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Weirdest of 2015: This year’s most blistering insults

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Apple fanatics got up to some strange stuff in 2015.
There was plenty of trash talk to go around in 2015.
Image: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

Cult of Mac's Best of 2015 In addition to rounding up the best stories of the year, we’re also showcasing the weirdest of 2015, and we can’t do that without including the sickest burns people laid down over the past 12 months.

It’s always strange when companies and CEOs snip and snap at each other like annoyed children. We should expect them to be above that sort of behavior, but guess what? They totally aren’t.

Here are some of the most blistering insults of the year.

Apple’s Swift programming language goes open source

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Apple's Swift language is now open source.
Apple's Swift language is now open source.
Photo: Apple

Swift, the fast growing computer programming language created by Apple, is officially going open source starting today.

Apple unveiled Swift at WWDC in 2014 with a promise to make it open source in the future. Now that the language has become one of the fastest adopted languages in history, the company announced this morning that the time is right to open up access.

Stunning iOS puzzler Monument Valley goes free for first time

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Monument Valley
Monument Valley is one of my favorite iOS games.
Photo: ustwo

Tremendous iOS puzzle game Monument Valley has just gone free on iOS for the first time in its history.

Inspired by the surrealistic designs of M.C. Escher, the title is a triumph of isometric design, in which the player guides a princess through a series of impossible structures in a game that Apple lyrically described as, “akin to a walk through a museum or listening to a music album.”

Seriously, download it now.

Beats sponsors a Snapchat lens for Black Friday

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snapchat
Beats is only the second company to sponsor a Snapchat lens.
Photo: Snapchat

The Apple-owned Beats brand has become the second company (after Fox Studios) to sponsor a Snapchat lens, with a one-day-only Black Friday deal that lets you animate your face bopping along in time to rapper Drake’s new song “Big Rings.”

Weighing the options for monitoring your body fat

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Withings Smart Body Analyzer (left) vs. DEXA, the
Withings Smart Body Analyzer (left) vs. DEXA, the "gold standard" for body fat analysis (right)
Photo: Graham Bower / Cult of Mac

If you want to lose weight, your Apple Watch can help you sustain healthy habits, but it can’t actually monitor your progress. For that you need to step onto scales.

Any scale will measure your weight, but that is only part of the story. Whether you are dieting or bulking up, it is just as important to keep track of your body fat. The trouble is, this is notoriously hard to measure accurately. As I discovered when I bought a new Withings Smart Body Analyzer, if you think you already know your body fat percentage, you are probably way off.

Apple TV Tech Talks are coming soon to a city near you

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Apple is giving developers the lowdown on tvOS.
Apple is giving developers the lowdown on tvOS.
Photo: Apple

Developers didn’t get any in-depth coding knowledge for tvOS at WWDC this year, but Apple is making up for it by launching the Apple TV Tech Talks tour that will bring technical information on building and designing great Apple TV apps to developers around the globe.

Registration for the Apple TV Tech Talks opened today with the first event scheduled for December 7th in Toronto, with other events taking place across the globe until February 3rd 2016.

Here’s the full list of locations:

Fandroids can finally boogie down to Apple Music

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fandroids-can-finally-boogie-down-to-apple-music-2-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201511Apple-Music-Android-jpg
Apple Music is finally on Android.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
Apple Music is finally on Android. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
Apple Music is finally on Android. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

Apple Music for Android has finally arrived on the Google Play Store today after being publicly demoed at WWDC in June.

The new app brings Android users over 30 million songs from the Apple Music catalog, Beats 1 Radio, Playlists, Connect, and more. Apple’s offering users a 3-month trial, just like iOS. Pricing starts at $9.99 for a single plan, but Apple says your’ll need a Mac or iOS to sign-up for a $14.99 family plan.

Apple VP Eddy Cue says the launch is part of Apple’s plan to do things in music for everyone:

Funnyman Bill Hader spammed in new ‘Hey Siri’ ad

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That burger looks tasty. And messy.
That burger looks tasty. And messy.
Photo: Apple

Bill Hader eats a hamburger while getting Siri to read him his email in this new fun video from Apple. The message from “Prince Oseph” offers Hader a life-changing opportunity, and having his iPhone read it really shows off the “Hey Siri” functionality in iOS 9.

Nerd cred: Obviously, Hader is using an iPhone 6s, because Hey Siri only works when not connected to power on the latest iteration of Apple’s flagship smartphone.

Check out the full ad below.

Young app developer has caught the eye of Apple

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Connor Chung
Connor Chung, 14, of Bethlehem, NY, at the WWDC 2015.
Photo: Connor Chung

Few things could excuse a kid from skipping his middle school graduation. Connor Chung had a note from Apple.

It explained he would be needed in San Francisco for the WWDC. Once there, he would meet important people like Tim Cook, take part in brainstorming sessions with developers and engineers and lay the groundwork for an Apple Watch app that would be among the first in iTunes on the day OS 2 launched.

Where are all the watchOS 2 fitness apps?

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Runtastic's text is sometimes too small to read while running
Runtastic's text is sometimes too small to read while running
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

WatchOS 2 offers cool new features for third-party fitness apps. But a week after its launch, most leading fitness apps have yet to go native and take advantage of the Apple Watch update.

So what’s up? The answer may lie in Apple’s new workout API, which does not provide the GPS coordinates required for apps to map your run or cycle ride.