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Is HomePod love at first listen? It’s complicated.

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HomePod audio quality is great out of the box, and Siri turns out to be a pleasant surprise.
HomePod sounds great out of the box, and Siri turns out to be a pleasant surprise.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

High-quality audio is the signature feature of Apple’s new HomePod. Apple execs brush off “Siri so stupid” concerns by emphasizing the sound quality of the device.

So the big question is: Will the HomePod be love at first listen? I just unwrapped one of the new Apple smart speakers, and my ears now have a little bit of a crush on HomePod.

Sonos trolls HomePod with hidden message in Spotify playlist

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HomePod
HomePod is a fruit machine, apparently.
Photo: Apple

HomePod has landed. If you’re an Apple fan who loves audio, it’s a wonderful day. If you’re a speaker company, however, you now have to compete against the biggest tech brand in the world.

Sonos has shown it’s not scared by trolling HomePod with a Spotify playlist that contains a hidden message.

Redheads and superheroes included in 150+ new emoji for 2018

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emoji 2018
Some of the new emoji approved for 2018.
Photo: Unicode Consortium

The Unicode Consortium has approved more than 150 new emoji characters that will likely be headed to iOS and macOS later this year.

The new emoji set finally includes male and female faces with red hair, along with bald characters, new superheroes and supervillains, and more.

How to see Cult of Mac stories at the top of your Facebook feed

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See posts from cult of Mac first
Click "See First" to never miss out on our updates!
Photo: Cult of Mac

Significant changes to Facebook’s News Feed algorithm mean you might not be seeing as much news as usual. Facebook started prioritizing posts from friends over posts from pages and publications.

While this might be a welcome move for everyone who uses Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, not everyone uses the social network with the same goal in mind. I’m sure a certain number of people still prefer using Facebook simply to keep in the news loop or interact with communities/brands who are not “friends.”

Would you rather use Facebook to keep yourself updated on all things, say,  Apple? If yes, here’s how you can make sure to see stories from Cult of Mac at the top of your Facebook News Feed.

How to disable iOS 11.3’s new battery Performance Management feature

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battery
Next time you complain about Apple battery conspiracy theories, imagine how life would be if your iPhone ran on AAs.
Photo: James Almond/Flickr CC

Ever since Apple introduced a measure to stop iPhones from unexpectedly shutting down in iOS 11, politicians and other morons have jumped on the story to gin up publicity for themselves. Now, thanks to their efforts, Apple has added a control that lets you switch off iOS 11’s Performance Management.

If you do switch it off, then your iPhone will stop slowing performance when the battery is too weak to supply enough power, and instead you can again face unexpected shutdowns. Here’s how.

Microsoft Cortana comes to iPad

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Cortana iPad
Cortana could be reading your emails soon.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Microsoft Cortana is now available on iPad. The smart assistant comes with all the features you’ve been enjoying on iPhone since July, combined with an interface that’s optimized for massive iPad screens. It also promises a much faster experience.

Happy Valentine’s! Get an extra $10 on every gadget trade-in

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The quickest and easiest way to get paid for your old devices.
The quickest and easiest way to get paid for your old devices.
Photo: MyPhones Unlimited

With only one week until Valentine’s Day, we’re here to help pump up your budget. Whether you’re taking out your special someone or just consuming dangerous amounts of ice cream alone, we’re giving judgment-free cash for all of your old Apple devices.

In less than a minute, you can see how much your old device is worth and have a box on its way straight to your doorstep. Head over to Cult of Mac’s gadget buyback page and see how much you can get. And don’t forget to use the coupon code “cupid” to get an extra $10!

Drag-and-drop the news with Lire RSS reader

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lire
Lire has a nice icon.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Lire is an RSS reader for iOS, and it just added a great update in the form of drag-and-drop. Now you can grab any news story and drag it either to Lire’s own drop-shelf (iPhone and iPad), or to another app (iPad). It really makes great use of iOS 11’s drag-and-drop, but is let down by other apps’ poor implementation for receiving dropped items.

HomePod meta review: Superb sound, stupid Siri

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The HomePod was a no-show in 2017.
HomePod is finally here.
Photo: Apple

 In the first reviews for Apple’s new HomePod speaker, everyone totally raves about the smart speaker’s pristine sound quality. Siri, on the other hand, doesn’t sound so brilliant. Many critics argue that Siri sucks compared to other voice assistants, highlighting its struggles with accuracy and responsiveness.

Apple seeded a few review units to major outlets ahead of this Friday’s HomePod launch. The embargo lifted this morning, and the early reviews reveal a few surprising tidbits about the HomePod.

Here’s what people are saying:

Samsung Galaxy S9 photos leak online ahead of unveiling

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Samsung galaxy
This is the Samsung Galaxy S9.
Photo: Evan Blass/Twitter

The iPhone X’s biggest competition of 2018 is nearly here and unfortunately for Samsung, the unveiling won’t be much of a surprise.

Photos of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S9 leaked online today revealing some of the new features Samsung has copied from Apple, along with some new colors the iPhone can’t match.

Check it out: