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Remember in grade school when you learned what the middle finger meant? Twitter was kind of like that Thursday morning as giggly and astonished people reported their discovery of a middle-finger emoji in their iOS update.

This is not new news. We knew the finger would fly when the iOS update was announced earlier. Maybe it got lost in the excitement of finally getting a taco emoji. Who knows. But the tweets about the bird were refreshing 20 and 30 at a time every few seconds this morning.

To most taking to social media, the middle finger feels naughty and delicious.

If you’re even slightly interested in having smart lighting for your house, the new Philips Hue bridge, which supports Apple’s HomeKit automated-home framework, should be in your shopping cart right now.

Controlling your lights from your phone is one level of crazy future-stuff, but doing it with your voice drops you into an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. And you definitely want your home to feel like an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

This week’s update to iOS 9.1 did more than just squash some bugs and tweak the Shift key. It also added a ton of new emojis to your built-in keyboard. If you want to put a number on it, iOS 9.1 adds 184 new, tiny pictures to spice up your text messages.

It may be hard to keep track of which ones are new, so we gathered up the newcomers for your convenience — along with where to find them.

Apple and Foxconn are teaming up to build solar power plants that will ensure its iPhone-manufacturing factories in China run on 100 percent clean energy.

Foxconn has committed to constructing more than 400 megawatts of solar power plants, beginning in China’s Henan Province, by 2018. Apple will also build an addition 200 megawatts of solar projects throughout China, helping offset the carbon produced by the rest of its supply chain.

Google revealed that it’s getting into the subscription video streaming game today with the introduction of YouTube Red.

The new $9.99-per-month service will give customers ad-free access to all of YouTube’s content, but the company plans to charge customers extra if they sign up through iOS.

I go through phases of different cases that I like to style my iPhone with. Back in the day I used to like clear cases just to show off the fact that I have an iPhone at all, but lately I’ve been really digging leather. That’s why I was particularly excited to try out the new Access Case 2 from Nodus, but it’s more than just good looks. It works as a compact wallet and dock for your phone as well. Yes, an actual dock.

The first big updates for iOS 9 and El Capitan were released by Apple this morning, but the company has some smaller updates for the Apple Watch and Apple TV 4, too.

The GM for tvOS was seeded today to developers who already got their hands on the early release Apple TV 4 units. That software will be the final version the new set-top box ships with next week. Apple Watch owners also received an update in the form of watchOS 2.0.1.

The Apple Watch update contains the following fixes:

The first big update for OS X El Capitan has been released to the public today after months of beta testing of its new features and improvements.

OS X 10.11.1 brings more than 150 new emoji characters to the Mac, along with improved compatibility with Microsoft Office 2016, better VoiceOver reliability and numerous other bug fixes. The update can be now loaded through the Mac App Store or via the Software Update option in the Apple menu.

Here’s a full list of the improvements:

A ton of new emoji land on iOS devices today with the public launch of iOS 9.1.

Apple released iOS 9.1 this morning to users after five beta builds of the first big iOS 9 update were tested by developers. Among the new features: dozens of new emoji for everything from tacos, burritos, unicorns — and even a middle finger.

iOS users currently running iOS 9.0.2 can grab the new software via an over-the-air update or download it directly from iTunes.

Here’s everything that’s new in the update:

Technology journalist Walt Mossberg opened up about the Steve Jobs movie debuting in theaters this Friday and he didn’t have many kind things to say about it. Mossberg, who knew Steve Jobs for 14 years before his passing, recalls the numerous occasions in which they talked and spent time together including in interviews. None of those times, however, seem to add up to Aaron Sorkin’s portrayal of Jobs in the movie.

We’ve all got a jones for drones, but not all of us have the space or cash to hang up a 5-foot-wide quad-copter in our garage. The SKEYE Nano, now available in a Batwing-worthy shade of black, solves both problems, small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, and at $39.99 it’s cheap enough to keep cash in your pocket.

Jony Ive sure hates rival companies ripping off the iPhone for their latest flagship handset design. Which is why we’d respectfully suggest that Jony doesn’t click the link below, unless he wants to ruin his Wednesday before it even starts.

