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HomePod setup bug afflicts some frustrated owners

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iPhone X
A perplexing HomePod setup bug leaves some people exasperated.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

An apparent bug has left some HomePod owners unable to get their new Apple smart speakers up and running. Complaints about a mysterious “Setup Failed -6722” error message surfaced soon after HomePod launched last Friday.

Use this playlist to remove unwanted Apple Music downloads

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music piano
Who wants to hear music like this?
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Shuffle and skipping are two great tools for listening to new music on your iPhone, using Apple Music. You can download lots of new music to your iPhone, then set it to shuffle while you take a walk. If you’re also wearing a pair of AirPods, a double tap on one of them will skip any tracks you don’t like. It’s a great way to listen to new music, with one big, annoying side-effect: You end up with lots of unwanted downloads cluttering up your iPhone.

But with one simple smart playlist, you can fix that right now.

Treat yourself to 10% off Speidel Twist-O-Flex bands for Valentine’s Day [Watch Store]

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speidel
Speidel's Twist-O-Flex stretches up to 5 inches, making it easy to get on and off your wrist. Perfect for him or her!
Photo: Speidel

Note: For Valentine’s Day only, all of Speidel’s iconic Twist-O-Flex Apple Watch bands are 10 percent off! Perfect for him or her.

Today’s all about showing the one you love just how much you care. I say it’s a great opportunity to throw a little love your own way.

Speidel — purveyor of the original stretchy, stainless steel Twist-O-Flex bands — agrees. This Valentine’s Day only, treat yourself to 10 percent off these great Apple Watch bands in Silver, Brushed or Black stainless steel.  These bands are for both men and women.

Read our full review below and visit our Watch Store to check out these iconic bands.

HomePod leaves ugly white rings on wood tables

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Apple HomePod smart speaker Listening History
Think twice before leaving HomePod on your wood table.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

HomePods are already making their mark in new homes across the country — but not in a good way.

Apple customers started noticing that HomePod can damage wood furniture by leaving a white ring after resting on a table for just a few minutes or days.

How to get VIP email pushed to your iPhone instantly

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vip email
There's more than one way to "push" mail.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

We’d all rather that folks sent short messages via iMessage, or WhatsApp, or another civilized format that encourages brevity, but they insist on email. But what if your emails could pop up on your iPhone’s lock screen and be as easy to reply to as an iMessage. If you set it up right, your regular iPhone Mail app can do exactly that, using Push and VIP email. Let’s take a look.

Apple could source local chipsets for Chinese iPhones

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iphone x
Apple could be embracing Chinese manufacturing to help grow its brand in the country.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple may be expanding its supply chain further by buying storage chips from the Chinese memory chipmaker Yangtze Memory Technologies, a new report states.

What makes this interesting is that the chips will reportedly be used only in iPhones and other devices for the Chinese domestic market. It suggests that Apple may be willing to modify its iPhone manufacturing process in order to please the Chinese government’s push toward more local manufacturing.

This hidden Apple Watch feature tells you if your workouts are doing any good

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It’s not about how far you run, it’s how fast you recover. Apple Watch heart rate recovery data gives you the facts.
It’s not about how far you run, it's about how fast you recover.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

It’s all very well to know how far you ran, cycled and swam. But the whole point of exercise is not just to clock the miles. It’s supposed to make you more fit. So, how do you know if all those sweaty miles are actually doing any good? One way is by measuring your heart rate recovery time.

Fortunately, watchOS 4 provides a reliable way to see this data, and thus monitor changes in your fitness level. Here’s how you can use Apple Watch to keep your workout goals on track.

iPhone’s controversial notch could shrink in 2018

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Apple Watch
You’ll want this year’s iPhone for its cameras.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The iPhone’s controversial “notch” will get smaller this year, according to one group of investors.

Apple is expected to integrate Face ID into all three handsets it has planned for 2018. A smaller TrueDepth sensor means the cutout at the top of the iPhone’s display won’t need to be quite so big.

Google Chrome ad blocker could prove good for everyone (even publishers)

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Chrome
Here's why it's a win for everyone.
Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Google will roll out an awesome Chrome ad blocker Thursday that takes aim at some of the most invasive forms of online advertising.

The new Chrome ad-blocking feature won’t annihilate ads entirely. But users won’t need to worry about full-page ads, ads with auto-playing sound and video, or flashing ads anymore.

Apple’s new 6.1-inch iPhone is expected to sell like crazy

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iPhone X laying down
I wanted a Galaxy S10, but I'm stuck with iPhone.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s upcoming 6.1-inch iPhone will be a smash hit, according to one reliable analyst.

It is expected to become the most popular model in the 2018 lineup, thanks mostly to its more affordable price tag. Sales could total a whopping 100 million units over its lifetime.

Last chance to save: Grab any two Nyloon Apple Watch bands for $65 [Watch Store]

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nyloon
Shop Nyloon's colorfully cool collection of NATO nylon bands for Apple Watch. Shown here is the Seafarer.
Photo: Christopher Lavan

Note: Buy two nylon Apple Watch bands from Nyloon for $65. Regularly priced at $38.95 each. Sale ends Tuesday, February 13 at midnight. Use code Nyloon65 at checkout. 

