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New MacBook Pro may pack Touch ID power button

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MacBook Pro OLED mockup
Apple will seamlessly integrate Touch ID into the MacBook Pro.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s upcoming MacBook Pro refresh won’t just bring a fancy OLED touchbar for customizable function keys, but also the first Touch ID sensor on a Mac, according to a new report. And it will be built into the notebook’s power button.

Hulu is killing free streaming

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Hulu1
Watching The Handsmade Tale just got cheaper.
Photo: Hulu

Getting your weekly fix of new TV shows from Hulu is about to get more expensive, as the streaming video service plans to phase out its free tier that was supported with ad revenue.

After letting users watch thousands of episodes for free since it launched nine years ago, Hulu has partnered with Yahoo to offer up its content for a new service called Yahoo View, an ad-supported service that will give viewers the ability to watch the five most recent episodes of shows from ABC, NBC and Fox.

How to send stickers in Messages in iOS 10

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Messages iOS 10
Messages is getting stickers in iOS 10.
Photo: Apple

Messages is getting much more creative in iOS 10, and for the first time, users will be able to download and send all kinds of awesome stickers. Apple is already offering four sticker packs, and many more iMessage stickers will become available from third parties later.

Here’s how to download and send iMessage stickers to your friends.

iPhone 7 to feature pressure-sensitive home button

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guardian-leather-iphone-6-6s-wallet-case - 3
iPhone 7's home button will be a lot different.
Photo: George Tinari/Cult of Mac

Apple’s latest iPhones could be its last with physical home buttons. According to a new report from Bloomberg, the iPhone 7 series will instead feature a new pressure-sensitive home button that uses Apple’s Force Touch technology.

The future of Siri [Kahney’s Korner]

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Kahney’s Korner podcast with ArcTouch
ArcTouch devs Adam Fingerman and Paulo Michels give us a peek into the future of Siri.
Image: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple has opened up Siri to third-party developers, which means we’ll soon be able to do a bunch of things — like ordering pizza or sending money — simply by speaking to Apple’s intelligent assistant.

It’s a big change, and another step toward a friction-free future in which we will talk to our devices instead of poking at them with our fingers.

In this week’s episode of Kahney’s Korner, I talk with Adam Fingerman and Paulo Michels of ArcTouch, a mobile development company that works with big media companies like ABC, NBC and CBS. As they’ve explored the Siri API, they’ve gained insight into what we can expect when iOS 10 and macOS Sierra get released to the public this fall.

These accessories will expand your idea of what’s possible with a selfie [Deals]

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Turn any surface into a phone mount, perfect for group shots.
Turn any surface into a phone mount, perfect for group shots.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

The word ‘selfie’ might make you smile or it might make you roll your eyes, but there’s a lot more to it than just front-facing cameras and goofy looking sticks. We’ve gathered some great tools for taking a wide variety of shots in a variety of situations, whether you’re trying to get the perfect jumping shot, experimenting with points of view, get shots or video from inside a car, or just more space for storing all of those photos. Any one of these could change the way you take selfies, so take a look:

Thank Apple Maps disaster for public betas of iOS and macOS

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TomTom will continue to power Apple Maps.
Apple Maps was a turning point for Apple.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s decision to open up macOS and iOS for public betas was inspired by the company’s horrible experience with the iOS Maps debacle in 2012, according to a new interview with Tim Cook, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi.

One of the most notorious botches in Apple history, Maps’ problems ranged from depicting horribly warped landscapes to directing folks visiting the airport in Fairbanks, Alaska, to drive across one of the taxiways. And it changed Apple’s culture in the process.

Crooked Path, Instagram Stories, and other awesome apps

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If you're appy and you know it, check our list!
'Appy weekend all!
Photo: Cult of Mac

From a Snapchat-inspired Instagram update to a beautifully frustrating endless runner puzzle game, we’ve sifted through this week’s most exciting apps to bring you the ones you absolutely need to download now.

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

Record your every mile with an 8GB dashcam, and more [Week’s Newest Deals]

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Charge your Apple Watch in style with the meticulously engineered NightStand.
Charge your Apple Watch in style with the meticulously engineered NightStand.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

This week brought with it a great crop of deals on gears and gadgets, and there are some brand new ones you might have missed. We’ve got a sleek nightstand for your Apple Watch, an app that will keep your writing error free, a versatile tripod for your cell phone, and a high res dashcam with a massive 8GB drive. That’s a lot to sort through, get digging:

Get a VR headset with stereo sound, and more [Week’s best deals]

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Get a top shelf VR experience without paying a top shelf price.
Get a top shelf VR experience without paying a top shelf price.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

We find great deals on the regular, but this week we’ve found some especially awesome gear and gadgets on sale. We’ve got a virtual reality headset that’ll blow your mind without breaking your bank, lessons in developing for the upcoming, game-changing iOS 10, a pair of extra-long, MFi-certified Lightning cables, and a tool that will transform the way you use PDFs. Take a look:

Apple censors iOS 10 emoji, plus how to find specific Pokémon in ‘Pokémon GO’ on The CultCast

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Not to worry, iOS 10 will protect you from harmful emoji
Not to worry, iOS 10 will protect you from harmful emoji

This week, on The CultCast: the controversy around iOS 10’s new gun emoji; we compare Instagram’s new stories feature to Snapchat’s; Gwyneth Paltrow brings her coding skills to ‘Planet of the Apps’; we attended a 5-day Apple II festival, we’ll tell you the cool parts; and stick around for the best ways to find specific Pokémon in ‘Pokémon GO’.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to build a website that looks beautiful on any device that visits at Squarespace.com. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off.