From the curved edges and color options to the prominent antenna lines, all that’s missing is the Apple stamp of quality. And Jony’s permission, of course.

Forget self-driving cars that will drive you to the store while you sit back watching Netflix, because where we’re going, we don’t need roads.

Google has leaked highly “confidential” plans for a new time-traveling car the company calls Project Flux.

Millennials are a generation of “digital natives” with strong opinions and they’re losing interest in social media that only allows them to register a Like on posts.

The creators of a new social media app called exacly.me believe they can give Millennials a platform for meaningful sharing with the honest self-expression that so defines them. The community of users can rate each other’s content with “Me” or “Not Me.” Gasp at a picture of a friend rock climbing? There’s even an option to say “So Not Me.”

Misfit is back with a major update to its award-winning Shine fitness and sleep tracker. The new Shine 2 is faster and more accurate than its predecessor, with an added 3-axis magnetometer and updated hardware that promises improved responsiveness and snappier syncing.

Where can you buy weed legally? What kind of marijuana is best for you? What are the laws concerning pot use in your neck of the woods? Potent new marijuana apps make it easy to answer all your sticky weed questions.

We’ve harvested the best marijuana apps so you don’t have to pick through the seeds and stems yourself.

Maybe there aren’t a ton of new features in iOS 9, but you may find yourself getting tighter with Siri.

Siri is out to earn the title of “Best Assistant” with a series of new tricks aimed at making your life easier.

You no longer have to set a time for Siri to remind you to do tasks. You will automatically get reminders once you arrive or leave a location. No time to read an email or an interesting article? Ask her to remind you later and she will do so.

Siri can call up any photo you like based on a location or timestamp. She can also give you sports scores without directing you to a website, can convert measurements and, if you have a shiny new iPhone 6s, there is no need to press the home button to summon her. Just say, “Hey Siri.”

To see how Siri worked for me, check out the video below.

Tim Cook may like the “runway” for Apple Music’s take off, but Spotify is currently soaring.

Apple’s competitor in the music streaming business found itself in the No. 1 position on the iPhone App Store’s Top Grossing charts for the first time in the United States. This is on the same day that the Apple CEO Cook told the audience at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference that Apple Music has 6.5 million paying customers.

Backblaze launched in 2007, accruing hard drives and building out a backup capacity of what amounts to some 150 petabytes of data on its servers. They’ve since become one of the most trusted providers of backup, with prices that beat out even Amazon’s impressively prices S3 service. How much cheaper? Right now you can get a year of unlimited backup on Backblaze for $24.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Best List: Forefront bike helmet with MIPS by Smith Optics

There’s MIPS in that there Forefront. Smith Optics’ Forefront mountain bike helmet has been around for a bit and has gotten excellent reviews from both the media and the man on the trail.

Now Smith has added the latest buzzword in safety — MIPS, or Multi-Directional Impact Protection System — to the award-winning lid.

One of the reasons Apple says you shouldn’t jailbreak your iPhone is because doing so will impact performance. But is that actually true, or is that just what Apple wants you to believe? This video holds the answers.

SAN FRANCISCO — A slick new feature coming to Ultimate Ears’ Bluetooth speakers will let you stream your friends’ music from the palm of your hand.

Called Block Party, it lets up to three friends connect to the same UE speaker. Then the self-appointed DJ can pick and choose from each person’s tunes, pulled from streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify. The DJ can skip songs and jump from playlist to playlist, and it’s all shockingly smooth and simple.

The eagerly-anticipated Apple TV refresh will be available for pre-orders next Monday, said Tim Cook during his on-stage appearance at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference.

Customers won’t have to hang about, either, as shipments are likely to be sent out by the end of that week.

Apple Music has 6.5 million paying customers, according to no less an authority than Tim Cook, speaking at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference.

Given that Apple claimed it had 11 million people using its free trial back in August, that’s an impressive free-to-paid conversion rate of almost 60 percent. It’s also around one-third of the paid subscriber base of Spotify, which has 20 million subs.

Good work, Apple. Good work.