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Spotify updates Home screen with faster access to favorites

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spotify
Spotify is making big changes.
Photo: Spotify

Spotify is making it a lot faster to find your favorite music or new things to listen to with a big update for its iOS app today.

The music streaming service revealed it overhauled the Home screen on its iPhone and iPad app, packing it with more content you love and better discovery and recommendation features that change throughout the day.

iPad and iPhone could get huge mouse support improvements in iOS 14

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An iPad Pro with Smart Keyboard Folio and Magic Mouse, or a MacBook by another name?
Exciting news for full-time iPad users.
Photo: Apple

Apple is planning huge improvements to mouse support on iPhone and iPad for its iOS 14 update, a new report claims.

It is believed users will see more traditional cursor options — like those you’re used to seeing on desktops. Apple is also expected to add new gestures that will work alongside a new Smart Keyboard with built-in trackpad.

AMD’s next-gen Navi 2X graphics could bring beautiful ray tracing to Mac

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AMD-Navi-X2
Nvidia's big advantage will soon disappear.
Photo: AMD

AMD’s next-generation graphics cards could bring ray tracing capabilities to Mac.

The company’s new Navi 2X architecture, coming later this year, will be the first to catch up with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX cards in the ray tracing department. It also promises 3D audio, faster load times, and “a new generation of games.”

Apple’s unreleased over-the-ear headphones spotted in iOS 14 code

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airpods-max
Apple's making its own headphones to rival Beats.
Photo: 9to5Mac

The clearest look yet at Apple’s upcoming over-the-ear headphones was unearthed from an early build of iOS 14 this week.

Icons for Apple’s unreleased over-the-ear headphones were spotted by 9to5Mac, revealing a few features about the headphones’ design as well as a possible timeframe on when they might launch to the public.

Apple sold fewer than 500,000 iPhones in China last month

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iPhone sales are finally rebounding in China
The iPhone didn't have such a great month in China in February.
Photo: Tim Cook/Weibo

Apple’s iPhone sales declined to just 494,000 in China during February as the country grappled with the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, official figures from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology published Monday show.

‘We had one objective: beat Apple,’ says Samsung exec in new book

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Samsung Rising tells how Apple pushed Samsung to be No. 1.
New book will reveal the war between Samsung and Apple.
Photo: Samsung Rising book

Samsung had trucks of apples delivered to its offices and placed in rooms where employees took coffee breaks. They were then encouraged to take a literal bite out of Apple (or, well, an apple) as the South Korean tech giant waged war with the Cupertino-based tech giant.

The anecdote comes from a forthcoming book, titled Samsung Rising. It promises to tell the story of how Samsung took on Apple and the battles that followed. “We had one objective: beat Apple,” says an unnamed Samsung executive in the book. “I’m not kidding you.”

COVID-19 coronavirus could delay launch of 5G iPhones

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Latest iPhone was 1 out of every 10 smartphones sold in US last quarter
Apple usually unveils its new iPhones in September.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

The spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus could hurt Apple’s plans to launch its first 5G iPhones in the second half of 2020, a new report claims.

According to a DigiTimes report Monday, Apple extended restrictions on employees traveling to parts of Asia until the end of April. The extension will delay tests for the next-generation iPhone that “could have a direct impact” on launch timing.

Blood oxygen-reading tech could be coming to Apple Watch

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Apple Watch Series 5 LTPO screen
Apple Watch could be about to get even more health features.
Photo: Apple

Apple may soon add to the health-tracking features in Apple Watch with the ability to detect users’ blood oxygen levels and notify users when these are at a dangerously low level.

9to5Mac discovered the potential feature in iOS 14 “code snippets” it discovered. It’s not clear exactly what the hardware and software requirements would be for the feature. That means it’s unknown if this would be a feature that could be retroactively added to existing Apple Watches or if it would be one limited to Apple’s next-gen Apple Watch.

I thought Apple Watch was pointless but now I love it

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Apple Watch Series 5 California Face
Apple Watch is much more useful that I had thought.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

I never had an interest in Apple Watch. I didn’t see the point of carrying around yet another computer when my iPhone goes with me everywhere. Then I got one, and now that I’ve used Apple’s wearable, I see all the ways it makes my life easier.

