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Smart email app Spark coming to iPad and Mac

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Your Apple Watch is never going to be the device from which you reply to most of your messages, but that doesn’t mean it can’t have its part to play in helping you stay on top of your Inbox.Unlike the functionality of Apple’s own Mail app on the Apple Watch — which lets you only flag messages, mark them as unread, or delete them — Spark allows you reply to messages using quick responses or dictation. The accompanying iOS app is a great email tool in its own right.Download: Spark by Readdle (free)
Hopefully email will start to suck less on more devices.
Photo: Readdle

Readdle’s beloved Spark email app for iPhone and Apple Watch is also coming to the iPad and Mac. A spokesperson for the company confirmed that development is underway for the apps in an email to Cult of Mac. The iPad version will likely make its debut next month in December, while a Mac version is a little further down in the pipeline since it’s only currently in the planning stages.

Apple Black Friday Predictions: Doorbuster iPads and first deals on Apple Watch

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Apple Store, Fifth Avenue

TL:DR: Whatever you do, don’t shop the Apple Store sale.

While some Apple fans may think the only way to purchase iDevices is at full price, the truth is that the majority of Apple products will see various discounts, especially on Black Friday.

The trick is knowing where to look. In previous years, Apple authorized resellers have undercut Apple on Black Friday by as much as 13%, and this year will be no different. So before you spend a dime at the Apple Store, check out our Black Friday predictions to find out how you can get Cupertino’s tech at a fraction of the cost this year.

Kanga Hoodie sports single, iPad Pro-sized pocket

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Kanga Hoodie
The Kanga Hoodie contains the biggest pocket you've ever seen.
Photo: KickShark

The appropriately named Kanga Hoodie drops the recent trend of fitting as many little pockets as we can into everything in favor of one huge pocket that goes all the way around your body.

The project is looking for some cash from crowdfunding site Kickstarter to finish production, and it’s looking to do some good in the process.

Wacom’s Bamboo Fineline stylus delivers precision on the cheap

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Bamboo Fineline Stylus 1
Wacom is phasing this model out, but it's still a great product.
Photo: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

Best List: Bamboo Fineline 1 stylus by Wacom

Wacom is to graphics tablets what Kleenex is to facial tissues, so it’s no surprise that the company knows its way around a stylus. And the original version of the Bamboo Fineline is a great entry point for those looking to start drawing, sketching, and taking notes on their iPads.

Glance conference will take a long look at Apple Watch

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Chances are you'll see quite a few more of these in the coming years.
The attendees of the Glance conference are interested in what makes the Apple Watch tick.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

An upcoming summit aims to get to the bottom of what is going on with the Apple Watch.

The Glance conference, which describes itself as “the first conference on the business of Apple Watch” is going down in San Francisco next month. It will bring venture capitalists and industry insiders together to try to figure out the wearable.

New Apple TV ads showcase apps and games

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Apple TV might get exclusive TV shows.
Apple TV might get exclusive TV shows.
Photo: Apple

The new Apple TV is all about apps and games, so it makes sense that there are five new ads from Apple on its YouTube channel that are all about specific games and apps.

Check out the videos below for streaming media apps like Netflix and HBO, along with a trio of gaming titles, including Apple TV ads for Asphalt 8 from Gameloft, mega-hit casual Crossy Road from Hipster Whale, and Disney Infinity 3.0 Edition: Star Wars from the House of Mouse.

Where the ease of mobile and the power of desktop photo editing meet

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Macphun's Creative Kit contains five powerful photo editing apps in one package, with extensions for Photoshop, Lightroom, Apple Photos, and more.
Macphun's Creative Kit contains five powerful photo editing apps in one package, with extensions for Photoshop, Lightroom, Apple Photos, and more.
Photo: Macphun

One thing that apps like Instagram and VSCO have mastered is making photo retouching on a mobile device (e.g. smartphone, ipad, etc.) a breeze. Simple sliders grouped in easily understandable categories and real-time results make the editing process a snap. It’s fun and easy to dial in the overall look of an image on your phone’s screen! However, with that convenience, comes limitations. For instance, if you want anything more precise than a slider you’ll have to open up a professional application like Photoshop, Lightroom or Aperture.

