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How about an app that lets you taste and smell things right on your iPhone? Yeah, I know April Fools’ Day is over, but apparently some people fell for this joke, including this news anchor who tricked her colleague into smelling and licking an iPad during live broadcast. “The creators have found the way to emit the odors and the flavors right out of a smartphone,” he told her. Piezzo-electrics is the name of a technology behind this magic, he convinced her....

In an already crowded sea of reality TV dating shows, has Netflix’s new series Love Is Blind found a way to improve on the traditional format? With the feel of online dating minus the photoshopped pictures, is this the start of a new era of dating shows? After the buzz around the recent release of The Circle on Netflix, fans were cautiously optimistic about the announcement of yet another reality dating show....

Today’s best deals include a new Anker Gold Box, iPad Air Cellular returns to an all-time low, and iPhone 7 is free. Hit the jump for all that and more. A new Anker Gold Box starts at $13 iPhone 7 is FREE at Verizon when opening a new line One of Verizon’s best offers of the year is now available once again. With kids and grandparents in mind, you can pick up an iPhone 7 32GB for FREE when you open a new line....

New images shared on Twitter this week claim to show an early prototype of the first-generation iPad. While we’ve seen prototype images of the original iPad before, these images show that Apple had considered a docking system of some sort for the device… The images were shared on Twitter by the user Giulio Zompetti, who collects rare Apple devices. He shared a trio of images showcasing a prototype iPad 1, and elaborated on a mysterious port located on the left-hand side of the device....

A new paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, highlighted by Business Insider, aims to infer demographics based on consumer behavior and media consumption. According to the research, the iPhone is the most common status symbol of wealth… The paper comes from University of Chicago economists Marianne Bertrand and Emir Kamenica: In their research, Bertrand and Kamenica found that no individual brand is as predictive of “high-income” as owning an iPhone....

Downloading Netflix shows for offline viewing is going to get a little easier. The company has announced that an auto-download feature is available for the Android app from today, and will be added to the iOS app later in the year … Buzzfeed reports that if you’re watching a series, the feature automatically deletes watched episodes, then downloads the next one in line. Netflix says the feature is mostly aimed at public transit commuters who may have limited or poor network coverage during their journey....

Netflix users can skip Donald Trump jokes in Seth Meyers’ new stand-up special Lobby Baby. As host of NBC’s Late Night talk show since 2014, Meyers has gradually grown in popularity over the years and gained particular notoriety for his political humor. As host of SNL’s Weekend Update, Meyers spent one year co-anchoring the iconic sketch comedy series’ news segment before becoming the solo anchor for six years. In total, the comedian spent thirteen years at SNL, and it was undoubtedly during this time that he honed his politically-charged comedy....

Medical drama New Amsterdam is currently airing its second season after capturing viewer attention with its great first season, along with a cliffhanger ending. The series stars Ryan Eggold as Dr. Max Goodwin, an unconventional medical director of the New Amsterdam Medical Center who, faced with his own cancer diagnosis, is hell-bent on making the hospital a better place, focused on serving its patients to the best of their abilities, beyond the red tape of bureaucracy....

Curved is out today with a fresh look at what Apple’s alleged high-end, over-ear headphones could look like. With a heavy dose of HomePod inspiration, touchscreen controls, wireless charging, and more, this concept by Martin Hajek goes all out. The concept we saw for Apple’s rumored over-ear headphones last month was a bit clunky and looked like re-branded Beats headphones. However, Curved’s vision (translated) offers a sleeker, HomePod aesthetic with a minute long video....

The rise of streaming music has not been met with praise from some in the music industry. While a handful of artists have continued to resist the platform and push album purchases, a mid-year update from the Recording Industry Association of America shows that streaming music is helping the struggling industry get back on track. All in all, the music subscription industry is on track to surpass $2 billion by the end of this year thanks to services like Apple Music and Spotify....

