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People can’t stop running into Google’s autonomous cars

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people-cant-stop-running-into-googles-autonomous-cars-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201605Google-autonomous-vehicle-accident-report-jpeg
Yep. This is a form that exists now.
Photo: Department of Motor Vehicles

Google’s autonomous cars have taken to the road with the rest of us normals in our comparatively Flintstones-esque, human-directed rides. And the very small brush-ups are starting to come in.

In fact, the California DMV has created a form just for reporting accidents involving at least one self-driving vehicle, and it publishes these reports on its website. And while the doomsayers and doubters have wrung their hands about cars plowing into trucks filled with baby penguins, the truth is that the dozen or so accidents on the list are so hilariously small that they hardly seem worth the paperwork at all.

They should definitely file the reports; don’t get us wrong. But we imagine an eye-roll or two while it happens.

Apple hires Google X Lab co-founder to work on health projects

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Apple's latest hire specialized at building robotic hands.
Apple's latest hire specialized at building robotic hands.
Photo: University of Washington/Flickr

Apple has added yet another wicked smart talent to its ranks recently by hiring famed robotics expert Yoky Matsuoka.

Yoky was working as the head of technology at Nest before joining Apple. She was also one of the co-founders of Google’s X Lab and is a MacArthur genius award winner.

Apple only sells these retrotastic T-shirts at its campus store

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These Apple t-shirts will bring a retro nerd vibe to your wardrobe,
These Apple t-shirts will bring a retro nerd vibe to your wardrobe,
Photo: Cabel Sasser/Twitter

Looking for a T-shirt that will be the envy of all your Apple fanboy friends?

The Company Store at Apple’s headquarters on 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino has stocked up on some great retro shirts that you won’t find anywhere else. The new items feature the rainbow Apple logo and clip art created by Susan Kare for the original Macintosh created by Susan Kare. There’s also one with the original Apple logo drawing with Isaac Newton.

Take a closer look at the new Apple T-shirts:

WhatsApp wins encryption victory in Brazilian courts

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WhatsApp is getting its own day(s) in court.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
WhatsApp
WhatsApp is getting its own day(s) in court. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

Apple’s encryption showdown with the U.S. government may be more or less dormant for now, but Facebook-owned WhatsApp has its own courtroom drama happening in Brazil. It scored a slight win today, however, as a judge overturned a decision yesterday that would have shut the whole thing down across the country for several days.

The controversy surrounds the messaging app’s end-to-end encryption. Specifically, the developer’s inability (and/or unwillingness) to crack it to comply with law enforcement requests.

Spring clean your Mac with these awesome apps

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Mac_Cleaner
Free up some disk space easily and quickly thanks to these apps!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

No matter the size of your Mac’s hard drive, there will come a time when you need to free up some space. Having a full hard drive can make your Mac feel sluggish, and running out of space can be terrifying.

Sifting through your archive of files may seem like a daunting task. But don’t fear — these three super-simple and effective Mac disk cleanup apps can help you out.

Check them out in the Cult of Mac video review below.

How to back up your iPhone or iPad to an external drive

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Use an external hard drive to free up space on your Mac.
Use an external hard drive to free up space on your Mac.
Photo: Ste Smith/ Cult of Mac

If you’ve got a tiny hard drive on your Mac and a large-capacity iPhone or iPad (or both!), you might worry that you’re about to run out of space due to all the stuff you want to back up from your iOS device to your OS X one.

You won’t have to worry any longer. This trick makes your Mac back up your iPhone or iPad to an external drive, which will ensure you never run out of space to keep your data backed up.

Here’s how.

Spotify just got a lot easier to navigate

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Spotify
Meet Spotify's new nav bar.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Spotify is ditching its hamburger button for a more familiar navigation bar on iOS, making it quicker and easier to access your music and features like Spotify Radio.

Users in some countries — including the U.S. — can enjoy the changes today.

Meet the loyal Newton fans who keep the device alive and kicking

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Keeping the light on. A group of enthusiasts who keep their Apple Newtons aglow.
Keeping the light on. A group of enthusiasts who keep their Apple Newtons aglow.
Photo: Adam Tow

Cult of Mac 2.0 bugGrant Hutchinson has never owned an iPad. He does, however, own some 15-dozen Newton devices, a few of which he uses every day to help manage tasks, a schedule and software clients.