Your iPhone is the key to this smart padlock

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The LockSmart has no key or combo. Just be sure to have the proper app on your smartphone before you lock up your things.
The LockSmart has no key or combo. Just be sure to have the proper app on your smartphone before you lock up your things.
Photo: Dog & Bone

Buy a shiny new padlock and hold in your hand something that hasn’t changed much since the Romans used them 500 years before Christ. The ubiquitous lock has a u-shaped shackle that connects to a body containing a mechanism that locks and unlocks with a key or combination wheel.

Keys get lost and combination codes forgotten so the company Dog & Bone put its own stamp on the padlock, or actually, your stamp, by creating a smart lock that is controlled by an app on your smartphone.

Pro Tip: Bring your Mac to life with a custom video screen saver

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Now you can get any video you like up on your Mac's screen saver.
Now you can get any video you like up on your Mac's screen saver.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Pro Tip Cult of Mac bugIf you’re enamored of the beautiful aerial screen savers on your new Apple TV and want to do something similar on your Mac, you’re in luck.

SaveHollywood is a screen saver module that will work on any Mac running OS X 10.8 or later, and it lets you play any movie you want when your Mac enters screen saver mode.

Here’s how to get it set up.

OS X 10.11.2 beta 4 is now available to developers and public testers

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OS X El Capitan Safari Notes
El Capitan's latest beta has arrived.
Photo: Apple

Apple has seeded the fourth beta of OS X El Capitan 10.11.2 to developers and public beta testers today.

The new beta build 15C47a comes one week after the previous beta was released, which could signify that Apple’s close to completing a final version of the update, after releasing its last OS X update (10.11.1) to the public a month ago.

Apple’s making its own Apple Watch charging dock

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This official Apple Watch dock is coming soon.
This official Apple Watch dock is coming soon.
Photo: Grobgebloggt

Apple is getting ready to release an official Apple Watch dock, according two leaks that have revealed the upcoming device’s packaging and design.

Pictures of the new dock published by a German Apple fan site reveal Apple’s charging solution will simply be called the “Magnetic Charging Dock.” It is circular in shape, comes with two different charging orientation, and features tons of Apple simplicity.

Take a look:

Surprise! iPad mini 4 destroys iPad Pro in display shootout

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iPad mini
The new iPad mini is more affordable when you sell your old one.
Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac

Apple slapped the Pro tag on the gigantic new iPad Pro, which should mean it packs the best display ever, but it turns out that the company’s smallest tablet display is actually the most impressive.

DisplayMate Technologies put the iPad Pro, iPad mini 4, and iPad Air 2 through their extensive lab testing measurements. All three iPad displays were rated ‘unrivaled’ by the firm, but the iPad mini 4 came away triumphant in nearly all of the tests.

A micro flier that proves drones are big fun no matter the size [Deals]

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The AERIUS Drone is as small as they come, but just as much fun as the big birds.
The AERIUS Drone is as small as they come, but just as much fun as the big birds.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Lots of us want a drone, but not all of us have the space for a giant four-rotored helicopter in our lives, let alone the cash. Thankfully, drones are a bunch of fun at any size, which the tiny AERIUS Drone proves in a big way. It’s one of the smallest fully functioning drones you can buy, perfect for indoor or outdoor use, and right now you can get your own for only $34.99.

The astonishing rise of iPhone sales in one amazing chart

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Apple raked in the cash last quarter.
There's money to be made in iPhones. In case you didn't know.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Ever wanted to see a chart depicting Apple’s perilous decline from the moment Tim Cook took over as CEO until now? Well, you’ll just have to keep on looking, because this particular infographic shows nothing of the sort.

Instead, this spectacular infographic visualizes the year-on-year growth of Apple’s iPhone business, from a “puny” 1.36 million units in 2007 to a whopping 231.22 million this year. Check it out below.

Apple is bullish on growing its enterprise business in India

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India
Apple wants to move its Indian business way beyond iPhones.
Photo: Tim Cook/Twitter

Apple is targeting the corporate world in India in an effort to try and grow its business there, according to a new report.

With a population of 1.252 billion, it’s no secret that Tim Cook and Apple why desperately love to get a foothold in the country. This year alone, Tim Cook has met with the Indian prime minister, and come to an arrangement about official Apple Stores in India, alongside launching the Apple Watch and iPhone 6s.

