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Tim Cook’s impressive career in 90 seconds

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Tim Cook
How Tim Cook got to where he is today.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

There may be disagreement over whether Tim Cook’s Apple is a more predictable, less interesting one than Steve Jobs’ Apple, but one thing that’s for certain is that Cook has enjoyed a heckuva rise to power.

In a new video created by the U.K.’s Telegraph newspaper, a 90-second recap of Cook’s career so far shows how he went from a kid growing up in Alabama to the head of the world’s most valuable tech company, with a net worth of $785 million.

Check it out below.

Simple text message crashes almost any iPhone

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iPhone-text-glitch
Three characters is all it takes to freeze your iPhone.
Photo: EverythingApplePro

Apple makes iOS more secure with almost every update it rolls out, but there’s always a glitch somewhere that slips through the net.

The latest is a bug in iMessage that allows any iPhone running iOS 10 to iOS 10.1.1 to be crashed with a simple text message.

Stanford will hand out 1,000 Apple Watches for new health program

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Apple Watch
Stanford believes in the wellness possibilities of the Apple Watch
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Stanford University has launched a new program, offering faculty members and instructors up to 1,000 Apple Watches and $10,000 in funding to investigate how Apple’s wearable device can be used in healthcare.

“This seed grant program is designed to stimulate and support creative uses of the Apple Watch to address important issues in healthcare,” the Center for Digital Health’s website notes. “We are particularly interested in high impact projects that will positively influence the selected study population and/or clinical workflow.”

Former employee explains how Tim Cook made Apple boring

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LOVELOUD
Tim Cook wants to keep peace at Apple.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Tim Cook’s kinder, gentler management style is the biggest reason why 2016 was one of the most boring years for Apple in recent memory, according to a former employee of the company.

Steve Jobs was notorious for inciting conflict and competition between top employees, which him a controversial leader but also birthed some of the most iconic tech products ever (iMac, iPod and iPhone). After Cook took over, he worked to eliminate conflict within Cupertino’s walls and made employees less passionate, claims ex-Apple employee Bob Burrough.

Pro tips for improving your app reviews

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App Store reviews
Here's how to harness the power of app reviews (even bad ones).
Image: MacPaw

Our App Business section is brought to you by MacPaw, maker of proven Mac apps.

Getting a bad app review is a definite bummer. When some faceless user trashes your labor of love in the App Store or some other public venue, it can really sting. But if you’re smart about it, you can turn negative reviews into positive opportunities for improving your app and winning committed customers.

Here’s how to spin bad app reviews into developer gold.

Apple Music execs discuss the future of music streaming

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Bozoma Saint John
Bozoma Saint John is in charge of hyping Apple Music.
Photo: Apple

The future of Apple Music will be a lot less focused on music and more about pop culture, according to three of Apple’s top employees working on the project.

Beats One DJ Zane Lowe, marketing guru Bozoma Saint John and Apple Music’s head of content, Larry Jackson, sat down for a three-headed interview to discuss what fans can expect from the streaming service. Music will always be part of Apple Music, but Lowe revealed that other forms of entertainment are coming soon.

Vintage Mac Museum steers clear of Macs that sucked

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Adam Rosen's Vintage Mac Museum
The Vintage Mac Museum heads west to Montana
Photo: Adam Rosen

Cult of Mac 2.0 bug Adam Rosen’s collection of vintage Macs doesn’t make him a hoarder, but he acknowledges it doesn’t make him an obvious choice for a husband, either.

In several rooms of Rosen’s Boston home you’ll find a love story nonetheless. The rooms are shrines to a high school sweetheart that matured and grew more sophisticated with time, a friendly face still aglow with “hello.”

This pricey iPhone case is sharp enough for a samurai

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Element Case
The Katana attaches to your iPhone 7 or 7 Plus with steel screws.
Photo: Element Case

Maybe you begin to bristle when the price of a quality iPhone case goes above $40. If so, your eyebrows could reach new heights when you notice the price on the newest luxury covers for the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus from Element Case.

Starting at $349, the Katana is not the most expensive luxury case on the market, but it is sure to elicit a gasp from budget-minded consumers.

Seize power for all your gear and gadgets [Deals]

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3 outlets and 4 USB ports make this travel-friendly power strip a comprehensive charging solution.
3 outlets and 4 USB ports make this travel-friendly power strip a comprehensive charging solution.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

The more we rely on our digital devices, the more chances there are to run out of juice at just the wrong moment. But the essential charging gadgets in this roundup can meet anyone’s thirst for power.

They include a portable, surge-protected strip with USB and standard outlets, a five-port dock that organizes your gizmos while they charge, a trio of extra-long, MFi-certified Lightning cables, and a wireless charging hub for Apple Watch and three other devices. Read on to learn more:

AirPods haven’t taken the headphone market by storm … yet

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AirPods sales
Apple's AirPods were super-rare upon their launch.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Tim Cook has called the AirPods a “runaway success,” but what this means in terms of wireless headphone market share remains to be seen.

