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Fitbit surges as Apple Watch stumbles

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Simple fitness trackers from Fitbit, Xiaomi and Garmin outsold Apple Watch during the third quarter.
Simple fitness trackers from Fitbit, Xiaomi and Garmin outsold Apple Watch during the third quarter.
Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac

Apple Watch may be the most recognizable product in the wearables space, but it isn’t the best-selling.

Sales of Apple Watch are down more than 70 percent, according to IDC Research, which cites third-quarter sales figures of the wearables market.

9 awesome Mac apps cost less than ever, but not for long [Deals]

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CoM - The Black Friday Mac Bundle 2.0
These nine apps add a range of new functionality to your Mac.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

The flagship Mac App bundle is back, packed with nine top-shelf apps for creativity and productivity, including PDF Expert, TripMode and AfterShot 3.

Right now, you can get the whole bundle for the lowest price ever. But after today, the price will go up by $1 every day until Saturday.

Palo Alto Apple store targeted by ‘ram-raider’ thieves

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apple store
Not the correct place to park your car.
Photo: Apple

The Apple store in Palo Alto, California, suffered a brazen attack when a group of thieves in a rented SUV “ram-raided” the store early Sunday morning.

The burglars drove their vehicle at high speed into the 40-foot glass window at the front of the store, then climbed through the hole it had made. They stole iPhones, Macs and other devices before fleeing.

5 years after his death, Steve Jobs remains among top ‘current’ tech leaders

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Steve Jobs was anything but a bust as CEO.
Steve Jobs is still one of the most revered leaders in tech.
Photo: China News

Put it down to Steve Jobs’ astonishing legacy — or poor reading comprehension — but according to a poll of 700 tech company founders, the late Apple CEO is among the most admired “current” tech leaders.

Despite having died five years ago, Jobs scored fourth place in the poll, following Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.

Best List: Moshi’s AirPlay Spatia speaker looks old-fashioned but is anything but [Review]

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Moshi's Spatia Wireless AirPlay Speaker speaker has retro looks, but is thoroughly modern under the hood.
Moshi's Spatia Wireless AirPlay Speaker speaker has retro looks, but is thoroughly modern under the hood.
Photo: Lyle Kahney/Cult of Mac

Best List: Spatia wireless speaker by Moshi

Wireless speakers tend to be cheap and nasty — or fantastic and expensive.

There are exceptions, though, and Moshi’s Spatia wireless AirPlay speaker is one of them.

At $399, the Spatia isn’t cheap by any means, but its sound and features rival systems costing much more.

And does it sound sweet. With five drivers, including a subwoofer, the Spatia serves up a rich, wide soundstage. Lots of speakers claim “room-filling sound,” but the Spatia truly fills the bill.

Drones, big boxes of geeky goodies, and more [Week’s Newest Deals]

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Fly in first person and execute tricky maneuvers all with the world's smallest drone.
Fly in first person and execute tricky maneuvers all with the world's smallest drone.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Maybe it’s because we’re getting closer to Christmas, but each new shipment to the Cult of Mac Store seems better than the last. This week, we’ve got a super small 1st-person drone, software for totally unlocking PDFs, a powerful tool for capturing and converting YouTube videos, and a set of Loot Crate deliveries. Read on for more details:

Essentials to reinvent your data management [Week’s Best Deals]

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inCharge puts a Lightning cable right on your keychain.
inCharge puts a Lightning cable right on your keychain.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Considering all the new forms and formats our data take with each passing year, sometimes we need to catch up. This week is the one to do it, as the best deals that have come through the Cult of Mac store are all ways to upgrade your data game: a set of keychain-sized Lightning cables; a MicroSD adapter for seamlessly expanding MacBook drive capacity, a lifetime of cloud storage, and a hub that converts USB-C into five familiar formats. Read on for more details:

Hackintosh monster Macs and iPhone 8’s marquee feature, on The CultCast

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Could this be the next Mac Pro?
Could this be the next Mac Pro?
Photo: Nvidia

This week on The CultCast: Why building a Hackintosh can get you the monster Mac you’ve always wanted. Plus: Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reveals iPhone 8’s marquee feature; AirPods ship date is finally revealed; and stick around for our top Apple AirPort router replacement picks!

Our thanks to Casper for supporting this episode. Casper’s American-made mattresses have just the right amount of memory foam and latex, and people everywhere love them. Learn why and save $50 off your order at casper.com/cultcast.

Are smartwatches doomed?

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swimmer wearing apple watch
Is fitness really all that Apple Watch is fit for?
Photo: Apple

The writing has been on the wall for smartwatches ever since Cupertino chose to focus on sports and fitness features for Apple Watch Series 2. Smartwatch sales are plummeting, and fitness seems to be the only profitable area remaining in the wearables sector.

More evidence of this trend emerged this week, with smartwatch trailblazer Pebble reportedly being acquired by fitness wearables specialist Fitbit. We might very well be witnessing the demise of the smartwatch as we know it.

