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Top stories - page 707

Apple Music exec leaves unexpectedly

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Apple Music
The beat goes on, but one of Apple Music's key execs won't be part of it.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

In a surprising move, Apple Music senior director Ian Rogers has left Apple — just two months after the new streaming service was launched.

Rogers was key in shaping Apple’s online radio strategy, leading to the launch of Beats 1. Prior to joining Apple in August 2014, he worked as CEO at Beats Music.

How to purge your obsolete Apple Watch alarms

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Are Apple Watch expectations just too high?
The Alarm Clock app is in there somewhere ...
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

We love how easy it is to set up an alarm from the Apple Watch. All you have to do is say, “Hey Siri, wake me up at 7 a.m.,” and the digital assistant will put that order in for you.

But this comes a slight inconvenience: What happens to alarms after you’re done using them? Well, if you’re like me, you just turn them off to stop the horrendous buzzing on your wrist and then forget about them. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Here’s how to clear off all of those old, unused alarms with a quickness.

Apple’s iPhone 6s event will blow up the Internet

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The nondescript exterior of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium doesn't give an inkling what Apple's up to inside.
The nondescript exterior of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium doesn't give an inkling what Apple's up to inside.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

SAN FRANCISCO — Just how big is Apple’s next product reveal going to be? All signs point to it being a massive blowout of an event — far bigger than the standard iPhone “s” upgrade the world is expecting.

Apple returns to its roots at historic San Francisco venue

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Apple will host its fall media reveal at the same place it unveiled the Apple II computer.
Apple will host its fall media reveal at the same place it unveiled the Apple II computer.
Photo: StadiumUSA

When Apple takes the stage at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco for the fall media reveal, company execs will walk knowing they are in a sacred space.

Sure the building is 100 years old this year and is part of the city’s renaissance following the devastating 1906 earthquake. But the ground at the auditorium really shook in 1977, when Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak brought the Apple II computer to the West Coast Computer Faire.

How to fix weird ‘talagent’ keychain issue

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Get rid of the annoying Keychain messages about talagent with this easy fix.
Get rid of the annoying Keychain messages about talagent with this easy fix.
Screen: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Are you getting something like following message on your Mac every time you log in?

talagent wants to use the "local items" keychain. please log in with password.

If so, you’re in luck, because we have a fix. Here’s how to get this utterly annoying pop-up out of your face.

Surprise! Siri’s hints about Apple event aren’t that helpful

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Don't even bother asking Siri for a hint.
Don't even bother asking Siri for a hint.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple just confirmed its big iPhone 6s event will take place September 9, and while the art on the invite didn’t offer any clues, Apple did give us one tip: Try asking Siri for hint.

Tim Cook’s not about to let his digital assistant leak details of the big event, but we decided to give it a try anyway. After begging Siri to give us a hint, a tip, anything, all we got back was more shade. But at least the replies were pretty funny.

Here are all of Siri’s hints:

Take a closer look at iPhone 6s Force Touch display

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IPhone 6s parts are leaking like crazy.
IPhone 6s parts are leaking like crazy.
Photo: Cult of Mac

The iPhone 6s keynote might be less than two week away, but we’ve already seen a bunch parts leak out of upcoming smartphone. A source provided Cult of Mac with the images above of an iPhone 6s screen assembly. The new assembly is slightly thicker than the iPhone 6 screen assembly, which is in line with previous rumors that the new device won’t have the same width as the iPhone 6.

We haven’t been able to take a closer look at the screen assembly, but another leak this morning takes a closer look at a mysterious new chip on the iPhone display that appears to confirm Force Touch is coming.

Wearables soar in Q2 2015 as Apple Watch aims for the top

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Not everybody who bought the Apple Watch is wearing it.
Not everybody who bought the Apple Watch is wearing it.
Photo: Apple
Apple Watch is off to a great start. Photo: Apple
Apple Watch is off to a great start. Photo: Apple

Don’t believe the critics who tell you wearables will never take off, because they’re wrong. During the second quarter of 2015 alone, the wearables market grew a staggering 223.2 percent, according to the latest figures from IDC, and Apple Watch is working its way to the top to tackle Fitbit.

