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Windows users should delete QuickTime ASAP

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Apple is killing QuickTime for Windows.
Apple is killing QuickTime for Windows.
Photo: Apple

Apple is finally giving up on QuickTime for Windows, but the company doesn’t plan to fix a few critical flaws that still linger with the software.

If for some reason you’re still using QuickTime for Windows, it would be a really good idea to just uninstall it right now.

Does Apple’s design team need some fresh blood? [Friday Night Fights]

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fnf1
Or is its best yet to come?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

You can’t think about Apple without thinking about great design. The two go hand-in-hand, thanks to the company’s incredible ability to churn out hit products that make billions of dollars one after the other, year after year.

FNF-bugBut Apple’s design team isn’t perfect. There have been some missteps over the years, and it seems like they’ve become more common under Tim Cook. Its design has also become predictable; even before we get a new product, we have a good idea what it will look like.

Are we worrying about nothing, or is it time Apple invited some fresh blood into Jony Ive’s lair? Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we fight it out over this and more!

Tim Cook is still America’s biggest LGBT power player

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LOVELOUD
Apple CEO Tim Cook will introduce the band Imagine Dragons Satuday at the LOVELOUD Festival in Utah.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple CEO Tim Cook didn’t come out publicly until 2014, but he’s quickly become one of the most powerful leaders of the LGBT community.

Out Magazine ranked Tim Cook as the most influential LGBT person of 2016 in its 10th annual power list that charts everything from a person’s impact on the economy, political clout, and how they change our world view.

Tile-based puzzle game sends you sliding into adventure [Reviews]

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Stencilsmith
Stencilsmith combines strategy, farming, mining and battle in a minimalist package.
Photo: Nicolas Sepi, Jr.

If role-playing games take too long, and you don’t think Threes is violent enough, Stencilsmith might be your jam.

It’s an endless puzzle title that has you sliding tiles around to harvest ore, craft weapons, and fight monsters, and it manages to do all of those things with beautifully simple and elegant style. And while everything looks pretty basic and charming, you’ll find after a while that you have way more to keep track of than you thought, and that’s when its ridiculous difficulty will start to gnaw at you like one of those wolves that always shows up on the board when you aren’t quite ready.

But it’s all great fun, and you should definitely check it out.

Check out this week’s best tech, tools and lessons [Deals]

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Learn to hack for the good guys with this comprehensive course in security and penetration testing.
Learn to hack for the good guys with this comprehensive course in security and penetration testing.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

This was a good week for deals, as the list below will attest to. From a camera that takes 3-dimensional pictures to an app for keeping your writing process in line, comprehensive courses in cyber security and more. Take a look, there’s probably something here you’ll be glad you found:

Apple Stores go green in advance of Earth Day

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Apple Store
Environmental concerns have been a big theme during Tim Cook's reign at Apple.
Photo: Apple

One week before Earth Day, Apple has changed its iconic one color logo to a green-leafed one at select Apple Stores — echoing Apple’s goal under Tim Cook of leaving the world a better place.

Retail staff will also be rocking special green shirts for the week — celebrating the fact that select brick-and-mortar retail stores belonging to Apple now run on renewable energy.

Use free Snapseed on iPad to tune your photos to best effect

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Snapseed lets you tune up your photos with ease.
Snapseed lets you tune up your photos with ease.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Snapseed is a free image editing app from Google that has some fantastic editing tools to make any photo even better.

The killer feature here is the set of Tune Image tools that let you take a good photo and turn it into a great photo, right on your iPad, with very little effort.

Here’s a quick intro to these fantastic tools and how to make them tune your photos to best effect.

Apple reveals how long its devices typically last

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tomb_sunny
How long do you keep your Apple devices?
Photo: Cult of Mac/Ken Marshall CC

How many years do you use your iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or Mac before shutting it down for the last time and sending it to the big Apple Store in the sky?

While Apple products are typically far more solid and long-lasting than those made by rivals, the company offers a clue in a newly released document concerning Apple and its commitment to the environment.

Apple reaches deal with Samsung to buy OLED iPhone displays

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battery
Apple gets by with a little help from its frenemies.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Samsung: you can’t live with ’em, you can’t make iPhones without ’em, a new report reveals.

Apple has reportedly brokered a deal with its long-time South Korean “frenemy” to provide OLED panels for a future iPhone, scheduled to ship in 2017.

iPhone recycling is Apple’s latest gold mine

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Apple recycling program
It looks like Apple's recycling program is paying off.
Photo: Warner Bros.

If this whole computer and smartwatch thing doesn’t work out, Apple could have a prosperous future in iPhone recycling.

The company released its annual environmental report today, which covers 2015. While the whole thing is pretty interesting, we really started paying attention at the part where the company shared how much material its recycling initiative had recovered from collected iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and anything else people sent in.

Apple says it recovered over 61 million pounds of stuff, and at today’s prices, it’s worth well over $50 million.

Apple looks to paid search to ‘improve’ discoverability on App Store

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App Store
Apple needs to help consumers find quality apps, and developers to sell them.
Photo: Parampreet Chanana/Pixabay

Apple seems to be looking to improve the way people find apps in the App Store. According to unnamed sources, paid search is one way Apple might both improve discoverability as well as make some money off the feature, like Google does on its own Google Play store.

Paid search would let developers pay Apple to more prominently display their apps in the App Store.

