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The greatest Xmas gift you can give: Apple evangelism

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The holidays are the perfect time to spread the Apple love.
The holidays are the perfect time to spread the Apple love.
Photo: Jack Mayfield

As an Apple fan, there’s a great gift you can bestow upon your friends and family this holiday season. The amazing part is, it’s free.

I’m not talking about the free tech support you’ll inevitably dole out to befuddled relatives (Cult of Mac’s how-to section can help with that, BTW). I’m talking about evangelizing for two of Apple’s least-loved products — and this gracious act will also goose the greater good.

This concept turns the iPhone 7’s touchscreen into an infinity edge pool

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If Apple took a page out of Samsung's bezel-less design book.
If Apple took a page out of Samsung's bezel-less design book.
Photo: SCAVidsHD

There have been plenty of rumors about Apple creating bezel-less iPhones over the years, and as many concept videos turning those rumors into sci-fi CGI.

This concept’s different, though, in that it’s actually plausible. Meet the iPhone 7 Edge, a concept that takes the concept of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and applies it to the next iPhone.

WhatsApp will take on FaceTime with video calling feature

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WhatsApp-Update-iPhone-UK-Version-iPhone-6S-3D-Touch-iPhone-New-Feature-WhatsApp-Update-iPhone-Video-Calls-WhatsApp-Update-Video-421217
You'll now be able to WhatsApp your friends with full motion video.
Photo: Macerkopf.de

Having added voice calling at no extra cost earlier this year, WhatsApp is now reportedly looking to introduce FaceTime-style video calls, according to a new report.

The leaked iOS screenshot shows a full-screen video call, along with a smaller inlaid video preview with the camera view of the call recipient, just like Skype or Apple’s own video calling service.

360-degree videos debut on Apple TV

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appletv
Immersive 360-degree videos are now available to fourth-gen Apple TV owners.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Now you can watch (and explore) 360-degree videos on the new Apple TV, thanks to virtual reality network Littlstar’s free app.

The network’s new tvOS app delivers content from the likes of Showtime, Disney and PBS. It works with Apple TV’s Siri Remote, granting users the ability to control the angle used in the immersive 360-degree videos via the remote’s nifty trackpad.

iRich: Businessman gifts former classmates 39 iPhone 6s handsets

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Iphone_for_free
Well, that's one way to show you remember your classmates.
Photo: Weibo

Christmas came early for schoolfriends of a Chinese businessman when he distributed 39 brand new iPhone 6s handsets during an elementary school reunion (!) over the past weekend.

The rose gold iPhones were engraved with the words, “To commemorate the Beilun Sanshan Primary School Class of 1998.” The generous giver of the gifts, a businessman with the surname Zhang, reportedly handed out the iPhones during a dinner in Ningbo, a city in China’s Zhejiang province.

Pro Tip: How to watch video while checking email on iPad

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There goes my productivity. Thanks, Apple!
There goes my productivity. Thanks, Apple!
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Pro Tip Cult of Mac bugSo you’re watching a TV show or movie on your iPad and you hear the ding that means you just got a new email. You could double press on the Home button to bring up the multitasking bar and swipe over to your Mail app, but why?

One of the cool gosh-wow things of iOS 9 on a newer iPad is the picture-in-picture multitasking feature, which means you can switch over to any app while you continue watching that video.

Here’s how.

The absolute best gifts to get loved ones for the holidays

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'Tis the season for giving.
'Tis the season for giving.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

If you’re anything like us, procrastination is one of the biggest hallmarks of the holidays. We’re here to help with our gift guide liveblog, which will be updated from now until Santa starts dropping through chimneys.

Whether you’re looking for something for a friend, spouse, significant other or just your dog, we’ve got a little something for everyone. Snap up these great gift ideas now — so you can get back to procrastinating.

