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Ireland won’t be sued over Apple’s giant tax bill

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Apple's headquarters in Cork, Ireland.
Apple's headquarters in Cork, Ireland.
Photo: Jan Zuppinger/Flickr CC

The European Commission has decided that it won’t sue Ireland over delays in recovering a 13.1 billion euro ($15 billion) disputed tax bill from Apple.

The European Court of Justice action against Ireland was initiated in October 2017 after the country failed to get Apple to pay up one year after the European Union handed Apple the massive tax bill.

Enter to win 6 awesome iPhone XS cases [Instagram giveaway]

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Protect your new iPhone XS, plus it's on us.
You've already spent a fortune on your new iPhone XS, let Cult of Mac cover the rest literally.
Photo: Kristal Chan/Cult of Mac

For the next several weeks, we’re giving away dozens of brand new iPhone XS cases on Instagram. We’re kicking off with a bundle of six sexy cases from Spigen, Urban Armor Gear, and Casemate. The six cases all fit the latest iPhone XS (not the Max), and together are worth a tasty $245.

Save $25 on Oakley gear when you use Apple Pay

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Oakley Apple Pay promotion
Another great deal for Apple Pay users.
Photo: Apple

The latest Apple Pay promotion offers shoppers $25 off Oakley gear.

Apple encourages users to “gear up for the season” in its promotional email. It might also come in handy for those who have already started their Christmas shopping — but there is a catch.

Tesla vs. Lovecraft brings steampunk blasting action to iOS this month

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Tesla vs. Lovecraft 2
Coming soon to an iOS device near you.
Photo: 10tons Ltd

Tesla vs. Lovecraft is coming to iOS, and, no, sadly that’s not a racing game in which Elon Musk’s electric cars challenge the driving supremacy of Cthulhu. It’s still pretty darn great, though.

Instead, the game is a top-down steampunk shooter pitting inventor Nikola Tesla against a horde of Lovecraftian horrors, using a static-powered mech and assorted other inventions to do so.

Latest mophie powerstation battery designed for your MacBook

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The mophie powerstation USB-C 3XL is loaded with advanced features, but has a price to match.
The mophie powerstation USB-C 3XL is loaded with advanced features, but has a price to match.
Photo: mophie

mophie’s name for the  powerstation USB-C 3XL doesn’t roll off the tongue, but there are plenty of MacBook/MacBook Pro users who should check it out anyway. This 26,000mAh battery is designed to quickly recharge an Apple tablet via USB-C, and can send power to an iPhone at the same time.

Just be warned, the price is enough to turn away some potential customers.

Rare diamonds and gold send Lux Apple Watch price soaring above $1 million

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Lux Apple Watch
This is the $58,995 version of Brikk's Lux Apple Watch series 4.
Photo: Brikk

If you think $529 is a lot to pay for a new Apple Watch then you aren’t the target market for a Lux Watch 4. These are produced by Brikk, who takes Apple’s wearable and lavishes on gold and precious gems, Prices start at a mere $28,995 and go up to over $1 million.

Narcissism and meglomania sold separately.

Best USB-C accessories for Macs and iOS devices

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Anker PowerCore+ 20100 USB-C
USB-C battery packs, chargers, hard drives, cables and hubs will future-proof newer Macs.
Photo: Anker

USB Type C — it’s no longer a novelty but an emerging connectivity standard for Apple products. As a newer, more powerful variation of the same USB we all know and love (well, kinda), USB-C features higher power and faster data transfer than its predecessors via a smaller connector.

While older USB Type A and B were a great gift for Mac users — few mourned the passing of ADB and SCSI — USB is often finicky. Just plugging in an old-school USB cable can prove challenging, since you must position the connector just so for it to slide smoothly into the port. That often means several tries to achieve the proper angle and orientation.

Those obstacles disappear with USB-C because, in addition to its smaller size, it is designed to be reversible — with no up or down orientation, just like a Lightning cable — and the cables can have the same type of connector on both ends.

Apple could dump Intel processors in 2020

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MacBook Internal makeup
Sooner than you might think, MacBooks could use Apple's own chips instead of Intel processors.
Photo: Apple

A major change to Mac laptops and desktops could be coming in the next few years. A respected analyst is the latest to say that Apple will put its own A-series processors in its Mac computers rather than Intel chips.

The A series was originally created for the iPhone, but has evolved to the point where its performance rivals desktop processors.

Woz fires up a blockchain-powered VC firm

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wozniak
Woz is ready to put his magic fingers to work at investing.
Photo: Reddit

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is ready to hop aboard the blockchain hype train with his latest venture that specializes in blockchain tech.