The updated versions of iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand are now making their way onto the Mac App Store. The icon for iPhoto has been updated on the store, but it’s still displaying “iPhoto ’11” at this time. The latest version released today, 9.5, is available though if you press the install or update button. Update: For those with boxed/retail versions of iLife, Apple is slowly rolling out the ability to upgrade for free....

Back in Fall 2010 a patent from Apple detailing a new ‘Smart Bezel’ feature for the iPad emerged. This new bezel is said to be a touch-sensitive gesture area surrounding the iPad’s display. Now, with the iPad being rumored to lose the stationary home button, it would make sense that Apple would implement something similar to what is found in the ‘Smart Bezel’ patent. Adding credence to this Patently Apple has uncovered yet another patent relating to the smart bezel and this patent features a tablet device with the new bezel, but the drawing does not include the home button....

Between glue and solder, there was no easy way to remove the battery or ram. The solid state disk is non-standard dimensions. Opening the case requires a proprietary screwdriver thanks to pentalobe screws. The display assembly is also stuck. Conclusion? For a $2,200 device, don’t expect to be doing any of the repair work yourself. With this iteration of the MacBook Pro, Apple will require you to take it in to them to handle any of the dirty work....

A brand new Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Chinese trailer is released and it features new footage, including the introduction of a space monster. In less than a month, the final installment of the Skywalker saga will grace the big screen, wrapping up the beloved franchise’s nine-film main saga. Directed and written by J.J. Abrams, plot details for The Rise of Skywalker have been tightly under wraps with Disney and Lucasfilm running a measured marketing campaign....

The New York Times has won a Pulitzer Prize for its iEconomy series of exposés of alleged unsavoury practices by major corporations, with Apple a key target. Fortune described the series as a cynical push aimed specifically at winning a Pulitzer by choosing to pick on “high tech’s fattest target”: Whatever the case, the Pulitzer committee found it a winner over other finalists: The Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C., for stories on the insurance industry and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Dan Egan reporting on what it would take to protect the Great Lakes from invasive species, including Asian carp....

The developers behind the award-winning action survival game The Last of Us has spent a year and a half teasing fans with an impending sequel - and now, less than five months out from its release, we have a full demo and developer commentary on some of the title’s exciting new features. Naughty Dog developers Neil Druckmann, Anthony Newman, Kurt Margenau, and Halley Gross took ten minutes to talk shop about The Last of Us Part II, now officially slated for a February 21st, 2020 launch....

Netflix has been preparing the ability for users to control the playback speed of TV shows and movies for a while, but never rolled it out widely. Today, the company has confirmed that Android users are first in line to get access to the new feature. Speaking to the Verge, Netflix confirmed that playback speed controls are coming to the platform with the rollout starting on Android. We’ve spotted the feature rolling out as far back as early this week, too, though at the time it wasn’t functional....

Apple has updated its developer app review guidelines for the iPhone and iPad App Store this week with new clauses addressing the appropriate usage of Face ID, ARKit and more. Apple says that ARKit apps must provide a rich experience; they don’t want the store flooded with simple apps displaying single objects. There are also limits on how developers can use Face ID and a new crackdown on scammy iOS apps like so-called virus scanners …...

After seeing a beautiful macOS 11 concept yesterday, today we’ve got a brand new iOS 12 concept from designer iOS News And More. Leading off with a nod to improved stability and bug fixes, the concept goes on to visualize some slick enhancements for a potential iOS 12 release. Starting out, the concept makes sure to address the fact that Apple is putting some features on hold to place more focus on stability and performance in iOS 12....

Disney will now decide The New Mutants’ fate, with the troubled film possibly heading for a streaming release. The Fox era of X-Men films is almost officially done. After over a year, Disney and Fox have closed the deal that will shakeup Hollywood and see all of Fox’s TV and film assets be brought under the Mouse House’s control. There are many implications of the deal, but the one area that has generated the most discussion is the expected reboot of the X-Men and Fantastic Four to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe....