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Why Samsung’s design sucks, in a single image

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Want to sum up the difference between Apple and Samsung in a single image?

Don’t look at the logos. Don’t look at the operating systems. Don’t even look at what their respective gadgets look like.

Look at the lines. Look at the symmetry. Because Samsung can’t even get these basic things right.

Once you start looking closely, even Samsung’s best phones look like they were designed by a kindergartner.

Tattoos might make Apple Watch malfunction

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Using an Apple Watch with a tattoo gives some users a (s)inking feeling. Photo:
Using an Apple Watch with a tattoo gives some users a (s)inking feeling. Photo: Guinne55fan

With a variety of bands, and price tags ranging all the way from $349 – $17,000, there’s an Apple Watch for everyone. Except, possibly, the heavily tattooed.

That’s according to a new thread on Reddit which claims that several tattoo-sporting Apple Watch customers are having trouble using the device, because the wearable’s wrist-detection feature gets confused by the way in which tattoos reflect the green and infrared light emitted by the Watch.

The result? People with tattoos don’t get notifications, unless they move the Watch to an un-tattooed area, or turn off wrist detection. Not exactly ideal for those with full sleeves!

You can now use your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac

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Just Knock on your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac. Photo: Knock
Just Knock on your Apple Watch to unlock your Mac. Photo: Knock

Remember Knock? Released last year, it was an iPhone app that allowed you to unlock your Mac without entering a password, just by tapping on your smartphone’s screen. Now you don’t even need your iPhone handy to use Knock: It’s the latest app to get the inevitable Apple Watch support.

Apple Watch’s interchangeable band mechanism is now patented

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You can change your Apple Watch band quickly and easily. Photo: Apple

One of the neat features of the Apple Watch is the ability to quickly and drastically change its appearance by sliding different straps on and off the body of the device.

Achieved by way of a cunning three-contact mechanism, it’s undoubtedly a cool solution and — to paraphrase Steve Jobs — boy, has Apple patented it!

Apple Watch review: Futuristic, fun and fan-flipping-tastic

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Apple Watch is a great early adopter device. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple Watch is a great early adopter device. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
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Apple Watch is the most confounding device to come out of Cupertino since Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone. Is is it a watch? Is it a tiny computer on your wrist? It’s both — and it’s so much more.

After four days playing with the Apple Watch, we’ve found it to be far more futuristic — and far more fun — than we could have imagined. (It’s even more impressive if you’ve tried any of the other smartwatches on the market.)

Apple Watch isn’t without its disappointments, though. If you’re still unsure whether to shackle yourself to Jony Ive’s fabulous timepiece, here’s our take on what works — and what doesn’t.

Siri doesn’t like it when you confuse her with Google Now

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Just
Just don't make the mistake of calling Siri by the wrong name! Photo: Apple

Siri’s the O.G. (Original Gangsta) personal assistant, and she doesn’t like it when you confuse her with upstart rivals from Google or Microsoft.

The revelation was discovered by Twitter user and tech writer Danny Sullivan, who found that spurring his Apple Watch into action by saying “OK, Google” garnered the sarcastic response, “Very funny. I mean, not funny ‘ha-ha,’ but funny.”

78% of 1.7 million Apple Watch orders still haven’t shipped

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78% of all Apple Watch orders still haven't shipped. Photo: Slice Intelligence
78% of all Apple Watch orders still haven't shipped. Photo: Slice Intelligence

Last week, researchers at Slice Intelligence claimed that Apple had taken orders for as many as 957,000 Apple Watches in the first 24 hours that it was available on Apple.com. And that was in the U.S. alone.

Now Slice is back, with new numbers suggesting that demand for the Apple Watch is far, far exceeding supply. According to Slice, in fact, Apple may have sold as many as 1.7 million Apple Watches since pre-orders began.

And if your Apple Watch still hasn’t shipped, you’re not alone: 78% of all Apple Watch buyers are in the same boat.

Apple’s e-book antitrust monitor is charging for reading the paper

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We wonder if blog posts cost money to read, too. Photo: GalleryHip
We wonder if blog posts cost money to read, too. Photo: GalleryHip

Michael Bromwich, the court-appointed antitrust monitor who infamously handed Apple an “unprecedented” legal bill of $138,432 for his first two weeks’ work, is back — and his latest eyebrow-raising offence is charging Apple to “review relevant media articles.”

What does that mean, you might ask? In layman’s terms it refers to the fact that he’s billing Apple for reading the newspaper.

Foxconn CEO wants Apple manufacturers to unite against Samsung

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Samsung is after more of Apple's iPhone business.
Foxconn is no fan of Samsung. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Foxconn’s CEO Terry Gou is no fan of Samsung. In fact, according to a new report, he’s been trying to use his influence as Apple’s biggest manufacturing partner to get Apple to lessen its dependency on Samsung — while a giving a shot to other companies.

The reason? He thinks Taiwanese manufacturers need to work together to overcome the growing threat of the South Korean tech giant, which could potentially swallow all of their jobs.

LG says even Steve Jobs would love the G4

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Now that the Samsung Galaxy S6 has finally gone on sale the Android world is turning its attention to LG’s new flagship smartphone, the G4.

We’ve seen a few glimpses of the leather-clad phone which will make its debut on Wednesday, and according to LG’s spokes person, it’s so gorgeous, even Steve Jobs would love it.

Why Samsung’s design sucks, in a single image

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post-320883-image-edc8ee538b78cc30f14f1651ebdc19be-jpg

Want to sum up the difference between Apple and Samsung in a single image?

Don’t look at the logos. Don’t look at the operating systems. Don’t even look at what their respective gadgets look like.

Look at the lines. Look at the symmetry. Because Samsung can’t even get these basic things right.

Once you start looking closely, even Samsung’s best phones look like they were designed by a kindergartner.

