| Cult of Mac

Is Fortnite dying? Not even close

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Fortnite Score Royale
And 15 free Battle Stars!
Photo: Epic Games

Growing criticism from professional players and the incredible rise of Apex Legends has led some to believe that Fortnite may be dying out. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The hit battle royale game broke two new records for concurrent players this month, thanks in part to its monumental in-game Marshmello concert.

Facebook’s scary plan to record your conversations while you watch TV

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the Facebook logo on an iPhone 6 Plus
Here we go again.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Some believe Facebook is already using our smartphones to hear our private conversations. That’s not true, but the social network is certainly considering it.

Facebook has applied for a new patent that describes a method of tapping into our microphones to listen to our reactions to TV ads. It’s just as invasive as it sounds.

Sling TV brings cloud DVR feature to iOS

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Sling TV cloud DVR
Save movies and TV shows to watch later with cloud DVR.
Photo: Sling TV

Sling TV’s awesome cloud DVR feature, which lets you record shows and movies to watch later, is finally available on iOS.

The service costs an extra $5 a month, for which you get 50 hours of storage, but there’s still no option to save your recordings offline.

App Store made $240M on New Year’s Day to shatter sales records

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You don't need to go through the App Store to install apps now.
The App Store continues to impress.
Photo: Apple

The App Store opened 2017 with a massive bang by shattering sales records. New Year’s Day was its single busiest day ever, with $240 million raised from app purchases.

The record caps an incredibly successful 2016 for iOS developers, who earned a whopping $20 billion last year — up over 40 percent from 2015.

Crazy swiss rocket bike travels a quarter mile in 7 seconds

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This guy's about to go really fast on a skinny bike. Photo: François Gissy
This guy's about to go really fast on a skinny bike. Photo: François Gissy

Seriously, outside of an airplane, I don’t think I’ve ever traveled at 207 miles per hour (or 333 kilometers per hour, if you’re metric).

Swiss cyclist François Gissy, however, just set a speed record on a rocket-propelled bicycle designed by his buddy Arnold Neracher.

How’s that for fast? Check out the video of the record-breaking attempt below, but be sure to turn down your sound. Nothing sounds as silly as a rocket bike.

Carrier IQ: We Only Unintentionally Collected Smartphone Users’ Text Messages

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iphone-sms-text-message

Carrier IQ CEO Larry Lenhart and vice president of marketing Andrew Coward have revealed in an interview that despite the company’s assurance that no personal data is recorded by its software, a “bug” did unintentionally collect users’ text messages. What it does collect intentionally — particularly for the Federal Bureau of Investigation — is yet to be clarified, with the FBI refusing to disclose this information.