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Emoji are about to takeover over your passwords

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How will we express this emotion?!
A British company has developed an emoji-only password option for online banking.
Photo: Intelligent Environments/Vimeo

Our friends chuckle when we text them a story using emoji. Fun little pictures rich in context and feeling, especially when we can make use of the smiling poo.

But that funny emoji story could also make a very secure password.

The British company Intelligent Environments has developed emoji security technology the developers say will be easier to remember and offer many more combinations that a four-digit PIN code.

How much of your Apple Music subscription fees go to record labels

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Apple-Music-iPhone
Apple Music arrives on June 30 with 24/7 internet radio.
Photo: Apple

When Apple Music launches at the end of June you won’t have to pay a cent to listen to all the music your ears can hear for the first three months. If you want to keep using Apple Music after the three month trial period though you’ll have to fork over $10 a month, and according to a new report it’s paying out more to the record labels than Spotify.

These award-winning iPhone photos put your snaps to shame

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The iPhone photograph to beat this year.
Photo: Michał Koralewski

Thanks to its constant improvements and the fact that we carry it around virtually everywhere we go, the iPhone has become our de facto camera over the past few years.

But while most of us use our iOS devices for little more than taking Facebook snaps, the annual IPP (iPhone Photography) Awards are a reminder of just how gorgeous our mobile pics can look.

Simply put, there’s no excuse!

Hidden iOS 9 keyboard practically confirms iPad Pro is coming

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You can now turn your iPad keyboard into a trackpad.
You can now turn your iPad keyboard into a trackpad.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s giant iPad has been one of the rumor mill’s favorite products to gossip about for years, even though no one has seen so much as a chamfered edge of its supposed 12-inch display. However, some assets hidden inside iOS 9 indicate that the new tablet — often referred to as the “iPad Pro” — could make an appearance soon.

According to a developer who’s been digging through iOS 9, the new keyboard scales to a much larger screen size than we’ve seen so far. When the new keyboard is enlarged, it adds an extra row of keys, hinting that Apple’s monstrous new tablet could rear its head in the near future.

Check it out:

Forget iPads, this school district relies on… Amiga?

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The Atari
The Amiga 2000 in all its vintage glory.
Photo: Flickr/Marcin Wichary CC

Apple has always been big in the educational market, but it’s something the company has pushed more than ever under Tim Cook — albeit with sometimes mixed results.

The dream of having schools fully embrace the Apple ecosystem certainly sounds pretty far off, however, when you hear that one school district in the U.S. is still reliant on almost 30-year-old Commodore Amiga 2000 computers to automate its air conditioning and heating systems.

Say it ain’t so, Grand Rapids, Michigan!

See magnets crush a $10,000 Apple Watch Edition

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Magnet + Apple Watch Edition = too much money.
Photo: TechRax

Some were outraged about the $10,000 cost of the Apple Watch Edition, but will people really race to see one of the glittery timepieces get obliterated by powerful neodymium magnets?

Oddball YouTube stress-tester TechRax clearly hopes so, because he recently plonked down the money to carry out just such an “experiment” in his quest for views. Check out the resulting video below.

Seriously, how does this guy get his money?

Speed through Apple’s WWDC 2015 keynote in less than 3 minutes

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Will we see a
What was Tim Cook's "one more thing" at WWDC 2015? Find out in less than three minutes with Cult of Mac's keynote supercut.
Photo: Apple

Not everybody has two-and-a-half hours to watch an Apple event. Tim Cook and crew delivered tons of updates at the kickoff for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, and you can speed through all the news with this WWDC 2015 keynote supercut.

It’s just two-and-a-half minutes long!

These 3-D-printed Apple Watch stands will show off your shiny smartwatch

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Tossing your Apple Watch on the table just doesn't feel right.

After spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on your new Apple Watch, it’s hard to justify tossing the device on the table to charge like discarded jewelry. If you’ve got a 3-D printer, it’s easy to class things up by printing out an Apple Watch stand.

These 3-D-printed Apple Watch stands will protect your high-tech timepiece from scratches and, more importantly, provide a platform to show off your new smartwatch to friends and family — even when you aren’t using it.

A variety of 3-D printing files are available to download completely free of charge, and they get the job done just fine. Take a look at some of the best designs out there — all of which cost nothing to download.

Quickly recover your lost files with FonePaw Android Data Recovery

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Ever accidentally delete data from your phone? We thought so.
Ever accidentally delete data from your phone? We thought so.
Photo: FonePaw

This post is brought to you by FonePaw, maker of Android Data Recovery.

All our smartphones have a limited amount of storage space. And I for one regularly purge my phone data of unnecessary stuff I no longer think I’ll need. But have you ever deleted a contact or a message thread, then wished you had it back? FonePaw Android Data Recovery is designed for just that scenario.

It’s the ultimate data-recovery software for Android smartphones and tablets — a must-have tool that efficiently recovers deleted or lost files from your device, with an uncomplicated user interface that is easy to navigate. All you need to do is plug in your phone to your home computer and allow Android Data Recovery to scan, retrieve and recover your lost files.

