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Decoding Apple’s blurry iPhone 7 invite

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What do you see in Apple's invite?
Photo: Apple

Apple is finally set to unveil something new on September 7. While the company hasn’t said what it will be, it’s pretty much certain a new iPhone or two will make an appearance at the invite-only San Francisco event.

The Apple rumor mill has been churning out juicy details about the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus for months and, if you stare at the blurry lights on Apple’s invite, you just might pick up a few more clues about what to expect during next month’s keynote.

Which calorie-tracking app should you count on?

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Diet Apps - Social
A 10-mile run or a tasty bun — track your calories in and out.
Table: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

Calorie-tracking apps like MyFitnessPal and MyNetDiary are no fun to use. Logging all your meals is a tedious chore, and unlike fitness apps that praise you for your hard work, diet apps tend to just tell you off for eating too much.

But when you are trying to lose or gain weight, these apps provide indispensable insights into where your calories are coming from and how you can optimize your diet to get the best results. So I’ve compared the leading calorie trackers to find out which one you should count on.

The future of Siri [Kahney’s Korner]

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Kahney’s Korner podcast with ArcTouch
ArcTouch devs Adam Fingerman and Paulo Michels give us a peek into the future of Siri.
Image: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple has opened up Siri to third-party developers, which means we’ll soon be able to do a bunch of things — like ordering pizza or sending money — simply by speaking to Apple’s intelligent assistant.

It’s a big change, and another step toward a friction-free future in which we will talk to our devices instead of poking at them with our fingers.

In this week’s episode of Kahney’s Korner, I talk with Adam Fingerman and Paulo Michels of ArcTouch, a mobile development company that works with big media companies like ABC, NBC and CBS. As they’ve explored the Siri API, they’ve gained insight into what we can expect when iOS 10 and macOS Sierra get released to the public this fall.

Apple Maps will help you find open parking spots

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Parking data is coming to iOS 10.
Parking data is coming to iOS 10.
Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac

Finding a parking garage with plenty of empty spaces is about to get a whole lot easier in Apple Maps.

To give Apple Map users more data about parking lots and garages around the world, Apple has partnered up with Parkopedia which provides detailed info on more that 40 million parking spots in 75 countries around the world, making the hassle of parking a bit more bearable.

All the iOS 10 beta 3 changes that make iPhone even better

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News and Music ios10
Apple made a lot of improvements to iOS 10.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s jam-packed iOS 10 update has gotten even better in its third beta, which brings a bunch of tiny new features that start to make iOS 10 feel like a polished product.

The list of changes in iOS 10 beta 3, which was seeded to developers this week, isn’t as long as the last update. But Apple has added some really nice tweaks to the lock screen, Apple Music, iCloud Drive and Messages, in addition to a ton of bug fixes and stability improvements.

Check out the most important new additions to Apple’s upcoming mobile OS, which is slated to launch on iPhones and iPads this fall:

All the changes Apple made in iOS 10 beta 2

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apple music app
There's a lot to love in the new iOS 10 beta.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s second beta for iOS 10 is jam-packed with new features and changes to go along with the big batch of bug fixes.

More than 50 changes have been discovered by developers, affecting everything from Apple Music to widgets. A lot of the changes are very minor UI tweaks that would probably go unnoticed by many users, but Apple has also added some huge additions to the Home button, Messages, Notification Center and more.

Here’s what’s new in iOS 10 beta 2:

Case maker talks secret iPhone CAD files, Chinese intrigue [Podcast interview]

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Veteran case maker Tim Hickman talks about iPhone 7 leaks out of China.
Veteran case maker Tim Hickman talks about iPhone 7 leaks out of China.
Photo illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The market for iPhone cases is worth billions of dollars. The first manufacturer with a case that fits a new device — say, the iPhone 7 — can make a killing in the days following an Apple launch.

For this week’s episode of Kahney’s Korner, I talked with industry veteran Tim Hickman, CEO of Gumdrop Cases. Over the years, he’s tried all kinds of tricks and strategies in the race to be first to market with new iPhone cases — including making thousands of cases that turned out to be wrong.

This time around, Hickman has received several CAD files from mysterious sources in China that supposedly show the exact dimensions of the upcoming iPhone 7. Will he bet his company’s fortunes on these files of dubious origin? Let’s find out.

macOS Sierra hands on: Apple’s best desktop OS yet

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macOS Siri
Watch macOS Sierra's latest features in action.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The first macOS beta was released this week, so of course I downloaded it straight away on my Mac to bring you all a quick hands on video.

Although this is still the first beta, and many functions still don’t work as intended, it gives us our first glimpse at Apple’s next-gen desktop OS in action. Check out the macOS Sierra hands on video below.

Ex-Apple ad man Ken Segall talks Apple and simplicity [Podcast interview]

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Author Ken Segall worked in advertising with Steve Jobs for more than a dozen years. His new book is called Think Simple.
Author Ken Segall worked in advertising with Steve Jobs for more than a dozen years. His new book is called Think Simple.
Photo: Doug Schneider Photography

Ken Segall is a former Apple ad man who worked closely with Steve Jobs for more than a dozen years. Segall is the guy who put the “i” in iMac and worked on the famous “Think Different” campaign.

The big lesson he learned from Steve Jobs was keeping things simple. But easier said than done. How exactly do you keep things simple?

Segall went out and found 40 business folks who keep things straightforward. His new book based on those interviews is called Think Simple:How Smart Leaders Defeat Complexity.

In a new podcast, Kahney’s Korner, Segall talks about some of those lessons, how Steve Jobs kept things uncomplicated and about how Apple is doing these days without him.

This episode of Kahney’s Korner is supported by TunnelBear, an award-winning service that gives you fast and private access to the internet.

This post contains affiliate links. Cult of Mac may earn a commission when you use our links to buy items.

Check out the crazy attention to detail at Apple’s new San Francisco store

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Apple_Store_Union_Square_exterior_side

Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

SAN FRANCISCO — Look carefully at the cracks in the sidewalk around Apple’s new flagship store in San Francisco. They all line up with architectural elements of the store.

Some are continuous with the metal panels on the exterior walls. Some line up with the windows, and the huge glass panels that make up the 42-foot high front door. Some of the cracks are continuous with the stone floor tiles inside the store.

In turn, the joints in the floor line up with panels on the wall, which line up with the lighting panels on the ceiling.

In fact, most of the lines in the store — the edges of the glass balconies, cutouts in the middle of the tables, the edges of shelves and drawers — all line up with other elements of the store.

Some of these lines run continously from the sidewalk in front of the store all the way through to the tree-lined plaza in the back. It’s a bit crazy, when you examine it, and very, very difficult to pull off.

iPhone maker replaces half its factory workers with robots

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Tim Cook greeting Foxconn workers in China. Photo: Apple
Tim Cook meeting with (human) Foxconn workers.
Photo: Apple

Apple manufacturer Foxconn has been talking about investing in robots for years now, but apparently it’s finally done it — replacing more than half of the employees at one of its factories with machines.

“The Foxconn factory has reduced its employee strength from 110,000 to 50,000, thanks to the introduction of robots,” said a government official, adding that “it has tasted success in reduction of labour costs” and that more companies are now likely to follow suit.

Words like ‘crazy ones’ paint accurate picture of Steve Jobs

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Steve Jobs typeface portrait
Apple is made in Steve Jobs' image.
Photo: Dylan Roscover

Cult of Mac 2.0 bugApple fans felt a deep sense of mourning in 2011 when Apple founder Steve Jobs succumbed to cancer. With the fifth anniversary of his passing approaching, Cult of Mac looks at the artistic tributes that followed.

If the wrinkles and curves on a person’s face tell a story, Dylan Roscover will find the right words to narrate each and every line.

The commercial artist from Boulder, Colo., used the messaging from Apple’s “Here’s to the crazy ones” television commercial from 1997 to create a portrait of the embodiment of misfit genius, Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs left an imprint on tech and the skin of some devoted fans

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Craig Sarich with a Steve Jobs tribute design tattooed on his arm.
Craig Sarich with a Steve Jobs tribute design tattooed on his arm.
Photo: Craig Sarich

Cult of Mac 2.0 bugApple fans felt a deep sense of mourning in 2011 when Apple founder Steve Jobs succumbed to cancer. With the fifth anniversary of his passing approaching, Cult of Mac looks at the artistic tributes that followed.

Nothing grants a person supreme being status like a tattoo. After all, the ink is permanent.

So even if the late Steve Jobs had a well-established legacy as the father of personal computing, some Apple fans felt the need to wear their devotion more deeply.

Tim Cook promises iPhone features you’ve never dreamed of

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LOVELOUD
Everything at Apple is great. Promise...
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Future iPhones are going to be so amazing, you probably haven’t even thought of the features Apple is going to add, Tim Cook claimed in a recent interview.

The Apple CEO appeared Monday on Mad Money in an effort to abate the company’s bleeding stock price following last week’s less-than-stellar earnings call. Cook reassured investors that the rumors of Apple’s demise have been greatly exaggerated once again.

While lackluster iPhone sales last quarter have scared off mega-investors and analysts alike, Cook promised some incredible innovation is in the pipeline. In addition to touting upcoming iPhone features, Cook’s wide-ranging conversation with Mad Money host Jim Cramer touched on everything from the Apple Watch being (inaccurately) dubbed a flop to Apple’s growing interest in India and much more.

Here are the highlights:

For world’s biggest Apple museum, book a flight to Italy

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The All About Apple Museum in Savona, Italy.
The All About Apple Museum in Savona, Italy.
Photo: All About Apple Museum

Cult of Mac 2.0 bugFor years, Apple has been under pressure to open an Apple museum. The company’s rich and storied past has its fans clamoring for a central repository of that history.

Word from the company: No. Apple’s leaders say they are more interested in the future than the past.

In fact, the most complete historical collection of all things Apple is nowhere near Cupertino. The serious Apple fan must travel to, of all places, Savona, Italy.

iOS 10 concept video has everything we want at WWDC

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ios-10-concept-vittici-beckett
Federico Vittici and Sam Beckett brought a better Control Center and more to life.
Photo: Federico Vittici/MacStories, Sam Beckett

Since there is still much to learn about the upcoming iOS 10 debut presumably at WWDC this year, Federico Vittici of MacStories and concept designer Sam Beckett took it upon themselves to bring their dreams to life. They worked together to design an incredible concept video that fulfills Vittici’s wishes for the next version of iOS. The video is nothing short of stunning and their implementation of his (completely reasonable) feature requests will have you absolutely drooling.

Apple’s automotive ‘Project Titan’ keeps getting bigger

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bl1338_clash
There's something mythical about Apple's rumored car project.
Photo: MGM/Ste Smith

We haven’t heard too much about Apple’s “Project Titan” electric car project since its project lead quit the company, and Jony Ive reportedly put a hiring freeze in place after deciding things weren’t on the right track.

But a new report claims that Apple’s car investigations are continuing to progress — as Apple buys up and leases various buildings in Sunnyvale, with documents filed with the city suggesting that these will be used for automotive R&D.

9.7-inch iPad Pro is no laptop replacement, but it’s a terrific tablet [Reviews]

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iPad Pro 3
iPad Pro is even better at 9.7 inches.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple really, really wants you to replace your laptop with an iPad — especially if that laptop is powered by Windows. But before that switch can even be considered, the iPad needs to do everything your laptop can and more. That’s where iPad Pro comes in.

With its new A9X chip, it’s the most powerful iPad to date. It does everything your old iPad did, but it does it better. It’s compatible with the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard, and now it’s available in a smaller form factor with a 9.7-inch display.

This new model is easier to carry around all day, but it packs almost exactly the same punch as the 12.9-inch iPad Pro — and the same stellar speakers. It has also adopted the incredible 12-megapixel iSight camera from iPhone 6s, with the dual-tone LED flash.

It’s everything you want in a tablet — and more.

Apple in a word is …

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What does Apple mean to you?
What does Apple mean to you?
Illustration: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Over the past 40 years, Apple has been many things to many people. Innovative or imitative, premium or overpriced, saintly or evil — everybody’s got their own take on what Cupertino and its revolutionary products mean.

While Apple was founded on April Fools’ Day in 1976, the company and the profound impact that its shiny devices have made on our lives is truly not a joke. Here’s what Cult of Mac staffers said when asked to describe what the company means to them in a single word.

Everything that knocked us for a loop at today’s Apple event

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Tim Cook Apple March 21 event
"What if we told you that we were making the same things, but these ones are smaller?"
Photo: Apple

The March 21 Apple event wrapped up earlier, and we have to say that for the most part, we saw that coming.

The company followed through on every rumor we heard that said it was going to put out smaller versions of its latest iPhones and iPads. It introduced new Apple Watch bands, including a Space Gray Milanese Loop, just like we’d heard. And it totally confirmed that the new versions of tvOS and OS 9 would be out today, which didn’t surprise us at all.

But we did manage to fit a gasp or two between all those yawns. Here’s everything that was actually surprising at today’s Apple event.

This could be our first look at the iPhone 7

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"Leaked" iPhone 7 with Smart Connector (left) and iPhone 6s.
Photo: Bastille Post

The iPhone 7 may come with a Smart Connector if photos of what appears to be an early iPhone 7 Plus unit can be believed.

Photos of the alleged iPhone 7, leaked by a Chinese website, show Apple integrating a dual-lens camera into the design of the rear case. If the case is accurate, it looks like Apple won’t be ditching its protruding camera lens this year.

‘Let us loop you in’: Decoding Apple’s latest cryptic invite

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Apple March 21 event invite
What do you mean?!
Photo: Apple

Apple’s sent out the invite to its March 21 event, and it’s making everyone crazy. The message contains a single image (one version of which is pictured above) and a message: “Let us loop you in.”

The Internet has been trying to figure out what it all means since it went out.

And some of its guesses are … well, we’ll just say “interesting.” But others might be on to something.