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Wonderful gifts for any Mac fan [Gift Guide 2019]

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Mac-Gift-Guide-2019
Shopping for a Mac fan? Start here!
Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

If you’re buying for an Apple fan who loves their Mac, there are loads of awesome gifts you should consider. We’ve rounded up the best to make your holiday shopping a little easier.

Gift-Guide-2019-bugWe’ve picked out the best headphones, mice, keyboards, and more so that you don’t have to spend hours hunting down the perfect purchase. And many of them are on sale today for Cyber Monday.

Now all you have to do is break out your wallet.

John Wick director shoots epic snowball fight entirely on iPhone

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snowbrawl
Our snowball fights were never this amazing.
Photo: Apple

David Leitch, the visionary director behind John Wick and Deadpool 2, teamed up with Apple for the latest “Shot on iPhone” ad that takes snowball fights to an all-new level.

The 90-second ad, titled Snowbrawl, follows a young girl who teams up with her friends in a sprawling snowball fight against her older brother and his cronies. Packed with tons of action stunts and gorgeous slow-mo shots you wouldn’t expect to be shot on a phone, the new ad will have you hyped to shoot your own winter videos.

Prepare to be blown away:

Double-insulated touchscreen gloves fight the frost [Review]

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Mujjo touchscreen gloves with iPhone
Touch sensitive and toasty.
Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac

For the longest time, winter gloves had one job: Keep our hands warm. When smartphones came along, things got complicated for gloves.

Consumers demanded a fabric conductive enough for our gloved hands to work our touchscreens. Simple enough — except, of course, on really cold days, when fingers inside those typically thin touchscreen gloves felt like icicles.

Crafty covers turn your AirPods into a turkey

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This turkey-shaped crochet AirPods cover is the baste.
This AirPods cover is the baste.
Photo: Dana Davis

Crafty entrepreneurs came up with a fun way to make your AirPods — or at least the charging case they come in — stand out. Crochet AirPods covers ensure that nobody will mistake that little white case for a pack of dental floss.

If you feel like dismissing crochet as something from your grandmother’s era, you haven’t looked around your coffeeshop, bus or subway car recently. If you do, you might notice that a new, hip generation of creators discovered this analog textile art.

Apple removes all 181 vaping apps from the App Store

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Apple removes all 181 vape-related apps from the App Store
Apple doesn't want your vaping apps.
Photo: Mike Mozart/Flickr CC

Apple is removing all 181 vaping-related apps from the App Store. This is the result of mounting health concerns about the impact of e-cigarettes.

At least 42 people have died as the result of vaping-related lung illnesses. Apple, it seems, does not want to be in any way responsible for contributing to any more.

First damning Apple TV+ reviews indicate an alarming lack of vision [Opinion]

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Apple TV+ could have 26 million paying subs by 2025; 2.6 million currently
Just what is the vision behind Apple TV+?
Photo: Apple

The first Apple TV+ reviews are out — and, broadly speaking, they’re not great. Critics generally slammed the marquee shows on the Apple TV+ slate. Anyone wanting to pull together a movie poster with positive pull-quotes would need to do some serious wading through bile to emerge with choice excerpts.

That’s a shame. And while it might seem easy to write off the bad reviews — based on the just the first few episodes of four shows, all shown to critics prior to the service’s launch — the poor reception might suggest deep-seated problems for Apple TV+. It sounds like a service that suffers from a lack of vision.

Gorgeous Apple Watch band makes canvas look better than ever

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Monowear-Urban-Canvas-Apple-Watch
The Urban Canvas is smart but stylish.
Photo: Monowear

No one considers canvas to be an obviously attractive material. Not unless you have an unhealthy relationship with tents. But pair it with leather and slap it on an Apple Watch and, boy, does it look good.

Case in point: Monowear’s terrific Urban Canvas band. It’s immensely durable, comfortable all day long, and surprisingly beautiful. And it costs just $38.

How to master the Apple Watch Dock

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Apple Watch dock

Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

There are two buttons on the Apple Watch. You can press the Digital Crown, and you can press the side button. If you press the side button when your watch is displaying its watch face, then you’ll pop up the Dock. But what, exactly, is the Apple Watch Dock?

Just like the docks on macOS and iOS, it provides quick access to your most-used apps. But the Apple Watch Dock doesn’t work like the docks on Apple’s other devices. Here’s how to use it — and how to customize it.

Contraband Apple II computers still power old Soviet museum

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entrance to the Lenin Museum
The Apple II has been a faithful comrade to the Lenin Museum.
Photo: mvstang/Flickr CC

The Soviet Union may have collapsed. But Vladimir Lenin, the country’s first leader, lives on, thanks to an audiovisual show still running on a small network of Apple II computers at a museum outside Moscow.

