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Customers of Russia’s largest bank can now use Apple Pay

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Screen Shot 2016-10-04 at 13.45.17
Apple Pay is now available in ten countries.
Photo: Apple

Apple Pay has arrived in a new country, with Apple’s mobile payment service launching in Russia on Tuesday — although right now it’s only available with one bank and card.

“Sberbank clients – MasterCard cardholders – can now use Apple Pay, which will allow them to make contactless payments online safely and comfortably,” a press release from Sberbank of Russia, which is the largest bank in Russia and Eastern Europe, stated.

Apple Watch Series 2 may not be enough to boost sales

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Apple Watch Nike Plus
Will the Nike+ bring in more Apple Watch customers?
Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac

The new features on the Apple Watch Series 2 will not be enough to boost overall sales of the wearable, claims KGI Securities analyst Ming Chi Kuo.

Even though the original Apple Watch was only on sale for eight months in 2015, Kuo’s supply chain sources indicate that sales will decline compared to last year.

Pixel phones are Google’s chance to out-innovate Apple

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Pixel by Google
Will Google deliver?
Photo: Google

The twin phones Google will launch Tuesday will show the company is finally serious about tackling the iPhone head-on. And they couldn’t be arriving at a better time.

With iPhone demand falling and many fans disappointed with the improvements Apple has made with the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, it’s a perfect opportunity for Google to prove it can out-innovate its biggest rival in the smartphone industry.

Microsoft just killed its Apple Watch competitor

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The Microsoft Band 2 never caught on.
The Microsoft Band 2 never caught on.
Photo: Microsoft

The Microsoft Band may have just met its demise.

Microsoft’s online store has officially stopped selling the Band 2 which was positioned as a competitor to the Apple Watch. The company also revealed today that it will not release a new Microsoft Band 3 this year.

Apple seeds third macOS Sierra 10.12.1 beta to developers

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macOS Sierra logo
A new macOS Sierra beta is here.
Photo: Apple

The third beta builds of macOS Sierra 10.12.1 was seeded to developers today, less than a week after Apple released the second build that contained a number of bug fixes.

Developers can pick up the new beta directly form the Apple Developer Center, or install it via the Mac App Store’s software update option if the previous beta build is already installed on your Mac.

StubHub’s Apple TV app brings ticket search to your couch

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Stub Hub is now on Apple TV.
Stub Hub is now on Apple TV.
Photo: Stub Hub

Finding tickets to the next concert, sporting event or comedy show you want to go to is now as easy as watching TV, thanks to the new StubHub app for Apple TV.

StubHub’s new offering is the first-ever ticketing app for the Apple TV, only instead of just making their popular mobile app TV-sized, the company focused the experience on browsing upcoming events in your area.

Reboot of London’s long-shuttered Apple store nears completion

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Apple is the U.K.'s top tech employer.
The iconic Regent Street store is finally reopening.
Photo: Apple

After being shuttered for all of 2016, Apple’s flagship Regent Street store in London will reopen on Saturday, October 15, Apple has announced.

Working with Foster & Partners, the architectural firm responsible for London’s Gherkin skyscraper, Apple’s renovations plans called for it to update what it calls the “tired and outdated” look of the store front.

What are we expecting instead? Some more Jony Ive minimalism and a whole lot of indoor trees.

Get three 10-foot long Lightning cables for less than the price of a standard one [Deals]

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Triple your Lightning cable backup and multiply its reach all at once with this MFi-certified bundle.
Triple your Lightning cable backup and multiply its reach all at once with this MFi-certified bundle.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

If you’re using Apple products, you’re well acquainted with the plain white Lightning cable. Frequently not long enough, prone to tearing and fraying and generally going kaput, it’s a good idea to have a backup. Or three. That’s what this pack offers, along with a lot of extra length (10 feet!), all for around the price of a single standard cable from Apple. Right now, you can get this 3-pack of 10′ Lightning cables for $22 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Apple partnering with Danish university to investigate sustainable energy

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aarhus-university
Apple's new investment represents a rare partnership with a university.
Photo: University of Aarhus

Apple has entered into a partnership agreement with Denmark’s University of Aarhus to investigate bio-gas research and how sustainable energy can be obtained from agriculture.

