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Apple Watch shows up on the arm of mystery man

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Whose arm is it? Photo: Suzy Menkes

We’ve known for a while now that a fortunate few people with close ties to Apple have been testing the Apple Watch in the wild, but this may be our best glimpse yet.

Posted on Instagram by Vogue international editor Suzy Menkes, the picture shows a man’s arm (thereby ruling out Menkes herself) sporting the chic Apple smartwatch, which Apple has been heavily promoting in fashion and design circles.

“So here is that new Apple watch gleaming and glinting and performing at the dinner table,” Menkes wrote. “Who owns the arm?! A free Apple watch for anyone who guesses right!”

Sadly, she went on to add that she was “only kidding.”

5 new iOS games you should play right now

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You'll want to take a break from work with these amazing iOS games. Photo: Stephen Smith
You'll want to take a break from work with these amazing iOS games. Photo: Stephen Smith

There are tons of new games out every week, and it’s hard to decide which ones to purchase, let alone which free games to download. We’re here to take some of the guesswork out of your decision, though, as we’ve scoured the best games that have come out so far this year.

From time wasters to deep strategic gems, this list will have you gaming in no time. Grab your copy of these five great –and brand-spankin’ new — gaming experiences today and you can thank us later.

Apple leases extra office space to boost its Siri team

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Siri will answer your questions, but that doesn't mean he/she has to like them.
Apple is Siri-ous about virtual assistants. Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

Apple is beefing up its Boston office, with an aim to expanding its Siri voice recognition team. Documents filed with local authorities show that the company has leased around 11,500 square feet of office space on the 13th floor of One Broadway, an office tower owned by MIT and located on the outer perimeter of the university’s campus in Cambridge, MA.

The added space gives Apple room to bring in an extra 65 people to work on the project, although a local job search for the area doesn’t yet show anything.

Apple has been steadily growing its Siri team over the past few years — recruiting employees formerly from companies like AT&T Research, Microsoft, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, BBN Technologies and others for its speech team in Cambridge.

San Francisco Apple Store gets unintended water feature

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Photo: Amanda Hoac
An impressive fountain, if not an entirely planned one. Photo: Amanda Hoac

The Apple Store in downtown San Francisco got its own water fountain yesterday… sort of.

In the afternoon, a construction worker carrying out work on the the corner of Stockton and Ellis Streets, near to the Union Square brick-and-mortar store, accidentally burst a fire hydrant — resulting in a spectacular geyser of water erupting outside the Apple Store.

Although it didn’t last for long, the spectacle certainly made an impression on onlookers: one of whom filmed it using the slo-mo function on their iPhone.

Want a job? Quanta needs 30K people to build new 12-inch MacBook Airs

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Photo: Apple
The 12-inch Retina MacBook Air is coming in early 2015. Photo: Apple

Are you ready for the thinner, radically-redesigned, 12-inch MacBook Air?

Apple certainly hopes so, because it’s reportedly piling on the pressure on to get Quanta Computer, its Taiwan-based manufacturer, to ramp up volume production of the notebook. The MacBook Air is set to be unveiled by Apple in the first quarter of this year, and to meet that kind of schedule Quanta is recruiting more workers for its production line.

And it’s not just a few workers it’s looking for, either!

Thieves use iPod nano to try and steal cash from ATM

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Would Apple be more upset at the use of its products in a crime, or the general shoddiness of the execution? Photo:
Would Apple be more upset at the use of its products in a crime, or the general shoddiness of the execution? Photo:Greater Manchester Police

Looking for a use for that old iPod nano you’ve got lying around the house, gathering dust? Why not become a credit card thief?

Okay, so that’s probably the worst piece of advice you’ve received today, but it was still good enough for a pair of ne’er-do-wells from Stockport, England.

Using an iPod nano, a bit of duct tape, and a plastic contraption which attaches to the card slot of ATMs, the duo discovered a way to record videos of people entering their PIN numbers to withdraw money — using Apple’s one-time music players as a makeshift spy camera.

Girl turns boring LEGO juice bar into awesome robot

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Would you like extra protein powder in that smoothie? Well, WOULD YOU?! Photo: fickle/Imgur
Would you like extra protein powder in that smoothie? Well, WOULD YOU?! Photo: fickle/Imgur

There was a time when LEGO brick sets were anything but prescriptive. You’d be lucky to get a wheel or axle part, or maybe even a door or window piece in your giant set of loose bricks.