A previous report from Slice Analytics claimed that Apple’s new headphones captured a whopping 26 percent for wireless headphone sales in December. However, analysts at NDP Group think the real number is significantly lower — like, in the 2 percent to 3 percent range.

Why the difference?

Pokémon GO raked in almost $1 billion last year

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Pokemon GO
Pokémon GO made $800m faster than any other game.
Photo: Niantic

Pokémon GO raked in almost $1 billion in 2016, despite being available for only half of the year.

Niantic’s hit was downloaded over 500 million times in a few short months after making its debut last July, and it made $600 million faster than any other mobile game, according to the experts at App Annie.

Apple denies it will launch battery-replacement program for iPhone 6

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The iPhone 6 Plus was Apple's biggest phone yet.
Have you had problems with your iPhone 6 shutting down randomly?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Update: Apple has denied a report that it might launch a battery-replacement program to cover its iPhone 6 handsets.

The exact reason for the supposed battery-exchange initiative wasn’t revealed in Makotakara’s post, which was short on details. But the now-debunked rumor made it sound like Apple might expand the battery-replacement program in place for certain iPhone 6s handsets due to a fault that causes the units to randomly shut down.

36 years on, you can play Bill Gates’ crappy Donkey game on Apple Watch

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Bill Gates just won the internets.
Of all Bill Gates' accomplishments, how did DONKEY hang around?
Photo: Bill Gates

Before Bill Gates was, well, Bill Gates, he was the 20-something software developer behind DONKEY.BAS, a simple yet frustratingly difficult PC game in which players drive a car along a stretch of road while avoiding donkeys.

Created in 1981 to show off the BASIC programming language on the then-new IBM PC, an updated version of the game has now been ported to Apple Watch.

Apple is hiking up App Store prices in the U.K.

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Mac App Store
Prepare to pay more for iOS and macOS apps.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple will hike App Store prices for users in the U.K. due to fluctuating exchange rates and taxation changes.

U.K. prices will go up by at least 25 percent within the next seven days, and Turkey, India and other countries can also expect to see increases, Apple said.

2017 MacBook Pro to bring Intel Kaby Lake, 32GB of RAM

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MacBook
The next MacBook Pro will bring the power pro users require.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple will launch a new 15-inch MacBook Pro later this year powered by Intel’s next-generation Kaby Lake processors and 32GB of desktop-class RAM, according to a reliable analyst.

The latest models feature Skylake chips and up to 16GB of RAM, but many professionals have complained this just isn’t enough for a high-end notebook.

Is iPhone Apple’s most significant product to date? [Friday Night Fights]

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wood
Can you think of anything more important to Apple?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The iPhone celebrated its tenth anniversary this week, and it’s hard to imagine where Apple would be today without it. It is by far the company’s most successful product, but is it also its most significant to date?

Friday Night Fights bugApple revolutionized a number of product industries with the Mac, iPod, iTunes, and iPad — all of which have been incredibly successful at some point. It also pioneered new concepts with products like the Newton. Were any of these things more important to Apple than iPhone?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we relive our first experiences with iPhone and discuss Apple’s most significant product releases.

10 apps for enhancing iPhone photos

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A good photo editing app can add mood and alter colors to clarify your vision of your dog or any of your photos.
A good photo editing app can add mood and alter colors to clarify your vision of your dog or any of your photos.
Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac

One of my favorite observations by a now-forgotten sage explained the difference between writing and photography like this: A bad sentence can be massaged, but nothing helps a bad photo.

So true. However, I’ve experienced for myself how a good photo-editing app can salvage sloppy composition or bad exposure — and even teach you something along the way. So if you resolve to become a better photographer in 2017, you might want to add some tools to put a finer finish on your iPhone photos.

Samsung will spill the beans on Note 7 explosions next week

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galaxy note 7
The Note 7 went from hero to zero.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Samsung will reveal the findings of its internal investigation about the exploding Note 7 smartphones one day before it announces its Q4 earnings, claims a new report.

That would put the date at January 23, after which the company no doubt hopes that the news cycle will quickly move on to Samsung’s earnings for the last three months of 2016.

iPhone 7 tops 2016 smartphone performance chart

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Top-10-smartphones-2016
Apple's A10X Fusion chip continues to impress.
Photo: AnTuTu

Benchmark specialists AnTuTu have put together a chart that highlights 2016’s top performing smartphones, and it’s no surprise to see iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus right at the top of it.

Apple’s latest handsets grabbed the first and second spots with the highest benchmark scores, followed by the OnePlus 3T. There’s no sign of a Samsung device in the top ten.

Sharpen your iOS coding chops for next to nothing [Deals]

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iOS 10 and 9 lesson bundle
Learn to code for iOS 10 and iOS 9 in this comprehensive, massively discounted lesson bundle.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

For developers, iOS is as vibrant a platform as ever. There’s plenty of room for new and seasoned developers alike to make their mark, which makes this duo of lessons in iOS 10 and iOS 9 from Mammoth Interactive a valuable resource for coders of any skill level.

It offers nearly 200 hours of top-shelf instruction, and right now you can get the entire iOS coding bundle for just $29 at Cult of Mac Deals.