| Cult of Mac

Apple pledges $1 million to help fire-ravaged wine country

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Extreme winds and dry weather are making the wildfires in California's wine country hard to contain.
Extreme winds and dry weather are making the wildfires in California's wine country hard to contain.
Photo: U.S. Department of Agriculture/Flickr CC

The fire-relief efforts in Northern California are getting a boost from some of the biggest tech companies in Silicon Valley.

Smoke from the wildfires ravaging wine country are currently choking out residents in San Francisco’s bay area, so Apple, Google and Facebook are stepping up by donating local efforts.

App makers take stand against Trump’s immigration ban

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Donald Trump signing document
App makers are stepping up to fight Donald Trump's executive order on immigration.
Photo: The White House

President Donald Trump’s executive order banning immigrants from some Islamic countries from entering the United States has been met with a flood of tech companies making record-breaking donations to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Apple VP Lisa Jackson joins federal committee overseeing automation

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Jackson
Lisa Jackson presenting at an Apple keynote.
Photo: Apple

The U.S. Department of Transportation revealed that it has established a new advisory committee that will make recommendations in the field of automation.

Apple’s VP of environment and policy, Lisa Jackson, will be one of the committee’s 25 members that will work on some of the most important issues facing transportation, including self-driving cars.

Google has a secret plan to take over public parking and transit

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Google is coming for your city.
Google is coming for your city.
Photo: Google

A shadowy subsidiary of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is planning to completely revolutionize public parking and transportation, according to a new report that shines a light on the ambitious initiative.

The mysterious company is Sidewalk Labs, and it has begun offering cities its high-tech services, which claim to make it easier to drive and park by creating a hybrid of public and private transportation options that utilize ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft.

We tried the apps your mother warned you about (and survived)

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Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Thanks to your iPhone you can couch surf, catch a ride downtown, find a date or maybe even source a freebie for dinner.

The sharing economy has gone mainstream, filling our smartphones with apps that run counter to your mother’s admonitions. You know, those common sense “Stranger Danger” rules we’ve all had drilled into our heads about talking to strangers, letting them in our houses or accepting stuff from them.

But it’s one thing to talk about these apps and another to actually use them.

So we did. Cult of Mac staffers jumped into cars with strangers, let them stay in our houses, took random jobs and put out free treats for the taking. The results were, uh, mixed.

Let us know in the comments what your experience has been!

Lyft Is Your Friend With A Car [Deals]

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redesign_lyft_mf

Forged in the fires of Silicon Valley and backed by venture capital power players comes Lyft® – a service revolutionizing public transport. You request a ride through the free iOS or Android app, then watch on a real-time map as your driver approaches.

Lyft drivers are friendly, always available, and cheaper than a cab – why would you ever take a taxi again? And right now Cult of Mac Deals has $30 of Lyft credit available for just $10, meaning you’ll save even more money.