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With the new iPhone came the news that your standard headphones and earbuds are obsolete — sorry about that. Along with that announcement came the release of Apple’s own solution to the conundrum they’d created, namely a pair of earbuds that look a little like little futuristic earplugs your ears, with a price that has some people covering their eyes. Whether or not you’re committed to getting the iPhone 7, Bluetooth earbuds are here to stay, and if you’re looking for another choice you should consider these innocuous wireless buds from 1Voice. And right now you can get them for just $52.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

After switching to a Taptic Touch ID sensor for the iPhone 7, Apple is strongly rumored to be eliminating a physical “Home” button altogether for next year’s iPhone 8 — and instead integrating Touch ID fingerprint sensors into the main display.

Now a newly-published patent appears to back up that rumor, with the stated goal of expanding screen real estate by avoiding, “assigning valuable surface space exclusively to a component that may only be used briefly during the process of identifying the user.”

A free software update for Ultimate Ears’ popular Boom and Megaboom speakers lets you connect dozens of the Bluetooth devices to create a massive wall of sound.

The over-the-air update, coming today to the “life-proof” speaker line, enables a new feature called PartyUp that can connect “more than 50” of UE’s popular tube-shaped speakers. “More than 50” is the party line, but UE product manager Jim Saraco said his team connected 130 of the speakers at the company’s HQ.

“In reality, we’re still trying to find a cap,” Saraco told Cult of Mac.

The twin phones Google will launch Tuesday will show the company is finally serious about tackling the iPhone head-on. And they couldn’t be arriving at a better time.

With iPhone demand falling and many fans disappointed with the improvements Apple has made with the new iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, it’s a perfect opportunity for Google to prove it can out-innovate its biggest rival in the smartphone industry.

If you’re using Apple products, you’re well acquainted with the plain white Lightning cable. Frequently not long enough, prone to tearing and fraying and generally going kaput, it’s a good idea to have a backup. Or three. That’s what this pack offers, along with a lot of extra length (10 feet!), all for around the price of a single standard cable from Apple. Right now, you can get this 3-pack of 10′ Lightning cables for $22 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Hidden among the updates to the Messages app, Apple Music and everything else we’ve all heard so much about, there are a handful of new iOS 10 features you may not have stumbled across.

Check out the video below to see the top ten iOS 10 features that currently rank as iOS’s best-kept secrets.

From a great app to make your email experience more efficient to a uniquely superb narrative-driven game, we’ve sifted through the most exciting new apps to bring you the ones you’ll want to download this weekend.

Check out our picks below. Trust us, this is the way you want to spend Sunday!

With the new week comes a raft of new deals, and this week has some good ones. We’ve got a set of wireless earbuds that are way less obnoxious looking than the latest from Apple, a set of powerful photo editing tools, a lifetime VPN subscription, and a pair of certification courses in mobile photography and video. Sound enticing? Read on:

This week on The CultCast: reports point to a big Mac event coming in October! We’ll tell you why we expect more than just overhauled MacBook Pros… Plus: we remember Steve Jobs, and what made him so damned good; why the jet black iPhone 7 is impossible to find; and stay tuned for drone chat, where we discuss the super cool new drones hitting the market.

This episode is supported by Dollar Shave Club, delivering amazing razors right to your door for a third of the price of what the greedy razor corporations charge. Get your first month free at DollarShaveClub.com/CultCast.

This week’s best deals are your opportunity to upgrade your digital workspace without downgrading your checking account. We’re looking at more than a dozen award-winning productivity apps for whatever you’re willing to pay, a charging hub that does double duty as a device organizer, a terabyte secure cloud storage, and a keyboard shortcut app that can vastly improve efficiency on your Mac. It’s all going for cut-rate prices, read on for more details:

If you’re an early iPhone 7 adopter, you’re already getting accustomed to life without a headphone jack. But what if it started to disappear from other devices you use everyday, such as your iPad or MacBook?

With a MacBook Pro refresh on the horizon, fans fear it will be the next device in Apple’s lineup to see its headphone jack disappear. The move could allow Apple to make its most powerful portable even slimmer, but would it be worth it?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we discuss whether the MacBook Pro should lose its headphone jack this year, or whether Apple should give consumers and the industry time to adapt to other standards.