Why would Hutchinson cling to and even rely on a clunky obsolete digital message pad, an Apple failure so big it inspired f-bomb rage in Steve Jobs and a week’s worth of damning Doonesbury comic strips?

Hutchinson is just one of a few thousand people worldwide who collect and even use Apple’s first mobile computing device, discontinued in 1998 after a number of incarnations over a rocky five-year run.

Apple devices top list of ‘most influential gadgets’ of all time

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iPhone
The iPhone is Time's most influential gadget of all time.
Photo: andri333 / Pixabay CC

Apple’s iconic consumer electronics continue to top the record books, fitting into the first (iPhone), third (Macintosh), and ninth (iPod) spots in Time Magazine’s list of the 50 most influential gadgets of all time.

The list is rounded out with the iPad (number 25) and Apple’s original candy-colored iBook (38), the Sony Walkman at number four, Kodak’s Brownie camera at number eight, and several consoles from Atari, Nintendo, and Sony scattered throughout.

It’s a surprisingly mixed list, in terms of historical time period, but it does tend to skew a bit modern, thanks to our rapid advances in our own “gadget” era.

iMessage comes to Android thanks to neat Mac hack

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Your Android friends may soon get blue chat bubbles too.
But how long will it last?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Having to bid farewell to iMessage is one of the reasons why many iPhone users won’t jump ship to Android. But thanks to a new app called PieMessage, you can now enjoy Apple’s insanely popular messaging platform on a Google-powered smartphone.

China strips Apple of exclusive iPhone trademark

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There's more than one 'iPhone' in China.
There's more than one 'iPhone' in China.
Photo: iphone.vc

Next time you buy an iPhone from China, you better be careful you’re not really getting a luxurious leather purse.

Apple is no longer the exclusive owner of the iPhone trademark in China, after losing a long legal battle against a Chinese company that claimed to have filed for the trademark much earlier.

Setting your sights on web development? Get started here [Deals]

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Get a lifetime of access to thousands of lessons in web development.
Get a lifetime of access to thousands of lessons in web development.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

So you want to be a web developer. It’s a dense and diverse field, so you better get studying. A lifetime of access to this bundle of OSTraining Developer Courses is a great place to get started.

With more than 3,000 video tutorials from subject experts and unlimited access to a sprawling training library, you’ll become skilled at building on open source platforms like WordPress and with languages like JavaScript, HTML and more. You can get a lifetime subscription now for just $65.

Idiot grounds flight with stupid Wi-Fi hotspot name

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Don't get on a plane with a Wi-Fi hotspot named "mobile detonation device."
Photo: Qantas
Don't get on a plane with a Wi-Fi hotspot named "mobile detonation device." Photo: Qantas
Don’t get on a plane with a Wi-Fi hotspot named “mobile detonation device.” Photo: Qantas

Everyone knows you shouldn’t say “bomb” on an airplane — and it should be just as obvious that you shouldn’t name your wireless gadgets ridiculous things, either.

A simple Wi-Fi hotspot sparked terrorism fears on a recent Australia-bound Qantas plane because someone thought it would be a good idea to name it “mobile detonation device.”

Samsung successful in bid to block used iPhone sales in India

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Apple supplier is increasing its ability to build masses of iPhones in India
Apple's plans in India have hit a roadblock.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

India might be willing to bend some laws to help Apple gain traction in the country, but when it comes to the company’s request to import and sell refurbished iPhones to the world’s second-largest mobile population, things aren’t quite so positive.

According to a new report, Apple’s application was turned down on the grounds that it might hurt local handset manufacturers.

And one of the companies behind the campaign to stop Apple? None other than decidedly non-local smartphone maker, Samsung!

Top venture capitalist says Apple should be focused on AI

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Prepare for the Woz-pocalypse
The Apple execs of the future?
Photo: TriStar Pictures

Rightly or wrongly, Apple’s stock taking a prolonged plunge has opened the floodgates for people to hold court about what it is that Apple’s apparently doing wrong — and how the company can be righted again.

Today it was the turn of venture capitalist Fred Wilson, founder and managing partner of Union Square Ventures. His answer: that Apple is failing to invest enough in artificial intelligence and cloud cloud computing.

