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Aluminum charging stand will elevate your Apple Watch [Reviews]

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Your Apple Watch will thank you for keeping it above the mess.
Your Apple Watch will thank you for keeping it above the mess.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Best List: Aluminum Apple Watch charging station by Satechi

I’ve got an Apple Watch problem. I need to keep it charged up, but it continually gets lost in the clutter on my dresser.

You might tell me to just clean up the top of my bedroom furniture, but I like that my new solution allows me to elevate my Apple Watch above the mess. The Satechi aluminum charging stand for Apple Watch keeps my wrist computer charged up and ready to go without getting lost in the cruft of my bureau’s disarray.

This might be the geekiest Steve Jobs portrait ever

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A familiar face to Apple fans made from familiar technology.
A familiar face to Apple fans made from familiar technology.
Photo: Jason Mercier

Cult of Mac 2.0 bugApple fans felt a deep sense of mourning in 2011 when Apple founder Steve Jobs succumbed to cancer. With the fifth anniversary of his passing approaching, Cult of Mac looks at the artistic tributes that followed.

Artist Jason Mercier is yet another creative person to use Apple devices — and maybe the only one to literally break them into pieces for his work.

Mercier has made a name for himself around the San Francisco Bay Area by creating mosaics with trash befitting his celebrity subjects. So when his cousin commissioned him to do a portrait of the late Apple founder, Mercier knew he had to construct it with the very products and components Jobs had a hand in creating.

Don’t risk a DUI — these gadgets make sure you’re good to drive [Deals]

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This tiny breathalyzer can save you from getting into big trouble.
This tiny breathalyzer can save you from getting into big trouble.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

We get it, you like to have a good time. So do we, but we also want to make sure you get home in one piece (we’re protective like that). That’s why we’ve found three different ways for you to check your BAC before you leave the bar to get into you car. One is self-contained and two work with your phone, but each is a great tool for keeping you and your friends from turning a night of fun into a nightmare.

Oklahoma City next in line for a ‘next-gen’ Apple Store

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Apple is continuing with its Apple Store refresh.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The Penn Square Mall Apple Store in Oklahoma City is set to become the next brick-and-mortar Apple retail store to receive a “next-gen” makeover.

Planning documents suggest that Apple is spending upwards of $2.5 million on the renovation, which saw the Penn Square Mall site close its doors on April 18.

Apple invests $1 billion in Chinese Uber rival

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money
Apple just made a big investment in China.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Apple has invested $1 billion in Chinese Uber rival Didi Chuxing in a move that continues Apple’s push into China and confirms the company’s interest in shaking up the automotive industry.

According to Tim Cook, the deal “reflects our excitement about their growing business … and also our continued confidence in the long term in China’s economy.” Perhaps more importantly, it could give Apple strategic insights and competitive advantages when it comes to Apple Pay and a possible Apple Car.

Steve Jobs’ biographer says Apple’s next big thing is ‘long overdue’

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walterisaacson
Walter Isaacson doesn't much like the Apple Watch either.
Photo: Bloomberg

Walter Isaacson, a.k.a the author of the gajillion-selling 2011 Steve Jobs biography, says that Apple is “long overdue” coming out with its next great innovation; speaking at a time when Apple stock continues to fall in the wake of declining iPhone sales.

“I got the [Apple Watch], but I don’t use it that much,” Isaacson told CNBC. “I don’t think the watch is the next big thing.”

Android 3D Touch clone gets put on hold

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Google is in no rush to support pressure-sensitive screens.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Android users will have to wait for Google’s native 3D Touch clone.

Sources familiar with plans for the upcoming Android N upgrade say support for pressure-sensitive displays won’t be available at launch.

iPad Pro and iPhone 6s hit new lows in this week’s best Apple deals

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deal news collage
Looking for hot deals on Apple gear? You found 'em!
Photos: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac, Apple, Logitech

Micro Center comes out swinging this week with a pair of all-time lows on Apple devices (although you’ll need to find them at a store near you). Or, you could grab the best price we’ve ever seen for a new, unlocked iPhone 6s.

See these hot Apple deals and more in this week’s roundup of the best bargains on Apple gear.

Insane iPhone 7 concept is too awesome to be real

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Don't get your hopes up.
Photo: DBS Photography

If you could design your own iPhone 7, without compromises and limitations, it would probably look a little something like this insane concept. It doesn’t just look amazing; it’s also packing out-of-this-world features that make your existing model look like a relic.

Weak iPhone demand punishes Apple suppliers

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iPhone 6 Plus
Apple isn't the only one suffering due to weak iPhone sales.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Weak demand for the iPhone is causing earnings to fall for a number of suppliers in Asia, and few of them are hopeful that the situation is going to change.

Foxconn, the biggest assembly partner for the iPhone, saw its profit fall 9.2 percent last quarter, while Pegatron’s nosedived a whopping 35.1 percent.

Bubble wrap portrait of Steve Jobs gives new meaning to pop art

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Bradley Hart injects paint into bubble wrap for photo-realistic portraits, like this one of Steve Jobs.
Bradley Hart injects paint into bubble wrap for photo-realistic portraits, like this one of Steve Jobs.
Photo: Deukyun Hwang/Arte Fuse

Cult of Mac 2.0 bugApple fans felt a deep sense of mourning in 2011 when Apple founder Steve Jobs succumbed to cancer. With the fifth anniversary of his passing approaching, Cult of Mac looks at the artistic tributes that followed.