China Mobile roadmap reveals iPhone 7c launch date

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A concept rendering of the iPhone 6c.
A concept rendering of the iPhone 6c.
Photo: Martin Hajek

The biggest wireless carrier in the world may have just revealed when the iPhone 6c 7c will finally launch.

Rumors of the iPhone 7c have been heating up the rumormill for months now, and with the device’s big unveiling supposedly just around the corner, it appears that China Mobile has accidentally confirmed to the world that the new low-cost iPhone will arrive by April 2016.

How to free up iPhone space with iMyfone Umate

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iMyfone Umate makes it quick and easy to clear cruft from your iPhone.
iMyfone Umate makes it quick and easy to clear cruft from your iPhone.
Photo: iMyfone Technology Co.

This post is brought to you by iMyfone Technology Co., maker of iMyfone Umate.

Sure our iPhones look sharp, but the sleek exterior hides an inner life that resembles the floor of a bachelor pad. Broken bits of uncompressed photos, unused files, app caches, cookies, backup logs and whatnot clog up the works (there’s probably a few empty pizza boxes in there, too).

Tiny audiophile earbuds deliver big, clear sound

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Small and unassuming, with incredibly clarity and tone.
Small and unassuming, with incredibly clarity and tone.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Best List: Reference X20i In-Ear Headphones by Klipsch

Have you ever wondered whether a pair of $550 earbuds is worth the price? I have, but never really had the scratch to put it to the test.

Klipsch, however, sent me a pair of their high-end earbuds, the Reference X20i In-Ear Headphones, to test. When I opened the wooden box and slid the headphones out of their leather pouch, then slipped their oval-shaped eartips into my sound holes, I went to the Star Wars: The Force Awakens soundtrack. The orchestral music seemed like a great way to see if these really expensive headphones match their price tag.

ResearchKit is taking aim at hepatitis C

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ResearchKit is just as revolutionary as researchers hoped.
ResearchKit is just as revolutionary as researchers hoped.
Photo: Apple

ResearchKit is already helping medical researchers make groundbreaking discoveries in areas like Parkinsons disease, autism, and cardiovascular disease. Now the open source software is being put to use to study hepatitis C, a virus we know little about, even though over 3 million Americas suffer from it.

Your GoPro shots could help map the world

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Part of a sunset sequence in the Antarctic.
Part of a sunset sequence in the Antarctic.
Photo: Mapillary

Those beautiful GoPro photos of your goofy travels on bike or skis may contain an unmapped part of the world.

In its quest to surpass Google in visual mapping, the app Mapillary earlier this month added GPS support to GoPro users who have the iOS version of the app.

Google and Ford may be teaming up to build self-driving cars

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Obama wants to give self-driving cars a boost.
Ford will lend Google some of its automotive expertise
Photo: Google
Ford will lend Google some of its automotive expertise. Photo: Google
Ford will lend Google some of its automotive expertise. Photo: Google

Google is reportedly teaming up with Ford for a self-driving car project that will combine Ford’s vehicles with Google’s technology.

According to sources supposedly familiar with the plans, the deal will be announced at next year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January.

A pair of apps to clean up your iPhone’s act [Deals]

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original_3114_PhoneClean_MF

Our mobile devices have to be cleaned out regularly, a time-consuming and often frustrating task. Unfortunately Apple doesn’t really provide the best tools for doing the job, often leaving bits and pieces of apps and files behind, or ignoring the storage methods of various third-party apps. That’s why this bundle is a must for anybody looking to streamline their mobile experience. Included are a pair of apps that will clean out any iOS device’s drives, and keep what’s left organized and easily accessible. You can get both for just $19.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

2015: The year photography moved (and moved us)

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More than a trillion photos were captured in 2015.
More than a trillion photos were captured in 2015.
Photo: HypeBeast

We were too busy taking our own pictures in 2015 to notice that something about photography had changed.

This was the year the photo moved. It shed its flat, two-dimensional constraints and showed a life once left to the imagination.

