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Our month long HomePod giveaway is coming to a close this weekend. This is your last opportunity to enter for a chance to win Apple’s space gray HomePod along with a $500 gift card courtesy of our sponsor, Caseco.

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Now that HomePod has been available for a little while, there are a good amount of third-parties who are shipping their accessories and products to enhance, protect, and further your HomePod experience. Let’s take a look at some the best HomePod accessories.

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Following other news where Apple is complying with the GDPR, today the company outlines tools to help developers manage user data that is stored in iCloud.

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Apple’s strategy for Music control on watchOS has changed significantly over the years, and as of watchOS 4.3, the company has finally added support for the full Apple Music library back onto the Apple Watch’s Music app.

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Included in iOS 11.3 and macOS 10.13.4 is a new way to communicate with companies called Business Chat. Available in the United States as a beta to start, Business Chat lets you conveniently use iMessage for customer service and even complete transactions with Apple Pay. Check out our hands-on to see how it works.

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This week Benjamin and Zac share thoughts on Apple’s March education event where the new 9.7-inch iPad with Apple Pencil support was unveiled, new Apple Watch Series 4 rumors that claim a new design is coming with more screen, and the launch of iOS 11.3, watchOS 4.3, and other software updates.

9to5Mac Happy Hour is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play Music, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

Sponsored by FIBARO: We’ve teamed up with FIBARO to give away a HomeKit bundle to turn your house into a Siri-controlled smart home.

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Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications. more…

From 9to5Toys:

Griffin has today launched its newest iPhone accessory, the PowerBlock Wireless Charging Pad. This new offering will be priced at $60, but Griffin is offering 15% off on the new charger through April 2, bringing it down to $51.

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As expected, Apple’s new 2018 iPad, which was announced earlier this week, has arrived at retail locations. Both Apple retail stores and Best Buy locations are showing stock, allowing customers to walk in to a store and purchase a 6th-generation iPad today. more…

Among the gloomy predictions being made for iPhone X sales, analysts were predicting that lead iPhone assembler Foxconn would announce declining profits for Q4 2017 …

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As promised, Apple has included a new section in Battery Settings to include information about Battery Health. Battery Health (Beta) is available in iOS 11.3 and later and displayed on all iPhone models since the iPhone 6. You can see the estimated battery capacity and the screen explains whether the battery can offer peak performance. iOS will now tell you in this screen if your device is being throttled due to a degraded battery.

When you update to iOS 11.3, the device will have performance management. The device will be throttled automatically when the system first experiences an unexpected shutdown. You can disable the slowdowns in the Battery Health screen if you want. Read everything about Battery Health after the jump …

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HomePod reviews almost universally agreed on two things: the speaker sounds incredibly impressive for the size and price, and Apple’s smart speaker is the least-smart one on the market. Both Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home speakers were found to be significantly more capable when it comes to answering questions and carrying out tasks.

This is not, of course, coincidence. Amazon opens its Alexa ‘recipes’ up to any third-party developer, and Google has long snaffled-up as much data as it can to make its smart assistants as capable as possible. Apple, in contrast, carefully controls the personal data available to both itself and to third-party developers …

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Twitter is making it easier for you to share a particular moment from a live video stream by introducing a YouTube-style timestamp feature in its iOS and Android apps …

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iPhones are significantly cheaper in Hong Kong than mainland China, and it’s not unusual to find people smuggling them across the border. But while the record for smuggling them under clothing is around $150k, that’s nothing compared to the $79.8M worth transported with the help of drones …

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A memo written in 2016 has just come to light in which a Facebook VP argues that ‘questionable’ and deceptive tactics to grow the platform are justified – even if they cost someone their life.

The memo was written by one of Facebook’s longest-serving execs, Andrew “Boz” Bosworth …

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Today Apple released macOS 10.13.4 to the public, bringing official external graphics support to the Mac. Apple has published a new document to help users navigate the ins and outs of eGPU support, including a list of eligible Mac hardware, external graphics enclosures, and GPUs. If you’re considering adopting an external graphics setup, then you definitely want to be familiar with Apple’s published requirements. more…

Despite the ever-increasing size of batteries, there become times when you need a little more power to get you through a day with your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Whether it’s because of travel, a heavy workload, or other factors, it’s always wise to keep a portable battery pack around for extending your device’s battery life.

Head below for the best USB-C portable batteries and power packs for iPhone, iPad, and Mac…

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