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Apple supporters rally across the U.S. in protest of FBI

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Protesters gather around the Apple Store in downtown San Francisco.
Protesters gather around the Apple Store in downtown San Francisco.
Photo: Traci Dauphin/Cult of Mac

Apple fans rallied behind their privacy savior in more than 50 cities across the United States today to protest the FBI’s demands that Apple unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone and compromise the security of millions of users’ data in the process.

Grassroots protests broke out from Albuquerque to Washington, D.C., aiming to raise public awareness about the privacy battle Apple is fighting. The protesters had some harsh words for the FBI.

Apple’s not crippling the Apple Pencil after all

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Apple Pencil
Apple Pencil is the best iPad accessory.
Photo: Apple

Don’t worry iPad Pro lovers, Apple isn’t nerfing it’s fancy Pencil.

The company removed the ability to navigate in iOS 9.3 with the Apple Pencil in the last four beta updates, but Apple reassured users today that it will bring the functional it back by the time iOS 9.3 is available to the public, it’s just fixing a few things in the meantime. 

Coca-Cola boxes can now transform into iPhone VR viewer

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Why buy an Oculus Rift when you can get VR with Coke?
Why buy an Oculus Rift when you can get VR with Coke?
Photo: The Coca-Cola Co.

Recycling is great. Reusing is even better, which is why Coca-Cola’s new packaging that can double as a VR viewer for iPhone one of the coolest and greenest innovations we’ve seen so far this year. 

The new packaging prototype transforms a traditional 12-pack box made from recycled cardboard into a Google Cardboard-esque VR viewer. Coca-Cola doesn’t have immediate plans to release the new packaging, but it probably wouldn’t take much convincing if the right promotional partner came along.   

Three different versions of the VR packaging have already been conceived. Watch demos of all three below:

How to track App Store sales and iTunes price drops

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CheapCharts allows you to monitor price changes not only for App Store sales, but iTunes content as well.
CheapCharts allows you to monitor price changes not only for App Store sales, but iTunes content as well.
Photo: Ally Kazmucha/The App Factor

app-factor-logo-thumbnailWhile I don’t ever mind paying for amazing apps by great developers, who doesn’t like App Store sales — or even better, sales on iTunes movies and music? A few months ago I stumbled on an app called CheapCharts and I’ve been using it ever since to monitor App Store sales on apps I want to keep an eye on.

iPhone’s perfect ports don’t make up for all the missing features

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Galaxy S7 is pretty, powerful, and packing huge improvements.
Give me a Galaxy S7 over an iPhone 6s... please!
Photo: Samsung
Give me a Galaxy S7 over an iPhone 6s... please!. Photo: Samsung
Give me a Galaxy S7 over an iPhone 6s… please! Photo: Samsung

Samsung is under fire again from iPhone fans for its apparent lack of attention to detail when designing the new Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. Apparently, the fact that the ports don’t line up on the bottom of these devices automatically means they’re not as good as Apple’s.

But it’s total rubbish.

Up-close with world’s largest piece of curved glass at Apple HQ

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More than 3,000 giant  curved glass panes will be used at Apple campus 2.
More than 3,000 giant curved glass panes will be used at Apple campus 2.
Photo: EPA

The world’s largest piece of curved glass is currently being installed at Apple’s fabulous spaceship campus. Over 3,000 gigantic curved glass panes will be used to form the walls on both side of Apple’s four-story campus that will measure more than one mile around.

Apple will use more than six kilometers of curved glass once the project is completed at the end of 2016, so the European Press Agency decided to get a closer look at the monstrous project as it enters its most delicate phase.

Check out the size of these huge glass panes:

Streamline your Instagram filters to work smarter, not harder

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Work smarter, not harder, with Instagram.
Work smarter, not harder, with Instagram.
Photo: Redd Angelo/Unsplash

Instagram power users are all about the filters, typically choosing a few favorites that they use more often than others.

Instead of swiping back and forth along the filters row, why not reorder them to put the ones you use most often up front? Better yet, how about deleting the ones you don’t use ever to streamline your entire filter experience?

