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What if Apple released an Apple TV Pro?

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Martin Hajek's latest concept gives the Apple TV an iPhone 6-like design.
Martin Hajek's latest concept gives the Apple TV an iPhone 6-like design.
Photo: Martin Hajek

Earlier today, we saw a gorgeous concept for what the new Apple TV’s iOS 9-driven interface could look like, courtesy of Andrew Ambrosino.

Now, Martin Hajek – the designer behind the most drool-worthy Apple concepts around – has teamed up with Ambrosino to give us a look at what he imagines the Apple TV hardware itself will look like.

No surprises here: it’s gorgeous. And while it’s probably not what the new Apple TV will actually look like, I’d love to buy this if Apple released it as an Apple TV Pro.

Apple is willing to bet big on artificial intelligence

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Come with us if you want to CultCast.
Next year's WWDC, anyone?
Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures

Apple is ramping up its hiring of artificial intelligence experts in an attempt to compete with companies like Google.

According to a new report, Apple’s number of machine learning gurus has tripled or quadrupled in the past few years, and Cupertino is currently in the middle of a hiring spree for even more.

Forget Skynet, how about iNet?

If the new Apple TV running iOS 9 looks this gorgeous, take our money now

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Could the new Apple TV look this good?
Could the new Apple TV look this good?
Photo: Andrew Ambrosino

We know that the next Apple TV will be a radical, gaming focused overhaul of Apple’s streaming set-top box, but what will it actually look like? Wednesday will tell, but if it looks and feels anything like this iOS 9 overhauled concept by Andrew Ambrosino, we’ll be pretty happy indeed.

Apple is building a brand new campus for 7,000 employees in Texas

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A sneak peak at Apple's new Austin campus. The campus will include a doctor’s offices and exam rooms named after Texas parks.
A sneak peak at Apple's new Austin campus. The campus will include doctors’ offices and exam rooms named after Texas parks.
Photo: My Statesman

Everyone’s focused on Apple’s upcoming “spaceship” campus, but Apple is also currently hard at work on its second-largest global campus.

Based in Northwest Austin, TX, the 1.1 million square foot space will reportedly house around 7,000 local workers, and be responsible for Apple’s “business operations for the Western Hemisphere.”

Woz wowed by accuracy of new Steve Jobs movie

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rogenandwoz
Seth Rogen plays Woz in the new Steve Jobs biopic.
Photo: Seth Rogen/Steve Wozniak

The new Steve Jobs movie is getting rave reviews from film critics, but what about from the people who were actually there in the trenches with the real Steve Jobs?

According to Jobs’ Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, the film is pretty darned accurate. In fact, Woz says that there were times watching the movie when he just about forgot he was watching actors on-screen rather than the real people involved.

Now that’s high praise.

Samsung could make its new Gear S2 watch iPhone-friendly

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samsung-could-make-its-new-gear-s2-watch-iphone-friendly-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201508CMTM1lUWsAE5vFA-jpg
Samsung's new smartwatch could hit Apple Watch where it really hurts.
Photo: Samsung
Samsung's new smartwatch could hit Apple Watch where it really hurts. Photo: Samsung
Samsung’s new smartwatch could hit Apple Watch where it really hurts. Photo: Samsung

Samsung’s new Gear S2 smartwatch is its first to support third-party Android devices, and the South Korean company is reportedly looking extend its reach even further by supporting rival platforms, too.

According to one report, the Gear S2 and Gear S2 classic could soon play nicely with iPhone.

Apple’s iPhone 6s orders smash last year’s record

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iPhone 6
Apple expects the iPhone 6s to shatter some records.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

China’s smartphone market might be slowing down, but Apple’s not letting that stop it from ordering a record number of iPhone 6s units ahead of this week’s keynote unveiling.

According to sources in the iPhone supply chain, Apple has ordered higher than expected numbers of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus units.

Based on the quantities of components orders, these numbers will outstrip even last year’s record-breaking iPhone 6 and 6 Plus — suggesting that Apple expects to sell more of its next-gen iPhone than any previous iPhone in history.