The R&D partnership is part of “billion-kroner” (read: hundreds of millions of dollars) partnership, according to Denmark’s foreign minister, Kristin Jensen.

Three new iPads Pro are coming early next year

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New iPads are on their way. Allegedly.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple is set to debut a trifecta of new iPad Pro models in Q1 2017, according to a new report, citing “well-placed sources” of the Japanese Apple blog Mac Okatara.

If the report is to be believed, Apple will release a new 12.9-inch iPad Pro, a slightly larger version of its 9.7-inch iPad with 10.1-inch display, and a 7.9-inch iPad Pro upgrade of Apple’s iPad mini lineup.

Top 10 iOS 10 features you may not have discovered yet

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ios_10_hidden_features
Have you discovered all that iOS 10 has to offer?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Hidden among the updates to the Messages app, Apple Music and everything else we’ve all heard so much about, there are a handful of new iOS 10 features you may not have stumbled across.

Check out the video below to see the top ten iOS 10 features that currently rank as iOS’s best-kept secrets.

iPhone 7 battery life can’t match rivals

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iPhone
A familiar sight on your iPhone?
Photo: Apple

The iPhone 7 battery might be larger than its predecessor, but that’s still not enough for it to catch up with other leading flagship smartphones, as per a new consumer testing report.

According to the U.K.-based Which?, the iPhone 7 performs far behind the Samsung Galaxy S7, LG G5 and HTC 10 when it comes to call and internet time.

Burly Men at Sea, Alto Dashboard, and other awesome new apps

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If you're appy and you know it, check our list!
'Appy weekend all!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

From a great app to make your email experience more efficient to a uniquely superb narrative-driven game, we’ve sifted through the most exciting new apps to bring you the ones you’ll want to download this weekend.

Check out our picks below. Trust us, this is the way you want to spend Sunday!

Become a certified mobile phone photographer [Week’s Newest Deals]

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These Bluetooth buds are a good sight cooler than Apple's new wireless earpieces.
These Bluetooth buds are a good sight cooler than Apple's new wireless earpieces.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

With the new week comes a raft of new deals, and this week has some good ones. We’ve got a set of wireless earbuds that are way less obnoxious looking than the latest from Apple, a set of powerful photo editing tools, a lifetime VPN subscription, and a pair of certification courses in mobile photography and video. Sound enticing? Read on:

October brings new Macs and MacBook Pros, this week on The CultCast

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New Apple hardware in March on The CultCast
New Apple hardware in March? Reports say yes, indeed.
Image: Erfon Elijah/Cult of Mac

This week on The CultCast: reports point to a big Mac event coming in October! We’ll tell you why we expect more than just overhauled MacBook Pros… Plus: we remember Steve Jobs, and what made him so damned good; why the jet black iPhone 7 is impossible to find; and stay tuned for drone chat, where we discuss the super cool new drones hitting the market.

This episode is supported by Dollar Shave Club, delivering amazing razors right to your door for a third of the price of what the greedy razor corporations charge. Get your first month free at DollarShaveClub.com/CultCast.

Name your price for 13 award-winning Mac apps, and more [Week’s Best Deals]

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Drive Genius 4, The Hit List, and a slew of other award-winning apps will make your Mac a productivity powerhouse
Drive Genius 4, The Hit List, and a slew of other award-winning apps will make your Mac a productivity powerhouse
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

This week’s best deals are your opportunity to upgrade your digital workspace without downgrading your checking account. We’re looking at more than a dozen award-winning productivity apps for whatever you’re willing to pay, a charging hub that does double duty as a device organizer, a terabyte secure cloud storage, and a keyboard shortcut app that can vastly improve efficiency on your Mac. It’s all going for cut-rate prices, read on for more details:

Should the MacBook Pro be next in line to lose its headphone jack? [Friday Night Fights]

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fnf
Could you live without it?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

If you’re an early iPhone 7 adopter, you’re already getting accustomed to life without a headphone jack. But what if it started to disappear from other devices you use everyday, such as your iPad or MacBook?

Friday Night Fights bugWith a MacBook Pro refresh on the horizon, fans fear it will be the next device in Apple’s lineup to see its headphone jack disappear. The move could allow Apple to make its most powerful portable even slimmer, but would it be worth it?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we discuss whether the MacBook Pro should lose its headphone jack this year, or whether Apple should give consumers and the industry time to adapt to other standards.

Apple’s spaceship campus lights up in new drone video

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Apple HQ is nearly ready for liftoff.
Apple HQ is nearly ready for liftoff.
Photo: Duncan Sinfield

If you thought Apple’s new spaceship campus looks impressive during the day, just wait until you see it at night.

Apple’s stunning new HQ looks like it’s glowing in the latest drone videos that show construction is nearing completion. Landscaping is now underway on the campus with new trees popping up all over, along with walking trails for employees.

Check it out:

$50 Bluetooth speaker … is it any good? [Review]

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Bluetooth Speaker
Want a cheap speaker that can blow your socks off? Look no further.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The speakers in our iPhones and iPads keep getting better and better, but they’re not close to replacing Bluetooth speakers just yet. If you’ve just splashed out hard-earned dollars for a new iPhone 7 or 7 Plus, a low-priced, quality speaker may come as a welcome relief.

There are a few rare finds out there that deliver good bang for buck, and the $60 DKnight Big MagicBox is one of them.

Check out the full video review below.

How a boring 14-second video started Hissgate

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iphone 7
This is what it feels like for a story to blow up.
Photo: Apple

Remember Hissgate, the short-lived (but, for a few days, massive) story about how some iPhone 7 Plus owners were experiencing strange hissing sounds when their handsets were performing processor-intensive tasks?

Well, the guy who first reported it has written a blog post about his experience after the video blew up on YouTube, racking up more than 1 million hits. And it actually makes pretty interesting reading.

Sleek dock restores earphone jack for iPhone 7

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You can have your iPhone 7 and earphone jack, too, with the iLDOCK.
You can have your iPhone 7 and earphone jack, too, with the iLDOCK.
Photo: iLDOCK

Apple famously knows what we want before we do, yet so many fans say the iPhone maker got it wrong when it took away the earphone jack on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

Jokes, outrage, even night terrors, erupted on social media in real time as the new iPhone design was revealed. Not long after, a startup went to work to bring the anxious a $10 fix.

Stay safe and anonymous online with VPN for life [Deals]

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Protect and anonymize your online activity and catch your favorite streaming content anywhere with a lifetime of VPN subscription.
Protect and anonymize your online activity and catch your favorite streaming content anywhere with a lifetime of VPN subscription.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

If you’re online — and you’re reading this, so you are — you’re exposed to annoying ads and dangerous data thieves. You’re also subject to location-based content restrictions. A virtual private network offers a way through and around these internet irritations, and there’s never been a better time to look into VPNs.

As of today, you can get a lifetime of OneVPN access for just $29 at Cult of Mac Deals.

iPhone 7 will arrive on Samsung’s home turf next month

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iPhone 7
iPhone 7 is coming to South Korea on October 21.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

South Korea’s three mobile network providers will reportedly start selling the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus from October 21, according to reports coming out of the country.

The news comes at a bad time for South Korea’s Samsung, which is still reeling from a costly recall of its exploding Galaxy Note 7 handsets, which it reportedly rushed to market to beat Apple to the next great smartphone.