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iPad Pro, new emojis, and the actors who should never ever play Jobs on The CultCast

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This week: more rumored details of a 12-inch iPad Pro; 755 new emojis are coming soon to your iDevices; with Christian Bale out, we make our list of the actors that should definitely NOT replace him in the Sorkin-penned Jobs movie; and finally… nude or not? Do you keep your iDevices bare or covered up in a case? We ponder the pros and cons and ask the question: why are so many iPhone and iPad cases horrid pieces of garbage? We’ll share some of our faves, too.

Chuckle your way through each week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the chuckles begin.

Our thanks to lynda.com for sponsoring this episode! Learn virtually any application at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials at lynda.com.

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Click on for the show notes.

Hot deals ending soon: iOS game dev, web dev, business training, the A3 wallet [Deals]

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CoM_Complete iOS Dev Course

At Cult of Mac Deals, we’re all about bringing you amazing offers on the coolest gadgets, training, and services. These deals are so awesome, they just can’t stick around forever.

Today we feature four hot deals that are ending really soon. We don’t want anyone miss out on a good thing, so have a gander and buy now before they’re gone for good.

Track your blood alcohol content with the BACtrack Vio Smartphone Breathalyzer [Deals]

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CoM_BACtrack Vio

Huzzah! It’s Friday. The end of the work week is finally here! To celebrate, you might choose to go out with some friends and have a drink or two. It’s all good. You deserve it. But, are you sure it’d be safe to drive yourself home afterward?

Now you can take the guesswork out of deciding whether you can safely operate a vehicle after drinking alcohol with the BACtrack Vio, only $42.99 for a limited time at Cult of Mac Deals.

‘Prototype’ iPhone 6 that nearly won 100K finally sells on eBay

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Screen Shot 2014-11-07 at 3.55.00 PM
This unfinished iPhone 6 nearly sold for a small fortune before Apple got involved.

Remember the iPhone 6 “prototype” that was listed on eBay and almost sold for $100,000 before getting mysteriously pulled? It was relisted last week and just sold for $11,100.

The seller got what he thought was a brand new iPhone 6 from Verizon only to find what appeared to be an unfinished prototype running internal software. After he told us that he was excited to hear from Apple regarding the prototype, the listing was suddenly taken down.

Court docs reveal how Apple treats its suppliers (badly)

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GT Advanced
Back entrance to GTAT's sapphire plant in Mesa, AZ. Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac
Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac

Apple and its former sapphire supplier GT Advanced Technologies have stayed quiet about their disastrous relationship, but newly unsealed court documents reveal that the two companies never had a chance of making things work.

Judge Henry Boroff ordered the sealed documents to be opened on Tuesday, and one of the affidavits from GTAT CEO Daniel Squiller claims Apple used a “bait-and-switch” strategy that was massively one-sided. When GTAT balked at Apple’s terms, execs were told to stop trying to negotiate and “put on your big boy pants and accept the agreement.”

World’s first 34-inch, 21:9 curved display delivers truly immersive views

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With it's giant 21:9 curved face, the LG 34UC97 UltraWide display delivers stunningly crisp imagery. Photo: LG Electronics
With it's giant 21:9 curved face, the LG 34UC97 UltraWide display delivers stunningly crisp imagery. Photo: LG Electronics

Imagine futuristic and innovative design engineered into a display that’s capable of changing the way work with our computers as well as the way we view what we’ve created. And what if that display is the perfect tool for energetic collaboration?

Before you say anything, check out this new video from LG Electronics, which recently collaborated with artists who are passionate about genuine creativity.

United Airlines gives Newark terminal $120 million iPad makeover

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United Airlines is going all-in on the iPad. Photo: United Airlines
United Airlines is going all-in on the iPad. Photo: United Airlines

Newark International Airport is renounced for its habitually tardy flights, but in an effort to woo (and distract) flyers, United Airlines announced today that it’s planning to give its main terminal an iPad makeover.

The airline is investing $120 million into a upgrade of its main terminal at Newark, which consistently ranks as one of the worst airports in the country, despite being the 14th most busy. To spruce up the terminal, United plans to rollout iPads and other tech flourishes that have become an expectation among fliers now.

No classic painting is safe from ‘museum selfies’

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That lazy eye is always such a bother. Photo: Olivia Muus/Museum of Selfies
That lazy eye is always such a bother. Photo: Olivia Muus/Museum of Selfies

We’ve all taken our fair share of selfies, those ego-stroking quick snapshots of ourselves and others engaged in the most fun moments of our lives, right?

What would it be like, though, if various figures from historical times, like, say, the Renaissance, had camera phones? Would they take photos of themselves?

