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7 ways LeEco is the Anti-Apple (and why Cupertino should be paying attention)

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LeEco's Lei Ding shows off the LeSEE Pro, LeEco's autonomous electric concept car, in San Francisco.
Another Chinese tech company, LeEco, shows off its autonomous electric concept car in San Francisco.
Photo: Lewis Wallace/Cult of Mac

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple does things one way. LeEco chooses a radically different path — in fact, you might call it the Anti-Apple.

What, you’ve never heard of LeEco, the Chinese company with the French-sounding name that’s gunning for American millenials?

After a big, splashy press conference on Wednesday that unveiled a raft of Android-based products, you’re about to hear a lot about LeEco, which calls itself “the best-kept secret in tech.” And if you’re working for Cupertino, you might be getting a little bit anxious as LeEco storms into the U.S. market.

Take control of how you move and manage files on your Mac [Deals]

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These 4 apps will organize your downloads, cloud and local storage for Mac
These 4 apps will organize your downloads, cloud and local storage for Mac
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Keeping track of all the files you upload, download, that live locally on your computer or on the cloud can take a lot of work. Many people develop their own systems for file management and movement, but with this bundle of four Mac apps you won’t have to. It includes Folx 5, Commander One PRO Pack, Uplet Bulk Instagram Uploader, and CloudMounter, each of which offers a new degree of control and clarity over the files on (or off) your Mac. Get it now for $15.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

MacBook OLED trackpad could be called the ‘Magic Toolbar’

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MacBook Pro OLED mockup
The Magic Toolbar is on its way.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s adaptive OLED touchbar for its next-gen MacBook will be called the “Magic Toolbar,” according to a trademark filing made earlier this year.

The trademark filing was made by a dummy corporation called “Presto Apps America LLC” on February 5, 2016. Interestingly, said corporation happened to use the same lawyers as those who applied for the trademark “AirPod” in Indonesia, Canada and Malaysia.

Get ready for Apple’s Mac event with these wallpapers

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Apple's keynote invite makes an awesome wallpaper.
Apple's keynote invite makes an awesome wallpaper.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

New Macs are officially on the way.

Apple finally announced that it will be hosting a keynote on October 27th where the company is expected to unveil a new MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and other new hardware.

We’re still trying to decode Apple’s invites for clues on what’s to come, but you can get your iPhone, iPad and Mac ready for the big day with this collection of wallpapers based on Apple’s invite.

Apple makes October 27 Mac event official

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See any clues in Apple's invite?
See any clues in Apple's invite?
Photo: Apple

Mark your calendars: New Macs are coming on October 27.

Apple sent out invites to the press on Wednesday afternoon to a keynote at Apple HQ that is widely expected to bring a bunch of new Macs, including a redesigned MacBook Pro with an OLED touchbar.

Google and CBS strike deal for streaming TV service

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The Late Show will be part of Google's TV streaming package.
The Late Show will be part of Google's TV streaming package.
Photo: CBS

Google has struck a deal with CBS to provide content for its upcoming streaming television service, according to a new report that reveals the search engine giant plans to release its product for cord-cutters next year.

The new service dubbed ‘Unplugged’ will cost customers $25 – $40 to access a bundle of channels available on YouTube.

This pillow is sleep-inducing music to your ears [Review]

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Dreampad is a pillow that joins forces with your iPhones to help you sleep.
Dreampad is a pillow that joins forces with your iPhones to help you sleep.
Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac

A good night’s sleep could start with a good pillow. But the part of our bed designed to rest our head doesn’t do anything to shut it off.

But what if it could?

The Dreampad along with an iPhone app promises to do just that. The firm and fluffy pillow uses a patented technology that delivers relaxing music through the pillow that can be heard only by you and not the sleeper next to you.

T-Mobile to pay $48 million for throttling unlimited data plans

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T-Mobile was caught throttling data speeds.
T-Mobile was caught throttling data speeds.
Photo: T-Mobile

The FCC ruled today that T-Mobile has been throttling customers on its ‘unlimited data’ plans after receiving complaints from customers.

T-Mobile agreed to pay $48 million to settle the FCC’s investigation which discovered ‘the un-carrier’ slows down data speeds of the top 3% of its heaviest users during times of congestion without notifying customers that they were being throttled.

Developers get new iOS 10.1 and macOS 10.12.1 betas

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macOS Sierra logo
Get the new macOS beta while it's hot.
Photo: Apple

Apple has dropped yet another beta build of iOS 10.1 to developers today as the company works to finalize the software update before making available to the public.

Along with iOS 10.1 beta 5, Apple also seeded the fifth beta of macOS Sierra 10.12.1 that is rumored to include support for the new MacBook Pro that will be unveiled at the end of October.

Don’t like iOS 10? It’s too late to downgrade

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Safari iOS 11
The iOS 9 era is over. For downgraders at least.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

If you’re not feeling iOS 10, it’s too late to downgrade, since Apple has stopped signing iOS 9.3.5 for compatible iPhone, iPad and iPod touch models — thereby bringing an end to users’ ability to revert to iOS 9.

2018 Macs may feature adaptive keyboards for emojis and more

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keyboard-eink
These adaptive keyboards will change according to the app.
Photo: Sonder

Forget about a mere adaptive OLED touchbar for future Macs! According to a new report, Apple is working with an Australian startup to turn future Mac keyboards into a blank slate for users to customize.

The company in question is Sonder Design Pty Ltd., a startup with ties to Apple manufacturer Foxconn. It develops E Ink keyboards, which let users customize keys to include letters from more than one language, or even emojis.

Check out a video showing how its keyboards work below.

Powerful app makes PDFs play nice [Deals]

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Merge, markup, even OCR documents and lots more with this powerful PDF tool.
Merge, markup, even OCR documents and lots more with this powerful PDF tool.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

If you work at the computer, you probably work a lot with PDFs. They’re a convenient and visually rich format, but they can be less than friendly if you’re trying to do much more than just view them. That’s where PDFpen Pro steps in. Called the “crème de la crème of PDF editing and annotating applications” by Macworld, it’s a powerful tool for editing, merging, marking up, and converting PDF documents. And right now you can get a copy for $62 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Apple beware: Chinese phones are taking over the world

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iPhone 7
iPhone shipments fell last quarter.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

For the second quarter in a row, Chinese smartphone makers produced more phones than market leaders Apple and Samsung, according to a new Q3 shipment volume report from global market research firm Trendforce.

Apple saw its iPhone volume production fall 5.3 percent from the three months previous, while Samsung registered minor growth of 1.3 percent. Chinese smartphone makers on the other hand? A quarterly increase of 18 percent.

This doesn’t quite tell the whole story, though.

Apple wants to get HomeKit into houses before they’re built

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Apple announced HomeKit to developers at WWDC last year.
HomeKit-compatible devices are being built into new-builds.
Photo: Apple

In an effort to beat rivals like Google into people’s homes, Apple is reportedly working with building firms to incorporate HomeKit-compatible technologies into houses as they’re being built.

“We want to bring home automation to the mainstream,” Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of product marketing, told Bloomberg. “The best place to start is at the beginning, when a house is just being created.”