These days, of course, LEGO typically means putting together a complicated model that just doesn’t need glue (though you can certainly use it to make things permanent).

Imgur user “fickle” put up this photoset showing what a couple of enterprising young women did with their toy juice bar, from the LEGO Friends set.

“It was supposed to be a juice bar,” they wrote on the photo sharing service, (but) “a set of ED-209-inspired power armor is far better!

Best of CES 2015: Get a glimpse of the fantastic future

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Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Anything goes at International CES, the world's largest consumer electronics show. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
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LAS VEGAS — Walk the halls of the massive International CES trade show and you’ll be bombarded by an outrageous number of pitches for products with radical new features.

Cult_of_Mac_CES_2015 You can glimpse the shiny happy future of consumer electronics at the show, although some of the innovations on display are clearly destined for the dustbin of gadget history.

At the biggest booths, reps for big companies like Sony and Samsung — but, sadly, not Apple — talk up the latest additions to their product lines. At smaller booths, inventors show off prototypes for products that may not ever roll off an assembly line. There’s a nonstop blitz of “world’s first” products.

It’s impossible to see everything, but it’s a blast trying. Here are Cult of Mac’s picks for the best of CES 2015, from Lightning-enabled headphones and massive TVs to drones and self-adjusting belts.

iOS 8.2 beta 4 is out now for developers

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A new day, a new iOS bug...
iOS 8.2 beta 4 is here. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple has seeded the fourth iOS 8.2 developer this morning. The new beta comes more than one month after iOS 8.2 beta 3 was released. The upcoming iOS 8.2 public release brings Apple Watch support to iOS devices.

iOS 8.2 beta 4 is available to all registered developers in the iOS Dev Center, or as an OTA update. Apple also released a fourth beta of Xcode 6.2 with the new iOS beta.

The release notes for iOS 8.2 beta 4 don’t mention any new features, but contains numerous bug fixes as the Apple Watch launch approaches. Use of iOS 9.0 was also spotted recently as Apple has begun internal testing ahead of its release later this fall.

Need a vacation? Try a NASA Kepler exoplanet

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Retro travel posters issued by NASA celebrate some of the discoveries of the Kepler Space Telescope. Illustrations: NASA
Retro travel posters issued by NASA celebrate some of the discoveries of the Kepler Space Telescope. Illustrations: NASA

The exoplanet known as Kepler-16b is a gas giant near the outer limits of the habitable zone, but why should that discourage you from paying it a visit?

NASA has issued a set of three retro space-tourism posters to celebrate the discoveries of the Kepler Space Telescope, which has laid eyes on more than 1,000 confirmed exoplanets and more than 400 stellar systems.

If 16b — which is said to have a temperature similar to dry ice — doesn’t sound appealing, honeymooners might be drawn to the promise of romance with a double sunset. Kepler-16b orbits a pair of stars, like Luke Skywalker’s native planet Tatooine, and the travel poster serves up this selling point: “Where Your Shadow Always Has Company.”

An idiot’s guide to smuggling iPhones into China

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Customs officials in China caught this man trying to smuggle 94 iPhones into the country. Photo: Sina News
Customs officials in China caught this man trying to smuggle 94 iPhones into the country. Photo: Sina News

You don’t need a smartphone app to tell you that taping dozens of iPhones to your body might set off alarms.

So it’s hard to know what a Hong Kong man was thinking when he tried to walk through a metal detector at Fultan Port in China with 94 iPhones taped to his chest, stomach and legs.

Actually, customs officials were suspicious before he got to the metal detector. After a check of two plastic shopping bags he was carrying, officers directed him towards and metal detector and noticed his “weird walking posture, joint stiffness (and) muscle tension.”

Apple begins testing iOS 9 ahead of a launch this fall

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A new iOS 8 update is here.
iOS 9 is now in the oven. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

It will be many months before developers see Apple’s first iOS 9 beta, but the Cupertino company has already begun testing the update internally ahead of this fall’s release. The software has starting appearing in analytics data for a number of sites in recent months, including our own.

Apple copycat doesn’t like being copied

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Xiaomi, the Chinese electronics manufacturer that’s famous for taking inspiration from (copying) Apple, has ironically warned consumers not to buy knockoffs of its flagship devices after a recent increase in the number of copycat devices, which are looking to cash in on the company’s success in China.

Apple cutting profits in India to get more iPhones in people’s hands

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iPhone 6 Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
The iPhone 6 is big in India. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

As Apple continues it global expansion, India marks one of the company’s big next frontiers — with 1.2 billion citizens and a fast-growing smartphone market.

Today, the company gets some good news, in the shape of some great reports about the success of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in the country. Since it launched the two next-gen smartphone handsets there in October, Apple has reportedly sold a massive half a million units in the country: twice what it managed during the same timeframe in 2013.

But Tim Cook’s not done yet. He wants to get more iPhones into the country, and that means… cutting Apple’s profits?

Are you ready for the Flappy Bird arcade game?

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What’s worse than an infuriating free game that munches up your patience and your spare time in equal measures? An infuriating game that you have to pay for, of course.

Having swept mobile gaming in 2014 (and inspired everything from Apple II mods and Pebble versions to Street Fighter II mashups in the process) Flappy Bird is reportedly making its way to arcades — courtesy of Bay Tek Games, which plans to blow the tap-to-fly mobile game to fill a 42-inch display.

Yosemite’s Spotlight glitch could reveal your details to online spammers

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Spotlight Search could be so much better than it already is. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Spotlight Search could also shine a light on your personal details. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple is normally pretty hot on security, but a new glitch discovered in OS X Yosemite’s search threatens to expose the private details of Apple Mail users — including IP addresses, and more —  to online spammers and phishers.

The privacy risk occurs when people use Spotlight Search, which also indexes emails received with the Apple Mail email client. When performing searches on a Mac, Spotlight shows previews of emails and automatically loads external images in the HTML email.

So why is this dangerous?

Apple launches revamped App Store category just for kids

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The trouble with the App Store isn't anything to do with the quality of apps; it's how many of the good ones tend to get buried.
Apple's new App Store sections gives kids somewhere to play.

Apple may be in the middle of its biggest ever month in App Store history, but it’s not resting on its laurels — having just announced a new App Store category, aimed at the littler members of Cupertino’s fanbase.

Called “Games for Kids,” the section will include everything from “cute puzzlers to accessible tower-defense games,” with a focus on children with a “wide range of skill levels and interests.”

Since a survey of youngsters aged 6-12 recently named the iPad a more beloved brand than Disney, Nickelodeon, Toys”R”Us, McDonald’s and YouTube it’s no surprise that Apple would want to continue hooking children young. And apparently that’s exactly what it’s doing.

Wireless flash brings iPhone photography out of dark ages

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Knog video light. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Knog's nine-LED Expose remote flash will light up your iPhone photos and video. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
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LAS VEGAS — The iPhone is the most popular camera in the world. But it still sucks at flash photography.

Cult_of_Mac_CES_2015 Knog, the Austrialian company that makes those kickass bike lights, wants to make your nighttime iPhone pics a little bit better this year: Its newest lighting revelation is called Expose, and it’s a super-handy iPhone flash that’s also super-bright.

Expose is bright in more ways than one. Its accompanying iPhone app lets users blast light in photo and video modes, with flash, strobe or continuous settings. You can adjust the white balance and brightness, and the device weighs so little you’ll barely notice it’s in your pocket.

Withings’ new Activité Pop is a smartwatch you’ll actually want to wear

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Withings smart watch is one of the best looking wearables around. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Withings smart watch is one of the best looking wearables around. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
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LAS VEGAS — The problem with the state of smartwatches, beyond the sucky software, is that they’re all ugly. The Apple Watch might very well be the first wearable that not only works, but looks good too, although we won’t know for sure until the finished product is on our wrists this spring.

Cult_of_Mac_CES_2015 There were dozens and dozens of smartwatches displayed on the sprawling show floor at International CES last week, but the only one that looked good enough to adorn my wrist was the new Withings Activité Pop.

It doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of fancier watches like the Samsung Galaxy Gear, but it’s not your average dumb watch either. And for now, just a smidgen smarter is smart enough.