How to use Apple Music inside iTunes with macOS Sierra

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Cult of Mac
Get the most out of your music with macOS Sierra.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple Music has had a nice clean refresh in macOS Sierra — making it far easier to search for and discover the best Apple’s streaming music service has to offer.

Here’s what tune-lovers need to know when running the new operating system, which is currently in public beta and will be released this fall.

This convenient VPN is part browser, part web extension [Deals]

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This VPN operates as a desktop app and browser extension, making it as easy to use as email.
This VPN operates as a desktop app and browser extension, making it as easy to use as email.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

When you hear the term ‘virtual private network’, or VPN, your eyes might glaze over as you suddenly hit your limit for nerdiness tolerance. Despite all the great reasons to use a VPN — anonymous and more secure browsing, avoiding geo-restrictions, so on — it can seem like something reserved for those with a deep technical understanding of computers. Windscribe is an example of a VPN made to be simple — operating as both a simple browser extension and desktop app, it’s easy to set up and use, and right now you can get it for just $39.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Samsung just tried to patent the Apple Watch

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Samsung-Apple-Watch-patent
Oh, Samsung!
Photo: Samsung

Ripping off Apple’s iconic designs is one thing, but Samsung just took its copying to a whole new level of stupid by trying to patent the Apple Watch.

Its new filing for a “Wearable Device” uses not one but many sketches of Apple’s popular smartwatch, complete with digital crown and all the same straps.

How to get macOS Sierra to display your photos on a world map

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Sierra Maps
A new way to scan through your photos!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

One of the neatest new additions to macOS Sierra is the increased focus on photos. Using the in-built Photos app, it’s now easier than ever to relive your most cherished memories with nifty features like the ability to display all your photos on a world map — presenting a different way to access your pics.

Here’s how to do it using the new operating system, which is currently in public beta and will be released this fall.

Gwyneth Paltrow is bringing her coding skills to ‘Planet of the Apps’

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planet of the apes with tim cook
Welcome to our new world Gwyneth.
Photo: Twentieth Century Fox/Apple

Apple has signed Hollywood superstar Gwyneth Paltrow to join its unscripted series ‘Planet of the Apps’.

Paltrow will be joined by will.i.am and serial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk on the show where all three will serve as mentors and advisors to app developers in the series that will reportedly act as a launch pad to exceptional developers.

Tenba bag shoulders camera gear with understated style

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The camera bag that does the job without announcing itself, the Tenba Cooper.
The camera bag that does the job without announcing itself, the Tenba Cooper.
Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac

I’ve carried many styles and price points on my rounded shoulder over the course of a photography career, and have a closet full of camera bags to prove it. I always found a reason to retire each bag, whether it’s an expensive name brand, cheap knock-off or proven hand-me-down.

Lately, I’ve been toting gear in a Tenba Cooper bag. I’ve done so for a few months now, long enough where my eyes should begin to look at other styles and brands. I’ve never been happier with a bag.

Take the padlock off your PDFs for conversion, editing, and more [Deals]

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PDFpen makes usually closed-off PDFs fully convertable and editable.
PDFpen makes usually closed-off PDFs fully convertable and editable.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

If you do work on a computer, you have to reckon with PDFs, the go-to format for documents of all kinds. As ubiquitous as PDFs are, they’re also universally tough to edit or convert unless you’ve got an app like PDFpen to unlock it. This is software that makes it easy to merge, markup, convert using OCR, and more, and right now, you can get PDFpen 8 for $37 at Cult of Mac Deals.

10 awesome iOS photo editing apps you need to try

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Cult of Mac
Want to create some amazing photo effects? Here's the apps to help you achieve them.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

There are hundreds upon hundreds of different photo editing apps for iOS in the App Store. So, how would you know which ones are worth trying out? Well, I thought I’d help you out by running through my personal top ten photo editing apps.

Check out my video rundown below.

Today in Apple history: Apple fires first shot in war against Samsung

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Samsung
The start of Apple's battle with Samsung.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Aug4August 4, 2010: Apple fires the first shot in its apparently never-ending war against Samsung, when a team of Apple executives visit Samsung’s HQ in Seoul, South Korea, and give a presentation with the title, “Samsung’s Use of Apple Patents in Smartphones.”

It marks the official start of a multi-billion dollar battle between the two rivals (and, weirdly, collaborators) which has continued to rage ever since.