Android Wear, on the other hand, is nowhere to be found.

One the best bluetooth headphones out there is going for 34% off [Deals]

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Comfort, long life, killer sound, MMOVE's Bluetooth earbuds are the best you'll find for the price.
Comfort, long life, killer sound, MMOVE's Bluetooth earbuds are the best you'll find for the price.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

We’ve sure come to expect a lot from our headphones — no wires, killer sound, long life, comfort and durability. It’s a rare treat when we find one that meets our crazy high standards, which is why we’re excited about MMOVE’s stereo Bluetooth headphones. These bad buds press all the right buttons, and right now you can get a set for just $31.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Amazon shrinks hardware efforts following Fire phone flop

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amazon-shrinks-hardware-division-ditches-projects-following-fire-phone-flop-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads20140821c49917c77195fe9b31118f0d3299ea-jpg
Amazon makes drastic changes to prevent another Fire phone disaster.
Photo: Amazon
Amazon makes drastic changes to prevent another Fire phone disaster. Photo: Amazon
Amazon makes drastic changes to prevent another Fire phone disaster. Photo: Amazon

Amazon has dismissed dozens of engineers and ditched a handful of hardware projects following its dismal attempt at tackling the smartphone market, according to a new report.

The retail giant has also restructured what’s left of its hardware division, combining what was two separate units into one.

A baseball coach changed the game with a little police work to solve fastball mystery

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An early radar gun used by a Dodgers scout during the 1970s.
An early radar gun used by a Dodgers scout during the 1970s.
Photo: efastball.com

Michigan State University baseball coach Danny Litwhiler was reading the campus newspaper one day in 1974 when he decided to call the cops on some of his pitchers.

An article and photo of campus police showing off the department’s new radar gun to catch speeders caught Litwhiler’s eye and he wanted police to swing by the ballpark with the new toy to see if it could read the speed of a pitched baseball.

Litwhiler – a flawless defensive player in the bigs who evolved into a beloved college coach – changed the game of baseball that day. No longer would myth and mystery surround the fastball. Pitchers, for better or worse, would be scouted and evaluated based on a new number – miles per hour.

Lara Croft Go puts exciting tomb raiding at your fingertips

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Lara Croft Go screenshot
You're about to murder so many snakes, you have no idea.
Screenshot: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

I’m anxiously awaiting Lara Croft’s next outing on consoles this fall with Rise of the Tomb Raider, but in the meantime, developer Square Enix is tiding us over with Lara Croft Go, a miniaturized adventure starring the iconic graverobber and dinosaur fighter. It’s out now for iPhone and iPad (reviewed version), and like its predecessor, Hitman Go, it’s more about strategy than all-out action.

This game diverts slightly from Hitman, however, doing away with the board game/diorama theme and just sticking our hero into an ancient, turn-based ruin. But that doesn’t diminish its charm or fun at all.

Meet the cheap, stylish smartphones backed by ex-Apple CEO John Sculley

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meet-the-cheap-stylish-smartphones-backed-by-ex-apple-ceo-john-sculley-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201508Obi-Worldphone-940x504-jpg
Obi Worldphone’s first smartphones are here.
Photo: Obi Worldphone
Obi Worldphone's first smartphones are here. Photo: Obi Worldphone
Obi Worldphone’s first smartphones are here. Photo: Obi Worldphone

Backed by ex-Apple CEO John Sculley, Obi Worldphone is a startup company that’s hoping to shake up the affordable Android market with two new devices that combine stylish designs and decent specifications with even more attractive price tags.

Meet the Obi Worldphone SF1 and SJ1.5, which start at as little as $129.

Ashley Madison hack airs tech’s dirty laundry

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Email addresses from some of the top tech companies are on the list of outed accounts following a hack on the infidelity site, Ashley Madison.
Email addresses from some of the top tech companies are on the list of outed accounts following a hack on the infidelity site, Ashley Madison.
Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac

Some of the tech world’s brightest may have been caught with their hard drives in the wrong place.

