n5 - page 12

Schematic reveals iPad Air 3 will be slightly thicker than iPad Air 2

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iPad Air 3 will be the smartest iPad yet.
iPad Air 3 will be the smartest iPad yet.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The iPad Air 3 is poised to be the biggest upgrade the iPad lineup has ever seen, but all those new features might come with a price of extra thickness.

An alleged schematic of the iPad Air 3 has been leaked that shows the upcoming device’s exact dimensions. The schematic also appears to confirm that the iPad Air 3 will use the Smart Connector found on the iPad Pro.

Check it out:

Apple may release special iPhone 7 Plus aimed at pro photographers

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You've got the (force) touch! Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Apple could release four different iPhone variants this year.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Ever since it unveiled the iPhone 5s and 5c in 2013, Apple has split its iPhone launch lineup in two each year. According to well-connected KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, however, Apple may further subdivide its iPhones — with not one but two iPhone 7 Plus variants set to arrive this September.

In a Wednesday note to investors, Kuo claims that Apple will launch one 5.5-inch handset with the regular iSight camera, while a second, rarer version will sport a dual-camera design for higher-definition images.

The future of UI for iOS 10 … or iOS 20?

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This video has lots of great ideas about how iOS 10's UI should work.
This video has lots of great ideas about how iOS 10's UI should work.
Photo: Cult of Mac

A lot of “next-gen iPhone” concepts are pretty crappy. Whimsical fancies that have nothing to do with the reality of industrial design. And hey, that’s true of this iPhone 7 concept, which imagines an edge-to-edge display that totally ditches a physical home button. You will not see an iPhone like this anytime in the near future.

But that’s not to say the concept isn’t cool. Because eventually, Apple will release a full-screen iPhone. And when it does, this concept has a lot of cool ideas about how future iOS UIs will work, once the hardware catches up.

Check out Siri’s mad beatboxing skills

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Siri beatbox
Your iPhone or iPad won't put up the actual transcription of Siri's beatbox skills. You'd die.
Screenshot: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

We think Siri’s been holding out on us. It turns out that Apple’s digital assistant has been quietly working on a skill that we only recently discovered.

It’s not very useful, but it should give you a smile: A simple request will make Siri beatbox for you.

iPhone 7 will be waterproof, charge wirelessly and have no headphone jack

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iPhone-7-concept
An iPhone 7 concept gets rid of the ugly antenna lines too.
Photo: Eric Huismann

The upcoming iPhone 7 is almost certainly ditching the headphone jack at this point. What at first seemed like a ridiculous stretch is now shaping up to be the most credible rumor about the next-gen iPhone so far.

The latest whispers indicate that, while the headphone jack is out, wireless charging and a waterproof design are finally in.

Must-have Apple TV apps of 2015

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best apple tv apps
These apps truly shine on the new Apple TV.
Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

Cult of Mac's Best of 2015 The Apple TV’s App Store is still so new, odds are you might be having trouble figuring out which apps are the best.

The holidays are just around the corner, so for the sake of the friends and relatives who will soon be swarming your living room, you might want to populate your new set-top box with some must-haves. Take a look at Cult of Mac’s top picks for best Apple TV apps.

The 4-inch iPhone 6c: Coming in time for Valentine’s Day?

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An iPhone 6c concept.
An iPhone 6c concept.
Photo: iPhonesoft

There are many who claim that the iPhone 5c, Apple’s plastic-backed “budget” iPhone, was a disappointment, especially compared to the sales of iPhone 6/6s/Plus. Yet rumors continue to circulate that the iPhone 6c will be released next year.

Here’s another rumor to throw on that fire: Supply chain sources within Foxconn are allegedly saying the iPhone 6c is on track for a February 2016 debut.

Review: Sonos Play:5 speaker is a rumbling, room-shaking rabble-rouser

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The new Play:5 speaker is a great update to Sonos' top-of-the-line box.
The new Play:5 speaker is a great update to Sonos' top-of-the-line box.
Photo: Traci Dauphin/Cult of Mac

The flagship speaker from Sonos has been revamped, redesigned and relaunched. The result is awesome.

The new Play:5 is a big, beefy speaker that sounds absolutely wonderful. It’s available in stores today, and although it’s not cheap, I’d recommend you go out and get one. Or two. Stereo is even better.

This spliff-holding iPhone case is anything but half-baked

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This iPhone case does doobie duty with a slide-out compartment for your stash.
This iPhone case does doobie duty with a slide-out compartment for your stash.
Photo: Richard Williams/YouTube

A good iPhone case protects your handset from the blunt force of a fall. Then there’s the case that protects the force of your blunts.

The iHit is a case for the iPhone 6 and 6s with a slide out odor-free compartment that can stash up to five pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes. It is the latest evolution of the iHit case, which started with a case for the iPhone 5 that had a spring-loaded chamber for a single joint.

5 iPad Pro apps creatives should download now

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iPad Pro
You should build something on all of that real estate the iPad Pro is giving you.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Apple’s massive iPad Pro tablet is finally getting into the hands of the waiting public, and now all that remains is the small matter of how to make the most of its 13-inch screen.

The company has been pushing its new hardware to creators and enterprise. And while we’re guessing that most artists and professional designers and artists who already owned iPads have a favorite app or two, newbies picking up the latest for its huge screen and fancy Apple Pencil stylus might be at a loss with where to look.

Here are some of our picks for iPad Pro apps to start getting your creati-on.

5 must-play games for the new Apple TV

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Our picks for the 5 best games out on Apple TV right now.
Our picks for the 5 best games out on Apple TV right now.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Apple TV’s killer feature is the App Store. And with an App Store comes games.

I don’t care what near-sighted gaming sites are saying. Sure, Apple’s new box doesn’t have a whole lot of gaming content yet, but it has some great offerings if you poke around a bit. I’m finding games for the new Apple TV that never grabbed my attention when they were on my iPhone or iPad, but seeing them up on the big screen pulled me right in.

Which are the best games for the Apple TV to check out right now, though? Here are our five favorites, in no particular order. Note that the links below will take you to the iTunes App Store. If you purchase them with the same iTunes ID you have set up on your Apple TV, they’ll appear in the “Purchased” tab of the little black puck’s App Store. Alternately, you can search for the game name directly from your TV.

5 more apps that crush it with 3D Touch

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Social app bumpn will 3D Touch your heart(s).
Social app bumpn will 3D Touch your heart(s).
Photo: bumpn

As developers race to embrace 3D Touch, more and more third-party apps are utilizing iOS 9’s killer feature to make common tasks faster and easier.

Employed properly, 3D Touch’s Quick Actions lists can put many tasks at your fingertips — assuming you’re using an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, the only models with the hardware to us the new technology. 3D Touch’s new Peek and Pop features also let you preview certain items (Peek), then press deeper if you want to open them (Pop).

With more and more apps adding 3D Touch, developers are clearly hell-bent on creating more stimulating experiences. Here are more third-party apps that are doing big things with 3D Touch.

What to expect from Apple’s Q4 2015 earnings call

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LOVELOUD
Apple CEO Tim Cook will introduce the band Imagine Dragons Satuday at the LOVELOUD Festival in Utah.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple is scheduled to reveal its earnings for the final fiscal quarter of 2015 on Tuesday, October 27, and investors are expecting monstrous results.

Sales of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus should boost revenues to new heights after Apple announced that it sold a record 13 million units of the new devices during launch weekend alone. Exactly how many iPhones Apple sold won’t be revealed until the bell closes, but Tim Cook seemed pretty optimistic in a recent interview.

Cook told The Wall Street Journal that Apple Watch shipped even more watches last quarter than in the first quarter. It’s unlikely Apple will give us the actual Apple Watch sales figures during the earnings call, but there should be a lot of juicy Apple bits.

Here’s everything to expect from Apple’s Q4 2015 earnings:

How to keep Facebook from dredging up your worst memories

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facebook-logo-file
It won’t happen until 2020 at the earliest.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Facebook’s algorithmic nostalgia is all well and good — until it starts pulling up the worst memories you’ve shared. Not everyone wants to be reminded of these awful memories.

Introduced this past March, “On This Day” is a Facebook feature that lets you re-share important digital memories from one year ago. Now you can keep specific people and/or dates from appearing in your feed, thanks to a pair of filters introduced on the social network.

Here’s how to make sure your worst memories aren’t surfaced by Facebook.

5 apps that showcase 3D Touch’s true potential

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iphone-6s-3d-touch
Third-party apps are already jumping on board with 3D Touch and so should you.
Photo: Apple

So, you’re one of 13 million people to get a brand new iPhone 6S over the launch weekend. Congratulations, you now have access to a faster phone — potentially a rose gold one, better cameras, stronger aluminum and of course, 3D Touch. The latter is actually extremely useful, but it’s only as useful as developers allow.

Since the feature is brand new, 3D Touch mostly works with Apple’s stock iOS apps for quick application shortcuts on the Home screen, plus Peek and Pop inside apps to preview different types of content. A few productive developers saw the light and quickly updated their apps to support this drastically new way to use an iPhone.

You can tell that the future is very bright for 3D Touch as developers are just getting started figuring out how to unlock all of its potential. Until we reach that 3D utopia, here are five terrific apps that already do Apple’s latest innovation plenty of justice.

5 ways ‘Hey Siri’ will change your life for the better

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Siri
Apple's new "Hey Siri" feature promises to be a game-changer.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

iOS 9’s new always-on “Hey Siri” feature promises to be a game changer for iPhone 6s-owning users of Apple’s AI assistant. For the first time ever, these owners won’t have to plug in their handsets in order to use Siri’s new voice activation tech.

So how exactly will this untethered “Hey Siri” improve your life? Let us count the ways…

Don’t Starve brings hunger game to iPhone

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Those beefalo look pretty worried.
Those beefalo look pretty worried.
Photo: Klei Entertainment

Seriously, try not to starve. That’s the entire point of Klei Entertainment’s runaway hit game Don’t Starve, a test of survival set in a darkly humorous, Edward Gorey-esque world filled with vicious hounds, creeping spiders, herds of stampeding Beefalo and slimy fish men.

Now you can get in on the action on iPhone, as the desktop game just became a universal app called Don’t Starve: Pocket Edition.

How to fix weak taptic feedback on Apple Watch

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Apple Watch how-to taptic feedback
Here's how to put the tap back into "taptic."
Photo: Apple

Taptic feedback on the Apple Watch felt a little weird at first, but we’ve come to love its gentle nudges to let us know something is going on. But some Cult of Mac staffers have noticed that after time, the taptic feedback has started to feel not so … tappy anymore.

If you’re having this problem, here are a couple quick and easy ways you can try to put the pep back on your wrist.

How to enable iCloud Drive in iOS 9

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DSC07210

Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

iCloud Drive is a Dropbox and Google Drive-type service from Apple that lets you store documents in the cloud, making it super easy to synchronize them between your iOS and OS X devices.

You can access it on your Mac with an icon that shows all the documents you’ve stored in iCloud in a folder-like structure.

Prior to iOS 9, in order to access these documents on your iPhone or iPad, you’d need to open an app that supported iCloud Drive on your device.

Not anymore. iOS 9 comes with its own iCloud Drive app, and here’s how to enable it.