How to navigate using only your Apple Watch

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Tap your way to wherever you want. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Tap your way to wherever you want. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
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As a sufferer from dysmappia (not a real word), I still get lost in a town I’ve lived in for 15 years. The iPhone and GPS accessibility has allowed me to find my way around pretty much any urban center I’ve been in, and even some rural ones as well.

Now that Maps is on Apple Watch, I’m going to be navigating around even more easily, lifting my wrist to see which way to go instead of burying my head in an iPhone. It’s sure to at least be a ton safer.

Here’s how to get from point A to point Z using just your Apple Watch.

11 key takeaways from Apple’s latest blockbuster financial quarter

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Photo: Jim Merithew
Apple Pay is coming to Best Buy. And that's just one small piece of good news from Apple's latest earnings call. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The iPhone 6 is a monster hit, China is now bigger than US for iPhone sales, and Tim Cook is delighted with the world’s response to the Apple Watch. And those are just some of the key insights from today’s Apple earnings call.

Here are the top 11 takeaways about Cupertino’s blockbuster second quarter, which once again set financial records.

Apple plans to return $200 billion to shareholders by 2017

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Apple profits
Shareholders are getting a huge payday from Apple.
Illustration: Cult of Mac

Along with revealing last quarters monstrous profits, Tim Cook has announced that Apple is increasing its capital buyback program to the tune of $140 billion.

Apple’s Board of Directors have authorized an increase of more than 50 percent to the company’s program to return capital to shareholders. Under the new plans, Apple will give a total of $200 billion in cash back to stock holders by the end of March 2017.

“We believe Apple has a bright future ahead, and the unprecedented size of our capital return program reflects that strong confidence,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “While most of our program will focus on buying back shares, we know that the dividend is very important to many of our investors, so we’re raising it for the third time in less than three years.”

You can read the full press release below:

Apple posts monstrous Q2 2015 results with $58 billion in revenue

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Apple raked in the cash last quarter.
The iPhone is still a money printing machine for Apple. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple has released the numbers for its Q1 2015 financial results, and they’re monstrous.

Not only did Apple manage to have the second most successful earnings in the company’s history, but it blew past Wall Street’s expectations with a monstrous $58 billion in revenue, leading to $13.6 billion in profits – both of which are records in Q2.

“We are thrilled by the continued strength of iPhone, Mac and the App Store, which drove our best March quarter results ever,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re seeing a higher rate of people switching to iPhone than we’ve experienced in previous cycles, and we’re off to an exciting start to the June quarter with the launch of Apple Watch.”

Apple shares were trading up about 2% on the day and closed today at $132.65, just under that company’s all-time high. Here’s a closer look at Apple’s impressive numbers:

Liveblog: Apple looks to make history with Q2 2015 earnings call

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Apple earnings are on the way. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple earnings are on the way. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
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In less than an hour, Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri will reveal whether iPhone 6 sales have continued to sail past Wall Street’s expectations. We’ll be on hand to liveblog all the action from the Q2 2015 Apple earnings call.

The results are expected to be monstrous, thanks to strong demand for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus carrying over from last quarter’s historic results. Wall Street is expecting Q2 2015 to be the second-biggest quarter in the history of Apple, with revenue believed to top $56 billion, for 23 percent year-over-year growth.

Apple only needs to sell more than 58.1 million iPhones to make it the second-biggest quarter ever, but what we’re most anxious to hear is whether Tim and Luca drop some Apple Watch numbers on us.

The call begins at 2 p.m. Pacific, but the liveblog action starts now. Keep this tab open and come back throughout the day for coverage and commentary.

Instagram offers up new filters, emoji for hashtags

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Lark, Reyes and Juno are three new filters for Instagram. Photo: Instagram
Lark, Reyes and Juno are three new filters for Instagram. Photo: Instagram

Instagram continues to play with the color wheel, introducing three new filters Monday the company says get inspiration from weekend outdoor adventures.

In addition to the filters, named Lark, Reyes and Juno, Instagram now allows users to include emoji on hashtags.

Since surpassing more than 300 million users in December, Instagram has added several new features to the photo-sharing app. It added five filters in December and last month, rolled out a new app called Layout, which allows users to combine multiple images in a single post.

Short film Life on Trial spoofs a murderous case of internet lag

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Photo: Life on Trial
In short film Life on Trial, a gamer deals with the devastating effects of lag. Photo: Life on Trial
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This post is brought to you by TeliaSonera International Carrier.

If your internet service provider faced a trial, would it be found guilty of sucking?

That’s the cheeky question posed by satirical short film Life on Trial, a goofball riff on classic courtroom dramas. Only in this trial, the victim is a video game character — Poanbone the Smashivator — and the defendant is the game’s creator, who skimped on network services.

The murder weapon? A serious case of lag.

Apple Watch Sport has better display than pricier models

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Is Apple Watch demand waning?
Apple Watch already has a ton of apps. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple is pushing into new territory with the Apple Watch, by making it the first device to come from Cupertino that uses an OLED display. One of the reasons Apple’s never brought OLED displays to the iPhone is they’re more challenging to engineer than long-established LCDs.

Apple hasn’t given us too many details about the Apple Watch’s display yet, other than telling us it’s a ‘Flexible Retina Display’ but the team over at DisplayMate have put the new display to the test, and came away with a shocking discovery: Apple Watch Sport has a better display than the Apple Watch Edition.

Apple Watch marathoner shatters personal record

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Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

Former super model Christy Turlington Burns has been counting down the weeks leading up the London Marathon by blogging about her experience training with the Apple Watch.

Burns revealed new details about the Apple Watch leading up to its release, but now that the marathon is over and she’s crossed the finish line, Burns can add awesome another feature to her blog: it helped her break a personal record.