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Home Sharing is caring — all the new goodies in iOS 9 beta 4

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iOS 9 beta 4 is out with some new features and UI tweaks.

iOS 9 beta 4 is out for developers two weeks after beta 3’s release as expected. It’s time for the usual roundup of new goodies in the latest beta and beta 4 doesn’t shy away from the tradition. It’s not nearly as big of a release as last time with Apple Music and Apple News both making their debut, but beta 4 still brings some nice improvements and tweaked features. Let’s get right into it.

Tim Cook reveals Apple Watch sales topped expectations

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The Apple Watch may be a slow builder.

Apple didn’t officially announce any Apple Watch sales numbers during today’s earnings call, but according to Tim Cook, the company has already beat its own internal expectations.

While the official number of units sold remains a secret, the Apple exec said the number of Apple Watches sold in the first nine weeks was greater than the number of iPhones or iPads the company sold in the same period after they launched.

FTC investigates Apple Music for anti-competitive practices

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Apple doesn't charge Apple Music 30 percent of its subscriber fees.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple’s new streaming music service is coming under fire from the Federal Trade Commission for possible anti-competitive practices.

The recently launched Apple Music costs $9.99 per subscription (or $14.99 for an up-to-six-person family plan), with the first three months free. Competing services like Spotify or Rdio are subject to Apple’s 30 percent take from any app sold on the App Store, which makes the FTC uncomfortable, as Apple Music is not subject to the same rules.

Apple earnings (and forecast) fall short of Wall Street estimates

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Apple beat Wall Street's expectations, again.
Apple beat its own guidance but missed Wall Street's fevered expectations.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s earnings fell just shy of Wall Street’s expectations for third-quarter revenue despite continued strong sales of the iPhone 6, which helped the company bring in $49.6 billion in gross revenue and $10.7 billion in profit.

Perhaps even worse for AAPL, the company’s fourth-quarter revenue forecast fell short of analysts’ best guesstimates.

Square’s new app gives retailers real-time sales data

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Square's new Dashboard app lets business owners track and compare real-time sales.
Photo: Square

Square continues to add to its lineup of small business tools, especially for owners and managers who want an overall better grip on their businesses. It’s introducing a new Dashboard app that does just that: it lets owners track sales in real-time right from an iPhone. Still, the only requirement is a free Square account.

Liveblog: Apple’s Q3 2015 earnings bonanza

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What will today's Apple earnings call reveal?
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple is set to report its financial results from Q3 2015 to investors this afternoon and, as usual, Cult of Mac will be here to liveblog all the action, from the numbers down to the analysts’ questions.

Apple Watch sales have been looming large in the minds of investors and analysts now that the device has been available for a full quarter. We don’t expect CEO Tim Cook or CFO Luca Maestri to announce the Watch sales as their own category, but there’s sure to be plenty of speculation as to whether the new wearable has met sales expectations.

Today’s earning’s call is set to kick off at 2 p.m. Pacific, but we’ll be kicking off the liveblogging party early with a breakdown of all the numbers. Bookmark this page and join us for the Apple earnings bonanza.

Give your iPhone the Lightning adapter it’s always dreamed of

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Keep your iPhone safer with this MagSafe-like adapter.
Keep your iPhone safer with this MagSafe-like adapter.
Photo: Znaps

When Apple created the MagSafe power connector for its highly desirable line of MacBooks back in 2006, the world changed. Gone were the days of tripping over your power adapter cord and pulling your entire MacBook down onto a cold, uncaring floor.

These days, your iPhone and iPad have a similar problem, with a Lightning cable that connects so securely to the power port that if you happen to walk by and trip on the cable, you’re gonna fling that oh-so-precious device right to the ground, dashing its poor little silicon brains out.

This Kickstarter project, ZNAPS, aims to fix this design nightmare with a magnetic Lightning cable adapter that will transform the way you charge your Apple mobile devices, all for an excitingly low price of $9.

4.2 million Apple Watches shipped is latest analyst guesstimate

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Apple Watch sales figures are basically analyst roulette right now.
Guessing Apple Watch sales figures is basically analyst roulette right now.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

We’ll get our best — though still inconclusive — estimate of how the Apple Watch is doing later today, when Apple has its quarterly earnings call. Ahead of that, though, analysts are continuing to churn out their own figures regarding how Apple’s debut wearable device is faring thus far.

The latest people to play analyst roulette are research firm Canalys, who peg Apple Watch shipments at a very respectable 4.2 million units, meaning that Apple “easily overtook Fitbit, Xiaomi and all the smart watch vendors, despite the Apple Watch’s significantly higher pricing.”