Olivia Muus at the Museum of Selfies Tumblr blog thinks they might, and set out to prove it with her series of portraits as above.

“This is a project that started when my friend (aka. my right hand) and I went to the National Gallery of Denmark in Copenhagen,” she writes on the blog page. “I took a picture for fun and liked how this simple thing could change their character and give their facial expression a whole new meaning.”

Apparently it caught on, because in addition to her original four photos, more and more folks are contributing their own “museum selfies” to the blog. Check out more of these fascinating portraits below.

Apple sends Fitbit’s activity trackers on a long run… out of Apple Stores

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Photo: Fitbit
Photo: Fitbit

Clearing the way for its own fitness-tracking wearables, Apple has stopped selling Fitbit activity trackers in the Apple Online Store, and has begun removing them from its brick-and-mortar retail outlets also.

Fitbit’s devices have been sold in Apple Stores for the past few years; quickly racking up close to 70% of the fitness-tracking device marketshare, courtesy of a head start over competitors such as Nike’s FuelBand and Jawbone Up.

Xiaomi the money: Apple copycat raises record $1.5 billion in funding

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Xiaomi has quickly become the world’s third largest smartphone supplier, thanks to its cheap Apple-esques devices, and all that copying is about to pay off big time. CNBC reports that the Chinese startup is raising $1.5 billion in capitol, the largest private financing deal of since Facebook in 2011.

Negotiations haven’t been finalized, but investors include Russian Internet company DST – which backed Facebook, Airbnb, and Alibaba – with a valuation expected to top $40 billion.

Lenovo’s iPhone ripoff is so blatant it puts Samsung to shame

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It’s easy to point a finger at Xiaomi, the Chinese phone maker that clearly draws a lot of… inspiration from Apple. And there’s Samsung, of course. But there’s another copycat offender out there that’s almost just as bad, if not worse: Lenovo.

The Chinese manufacturer has a new phone coming out called the Sisley S90. Excuse the fact that the device looks just like an iPhone 6; its website is basically a carbon clone of Apple’s.

Love is all you (and penguins) need, says John Lewis Christmas ad

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All you need is love. Photo: John Lewis
All you need is love. Photo: John Lewis

Sometimes all a penguin needs is love, says the new Christmas ad from British department store John Lewis.

There’s a young boy with a real penguin. The penguin, named Monty, loves playing with the boy: swimming, sledding, building with Legos. but there’s one thing the boy cannot provide for poor Monty, and that’s a life mate.

Watch the full ad below and be sure to stick around for a delightful Calvin & Hobbesian moment at the end.

Monument Valley gets 8 more gorgeous levels next week

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Monument Valley
Photo: Ustwo

Monument Valley is my pick for iOS game of the year; a twisting, gorgeous, MC Escher-style puzzler that’s spellbinding from start to finish. And given that it has received upwards of 1 million downloads, I’m far from alone in thinking that way.

Which is why it’s great to hear that the game is set to receive its first expansion on November 13. Titled “Forgotten Shores,” the expansion will plunge players back into the world of Princess Ida, as she travels through eight entirely new levels, with a slew of fresh puzzles to solve on her journey.

You can now use your iPhone to control Spotify on your Mac

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In a much-requested feature, paying Spotify users can now use their iPhone or iPad to control the songs playing on their desktop computer.

Thanks to the update, you can now easily switch between desktop and mobile — perhaps using your iPad to skip and change tracks at a party, or shutting down your laptop, and then picking up listening on your iPhone from exactly where you left off on your phone.

Crystal Baller: Fireproof Macs, Apple Watch pricing, and 5 other wild rumors

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crysalballer

We get slammed 24/7 with new Apple rumors. Some are accurate, most are not. To give you a clue about what’s really coming out of Cupertino in the future, we’re busting out our rumor debunker each week to blow up the nonsense.

After staying quiet the past few weeks, the Apple rumor mill is erupting like Mt Kilauea with hot rumors about the Apple Watch’s possible launch date, gossip of the iPad mini getting discontinued, and our first iPhone 7 rumors of the year. Step up to the crystal ball and see which of these rumors are the real deal, and which are just pretenders.


8 great new tech books to make the winter months fly by

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Walter Isaacson’s new book might not be quite the monster hit that his 2011 Steve Jobs biography was, but The Innovators is definitely the 2014 tech book you’re most likely to spot someone reading on the bus. Having focused on one of tech's most singular visionaries, The Innovators turns its attention to teams of inventors and computer scientists, offering a look at just how far technology have come over the past century.

If The Innovators has a downside, it’s that it can be cursory in its discussions of specific people. Jobs got 500 pages of his own, but Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, Doug Engelbart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Tim Berners-Lee, Larry Page and others have to share less than that between them.

