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Apple TV ad shows just how big the small screen has become

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The future of television is Apple TV.
The future of television is Apple TV.
Photo: Apple

Apple is pushing its new iteration of Apple TV hard, hoping to move it beyond a “hobby” into a must-have set top box for every living room and television set possible.

Apple’s new ad, “The Future of Television,” is a visual collage of just about everything you can do with the Apple TV, including watching television shows and movies, playing games, and listening to music.

Check it out.

Insane drone video shows one way to cook a turkey (maybe)

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Turkey drone video
"They're doing what, now?"
Photo: Dorinel Nedelcu/Pixabay

A new drone video is setting the Internet — and a turkey, and maybe even a forest — on fire.

It features an extreme version of cooking that might result in a perfectly roasted holiday bird. Or it might just be a charred mess. We’re guessing on the latter, but it’s somehow fascinating to behold.

Check out the latest weapon in the war on poultry below.

Grammar haters score a win in text-messaging study

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Text messages punctuation
You aren't helping, Lindsay.
Screenshot: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

I try to maintain grammatical integrity no matter what I’m typing. But a new study suggests that people may not appreciate that while text messaging, and it’s not just because they think I’m showing off how much gooder I can word.

The researchers concluded that texts that end in proper and correct periods come off as insincere.

$2,000 Phantom speakers will soon haunt Apple Store shelves

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From the Apple house to your own.
From the Apple house to your own.
Photo: Romain Salzman/Devialet

Devialet’s Phantom speaker is a ultra deluxe bit of audio gear, and Apple’s about to favor it with some serious retail real estate as the Cupertino-based company places the company from France’s product front and center in select Apple Stores.

If you head to one of them, you’ll see the Phantom starting Wednesday, December 9.

The wireless Phantom has a crazy 3000 watts of distortion-free sound, claims its maker, and starts at a cool $1,990, which makes it a perfect match for Apple’s retail stores, which aim to showcase high-quality items that are worth their high-end price.

Bob Ross tribute shows the joy of painting on iPad Pro

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iPad Pro painting
Welcome to the world of happy little digital trees.
Photo: iPhonedo (via YouTube)

A tribute to late public-television legend Bob Ross shows you the joy of painting on the iPad Pro, and it’s not so much about happy little trees as it is really thinking about those bushes.

YouTube user iPhonedo, who may want to rethink his wig choices, gives a Rossian demonstration of basic techniques using the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil to create beautiful landscapes. It’s about planning layers, thinking about light, and bushes. We can’t impress upon you enough how important bushes are. Bushes are so important that the video gets kinda weird.

Check it out below.

These hand-crafted T-shirts are for Apple geeks who like super-soft cotton

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Limited handmade A-Shirts from Peru.
Limited handmade A-Shirts from Peru.
Photo: A-Shirt

Cyril Pavillard has a resume that reads like most tech entrepreneurs. Start a company, enjoy success, sell for profit, repeat.

So what is he doing in the Apple T-shirt business? One, he wants to appeal to Apple fans all over the world with his line of A-Shirts bearing designs that pay homage to great Cupertino products and geniuses. Pavillard, himself, is completely gaga over Apple.

The second reason is more altruistic.

Hate Apple’s new iPhone battery case? Don’t buy it

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Ugh.
Apple's new iPhone case isn't pretty, but no one's forcing you to buy one.
Photo: Apple

Yes, Apple launched a new battery case for iPhone 6s today, and yes, it’s butt-ugly.

All battery cases are, but because this one has an Apple logo on it, the Internet is getting all bent out of shape over just how ugly it is. There’s one thing nobody is mentioning, though: You don’t have to buy one if you don’t like it — and no one really cares what you think.

None more black: LG’s OLED displays show that nothing is really something

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Black colors and contrast: A regular LCD TV versus an LG OLED TV.
Black colors and contrast: A regular LCD TV versus an LG OLED TV.
Photo: LG Electronics

This post is brought to you by LG Electronics.

