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Netflix finally brings most-wanted feature to Apple TV

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Binge watchers rejoice! Netflix has answered one the biggest complaints many have had for its Apple TV app.

Netflix has finally brought “Post-Play” to the Apple TV, a feature that automatically queues up and plays the next episode of a TV show while the current one ends. Post-Play has been present on the web, Netflix’s iOS app in the App Store, and many other platforms that offer Netflix for a long time. It’s finally on the Apple TV.

Hands on: See iOS 8 beta 4’s new features in action

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With iOS 8’s expected September release getting closer and closer, anticipation for Apple’s updated mobile software is growing. Beta releases, pushed to developers every few weeks, show off the latest tweaks and new features, and today’s release of iOS 8 beta 4 is no exception.

In today’s video we go hands-on and take a quick look at everything new in the latest version of iOS 8. See a redesigned Control Center, the helpful new Tips app and other key upgrades to Apple’s mobile software.

Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to catch all our latest videos.

Grief offers no relief in True Blood’s ‘Lost Cause’

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Bill promises his bride that he'll survive the war. Photo: John P. Johnson/ HBO
Bill promises his bride that he'll survive the war. Photo: John P. Johnson/ HBO

This week, the residents of Bon Temps confront their grief head on. Sookie mourns Alcide, Lettie Mae mourns Tara, and Arlene mourns Terry. Andy makes the biggest decision of his life, while Eric and Pam continue their quest to find — and kill — Sarah Newland, the crazy Christian we all love to hate.

This fifth episode of the final season of HBO’s True Blood series focuses on love and loss, while we all start to come to terms with the death of some of our favorite characters as well as the end of the long-running television show. It’s a more restrained — and less hilarious — episode than last week, but we can only hope that we’re being set up for more over the top fun in the weeks ahead.

Spoilers ahead – you’ve been warned!

All the little tweaks Apple added to iOS 8 beta 4

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iOS 8 just got a little bit closer to completion for its launch this fall with the release of iOS 8 beta 4 this morning. Apple didn’t add any major new changes (unless you’re a hardcore lover of Control Center), but the new beta is full of tiny little tweaks that will make your iPhone feel like new when iOS 8 drops in September.

We’re still combing through all the new features Apple just added to iOS 8 beta 4, but there are already some big additions like the new Tips app, an improved Control Center, new Handoff settings and little tweaks galore.

Here are all the little features Apple added to iOS 8 beta 4:

Why Apple buyers are primed to pay premium

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Everyone knows that Apple does a stellar job of getting its users to upgrade to its latest version of iOS, but how does it do at convincing customers to buy its latest iPhones and iPads, rather than settling for cheaper older models?

Very well, and getting better all the time, according to new market research from the Chicago-based Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Looking at consumer data for the calendar quarter which ended June 30, CIRP noted that the flagship iPhone 5s accounted for an impressive 62 percent of total iPhone sales in the quarter, while the iPad Air took 52 percent of all iPad sales in the quarter. Why is this significant?

OS X 10.10 Yosemite beta 4 lands on the Mac Dev Center

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Apple seeded the 4th beta for OS X 10.10 Yosemite to developers this morning with preview build 14A298i.

The Yosemite beta program still hasn’t been opened to the public, but anyone with a developer account can pick up the OS X Yosemite beta 4 download from the Mac Dev Center. The update can also be scooped up from the Mac App Store by clicking Software Update under your Apple menu.

Apple seeds iOS 8 beta 4 to developers

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The newest beta version of iOS 8 has been seeded to developers by Apple this morning, two weeks after the release of iOS 8 beta 3.

iOS 8 beta 4 can be downloaded via an over the air update. Developers can pick also it up from the iOS Dev Center or from the direct download links posted below. We’re still downloading the update on our devices and will let you know what we new goodies we find. In the meantime, get to downloading:

Get your photographic and video lighting right every time with The KICK [Deals]

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In order to take breathtaking still pictures and earth shattering video, you need to have the proper lighting conditions. No one will see your fantastic photographic subject if the room is too dark. A lack of sufficient lighting also won’t do your videos any justice.

Now you can have the right lighting every time with The KICK. The KICK is a totally new way of lighting your photos and videos to make sure you get perfect exposure every time. It’s just like having a studio in your pocket, and it’s available for just $149 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Glowing Apple logo could serve up alerts on iPhone 6

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Picture: uSwitch

The iPhone 6 could include a MacBook-style light-up logo, according to new photos uncovered by renowned Apple leaker Sonny Dickson.

