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Posting weed on Instagram could land you in jail

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Only blaze up if you want to pay up.
Photo: Brett Levin/Flickr CC

If you like blazing up every now and then, make sure you don’t post it on Instagram. Since marijuana use is still federally recognized as illegal in the United States, posting a picture with that Mary Jane could mean you wind up with a serious fine or even some significant jail time.

Social media strategist Shannon Self says that an Instagram post with someone smoking marijuana is punishable by a fine of up to $150,000 or 18 months of jail time. That’s especially true in many states that still have laws in place banning marijuana either medically or recreationally.

Secure your Notes with password protection in iOS 9.3

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Keep your private info just that: private.
Keep your private info just that: private.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

iOS 9.3 has a new feature that allows you to protect your sensitive Notes with a password or with Touch ID. It’s a great way to keep stuff like security codes or medical information safe on your iPhone.

It’s kind of a weird process, though, so you might miss it at first glance.

Here’s how to keep your private notes secure with the latest version of iOS 9.

Best video editing apps for iPhone and iPad

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You don't need a Mac to create professional-looking video. With these great apps, an iPhone or iPad will do just fine.
You don't need a Mac to create professional-looking video. With these great apps, an iPhone or iPad will do just fine.
Photo: Ally Kazmucha/The App Factor

app-factor-logo-thumbnail Long gone are the days where video editing has to take hours and involve your Mac. Thanks to the iPhone and iPad, I’ve put together some awesome, professional-looking video. Depending on what your needs are, and how much control you want over the process, these are currently the best video editing apps I’ve found for iPhone and iPad.

App Store hits record $3.3 billion in quarterly revenue

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You'll be able to disable all notifications for Live Video on Facebook soon.
Facebook had a pretty good few months in the App Store.
Photo: Thomas Ulrich/Pixabay

Whatever else we hear from Apple’s earnings call later today, we know that its App Store game is strong.

The virtual store that provides all of your favorite fart apps raked in a Scrooge McDuck-esque pile of coin with a record-setting $3.3 billion in revenue and 5.5 billion downloads during the last three months of 2015.

Apple wasn’t the only company that finished the year strong, though; Facebook also pulled in some impressive numbers.

Apple Store employee restores faith in humanity with simple act

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Sometimes, people get it right.
Sometimes people get it right.
Photo: LynnMarie Rink

When LynnMarie Rink and her son, James, got to the Nashville Apple Store to replace his broken iPad last week, they weren’t expecting anything unusual. Of course, for James and his mom, atypical is their way of life.

James has Down syndrome and autism, and uses his iPad to communicate. When he got to the Apple Store last Thursday, he got excited at something out in the mall and ran out of the store at top speed. Unfortunately, there was a big glass wall instead of a door in front of him, and he ran into it face first, causing a little scene with tears and a fat lip.

It was just then that an Apple Store employee came up and offered to help them get their new iPad — and did something amazingly gracious.

Your boring Apple gear would look so much better dipped in 24k gold

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Goldgenie offers the iPhone 6s with a couple of additional upgrades, diamonds and gold.
Goldgenie offers the iPhone 6s with a couple of additional upgrades, diamonds and gold.
Photo: Goldgenie

Sure you can get you MacBook or iPhone in gold or rose gold colors. Or for a few bucks more – OK, several thousand dollars more – you can get your Apple products plated with real 24K gold.

Maybe the bitten Apple logo on your devices is enough status symbol for you, but Goldgenie, with offices in London and Dubai, is betting there are a few Apple fans drawn to the hypnotic shine of the precious metal.

Google Inbox search gets even smarter

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Inbox search gets smarter. Photo: Google
Inbox search gets smarter. Photo: Google

Google’s awesome Inbox app just got a heck of a lot more useful for those who leave all the important information they’ll need later inside their emails.

Starting today, Inbox can seek out addresses, contact information, bills, directions, bookings, package tracking numbers and more effectively than any other mail app.

These high-tech ski gloves will keep your fingers cozy

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With the Lithic ski gloves from Arc'teryx, there's no need to sacrifice dexterity for warmth.
With the Lithic ski gloves from Arc'teryx, there's no need to sacrifice dexterity for warmth.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Best List: Lithic ski gloves by Arc’teryx

It is hard to write an unbiased review about some of the greatest ski gloves I have ever pulled on.

The Arc’teryx Lithic gloves skip leather in the palm and instead use thermoplastic polyurethane, or TPU. Its hydrophobic properties keep the gloves from taking on moisture, which in turn keeps your hands from getting cold.

Conquering the iOS frontier takes skills, get ‘em here [Deals]

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Get hands-on practice with the inner workings of iOS 9 by building 10 working apps.
Get hands-on practice with the inner workings of iOS 9 by building 10 working apps.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

iOS 9 is a wide open landscape for building profitable apps and services, but you can’t set out to do so unless you know where you’re going and what you’re doing. This course from Makers Cabin teaches the skills you’ll need to build beautiful things on Apple devices, taking you through hands-on examples by building 10 apps. It’s invaluable, tangible experience that’ll give you the confidence to see your own development ideas come to life, and right now you can get access for just $39.

iPhone case lets you record phone conversations

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The JIC case for iPhone lets you instantly begin recording a phone conversation with the touch of a button.
The JIC case for iPhone lets you instantly begin recording a phone conversation with the touch of a button.
Photo: JIC

There’s no great way to record phone conversations. Apps and recording services come with fees and limitations. There’s my clunky way – putting the phone on speaker with my digital recorder nearby – but I will often lose a good quote from some sudden outside noise.

A company in Israel wants to mass produce a simple solution with an iPhone case that has a built-in recorder to pick up both sides of the conversation with the press of a button.

How to animate iOS 9’s app icons

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Here's how to animated iOS's app icons.
Here's how to animate iOS app icons on your homescreen.
Photo: Apple

By default, iOS doesn’t support animated icons, although there are a few exceptions: the Clock app, for example, or the way the Settings icon used to animate when you were downloading an OTA update. But wouldn’t it be great if every icon on your homescreen animated? Yes, it would … but unfortunately, only jailbreakers can make that happen.

Twitter doesn’t force ads upon ‘VIP’ users

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I'm not famous enough to lose promoted tweets.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

Our Twitter timelines have become swamped with ads and sponsored tweets, but if you’re famous enough, you don’t have to see them.

To provide its “VIP” users with a greater experience, and to prevent them from wandering to rival services, Twitter has all but stopped injecting ads into their timelines.

Why you should use Night Shift mode in iOS 9.3

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iOS 9.3 Night Shift
Night Shift mode is a must in iOS 9.3.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

iOS 9.3 might not look like much of an upgrade, but there’s one feature you should definitely be excited about. It’s called Night Shift, and it makes using your iPhone or iPad before bed more comfortable, more enjoyable and healthier by banishing blue light.

Here’s why you should use it once iOS 9.3 becomes available.

Barclays confirms Apple Pay is coming by April

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Apple Pay is coming to the U.K. this fall.
Barclays was the last major U.K. holdout for Apple Pay.
Photo: Apple

Apple Pay has added the last of the U.K. holdout banks, with Barclays revealing that it will start offering Apple’s mobile payment service to customers in the United Kingdom, “within the next 60 to 75 days.”

Although there’s no definite day given, that would put the date somewhere between March 12 and 27, which is slightly later than the “very early 2016” launch the bank had mentioned last year.

Windows Phone boss is caught tweeting from an iPhone

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Yeah. Someone did this again.
Screenshot: Killian Bell, Esq.

If you had asked me in the 1990s, I’d never have thought I’d one day feel sorry for Microsoft, but right now it’s pretty hard.

Two days after Microsoft finally got NFL announcers to stop calling the Surface an iPad, just in time for Microsoft’s tablet to stop working during a game, Microsoft VP Joe Belfiore, a.k.a. the long-time face of Windows Phone, has been spotted tweeting on an iPhone.

D’oh!

