Recent reports claim that Apple is looking to eliminate the need for a physical “home” button on future iPhones by integrating Touch ID fingerprint sensors into the main display. Now we have the patent application to prove it!

Published Thursday, Cult of Mac got its hands on a patent application entitled “Fingerprint Biometric Sensor Including Drive Signal Level Updating,” which reveals how Apple has been exploring processing circuitry capable of acquiring fingerprint data by using special “sensing pixels” within screens.

Steve Wozniak, one of Apple’s co-founders, does not yet own the company’s recently released smartwatch.

“They haven’t shipped it yet,” he said in a recent interview that also covers his thoughts on artificial intelligence, driverless cars, and Segways.

Tesla Motors is the smartest company in the world, according to MIT Tech Review’s latest survey of the brainiest corporations. Apple, which was not on last year’s list returns at number 16, beating out other firms like ride-sharing company Uber and smartbulb-maker Philips. MIT cites the newly released Apple Watch and touchless payment method Apple Pay as its reasons for inclusion, saying that these two products “set the pace for competitors.”

You can see the full list of smartiespants in the table below.

Apple Music is gearing up to take on Spotify and Pandora in less than seven days, and to get the word out, Apple has taken over New York City’s Time Square with a massive billboard promoting Beats 1 Radio.

Merchants in the United Kingdom are preparing their shops and wares for the launch of Apple Pay this fall, but they have some extra work to do if they want to make the big sales.

Apple Pay U.K. will come with a £20 per transaction limit unless shop owners have the latest gear on their counters.

The worst part about vacationing is coming back home and getting hit in the face with cold, hard reality. Excessive food consumption, relaxing atmospheres and sugary alcoholic beverages are out of your life and work is back in. But what if you take the travel part (not to mention the cost) completely out of equation? You get Flyover in Apple Maps.

Why vacation in this costly, unforgiving world when you can live vicariously through your iPhone, iPad or Mac?

Flyover, the immersive 3-D view in Apple Maps, now supports hundreds of cities around the world and Apple adds more all the time. In fact, seven more were added to the list just today so we thought it would be fun to take a look at the hottest vacationing spots of 2015, without even leaving the couch.

Get your summer vacay on at these hot Flyover spots:

Carl Icahn is bearish on the current stock market. After making billions buying Netflix shares near $58, the iconic investor announced today that he’s cashing out now that the stock is trading around $677 because the ‘overheated.’

Despite pulling out of Netflix though, Icahn is still super bullish on AAPL and thinks that the stock is actually at the same point now as when he bought into Netflix back in 2012.

Your iPhone is set up as a still camera first and foremost, so it tends to automatically focus and expose your images. This is fantastic when you need a quick snapshot, but when you’re taking video, the constant re-focusing and exposure adjustment just makes everything look blurry and amateur.

You can tap the screen in either video or photo modes to get a quick adjustment, but the minute you or or subject moves, all bets are off. Your best chance, then, at keeping your iPhone videos blur-free is to lock the focus and exposure.

Here’s how.

The latest update to Facebook’s Messenger app will let you use it even if you don’t have (or want) an account for the social-media platform.

It’s still Facebook, though, so you’re going to have to cough up some personal info.

Taylor Swift, who made Apple blink this week by criticizing the company for initially denying musicians royalties during the free trial period of its new streaming service, now has her gaze square on the photographer who implied her stance is hypocritical.

Swift, through a spokesperson in England, said music photographer Jason Sheldon misrepresented the contract shooters sign before her concerts, saying it does not force them to sign away the rights to their shots.

Adobe Systems Inc. has yet another patch for you to download and install to fix yet another critical security hole in its ubiquitous Flash Player browser plugin.

Hackers are already onto the exploit, so if you use Adobe Flash Player, you really need to download and apply the patch.

Better yet, though: just stop using Flash Player.

The launch of the original iPhone and the first Apple Watch have been polar opposites. While the iPhone was available at Apple Stores and third-parties on launch day, getting your hands on an Apple Watch on April 24th was almost impossible.

According to researchers at Morgan Stanley, that’s because the Apple Watch is in even more demand than the original iPhone weeks after it launched in 2007.

When it comes to cool Android hacks, this one’s got to be up there with the best.