From afar, the colorful portrait of a smiling Steve Jobs looks like a pixilated portrait made with an early digital camera. Get closer and those pixels take on a shape familiar to your thumb and forefinger — bubble wrap.

Jobs would appreciate Bradley Hart’s “Think Different” approach to bubble wrap as well as the hyper-focus attention Hart pays to inject each bubble with a different color of acrylic paint to form a famous face.

Everything you need to build and fix awesome gadgets [Deals]

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iFixit's kit of 64 specialized screwdriver bits will let you fix that device with the proprietary parts.
iFixit's kit of 64 specialized screwdriver bits will let you fix that device with the proprietary parts.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

For all the amazing devices you’ll find in an electronics store these days, it’s nothing compared to the wild DIY imaginations of people who aren’t the CEOs of major tech companies. Is there a machine to feed me breakfast? What about a device that guarantees I make a proper entrance?

No matter what you hare-brained idea, below you’ll find some of the best DIY tools to make it a reality.

Cola is the smart messaging platform that makes life easier

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Cola is getting even smarter with help from third parties.
Cola is getting even smarter with help from third parties.
Photo: Cola

We could all use a personal assistant who’s there to make life that little bit easier, and thanks to Cola, the world’s first smart messaging OS, we can all have one.

Cola is designed to take care of all the small but important things you have to do throughout your day, like arranging meetings and managing to-do lists. And for the first time, it’s opening up to third-party services to become even more powerful.

Google’s first iOS keyboard has built-in search, GIFs, and more

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gboard_gif_regularSearch
You can get your hands on Gboard today if you live in the U.S.
Photo: Google

Google just launched its very first keyboard for iPhone and iPad — and it’s awesome.

Called Gboard, and designed to look a lot like the default iOS keyboard at first glance, it’s jam-packed with useful features, including the ability to type with glide gestures, send GIFs, and search Google from almost anywhere.

Apple cuts App Store approval time to just one day

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App Store
Devs aren't left waiting for so long thanks to Apple.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

Apple has cut the amount of time it takes to approve new submissions for the App Store down to just one day, claims a new report.

The initiative — which is part of Apple’s efforts to focus on improving its services at a time when iPhone sales are decreasing — means that, in the past year alone, the mean number of days it takes an app to be approved has fallen from 8.8 down to only 24 hours.

Insane Samsung invention crosses Galaxy S7 with a surfboard

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No, it's apparently not April 1.
Photo: Samsung

Imagine that you’re in a Samsung team meeting. You’ve been asked to come up with unique ideas for a Galaxy S7 case and, because it’s late in the day and all the good ideas have already been voiced, you start coming up with joke suggestions.

Since everyone seems to love giant smartphones, you quip that some people might like it if you created a case the size of a surfboard. People could even use it for real, since the S7 is water-resistant. You look at the rest of the group, expecting someone to laugh. Your boss doesn’t crack a smile. Then he reaches for his phone and you fear that you’re out of a job.

“I’ve got a member of my team down here who deserves a massive raise,” he says.

Retrain Siri to make better sense of what you say

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Sorry, Alexa: Siri still the most widespread AI assistant
Siri feeling slow? Speed it up with this quick tip!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Have you ever noticed that Siri understands you less and less as the months go by? The digital assistant works great when you first set it up on a shiny new iPhone, but over time, it has a habit of becoming annoyingly inaccurate.

In this week’s Quick Tips video, I’m going to show you how to retrain Siri. By improving its recognition of your voice, you can make it work just as well as it once did.

Check the video out below.

Apple fails to save iPhone belonging to missing teen

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Parents of missing teens had hoped Apple would be able to shed some light on disappearance.
Photo: Blu Stephanos

Apple has reportedly admitted defeat when it comes to saving the iPhone 6 belonging to 14-year-old Austin Stephanos, who went missing with his friend Perry Cohen last July 24 — only for his damaged, non-working smartphone to be discovered off the coast of Bermuda.

It was hoped that being able to get the iPhone up and running would offer some answers about what happened to the two boys, whose disappearance prompted an extensive eight-day search of the Atlantic, spanning 50,000 nautical miles.

FBI promises more litigation in its anti-encryption vendetta

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iPhone hack
The FBI isn't backing down in its war on end-to-end encryption.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Fighting Apple may, according to some, have been the FBI’s worst PR disaster in history, but even its failure to convince Congress of its goals isn’t stopping its war on encryption — with FBI director James Comey telling reporters this week that more litigation can be expected as the feds seek to hack devices.

Apple might pull the plug on iTunes music downloads

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Apple might start signing artists to contracts, in order to compete with the likes of Spotify. Photo: iTunes/Apple
Are iTunes Store's days numbered?
Photo: Apple

Update: Apple is denying a report that it plans to stop selling downloads within the next few years. “Not true,” Apple rep Tom Neumayr told Re/code Wednesday afternoon without elaborating.

Apple is planning to give iTunes music downloads the boot in as little as two years, according to sources currently working with the company.

With sales already falling, Apple will instead focus its efforts on persuading fans to stream tracks and albums through Apple Music.

A rare and horrifying look at living conditions in an iPhone factory

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A Pegatron toilet that had to accommodate up to 40 workers.
Photo: The Daily Mail

A rare look inside the abandoned facilities where Chinese workers toiled away making iPhones reveals a grim environment that’s a long way from Silicon Valley’s plush lifestyle.

Depressing images reveal the tiny rooms where up to 12 Pegatron workers slept each night, the dirty dining areas where they ate, and the disgusting bathrooms where they washed.