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Apple’s ‘sexy’ plan for Apple Music is all about cash, creativity

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apple music app
Fixing the Apple Music UI is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Cupertino's efforts to win the streaming war.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Cold hard cash, and a surprising amount of creative input from top Apple executives, are key to Cupertino’s plan for making Apple Music a hit, according to a new behind-the-scenes report about the streaming service.

Twitter hires ex-Apple designer to lead VR team

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Twitter has changed its mind on deleting inactive user accounts (for now)
Twitter is crushing dreams in 2020.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Unlike its rivals at Facebok, Twitter has shown little interest in virtual reality, but it appears that the company is finally ready to make a play and an ex-Apple designer is leading the charge.

Twitter has hired Alessandro Sabatelli as its first Director of VR and AR where he has been charged to “empower us all in the spatial computing revolution.”

Apple’s Shot on iPhone ads get bold dash of color

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Shot on iPhone
Shot on iPhone ads at a subway in Sydney.
Photo: Apple

After going all in on football, Apple’s Shot on iPhone ad campaign is taking a new direction with a series of colorful new ads across the globe.

The new Shot on iPhone campaign called “Colors” has some of the most artsy billboards ever that focus on big bright colors. Only instead of featuring images from photographers around the world, the new ads highlight local photography shot near where the ads have been posted.

Take a look:

Apple stock might be ready to explode

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iphone stocks app
It might be a great time to buy into AAPL.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The price of Apple shares have been in a slump all of 2016, but 2017 is shaping up to be an explosive year for AAPL.

Thanks to pent up demand from iPhone users for a big upgrade that probably won’t come this year, Apple is poised to have its biggest year ever when it launches the iPhone 7s, according to Cowen & Co’s financial analyst Timothy Arcuri who claims it pays to get in right now and wait out the iPhone 7 slump.

Apple camera system could fix the most annoying thing about concerts

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Concert photography could soon be banned.
Concert photography could soon be banned.
Photo: Vanja Terzic/Pexels

Nothing is worse at concerts than having some dude block your view of the band for 45 minutes to take crappy iPhone pics. But those days may be coming to an end soon thanks to Apple.

The company was recently granted a patent that would allow concerts and other private events to block iPhone users from taking photos and videos of the event by using infrared signals.

Nancy Pelosi slams Tim Cook for GOP fundraiser

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Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is mad at Tim Cook.
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is mad at Tim Cook.
Photo: Shawn Calhoun/Flickr

U.S House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi took shots at Apple CEO Tim Cook for participating in a GOP fundraiser in Silicon Valley this week.

Pelosi, who represents the nearby 12th district of California, called Cook “naive” for helping House Speaker Paul Ryan raise money for her rivals in the GOP, especially after the company just broke off its support for the GOP convention.

Pricey Lightning headphones will make you care less about headphone jacks [Reviews]

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Audeze EL-8 headphones
With a Lightning connector and an $800 price tag, the EL-8 headphones from Audeze are very Apple.
Photo: Lewis Wallace/Cult of Mac

They don’t call them “headphones” for nothing.

Slipping on a pair of quality closed-back headphones puts you in a rarefied headspace where sound envelopes you completely and nothing matters but the music. Just close your eyes, cue up the perfect tracks to suit your mood, and drift away.

The Audeze EL-8 Titanium headphones, which use a Lightning connector to plug into your Apple device, will take you to that special place. But you’ll pay a steep price for your trip to aural bliss.

Google search just upped its lyrical game

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screen_shot_2016-06-28_at_9.49.14_am
It's as easy as that!
Screenshot: Cult of Mac

Sometimes you don’t need to click on Google links to get the information you’re looking for; it’s just presented to you instantly right inside your search results. Now the same can finally be said for song lyrics — if you live in the U.S.

iPhone brings out the best in pro photographer

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Photographer Richard Koci Hernandez uses his iPhone for views of a city otherwise unseen.
Photographer Richard Koci Hernandez uses his iPhone for views of a city otherwise unseen.
Photo: Richard Koci Hernandez

Cult of Mac 2.0 bugAccomplished photographers tend to bristle when asked to talk about equipment. It’s not the camera that makes the picture, it’s the photographer.

Acclaimed photographer Richard Koci Hernandez would tend to agree, but he’s likely to gush about his camera anyway. That’s because some of the most interesting and satisfying work of his career has come from shooting with his iPhone.

The kind of gear that once helped Hernandez garner Pulitzer Prize nominations now rests idly in a camera bag.

Apple schedules Q3 2016 earnings call for July 26

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Earnings_Call_2
Apple's next earnings call is less than a month away.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple has scheduled its next earnings call for Tuesday, July 26, at 2 p.m. Pacific. The call, which will be broadcast live, will cover the company’s third fiscal quarter results following the first-ever decline in iPhone sales last quarter.

How to make your own iPhone 7

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Installing an extra camera is super easy.
Installing an extra camera is super easy.
Photo: PeripateticPandas

The grand unveiling of the iPhone 7 is still a couple months away, but if you can’t wait to get your hands on an iPhone with a dual-lens camera it’s actually incredibly easy to make one at home.

