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iOS 13.3 inches closer to launch with new beta

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screen time management
iOS 13.3 brings new features to Screentime.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple developers received a fresh batch of new betas for the first time in over two weeks today with new builds of iOS 13.3, tvOS 13.3 and watchOS 6.1.1.

The new iOS 13.3 beta adds a bunch of new bug fixes and performance improvements to go with a couple new feature additions in Screentime for parents.

10 best skateboard stickers for defiling your new 16-inch MacBook Pro

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It takes years of professional training to place MacBook stickers this badly.
The MacBook still has more places to stick stickers.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Stickers are great, and skateboard stickers are the best of all. Which is why, when it comes to decorating/ruining/improving your new 16-inch MacBook Pro, you should be covering it with badass skate designs.

Even if you’re not a sticker kind of person, there’s an argument to be made that the MacBook needs at least one sticker, just to fix the stupid upside-down Apple logo on its lid. So, without further rambling, here are the 10 best skateboards stickers to stick on any MacBook.

Keep your Mac apps up to date effortlessly

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Keep on top of Mac app updates the easy way with MacUpdater.
Keep on top of Mac app updates the easy way with MacUpdater.
Image: CoreCode

This Mac utility post is presented by CoreCode, maker of MacUpdater.

Keeping all your installed apps up to date can be time-consuming and annoying, unless you’re that one person who manages to never use any apps, or that other person who exclusively downloads them from the Mac App Store. But if you’re a typical user, MacUpdater is the easiest way to keep your Mac apps up to date effortlessly, no matter how many you have or, to some extent, where you got them.

Apple might bail on Russia over authoritarian app demands

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Putin adds power to your iPhone case.
Putin signed a law that Apple reportedly thinks will let the Russian government use iPhones and Macs to spy on Russian citizens.
Photo: Caviar

Russian President Vladimir Putin approved legislation that requires all phones and computers come bundled with third-party software localized for Russia. This is giving Apple such privacy concerns it might withdraw from the country.

How to add a Dark Mode toggle to the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar

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The homemade Dark Mode button lets you toggle between Dark Mode and the MacBook Pro's regular appearance, right from your Touch Bar.
The homemade Dark Mode button.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

The Mac’s Dark Mode isn’t bad. It’s definitely a better view when quickly checking something on your Mac late in the evening. But unless you have it set to switch automatically, toggling Dark Mode on and off is a pain. So, with a shiny new MacBook Pro in front of me, I decided to put the Touch Bar to use.

Did you know you can add your own buttons to the Touch Bar? You can, and it’s totally rad.

Steve Jobs’ signature made this one of the most expensive floppy disks ever

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This 3.5-inch Macintosh floppy disk signed by Steve Jobs is up for auction.
Steve Jobs signatures are rare, and this one is on a nice price of memorabilia.
Photo: RR Auctions

A Macintosh floppy disk signed by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs sold at auction for many thousands of dollars more than expected.

This is terribly ironic considering Jobs helped kill the floppy disk by pulling disk readers out of Apple laptops and desktops. Now his signature resulted in one of the most expensive disks ever.

2021 iPhone might signal the end for Lightning port

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At least one iPhone will lose Lightning in 2021, according to one report
At least one iPhone will lose Lightning in 2021, according to one report
Photo: Cult of Mac

Apple will begin to phase out Lightning connectivity on iPhones beginning with a 2021 flagship that will “provide the completely wireless experience,” analyst Ming-Chi Kuo told investors today.

Kuo also said there will be five new iPhones in 2020, four of which will feature OLED screens.

Facebook censors Power Mac G4 for being too darn sexy

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Power-Mac-G4-censored
"Overtly sexual" images ahead.
Photo: Apple/Cult of Mac

Apple is responsible for some of the most attractive computers ever made. So attractive, in fact, that Facebook’s algorithms seem to be censoring some models for being too darn sexy.

One Power Mac G4 owner recently listed their machine for sale on the social network. But the perfectly innocent post was taken down for including “overtly sexual content.”

Apple buys first batch of carbon-free aluminum

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Apple buys first batch of carbon-free aluminum
Coming soon to a device near you.
Photo: Apple

Apple has bought its first ever commercial batch of carbon-free aluminum for use in its products.

It’s the result of a $144 million collaboration between Apple, the governments of Canada and Quebec, and Alcoa Corp and Rio Tinto, two of the world’s biggest aluminum suppliers. Elysis is the name of the new venture. Hopefully its products will be coming soon to an Apple device near you.

‘Allo, guv’nor: Mario Kart Tour is heading to London, England

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Mario Kart Tour is heading to London, England
The world tour continues.
Image: Nintendo

Mario Kart Tour has already taken players to New York, Tokyo, Paris and, err, Halloween and winter. Now its latest update is sending gamers to London, England.

From red buses to Big Ben, the new courses should offer a fun whistle-stop tour of the UK’s capital city. With some other tracks thrown in for good measure. And that’s not all.

Scan and match any color with this pocket-size sensor [Deals]

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Nix Mini 2
This pocket-sized sensor instantly matches any surface color to a vast library of digital and paint codes.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

We live in a world of colors, and for anyone who works in digital media it offers endless sources of reference and inspiration. Unfortunately, capturing real-world color is tough, even if you’ve got a great eye and an encyclopedic knowledge of digital color codes. But this portable color sensor makes it easy: Just point it at the source color for a perfect match.

BMW cancels its ridiculous CarPlay subscription fee for new vehicles

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BMW cancels its ridiculous CarPlay subscription fee
BMW was the only automaker to charge for CarPlay.
Photo: Apple

BMW has confirmed that it is ditching its ridiculous policy of charging an annual subscription fee for Apple’s CarPlay.