Here’s how.

iPhone case adds bulk but keeps credit cards on lockdown [Reviews]

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The UAG Trooper It features a rugged design with reinforced corners for extra drop protection.
The UAG Trooper It features a rugged design with reinforced corners for extra drop protection.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

As a victim of a poorly-made iPhone wallet case that lost my ID and credit card, I’m always wary when I try a new one. I like carrying my valuables with my iPhone so I don’t need a secondary wallet, but I really like hanging onto my stuff even more.

The Urban Armor Gear Trooper case takes great pains to secure three to four plastic cards (and a bit of cash) in its roomy interior and provides a locking door that acts like a mini safe — nothing’s gonna fall out of this wallet case.

Public testers can now download latest iOS and OS X betas

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ios-9-3-notes
iOS 9.3 beta 4 is out now for testers.
Photo: Apple

The latest batch of betas from Apple have just been made available to public testers one day after their initial release to developers.

Members of Apple’s Beta Tester Program can install iOS 9.3 beta 4 on their devices. The update adds a bunch of new feature like Night Shift mode, Touch ID-secured Notes, as well as a ton of bug fixes. Users can download the beta directly from Apple’s website, or install it over-the-air if the previous beta is already installed.

OS X 10.11.4 beta 4 has also been released to public testers. For a round up of new features to expect in iOS 9.3, check out our two-minute video below:

A dual flash drive perfect for transferring data between iOS devices [Deals]

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iKlips makes it easy to store and transfer data for any iOS device.
iKlips makes it easy to store and transfer data for any iOS device.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

The iKlips might be the easiest and fastest data storage and transfer option for iOS devices. At 32 gigs, it’s got a USB on one end and a Lightning on the other, making it easy to access your music, photos, documents, and more at a moment’s notice. Right now a 32 gig iKlips drive is just $65.

Apple Watch’s biggest competitor is running into problems

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Photo: Fitbit
Fitbit's in the s**t.
Photo: Fitbit

We still don’t have exact sales numbers on the Apple Watch, but something is clearly having a big impact on Fitbit, Apple’s biggest rival in the fitness wearables category.

Fitbit stock dropped 19 percent today after its forecasts missed estimates, and analysts downgraded the stock as a result. Fitbit shares have declined 44 percent this year so far.

And the Apple Watch? By all accounts we’ve heard, it’s doing pretty darn well.

Beloved iPod shuffle is reborn for the Spotify era

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Mighty Clipped and plugged in
The new Mighty wants to bring Spotify to those with an active lifestyle.
Photo: Mighty Audio

Today, the iPod shuffle you’ve been hoping for is getting a shot at life — no thanks to Apple. Mighty Audio is launching its Kickstarter campaign for the new Mighty streaming music player, a small clip-on device that can stream Spotify wherever you go without having to use your smartphone. A portable, affordable music player with streaming capabilities? Yes please.

Everything that’s new in iOS 9.3 beta 4

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iOS 9.3 Beta 4

Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

iOS 9.3 inched one step closer to its public launch yesterday with the developer release of beta 4, which brings a handful of new features to iPhones and iPads along with a couple of bug fixes.

iOS 9.3 beta 4 doesn’t contain any huge new features or a graphics overhaul, but it polishes up what is already a solid operating system. In today’s video, Cult of Mac will show you all the best new features iOS 9.3 beta 4 has to offer in under two minutes.

Check it out:

Apple’s fight with the FBI does nothing to harm its brand

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Apple takes second spot in list of UK's best employers
Apple's brand value is safe and sound.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

People may be split over whether or not Apple is doing the right thing by defying the FBI by refusing to create an iPhone backdoor, but according to a new report, Apple’s squabble over privacy isn’t likely to have much of an impact on its brand appeal — however much Donald Trump wants people to boycott the company’s products.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster this morning revealed the results of a survey of 1,0002 Americans — suggesting that an equal number of people are more or less enamored of the brand as a result of the recent news, while the majority of respondees claim not to know anything about the story.