$2 billion lawsuit claims Apple Watch idea was stolen

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Apple Watch lawsuit
Best of luck, ma'am.
Photo: U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan

A Michigan woman is suing Apple and Nike for a combined $5 billion over claims that the two companies stole her concept for a device called a “Detachable Beeper Disc Digital Gym Shoe with Sensor.” She states that she filed a patent for her invention 20 years ago, well before the companies came up with their own, similar products — namely, the Apple Watch and the Nike+ smart running system.

While she’s seeking $3 billion from Nike, she’s only looking for $2 billion from Apple, so Cupertino’s getting off relatively light on this one.

Microsoft’s one-handed iOS keyboard goes beta

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Word Flow iPhone
Word Flow for iPhone is no more.
Photo: Microsoft

Typing on your iPhone with one hand is about to get a whole lot easier thanks to good samaritans at Microsoft that have invented a custom keyboard for iOS.

Microsoft revealed today that its latest iOS app, Word Flow, just entered the beta testing phase. The new keyboard (which is different than the Hub keyboard introduced last week) brings some of Windows 10’s best typing to iOS users like the ability to swipe out words, and intelligent word prediction to go with its dead simple one-handed mode.

Take a look:

Why Jony Ive rides in a chauffeured Bentley

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This is the luxurious interior of the Bentley Mulsanne, Jony Ive's chauffeur-driven car.
This is the luxurious interior of the Bentley Mulsanne, Jony Ive's chauffeur-driven car.
Photo: Bentley Motors

The striking thing about Motor Trend‘s piece on the rumored Apple car is all the talk of the “user experience.”

The various auto designers and experts interviewed by Motor Trend speculate that Apple will try to redefine the car “experience.” They talk about stuff like acoustics, and look and feel, rather than specs like miles per gallon or engine torque.

They predict that Apple will bring a better “user experience” to the car of the future, not just a better physical product.

This reminded me of interviewing Apple’s designers for my Jony Ive book. They explained that the design group takes exactly this approach when thinking about new Apple products. Instead of starting with chip speeds or screen resolutions, they begin by asking each other how the new product should make the user feel.

And thinking about this made me realize why Jony Ive has a chauffeur. It’s not because he’s a one percenter. It’s about Project Titan, Apple’s future car.

Psst. We’re giving away $1,000 iTunes gift cards [Deals]

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iTunes
What would you do with $1,000 dollars for iTunes?
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals Apple

You can think of iTunes like the biggest content candy store in the world, a mother lode of albums, apps, games, movies and TV shows, and on and on. If you’ve ever wondered what it’d be like to go into iTunes with a huge bag to fill as you please, today could be your lucky day. Right now you can enter to win a $1,000 iTunes gift card, no strings attached.

Instagram gets personal with ‘Videos You Might Like’

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Find more of what you like in new Instagram video section.
Find more of what you like in new Instagram video section.
Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

Instagram gets personal in hopes of helping you find interesting shared videos much more easily with a new feature in the Explore area of its popular photo sharing service.

Called “Videos You Might Like,” the new personalized channel can be found in the Explore grid within the mobile app. Now you can spend less time slogging through the junk and get right to the good stuff.

Apple lines up Manchester City star as sport ambassador

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Raheem Sterling of Manchester City.
Raheem Sterling of Manchester City.
Photo: JoshJDSS/FlickR

Apple is planning to make a big advertising push during the 2016 UEFA European Championship football tournament, and Raheem Sterling could be the star of the company’s ads.

Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling is reportedly close to signing a deal with Apple to become its first ever global sports ambassador from England, but the entire deal hinges on whether the 21-year-old phenom actually makes the team.

Otherwise great platformer is virtually unplayable in VR Mode [Reviews]

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Space Box
Space Box is a decent platformer, but its hook doesn't quite work.
Photo: Tom Graczyk

Let me say this up front: Space Box is a fantastic game. It’s challenging, fun, and has some really great mechanics and art. And if you have a set of virtual-reality goggles to plunk your iPhone into, you can even play it hands-free in 3-D using head-tracking controls.

And that’s where it runs into some trouble, but you shouldn’t let it ruin the game for you.

Apple deals: Lowest prices ever on iMac, MacBook and more

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Don't let OS X windows take over your whole screen.
Wouldn't a new iMac look great on your desk?
Photo: Luke Chesser/Unsplash

While the anticipated MacBook Pro revamp is grabbing all the headlines, we’ve got an iMac deal that should be getting your attention.

Get the details on this hot buy, plus the lowest prices we’ve ever seen on a premium MacBook and a handy iPad accessory, in this week’s roundup of the best Apple deals.

Samsung’s Gear Manager app for iPhone leaks out early

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samsungs-gear-manager-app-for-iphone-leaks-out-early-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201603Gear-S2-with-iPhone-jpg
Soon!
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
Soon! Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
Soon! Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

Samsung’s new Gear Manager app for iOS, which will let you pair an iPhone with the Gear S2 smartwatch, has leaked out ahead of its official debut.

Testers say the app will bring a surprising amount of functionality, allowing users control music from their watch, and even sync new faces to it.

The only way to benefit from the digital age is to study it [Deals]

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Study the essentials of marketing in the digital age with this bundle of 7 courses.
Study the essentials of marketing in the digital age with this bundle of 7 courses.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

These days, being an entrepreneur means being a master of the digital marketplace. Savvy use of social media, search engine optimization, and developing effective work habits make the difference between thriving or floundering. This bundle of seven courses covers those and a host of other essential topics to doing business in the digital age, and right now you can get access for just $19.