Total App Store spending surged to a massive $32.8 billion in the first half of 2020, combining money spent on premium downloads, subscriptions, and in-app purchases, a recent blog post from app analytics firm Sensor Tower suggests.

Not only is that an enormous amount of cash, but it’s also close to double the estimated gross revenue spent in the Google Play store, despite the bigger market share enjoyed by Android. User spending on Google Play reportedly hit $17.3 billion in the first half of the year.

Amazon is dropping big discounts on Anker’s awesome new USB-C chargers with gallium nitride (GaN) charging technology. Get your 60W plug, with enough power for almost anything, at $16 off today.

Apple is giving out a free $50 to any new Apple Card users who use their fancy credit card to sign up to an Apple subscription service like Apple Music, Apple News+ or Apple TV+, or to spend money in the App Store.

The sign-up deal runs through the end of July. It applies to customers who are spending money on one of Apple’s services using their Apple-branded credit card for the first time.

Apple TV+ reportedly made big inroads while users were stuck home during the coronavirus lockdown, a recent study by Parks Associates claims.

The research firm notes that more than two in five U.S. households with broadband have trialed a streaming video service during lockdown. A surprisingly large 8% of households have trialed four or more. Among new subscribers to TV streaming services, Apple TV+ was sampled by 27% of households, the report states.

“Hey Siri” can be inadvertently activated by other wake words including “A city,” “Hey Jerry,” and more, reveal researchers from Germany’s Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Bochum Max Planck Institute.

Siri’s far from the only voice assistant with a weakness when it comes to false triggers, however. The study compiled a list of over 1,000 words that can accidentally activate different A.I. assistants.

Vigo Krumins is a German-based web designer and when it comes to accessories he does not mess around. He collaborates with different high-quality accessory companies to build his dream setup. He says “companies reach out to me and if I like their stuff, we agree that they send me their products and I feature them in my posts giving my honest opinion about them.”

His monitor is a blast from the past. He has an Apple Cinema Display. Even though Apple discontinued them in 2011, the screen quality is still great. The exterior even resembles the Pro XDR display, albeit bulkier. He has the late 2008 version and has no plans to replace it with a newer monitor, unless of course, “Apple will release a cheaper version of the Apple Pro Display XDR.” Keep dreaming Vigo!

Macs will soon use Apple Silicon, the same type of proprietary processors found in iPhones. And an unconfirmed report indicates that Apple is exploring ways to let iPhones run Mac apps on an external display.

If true, an iOS handset could be all the computer many consumers need. They’d never have to buy a Mac again.

Apple is almost certainly prepping a pair of augmented reality glasses. A designer dreamed up his own Apple Glass concept, and filmed a video demonstrating the cutting-edge features.

Watch it now:

Sound Recognition might be an accessibility feature in iOS 14, but there are times when it might come in handy for any iPhone user. Find out how to enable and customize this brand-new feature in our handy guide.

The Elegiant Wire Tracker looks unassuming, but it helped me solve a frustrating problem: identifying the Ethernet cables buried behind the walls of my house. The inexpensive kit consists of a little plastic probe about the size of a Polish sausage and an emitter about the size of an iPhone (only it’s an inch or so thick).

It’s made of blue plastic, so it doesn’t pack that heavyweight “pro” feel, but it seems fairly durable. And if you need to figure out which Ethernet cable goes where, it gets the job done.

The Cult of Mac Store this week kicked off its big July 4 sale with 20% off all Apple Watch bands from Form Function Form. Now we’re extending it to include sweet savings on Elkson, Mifa, and Monowear.

The discounts end this weekend, so enjoy them while you can!

If you ever stumble across a lost iPhone or iPad, you’ll want to sell it safely return it to its owner as quickly as possible. But how do you find out who it belongs to? Just ask Siri! Find out how with this handy pro tip.

The real-life story of Peter, whose saga of escaping slavery made headlines around the world in 1863, is being made into Emancipation, a film starring Will Smith and directed by Antoine Fuqua. Apple TV+ reportedly bought the worldwide rights for more than $120 million.

Deadline, which broke the news, called it the “largest film festival acquisition deal in film history.”

The novel coronavirus continues to hurt the U.S. economy, with unemployment about 13%. With so many out of work, or earning far less than they usually do, Apple and Goldman Sachs are offering to let people people struggling financially because of the COVID-19 pandemic skip their July Apple Card payment without being hit with interest fees.

Another developer is speaking out about Apple’s controlling behavior in the App Store by saying it had an app update rejected because it refused to auto-charge users for its service following a free trial.

“[Apple] can choose to steal from their customers who forget to cancel, but we won’t do the same to ours,” yoga app Down Dog wrote in a recent tweet, saying that this is a line it would not cross.

Time sure passes quickly! Today, Apple added its first-ever MacBook Pro with Retina display to its “obsolete” list around the world, meaning that it can and will no longer provide any hardware support for it.

Obsolete products are ones whose sales were discontinued more than 7 years ago. In the case of the MacBook Pro, it went on sale in June 2012 and was discontinued in February the following year.

Not every wireless charger is an ugly black box you’ll want to hide away. Check out Twelve South’s stunning PowerPic stand, which cleverly integrates wireless charging technology into a modern photo frame.

Get yours today on Amazon for just $34.99 — a generous $55 off the usual price.

The iPhone 12 is reportedly “facing delays of between four weeks and two months” when it comes to full scale production of its four 5G handsets for 2020, a report published Wednesday by Nikkei Asian Review notes.

However, Apple has been “aggressively” trying to reduce these delays which, at one point, could have pushed the new iPhone back to 2021. Suppliers have supposedly been working overtime to reduce a massive wait for this year’s iPhone refresh.

No matter how good your camera is, the photos you get are only as good as what’s on the other side of the lens. Photoshop can work wonders of course, but it’s expensive, and for most people, too complicated to be worth the monthly payments. Not so with this powerful but intuitive photo editing bundle.

A new macOS ransomware called EvilQuest is reportedly doing the rounds, spread largely through macOS pirate apps. A Mac infected with EvilQuest will suffer multiple problems, including the repeated crashing of the Finder. Most significantly, the ransomware will also hold your Mac hostage: encrypting files unless the user pays $50 to unlock them.

“Maybe you are busy looking for a way to recover your files,” reads an on-screen notification. “Do not waste your time. Nobody can recover your files without our decryption service. We guarantee however that you can recover your files safely and easily and this will cost you 50 USD without any additional fees. Our offer is valid for 3 days (starting now!)”

Bozoma Saint John, the former head of global consumer marketing for Apple Music, is joining Netflix as its new Chief Marketing Officer, Deadline reports.

Saint John joined Apple with the Beats acquisition in 2014. She left Apple in 2017 to join Uber as its Chief Brand Officer, before jumping to Endeavor to become its CMO.

Luke Peluso runs a mid-sized IT company from his desk so organization is essential. He has to be in constant communication with his team and his clients. That is why he uses both a MacBook and an iPad: the MacBook for work, and the iPad for communication.

His MacBook is a 2019 13-inch MacBook Pro and he primarily uses it for “agency management type software and few Windows-only apps.” The iPad is the 2019 iPad Pro that he uses with a Brydge Pro+ Wireless Keyboard. The iPad is for “iMessage and Zoom meetings,” Peluso says, and that having “separate large device just for communications is very helpful.”

The writer, director and showrunner of Defending Jacob reportedly agreed to a long-term deal to make additional shows for Apple TV+. Their first collaboration went so well that Mark Bomback signed a exclusive agreement with Apple.

Apple reportedly stopped paying for the development of multiple titles that had been headed for its gaming subscription service. The iPhone makers allegedly told the developers this spring that their creations just weren’t engaging enough.

Apple is running another awesome promotion that offers shoppers free money when they top up their Apple ID. Simply add funds to your account before July 10 and you’ll get 10% extra. Here’s how.