Nyloon just introduced six fun new designs to its collection of nylon Apple Watch bands right on time for spring shopping. Best yet, these bands compare in quality to Apple’s nylon offering, and cost ten bucks less.

Check out Watch Store’s full lineup of Nylon bands for Apple Watch, and read on to learn more about these must-have straps. Buy two bands for $65 (an 18 percent saving). Use code Nyloon65 at checkout in Watch Store.

Stop other HomePod users from polluting your music recommendations

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Apple HomePod smart speaker Listening History
Don't let everybody else's bad taste ruin your music recommendations.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Instead of recognizing the voices of various users and serving up their personal tunes, HomePod is tied to one person’s Apple Music library. That leads to an unfortunate side effect: Whenever anyone in your home tells your HomePod to play a track, that song is added to your listening history.

That means your teenagers’ ironic Ramones session, or your spouse’s un-ironic David Hasselhoff listen-a-thon, will pollute your listening history — and affect your future recommendations. Here’s how to stop that from happening.

This hilarious video is the only HomePod review you need to watch

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Erfon Elijah
CultCast host Erfon Elijah goes ears-on with HomePod.
Photo: Erfon Elijah

HomePod may not be the smartest speaker on the market, but it packs some serious skills where it matters the most: sound.

Now that we’ve had a few days to play with HomePod and compare it to competitors like the Amazon Echo and Google Home, we’re absolutely in love. The CultCast host Erfon Elijah went ears-on with HomePod at his podcast command center for one of the funniest reviews you’ll ever watch.

Prepare to laugh your nips off.

French pranksters face Apple Store ban for tax protests

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Flagship
Apple's flagship store in Paris.
Photo: Apple

Apple wants us to think of our friendly local Apple Store as a “community hub” or “town square,” but that apparently doesn’t include being a space for public protests.

According to a new report, Apple has gone to court in Paris to try and prevent French tax campaigners from pulling stunts inside its local retail stores. Specifically, it wants to ban the French NGO Attac from entering its premises.

Retro video imagines what Siri would look like in 1980s

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Siri
I can't decide whether to be glad to live now, or nostalgic for the past.
Photo: Squirrel Monkey

Thanks to HomePod, everyone is talking about Siri and how it compares to the other AI smart assistants created by companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft.

But no matter what Siri’s relative failings may be, the technology is way ahead what was possible only a few years ago — as a brilliant 1980s-style parody for S.I.R.I. software makes abundantly clear. Check it out below.

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 will rip off iPhone X’s Animoji

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Samsung galaxy
This is the Samsung Galaxy S9.
Photo: Evan Blass/Twitter

Samsung plans to rip off one of the iPhone X’s hottest features for its upcoming Galaxy S9.

The device will allow users to create animated emoji characters just like Animoji, according to a report out of South Korea. It will also offers stereo speakers just like the iPhone’s.

How ‘Hey Siri’ works with multiple devices

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hey siri homepod
Hey Siri is smarter that your thought.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Siri itself might be frustrating, but Hey Siri is great. And on the HomePod, the voice activation for your virtual assistant is even more impressive, because it hears you perfectly, even if you speak at normal volume while the music is hammering the walls, the floor, and your neighbors’ patience. Now it’s possible to have many Siri-equipped devices laying around a room, but somehow, when your say “Hey Siri,” only one device responds. Did you ever wonder how? Here’s the answer.

How to use HomePod to control your smart home

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HomePod HomeKit Unboxing
HomePod is a great speaker, and a more-than-adequate Home Hub.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

If you’re a home automation fan, then you’re going to love Apple’s new HomePod speaker. Not only can you use it to control your HomeKit setup with your voice using Siri, but you can also use the speaker as a Home Hub. That means that you can leave it at home taking care of business, letting you dial in to tweak things from wherever you are in the world.

How top secret iPhone code ended up on the web

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iPhone boot up
"The biggest leak in history."
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

A low-level Apple employee leaked the secret iPhone code that ended up on GitHub.

iBoot, a part of iOS that ensures the device is booting a trusted operating system, surfaced online last week in what was described by one security expert as “the biggest leak in history.”

Here’s how and why the code got out.

HomePod may sound great, but Siri still sucks

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HomePod Close Up
HomePod sounds great, but right now it doesn't have some of the AI tricks of its rivals.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple has been pretty outspoken about marketing HomePod as a high-end speaker that just happens to have Siri, as opposed to a smart speaker built around its AI assistant, like the Google Home or Amazon Alexa.

A new study published by Loup Ventures suggests one reason why: Because Siri is seriously lagging behind its rivals in terms of its functionality and ability to answer questions.

This ’50s-style Bluetooth speaker will blast you with nostalgia [Deals]

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The Lofree Poison is a modern Bluetooth speaker with a retro 1950s style.
The Lofree Poison is a modern Bluetooth speaker with a retro 1950s style.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

These days, everything old is new again. Pop culture is bursting with reboots, references, and a general nostalgia for the comfortable looks and feels of the past. Escapism aside, classic styles are classic for a reason, and they make a great look for modern technology.