So how did we get here? Is Apple Watch really only fit for fitness, or could it still one day fulfill its destiny and become a true wrist-based computing platform?

Apple stops swinging for the fences

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Apple's new MacBook Pros with Touch Bar should be hitting store shelves by the end of the week.
Apple's 'new hit product' mindset is demoralizing for employees.
Photo: Apple

The days of Apple busting out hit new products every few years may be over. According to one of the best Apple analysts, Apple has been trying to de-emphasize the “home-run” mindset that made it the most enviable company in tech.

Speaking at the recent UBS Tech Conference, Horrace Dediu claimed Apple’s cultural identity is undergoing a dramatic shift.

This laptop bag’s a lifesaver — it stops bullets

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This shoulder bag protects your laptop - and body in case of gunfire.
This shoulder bag protects your laptop - and body in case of gunfire.
Photo: Force Training Institute

We plan for when our batteries run low, packing our shoulder bags with laptop cords and external batteries for our smartphones. But should we also plan for an active shooter?

Believing it is better to be safe than sorry, the Force Training Institute has created a bulletproof laptop bag that instantly deploys into a 3-foot shield to defend against gunfire.

Has it come to this, that we have to carry a bag called the MTS, short for Multi-Threat Shield?

Apple drops iOS 10.2 beta 5 on developers and public testers

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iPhone
iOS 10.2 brings a bunch of new features to iPhone.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Developers received a surprise update for iOS 10.2 this morning after Apple seeded the fifth beta build of the new software.

The new beta comes just four days after Apple released the last version to developers. This time, both devs and public beta testers can get their hands on the iOS update that brings a number of new features to iPhone and iPad.

Score lifelong access to a powerful VPN [Deals]

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Get a lifetime of secure, high speed browsing with a premium VPN.
Get a lifetime of secure, high speed browsing with a premium VPN.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Getting online, you want to make as sure as possible that you’re not being snooped on, or vulnerable to theft. Hotspot Shield offers a significant layer of defense against these things by encrypting all your online activity via a private, high speed network. As part of the rollout of their new Elite Plus plan, you can get access for as many as 10 devices simultaneously for just $69.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

French protesters hate the idea of a ‘Rue Steve Jobs’

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A familiar face to Apple fans made from familiar technology.
Protesters are taking issue with Steve Jobs and Apple.
Photo: Jason Mercier

Plans for a “Rue Steve Jobs” (that’s Steve Jobs Road) in Paris have come under criticism from far-left protesters, who are demanding that the road is instead named after a woman from tech history as part of the march toward “gender equality.”

The group, Front de Gauche, also takes issue with Jobs being name-checked due to various issues that it has with Apple as a company.

WhatsApp is dropping support for older smartphones

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WhatsApp
It might be time to get a new smartphone.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

WhatsApp is dropping support for older smartphones that aren’t compatible with its latest features. At least one generation of iPhone, alongside older versions of Android and Windows Phone, will no longer be able to use the service at the end of the year.

99% of fake Apple chargers may pose a safety risk

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1408891721677-640x480
Only 3/400 counterfeit chargers have insulation to protect users against electric shocks.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Chances are that when you hear the occasional story about an iPhone exploding it’s because its users made the decision to use a dodgy, third-party charger.

But how dangerous are these chargers — and how likely is it that a third-party charger poses a safety risk to you or your family? Pretty darn likely, claim investigators — who have warned customers that 99 percent of fake Apple chargers they looked at failed a basic safety test.

Former Foxconn manager charged with stealing 5,700 iPhones

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Foxconn employees accused of $43 million iPhone scam
Tim Cook meeting an iPhone manufacturer in China.
Photo: Apple

A one-time senior manager at Apple manufacturer Foxconn is facing a possible ten years in jail after allegedly stealing 5,700 iPhones and selling them on for $1.5 million.

The thefts reportedly took place at one of Foxconn’s factories in Shenzhen, China, where the manager — identified only as “Tsai” — used eight employees to help smuggle the handsets out of the building.

It’s surprisingly easy to crack iOS 10.1.1’s Activation Lock

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When it was introduced in iOS 7, Apple called Activation Lock
When it was introduced in iOS 7, Apple called Activation Lock "a really powerful theft deterrent."
Photo: Apple

Since its introduction with iOS 7, Activation Lock has gotten stronger and stronger. But every so often, researchers stumble across a bug that allows it to be cracked. The latest is found in iOS 10.1.1, and it makes it surprisingly easy to get into a locked iPhone or iPad.

Photo-editing Mac app Luminar adds support for MacBook Pro’s new Touch Bar

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Luminar
Luminar, photo editing software by Macphun, can now be controlled on the new MacBook Pro Touch Bar
Photo: Macphun

Macphun, creator of sophisticated imaging software for Mac-centric photographers, has updated its new Luminar app to support the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar.

Luminar is all-in-one photo-editing software with more than 300 tools, include simple presets, to bring a finished style to the work of photographers of all skill levels. It was launched last month.