Peek inside the just-opened Apple Store Upper East Side

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Once a bank, the building at 940 Madison Ave. in New York's Upper East Side is now a swank Apple boutique.
Once a bank, the building at 940 Madison Ave. in New York's Upper East Side is now a swank Apple boutique.
Photo: Shinya Suzuki/Flickr CC

A New York building that once housed a bank has been transformed into a pristine Apple boutique. The Apple Store Upper East Side opened Saturday morning, giving a swarm of shoppers a chance to try on an Apple Watch in the former bank vault.

There’s no question that when you walk into this store, it’s to buy something high-end and fashionable. Take a look at the Instagram photos taken during today’s grand opening.

The best new iOS 9 and El Capitan features revealed at WWDC ’15 on The CultCast

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Beats 1 is Apple's new worldwide radio station
Beats 1 is Apple's new worldwide radio station
Photo: Apple

This week: our favorite features announced at the WWDC ’15 keynote; why we have high hopes for Beats 1 radio on Apple Music; Phil Schiller discusses some of Apple’s more controversial product decisions in a surprising new interview; and, though it’s all cheers for consumers, we’ll tell you why some developers dread Apple’s yearly WWDC announcements.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Build a beautiful new website quick with Squarespace’s drag-n-drop interface. Start a free trial and save 10% off your first purchase with code “CultCast”.

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Show notes ahead, and they’re delicious.

#ProTip: The upside to jailbreaking your iPhone

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Jay
Jay "saurik" Freeman, maker of Cydia, says there are legit reasons to jailbreak your iPhone.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Cult of Mac is at WWDC and AltConf, fishing for ProTips. The world’s biggest gathering of Apple developers is a rich hunting ground filled with alpha geeks, experts par excellence. What’s a ProTip? A ProTip is a nugget of knowledge, a little bit of expertise from someone in the know — a pro.

SAN FRANCISCO — Has Apple ever contacted you? This is one of two questions gray-hat hacker Jay “saurik” Freeman gets asked all the time. It happens so often, he has thought about putting it on a T-shirt.

“I have been contacted by Apple twice — once about a job and the other time a 50-page response to request sent to the copyright office,” he told Cult of Mac after his AltConf presentation on copyright in the digital era.

For developers, WWDC means more work but not necessarily more profit

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Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The Worldwide Developers Conference brings new opportunities and new threats for indie developers. If you’re lucky, Apple introduces an API that could enhance your app. If you’re unlucky, Apple launches a new feature that renders your app obsolete.

One thing is certain: Whatever Apple announces at the annual conference will mean a lot more work for indie developers just to stay in the game. And since developers can’t charge for updates on the App Store, most of that work will go unrewarded.

Patent hints at fixing Apple Watch’s heart-rate monitor

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Apple Watch alerts user of irregular heart rhythms in sleep
Writing about patents always gets the blood pumping around here.
Photo: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

The Apple Watch’s heart-rate monitor is pretty damned cool, but it’s the one piece of the new smartwatch that’s seeing the most updates and tweaks since the hardware launched seven weeks ago.

A new patent suggests that Apple has even more changes in store for the health tech.

YouTube Gaming aims to take a bite out of Twitch’s streaming game

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It's like YouTube, but with way less cat videos.
It's like YouTube, but with way less cat videos.
Photo: YouTube

Gamers aren’t turning to magazines — or even websites — as much as they used to. These days, you’re more likely to find them on YouTube or Twitch to watch Let’s Play videos, Minecraft machinima, or streaming League of Legends matches. It’s a bold new world, and YouTube wants to capture a little more of the video gaming market with its new YouTube Gaming site, which will also have its very own app for mobile devices and gamers on the go.

Everything YouTube gaming related will show up in this new space; now when you search for “Call” on YouTube Gaming, you can be sure that you’ll get Call of Duty videos only, and not “Call Me Maybe” music videos (as if that’s a bad thing).

WWDC 2015 wrap-up: What’s coming in iOS 9, OS X El Capitan and more

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So long, farewell, see you next year.
So long, farewell, see you next year.
Photo: Apple

Now that Apple’s annual developer conference is over, we’ve got the skinny on all the news coming out of the WWDC this year. From a thorough wrap-up of the keynote to in-depth looks at iOS 9, OS X El Capitan, the new watchOS 2, and the exciting Apple Music, we’re here to fill your weekly digital magazine to overflowing.

Get Cult of Mac Magazine now, and soak in Cult of Mac’s smart, informed, and sometimes a little snarky take on all the info from WWDC 2015.

Kahney’s Korner: Why I can’t wait for Beats 1 radio

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Kahney's Korner Beats 1
Find out why Leander hopes Beats 1 is as cool as BBC Radio 1 in this week's Kahney's Corner.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Why is Leander super-excited about Apple’s new Beats 1 radio service?

It’s simple, really: For him, listening to BBC Radio 1 was possibly the greatest thing about growing up in England in the ’70s. More importantly, it’s still how he discovers loads of new music today — and Apple’s 24/7 live internet radio station promises that same kind of magic.

Get the lowdown in the latest Kahney’s Korner video.

Samsung outranks Apple where it really hurts… in the patent department

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In an effort to prevent rivals from stealing its ideas, Apple patents everything it invents — from the iPhone and the iPad, to app icons and even “magic” tactile gloves. But compared to its biggest competitors, Apple’s patent portfolio from 2015 looks surprisingly bare.

Microsoft, Sony, Google, and LG have all outrank Apple in the patent department this year, while arch rival Samsung has absolutely crushed it.