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Anti-hipster Jony Ive stands up for the beauty of machine-made products

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Jony Ive
Jony Ive sure loves fashion.
Photo: Apple

Apple plans to make a big splash in the fashion world next year by sponsoring the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s big Costume Institute exhibit. Few details about the project are known, but Apple design guru Jony Ive teased what visitors might be able to expect in a new interview about the intersection of technology and fashion.

iPhone 7 may feature home-buttonless design, predicts analyst

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touchid

Photo: Apple

We won’t get a peak of the iPhone 7 until late next year, but when we do its biggest feature may be that it comes without it’s most iconic pieces of hardware: the home button.

Piper Jaffrey analyst Gene Munster is infamous in the Apple community for his incessant predictions that Apple is making a television set. Now the analyst is dipping into some iPhone 7 speculation, claiming that by ditching the home button, the iPhone 7 will come in a smaller form-factor but pack the same screen size.

Siri will win you over as a trusted assistant

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Siri will remind you of tasks you need to complete based on your location.
Siri will remind you of tasks you need to complete based on your location.
Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

Maybe there aren’t a ton of new features in iOS 9, but you may find yourself getting tighter with Siri.

Siri is out to earn the title of “Best Assistant” with a series of new tricks aimed at making your life easier.

You no longer have to set a time for Siri to remind you to do tasks. You will automatically get reminders once you arrive or leave a location. No time to read an email or an interesting article? Ask her to remind you later and she will do so.

Siri can call up any photo you like based on a location or timestamp. She can also give you sports scores without directing you to a website, can convert measurements and, if you have a shiny new iPhone 6s, there is no need to press the home button to summon her. Just say, “Hey Siri.”

To see how Siri worked for me, check out the video below.

Apple TV gets three new channels ahead of next week’s launch

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Apple TV 4 brings iOS apps to the big screen.
Apple TV 4 brings iOS apps to the big screen.
Photo: Apple

The fourth generation Apple TV is set to start shipping next week and Apple just added three new channels to the device’s lineup to boost its offerings.

New channels were added to Apple TV this morning for CBS All Access, Made to Measure, and finally NBC, which is the last of the major networks to joining the Apple TV lineup.

As Apple boasts about Music, Spotify takes App Store’s top spot

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Spotify was the top-grossing App in the iPhone App Store.
Spotify was the top-grossing App in the iPhone App Store.
Photo: Spotify

Tim Cook may like the “runway” for Apple Music’s take off, but Spotify is currently soaring.

Apple’s competitor in the music streaming business found itself in the No. 1 position on the iPhone App Store’s Top Grossing charts for the first time in the United States. This is on the same day that the Apple CEO Cook told the audience at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference that Apple Music has 6.5 million paying customers.

Facebook Instant articles now available to all iPhone users

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facebook-logo-file
It won’t happen until 2020 at the earliest.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

After five months of beta testing its fast-loading ‘instant’ articles, Facebook is rolling out the feature to all iPhone users starting today.

Instant articles load 10 times faster than normal shared links and rank higher in News Feed. Facebook has enlisted a number of top publishers to create content for the new article format with The New York Times, BuzzFeed, and The Atlantic among the first supporters.

Luxury aluminum case protects your iPhone, hides your credit card

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The ALUMINUM Slider case for the iPhone 6 by Gresso has a secret drawer for a credit card.
The ALUMINUM Slider case for the iPhone 6 by Gresso has a secret drawer for a credit card.
Photo: Gresso

Those iPhone cases that hold cash and credit cards are fine as long as you want to look like you’re carrying your mother’s wallet.

Luxury accessories design company Gresso has a solution to return your overriding need to be practical back to cool. It has designed a stylish aircraft aluminum iPhone 6 case that has a hidden slide-out drawer for your cards. Jony Ive might approve.

