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Apple set to open its fifth retail store in Beijing

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Chaoyang Joy City4
The site of Apple's newest retail store in China.
Photo: JRP

Apple’s string of brick-and-mortar Apple Store openings in China is set to continue with the upcoming opening of its new Chaoyang Joy City shopping mall store in Beijing.

Apple’s fifth Beijing store will open its doors next weekend, Sunday November 29 at 10am local time.

Kind taxi driver travels two hours to return lost iPhone

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iPhone 6s
It's nice to hear about acts of kindness like this.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

A self-driving Apple Car may not yet be a reality, but that didn’t stop a Bangkok taxi driver from travelling two hours to return a passenger’s lost iPhone, which they had left in the back of his taxi cab.

“On my birthday on Wednesday just before midnight, [the driver] showed up at my hotel to return my phone. He’s a badass good guy,” said grateful iPhone owner Fraser Morton, after being reunited with his handset.

iPad-compatible smart scale gets a tasty new update

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The weight for a major update is over! (I apologize for the awful pun.)
Photo: SITU

Attention, foodies and nutrition-istas! Successful Kickstarter SITU, a smart scale for iPad, has just added a couple of neat new features for its iOS app — while also getting a reduction in prices ahead of Black Friday.

Given that ex-Apple employee creator Michael Grothaus credits Cult of Mac readers with making the invention a reality, how could we not cover it?

Keep your favorite tunes untethered with this booming Bluetooth headset [Deals]

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These REMXD on-ear bluetooth headphones keep you connected to your favorite sounds without tying you down.
These REMXD on-ear bluetooth headphones keep you connected to your favorite sounds without tying you down.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

The more we carry our music and audio programs in our pockets, the more those pesky headphone cables get in the way, or give way to fray. REMXD’s On-Ear Bluetooth Headphones offer full-spectrum sound unbound by wires, at an unbeatable price. You can get your hands on one of these hands-free sets for $35.99.

Weighing the options for monitoring your body fat

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Withings Smart Body Analyzer (left) vs. DEXA, the
Withings Smart Body Analyzer (left) vs. DEXA, the "gold standard" for body fat analysis (right)
Photo: Graham Bower / Cult of Mac

If you want to lose weight, your Apple Watch can help you sustain healthy habits, but it can’t actually monitor your progress. For that you need to step onto scales.

Any scale will measure your weight, but that is only part of the story. Whether you are dieting or bulking up, it is just as important to keep track of your body fat. The trouble is, this is notoriously hard to measure accurately. As I discovered when I bought a new Withings Smart Body Analyzer, if you think you already know your body fat percentage, you are probably way off.

Catch the best Mac, iPhone, PS4, Xbox and Wii U Black Friday deals on The CultCast

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Ready to punch, kick, and bite your way to this year's best deals?
Ready to punch, kick, and bite your way to this year's best deals?
Photo: Jingle All The Way

This week: get your mace and taser ready for Black Friday! We share some of the best deals on MacBooks, iPhones, Playstation 4s, Xbox One’s, Wii U’s and more. Plus: why your Mac store apps could be corrupted (and what to do about it); RDIO bites the dust; and the iPad Mini 4 proves far better than we originally thought.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Build a beautiful website quick at Squarespace.com, and enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off.

Pay what you want for a full-course education in JavaScript [Deals]

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PWYWJavascriptDevBundle

Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

JavaScript is one of the most essential languages underpinning the modern internet. It’s an invaluable entry on anyone’s resume, and with this bundle of 10 JavaScript development courses you’ll be able to claim that knowledge with confidence. What’s more, you can pay whatever you want for the whole thing, and 10 % of anything you pay goes to the good work over at Project Hope, which delivers essential medicines and supplies, health expertise and medical training to aid in disasters, prevent disease, promote wellness and save lives around the world.

Apple gives users a guided tour of Apple Pay

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Apple Pay iPhone
Apple Pay finally an option for digital purchases.
Photo: Apple

They year of Apple Pay is nearly over, but the company is continuing to make its contactless payments push with a new guided tour video for iPhone users.

The new video details how iPhone owners can use Touch ID to verify payments both at physical payment terminals, as well as via shopping apps on iOS. There’s also a walk through on how to manage and setup new cards through the Wallet app.

Take the full tour below:

Now you can carry a wall outlet in your pocket [Deals]

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The ChargeTech Portable Power Outlet means you'll never be without an outlet for your laptop, phone or tablet.
The ChargeTech Portable Power Outlet means you'll never be without an outlet for your laptop, phone or tablet.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

If you’ve ever tried to charge your laptop at the airport, you know that wall outlets are in demand like never before. ChargeTech’s portable power outlet means you’ll never be far from an outlet even if they’re all taken up or there’s not a wall around. It’s a game changer for anyone who needs a charge when they travel or go about their day, and you can get one now for only $139.99.

Best Black Friday TV ads (so far): Massive price drop on a 70-incher

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Big screen TVs coming your way this Black Friday!
Big screen TVs coming your way this Black Friday!
Photo: DealNews

Many, many more Black Friday ads have come out since our last roundup, so we’re back with a new batch of top TV picks for 2015. Walmart and Target are currently leading the pack with screens both big and small, but who will ultimately take the top spot? Be sure to bookmark this page; you never know when a new ad will knock one of these off the list!

How to undo accidental time skips on Siri Remote

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Siri Remote menu button
Apple would have called it the "Fix all of your mistakes" button, but "Menu" was easier to print.
Photo: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

The new Apple TV’s Siri Remote is great, except for all of those times that it isn’t.

