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Bootleg tracks for rapper Playboi Carti pop up on Apple Music

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Playboi_Carti 1
Rapper Playboi Carti's debut album, Die Lit, launched last year.
Photo: The Come Up Show/Wikipedia CC

Apple Music is a great place for listening to official albums. It also turns out that it’s not a bad place to find unauthorized leaked tracks.

According to a new report, a series of leaked tracks belonging to the rapper Playboi Carti have turned up on the streaming music service. They were allegedly uploaded by a person unconnected with the artist.

Thieves rob California Apple Store at gunpoint

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Apple Valencia Town Center
The Apple store targeted in the robbery.
Photo: Apple

Thieves robbed the Apple Store in Valencia, California, at gunpoint Wednesday morning.

As customers shopped shortly before 11 a.m., three male suspects entered Apple Valencia Town Center and “began grabbing merchandise,” including iPhones and Apple Watches, police said. One of the suspects brandished a firearm before the gang fled.

How to ask Google to auto-wipe your activity data on iOS

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Google-app-activity-data
It takes care of itself.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

You can now ask the Google app on iOS to automatically wipe your location and activity history.

The new feature, which was showcased during Google I/O in late May, takes the hassle out of covering your tracks. You only have to set it up once and it will take care of itself going forward. Here’s how to get started.

Acclaimed 2D action RPG Hyper Light Drifter coming to iOS

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Hyper Light Drifter
This game was a big hit on Mac, PC and consoles when it launched in 2016.
Photo: Abylight Studios

Heart Machine’s acclaimed 2D action RPG Hyper Light Drifter won hearts and minds when it launched on Mac, PC, and consoles back in 2016.

Now, three years later, it’s finally coming to the iOS App Store. And, fortunately, fans don’t have too much longer to wait.

Apple Watch fall detection helps 87-year-old woman after car accident

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fall detection
Fall detection was introduced with the Apple Watch Series 4.
Screenshot: Apple

The Apple Watch Series 4’s fall detection feature has been credited with potentially helping save an 87-year-old woman’s life after a car accident.

Maine octogenarian Dotty White was on her way back from grocery shopping when she was involved in a collision. Fortunately, her trusty Apple wearable was on hand (literally) to help.

Taylor Swift will headline special gig for … Amazon Prime Day?

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Prime-Day-Concert-2019
You can tune in for free if you’re a Prime subscriber.
Photo: Amazon

Amazon is going all-out for Prime Day 2019. Not only will the event run for 48 hours, offering massive discounts on more than a million products, but it will also feature a music concert with some huge acts.

Shoppers will get to enjoy performances from Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Becky G, and more. And it’s completely free for Prime subscribers.

You’ll have to wait longer for Sky: Children of the Light on iOS

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Sky-Children-of-the-Light
But it should be worth it.
Photo: thatgamecompany

Sky: Children of the Light, the much-anticipated game from the makers of Journey, has been delayed.

You’ll have to wait another week for the title to hit the App Store — but you can preorder it right away. Developer thatgamecompany wants a little more time to “better align our global marketing efforts.”

Apple could lend a major assist to struggling display maker

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iPhone XR
Japan Display currently makes LCD screens for the iPhone XR.
Photo: Apple

Apple could give struggling supplier Japan Display a boost by investing $100 million in the company. This will offer a valuable lifeline as Japan Display goes through restructuring after a key investment fell through.

Apple currently represents 60% of Japan Display’s sales. Thanks to the deal, it could soon make up even more.

iPhone getting a built-in doggy detector and kitty catcher

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Apple Vision Framework
Apple’s Vision Framework is a sophisticated machine-learning method to identify Fluffy.
Screenshot: Apple

Coming to iPhone and Mac is a tool that examines images looking for cats and dogs. But the goal isn’t an app that allows people to walk around with an iPhone identifying the species of random critters. As fun as that might be, Apple is using machine learning to provide developers a powerful tool for identifying object of any type in images.

Apple Watch and iPad with LTE head for Xfinity Mobile

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Apple Watch Series 4
Apple Watch along with several iPad tablets are options for Xfinity Mobile customers.
Photo: Apple

In a better-late-than-never scenario, Comcast’s Xfinity Mobile wireless carrier will soon begin offering two recent iPad models along with last year’s Apple Watch. These are the first non-smartphones available from this company, and all have built-in 4G LTE wireless networking.

Verizon’s new truly unlimited data plan sounds too good to be true

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Visible
This might be the best data deal we've ever seen.
Photo: Verizon

Verizon Wireless is finally offering a truly unlimited talk, text and data plan through the company’s Visible brand. It only costs $40 per month and is powered by Verizon’s 4G LTE network.