A year of unlimited access to Backblaze — killer of cloud storage [Deals]

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Backblaze offers safe, fast backup across their massive server infrastructure at unbeatable prices.
Backblaze offers safe, fast backup across their massive server infrastructure at unbeatable prices.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Backblaze launched in 2007, accruing hard drives and building out a backup capacity of what amounts to some 150 petabytes of data on its servers. They’ve since become one of the most trusted providers of backup, with prices that beat out even Amazon’s impressively prices S3 service. How much cheaper? Right now you can get a year of unlimited backup on Backblaze for $24.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

What the rock? Guitar Hero Live features $50 in-app purchase

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Guitar Hero Live ditches the cartoony look of previous games in the series.
Guitar Hero Live ditches the cartoony look of previous games in the series.
Photo: Activision Blizzard

You’ll need to have rock-star money to afford new iOS rhythm game Guitar Hero Live.

That’s because, in a break from previous titles in the hard-rocking series, this one features a $49.99 in-app purchase for the full version, which includes well over 40 tracks.

Yep, to paraphrase This Is Spinal Tap, this price goes to 11!

New Balance’s latest skate shoe ad was shot entirely on an iPhone

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Screen Shot 2015-10-20 at 14.23.43
This whole ad was shot with an iPhone 6.
Photo: New Balance

You know smartphone cameras are getting pretty darn good when they start regularly popping up as the filming implement of choice for ad-makers.

The latest company to jump on the iPhone for shooting is New Balance Numeric, the popular sneaker brand’s skate shoe division. It’s released a six-minute skate video/advert shot completely on an iPhone 6 that features pro skaters including PJ Ladd, Arto Saari, Jordan Taylor, Levi Brown, Tom Karangelov and Jack Curtin.

Check it out below.

A great mountain bike helmet gets even better for your brainpan

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Protect your gray matter with Smith Optics' Forefront bike helmet (now with MIPS), and maybe toss in some cool shades, too.
Protect your gray matter with Smith Optics' Forefront bike helmet (now with MIPS), and maybe toss in some cool shades, too.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Best List: Forefront bike helmet with MIPS by Smith Optics

There’s MIPS in that there Forefront. Smith Optics’ Forefront mountain bike helmet has been around for a bit and has gotten excellent reviews from both the media and the man on the trail.

Now Smith has added the latest buzzword in safety — MIPS, or Multi-Directional Impact Protection System — to the award-winning lid.

Would iTunes work better split into 16 different apps?

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Would iTunes look better like this?
Would iTunes look better like this?
Photo: Rethink iTunes

Apple gets a lot of kudos for its design chops, but there’s one product everyone thinks Cupertino can improve: iTunes. The bloated Swiss army knife app for managing everything from your music library to the apps on your iPhone has been begging for a rethink for years. Yet for whatever reason, Apple has yet to deliver a true design overhaul of iTunes.

The situation has gotten so bad, iTunes is now being assigned to college students as a design problem. Students at German college Fachochschule Potsdam were assigned the task of splitting iTunes up into 16 different apps. And the results look pretty good!

Samsung building robot army to replace human factory workers

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samsung-building-robot-army-to-replace-human-factory-workers-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201510Terminator-2-5-jpg
Like this, except hopefully without the whole Skynet thing.
Photo: TriStar
Like this, except hopefully without the whole Skynet thing. Photo: TriStar Pictures
Like this, except hopefully without the whole Skynet thing. Photo: TriStar Pictures

Samsung has received a multi-million dollar investment from the South Korean government to develop factory robots to help win manufacturing work currently being lost to cheap human labor in China.

UE Boom 2 gets Block Party mode so you can blast friends’ tunes

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The UE Boom 2's new Block Party feature makes it easier than ever to share music with friends.
The UE Boom 2's new Block Party feature makes it easier than ever to share music with friends.
Photo: Ultimate Ears

SAN FRANCISCO — A slick new feature coming to Ultimate Ears’ Bluetooth speakers will let you stream your friends’ music from the palm of your hand.

Called Block Party, it lets up to three friends connect to the same UE speaker. Then the self-appointed DJ can pick and choose from each person’s tunes, pulled from streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify. The DJ can skip songs and jump from playlist to playlist, and it’s all shockingly smooth and simple.

Everything we learned about Force Awakens in the new Star Wars trailer

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Luke Skywalker is conspicuously absent from the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens poster.
Luke Skywalker is conspicuously absent from the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens poster.
Photo: Lucas Films

The newest trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was finally unveiled tonight, and it absolutely blew us away. Twitter and the rest of the Internet is freaking out over the J.J. Abrams directed movie that will hit theaters on December 17th.