Developer Josh Max has managed to get Google’s mobile platform running on a Texas graphing calculator with about as much power as a kitchen wall clock. It doesn’t just boot up, either; it’s also capable of running apps, like early Android game Lunar Lander.

Pharrell Williams has been Apple’s BFF lately, but when it comes to the battle between Apple and Taylor Swift, Skateboard P is on Team Taytay.

The eleven-time Grammy award winning artist spoke at the Cannes Lions Festival today (where Apple just scooped up a big award), and said that what Taylor did was a great thing for music.

When you’re powering your iPhone or iPad, you don’t want to be stuck next to an outlet in order to use them while they charge. The solution? This 10-foot Apple charging cable, now $18.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Indie musicians haven’t been too keen on Apple’s music streaming service that originally planned to cut them out of a paycheck for three months. Now that Taylor Swift has won her battle against Apple Music, thousands of indie artists are changing their tune toward the upcoming service.

No matter how robust you believe your smartphone case to be, battering it with a hammer just for the sake of it is never a good idea. One young boy learned this the hard way when he smashed his smartphone to bits in an effort to show friends how strong his case was.

If you’re a fan of iOS gaming you’ve probably visited (or should visit) TouchArcade, which just so happens to be the largest and oldest iOS gaming website on the Internet.

Featuring news, reviews, guides, interviews, and one of the best iOS gaming forums you’ll find anywhere, TouchArcade is a great resource for anyone who feels like we’re currently in the middle of something of a golden age for mobile gaming.

But the site needs your help.

Flavio Sarescia’s photography is on billboards around the world, walls of train stations and even the back cover of a magazine. Yet he makes his living selling dog food.
 
His moody photo of a resting surfer on a rocky New Zealand beach at sunset caught the eye of Apple and landed in the “Shot on iPhone 6” advertising campaign, a collection of photos and videos from more than 50 iPhone 6 users prominently displayed in more than 70 cities around the world.

Sarescia and other hobbyists have pictures alongside those of established professionals, a subtle pitch to the rest of us that suggests whether the iPhone 6 is in the hands of an amateur or artist, both can create on “equal” terms. We all can make great pictures.

Thanks to iOS and Android, Apple and Google have been locked in a battle with each other for years now.

Which is why it’s all the more ironic that Google would choose to unveil its latest Street View feature by letting users scale Yosemite’s “El Capitan” — the vertical rock formation which just so happens to also be the name of Apple’s next OS X iteration.

The Taylor Swift/Apple Music controversy has reignited discussion about what exactly the trend toward music streaming is going to do to artists.

If you’re concerned that your favorite singer isn’t getting enough dough, you may be interested to check out Eternify, a brand new website which lets users play any song they want from Spotify’s catalog in loops lasting 30 seconds — gradually racking up pay-per-stream royalties for the artist or band in question.

“Music streaming’s virtually worthless for artists,” the website reads. “But we can change that.”

Apple’s crowdsourced “Shot on iPhone” ad campaign’s not just a hit with customers — it’s raking in plaudits from the pros as well.

The iPhone campaign and its accompanying “World Gallery” picked up the top prize at the Outdoor Lions competition at Cannes, with jury president Juan Carlos Ortiz describing it as “not just a great idea, [but] a game-changer.”

We couldn’t agree more.

If you’ve been waiting for Apple to make an iPhone with a flexible OLED display, you may be getting your wish — although not for at least a few more years. According to a new report coming out of South Korea, Apple is “very likely” to release its first iPhone with a flexible OLED display in 2018, and the company’s display suppliers are currently “working on it.”

Does this mean we’re about seeing bendgate part two?

This post brought to you by Webdesignernews.com., via Syndicate.

The internet is overflowing with ideas, news and perspective on basically every topic imaginable. But much of the web’s daily deluge of information is recycled or diluted.

Especially if you have a real passion for something.

The constant skimming of mindless aggregators, RSS and up-vote feeds looking for something meaningful can leave you wanting.

After all, the best insight usually comes from other people who share your passion; musicians sharing what their fellow artists and friends are listening to; politicos with their favorite roster of reporters and analysts and Apple fans have the Cult of Mac team.

The University of New South Wales in Australia is the latest school to tell students that wrist-worn devices, especially smartwatches like Apple Watch, are not welcome during exams.

Administrators issued the ban to get ahead of any possibility that the new gadgets could be used to cheat.