However, getting into businesses in India would be another string to Apple’s bow.

Apple Pay goes live in Canada, coming soon to Australia

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Apple in talks to bring Apple Pay to Israel
Apple Pay is continuing its worldwide rollout.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple Pay launches in Canada today — making the country of Tim Hortons, hockey and maple syrup the third place in the world to receive Apple’s mobile payments technology, following the U.S. and United Kingdom.

Apple has also announced that the service is set to launch in Australia later this week, although a specific day has not been confirmed.

Apple could sell an updated iPhone 5s with better internals

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iphone 5s
Apple's next handset?
Photo: Apple

There have been plenty of reports about a possible new 4-inch iPhone in the works. A new report, however, claims that the device is essentially an “iPhone 5s Mark II,” and even runs through the supposed internal components of the handset.

Best of all, it’s reportedly ready for production and can be shipped any time from now.

So long language! An emoji is named ‘Word of the Year’

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This keyboard from EmojiWorks is a quicker way to express your feelings via emoji.
The emoji on letter "H" is your word of the year. Seriously.
Photo: EmojiWorks

Oxford Dictionaries has named its pick for Word of the Year — and it’s less a pick than a pic. That’s right: out of all the newly popular “words” to capture the “ethos, mood, and preoccupations of 2015,” the winning choice is 😂, a.k.a. the “Face with Tears of Joy” emoji. However, while some emojis dominate online conversations, others are barely ever used. If you’ve ever wondered what is the most unused emoji, there’s data that reveals which ones are at the bottom of the popularity list.

Sign of the changing times, or a desperate attempt for Oxford Dictionaries to stay relevant? You decide.

Future Siri could switch user profiles based on voice

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Play classic arcade games right on your Apple TV.
Siri's ability to recognize different voices could be big for technology like Apple TV.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

As Apple rolls out Siri beyond the iPhone and into shared devices like the iPad and, most recently, Apple TV, Cupertino’s engineers have been working on a way of letting its voice activation technology pick up individual users, and offer them customized options based on their past preferences.

Published today as the patent “User profiling for voice input processing,” the technology would allow Apple to make better use of Siri (and voice recognition in general) as it moves into new fields like home automation and vehicles.

This simple app will get you around those annoying location restrictions [Deals]

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Getflix is a one-stop app for bypassing those pesky regional restrictions while traveling.
Getflix is a one-stop app for bypassing those pesky regional restrictions while traveling.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

When you pay for premium streaming services like Netflix and Hulu Plus, you don’t want a trip out of the country to mean you have to leave your favorite shows at home. There are a lot of sneaky ways to get around the regional restrictions, but a simple, hassle-free way is Getflix. It’s a single app that keeps you in touch with your content wherever you go, and right now you can get a lifetime subscription for $39–use coupon code “EARLY10” to get additional 10% off.

Ultra-portable keyboard turns your iPad mini into a tiny, adorable Macbook

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Portable, gorgeous, and super-useful.
Portable, gorgeous, and super-useful.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Best List: iPad mini keyboard by Brydge

We all like to carry our gadgets around with us, but there are definitely times when you’ll want to be ultra portable and just take along, say, your iPad mini on vacation. Or, perhaps you want to get some writing done on the airplane:we all know the seat-back tray is way too small for a full laptop.

This ultra-portable Brydge keyboard is a fantastic match for the iPad mini, letting you be a bit more productive than you would without an actual keyboard. It’s designed to match whichever iPad mini you own, turning the whole thing into an adorably small Macbook-like laptop-style tablet.

AirWatch makes it easy to manage all your organization’s devices

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AirWatch is an ideal way to get operations of any size connected and synchronized around a mobile workflow.
AirWatch is an ideal way to get operations of any size connected and synchronized around a mobile workflow.
Photo: VMware

This post is brought to you by VMware, maker of AirWatch.

Whatever your organization’s mission, synchronizing all your employees’ mobile devices can power up your operations. However, wrangling together an array of phones, tablets and laptops is very tough. Making sure they’re all caught up and in sync with the same software versions and whatnot — let alone sourcing or (gasp) developing the applications your business will run on them — is a lot for a business of any size to take on.