Equi Global, a venture capital firm powered by blockchain, revealed that Steve Wozniak is one of its co-founders and that the company is looking at 20 companies to invest in before it even launches.

How to use the new iOS Comic Book photo filter

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Shoot your own comic-book remake of
Shoot your own comic-book remake of A Scanner Darkly.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

iOS 12 has a great new camera filter: Comic Book. It turns your selfies and photos into pretty convincing pen-and-ink-style drawings, complete with flat blocks of color. It even works with Animoji selfies.

But hold on one second. You won’t find this filter in your iPhone’s Camera app, or even in the Photos app. Instead, you need to fire up the Messages app and use the camera there.

World’s largest Mac collection goes up for sale

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The Macintosh LC 580 blew away PCs when it came to multimedia performance.
A huge collection of classic Macs like this one is up for sale.
Photo: The Apple Guy/YouTube

If one Mac is good then 1,100 of them is better, right? That used to be the philosophy of Roland Borsky, but the costs of storing a computer collection that dates back decades is forcing the Austrian man to sell it.

Borsky warns that if he can’t find a buyer all the computers are going to be thrown away.

How to download all the data Apple has on you

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Apple continues to put privacy front and center.
Apple continues to put privacy front and center.
Image: Apple

Apple’s refreshed Privacy website is live, giving U.S. users the ability to download all of their data from Apple. The website explains how and why Apple products are “designed to protect your privacy.”

Apple stresses that “your data belongs to you” and insists that it never sells users’ info to advertisers or other organizations.

The website even gives users the ability to delete an Apple account — and all associated data — if desired.

Mom-and-pop shops cost Apple Music (and artists) billions

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music streaming
The latest release also includes Chromecast support.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

The music industry loses $2.65B annually because small businesses are using music streaming services like Apple Music or Spotify without a license.

Nielsen Music surveyed 5,000 small business around the world and found a majority streamed music with a personal account, with many not knowing a business license for streaming music is required by law.

Ember smart mug gets Apple Health integration for caffeine tracking

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Ember 1
Award-winning smart mug will now tell iOS users how much coffee they’re drinking.
Photo: Ember

It’s not every day that a coffee mug becomes one of TIME magazine’s inventions of the year. But that’s exactly what happened with the Ember smart mug, a drink receptacle which uses high tech thermal technology to maintain coffee or tea at its users’ perfect drinking temperature.

Now the mug (and its travel mug variant) has received a new update for iOS-loving coffee drinkers — allowing Apple’s Health app to estimate and make sense of your caffeine intake. That’s without you having to manually enter a whole lot of information manually.

Nearly a quarter of Apple employees plan to delete Facebook accounts

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Facebook data breach
Some Apple employees are thinking of deleting their Facebook accounts.
Photo: Cult of Mac

The recent Facebook data breach freaked out several Apple employees enough for them to consider deleting their accounts, according to an anonymous survey of tech employees by the app Blind.

Of 256 Apple employees who responded to Blind’s survey, 22 percent said they will close out their Facebook accounts, while another 20 percent said they were not on Facebook.

Fortnite challenges for season 6, week 4 leak out

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Fortnite
Get ready for this week's Battle Royale challenges.
Photo: Epic Games

Prepare yourself for this week’s Fortnite Battle Royale challenges by taking a sneak glimpse at what’s to come.

Week four’s challenges for season six won’t be officially live until Thursday, but this leaked list shows us what we can expect.

Multiple sneaky subscription apps disappear from App Store

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Apple pays $467k for doing business with blacklisted app developer
Some subscription apps act in an unscrupulous manner.
Photo: Apple

Apple is seeming cracking down on some of the dodgier subscription apps in the App Store, following reports highlighting the actions of certain unscrupulous apps and app-makers.

Out of the 17 apps mentioned in a recent Forbes report on these practices, 11 have now been removed from the App Store. Similarly, QR Code Reader and Weather Alarms — two problematic apps highlighted by TechCrunch — have also vanished.

Hulu’s ‘skinnier’ bundle may drop live TV for a cheaper price tag

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Hulu1
Hulu's ‘skinnier’ bundle will focus on on-demand content instead of live TV.
Photo: Hulu

Hulu is slimming down what it offers users — and that’s apparently a good thing.

According to a new interview with Hulu CEO Randy Freer, the streaming service plans to offer a “skinnier” bundle of channels with fewer live channels, but more on-demand content.