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LG’s latest UltraFine 4K monitor is two big steps forward, half a step back [Review]

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LG UltraFine 4K (2019) review
The updated LG UltraFine 4K is larger than its predecessor, and looks great.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

The LG UltraFine 4K comes with a recommendation from Apple, and it’s not hard to see why: this 23.7-inch monitor was designed to work well with recent Mac models, and even the latest iPad Pro. There are several welcome enhancements in this latest version, but one change is less positive.

We went hands-on with this beautiful, $699.95 display so don’t miss our review.

5 new iOS 13 features you haven’t heard about yet

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iOS 13 has almost too many features to cover -- but that won't stop us trying.
iOS 13 has almost too many features to cover -- but that won't stop us trying.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

iPadOS and iOS 13 have gotten so many new features and tweaks, it’s hard to know where to start. We will continue to cover everything in-depth over the coming weeks and months, but here’s a little glimpse at some of the best new features in the newest version of iOS.

iPadOS brings those killer iPad features we’ve been craving

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iPadOS is the new name of the tablet version of iOS.
iPadOS is the new name of the tablet version of iOS.
Photo: Apple

WWDC 2019 bugApple just unveiled some of the most significant changes to the iPad line ever as it continues making these tablets ever better computers for professionals. The company even went so far as to free them from iOS — from now on, they run iPadOS.

Other dramatic changes include allowing applications to open multiple windows, a home screen redesign, improvements to the Files app, and more.

Apple explains App Store policies as it fights monopoly charges

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Apple App Store principles
A direct appeal to the public.
Screenshot: Apple

Apple took the defense of its App Store practices directly to its consumers, launching a new web page as it prepares for a court battle over accusations claiming the company has monopolistic control over iOS apps.

The page appeared this morning on Apple’s website with the title “App Store, Principles and Practices.”

All MacBooks with butterfly keyboards are now eligible for free repairs

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MacBook butterfly keyboard
Apple’s not ditching the MacBook butterfly keyboard yet.
Photo: Apple

Apple updated its Keyboard Service Program today to also include support for the 2018 MacBook Pro and 2018 MacBook Air.

The news comes on the heels of Apple’s unveiling of new MacBook Pros this morning with 8-core processors and butterfly keyboards with new materials. With the updated program, any MacBook with a butterfly keyboard is now eligible for service free of charge.

Perfect Tempo slows down any song in Apple Music’s cloud

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Change the tempo of any song in Apple Music.
Change the tempo of any song in Apple Music.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Perfect Tempo lets you speed up or slow down any song in Apple Music, so you can learn how to play it. Unlike every other app that does this, Perfect Tempo works on any song on the Apple Music service, not just purchased and/or downloaded songs. It also has a great, easy-to-use design, which is way better than the utilitarian drop-down lists of many other apps.

Four ways to send email attachments on iPhone and iPad

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A rather poor email metaphor.
A rather poor email metaphor.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

In the bad old days, there used to be just one way to send an email attachment from your iPhone. You had to find the file or image, and use the share sheet to send it via email. Then, you’d add the address, subject line and message, and send the mail. And if you needed to add another file to that email? Tough.

Now, things are much better. There are now several ways to send mail with attachments on iOS — the exact number depends on whether you’re using the iPhone or iPad. Let’s check them out.

How to record Apple Music from your iPhone to your Mac

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Send DRM or other audio up the USB cable, and record it.
Send DRM or other audio up the USB cable, and record it.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Did you know that you can record the music playing on your iPhone, to your Mac, straight up the USB cable? Just hook your Mac up to your iPhone (or iPad), using the Lighting cable that came in the box, and you can record anything. You could record songs from Beats One radio in Apple Music, for example.

It’s just like taping off the radio when you were a kid — or maybe when your dad was a kid — only better quality.

Mute Twitter keywords to avoid spoilers

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Mute twitter
Shut! Up!
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Twitter is a swamp of spoilers. You can’t move for tweets about the plot of the new Star Wars movie or spoilers about whatever new TV show is dropping all its new episodes this week. There are two ways to avoid spoilers. One is to avoid Twitter entirely.

The other is to mute keywords, so you don’t see references to — well, references to whatever you want. Mutes don’t have to be about the long-awaited meeting between Spock and Obi-Wan, though. You can mute anything. You could avoid all mentions of President Donald Trump, for example. Brits could stanch the flow of Brexit mentions. Or you might temporarily mute mentions of a sports event if it’s taking over your timeline.

What the critics are saying about the first Tim Cook biography

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thumbnail for tim cook promo
Have you read the new Tim Cook book yet?
Photo: Kristal Chan/Cult of Mac

The first-ever biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook hits bookstores today, and it’s written by none other than Cult of Mac founder, Leander Kahney.

I haven’t heard from Leander in god knows how long while he’s been writing this book. But based on the early reviews, it appears like it was all worth it. No one has written a full book about Cook until now. Leander’s book, Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level, details how Cook took on Steve Jobs’ mantle. While nearly any other human would have crumbled under that pressure, Cook thrived.

Early reviews for the book have been coming in all week, and so far they’re pretty positive. Here are some of the highlights.

Do not call Dmitry Markov’s iPhone photos ‘seamy’

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Dmitry Markov
"Time to death." Haircut of 18-year-old teenager before his release from orphanage is one of 80 iPhone photos in #DRAFT #RUSSIA, which runs through June 4 at the agnés b. Galerie Boutique in New York City.
Photo: Dmitry Markov courtesy of agnés b.

Each of the 80 arresting iPhone images in an exhibition entitled #DRAFT #RUSSIA are a chapter in the life of the photographer Dmitry Markov.

The pictures may feel like a hard, unpleasant view of a fringe existence in a Russian province far removed from the economic bustle of Moscow, but Markov makes no apology.

How to ditch your Mac for an all-iPad lifestyle

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Your new iPad pro has some neat tricks up its sleeves.
Your new iPad pro has some neat tricks up its sleeves.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Are you thinking of switching from the Mac to the iPad? Maybe you’re sick of your MacBook’s glitchy keyboard, or you would prefer to be able to remove the keyboard altogether when you don’t want it, and use touch instead?

Or perhaps you’re tempted by the cheaper pro apps on iOS, or the portability, or you just can’t see the point of a 27-inch iMac on your desk when all you do is read and write.

Whatever your excuse, switching from macOS to iOS is easier than ever. Thanks to iCloud, and a host of great apps and accessories, switching can be almost seamless. Let’s see what you need.

Apple’s new apps clearly reflect Tim Cook’s values [Opinion]

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Apple services
Part of the whole customer experience business model.
Photo: Apple

Watching Monday morning’s “It’s show time” keynote, I was struck by how much Tim Cook is stamping his values on what Apple is doing.

While writing a book about Cook last year, I accidentally stumbled on six values he has been championing at Apple:

  • Accessibility
  • Education
  • Environment
  • Inclusion and diversity
  • Privacy
  • Supplier responsibility

These are the things Cook has been pushing internally since taking over from Steve Jobs in 2011. These are the priorities of his leadership, reflecting the things he wants to get done and the internal values that guide what Apple employees do and how they do it.

Monday’s keynote was a chance to witness these values in action, to see the kinds of products and services his priorities are helping to create.

New AirPods deliver hands-free ‘Hey Siri’ and better battery life

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2019 AirPods
The new Wireless Charging Case is also available.
Photo: Apple

The wait for new AirPods is finally over.

Apple’s newest wireless buds are here with a brand new H1 chip that allows for hands-free “Hey Siri.” They also promise better battery life in between charges, and even faster connectivity.

An optional Wireless Charging Case is also available, but it’s not cheap.

How to translate any PDF or sheet of paper

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If you can read it, you can translate it.
If you can read it, you can translate it.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

How do you translate a PDF? Maybe you scanned a page from a friend’s German cake recipes book. Or perhaps you’re living abroad and you have no idea what the police just made you sign. There are plenty of ways to translate PDFs and text, but most of them involve either A) Microsoft Word or B) uploading your private documents to a cloud service to be read.

Today we’ll see how to quickly scan a paper document, then translate its written text into English. You’ll be amazed at how fast it is.

VO2 max: The Apple Watch metric that reveals your aerobic fitness

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Max-out your aerobic fitness with Apple Watch by checking the VO2 max metric.
Max out your aerobic fitness with Apple Watch.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

Want to know how fit you really are? Apple Watch provides loads of insightful metrics you could check. So many, in fact, that there is not enough space for them all in the Workout app. Instead, you’ll find much of this crucial data buried away in the Health app on your iPhone.

One of the most interesting is VO2 max, which is basically the ultimate test of your aerobic fitness. If you’re into endurance sports, VO2 max is a metric you’ll want to check out.

Here’s a quick guide to everything you need to know about VO2 max on Apple Watch: What it is, how to use it, and how to improve yours.

iOS 13 concept gives iPad the features it desperately needs

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iOS 13
Apple, please steal this.
Photo: Léo Vallet

There are less than 100 days until WWDC 2019 and new iPad features are looming large on the mind of Apple fans.

In a new iOS 13 mockup, concept designer Léo Valle suggests some simple, yet groundbreaking features that would make the iPad a true Mac replacement. Some of these features probably won’t make the cut on iOS 13 this year, but even if one makes it’d be a game-changer.

A radical Safari tabs trick that’s hard to explain in the title

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A desert, not unlike the Mojave, where you could go on safari.
I’m getting desperate for Safari-related images for these how-to posts.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

This tip is exhibit A in the case for Apple being really, really good at hiding features. I imagine if you went around to Apple’s house for dinner, and the company asked you to set the table, you’d have some real trouble finding the cutlery. Maybe you’d open the cutlery drawer and see only the spoons. Then you’d open the drawer below, expecting that Apple had just set things out differently, as usual.

But in that second drawer you’d find nothing but fruit. WTF Apple? And then you’d notice that the top drawer is a little thicker than it appears when open. You try the top drawer again. This time you see that if you press down on one of the wooden spoons, the others move aside — animated a little too slowly — to reveal the knives and spoons. But where the hell are the forks?

Back to today’s tip. It’s a combination of two tricks you may already know:

  • Search the open Safari tabs on your iPhone.
  • Long-press the tabs button to close all tabs.

What do you think today’s tip might be?

How to delete unwanted music downloads on iPhone

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Enjoy this music-related image.
Enjoy this music-related image.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Problem: Your iPhone is full of downloaded music. There’s probably a lot of it that you don’t need taking up space on there, but deleting it is a pain. The solution? As ever, it’s hidden inside the Settings app. There’s a dedicated page just to solve this exact problem, listing your downloaded music and making it easy to delete. Let’s check it out.

How to search Google like a boss

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Google search operators
Search like a pro with Google search operators.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

For many folks, Google is the front page of the internet. You don’t type Facebook.com into your browser. You just type “Facebook,” and then click the first Google result. Or you do a basic search by tapping in what you’re looking for.

But Google is way more powerful than that. You just have to learn a few of its secret code words, and then you can slice and dice your searches like a pro. No more wading through pages of results to find what you want. Use these tricks, and you’ll almost always get what you want on the first page. You can even ask Google to show you the weather.

How to make Shortcuts give you a weather forecast on iPad

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iPad weather
Life’s a beach — without this iPad weather shortcut.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

The iPad infamously still lacks a built-in weather app. There are plenty of ways around this — you can ask Siri, you can use the Maps app to see the weather anywhere, or you can wait for your iPhone to give you a lock-screen forecast every morning.

Today we add a new method. We’ll make a quick shortcut that gets the weather at your current location, and displays it as a notification.

How to recover previous versions of your files on Mac

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Files may be clunky, but it's better than this.
There's no need to keep a zillion different versions of a file on the Mac.
Photo: Phil Roeder/Flickr CC

What happens if you’re working on a document and you realize you screwed it up? Maybe you deleted a few paragraphs without realizing. Or you’ve just been writing a bunch of nonsense for the past half-hour and wish you could go back to where you were before? On the Mac, you can easily do just that. It’s called versions, and it’s automatic.

Using versions, you can easily browse and restore previous versions of any document. Some apps have this built in, so you can do it right there inside the app itself. But the Finder also supports versions, so you can revert to a previous state of almost anything.