Email accounts from some of the biggest technology companies, including Apple and IBM, were among those outed as a result of the recent hack on Ashley Madison, the dating website for infidelity.

iOS 9 code appears to confirm Force Touch for iPhone 6s

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Apple Watch's Force Touch is coming to iPhone.
Apple Watch’s Force Touch is coming to iPhone.
Photo: Apple

The addition of Force Touch on the next iPhone has been churning through the rumor mill practically since Apple unveiled the technology with the Apple Watch last year. We’ve yet to see any component leaks that confirm the tech is actually coming to the iPhone 6s, but one developer may have just found evidence that it’s definitely on the way.

iOS developer Hamza Sood discovered key references to Force Touch in iOS today that appear to confirm the iPhone 6s will indeed come with pressure sensitive technology, and it may also add the new trackpad gestures that Apple is adding to iPad with the release of iOS 9.

Here’s what Hamza found:

Swipe your way to iOS 9’s suggested contacts

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There they are! Hello, contacts!
There they are! Hello, contacts!
Screen: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

iOS 8 introduced the idea of showing your most-contacted contacts in the multitasking screen. You’d simply double click on the Home button to see the list of the most recent apps as well as a row of the folks you contacted the most across the top.

If you’re looking for that feature in iOS 9, you might have noticed that the contacts are no longer in the multitasking screen. Never fear, though, they’ve just moved.

Official Steve Jobs movie poster is insanely great

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SJB_Tsr1Sht5_RGB_0818_1
Ooh, pretty.
Photo: Universal

After years of speculation, we’ve finally gotten the official movie poster for the forthcoming Steve Jobs biopic — and, man, does it ever look great!

Keeping to the same minimalist style as the Walter Isaacson book jacket it’s based on, the poster shows Michael Fassbender striking a typically Jobsian pose, complete with plenty of white space.

Steve would surely have approved!

Save up to 60% on 5 great ways to satisfy the jones for drones [Deals]

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This limited-edition flier that packs an amazing amount of moves in its palm-sized frame.
This limited-edition flier that packs an amazing amount of moves in its palm-sized frame.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

It’s fine to admit it: you get a little jealous every time you see someone playing with a drone. Why not join the fun with a little drone of your own? We’ve found five deals on compact, fully-equipped and affordable drones to get you flying, filming, and having fun in no time and for next to nothing.

iPhone 6 smokes Samsung Note 5 in speed test

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iphone-6-smokes-samsung-note-5-in-speed-test-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201508edge_note_Main-jpg

The Note 5 has super specs, but can't match iPhone 6's speed. Photo: Samsung
The Note 5 has super specs, but can’t match iPhone 6’s speed. Photo: Samsung

The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 is one of the most beefed up and powerful smartphones the world has ever seen. In terms of raw specs, the Note 5 blows the 2014 iPhone 6 out of the water with 4GB of RAM and a zippier processor, but as Apple has taught us for so many years, specs don’t always translate into better performance.

To see how fast the Galaxy Note 5 is compared to last year’s iPhone hardware, DroidModderX pitted the two devices against each other in a speed test designed to mimic everyday use, and the results were quite surprising. The iPhone is running on weaker hardware, but thanks to Apple’s software it managed to blow the Note 5 out of the water, thanks to Samsung’s horrible TouchWiz UI that bogs down all the memory.

Watch iPhone 6 destroy the Note 5 below:

Internet musical asks, ‘What would Steve Jobs do?’

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Who better to turn to in your moment of need?
Photo: Burning Man: The Musical

If you ever find yourself asking “What would Steve Jobs do?” in a bleak moment of crisis, you may well find yourself enjoying the latest would-be viral video.

Called Burning Man: The Musical, the short music video portrays the excitement around the annual Burning Man hippie-fest-turned-tech-networking-event, where zillionaire CEOs get together and pretend to be penniless beatniks for a couple of days, while staying in air-conditioned wigwams and attending $15,000-per-head parties.

Oh, and the video’s got a great Steve Jobs-themed song, too.