music Unlimited service for the same subscription price as Apple Music — thanks to Amazon slicing its fees.

Students who aren’t subscribed to Amazon Prime can get Amazon Music Unlimited for $4.99, the same amount that Apple charges. For Prime subscribing students, a six month subscription meanwhile costs just $6!

Apple wants to sell 4K iTunes movies for $20

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Apple wants a deal with studio execs to bring high-priced movie rentals to iTunes within days of release.
iTunes movies could soon look a whole lot sharper.
Photo: William Iven/UnSplash

4K video is likely to be the big update for this year’s Apple TV, and to mark the occasion Apple has been trying to finalize deals with movie studios to begin offering 4K movies to accompany it.

The only problem? According to a new report, both parties are struggling to meet when it comes to pricing.

Apple’s not giving up on button-free Touch ID just yet

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Touch ID
Apple's new patent involves acoustic-based Touch ID.
Photo: Apple

Apple may have ditched plans to embed Touch ID sensors in iPhone displays in favor of facial recognition, but that doesn’t mean it’s no longer interested in improving its fingerprint sensing capabilities.

In a newly-granted patent, Apple describes a type of acoustic-based fingerprint imaging technology that could replace the current Touch ID Home button with special ultrasonic transducers under the display of its devices.

Tim Cook says Apple has ‘moral responsibility’ to U.S. economy

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Tim Cook
Oh, and he won't be running for office any time soon!
Photo: Apple

Tim Cook says Apple bears a “moral responsibility” to help grow the U.S. economy. And he harbors no current plans to run for president of the United States.

Those are two takeaways from an interview Cook gave to The New York Times as part of his trip to Austin, Texas, where he laid out plans to expand Apple’s Swift curriculum to new community colleges.