The photos show an apparent iPhone 6 case, with a thin plastic space that would allow for a light to shine out. While nothing concrete suggests this, if true the light could be used to indicate at a glance what type of notification a user was receiving at any moment — perhaps pulsating white for a call, or flashing blue for a text message or Twitter update.

New iOS puzzler Dropu is what would happen if Tetris and Sudoku had a baby

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A good mobile puzzle game is always welcome, and if you’re looking for something to augment your TwoDots and Threes games, developer Ricardo Fonseca is hoping he has something for you.

Called Dropu, his new iOS game is — as Fonseca describes it — what would happen “if Tetris and Sudoku had a baby.” As with Tetris, blocks fall from the sky and it’s your job as player to make sequences of them in order to clear lines.

Asphalt 8 teases Modern Combat 5 with explosive new challenge

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To celebrate the upcoming release of Modern Combat 5: Blackout, Gameloft has rolled out an awesome new challenge inside one of its other hugely successful titles, Asphalt 8: Airborne. It features a new track inspired by the hit FPS series that’s full of explosions and crumbling buildings — and there’s a nice prize for the best racers.

You’ll love to hate TwoDots’ ridiculously addictive puzzles

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I know that TwoDots, the followup to last year’s megahit Dots, has been out for a little while, but I have a pretty good excuse for not having reviewed it yet: I’ve been playing it this whole time.

It’s taken me so long to get to this article, in fact, that the developer has since released an update with a bunch more levels, and now this review is timely again. So take that, Time.

Anyway, TwoDots is a lot of fun. Provided you’re incredibly lucky.

Apple’s new Chongqing retail store continues aggressive Chinese expansion

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The location of Apple's eleventh Chinese retail store.

Picture: 360Destination
The location of Apple's eleventh Chinese retail store.
Picture: 360Destination

Apple is set to open a new brick-and-mortar retail store at the Paradise Walk mall in China’s Jiangbei District of Chongqing, according to Apple’s official retail website.

The store will open at 10am local time on Saturday, July 26, and will represent the company’s eleventh Apple Store in China: the first of several that will be opening in 2014 and 2015.

Streaming video service Qplay shutting after less than 6 months

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Getting into the streaming TV business might be all the rage right now, but it’s far from an easy game to play. (Which is why Tim Cook referred to Apple TV as “a hobby” for so long.)

Proof positive of this is Qplay, the Internet video-device and iPad app startup launched by the founders of TiVo, which has announced that it’s closing shop less than six months after launching its debut product.

Exploding the iPhone 6 rumors into one beautiful infographic

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We’ve heard a lot of rumors about the upcoming iPhone 6. But which ones are true? With the release of Apple’s latest and greatest smartphones just three months away, we can start synthesizing the likelihood of which rumors will pan out (and which won’t).

This gorgeous infographic exploding the iPhone 6 into its various components does a great job of showing where the consensus is right now.

Fascinating photo blog dives into The New York Times’ morgue

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Darcy Eveleigh
Darcy Eveleigh runs popular TUmblr blog The Lively Morgue.

Inside a New York City morgue, the rich, famous and celebrated rest in the same space with the soldier, the wheat farmer and nuns trained in the martial arts. There’s even a car show model who was mauled by a lion.

Darcy Eveleigh pulls drawers at random and gives these people another day. They’re not dead, just filed.

Eveleigh is a New York Times picture editor who curates the popular Tumblr blog, The Lively Morgue, a collection of historic and often quirky images found in the Times’ photo archive.

Eveleigh will not live to see every photo. The files are believed to hold between 10 and 20 million images. The site reports that if Times picture editors posted 10 new archived photos on the blog each day, they might have every picture online by the year 3935.

“They are all accidental small treasures I did not mean to come across,” Eveleigh said of the serendipity she relies on during her regular visits to the morgue, located three stories below ground level.

Best deals of the week: Adobe training, Loot Crate, EverDock, and more! [Deals]

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Lifetime Access To Over 5,000 Adobe Authorized Training Videos

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Plus, you get video training in related technologies such as WordPress, Javascript, and HTML5, just to name a few. The courses are updated for Creative Cloud 2014 and you can take the courses at your own pace. You can even print out your own certificate of completion at the end!

Former Obama spokesman Jay Carney still rumored to be considering Apple PR job

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(Photo: Susan Walsh/Associated Press)
(Photo: Susan Walsh/Associated Press)

Is former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney talking to Apple about becoming its new head of PR? That’s the question still circulating around Silicon Valley after a pair of conflicting reports came out earlier this week.

According to a friend of Carney’s who spoke anonymously to Bloomberg, Carney has indeed talked to Apple about potentially filling the recently vacated position.