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Apple removes all 181 vaping apps from the App Store

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Apple removes all 181 vape-related apps from the App Store
Apple doesn't want your vaping apps.
Photo: Mike Mozart/Flickr CC

Apple is removing all 181 vaping-related apps from the App Store. This is the result of mounting health concerns about the impact of e-cigarettes.

At least 42 people have died as the result of vaping-related lung illnesses. Apple, it seems, does not want to be in any way responsible for contributing to any more.

The MacBook Pro is PRO again! We talk the new 16-incher plus our Disney+ first impressions, on The CultCast

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CultCast 414: The long-rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro is finally here, and it's a beauty.
The long-rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro is finally here, and it's a beauty.
Image: Cult of Mac

This week on The CultCast: Everything you need to know about the new 16-inch MacBook Pro! Plus, our first impressions of this hot new machine. And we discuss Disney+, and why it may beat Netflix and Amazon as the best streaming service today.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Apple ad revenue could hit $11 billion a year by 2025

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AppleTV+
How are Apple Originals looking on your TV?
Photo: Roku

The money Apple earns from advertising could rise to a whopping $11 billion a year by 2025, one analyst says.

Cupertino currently rakes in around $2 billion a year from ad revenue. The recent launch of Apple TV+ provides an opportunity for that to skyrocket over the next six years.

But will Apple really take advantage of it?

Stormtroopers invade Fortnite in new Star Wars crossover

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Stormtroopers-Fortnite
Pick up the new outfit today.
Photo: Epic Games

Fortnite’s latest crossover sees Star Wars stormtroopers invading the game for the first time. Players will also see a Star Destroyer hovering above the Battle Royale map.

The event celebrates today’s release of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, the newest title from EA Games. And if you plan to pick that up, you could get Fortnite’s new stormtrooper outfit free.

Mophie iPhone 11 battery case adds hours between recharges [Review]

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Mophie Juice Pack Access for iPhone 11
Mophie Juice Pack Access adds to the thickness of the iPhone 11, but also adds hours of battery life.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

The Mophie Juice Pack Access for the iPhone 11 extends the battery life of Apple’s latest handset while also protecting it. This hard case leaves the iPhone’s Lightning port available, while also letting you charge you phone with your MacBook’s cable.

Discover if this is the right iPhone 11 battery case for you in our hands-on review.

Apple will dominate 5G sales in 2020

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2020 could be Apple's greatest year so far
5G iPhones will outsell all rivals in 2020.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Apple will beat out Samsung and Huawei in 5G handsets next year, according to a forecast by industry analysts. This despite accusations by some critics that not putting 5G in the iPhone 11 would put Apple far behind its rivals.

Get your MacBook Pro’s Escape key back without spending $3,000

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Escape the Touch Bar's tyranny by restoring your MacBook Pro Escape key.
Find out how to escape the Touch Bar's tyranny.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

The Escape key is pretty essential to the Mac. You can use it to, well, escape from the current window/view/text field. You can use it to dismiss some dialog boxes. It can even be used to force-quit an unresponsive app. And that’s before we get to the Vim text editor, which is as dependent on the Escape key as Jony Ive is on new kinds of aluminum. So why did Apple remove the physical MacBook Pro Escape key when it introduced the Touch Bar?

Apple made that move, much to the despair of some users, back in 2016. Now, in the new 16-inch MacBook Pro, the Escape key is back. But what if you have a perfectly good previous-gen MacBook Pro? Are you really going to spend close to $3,000 just to get your Escape key back? No, you are not. Instead, you are going to repurpose the Caps Lock key, and turn it into an Escape key.

Apple News+ subscriber growth is stuck in neutral

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Some publishers report that Apple News+ isn't a 'huge boon' for business
Apple News+ hasn't been as big a hit as Apple hoped.
Photo: Apple

Apple News+ has been struggling to ramp up its subscriber numbers since launching in March, according to a new report that claims growth has been stuck in neutral for months.

News came out this morning that Apple is considering bundling services like Apple Music, Apple News+ and Apple TV+ together for a monthly fee. At this point, the company might need to do that to get more people onto the Apple News+ platform in order to make it worthwhile for publishers.

Instagram’s hidden likes experiment goes global

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heart shapes
Your fans will know you are liked. They just won't know how much.
Photo: Iouri Goussey/Wikimedia CC

Anxious influencers worldwide opened their Instagram feeds to a new reality today: the “like” tally on their posts won’t be seen by their followers.

Instagram started removing public-face “likes” this summer as a test in a few countries. The test is now global and Instagram took to Twitter this morning in hopes of reassuring content creators who make money off their posts.

Why the new MacBook Pro will be my first new Mac in 6 years

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macbookpro
To be honest, I’d buy any MacBook as long as it didn’t have that broken butterfly keyboard.
Photo: Apple

The new 16-inch MacBook Pro launched yesterday, and by all accounts, it’s fantastic. But it arrives at a time when the MacBook (Pro or otherwise) is no longer the default choice for a portable Apple computer. Regular readers will know that several Cult of Mac writers use an iPad Pro as their main machine. Killian, Ed, Ian and I all ditched the Mac awhile ago in favor of iOS.

And I haven’t bought a Mac since 2013. It was a MacBook Air that has since moved on. The only Mac I still own is a 2010 iMac. And yet I have already ordered the new MacBook Pro. Why? What changed?