Michael Fassbender could be the best Steve Jobs actor yet

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Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs.
Reviewers are already throwing around Oscar talk.
Photo: Universal Pictures

After a rocky pre-production period which saw it switch directors, lose actor after actor, and even be ditched by its original studio, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and director Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs biopic finally made its debut at Colorado’s Telluride Film Festival this weekend — and, boy, does it sound like it was worth the wait!

Reviews so far are all good-to-excellent, but the real surprise is the unanimous support for Michael Fassbender as Jobs. We’d noted before how little Fassbender physically resembles Steve although, as has been proven time and again, that doesn’t stop good actors from inhabiting a role — which is exactly what it sounds like Fassbender has done.

Here’s what people are saying about the movie:

The New York Times says the new Apple TV will be for gamers

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The new Apple TV remote will give it Wii-like gaming capabilities.
The new Apple TV remote will give it Wii-like gaming capabilities.
Photo: Matthew Panzarino / Techcrunch

We’ve previously heard rumors that Apple’s new Apple TV, which is scheduled to be announced Wednesday, will feature an all-new, motion-sensing remote that will poise the set-top box as a possible console killer.

Now, the New York Times is backing the rumor up, saying the next Apple TV is being designed by Apple specifically to take on the likes of Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo for the hearts and minds of living room gamers.

This is how crazy thin the iPhone 7 will be

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*This* thin. Or thinner!
*This* thin. Or thinner!
Photo: Apple

One of the hallmarks of Apple’s tick-tock cycle of iPhone updates is that every other iPhone gets thinner than its predecessors. The iPhone 7, then, should be thinner than the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6s, just as they were thinner than the iPhone 5.

But how crazy thin will the iPhone 7 be? Just as thin as the iPod Touch, says one of the most reputable Apple analysts in the business.

Take to the skies with a batwing drone of your very own, for 65% off [Deals]

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Code Black is a sleek, feature-packed drone fit for the Dark Knight, or just your back yard.
Code Black is a sleek, feature-packed drone fit for the Dark Knight, or just your back yard.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

If you went to Wayne Manor’s back yard on a weekend there’s a chance you’d find Batman playing around with this drone. The limited edition Code Black is a palm-sized drone that manages to pack in a ton of features to satisfy pros and beginners alike — even Alfred could get the hang of it. Plus you don’t need to be a wealthy heir to buy one, right now it’s going for just $69.

I Am Bread, Clashem, and other awesome apps of the week

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appsoftheweek_1024
Saturday? More like App-aday, amirite? (I'm sorry about this.)
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The weekend is short enough as it is, and Cult of Mac knows you don’t want to spend it searching through the App Store for the best apps you might have missed over the past week.

Whether you’re after wacky bread-related games for your iPhone, video chatting tools for your iPad, or or a nifty travel-related messaging service for your Apple Watch, we’ve dutifully combed through the best offerings of the past 7 days to find something for everyone.

Check below to see our picks:

Drastically new Apple TV and our Apple event expectations on The CultCast

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Get ready for the Apple TV of the future.
Get ready for the Apple TV of the future.
Photo: ofcom.org

This week: come September 9th, we’ll have a new iPhone 6S, sure, but how does an iPad Pro and a drastically new Apple TV sound? We’ll tell you what to expect from Apple’s Sept. 9th event, because this event is fixin’ to be a doozie.

Our thanks to Softlayer for supporting this episode. Your applications and compute workloads are different from everyone else’s, so you deserve cloud resources that meet your unique needs. Get $500 of cloud infrastructure by visiting softlayer.com/Podcast.

Why Apple’s Active Calories don’t add up (and how you can change that)

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In Apple's fitness apps, active calories are not the same as Move ring calories.
In Apple's fitness apps, active calories are not the same as Move ring calories.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

Have you ever noticed that some of your workout data is missing from the Health app on your iPhone?

Apple’s Health app is designed to provide a central hub for all your fitness apps to save and share their data. You might assume this means all your Active Calories are added together, regardless of which app you use to log them. But the truth is not that simple — although you can tweak some hidden settings to customize what you see.