Google teams up with Chrysler to build self-driving minivans

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The Chrysler Pacifica could soon drive itself.
Photo: Fiat Chrysler
self-driving
The Chrysler Pacifica could soon drive itself. Photo: Fiat Chrysler

Google is on the verge of signing a new deal with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to build “several dozen” self-driving minivans, according to a new report.

The first models could be on the road sometime this year for the first phase of the self-driving vehicle partnership, but it’s not yet clear what the main objective is.

‘Jesus’ arrested in Philadelphia Apple Store

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brighter_jesus
Not something you expect to see every day!
Photo: jenamillerrunner

Considering that Apple is the company behind the “Jesus Tablet,” and that its Apple Stores are pretty much modern day tech cathedrals, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to bump into the son of God in one.

Perhaps more of a surprise, though, to arrive in the Apple Store in Center City, Philadelphia to witness a long-haired man in robes — known to locals as the “Philly Jesus” — being dragged out in handcuffs.

What’s on my iPhone SE? Take a look

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What's on Ste's iPhone
Feeling nosey? Take a tour around my iPhone.
Photo: Ste Smith / Cult of Mac

The iPhone is one of the most personal devices around, with so many apps out there that there’s near limitless scope for customizing the device with whatever tools we need to make it fit our requirements.

With that in mind, here are the apps that I’m currently running on my iPhone SE. Looking for some tips on what to download for Apple’s latest smartphone? Interested in a tour to see what your favorite Liverpudlian Cult of Mac team member has on his handset?

Whatever your reasons, check out my latest video below.

iPhone SE may be bigger hit than even Apple expected

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Loads of people love the iPhone SE's smaller form factor.
Big hits come in small packages.
Photo: Sam Mills/Cult of Mac

The iPhone SE may be Apple’s smallest iPhone, but it’s apparently a big hit — possibly even more so than Apple expected!

After Tim Cook spoke enthusiastically about the iPhone SE during Apple’s most recent earnings call, the company has reportedly upped its orders for the diminutive handset for next quarter.

Don’t bid farewell to iPhone 7’s headphone jack just yet

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iPhone 7 won't be cheap.
Has the rumor-mill been lying to us? Surely not!
Photo: Eric Huismann

One of the most widely-circulated rumors about the upcoming iPhone 7 is that it will ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack in favor of Lightning or wireless headphones.

But don’t be so certain that this is the case: a newly-published photo, reporting to be a shot of the next-gen iPhone internals, appears to show the headphone jack still hanging on despite rumors of its demise.

Fitbit CEO: Apple Watch is ‘the wrong way to approach’ wearables

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Apple Watch
The Apple Watch is no Fitbit. Apparently.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The Apple Watch may have out-earned Rolex to the tune of $1.5 billion last year, but according to Fitbit CEO’s James Park, Apple’s pursuing the wrong direction with its wearable devices.

“We look at it from a consumer point of view,” Park said, noting that the Apple Watch, “is a computing platform [instead, and] that’s really the wrong way to approach this category from the very beginning.”

Tim Cook promises iPhone features you’ve never dreamed of

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LOVELOUD
Everything at Apple is great. Promise...
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Future iPhones are going to be so amazing, you probably haven’t even thought of the features Apple is going to add, Tim Cook claimed in a recent interview.

The Apple CEO appeared Monday on Mad Money in an effort to abate the company’s bleeding stock price following last week’s less-than-stellar earnings call. Cook reassured investors that the rumors of Apple’s demise have been greatly exaggerated once again.

While lackluster iPhone sales last quarter have scared off mega-investors and analysts alike, Cook promised some incredible innovation is in the pipeline. In addition to touting upcoming iPhone features, Cook’s wide-ranging conversation with Mad Money host Jim Cramer touched on everything from the Apple Watch being (inaccurately) dubbed a flop to Apple’s growing interest in India and much more.

Here are the highlights:

Surprise: Silicon Valley campaign donations lean to the left

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Crowdpac silicon valley campaign donations companies
You won’t find a lot of Trump yard signs in the valley. Source: CrowdPAC

Silicon Valley campaign donations have poured way more money into the presidential bids of Democrats than Republicans, surprising nobody, ever.

This shocking revelation comes from a report from CrowdPAC, a non-partisan, political crowdfunding organization that has discovered that the companies most likely to donate to campaigns are Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon. And while the findings don’t include fine-grain data like individual amounts or the actual numbers of employees, they do make one overwhelming conclusion:

Techies don’t like Donald Trump.