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Former WSJ editor will help lead Apple’s PR assault on China

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Apple Store
The mural outside one of Apple's Chinese Apple stores.
Photo: Apple

Apple has hired a former Wall Street Journal correspondent from China to assume the post of PR Director for its Shanghai office.

Given that Apple shows such a mastery of the press, it’s no surprise to hear that it’s used to picking the cream of the tech-reporting media crop to work in its PR roster. Wei Gu falls into this category — even if her new role comes at a challenging time for Apple in China.

Jony Ive’s design book is much more than an ego trip

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Designed by Apple in California book
Apple's Industrial Design team has published a book of its work over two decades: Designed by Apple in California.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Increasingly, some Apple fans think Jony Ive has lost it.

He’s killing ports and headphone jacks left and right. The latest MacBooks value form over function. He’s designing gold watches for the 1 percent.

And now his glossy new photo book, Designed by Apple in California, looks like a $300, linen-bound ego trip.

Indie rockers Airplane Mode get their spark from Apple

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These guys rock — and design great apps. Bassist Joe Cieplinski, left, and lead guitar and vocalist, Dave Wiskus, of the band Airplane Mode.
These guys rock — and design great apps. Bassist Joe Cieplinski, left, and lead guitar and vocalist, Dave Wiskus, of the band Airplane Mode.
Photo: Airplane Mode

Cult of Mac 2.0 bugThe indie rock band Airplane Mode does indeed get its name from the feature on an iPhone that shuts off wireless transmission.

The name and the resumes of three of the band’s musicians — well-established iOS designers — have led more than a few people to assume they have found a source of cute parody music about Apple culture.

In fact, you won’t find any iPhones, iMacs or odes to Steve Jobs in the lyrics of the tight, hard-charging synth-driven music. However, the band’s roots in Apple culture permeate everything else, from its use of technology and understanding of social engagement to its start-up energy.

And there is one other way: Airplane Mode is making money.

Apple’s new MacBook Pro ad celebrates invention of the Touch Bar

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The Touch Bar is Apple's newest brilliant idea.
The Touch Bar is Apple's newest brilliant idea.
Photo: Apple

The new MacBook Pro finally lands in stores this week, and an awesome new Apple ad celebrates the arrival.

In the new spot, called “Bulbs,” Apple links the invention of fire, the wheel, plow and more to the creation of the Touch Bar, the thin OLED strip that completely changes how you interact with your Mac.

iPhone camera is the key to Apple’s AR future

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iPhone 7 iSight camera
The iPhone's camera will be an AR portal.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

A secret team of Apple employees are working on a project that will turn iPhone cameras everywhere into a portal for augmented reality.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has said he’s bullish on the future of AR, and according to a new report the company is working on a total game changer.

This heart-healthy smart scale delivers what your fitness apps are missing

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Withings Body Cardio smart scale
The Withings Body Cardio smart scale adds crucial cardiovascular insights to your health data mix.
Photo: Withings

This post is brought to you by Withings, maker of the Body Cardio smart scale.

One of the great promises of the mobile and wearables revolution was that we’d all get unprecedented insights into our personal health. Apple even built a Health app into its mobile operating system. And what icon did Apple choose for its trailblazing Health app? An unmistakable red heart.

Now a heart-healthy smart scale can capture critical data about your cardiovascular health that can provide a fresh perspective on your wellness regimen.

Maybe Apple really will make iPhones in USA

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iPhone 7 back
Designed by Apple in California. Assembled by Foxconn in USA?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The iPhone may soon be made in the USA.

Donald Trump claimed during his campaign that he would force Apple to move production of its products back to America. According to a new report, Apple has already started looking into whether that would be possible.