Cult of Mac Magazine: Everything we know about iPhone 6s and new Apple TV

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So much stuff. Stuffed inside.
So much stuff. Stuffed inside.
Cover: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

Heads up, everyone – this week is just impossibly full of news about the upcoming iPhone 6s, new Apple TV revisions, and a whole ton of fantastically fresh apps, games and gear. We’ve stuffed all that goodness into a digital magazine that can’t be beat.

Put your seatbelt on and buckle in for another rockin’ ride with Cult of Mac Magazine, available for free right now.

Apple plants its flag at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium

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Apple is making its mark on San Francisco.
Apple is making its mark on San Francisco.
Photo: Milo Kahney/Cult of Mac

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s not as cool as installing a gorgeous glass staircase, but Apple is definitely making its mark on the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium here.

Flags, signs, security barricades — it’s all part of the prep for Apple’s massive iPhone 6s event scheduled for next week. It’s a shabby corner of San Francisco, but Apple is totally classing up the joint.

See more pictures of Friday’s street scene below.

Kahney’s Korner: Treat yourself to an iPhone-free vacation

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Kahney's Korner iPhone vacation
If you want to take a real vacation, turn off your iPhone.
Photo: Cult of Mac

My family and I just got back from a too-short vacation in Italy, and we learned something important while we were there: Real vacations don’t have e-mail.

See, my wife was worried about us racking up unspeakably high bills while we were abroad, so we ended up almost completely disabling our iPhones for the entire trip. How we fared without them is the subject of this week’s Kahney’s Korner.

Make the most of iOS 9’s Split View multitasking on iPad

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Split View iPad iOS 9

Screen: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Imagine working on a sketch with a reference photo right next to it, or writing a paper while copying citations from an iBook. Or, heck, running YouTube in Safari while writing a post about Split View on the iPad (hypothetically).

iOS 9 brings this multitasking joy to your iPad, provided you have the latest and greatest iPad Air 2, since it’s the only device that can currently manage the power needed to run such a double screen.

So the next time you need to FaceTime with your boss in San Francisco but still take Notes on your iPad, you can easily make it happen.

Here’s how.

Can Apple school Netflix in creating original content?

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fnf_1024
Who wouldn't want to watch House of Cupertino?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s getting ready to sink its teeth into original programming, according to recent reports, and there are suggestions it will launch a new video streaming service for Apple TV. The Cupertino company has already taken the fight to Spotify with Apple Music, so why not Netflix next?

Friday-Night-Fights-bug-2The big question is, does Apple have what it takes to produce shows as good as House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt all by itself? And would it really want to?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over Apple’s supposed invasion on Netlix’ turf.

Everything we think we know about the new Apple TV

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The new Apple TV is about to be unveiled.
Apple is about to take the wraps off the new Apple TV.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

We’ve been waiting years for Apple to wow us with a new Apple TV that embraces gaming, controls the home and is super-easy to use — and that appears to be just what we’re going to get.

Thanks to a steady stream of leaks from the rumor mill, we already have a pretty solid idea what Apple will show us next week when it finally unveils the new Apple TV. It’s been years in the making — here’s what to expect.

Soon you might be able to afford a gold Apple Watch

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Rich single men must choose their watch carefully.
Rich single men must choose their watch carefully.
Photo: Apple

Wearing a gold Apple Watch might get a lot cheaper really soon, according to a new report that claims Apple is looking to create a less expensive gold version of its famous timepiece.

The current Apple Watch Edition currently costs between $10,000 – $17,000 but ‘people close to the product’ have told the New York Times that Apple is exploring new metal finishes for the Apple Watch, and they may even be ready in time to debut at next week’s iPhone 6s event.

Please Apple don’t call it the iPhone 6s, begs New York ad agency

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Not everyone's excited about the new iPhone.
Not everyone's excited about the new iPhone.
Photo: 6S Marketing

A New York ad agency is begging Cupertino not to name the next Apple device the “iPhone 6s.”

6S Marketing has launched a tongue-in-cheek campaign to get Apple’s attention in hopes that the iPhone maker might be persuaded to forego the 6s moniker. The company’s written Apple an open letter, purchased billboards in Times Square and even rolled one of its giant billboards past the iconic Fifth Ave Apple Store.