This next-gen light bulb is full of futuristic features, and it saves money [Deals]

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We’re still waiting for our jetpacks, but at least today’s lightbulbs are properly futuristic. The best example of how far lighting has come is the ilumi A21 Bluetooth Smartbulb, a super-efficient LED light that sports features straight out of sci-fi. And right now, it’s going for nearly half its normal price, just $49 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Apple and IBM reveal 10 new enterprise apps for iOS and Apple Watch

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IBM has 10 new enterprise apps for iOS users.
Photo: Apple

Apple and IBM have been collaborating on creating an excellent suite of apps for the iPhone and iPad over the past year, but starting today, IBM’s MobileFirst apps are adding support for Apple Watch.

The Apple and IBM partnership revealed today that it’s created 10 more apps that cover everything from managing employee shifts to helping government inspectors get all the data necessary while out in the field.

Take a tour of the new apps below:

Beats 1 Radio and other Apple services are down

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It's not just you, Beats 1 Radio is down
It's not just you, Beats 1 radio is down.
Photo: Apple

Fans hoping to catch MTV’s announcement of this year’s VMA nominees on Beats 1 this morning got a rude awakening as Apple servers crashed right before the artists were revealed.

We’ve been trying to access Beats 1 radio all morning but keep getting “Request timed out” errors on all our devices. Other services have been impacted as well: People on Twitter have reported a number of issues with Apple services, including problems accessing the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay and iTunes Match.

Here’s a list of Apple services affected:

iSperm for iPad wants to help you make a baby

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Having a child? There's an app for that.
Having a child? There's an app for that.
Photo: Cult of Mac

From predicting potential heart attacks to helping dementia sufferers, we’ve gotten used to the idea that our Apple devices have a part to play in what is referred to as the mobile health drive.

But here’s a medical application you might not have thought that your iPad would ever be able to play a role in: helping couples to conceive.

Try telling that to the Taiwanese start-up Aidmics, which is hoping to carve out a piece of the $40 billion global human fertility market with an iPad-compatible microscope and accompanying app that lets users know exactly how plentiful their lil’ swimmers are.

Here’s where you’ll find Apple Watch sales figures from today’s earnings call

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Apple isn't spilling the details about Apple Watch sales.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple’s quarterly earnings call is set to take place later today, but one set of figures we’re not expecting to get is the initial Apple Watch sales. Apple has already acknowledged this data be hidden in the “other products” category — alongside the iPod, Apple TV, Beats Electronics and accessories division.

However, while Apple is likely to keep quiet on the exact breakdown of Apple Watch sales, it will be possible to get a rough idea of how the company’s debut wearable device is faring by doing the following:

Cusby adapters give you the building blocks to adjust to USB-C

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Cusby adapters  allow you to plug into the new MacBook with a single USB-C port.
Cusby adapters allow you to plug into the new MacBook with a single USB-C port.
Photo: Cusby

You can’t stop staring at the new 12-inch MacBook, especially the gold one. It’s lighter and smaller and while it has all the computing power of your suddenly-bulkier model, you’re not sure about life with a single USB-C port.

A Miami startup, led by an electrical engineer, has designed adapters that will allow you to plug in all your peripherals and then gradually cut back as you move to a more wireless future.

The Cusby Building Blocks plug into a USB-C port with each offering a more traditional plug-in, like the current standard USB-A port, another with an HDMI video-audio port or another with an extra USB-C port.

Fingerprint-scanning Gorilla Glass could eliminate iPhone’s Home button

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Say goodbye to the Home button as you know it.
Photo: Apple

We are one step closer to the end of Touch ID as we know it.

Following on from Apple’s recent patent filing concerning “finger biometric sensing pixels” for future iPhones, tech R&D company Sonovation has announced that it’s discovered a way of putting ultrasonic biometric sensors under Gorilla Glass — by bonding the sensors directly onto the display panel. Better yet, it works accurately even when fingers are wet, dirty, or oily.

Parody ad shows us what ‘Shot on iPhone’ videos really look like

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Check out "Shot on iPhone" ads like you've never seen them before. 
Photo: Elite Daily

Apple’s crowdsourced “Shot on iPhone” ad campaign has been described as a “game changer” by Cannes Outdoor Lions jury president Juan Carlos Ortiz, but — let’s face it — most of the videos we shoot daily on our iPhones aren’t the kind of artistic masterpieces Apple chooses to highlight.

With that in mind, Elite Daily has put together a hilarious compilation of “honest” iPhone 6 ads, which are a bit closer to reality for most folks. Check them out below:

Free Apple Watch beckons ‘lifestyle’ renters

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Would a free Apple Watch convince you to rent a waterfront apartment?

If the granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and “breathtaking water views” don’t sell you on moving into East Beach Marina Apartments, maybe the offer of a free Apple Watch will.

Just lease one and move in by the end of July, and you’ll nab a free Apple wearable that will help turn you into the perfect neighbor.