Motorola resurrects the Razr with costly folding screen

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2020 Motorola Razr
The 2019 Motorola Razr is like a blast from the past.
Photo: Motorola

The flip phone is back, baby! A vastly updated — and very expensive — 2019 Motorola Razr uses a flexible display to make an Android-based smartphone with the same basic design as the iconic handset of 2004.

It’s another option in the growing selection of foldable phones — a formfactor Apple is also considering.

UK cops pursue Apple Store thieves with helicopter

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U.K. cops used a helicopter to help chase down Apple Store thieves
Apple Store in Festival Place, Basingstoke was the target.
Photo: Apple

Police arrested nine suspects in England after a raid on an Apple Store. The dramatic incident saw authorities employ a helicopter and officers on the ground during the search for the thieves.

The robbery took place in Basingstoke, the largest town in the county of Hampshire. Three thieves involved in the incident attacked a security guard, before making off with seven iPhones.

Elizabeth Warren chimes in on allegedly discriminatory Apple Card algorithm

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Elizabeth Warren chimes in on allegedly discriminatory Apple Card algorithm
Sen. Elizabeth Warren thinks Apple Card partner Goldman Sachs has some explaining to do.
Photo: elizabethwarren.com

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has chimed in on the allegedly sexist Apple Card debacle. Warren criticized Apple Card partner Goldman Sachs, saying that if the bank can’t explain how the algorithm used to determine credit score works, it should “pull it down.”

The complaints about Apple Card began last week when entrepreneur David Heinemeier Hansson said he was offered a credit limit 20 times that of his wife. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak claimed something similar.

Woman temporarily goes blind in one eye after smartphone overuse

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Woman in China temporarily goes blind in one eye after smartphone overuse
An admittedly extreme example of smartphone overuse.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Well, here’s a reason to listen to the recommendations of Apple’s Screen Time feature! A woman in China reportedly suffered a grisly injury after going temporarily blind in one eye due to excessive strain from overuse of her smartphone.

The female patient’s retina burst from “excessive strain” after spending too long using her mobile device.

Apple Research app lets iPhone users join new health studies

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Apple-Research-app
Three studies are available from today (if you live in the U.S.).
Photo: Apple

Apple today unveiled its brand-new Research app for iPhone, with three new health studies for users in the United States.

The Apple Women’s Health Study, the Apple Heart and Movement Study, and the Apple Hearing Study are available from today. They give participants the opportunity to contribute to “groundbreaking medical discoveries with iPhone and Apple Watch.”

Apple could bundle News, Music, TV into one subscription in 2020

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Share Apple TV+
Apple hopes the package will boost subscriber numbers.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Apple could roll almost all its entertainment services into one subscription bundle next year. News+, Music, and TV+ will be available for a single monthly fee, according to sources “familiar with the matter.”

Cupertino hopes the package will help it attract more subscribers as the smartphone market stagnates.

Latest Servant trailer may be the creepiest one yet

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Latest Servant trailer may be the creepiest one yet
What were those rumors about Apple only making family-friendly shows?
Photo: Apple

The latest trailer for Servant, M. Night Shyamalan’s eagerly anticipated Apple TV+ show, may just be the creepiest yet.

With music swelling, it shows a bespectacled man putting together Jericho, the “fake baby” doll that plays a big role in the series. Prepare to be unnerved!

Huge study confirms Apple Watch ECG accurately detects AFib

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Apple Watch Meidcare
Doctors found that if your Apple Watch ECG indicates you have a heart problem, you almost certainly do.
Photo: Apple

The electrocardiogram built into recent Apple Watch models isn’t likely to give wearers false notifications that they have atrial fibrillation, a potentially dangerous heart condition. A clean bill of health for this wearable’s ECG is the conclusion of a study involving over 400,000 participants that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Rare Mac prototype with Twiggy drive goes up for auction

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Apple Macintosh prototype with 5.25-inch drive
Look closely. This Apple Macintosh prototype is different from the final version in a big way.

A prototype Apple Macintosh used in the development of MacWrite can be yours, if you can scratch up about $180,000. It’s almost unique because of a disk drive different from the one used when this revolutionary  computer shipped.

iPad Pro with 3D scanner likely to launch in first half of 2020

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iPad Pro with Smart Keyboard
Apple wants to make iPad Pro an even better laptop replacement.
Photo: Apple

iPad Pro fans hoping for new models before the end of 2019 are likely out of luck.

Today’s launch of the new 16-inch MacBook Pro (and slight delay of the Mac Pro launch) are likely to be the last major Apple hardware announcements this year, according to TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The often-reliable Apple analyst told investors today that new iPad Pros won’t come out until the first half of 2020 — but new features might make the wait worth it.

Bespoke briefcase is built for new 16-inch MacBook Pro

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WaterField Designs Executive Leather Laptop Briefcase
WaterField Designs makes the case for a 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Photo: WaterField Designs

WaterField Designs, maker of bespoke bags for all your tech needs, was ready to pounce with a new hand-crafted briefcase when Apple unveiled the new 16-inch MacBook Pro today.

The Executive Leather Laptop Briefcase, available in black bison leather or chocolate brown cowhide, pairs a throwback look with contemporary internals.