When it comes to TVs, more is the new black. As the visual fidelity of film and television gets ever more refined, the visual subtleties and dynamics can be lost by TVs that aren’t able to produce a true black tone. It’s a benchmark of a monitor’s quality along with contrast ratio, and no TV can produce a more complete black than LG’s latest generation of OLED monitors.

Apple TV’s first big update adds Siri search for Apple Music

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tvOS just got another new update.
tvOS just got another new update.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The latest iteration of Apple TV’s operating system, tvOS 9.1, is out of beta and ready for the big screen.

The new update includes support for searching Apple Music with your voice, via the fantastic Siri Remote, so you no longer have to type in long artist names with the weird keyboard line that Apple offers you.

El Capitan 10.11.2 update improves Mac stability and security

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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 dropped a big new update on Mac users today with the release of OS X El Capitan 10.11.2.

This is the second big update for El Capitan since the desktop operating system was made public two months ago. OS X 10.11.2 brings with it a number of stability and security improvements for Mac, including fixes for Wi-Fi, AirDrop, Bluetooth, Mail, and Live Photos.

Here’s a full list of the changes:

watchOS 2.1 is out with lots of language support and bug fixes

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As smartwatches grow in popularity, the Apple Watch will continue to be the hands-on - or wrist-on - favorite.
As smartwatches grow in popularity, the Apple Watch will continue to be the hands-on - or wrist-on - favorite.
Photo: Apple

Apple Watch owners received a new software update this morning in the form of watchOS 2.1.

The new update comes over a month after watchOS 2.0.1 was made available to the public and contains a number of bug fixes and performance improvements to go with expanded system language support.

Internet questions Jony Ive’s sanity with new iPhone battery case

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My hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely little lumps.
My hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely little lumps.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s new Smart Battery Case is the ugliest product to come out of Cupertino since apps with leather stiching. 

The new case came as a surprise this morning, offering iPhone 6s owners some extra juice and protection, but its weird hump has drawn the attention and ire of fans, leading many to wonder, ‘did Jony Ive really approve this thing?’

Not only is the case so ugly it looks like Quasimodo had sex with a camel. It’s not even that functional. It can’t recharge the iPhone 6s from 0 to 100 percent. The only LED indicator is on the inside of the case. And you can’t decide when to have the case charge your iPhone.

It’s so awful I’d almost swear Scott Forstall snuck into the design lab and is pranking us. It’s ironic Apple’s obsession with sacrificing battery life to make the iPhone thinner has put the company in a corner, causing it to innovate its way into making a big bulky battery case.

We’re not the only ones that hate the new case. Apple fans went crazy on Twitter in disbelief over the Smart Battery Case. Check out some of the best reactions:

iOS 9.2 is now available to the public

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iOS 9.3 beta 6 is here!
iOS 9.3 beta 6 is here!
Photo: Apple

Apple just released iOS 9.2 to the public today after months of beta testing by developers and public testers.

iOS 9.2 is the second major update since iOS 9 was released to in Septmeber and brings with it a host of new bug fixes, as well as significant tweaks to the Safari View Controller that allows Safari to run natively within third-party apps.

Shockingly advanced travel mug will protect you from lukewarm coffee

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The Zojirushi travel mug will keep your coffee hot and contained.
The Zojirushi travel mug will keep your coffee hot and contained.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Travel mug by Zojirushi

There’s unquestionable power in an object that does one thing and does it well. Consider the lowly travel mug — it’s a common commodity among the world’s coffee-swilling commuters, and yet the standard design lets us down repeatedly.

How does it fail us? It doesn’t keep our coffee hot for long. And, worse, it’s got a tendency to drip, spill and even spurt lukewarm java onto our clothes and car interiors. Many of my shirts bear depressing coffee stains, the marks of a road warrior using an inferior travel mug.