Can you juggle three iPads? (Yes, but you probably shouldn’t)

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Olga Kay shows off her mad iPad juggling skillz.
Olga Kay shows off her mad iPad juggling skillz.
Photo: Olga Kay

The cheapest iPad costs $269. The most expensive iPad costs $1,079. And they’re all basically wafers of easily-damaged silicon, sandwiched between even more easily shattered glass.

The point? You don’t want to drop an iPad, let alone three of them. Yet that’s just what Olga Kay risked, trying to answer one timeless question: can you juggle iPads?

Pro-Apple privacy protests are planned for 50 cities around the U.S. today

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Encryption protest San Francisco
Protests will take place at 5.30pm today.
Photo: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac (via Apple and protestsign.org)

Grassroots protests against the government’s attempts to hack the iPhone are set to take place today in nearly 50 cities around the United States, beginning at 5.30pm local time.

“FBI Director [James] Comey has been repeatedly asking the White House and Congress for a backdoor to encrypted phones for the past year,” privacy advocates Fight for the Future representative Holmes Wilson tells Cult of Mac. “If he says he doesn’t want this kind of access going forward, he’s just lying, and you can see it in the public record.”

According to Wilson, this is why this story is such a big deal — and what Cult of Mac readers can do to get involved:

No precedent, eh? Justice Department wants Apple to unlock 12 more iPhones

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iPhone 6s
Did anyone seriously believe this wasn't going to happen?
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

FBI director James Comey and his supporters suggest that making Apple break its iPhone encryption for the San Bernardino shooter case would be a one-off event, and not the start of a slippery slope into unwanted surveillance.

Well, it seems that someone needs to tell the Department of Justice that, because the D.O.J. is reportedly salivating at the thought of being able to hack iPhones for criminal investigations — with court orders being filed for Apple to help extract iPhone data in a further dozen cases around the U.S.

Bill Gates insists Apple should help the FBI unlock iPhone

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Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, rivals and friends.
On this occasion, it's Bill Gates who is thinking different.
Photo: AllThingsD

We’re decades removed from Bill Gates’ vicious battle against Steve Jobs, but Gates isn’t quite as ready as some of his contemporaries to side with Apple concerning one of tech’s biggest stories of 2016.

In a new interview, Gates defies Silicon Valley consensus, arguing that Apple should create an FBI backdoor for the iPhone — and siding with FBI director James Comey by suggesting that this wouldn’t, in fact, set a dangerous precedent for the possibility of future snooping.

Manhattan D.A. can’t wait for Apple to lose encryption case

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iPhone 5c by uveX encryption
It is a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing.
Photo: uveX/Pixabay

If Apple loses its encryption battle with the FBI over the data contained on a terrorist’s phone, it will make Manhattan’s district attorney and police commissioner very happy.

Despite the federal government’s claim that the updated version of the iPhone’s operating system will only be used on this case, D.A. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. sees a government victory as a sure way to get Apple to unlock a bunch of other devices his office is sitting on. And by “a bunch,” we mean hundreds of phones that the company could suddenly be compelled to compromise.

Zuckerberg backs Apple in fight against FBI

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quotes on Apple
He doesn't agree with Tim Cook.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Apple has added Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to its growing list of elite tech allies that support that company’s fight against the FBI’s demands to create a back door on iOS to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone.

During an appearance today at the the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Zuckerberg said that adding backdoor access to devices is neither effective nor the right thing to do.

Best iPhone and iPad apps for project managers [Reviews]

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6 apps every project manager should have installed on their iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
6 apps every project manager should have installed on their iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
Photo: Allyson Kazmucha/The App Factor

app-factor-logo-thumbnailProject management can get overwhelming quickly, especially if you’re juggling multiple initiatives and deadlines at once. From keeping your team on track to ensuring there is good communication and planning between you and your client, there are tons of project management apps available in the App Store to help you tackle even the most challenging of tasks.

I’ve been using my iPhone and iPad to help me manage teams and keep projects moving for the better part of five years now. While my workflow constantly changes as tools and apps become better and better, here are my favorite project management apps that I just couldn’t do without.