Tickets for the new Star Wars went on sale and we can’t wait to be front-and-center for all the lightsaber action when Han, Chewie, and the new crew touchdown. The movie has reached the kind of hype you only see before an Apple product launch, and we’re ready to obsesses over all the details in the new trailer.

Star Wars has given us our first look at Leia in the new trailer, plus a lot of bad guy Kylo Ren and Daisy Ridley’s character Rey, but most fans just have one question: Where the hell is Luke?

Check out these 25 GIFs from the new trailer and see if you spot any new clues:

Apple TV available for pre-order and shipping next week

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Want. Now.
The swanky new Apple TV is on the way.
Photo: Apple

The eagerly-anticipated Apple TV refresh will be available for pre-orders next Monday, said Tim Cook during his on-stage appearance at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference.

Customers won’t have to hang about, either, as shipments are likely to be sent out by the end of that week.

Apple Music already has 6.5 million paid subscribers, says Tim Cook

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Apple Music already has around one-third of Spotify's paid subscriber base.
Photo: Wall Street Journal Digital Live

Apple Music has 6.5 million paying customers, according to no less an authority than Tim Cook, speaking at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference.

Given that Apple claimed it had 11 million people using its free trial back in August, that’s an impressive free-to-paid conversion rate of almost 60 percent. It’s also around one-third of the paid subscriber base of Spotify, which has 20 million subs.

Good work, Apple. Good work.

Aluminum tube turns iPhone into a 3D scanner

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Eora 3D scanner for iPhone
The Eora 3D scanner wants to leave no dino head undigitized.
Photo: Eora 3D

The 3D-printing future is here, but unfortunately it’s still cost-prohibitive for many people who want to get in on the newest making revolution. But an upcoming project just launched on Kickstarter may just have the solution to that problem.

The Eora 3D scanner connects to your smartphone to create precise and accurate models of just about anything you can put in front of it, and it will do it for way less money than you’d expect.

No rush in India to buy the iPhone 6s

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India
Apple wants to dramatically improve its 2 percent share on the smartphone market in India.
Photo: Tim Cook/Twitter

The iPhone 6s hit shelves in India over the weekend – and on the shelves are where most of them stayed.

According to reports in that country, Apple saw lukewarm sales of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus during launch there. With the cost on the entry level 16 GB iPhone 6 at $925, many analysts say Indian consumers may be waiting for prices to drop before upgrading.

Cult of Mac Magazine: Inside Apple’s new iMacs and Magic peripherals

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Even more magic than you expected, right?
Even more magic than you expected, right?
Cover Design: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

Happy weekend, everyone! We’ve got another insane issue of Cult of Mac Magazine for you this week, full of details on Apple’s new iMac, Magic peripherals, the best updates in iWork’s new update, fresh how-tos, product reviews, and a sad goodbye to one of Apple’s ultimate fans.

All this (and plenty more!) in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine – be sure to download your own copy of our fantastic app today.

Here’s the latest top stories for this week.

$1,500 iPhone 6s case does not grant wishes

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Advent Gray iPhone 6 case
The Advent iPhone 6 case makes the phone it holds look like cheap garbage.
Photo: Gray International

Are you in the market for an iPhone 6 case that makes the money you spend on the phone itself look like pocket change? A limited-edition accessory can help you make that dream come true.

The Advent comes courtesy of Gray International, and it looks like every cent of its $1,500 price point. And that’s probably because it bears more than a passing resemblance to the billion-dollar stealth bomber.

Check out the fancy case in all of its overly dramatic glory in the promotional video below.

Tim Cook joins council of elite CEOs fighting climate change

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Tim Cook takes home $125 million for Apple’s best year since 2009
Tim Cook takes home $125 million for Apple’s best year since 2009
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple CEO Tim Cook joined the CEO Council for Sustainable Urbanization this week as part of Apple’s continued fight against global warning and environmental issues.

The council is basically like an Avengers-style group (or Justice League if DC is your preferred flavor) consisting of CEOs and chairmen from the top companies in China and the West, that are hellbent on saving the planet from overpopulation, deforestation, and finite energy resources.