The Apple II is as revered by geeks as Lenin is by nostalgic Communists. Both proved revolutionary. And while the carefully edited story of Lenin might seem interesting to museum-goers, the unvarnished tale of the vintage Apple tech is more compelling.

Super-sturdy case brings brighter colors to iPhone 11 Pro

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Elago-Hybrid-iPhone-11
Add a splash of color to iPhone 11 Pro.
Photo: Elago

Spend even more of your hard-earned cash on iPhone 11 Pro or Pro Max and you’ll have to forget the fancier color options offered by iPhone 11. But there is another way to brighten up your new smartphone for next to nothing.

Elago’s brilliant new Hybrid Case, priced at just $16, comes in a bunch of beautiful finishes that’ll help your 11 Pro stand out.

RIP Adam Rosen: Remembering one of the most passionate Mac fans ever

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Vintage Mac Museum
Rosen would turn down 80 percent of what was offered to him because he only wanted the important models. He also couldn't let his collection outgrow another living space.
Photo: Adam Rosen

Adam Rosen was happiest standing over an old Mac computer, all pulled apart with wires sticking out and components scattered across his kitchen table.

Rosen knew this part of him might never land him a wife. Who could appreciate a home where each room was a gallery of old working Apple computers?

This private Vintage Mac Museum lost its devoted docent on Aug. 31 when Rosen, 53, died from pancreatic cancer.

iOS 13 spills ‘Items’ tracking ahead of Apple tags

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Tile will speak out against Apple in Congress antitrust hearing
Tile will speak out against Apple in Congress antitrust hearing
Photo: Tile

iOS 13 screenshots have revealed a new “Items” tracking feature that appears to pave the way for rumored “Apple Tags.”

Baked into the Find My app, but currently hidden in the public version of the software, the Items section appears alongside People and Devices and lets you “keep track of your everyday items.”

How to use Safari’s amazing new settings in iOS 13

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safari
Not this kind of safari.
Photo: Cult of Mac/Charlie Sorrel

Safari’s new “desktop-class” features are getting all the press in iPadOS, but the new download folder, and better website support aren’t everything. There’s also a new in-app settings panels with a ton of options — per-site text size, for example — and even a new font in the Safari Reader View. Let’s check it out.

How to use the new copy, paste and undo gestures in iPadOS 13

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iPadOS productivity gestures
This is how text editing used to feel on iOS.
Photo: Jason Leung/Unsplash

It wasn’t until I installed iPadOS on my regular iPad that I realized how great iOS 13 is. It’s one thing to run it on an old, battered test unit, but a whole other thing to use it day to day. And, surprisingly, it’s the small features that make the biggest difference. The per-page view setting in Safari, for example. Or the new multi-app Slide Over panel. And, more than anything else, the new text-editing gestures, which are finally good enough to replace a mouse and a Mac.

Let’s take a look at how to use iPadOS 13’s new copy, paste, undo and redo gestures, plus text selection in general.

Apple Watch Series 5 runs on same CPU as Series 4

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Apple-Watch-5
Apple Watch 5 is always ready with the time.
Photo: Apple

The insides of the Apple Watch Series 5 aren’t all that different from last year’s Series 4.

Other than the new always-on display, the only other internal changes Apple promoted were the new compass and increased storage. The latest build of Xcode reveals that those are basically the only changes, as the Series 5 uses the same CPU and GPU found in Apple Watch Series 4.

iPhone 11 Pro’s stunning cameras deliver ‘computational photography mad science’

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iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max
iOS 13.2 will make switching frame rates and resolution for your video shooting much easier.
Photo: Apple

Apple promises a big performance bump from the square bump housing the multiple cameras on the new iPhone 11 line. But will it be enough to generate a wave of upgrades among users who consider the camera the most important feature?

Given Apple’s artfully crafted presentation, showcasing beautiful work from pro shooters and filmmakers who used prototype iPhones, the response among holdouts could prove seismic.

Here’s the quickest way to tidy up your Apple Wallet

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Keeping your Apple Wallet passes as souvenirs? Don't bother.
Keeping your Apple Wallet passes as souvenirs? Don't bother.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

My real wallet is a shrine to minimalism. A bit of cash, a few cards, and zero old receipts or spent metro tickets. I keep it slimline, even with the aggressively European coin pocket included therein. My Apple Wallet, on the other hand, is as cluttered as the horizontal surfaces in my mother’s house, covered as they are with crystal animals, photo frames and lace doilies.