All you need is two iPhone 6s units, some special tools and a little attention to detail to create your own version of what will likely be the most boring iPhone update ever.

Here’s how to do it:

Transform your camera from a toy into a tool [Deals]

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Learn the skills and concepts necessary to take professional level photos.
Learn the skills and concepts necessary to take professional level photos.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Depending on who’s using it, a camera can either be a plaything or a means of expression, professional or otherwise. If you sprang for a proper digital or film camera but worry you won’t use it to its full potential, this course is for you. It’s 22 modules of professionally-taught, accredited instruction that’ll demystify the techniques and concepts of high-level photography for $19.99. This usually goes for more than $2,500.

Today in Apple history: Mac LC 520 makes a splash in education market

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LC 520
Was this really almost a quarter of a century ago?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Tuesday 28 Arriving on this day in 1993, the Macintosh LC 520 was among the first of Apple’s LC 500 series of medium-price Macs.

Selling for $2,000, it was particularly popular in educational institutions, a market Apple continues to pursue today. If you went to school in the decade of Nirvana, Bill Clinton and Pulp Fiction, this could well have been the Mac you used!

Is Apple behind the wheel of this mysterious high-tech van?

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This mystery van is likely making detailed 'point cloud' maps for autonomous vehicles.
Apple might be driving this mystery van.
Photo: Alexis OreskovicBusiness Insider

Apple has been busy working on its electric car project at secret facilities in Silicon Valley, but the tech that will make it totally autonomous might be hiding in plain sight throughout San Francisco.

During a drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, an eagle-eyed observer spotted what could be Apple’s latest self-driving car or mapping van, a vehicle that is armed with more sensors than ever.

Google has a secret plan to take over public parking and transit

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Google is coming for your city.
Google is coming for your city.
Photo: Google

A shadowy subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is planning to completely revolutionize public parking and transportation, according to a new report that shines a light on the ambitious initiative.

The mysterious company is Sidewalk Labs, and it has begun offering cities its high-tech services, which claim to make it easier to drive and park by creating a hybrid of public and private transportation options that utilize ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft.

Why you’ll love Apple’s dual-lens camera on the iPhone 7

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Why you'll fall in love with Apple's new dual-lens camera.
Why you'll fall in love with Apple's new dual-lens camera.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Despite a bevy of leaks, a ton of questions remain about the upcoming iPhone 7, the biggest of which is whether or not it will come with an exciting dual-lens camera.

One week it’s coming. The next it isn’t.

Maybe you’re thinking, why would you even want one anyway? Well, in today’s video, we’ll show you why a dual-lens camera would be an amazing upgrade for any iPhone (and we’ll even toss in some sexy, 3-D concepts of what a dual-lens iPhone might look like).

Check it out:

Case maker talks secret iPhone CAD files, Chinese intrigue [Podcast interview]

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Veteran case maker Tim Hickman talks about iPhone 7 leaks out of China.
Veteran case maker Tim Hickman talks about iPhone 7 leaks out of China.
Photo illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The market for iPhone cases is worth billions of dollars. The first manufacturer with a case that fits a new device — say, the iPhone 7 — can make a killing in the days following an Apple launch.

For this week’s episode of Kahney’s Korner, I talked with industry veteran Tim Hickman, CEO of Gumdrop Cases. Over the years, he’s tried all kinds of tricks and strategies in the race to be first to market with new iPhone cases — including making thousands of cases that turned out to be wrong.

This time around, Hickman has received several CAD files from mysterious sources in China that supposedly show the exact dimensions of the upcoming iPhone 7. Will he bet his company’s fortunes on these files of dubious origin? Let’s find out.

Facebook wants to tell you what to do this weekend

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Facebook
Facebook for iOS is getting curated events.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Finding something fun to do in your city is about to become as easy as opening up the Facebook app.

Beginning today, Facebook users in 10 cities across the U.S. will be able to view Featured Events in the iOS app that have been handpicked by Facebook’s curators to highlight the coolest art, entertainment, festivals, concerts and sports events you should check out.

Google is finally making its own iPhone rival

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The official Google phone is coming.
The official Google phone is coming.
Photo: Google

Apple and Google are set to face-off as direct competitors in the smartphone wars later this year, according to a new report that claims the search-engine giant is finally preparing to make its own smartphone hardware.

Google has offered a “pure” Android experience for years with its lineup of Nexus phones made by the likes Motorola, LG and Huawei. However, it appears that the company is ready to tighten its control of the Android platform by going toe-to-toe with iPhone by making its own handset.

Time to get ahead of the iOS 10 development frenzy [Deals]

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ios
iOS 10 is coming, developers. Now's your chance to get ahead of the pack and master its many new features.
Photo: Cult of Mac

iOS 10 is coming, and as with anything worthy of a base number it’s bringing a host of foundational changes. Messages is getting enhanced with a bevy of new features, Siri can now work with apps from the App Store, the Home app brings the Internet of Things one step closer to reality. Photos, texting, shopping, navigating, basically everything is being revamped or reinvented, meaning developers have their work cut out for them. This bundle of lessons is one way to make sure you’re ahead of the game and ready when iOS 10 drops, nearly 200 hours of training for just $29.