Yesterday, I wrote about how BMW was rumored to be getting rid of subscription fees in the UK. Now it seems that BMW has confirmed that the changes are confirmed. And, yes, they cover the US as well.

Get rich or cry tryin’ in brand-new Monopoly for iOS

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Monopoly-iOS
Monopoly looks better than ever.
Photo: Hasbro/Marmalade Game Studio

Don’t have anyone to play board games with over the holidays? Now you can enjoy one of the biggest by yourself with the brand-new Monopoly game for iPhone and iPad.

It takes the timeless classic, enjoyed by more than a billion people worldwide, and brings it to life in your palms. And it’s exactly as Hasbro intended it.

Tidal one-ups Apple Music with even better student deal

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Tidal-macOS
Sign up today for as little as $4.99 a month.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Tidal today one-upped Apple Music with an even better student deal. Its 50% discount now extends to high-schoolers — not just college attendees.

Qualifying members will pay just $4.99 a month for Premium access, or $9.99 a month for the Hi-Fi plan. The discount is available to new and existing subscribers who verify their student status.

Billie Eilish performs at Apple Music Awards, Apple bids for her documentary

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Apple and Genius team up to bring Verified episodes on Apple Music
Eilish is Apple's favorite artist right now.
Photo: Apple

Billie Eilish kicked off the Apple Music Awards Wednesday night with a live performance. The show streamed live from the Steve Jobs Theater.

Eilish is Apple’s Global Artist of the Year, along with Songwriter of the Year, shared with brother Finneas. And that’s not all Apple’s Billie Eilish news, either.

Anti-robocall bill moves one step closer to being passed into law

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Anti-robocall bill is one step closer to being passed into law
The US House of Representatives approved the bill by a nearly unanimous vote.
Photo: rawpixel.com/Pexels CC

The US House of Representatives has approved an anti-robocall bill by a nearly unanimous vote of 413-3. The bill will require phone carriers to block robocalls as well as giving the government more power to punish scammers.

It will next make it to the Senate. Its bipartisan support means it has a good chance of being signed into law by the end of 2019.

Apple and Qualcomm making 5G iPhone ‘as fast as we can’

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Qualcomm headquarters
Qualcomm has a big role to play in the 5G iPhone.
Photo: Qualcomm

Qualcomm’s president isn’t allowed to say when the 5G iPhone will be released, but Cristiano Amon got as close as he could today by stating that his company and Apple will release one “as fast as we can.”

The 5G modem in this much-anticipated handset will be made by Qualcomm.

Craigslist’s first iPhone app is totally basic (and that’s fine)

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craigslist
The original online classifieds now has an app.
Photo: Craigslist

It seems like Craigslist has been a cornerstone of the Internet for practically forever. The site pretty much single-handedly killed white pages during the rise of the world wide web, but for some reason, it took until the end of 2019 for Craigslist to finally create its own iPhone app.

As you’d expect, it’s totally basic.

Apple Activation Lock: Security feature or recycling roadblock?

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Activation Lock on iPad and iPhone
Activation Lock is apparently a surprisingly controversial security feature.
Photo: Apple

An editorial by an iFixit employee condemns Activation Lock, a security feature of iPhones and recent Macs because it makes these computers hard to recycle.

But Walt Mossberg, well-known journalist formerly of the Wall Street Journal, calls the editorial “outrageous.”

Chrome extension brings ‘Likes’ back to Instagram, sort of

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Instagram lawsuit
A Chrome extension can bring your hidden "Likes" out in the open.
Photo: Pixabay

The “Like”-minded Instagram influencer didn’t have to wait long to get a work-around to the social media app’s experiment with hiding the number of “Likes” on posts.

A company known as Socialinsider has created a free Google Chrome browser extension called “The Return of the Likes.”

Apple supplier unlocks space-saving capacitors just in time for 5G iPhone

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Murata
So tiny you can barely see them.
Photo: Murata

One of Apple’s key suppliers may have just found a way to free up a bit more space inside the 2020 iPhones.

Murata Manufacturing claims it has created ultrasmall capacitors that are one-fifth the size of current capacitors. With 5G capable iPhones set to gobble up battery power next year, Apple needs every extra square millimeter it can get.

Apple fills out cast of Foundation adaptation

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Foundation was a major influence on Star Wars, and now it's coming to Apple TV.
Foundation is considered one of the greatest sci-fi series of all time, and it’s being adapted for Apple TV+.
Photo: Bantam Spectra Books

The actors that will bring Isaac Asimov’s Foundation to Apple TV+ are starting to come together. Five more cast members of this sci-fi epic have been named.

Foundation follows the fall of a galactic empire, and centers on a group of scientists trying to save civilization from chaos.

Hacker revives dead devices with iPhone and Apple Watch

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Mac keyboard and mouse running an iPhone
Tap through your iPhone, 1980s-style, with a vintage Mac keyboard.
Photo: Niles Mitchell/YouTube

The living can communicate with the dead — and Niles Mitchell regularly holds seances on YouTube to prove it.

Mitchell is a true medium, putting contemporary technology like the iPhone or Apple Watch in touch with obsolete hardware. He connects the two worlds and gets devices, old and new, to work together in ways likely never imagined by their creators.

Apple News now sends daily email newsletters nobody asked for

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Apple News+ in Australia
Another email you didn't want.
Photo: Apple

No, you didn’t ask for it, but you might soon start receiving a daily Apple News newsletter by email.

“Good Morning” features top news, analysis and features pulled from various sources around the web. You could find all this inside Apple News yourself, at your own convenience, but Apple negates the need to do that by forcing it down your throat.

And good luck trying to unsubscribe.