| Cult of Mac

Oracle reportedly wins bid for TikTok’s U.S. operations

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U.S. investigations of TikTok gather steam.
Oracle will be TikTok's "trusted tech partner."
Photo: Kon Karampelas/Unsplash CC

Oracle looks set to acquire the United States operations of TikTok, according to people familiar with the matter, speaking with the Wall Street Journal.

According to the report, the deal will not be an outright sale. Instead, Oracle will be announced as TikTok’s “trusted tech partner” in the U.S. — hopefully doing enough to satisfy security concerns on the part of the White House. Financial terms have not been revealed.

Smell played! Fortnite update adds stink bombs to Battle Royale

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Fortnite stink bomb
The stink bomb is coming soon to Battle Royale.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Close your eyes and hold your noses because stink bombs are coming soon to Fortnite: Battle Royale.

The new throwable, which will damage opponent players who get caught up in its cloud, will be added in this week’s content update. Epic has already introduced the new Omen outfit and Oracle pickaxe, which can be found in the shop now.

Tim Cook and other tech titans meet Trump in his tower

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Peter Thiel separates Tim Cook and Donald Trump at tech summit.
Peter Thiel separates Tim Cook and Donald Trump at tech summit.
Photo: Sean Spicer/Twitter

Trump Tower in New York City became the site of the biggest meeting of tech figures in years Wednesday, as President-elect Donald J. Trump called together Silicon Valley’s elite for a meeting of the minds.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was among those in attendance and was seated within arm’s reach of the Trump, even though Cook  previously has been criticized by the recently elected Republican. Trump also called for a boycott against Apple products during the blistering presidential campaign.

Today in Apple history: Happy birthday to Steve Jobs’ best friend, Larry Ellison

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Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison once offered to buy Apple for Jobs to run.
Photo: Oracle Corporate Communications

17AugAugust 17, 1944: Larry Ellison, billionaire co-founder and former CEO of Oracle, and Steve Jobs’ best friend, is born.

A later member of the Apple board of directors and the closest thing Jobs had to a confidante, in the 1990s Ellison even considered staging a hostile takeover of Apple to reinstall Jobs as CEO during his time away from the company.

Jobs’ son, Reed, reportedly referred to Ellison as, “our rich friend.”

Google paid Apple $1 billion to keep its search bar on the iPhone

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Got a new iPhone? Set it up right.
Breaking news: There's big money in search.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
Breaking news: There's big money in search. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android
Breaking news: There’s big money in search. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

Android and iOS may be mortal enemies in some ways, but Google clearly realizes the value of having Apple’s hundreds of millions of customers use its search engine.

So much so, in fact, that in 2014 Google paid Apple a massive $1 billion to keep its search bar on the iPhone.

Oracle Java is now installing adware on Macs. Here’s how to avoid it

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Boo, Oracle. Boo. Photo: ZDNet
Boo, Oracle. Boo. Photo: ZDNet

Mac users have had it pretty good when compared to Windows users, at least on the adware and nuisanceware front. Even Oracle, who has bundled the Ask.com search toolbar with Java for Windows for years, has abstained from infecting its Mac users with adware.

Sadly, though, that era now seems to be an end, with Oracle opting to bundle its most recent versions of Java for Mac with the Ask.com search toolbar.

Larry Ellison: We Already Know What Happens To Apple Without Steve Jobs

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o-LARRY-ELLISON-ISLAND-AIR-facebook

Tech pundits across the web have been arguing for years about whether Apple can succeed without Steve Jobs, but Steve’s close friend, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, says that we already know what the future holds for Apple.

In an upcoming interview with Charlie Rose on CBS, Ellison says we don’t need to postulate what’s going to happen to Apple because we’ve already seen the after-Jobs experiment:

Well, we already know. We saw — we conducted the experiment. I mean, it’s been done. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. We saw Apple without Steve Jobs. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. Now, we’re gonna see Apple without Steve Jobs.

Here’s a clip of the interview: