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WWDC liveblog: Brace yourself for Apple’s ‘epicenter of change’

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Apple's WWDC 2015 is revving up in San Francisco.
Apple's WWDC 2015 is revving up in San Francisco.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is ready to kick off and Cult of Mac will be here ready to liveblog all the action and glory as it happens.

We’re expected to get our first glimpses of the new and improved iOS 9 and OS X 10.11, both of which will supposedly feature a bunch of performance improvements, but could some major new features surprise us? Apple’s new music streaming service will also premiere at the event, and Apple Watch apps are about to get their own SDK.

Come enjoy the show with us as we break down all the awesome new features and products Tim, Craig, Jony and the rest of Apple’s team drop on us. The action starts at 10 a.m. Pacific, but we’ll be cranking up the liveblog around 9:30 a.m.

What to expect from WWDC 2015

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New titles and responsibilities in management could reshape Apple.
The countdown to WWDC 2015's big revelations begins.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

With the Worldwide Developers Conference less than a week away, we’ve already got a pretty good idea about what Apple will reveal at this year’s conference.

The company focuses on developer-related products at the conference, but there are plenty of goodies that normals will go crazy for too, like the bevy of improvements coming to iOS 9, a new Apple TV and maybe even a new music streaming service.

Here’s what to expect from WWDC 2015, which runs June 8 to 12 at Moscone Center in San Francisco. (Cult of Mac will be liveblogging the Apple keynote, which starts at 10 a.m. Pacific next Monday, so be sure to check back then for news and instant analysis.)

The most awesome new apps you might have missed this week

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Awesome-Apps-of-the-Week

It’s the weekend, which means that Cult of Mac is ready to bring you a roundup of the last week’s best new app releases and updates for iOS and Mac.

From the week's best new iOS shooter, to a significant live-streaming app update to Twitter, to a gorgeous new Mac Twitter client, we've got what you need to make your next week an 'appy one

Pun fully intended!


Photo: Cult of Mac
Awesome Apps

The fitness apps that gave me six-pack abs

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iMuscle's anatomical models look a bit leaner than I had in mind.
iMuscle's anatomical models look a bit leaner than I had in mind.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

I saw my six pack for the first time at the age of 40. Prior to that, my abs had been hidden behind a thick layer of fat that I’d built up over years of living a sedentary geek lifestyle. The only exercise I got was racing to be first in line at the Apple Store for a product launch.

Then one day, a doctor told me I had cancer and my whole world changed. There’s nothing like a brush with death to make you take your health more seriously. Suddenly, I wanted to get fit, but true to my geek heritage, I would do it using my iPhone. Abs? There must be an app for that.

App Store vs. Google Play: What’s hot and what’s not?

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It's that time of the week again! Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
It's that time of the week again! Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

When you’re choosing between Android and iOS, you also have to choose between the App Store and Google Play; apps are so important to us these days that they must come into consideration when we’re buying new mobile devices.

Friday-Night-Fights-bug-2Android has caught up with and even overtaken the App Store in sheer number of apps, but Apple’s marketplace continues to rake in lots more revenue. But which offers better titles, a greater user experience, and more features?

In this week’s Friday Night Fight with Cult of Android versus Cult of Mac, we pit the App Store against Google Play to find out which is the best mobile marketplace.

Kahney’s Korner: Why Jony Ive’s promotion is fantastic news for Apple

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Far from an exit strategy, Jony Ive's promotion means more great design for Apple.
Far from an exit strategy, Jony Ive's promotion means more great design for Apple.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Can’t Apple’s design guru catch a break? After Jony Ive received a well-deserved promotion to become Apple’s chief design officer, some pundits misinterpreted the happy news as a bad omen.

Our own Leander Kahney reads the tea leaves completely differently: Ive’s promotion is nothing but good news for Apple.

Kaleidoscopic banners tout WWDC as ‘epicenter of change’

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IMG_0628
The Moscone Center is ready for WWDC.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

We’re just three days away from Tim Cook and the gang taking over San Francisco’s Moscone Center for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference. Preparations for the big event have been underway all week, but crews are starting to wrap up pre-production — and the final WWDC 2015 banners are being unfurled.

Take a look:

‘Apple Watch Song’ turns angst into an earful of laughs (and a wrist full of cancer)

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Angsty Apple geeks everywhere can sing along to the
Angsty Apple geeks everywhere can sing along to the "Apple Watch Song."
Photo: Matthew Patrick Davis

A manic new music video called “Apple Watch Song” turns all the anticipation and angst surrounding the hit wearable into a geeky anthem for Apple fans awaiting delivery of their precious wrist gadgets.

From the Apple Watch Edition’s exorbitant price tag to the fabricated health scare of “cancer wrist,” the wacky song turns the dreams and doubts about Apple’s smartwatch into a cavalcade of comedic riffs.

Weird Digital Crown fix will make you fear for your Apple Watch

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Yikes! Water and electronics still freak me out.
Yikes! Water and electronics still freak me out.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

My Apple Watch is getting a little crufty. I wear it every day, including when I sweat a lot — like during a run, for example.

Recently, the Digital Crown started to get a little tough to turn. It took extra effort to spin the darn thing, and I wasn’t able to rotate it smoothly anymore.

Luckily, Apple had me covered — but I wasn’t prepared for what I had to do to get this Digital Crown fix to work.

How Google measures up to Apple in all things software

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At its I/O conference last week, Google laid out the roadmaps for its most important platforms. It has already made its way into your pocket, but over the next few years, the search giant hopes to find a place on your wrist and in your home as well.

Things aren’t so straightforward as that, though.

Apple is fighting Google for territory in a variety of areas, with iOS competing with Android, Apple Watch battling Android Wear, and HomeKit trying to beat out Brillo.

But which one has the edge that will help it reign supreme? Here’s how they stack up against each other.

Retro turntable skips the one feature it really needs

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Right at home in any environment.
Right at home in any environment.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

You’ve got to love a big, gorgeous hunk of wood, right? The Signature Vinyl Record Player Classic Turntable Hi-Fi Stereo System from Electrohome is all that, plus a delicious vintage-styled bag of chips, and it’s almost perfect.

The dark, solid-wood cabinet is like a throwback to your mom’s stereo furniture of the 1960s, with deep grain and resonating power like you wouldn’t believe. Plus, you can play CDs, listen to AM and FM radio stations, and plug your iPhone into the auxiliary input for some modern tune action.

All of this makes for a fantastic package, but there’s one essential thing missing that may have you looking elsewhere for your all-in-one stereo system.

How Force Touch unlocks the power of your Apple Watch

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Apple Watch-style Force Touch is coming to both iPhone models this September.
Sometimes it's OK to just push really hard.
Photo: Apple

Early adopters of the Apple Watch are still exploring the new wearable to discover all its hidden functionality. The least obvious feature in Apple’s newest device is Force Touch, which lets you change some settings by pressing firmly on the screen.

It’s a weird thing to get used to, and sometimes it’s even tough to remember that it’s an option, so here’s a handy guide to everything that Force Touch can do with the apps included on your new Apple Watch.

Apple TV will be the new digital hub for HomeKit

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Apple's new improved TV could be coming as early as this fall.
Your new digital hub awaits.
Photo: Robert S. DonovanFlickr CC

Hidden in HomeKit documentation published today is the intriguing confirmation that Apple TV will serve as the digital hub for Apple’s new home-automation setup.

It’s a reminder of just how seriously Apple now treats the set-top box that it dismissed as a “hobby” a few years ago.

Both iPhone 6s models could bring even sharper Retina displays

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Apple is hoping for big things from its next-gen iPhone.
Both iPhone 6s models could receive superior display upgrades.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Apple’s next-generation iPhones may receive quite the resolution boost — with a new report coming out of China claiming that the forthcoming iPhone 6s handset will boast a Full HD display, while its larger sibling the iPhone 6s Plus will feature a dazzling 2K display.

If true, this would allow the iPhone to better compete against some of the high-end flagship Android handsets, which routinely offer 2K or “Quad HD” displays.