Still, if you’re looking for a tech book people will have read this winter, The Innovators should be high on your list.Photo: Simon & Schuster

Walter Isaacson’s new book might not be quite the monster hit that his 2011 Steve Jobs biography was, but The Innovators is definitely the 2014 tech book you’re most likely to spot someone reading on the bus. Having focused on one of tech's most singular visionaries, The Innovators turns its attention to teams of inventors and computer scientists, offering a look at just how far technology have come over the past century.

If The Innovators has a downside, it’s that it can be cursory in its discussions of specific people. Jobs got 500 pages of his own, but Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, Doug Engelbart, Robert Noyce, Bill Gates, Tim Berners-Lee, Larry Page and others have to share less than that between them.

Still, if you’re looking for a tech book people will have read this winter, The Innovators should be high on your list.

Photo: Simon & Schuster


Apple might ditch storage chips alleged to cause iPhone 6 glitch

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Product image of iPhone 6 Plus, which set a new sales record for Apple by selling 10 million over its launch weekend.
Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

According a rumor in BusinessKorea, Apple is set to switch from using the problematic TLC (triple-level cell) NAND flash to MLC (multi-level cell) NAND flash in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. MLC NAND was used in the 16GB version of the new iPhone 6 devices, as well as some of the 64GB models, while the 64GB and 128GB models use TLC NAND.

A few days ago we detailed reports that a small percentage of users were having issues with their new iPhones crashing and becoming stuck in a boot loop, supposedly due to the controller IC of the TLC NAND.

Although the suggestion that Apple was looking at a full-on product recall were largely debunked, the company is supposedly looking to fix the problem going forward.

iPads dominates almost 80% of Web usage on tablets

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Photo: Chitika Insights
Photo: Chitika Insights

iPad users generated a massive 79.9% of North American tablet-based Web traffic over the month of September, according to a new report by Chitika Insights.

This number is down slightly from the 81% figure the iPad represented one year ago, although the iPad actually gained 1.9% points since July 2014 — the largest quarter-over-quarter usage share increase of any tablet brand out there.

Oddball USB stick offers infinite iPhone storage

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iBridge gives your iPhone extra storage. Photo: Leef
iBridge gives your iPhone extra storage. Photo: Leef

Slo-mo videos have become my favorite new thing to shoot with the iPhone 6 Plus now that Apple added the ability to spit out gorgeous vids at 240 FPS, but my slo-mo addiction comes at a heavy cost: storage space.

The best smartphone camera in the world doesn’t mean jack if your 16GB iPhone can’t hold another 30 second video, so the guys at Leef have come up with a brilliant solution to ensure you never run out of room for all your video. It’s called the iBridge, and while it might look an ordinary USB-stick, it has the extraordinary ability to add storage to both your iPhone and Mac.

Zuckerberg explains why Facebook Messenger became its own app

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Mr. Social Network himself. Photo: JD Lasica/Flickr CC
Mr. Social Network himself. Photo: JD Lasica/Flickr CC

From answering trolls online to busting out near-fluent Mandarin in front of a surprised audience, Mark Zuckerberg’s all about defying expectations these days. That trend continued yesterday, as he gave a reasonable (and even Steve Jobsian) answer about why Facebook moved messaging out of its main app and into a standalone Messenger one.

Telling the audience at his first public Q&A that, “I’m grateful for hard questions” and “it keeps us honest,” Zuck noted how:

Controversial math apps won’t help kids cheat

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The girl at work. Photo: Rob LeFebvre, Cult of Mac
My daughter wishes these math apps worked better. Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

My math-averse daughter wanted to cheat on her algebra homework. So we downloaded PhotoMath, a free app that lets you take a picture of your mathematical and algebraic equations, solving them for you and showing the steps to the solution.

PhotoMath has been at the top of the App Store charts for a couple of weeks, hitting number one on the Education, Kids Games and Top Apps lists. Small wonder, as it seems like a great way to get out of doing homework.

However, despite the concerns of some parents and teachers, apps like PhotoMath just won’t help when it comes to cheating — they’re far too limited. Still, it’s a promising technology that, once it matures, might actually turn into the type of wonder tool for education we’ve long been promised, turning our iOS devices into useful educational tools that will help kids actually learn math, rather than simply giving them a shortcut to homework answers.

iCloud.com beta adds ability to upload photos from browser

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Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

Today Apple quietly added a new feature to the developer beta version of iCloud.com. Photos can now be uploaded directly from the browser to a user’s iCloud Photo Library, which was introduced with iOS 8.1.

Since Apple isn’t releasing its new Photos app for OS X until next year, this could very well be the only way to upload photos to iCloud from a desktop for months.