CleanMyDrive 2 offers new tools to keep your external drives in top shape

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Finding and deleting junk on your external drives is super easy with CleanMyDrive 2.
Finding and deleting junk on your external drives is super easy with CleanMyDrive 2.
Photo: MacPaw

Ever noticed how filled with digital flotsam and jetsam your Mac gets? It’s even worse with external hard drives, which tend to fill up with OS X service files (with glorious names like .DS_Store or .TemporaryItems), Windows service files from when you connect to other PCs, resource forks and un-emptied files in the Trash.

CleanMyDrive is a fantastic utility to remove this kind of from your external hard drives, and now developer MacPaw has refined it even more to bring you CleanMyDrive 2, with new tools to help you keep all your connected drives clean and safe.

Extend your MacBook’s battery life by up to 4 hours [Deals]

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The ChugPlug acts like a portable wall outlet, extending your Macbook's life by 3 to 4 hours.
The ChugPlug acts like a portable wall outlet, extending your Macbook's life by 3 to 4 hours.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Whether you’re on a long flight or stuck somewhere during this holiday without a wall outlet, there are many occasions when extra juice can make the difference between getting your work done or not. These occasions are just what the ChugPlug Portable MacBook Power Pack was made for. It’s a slim powerstrip that acts like a portable wall outlet, allowing you to give your MacBook up to 4 hours of extra runtime, an invaluable backup that can be yours for $29.99.

Apple just released an iPhone battery case, and it’s butt-ugly

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Screen Shot 2015-12-08 at 10.21.39
Apple's new smart case will keep your iPhone running for up to 25 hours. But at what cost?
Photo: Apple

Apple today unveiled a surprise new $99 iPhone “Smart Battery Case,” available in white and charcoal gray — designed to not only protect your iPhone 6s or iPhone 6, but also to give it considerably longer battery life.

While Apple does not give specific battery capacity details, it notes that the battery case offers increased talk time up to 25 hours, Internet use up to 18 hours on LTE, and video playback up to 20 hours.

The downside? Well, it’s not exactly a “looker.”

Siri teams with Cerebral Palsy Foundation to teach you to ‘just say hi’

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Someday soon, this might be on your Mac.
Siri is loaded with good advice.
Photo: Apple/Cerebral Palsy Foundation

Siri is loaded with fun Easter eggs. However, its latest addition — created in collaboration with the Cerebral Palsy Foundation — isn’t flippant or sarcastic like some of the AI assistant’s other one-liners; it’s just good advice.

Ask Siri how to start a conversation with someone with a disability, and she’ll answer, “It’s easy. Just say, ‘Hi.’”

Instagram brings 3D Touch gestures to Android

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Instagram
Who needs an iPhone?
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
Who needs an iPhone? Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
Who needs an iPhone? Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

3D Touch isn’t just for iPhone users anymore!

The same 3D Touch gestures that Instagram integrated into its iOS app following the release of iPhone 6s are now available inside its Android app — and you don’t need a pressure sensitive display to use them.

Forget productivity, councillors caught using iPad to watch soccer

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Get one of these bad boys, and then some free gift card money to boot!
Despite the advances of iOS 9, these iPad users were no multitaskers.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

U.K. councillors in Croydon have been named and shamed for using an iPad during a council meeting to keep track of the score in a soccer game.

And — wouldn’t you know it — as with every other time something like this happens, senior Labour councillors John Wentworth and Pat Ryan claim that they were just “momentarily” taking a break from the important meeting they were in.

Apple pours $13 million into overhauling Elk Grove campus

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Yep, Apple's pretty darn valuable.
Apple's throwing money at its Sacramento County campus.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Apple is spending “at least $13 million” expanding its Elk Grove, Sacramento county campus, says a new report — in a move which could translate into thousands of new jobs being created.

Apple is reportedly converting a 134,000-square-foot warehouse into a new logistics operation. It has also added 1,450 additional parking spaces, medical and dental facilities, a massage room, exercise room, and even a yoga studio.