The movement could be slight, as in Apple’s Live Photos, a new feature on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus camera that records a snippet of video before and after the frozen moment to add an extra dimension.

Spice up your video project with now affordable Discovery footage

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From a clip that is among 30,000 that will make up the Discovery Communications library on VideoBlocks.
From a clip that is among 30,000 that will make up the Discovery Communications library on VideoBlocks.
Photo: Discovery Communications/VideoBlocks/ Vimeo

We love the science and nature documentaries on the Discovery Channel. Producers hire some of the world’s best filmmakers, sends them to remote and beautiful places on Earth where, in some cases, they risk their lives to get us the kind of footage that sates our curiosity.

The work – from shots of erupting volcanos and charging hippos to the sun sinking below the curvy horizon of a dessert – is stunning. And a lot of it ends up cut and filed away, never to be seen.

The subscription-based stock video company VideoBlocks announced Tuesday it has struck a deal with Discovery Communications to make available more than 30,000 clips, some of which are high definition and 4K.

The 10 best albums of 2015

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2015 was packed with incredible albums
2015 was packed with incredible albums
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Cult of Mac's Best of 2015 2015 has been a big year for brilliant albums, with everyone from Kendrick Lamar to Adele blasting out savory songs that changed the landscape of music. We saw Jamie XX arise as an incredible solo act, Ben Gibbard got his emo-groove back, and Drake dominated the rap world with brutal rap battles and meme-tastic music videos.

It was tough to narrow down the amazing albums of 2015 to just 10, but here are our favorite albums of the year.

Dark Fear will scare you to death this Christmas

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darkfear-1024x768
The scariest iOS game of 2015.
Photo: Arif Games

T’was the night(s) before Christmas and all through the App Store, not a creature was moving except… wait, was that? I thought I was alone in here!

Welcome to the world of Dark Fear, a retro-styled pixel horror game that’s creepy and creative enough to keep you tingling throughout the holiday season.

There’s a reason it’s so damn scary: Dark Fear was created by Arif Majothi, a 38-year-old game developer who got his start working on horror movies. He combined his mastery of the horror genre with his love of classic ’80s and ’90s Sierra games like Phantasmagoria (it even starts with an MS-DOS-style floppy disk prompt).

The resulting title pays homage to the past, while being spooky enough to scare the bejesus out of you in the closing days of 2015. What more could you ask for?

Forget breaking the Internet, Kim Kardashian broke the App Store

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Kim Kardashian wants to takeover your keyboard.
The end is nigh.
Photo: Kimoji

Looking forward to Christmas? So am I — unless humanity ignominiously implodes en route to December 25.

What would lead me to raise that possibility? Oh, just the fact that not only did Kim Kardashian’s newly-launched emoji app immediately shoot to the top of the App Store charts, but its popularity even caused sweeping technical difficulties across Apple’s giant app repository.

We brought this on ourselves, didn’t we?

iPad Pro sales may be off to a disappointing start

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iPad Pro
Apple's supersize tablet may not be headed for supersized sales.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Apple may be hoping that the iPad Pro can help turn around its flagging tablet sales, but according to a new report sales are off to a somewhat disappointing start — with just 49,000 units selling in the first month in Apple’s much-emphasized China region.

Pro Tip: How to get iTunes to ignore iPhone while charging

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Disconnect  your iPhone while still connected via USB and charge without iTunes bugging you.
Disconnect your iPhone while still connected via USB and charge without iTunes bugging you.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Pro Tip Cult of Mac bugSometimes you just want to plug your iPhone into your Mac without having to deal with all that iTunes stuff, like synchronizing or backing up.

Or, maybe a friend of yours needs to sip off your Macbook’s power and you don’t want to have iTunes sync their iPhone.

Either way, you can eject the connected iPhone, thereby avoiding all the iTunes stuff but still letting the physically connected iPhone pull power from the USB port. Even better: when you’re done charging, just pull the USB cable out from your Macbook without any worry.

Here are three different ways to do just that.