Curved photo sensor could lead to tiny Apple Watch camera

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iphone6pluscameralens
Apple is constantly pushing the boundaries with its cameras.
Photo: iFixit

Apple has invented a camera lens that would yield higher-resolution images and would be even tinier than the cameras used in today’s super-slim iPhones.

How tiny would it be? Imagine a total axial length of just 2 mm or even less, making this potentially perfect for the long-awaited FaceTime camera of the next-gen Apple Watch 2.

Apple’s not predicting a big sales bump for Apple Watch 2

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Apple Watch 2 may not be the big seller some are predicting.
Photo: Eric Heisuman

The Apple Watch 2 is expected to be a notable improvement on the original, but according to a new report Apple’s not expecting to see a big sales bump for the next-gen device.

In fact, Apple’s weaker-than-expected predicted numbers are a major reason why it opted to stick with Quanta Computer for production, rather than shifting manufacturing over to Foxconn, which builds the (much) higher volume iPhone.

Apple is now selling refurbished Apple TV 4 units online

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appletv
Apple's best Apple TV 4 price yet!
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple rarely reduces its prices, but if you’re looking to grab the company’s fourth-generation Apple TV for a bargain this is your lucky day — because Apple just added refurbished TV 4 models to its online store.

The basic 32GB set-top box will set you back $129, which represents a saving of $20 from the regular price of $149. The 64GB model, meanwhile, carries a price tag of $169, which equals $30 off the normal $199.

Apple could pay $532 million for infringing on iMessage patents

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Apple may have an unexpected payout on its hands.
Photo: Breaking Bad

Apple could owe up to $532 million for infringing on secure communication patents, used for both its FaceTime and its iMessage services — or at least it will if patent-holding entity VirnetX Holding Corporation has its way.

A lawyer for the firm told a court in (where else?) the Eastern District of Texas that, “Apple hasn’t played fair. They have taken Virnetx’s intellectual property without permission.”

Samsung is bringing all its best apps to iOS

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Samsung apps are coming to iOS.
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns/Flickr CC
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Samsung and Apple have been bitter smartphone rivals for nearly a decade now, but it appears that Samsung may be ready to finally embrace iOS.

Some of Samsung’s best apps (if not all) are coming to iOS soon, according to a new report that claims the Galaxy-maker plans to pull a Microsoft and bring its apps to Apple’s platform as part of its effort to increase adoption of its connected devices.

Apple busts out new betas for OS X, tvOS and Apple Watch

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A new beta is out for OS X El Capitan.
A new beta is out for OS X El Capitan.
Photo: Apple

Apple has dished out a brand new batch of beta software updates today for developers, bringing new software to OS X, Apple TV and Apple Watch.

The new software updates come exactly two weeks after Apple served up the first beta versions of iOS 9.3, watchOS 2.2, tvOS 9.2, and OS X 10.11.4, all of which bring a host of new features to your favorite Apple products.

iOS 9.3 beta 2 brings new goodies

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iOS 9.3 beta 2, now available for download. Image: Oliver Haslam - Cult of Mac
iOS 9.3 beta 2, now available for download.
Image: Oliver Haslam/Cult of Mac

Apple just seeded the latest build of iOS 9.3 to developers, with beta 2 now available to download via an over-the-air update on devices with either a current iOS 9.3 beta build installed or Apple’s developer profile configured.

The download, the third beta release of iOS 9.3 following beta 1 and the subsequent beta 1.1, doesn’t yet appear to be available via Apple’s online developer portal.

Best manual camera apps for iPhone

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For when the stock Camera app just doesn't cut it.
Photo: Unsplash.com

app-factor-logo-thumbnail Manual camera apps for iPhone offer better control over settings like exposure, focus, ISO and shutter speed. If you’ve ever shot photos in an environment where the light wasn’t ideal or had a rough time balancing shadows and light, you would benefit from a manual camera app.

While these kinds of apps aren’t always necessary, a great one is a good tool to have in your app arsenal. These are currently the best manual camera apps for iPhone.