It’s made me an Apple Watch convert. Here’s why.

Charge anywhere with a 6-in-1 travel adapter [Deals]

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World Adapter 6 Attachments
Charge up to five devices at once in 200 countries with this must-have travel accessory.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Visiting foreign countries can mean packing a bunch of different chargers along with everything else. But this adapter can charge multiple devices from any of six outlet types, so you can keep all your devices running while you’re abroad.

How to disinfect all your Apple gear [Cult of Mac Magazine 339]

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Keep it clean! How to disinfect your iPhone and other Apple gear amid COVID-19 outbreak.
Keep it clean!
Cover: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

With the COVID-19 virus spreading in the United States, it might be time to disinfect your iPhone and the rest of your Apple gear. In this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine, we’ll show you how to disinfect your Mac, iPhone, mouse, trackpad, keyboard and cases. (And, yes, you can wash your iPhone with soap and water.)

Get those how-tos, plus the rest of the week’s top Apple news and product reviews, in this week’s free issue. Download it now and read it on your iPad or iPhone. Or get the links below.

5 features Apple Watch should steal from Oppo Watch

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The Oppo Watch
Oppo Watch, shown here at its announcement today, has a higher screen-to-body ratio than Apple Watch.
Photo: Oppo

The newly-unveiled Oppo Watch borrows heavily from the Apple Watch. But this China-based company nevertheless built in some features that fans of Apple’s wearable can appreciate.

Austin cancels SXSW over coronavirus fears

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logo for SxSW
Sorry, but the show can't go on.
Image: SXSW

The organizers of South by Southwest, desperately hoping to hold the March event in the face of a coronavirus outbreak, said Friday that the city of Austin, Texas, canceled the conference.

Event planners scrapped the music, tech and film conference, set to begin March 13, after local health officials declared a health emergency.

Galaxy S20 Ultra beats iPhone 11 Pro Max in drop test … sort of

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Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is in worse shape an iPhone 11 Pro Max after multiple drop tests.
Drop the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra a few times and it’s junk. The iPhone 11 Pro Max survived much better.
Photo: PhoneBuff

Samsung’s new flagship phone came out slightly ahead in a smash-off between with Apple’s top-tier model. The Galaxy S20 Ultra survived the early rounds of drop tests better than the iPhone 11 Pro Max.

However, at the end of multiple drops, the iPhone was still almost completely functional while the Android was utterly destroyed.

Yes, you can wash your iPhone with soap and water

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washing iPhone with soap and water
It's fine to wash newer iPhones with soap and water.
Photo: Leander Kahney / Cult of Mac

Thanks to abject terror of the COVID-19 virus, I’ve started washing my iPhone along with my hands with ordinary soap and water.

It may prove to be a big mistake, but so far it’s fine. My iPhone 11 Pro Max is highly water-resistant and seems quite happy being soaped down a couple of times a day.

Apple urges Cupertino employees to work from home due to coronavirus

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Apple may as well run Cupertino.
Apple is recommending to employees to work from home as concerns over the coronavirus grow.
Photo: Benjamin Feenstra

Apple has sent out a work-from-home recommendation to all of its Cupertino-based employees due to fears of the growing coronavirus outbreak in the United States.

It is unclear if the notice to employees at Apple Park and Infinite Loop was a suggestion and not a requirement and for how long the company is recommending its workers refrain from reporting to their offices.

How to quickly flip through a stack of apps in Slide Over

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Slide Over
Hopefully this iPad won't "Slide Over" into the pool. Ho ho.
Photo: Maarten van den Heuvel/Unsplash

iPad multitasking, Split Screen and all that stuff, has been getting a bad rap recently, and rightly so. It’s a mess. But amidst this storm of iPad hatred, there’s one great feature that stays great: Slide Over. On the iPad, Slide Over lets you dock a mini, iPhone-size version of an app over on the right side of the screen. You can swipe this away to hide it, and swipe again to bring it back out.

That’s cool, and very handy (as we shall see in a moment). But even better is that you can dock a whole bunch of apps over there, ready to use, and then fan out the stack to help pick the one you want. Let’s take a look. You’re going to love this.