Our Facebook page has been hacked, and it’s impossible to get it back (Updated)

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Cult of Mac's Facebook page has been taken over by hackers; and we're having trouble getting it back. It's impossible to contact Facebook.
Cult of Mac's Facebook page has been taken over by hackers, and we're having trouble getting it back.
Photo:

Update:We’re back! We were finally able to get hold of someone at Facebook and get our Facebook page back. Many thanks to everyone who tried to help and offered support. We contacted someone at Facebook through a reader in Chicago, who happens to work for a big newspaper. He had a contact in Facebook’s media team and called her up. Within minutes I received an email asking for details, and two minutes after that it was fixed. In fact, it was shocking how quickly the situation was reversed, given that we’d been wrestling with it for almost 24 hours — many thanks to the Facebook insider who fixed the problem for us. However, my thesis still holds — Facebook is a locked vault. If you don’t know someone who knows someone who works there, you’re SOL. Oh, and no word on what happened. I asked them, but no reply as yet.

Much to our horror, Cult of Mac’s Facebook page got hacked Monday and turned into a spam site. The hackers have locked us out and we’re finding it impossible to regain control.

We’re trying desperately to contact Facebook, but the company offers no customer support whatsoever. There are no online submission forms, no support email addresses, and the phone automatically hangs up on you if you call. It’s impossible to raise a human being over there.

It would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. But during this ongoing nightmare, I’ve discovered something important about Facebook and the kind of tech companies it represents.

Screw smart light bulbs, we’re still waiting for HomeKit’s killer app

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Elgato smart bulbs are well and great, but we want more.
Elgato smart bulbs are all well and great, but we want more.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The home of the future arrived today and, while not exactly a whimper, it wasn’t much of a bang either.

Where are the smart voice-activated refrigerators? Where are the Jetsons-style gizmos that have us firing up our Apple Pay, and convince us that Apple is taking home automation seriously?

While there’s nothing wrong with what we got, it was the same predictable range of smart light bulbs, thermostats, and other gadgets that techies have had for years.

And after a year of waiting, we want more. Much more.

How to speed up your MacBook Pro by adding more RAM

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It's easier than you might imagine to do a MacBook RAM upgrade.
It's easier than you might imagine to do a MacBook RAM upgrade.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Faster, more powerful MacBooks come out every year, but for most of us it’s not very practical to throw down a bunch of cash every time a new model gets released. Luckily, it’s pretty simple to perform a MacBook RAM upgrade.

In today’s video, Cult of Mac shows you how to give your MacBook a speed boost by installing new RAM.

Exercise without your Apple Watch feeling the burn

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Apple Watch sensors
The heart rate monitor really sucks up some battery.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple Watch can track your workouts, from cycling to rowing to the elliptical at your local gym. This is a battery-intensive feature, though, what with all the heartbeat monitoring, GPS connections to your iPhone, and the like.

Here’s how to conserve your Apple Watch battery life by turning off all that juice-hogging stuff while you run or walk, so you can keep your wearable’s power at optimum for a long day between charges.

Apple’s bold plan to convert casual music fans into streaming subscribers

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Apple needs no shelter, thank you.
Apple is hoping to move you from a music collector to a file-streamer.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Imagine clicking iTunes’ “Buy” button to purchase the latest record from Drake or Pharrell Williams, only to get a popup from Apple suggesting you’re behind the times.

That’s what might happen as Apple uses its massive consumer base to push streaming music on the masses, even going so far as prompting iTunes users to switch from buying songs to subscribing to a cloud service.

That sort of mid-purchase upsell is just one possible element of Cupertino’s strategy to shake up the music industry again, and the Apple streaming music plan just might be crazy enough to work.

Older Macs are vulnerable to dangerous new bug

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mac security
A new Mac security problem has been discovered.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Older Apple computers may be susceptible to a new zero-day vulnerability discovered by a security researcher, who found the flaw can be used to install rootkit malware that’s nearly undetectable and very hard to remove.

