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Don’t forget, pre-orders for iPhone 8, Apple Watch and Apple TV 4K start tonight

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iphone 8
The iPhone 8 is nearly here!
Photo: Apple

Pre-orders of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, Apple TV 4K and Apple Watch Series 3 are all set to open tonight at 12:01 a.m. Pacific.

Apple’s made a ton of improvements to the pre-order process over the years, but the past few years have taught these things can sell out quickly. Taking an extra few minutes to get your pre-order in could cause your shipment to be delayed.

Demand for the new iPhone 8 may not be as huge as in year’s past, but we’ve compiled a quick guide to help you get the iPhone you want and get back to sleep before Apple’s servers get crushed.

Here’s what to do:

This magical car mount wirelessly charges iPhone X

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Scoshe
The Scoshe MagicMount Charge works with iPhone X and Android.
Photo: Scoshe

The wireless future Apple is embracing is starting to look absolutely magical. And very convenient.

iPhone X and iPhone 8 owners that want to mount their device on the dashboard of their car won’t have to deal with a mess of wires and dongles to charge and listen to music at the same time, thanks to a brilliant new mount from Scosche.

This neat app finally brings site icons to Safari tabs

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Faviconographer in action
Favicons make your tabs easier to spot.
Photo: Cult of Mac

One of Google Chrome’s best features is its use of favicons in tabs. Take a look at a crowded Chrome window and you’ll see each tiny tab has a colorful, easy-to-identify icon in it. Look at the same window in Safari and you get a mess of tabs with a few letters of the page title peeking out at you. It’s almost impossible to tell one site from another. That’s where Daniel Alm’s Faviconographer comes in. It’s an app with one purpose: to draw favicon onto Safari tabs.

iPhone X’s Face ID will only recognize one person

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Face ID
An extra layer of protection for your messages.
Photo: Apple

Only you will be able to unlock your iPhone X using Face ID.

When the new biometric security features makes its debut this November, it will support just one user, Apple has confirmed. If anyone else uses your device, they’ll have to enter the passcode.

Drive Genius adds Mac antivirus to its arsenal

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DriveGenius
The latest version of Drive Genius adds virus and malware protection, making it even more useful.
Photo: Prosoft

This post is brought to you by Prosoft Engineering, maker of Drive Genius 5.

If you’re serious about taking care of your Mac, you probably use a variety of third-party applications. From VPNs to defragging, managing backups to scanning for viruses, it takes a village of apps to keep Macs at their best.

The pros and cons of wireless charging

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wireless charging mat iPhone x
Why do you do this to us, Apple?
Photo: Apple

The new iPhone 8 and iPhone X support “wireless” charging. That is, you can toss them onto a charging mat instead of plugging in a Lightning cable. Obviously this is more convenient when you’re at home — you can put a pad on your nightstand, desk or hallway table.

But there are other advantages to iPhone wireless charging that aren’t so obvious. And there is also one big disadvantage — one that has the potential to cause major damage to the Earth.

How to find your custom ringtones after iTunes dumped them

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custom ringtones itunes
This is a screenshot of the original iTunes, on an iPad.
Photo: Cult of Mac

The latest version of iTunes — 12.7 — removes the App Store. That’s bad news for folks who like to keep backups of old iOS apps around, but good news for people who have bloat and clutter. But the update also removes all your custom ringtones, so you can’t manage them from your Mac.

Don’t despair. You can still download purchased ringtones, and copy your own tones across from the Mac. It’s just not obvious how to do it any more.

Speck rolls out ‘toughest ever’ cases for new iPhones

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iPhone cases
Speck offers a range of colors, textures and patterns on its cases for iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X.
Photo: Speck

Pricey iPhones need good protective cases and Speck has introduced a line of cases for the newest iPhones the company says is its toughest ever.

The Presidio ULTRA cases for iPhone 8, 8 Plus and the thousand dollar iPhone X, features four layers of protection Speck says passed a drop test from a height of 15 feet.

International Apple Watch 3 won’t work with U.S. carriers

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apple watch
Don't buy a new Apple Watch on vacation.
Photo: Apple

If you want your Apple Watch Series 3 to work properly in the U.S., don’t buy it when you’re on vacation abroad.

Units purchased in other countries won’t connect to LTE networks in the U.S., and vice versa. That means you won’t be able to roam with your Apple Watch in the same way you can with your iPhone.

Innovative photo backpack is two bags in one

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camera backpacks
The Roamer, the Scout and the Runner make up the Hadley Series by Brevitē.
Photo: Brevitē

Photographers gripe about the ugliness of camera backpacks and a number of startups have cropped up on Kickstarter with designs that remove the bulk, improve functionality and give the genre a much-needed facelift.

Brevitē, pronounced like the word that means concession, had such a successful run with its first camera backpack in 2015, it immediately designed two more.

Now the Boston-based company started by three brothers is crowd funding to bring its most recent line to market. The Hadley Series appears to refine the minimalist design philosophy that motivates Brevitē.