Retailers expect AirPods to ship this month

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AirPods could finally be arriving soon.
Photo: Apple

Some rumors have warned that we might have to wait until the new year for AirPods to arrive, but a number of retailers expect them to arrive much sooner. According to one, they’ll start shipping before the end of the month.

iOS bug exposes photos and messages on locked iPhones

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photos in ios 10
It's shockingly easy to get into someone's photos.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Hackers have discovered a new method to unlock photos and messages on any iPhone, thanks to an iOS security flaw that utilizes Siri and VoiceOver.

iPhones running iOS 8 software and newer are vulnerable to the flaw, which was discovered by EverythingApplePro and iDeviceHelp. The group revealed the hack in a new video that shows you don’t need any coding experience or special hardware to pull it off. All you need is a few minutes alone with a victims iPhone and some help from Siri.

Apple secretly logs iCloud users’ iPhone call history

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Apple Security Jacket
Apple receives user call histories when iCloud is enabled, claims a new report.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple receives user call histories when iCloud is enabled, claims a new report from Russian digital forensics firm Elcomsoft.

The logs include information about calls made and received on an iOS device, along with phone numbers, dates, times, call duration, and even missed and bypassed calls — for both regular and FaceTime calls.

Roxio Toast price tag gets sliced as of today [Deals]

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Starting today, save even more on the best tool for screen capture, burning digital media and editing videos.
Starting today, save even more on the best tool for screen capture, burning digital media and editing videos.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

If you work with digital media, you’ve caught a whiff of Toast. It’s one of the premier software tools for converting and working with digital media of all kinds, whether video or audio, for online or physical playback. And now the 15th and most powerful version of Toast Titanium has dropped in price from a previous discount of 50 percent. As today’s deal of the day, you can get Toast Titanium 15 for $35 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Apple’s ‘Hour of Code’ classes will run for a whole week this year

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In previous years, Apple ran the events for just one day.
Photo: Apple

Apple has officially opened registration for its free “Hour of Code” workshops, which this year will run every day for a week at around 500 Apple stores around the world.

In previous years, Apple has offered just one day of workshops for its introduction to programming events, produced in partnership with Code.org.

24k gold iPhone dock comes with a nice charity donation

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A gold plinth worthy of your iPhone.
Photo: Brikk

From magnetic chargers to levitating ones, one thing we’ve learned in 2016 it’s that apparently nobody likes to just plug their iPhone in and charge it regularly.

If that includes your good self, you may be interested in a new ultra-luxury Lightning Dock, released by Los Angeles-based premium technology products maker, Brikk.

Available in 24k gold yellow gold, 18k rose gold, and 950 platinum, the docks will make any visitors to your house say, “wow, that guy/girl sure has an expensive-looking iPhone dock.”

Hackers can use this tiny $5 device to attack your locked Mac

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PoisonTap is tiny but deadly.
PoisonTap is tiny but deadly.
Photo: Samy Kamkar

The next time you leave your Mac unattended, make sure to turn it off.

A well-known hacker has created a cheap tool that can steal data off of locked computers in minutes. The clever new device called PoisonTap is created using a $5 Raspberry Pi Zero and some open source code. Attackers can plug PoisonTap into a machine and as long as the victim has a web browser open, it can steal data and leave remote backdoors.

Apple tried to sign Chris Rock to iTunes movie deal

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AppleTV_TV-Movies-PRINT
Making TV shows is just one of Apple's many hobbies.
Photo: Apple

Cupertino’s slow flirtation with Hollywood nearly landed Apple an exclusive iTunes movie deal with comedian Chris Rock, according to a new report.

Apple has shown interest in producing original video content of its own. The company bought the rights to James Cordon’s Carpool Karaoke TV show, and it appears Apple has some tepid interest in making the type of movies you’d find on Netflix.

Official Reddit app finally gets an iPad interface

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Reddit logo
Reddit finally got around to supporting the iPad.
Photo: Reddit

Seven months after its debut, the official Reddit app has finally been optimized for iPad. The new interface lets you enjoy the most popular posts and the latest memes in all their high-resolution glory on the tablet’s larger screen.

MacBook Pro teardown reveals mystifying speaker grilles

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Ooh, new speakers! Well, not so fast...
Photo: iFixit

Apple’s new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar have arrived, and our friends at iFixit have already dutifully taken one apart to reveal what’s lurking under the surface.

The most interesting revelation? The laptop’s new speaker grilles don’t house new speakers, but may instead exist purely for design purposes.