Inside Apple’s secretive iMac plant in Ireland

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Apple's Hollyhill, Cork factory is the only Apple-run manufacturing facility in the world.
Apple's Hollyhill, Cork factory is the only directly Apple-run manufacturing facility in the world.
Photo: Irish Examiner

When people talk about Apple’s Irish operations, it’s normally negatively, regarding questionable tax practices. But the company operates a 4,000-person factory in Cork, Ireland, that builds iMacs — and it’s the only Apple-owned manufacturing facility in the world.

The Irish Examiner recently got a peek inside the secretive Apple manufacturing plant in Cork. Check out some photos below.

Best List: Electric wheels, trick packs and a selfie stick even Apple could love

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Each month, Lust List rounds up the products that made us break out the hats and hooters. This time we're throwing down the jam with perfect packs, an electric mountain bike, a super-sick selfie stick and other essentials.


Steelcase Gesture office chair


This chair saved my ass. After months of sitting on a cheapo spinner made of molded plywood from IKEA, I was getting a  little sick of the numbness in my hams: Every time I got up after a long session of hacking away at the keyboard, my legs felt almost useless.


Plopping down on the Gesture chair by Steelcase (starts at $974, with options) changed all that. I feel much more comfortable after a long day of at the desk, but the Gesture goes beyond that: It's designed to accommodate a variety of sitting positions, from straight-up typing to kicked-back tapping on an iPad or smartphone. A four-position selector lets you dial in your level of lean; an easy-turn knob lets you adjust the seat depth while a simple lever allows height adjustments. 


The truly novel part is the

Each month, Lust List rounds up the products that made us break out the hats and hooters. This time we're throwing down the jam with perfect packs, an electric mountain bike, a super-sick selfie stick and other essentials.

Steelcase Gesture office chair

This chair saved my ass. After months of sitting on a cheapo spinner made of molded plywood from IKEA, I was getting a little sick of the numbness in my hams: Every time I got up after a long session of hacking away at the keyboard, my legs felt almost useless.

Plopping down on the Gesture chair by Steelcase (starts at $974, with options) changed all that. I feel much more comfortable after a long day of at the desk, but the Gesture goes beyond that: It's designed to accommodate a variety of sitting positions, from straight-up typing to kicked-back tapping on an iPad or smartphone. A four-position selector lets you dial in your level of lean; an easy-turn knob lets you adjust the seat depth while a simple lever allows height adjustments.

The truly novel part is the "limb interface" adjustments: The chair's grippy rubberized arms adjust effortlessly up, down, in and out so you can position them right where your arms want to be at any given moment. And unlike some overly complicated office chairs, tweaking this beast to your heart's (and your back's) content is very intuitive.

When it comes to looks, it's stylish enough for any modern office. The comfy gray fabric covering the seat and back reminds me of a subtle flannel suit, but Steelcase offers the Gesture in a wide variety of less-staid colors (and leather, too). — Lewis Wallace

Buy from: Amazon


Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Move over China! Japan wants to take over iPhone manufacturing

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Foxconn employees accused of $43 million iPhone scam
Tim Cook meeting an iPhone manufacturer in China.
Photo: Apple

Being an Apple manufacturer is a pretty lucrative market if you can get in on it, which is why it’s no surprise to hear that Apple’s existing partners are constantly fending off challenges from upstarts promising to do whatever they can do — only cheaper and better.

According to a new report, Japanese manufacturers are currently making a concerted effort to secure more orders from Apple, which currently deals mainly with companies based in Taiwan and China.

If the Japan-based companies do manage to muscle-in on the Apple supply chain, it could result in iPhone manufacturing becoming even more of an international affair than it already is, while also having a potentially massive impact on existing Chinese iPhone makers.

Bay Area woman accidentally junks $200,000 Apple-1 computer

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Apple-1
A previous Apple-1 which went up for auction.
Photo: Auction Team Breker

Have you ever thrown away something you regretted later on? If so, you have something in common with the San Francisco Bay Area woman who recently junked a vintage Apple-1 computer — one of just 200 surviving machines created by Steve Jobs and the Woz way back in 1976.

Fortunately the ultra-rare desktop was recognized by a member of the recycling firm she left it at. They sold it to a private collector for $200,000, and now want to track down the unwitting donor to give her the 50 percent they say the company owes.