Apple Watch Series 2 has been discontinued

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Apple-Watch-Series-2
You can still buy it from third-party retailers... for now.
Photo: Apple

Apple has discontinued Apple Watch Series 2 following the unveiling of its successor earlier this week. Series 1 models are still available, and will be sticking around for the foreseeable future as a more affordable alternative to Series 3.

iPhone X is going to be very hard to find around launch time

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iPhone X
The iPhone X could be X-tremely rare upon launch.
Photo: Apple

As virtually everyone predicted, the iPhone X was the undisputed star coming out of this week’s Apple media event — but don’t expect them to be in ready supply immediately following release.

According to a new report, the later shipping date of the tenth anniversary iPhone X is linked to production problems, and suggests possible supply constraints in the months ahead. In other words, if you want to get your hands on an iPhone X, you’ll need to be exceptionally quick off the mark when pre-orders open.

Craig Federighi’s apparent Face ID fail is nothing to worry about

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Want Face ID jokes? Twitter's got a million of them.
We guess this was the 1 in a million error. (Yes, we know that's not what this refers to!)
Screenshot: Apple

Apple technology “just works.” Except for when it doesn’t — as the world was reminded during this week’s iPhone X event when software boss Craig Federighi was unable to get Face ID to work on stage the first couple of times he tried it in front of the world.

Except, according to Apple, that’s not what happened at all. To paraphrase Apple’s late CEO Steve Jobs, we’re watching it wrong.

Jaybird Run wireless earbuds give runners an AirPods alternative

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With its new Run headphones, Jaybird finally cuts the cord entirely.
With its new Run headphones, Jaybird finally cuts the cord entirely.
Photo: Jaybird

Sports-centric wireless headphone maker Jaybird is ready to make a run at AirPods.

The company just fired the starting gun for Jaybird Run, a set of totally wireless earbuds aimed at runners and other sports fanatics. They’re bigger than AirPods, and differ in significant ways. But for runners and other athletes, they could offer keen competition for Cupertino’s wireless earbuds.

Sen. Al Franken wants Apple to be more transparent about Face ID

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Face ID
Face ID is raising questions from one U.S. senator.
Photo: Apple

Apple may claim that Face ID is its most secure biometrics system yet, but Sen. Al Franken wants the proof.

In a letter to Apple sent Wednesday, the Minnesota Democrat raised questions about whether Apple might use the faceprints it gathers to “benefit other sectors of its business, sell it to third parties for surveillance purposes, or receive law enforcement requests to access it facial recognition system — eventual uses that may not be contemplated by Apple customers.”

Poll results: No one wants the iPhone 8

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latest iPhones
More iPhone buyers selected a newer phone, like the iPhone 8, than when the iPhone 7 line was new.
Photo: Apple

The iPhone 8 is one of the most gorgeous smartphones ever created. And absolutely no one is planning to buy it.

Cult of Mac polled our readers after yesterday’s keynote at the Steve Jobs Theater to gauge interest in iPhone X and its two ugly step-siblings. Over 5,400 potential iPhone buyers responded and it looks like the iPhone X is going to be a mega-hit while iPhone 8 sales may suffer.

Here are the results:

Face ID logo resurrects a classic Macintosh icon

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

For a company that insists it doesn’t like to look to the past, Apple’s new Face ID logo will certainly feel familiar to longtime Mac users.

Apple debuted the new logo during its iPhone X keynote yesterday to show off the phones facial scanning features. It features a simple smiling face that looks three dimensional, but it’s actually just a repurposed version of the classic Happy Mac icon originally created by Susan Kare for the original Macintosh.

Check out the similarities:

Apple silently raises iPad Pro prices

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ipad pro
No one can topple the iPad.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The iPhone isn’t the only Apple product lineup that got a lot more expensive this week.

While Apple fans were busy ogling at all the specs and prices on the new iPhone X and iPhones 8 after yesterday’s keynote, Apple made a quiet adjustment to the price tags on all of its iPad Pros but hasn’t publicly stated the reason for the increase.

These could be the thinnest iPhone X cases ever

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These svelte Totallee iPhone X cases will let your new phone's sleek design shine through.
These svelte iPhone X cases from Totallee will let your new phone's sleek design shine through.
Photo: Totallee

This post is brought to you by Totallee.

The new iPhone X is a game-changing device. It’s stuffed with delicious tech nougat: high-resolution cameras and 3D sensors, augmented-reality capabilities, an OLED display and other mouthwatering goodies.

You want to make sure to protect a pricey phone like this (it starts at $999). But you also don’t want to hide the gorgeous details of its design. This is a top-tier Apple device, after all.

This ‘revolutionary’ iPhone case only costs a buck

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$1 case
Moment founder Marc Barros at the big reveal.
Photo: Moment/YouTube

Apple rolled out three new iPhones Tuesday that will excite mobile photographers. One day later, smartphone lens maker Moment debuted three new products that “take everything amazing about your new camera phone and make it worse.”

Poking fun at iPhone prices and the hyped spectacle of Apple product launches, Moment released a “live event” to introduce the “world’s first” $1 case, $2 waterproof case and $3 wireless charging case. Moment kept its price point in single digits because of a ground-breaking material used to create the cases – cheap cardboard that comes in one color, dirt brown.