We’ve run afoul of the remote’s touchpad a few times; it’s fine for navigating (and less fine for entering passwords), but sometimes it does its job too well. For example, we can’t even count the number of times we’ve been watching a movie and accidentally nudged the pad, sending our show scrubbing all willy-nilly into the past or future.

It’s pretty annoying, but luckily, Apple thought so, too, so it gave us a couple ways to fix that mistake when it happens. The company could have just disabled the touchpad while things were playing, but we’re not engineers.

These two fixes are the next best options.

Cult of Mac Magazine: Quirky product reviews + Mac and iOS Pro Tips + Black Friday

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CoM

It’s one week away from Black Friday, and in addition to our killer live blog with up-to-the-minute deals, we’ve got a new magazine with all sorts of quirky products that our loving reviewers have taken the time to get to know.

We’ve got a funky clip-on lampshade for your iPhone, a Pro Tip to max out your iPhone battery, a conceptual piece on how Apple could fix the next version of its wristband, a secret messaging app that pulls in 1 million downloads every day, and (of course) our weekly gabfest about all things Apple, The Cultcast.

Here’s the rundown of what we’ve got for you in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine.

Review: Sonos Play:5 speaker is a rumbling, room-shaking rabble-rouser

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The new Play:5 speaker is a great update to Sonos' top-of-the-line box.
The new Play:5 speaker is a great update to Sonos' top-of-the-line box.
Photo: Traci Dauphin/Cult of Mac

The flagship speaker from Sonos has been revamped, redesigned and relaunched. The result is awesome.

The new Play:5 is a big, beefy speaker that sounds absolutely wonderful. It’s available in stores today, and although it’s not cheap, I’d recommend you go out and get one. Or two. Stereo is even better.

Is there a class divide between iPhone and Android?

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fnf_1024
The war wages on!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The war between iPhone and Android will wage on for years to come, but in this week’s Friday Night Fight, we’re not going to be bickering about which is best. At least not in terms of design, features, flexibility — and the other things normally discussed during a platform war.

Friday-Night-Fights-bug-2Instead, we’re battling it out over the supposed class divide — the notion that the wealthy only buy iPhones, and the poor only buy Android because they can’t afford that Apple logo. It’s going to be a fun one!

So, join us below for one of our hottest Friday Night Fights yet, and be sure to weigh in at the end!

The secret messaging app getting millions of downloads

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SOMA Messenger is gaining popularity around the world for free and secure communication.
SOMA Messenger is gaining popularity around the world for free and secure communication.
Photo: Instanza Inc.

Harvard classmates Lei Guo and Oliver Hayen created what could have been just another messaging app. They knew they had something unique, as every app development team claims, so they put it in the hands of 2,000 people and hit launch.

Within 30 days, their app SOMA Messenger had 10 million users and has been growing since. They’d love to brag about who is using it, except they can’t because of security measures built into the app that prevents even them from knowing SOMA’s users.

These comprehensive coding lessons are priced to move [Deals]

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Become a master of a wide range of coding techniques and languages with this massively discounted lesson bundle.
Become a master of a wide range of coding techniques and languages with this massively discounted lesson bundle.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

This doorbuster of a deal will give you a wide range of essential coding knowledge that can pay for itself by pumping up your resume. With 8 Courses and over 74 hours of training, you can gain the major coding languages and skills that you’ve been waiting to learn. This body of knowledge normally runs for over $1,000, but right now you can get the whole shebang for $59.

Use the coupon code ‘DOORBUSTER’ at checkout to save an extra 15%.

Slowing handset sales triggers Samsung firing spree

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slowing-handset-sales-triggers-samsung-firing-spree-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201506apple-samsung-iphone-galaxy-patent-war1-jpg
When it comes to profits Apple's definitely on top right now.
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns/Flickr CC
apple-samsung-iphone-galaxy-patent-war
Apple’s definitely on top right now. Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns/Flickr CC

You know the way that Apple’s heroically struggling to build a new “spaceship” HQ capable of housing its army of brilliant worker ants who design the iPhone? Well, Samsung has an easier solution for its phone division: just fire a load of people.

New statistics published courtesy of Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service underline the degree to which Samsung’s smartphone business is struggling — with 5,000 employees booted out of the door over the past year, while 30 percent of execs are expected to follow them in the next month.

iFixIt: This Android phone beats the iPhone when it comes to repairability

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fairphone-teardown-1

Apple’s computers and devices may be at the top of the review charts, but one way in which they almost never do very well is in iFixit’s repairability ratings. With hard-to-crack cases held together by copious amounts of solder and glue, it’s practically impossible to repair your own iPhone, iPad, or Mac by yourself. Apple routinely gets ranks of 1, 2, or 3 on iFixit’s “Out of 10” repairability scale.

But smartphones don’t need to be unrepairable. iFixIt just gave a smartphone a perfect 10 on its repairability scale. And surprise! It’s an Android device.

Apple forces you to buy only approved Apple Watch wireless chargers

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Screen Shot 2015-11-18 at 14.09.19
Want to do this? It'll cost you.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s official charging pad may be a not-too-cheap $79, but if you want to wirelessly charge your smartwatch, Apple’s not leaving you a whole lot of options.

That’s because, despite the wide range of Qi chargers around, Apple has made it so that its watch will only work with a select few which have received the Cupertino stamp of approval.