The problem is twofold. First, Apple Wallet never gets thicker, no matter how many cinema tickets and boarding passes you stuff in there. Second, how do you remove all those passes anyway? One at a time, with a swipe and a tap and a confirmation for each? No thanks.

Fortunately, there’s a (slightly) quicker way.

Today in Apple history: Unique Apple-1 computer sells for big money

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Steve Wozniak shows off a
Steve Wozniak shows off a "Celebration" model Apple-1, the rarest version of Apple's rarest computer.
Photo: Charitybuzz

August 25: Today in Apple history: Rare Celebration Apple-1 computer sells for big money August 25, 2016: An ultra-rare Apple-1 computer raises $815,000 in a charity auction, one of the highest prices ever paid for one of the machines. Bidding actually reaches $1.2 million in the auction’s final minutes. However, that bid gets pulled seconds before a winner is announced.

The reason for the super-high price? This “Celebration” Apple-1 boasts a feature that did not appear on any production models of the computer.

Stop Apple’s spam notifications with this hidden setting

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Nobody likes spam. Here's how to stop Apple spam notifications, i.e. marketing notifications.
Nobody likes spam. Nobody.
Photo: Jesper Sehested/Flickr CC

On a podcast this week, I heard the hosts complaining that they get all kinds of spam notifications from Apple. Their iPhones pop up promotional alerts about Apple Pay, apps, Apple Music, Apple Pay, podcasts and more.

“WTF?” I thought, because I don’t get anything like that. I checked through my notification preferences, sure that I’d find something in there, but no. So why wasn’t I getting all this Apple spam?

Because Apple hid the setting. You can turn off all those junky Apple spam notifications. You just have to know where to look.

Distraction-free apps won’t help you focus. Here’s what will.

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Like a Vegas casino carpet, our devices overstimulate our brains. Distraction-free apps won't help.
Like a Vegas casino carpet, our devices overstimulate our brains.
Photo: Michael Winters/Flickr CC

“Distraction-free” apps are ridiculous. They don’t help at all. In fact, if you have trouble focusing on the task on hand, then the problem isn’t the app. The problem is you.

Removing clutter from an app’s interface won’t stop you from flipping to Twitter every five minutes. A carefully chosen font won’t stop you from whipping your iPhone from your pocket every time a question pops into your head.

The problem is not even distraction. The problem is overstimulation, and it’s going to take some effort for you to fix it.

How to add Low Power Mode (and other handy things) to iOS Control Center

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Take control of your iPhone's Control Center.
Take control of your iPhone's Control Center.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

The Control Center on your iPhone or iPad comes with a bunch of preset icons so you can quickly open the Camera app, toggle Do Not Disturb and do plenty of other tricks. But you also can customize it, adding your choice of one-swipe shortcuts. You can even set the order of the icons.

Today we’ll see how to add Low Power Mode, and take a look at the other options available.

How to stop Siri logging and sharing recordings

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Even Siri can manage to set alarms and timers without screwing it up.
Siri is always listening (depending on your settings).
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Apple shares recordings made by Siri with third-party contractors, according to a recent report. The goal is to improve Siri’s responses, but the fact is, you probably didn’t know that this was happening — and almost certainly want it to stop.

Today, I will show you how to prevent these diagnostic recordings from going to Apple. The good news? You can do it using only Apple’s tools. The bad news is that you’ll have to get your hands dirty in the process.

Finally, iOS 13 can create reminders from Mail

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iOS 13's new Reminders app.
iOS 13's new Reminders app.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

We already know that Apple has completely made over the Reminders app in iOS 13, adding a new, more powerful layout, and some excellent quick-entry tools so you don’t have to tap the screen like a million times just to remember to take out the trash when you get home.

But Reminders has also gotten its virtual claws deeper into the rest of iOS. Today we’ll see two great integrations that you might not have heard about yet.

How to stop your Photos library from taking over your Mac

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Film Contact sheet
Don't let your photos take over your whole SSD.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

The Photos app on the Mac has two options for storing your photos. You can tell it to keep the full-size originals of everything, or you can have it self-manage, keeping your master library in iCloud and storing a mixture of full-resolution and low-res versions locally to save space.

The trouble is, even when you choose the “Optimize Mac Storage” option, the Photos app’s storage can metastasize and take over your whole drive. Today we’ll see how to cap this storage, giving Photos a hard limit on how much space it can use. For instance, if you have a MacBook with a 128GB SSD, you could choose to only use 30GB for Photos — and it will never, ever use more.