Visible revealed full details of the updated plan today. And if you’re already a Visible or Verizon subscriber, you will want to jump on this ASAP.

Polar Ignite hopes to compete with Apple Watch in health tracking

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Polar Ignite GPS fitness watch
Does Polar Ignite have the raw strength to take on Apple Watch?
Photo: Polar

Polar calls its latest wearable a GPS fitness watch, but the Ignite goes deeper into health monitoring than that description suggests. Many of the features are related to sleep tracking, including overnight heart rate measurement.

Of course, the Polar Ignite will have to take on the Apple Watch, which dominates wearables partially because of its health-tracking abilities.

Instagram plans to inject ads into your Explore feed

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Instagram profile, topic, and stories
"Yay! More Instagram ads!" -- said no one ever.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

Get ready to see even more ads on Instagram.

The social media platform has been milking every inch of screen space for ads over the last five years. Now the company says it plans to slowly roll out ads into the Explore page, starting with an advertisement for IGTV that should start showing up today.

Lovable platformer Human: Fall Flat crashes into the App Store

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Human-Fall-Flat
Everyone should play Human: Fall Flat.
Photo: 505 Games

Human: Fall Flat, the wonderful puzzle platformer from 505 Games, has made the leap to the App Store.

This unique title lets you play as a wobbly human who gets stuck inside surreal dreams and has to find the exit. You have no superpowers or special abilities, which makes the open-ended, physics-based gameplay all the more fun.

Ableton puts a synth inside your browser

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Ableton has put a synth school into the browser.
Ableton has put a synth school into the browser.
Screenshot: Cult of Mac

Did you ever wonder how a synthesizer works? It’s all just “electronic noise,” right? Well, yes, it totally is. But if you’d like to know a bit more than that, Berlin-based Ableton will teach you. The electronic music giant launched a website that puts a synthesizer inside your browser, and uses it to teach you exactly how a synth works.

The synth simulator works great in Mobile Safari, too, but if you use Google’s Chrome, you can hook up an actual keyboard to your Mac and use it to play. That’s thanks to Chrome’s support for Web MIDI, which Safari doesn’t offer.

Let’s have a quick look at this cool teaching tool.

Apple pours billions more into controversial stock buybacks

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France fines Apple $27 million for intention iPhone 'throttling' controversy
Apple spent more on its own shares in Q1 than any company ever before in a single quarter.
Photo illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s stock buybacks in Q1 totaled more than any other S&P 500 company by a wide margin. The iPhone maker poured $23.8 billion into purchasing its own shares, more than it has ever done before. And that’s saying a lot, as Apple been spending billions on buybacks for many years.

LGBTQ employees want Google kicked out of SF Pride parade

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SF pride
Apple employees marching in the SF Pride parade.
Photo: Tim Cook/Twitter

Some of Google’s LGBTQ+ employees have petitioned the San Francisco Pride board of directors to kick the search engine giant out of the SF Pride parade slated for this weekend.

The Google employees posted an open letter this morning saying they’ve spent countless hours trying to get Google to improve policies and practices regarding the treatment of LGBTQ+ persons, but the company has done nothing. Even though they might get in trouble for writing the letter, nearly 100 employees signed it, urging the parade to reject Google’s failure to act.

Samsung may already be working on a second Galaxy Fold

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Galaxy Fold front
Are you ready to splash your cash?
Photo: Samsung

Samsung is yet to iron out the teething troubles it has suffered with the Galaxy Fold. But that hasn’t stopped the South Korean company from diving head first into developing a sequel.

A new rumor claims Samsung’s second model will feature a larger screen and S Pen stylus. And it could arrive a lot sooner than fans anticipated.

Your Apple Watch could soon remind you to eat healthier, relax more

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Apple Watch Series 4 Solar System Watch Face
Digital health company Livongo is working for a new tool for Apple Watch.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Leading digital health company Livongo is working on developing new tools for Apple Watch and other wearables to help users live healthier lives.

The company’s new tools will help provide users with customized alerts regarding things like healthy eating, relaxation, and exercise.

Save big on four awesome Mac apps [Deals]

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Mac App Roundup (1)
We've rounded up four premium Mac apps that are available for massive discounts.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

We’ve always got great deals on gear, gadgets and apps. But sometimes they stack up, so we get to share them all at once. That’s what happened with these four Mac apps – Luminar 3, MacX DVD Ripper, PDF Reader Pro, and iMazing 2. These apps cover productivity, photo editing, iOS management, and more. Most are discounted by more than half off, read on for more details: