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Zagg soon to release charging mat to rival Apple’s failed AirPower

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AIrPower CultCast 382
Zagg has apparently solved issues to a workable wireless charging mat and will release such a product sometime this year.
Photo: Apple

CES 2020Mophie parent company Zagg Brands is preparing to release a wireless charger sometime this year similar to that of Apple’s canceled AirPower, according to a published report.

A company spokesman told Bloomberg on Tuesday that it is developing a wireless charging mat with the capabilities to power wireless devices, something Apple attempted to devise in the now-aborted AirPower.

Glitch Clip makes music-video art on the iPad

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Glitch Clip
Glitch Clip glitches clips
Photo: Jerôme Gangneux

Glitch Clip is an iPad app for VJs. That is, Glitch Clip lets you combine video clips with in-app effects and visuals, and sync them to music. Thus, you can create live video performances, or you can just make killer music videos for when you put your own songs up on YouTube.

Previously this kind of power was found in apps like Isadora for the Mac, which costs over $500. And while Glitch Clip is no Isadora, it’s only 1/100th the price.

How to stop Safari asking permission to download everything

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safari download
Imagine if real deliveries had to be given permission to arrive. What a second…
Photo: Kelli McClintock/Unsplash

Ever since Safari 13, the Mac browser now prompts you every time you try to download a file. In this way, it behaves much like Safari for iOS. It’s a security feature, clearly designed to stop websites sneaking files onto your computer. But perhaps you value the convenience of uncontrolled downloads more than this added security? If so, you’re in luck, because you can turn this feature off. Better still, you can still block Safari downloads from “bad” sites, even while allowing new ones automatically.

iPhone SE 2 could sport a frosted glass back

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Apple boots smelter and refiners in crackdown on conflict minerals
Apple boots smelter and refiners in crackdown on conflict minerals
Render: OnLeaks/iGeeksBlog

The latest detail leaking out on a hotly-anticipated low-cost iPhone indicate this handset — possibly called the iPhone SE 2 – will have a back of frosted glass.

Quite a bit of other information about this model has come to light, including its dimensions. Which is not surprising, considering it’s rumored to launch in about two months.

Apple promises fix for iPhone XR issues on UK’s second-largest carrier

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Struggling Apple display-maker secures massive bailout
Struggling Apple display-maker secures massive bailout
Photo: Apple

Apple has acknowledged a connectivity issue with iPhone XR units connected to O2, the second-largest carrier in the United Kingdom.

Many users have been unable to make or receive calls or text messages. They have also been stuck without a reliable data connection, which renders most apps unusable without Wi-Fi.

These wireless earbuds give AirPods a run for their money [Deals]

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Pamu Mini Slide
Get up to 10 hours of wireless audio with these small but powerful Bluetooth 5.0 earbuds.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

AirPods have basically become synonymous with wireless earbuds. But they’ve been out for long enough that alternatives are available which last longer and cost less. So if you’re ready to up your personal audio game, it’s time to look beyond Cupertino.

Griffin, Aukey debut smaller, lighter, faster wall chargers

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Griffin PowerBlock Range
Griffin PowerBlock Range of Ultra-Compact USB-C PD Fast Charging Wall Chargers with Gallium Nitride (GaN) Technology
Photo: Griffin

CES 2020A slew of smaller wall chargers with better charging speeds are soon to hit the market and two companies – Griffin and Aukey – used the Consumer Electronics Show on Monday to show off their newest units.

Aukey’s Omnia and Griffin’s PowerBlock lineup are made from gallium nitride, or GaN, a next-generation semiconductor material with 100-times the speed of old silicon technology. They are well-suited for high-power transistors capable of operating at high temperatures. As a result, components are smaller, lighter and faster to charge, up to 70% faster than standard chargers.

How to fake Finder Quick Actions on older Macs

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Finder quick actions
Who doesn't love the Finder?
Photo: Cult of Mac

MacOS Mojave and Catalina both have Finder Quick Actions. These are buttons that sit in the preview panel of any file, and let you perform quick actions of the selected file with one click. Actions vary depending on whether you’ve selected an image, a video, and so on. The defaults let you rotate images, crop video, and turn most other things into PDFs. You can also add your own Quick Actions, using Automator.

But what about Macs running macOS High Sierra or earlier? Can you add Quick Actions? The answer is yes, kinda.

Samsung’s new spinning Sero TV coming to U.S. with AirPlay 2

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Samsung Sero TV coming to U.S. with AirPlay 2
Launched last May in South Korea, the Samsung spinning Sero TV is coming to America with AirPlay 2 support.
Photo: Samsung

CES-2020-bug-2With the advent of more verticle videos on social media platforms, Samsung is introducing its Sero pivoting TV in the U.S. with Apple AirPlay 2 support.

Samsung showed off its new Sero TV at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Sunday with plans for its release in the second half of this year. No specific price was revealed, but Samsung launched the 4K display in South Korea for roughly $1,640 last May.

How to add trackpad gestures to your Magic Mouse

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better touch tool magic mouse
Make the Magic Mouse more magic.
Photo: Harpal Singh/Unsplash

For most computer users, the trackpad is the default control device, and that’s because we mostly use laptops. And Apple’s trackpads are great. If you’ve only ever used MacBook or Magic trackpads, then you won’t know how bad things can get on the PC side of the wall.

Mice, though, are still better in many ways, especially if you have the large screen of an iMac to traverse. Or if you just prefer accuracy: It’s easier to pinpoint something quickly with a mouse. Apple’s Magic Mouse adds a trackpad’s essential swipe-to-scroll features, but lacks other handy abilities, like tap-to-click, and two-finger taps. Today we’ll see how to add those tricks to the Magic Mouse.

iPhone 12 Pro with faster 5G may not arrive until 2021, analysts warn

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iphone xs upgrade
An iPhone with mmWave 5G could be more than a year away.
Photo: Apple

Apple is expected to introduce its first iPhones with 5G later this year. But if you want an iPhone 12 Pro with the fastest possible 5G speeds, you could be waiting until 2021.

A new report claims that mmWave 5G, which is up to ten times faster than LTE, probably won’t make its way to iPhone this year. That means a successor to iPhone 11 with an LCD screen could be the only model available this fall.

Gaming on a $6,000 Mac Pro is unsurprisingly awful

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Mac-Pro-gaming-GTA-V
Nope.
Photo: Apple

The new Mac Pro looks like it should be ideal for Mac users who enjoy gaming. But despite its $6,000 price tag, game performance is surprisingly (but unsurprisingly?) awful.

If you don’t plan to upgrade the AMD GPU that ships with the machine, you would be better off playing your games on a Nintendo Switch.

Easily and quickly edit stubborn PDF files with this highly rated Mac app [Deals]

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PDF Expert Main
This Apple Editors' Choice Winning PDF editor will transform the way you work and collaborate with documents.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Using a computer means working with PDFs, one of the most common document formats around. But just because they’re common doesn’t mean they’re easy to work with, especially when it comes to editing. With this PDF editor, that changes.

Exclusive: Moonshades is an old school dungeon-crawler 5 years in the making

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Moonshades 1
Moonshades is the work of a one-person-development team.
Photo: Viktor Domonyi

As a kid, Viktor Domonyi loved early computer role-playing games like Wizardry and Eye of the Beholder. Now that he’s grown, the 41-year-old Hungarian web developer-by-day, games developer-by-night wants to bring them back. And he’s willing to sacrifice massive quantities of free time to make his dream a reality.

Welcome to the world of Moonshades: a new (yet convincingly old school) RPG that’s just landed in the App Store. For fantasy fans who wish their 2020 was a bit more 1990 in style, this is the dungeon-crawler for you.

Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais: Apple ‘runs sweatshops in China’

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Tim Cook Golden Globes
Tim Cook got all dressed up for the Golden Globes.
Photo: NBC/Golden Globes

Apple’s first night at the Golden Globes didn’t go exactly as Tim Cook may have hoped — with none of the nominations for Apple TV+ show The Morning Show resulting in award wins. Adding insult to injury, returning host Ricky Gervais quipped that Apple used sweatshops to make its products. And even drew parallels to terrorist group ISIS.

CEO Cook was in attendance for the ceremony.

iPhone utterly dominates US holiday smartphone sales

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iPhone 11 in a pocket
The iPhone 11, not the 11 Pro or 11 Pro Max, was the most gifted smartphone this holiday season.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

Americans activated far more iPhones during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day than Samsung handsets, or those of any other rival, according to a market-research firm. Apple completely dominated holiday smartphone sales, making nine of the 10 most activated devices that week.

This is an important metric because it’s the busiest time of the year for device activations.

The best music apps this week, again

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Yes, more music apps again this week.
Yes, more music apps again this week.
Photo: Cult of Mac

If you love making music, then you’re in the right place. If not, then next week I promise to write more about some non-music apps again — if the developers release some. Until then, we can bomb the bass, make some tunes with Tune Maker, get Unisonic with JAX, and take control of our stereo widths, all with the tap of a touch-screen.

Dive deep into Microsoft Office’s productivity potential [Deals]

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The Ultimate Microsoft Office Certificate Mastery Bundle- Recent Editions
Improve your Office Suite productivity with lifetime access to 12 Microsoft courses and 92 hours of instruction.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

No matter what you do or where you work, chances are you encounter some part of Microsoft Office. So whether it’s spreadsheets, Word documents or presentations, doing better with MS Office suite means doing better work, and getting certified means getting better jobs.

Wait time for AirPods Pro stretches into February

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Demand could far exceed supply for AirPods this holidays
Apple still can’t keep up with heavy demand for AirPods Pro.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

The holiday shopping season is behind us, but demand for AirPods Pro still exceeds supply. Orders placed on Apple.com won‘t ship before early February.

But those who live in a large metropolitan area have an option that could get them Apple’s new in-ear headphones much sooner.

How to “screenshot” music and videos on your iPhone

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just-press-record
Just press record.
Photo: darkday/Flickr CC

On the iPhone and iPad, you can capture any image you see just by grabbing a screenshot. Pretty much everyone knows the power+home button, or power+volume-up button combo that snaps a screenshot and saves it to your photo library. You can even crop the image before saving it, to remove surrounding distractions. But what about video? Or music? Is it possible to take a “screenshot” of the music playing on your iPhone? Find out how to play music while recording video iPhone with this helpful guide. Or capture a YouTube video? Yes it is. In fact, you can even “screenshot” a video, and then extract the music from within. Here’s how: with screen recording.

Exclusive: Mario Kart Tour‘s in-app purchases a massive money-maker for Nintendo

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Mario Kart Tour is a massive money spinner for Nintendo
Success shows why Nintendo changes its strategy on mobile games.
Photo: Nintendo

Nintendo’s new subscription model seems to be paying off in droves for the company — as shown by the company’s most popular mobile game, Mario Kart Tour.

Mario Kart Tour debuted to massive download numbers in late September 2019. According to Apple it was the most downloaded App Store game of 2019. But as figures exclusively obtained by Cult of Mac show, it’s proving quite the money generator as well.