The speakers in our iPhones and iPads keep getting better and better, but they’re not close to replacing Bluetooth speakers just yet. If you’ve just splashed out hard-earned dollars for a new iPhone 7 or 7 Plus, a low-priced, quality speaker may come as a welcome relief.

There are a few rare finds out there that deliver good bang for buck, and the $60 DKnight Big MagicBox is one of them.

Check out the full video review below.

If you’re online — and you’re reading this, so you are — you’re exposed to annoying ads and dangerous data thieves. You’re also subject to location-based content restrictions. A virtual private network offers a way through and around these internet irritations, and there’s never been a better time to look into VPNs.

As of today, you can get a lifetime of OneVPN access for just $29 at Cult of Mac Deals.

With new iPhones being released each year, I’m used to being tempted by the latest and greatest Apple device. The iPhone 7 is no different, but it’s always a tough decision whether you should upgrade your existing device for the latest model.

For the last 6 months or so, my daily driver has been the iPhone SE, and I’ve loved it. In fact, I did a whole video on why I was switching to the much smaller device from my 6 Plus.

And it’s that time again! The iPhone 7 has caught my eye and after using it for the last two weeks, it is tempting me away from my SE.

Check out my reasons in the video below.

I often encourage Apple to steal certain features from Samsung’s smartphones, like its super-sharp Quad HD displays and wireless charging. One thing I didn’t want it to rip off is the Galaxy Note 7’s tendency to explode.

According to one unlucky Reddit user, whose brand new iPhone 7 is now a charred piece of aluminum and shattered glass, that’s exactly what just happened.

Next year’s iPhone won’t be another repackaged iPhone 6. According to one reliable analyst, fans can look forward to an overhauled design with a scratch-resistant glass casing, and stainless steel edges on high-end models.

Lauren Wilkin’s life was about to get better. So she decorated her fingernails to reflect her shift in social status much like women of royalty did 7,000 years before.

Upper-class Egyptian women may have had a front-row seat to a growing civilization, but none experienced the excitement of trading in an iPhone 4 for an iPhone 6.

When you first get a Mac, your power user friends probably tell you about the time-saving benefits of learning all the keyboard shortcuts. That’s certainly true, but there’s a whole new dimension of efficiency that opens up with Keyboard Maestro, winner of Macworld Editor’s Choice Award in the category of Productivity Software. It lets you create and record custom macro shortcuts that can be activated at any time, and right now you can get it for a mere $19.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

If you decided to pick up an Android Wear device instead of Apple Watch, you may have trouble using it with iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

Those who have upgraded to one of Apple’s latest smartphones have found they just don’t play nicely with Google’s wearable platform, despite the fact that their predecessors have no trouble connecting after being upgraded to the same iOS 10 software.

There is virtually nothing you can’t buy on the internet, but finding the best tech at the lowest prices can take some major research. That’s why today we’re doing the work for you, and delivering this week’s best tech deals from around the web. Check it out.

iOS 10 now has a larger install base than iOS 9, just over two weeks after making its public debut. Apple’s latest software has now reached 48.16 percent of all devices, while iOS 9’s share has dropped to 47.79 percent.

The new iSight camera packed into iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus is Apple’s best yet, according to tests carried out by the experts at DxOMark. It has been improved by a wider aperture, support for a wide color gamut, and faster autofocus.

But it’s not quite enough to beat the cameras found in Samsung’s latest Galaxy smartphones.

Apple Watch apps are faster than ever thanks to watchOS 3, but if you ever run into the rotating dial of death, sometimes quickly force quitting the app can help.

With watchOS 3, Apple has made the force quitting process a bit different. Wearers used to be able to double click the side button to force quit an app. Now the process also involves the Digital Crown.

Cloud storage is a great way to keep your hard drive clear and your most valuable data safe, but it can cost you. That makes this offer from Zoolz especially drool worthy — it’s 500 GB of instant-access cloud storage, and another 500 GB of ‘Cold Storage’ for the files you want kept secured over the long term, for life. This service would normally cost $3,600, but right now you can get the whole thing for $39 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Apple’s latest Mac operating system has a host of big new features including Siri, Apple Pay on the web and Universal Clipboard.

But with so many marquee features, you may be missing some of the more hidden capabilities and tips. Check out our video below of the top five hidden macOS Sierra features you may not know exist.