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Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on Groupon:

Apple Pay saves you money on summer movie tickets, food, and more

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There are deals to had this summer if you just use Apple Pay.
There are deals to had this summer if you just use Apple Pay.
Photo: Apple

Apple waited a bit for its summer Apple Pay promotion, but it just kicked off today. On offer are savings from Fandango, SubHub, Groupon, and several other apps.

The exact savings vary from service to service, of course, but they all have one thing in common: when it comes time to settle up, you must use Apple Pay.

Week’s best Apple deals: Big discounts on Apple TV, MacBook Air and more

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Apple deals
If you don't need the absolute latest models, you can get some great deals on Apple gear this week.
Photos: Apple

Staples is offering the chance to stream high-def content at an unbeatable price, while Groupon cuts huge discounts off a wide range of Apple gear and accessories. You’ll find all these and more in this roundup of the week’s best Apple deals.

Made in China: These apps are killing it on iPhone

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Everywhere you look in China, young people are tapping away at apps.
Everywhere you look in China, young people are tapping away at apps.
Photo: Virginia Werner/Cult of Mac

Made_in_china_bugMainland China is Apple’s second biggest market, and will one day be its first. The company is making a big push on the mainland, opening new stores and investing in home-grown companies. Why the interest? Because China is the new Japan — it’s where the future is happening. All this week we take a look at the cutting-edge apps that define mobile life on the mainland.

SHANGHAI CITY, China — Just like their U.S. counterparts, Chinese youth obsess over their smartphones. But while the phones they use look the same, the apps are quite different: China has its own must-have apps that keep users’ eyes glued to screens at all hours of the day.

Some Chinese apps seem quite similar to their Western counterparts, but others boast innovative and intriguing features. Apple’s clearly interested: While slowing growth in China put a dent in APPL stock, Cupertino recently made a strategic $1 billion investment in Chinese Uber rival Didi Chuxing.

What other apps in China might grab Apple’s attention? Tim Cook could start his due diligence with this list of powerhouse Chinese iPhone apps. The country’s young people use these apps to listen to music, make purchases, get around town, interact with others and maintain their online identities.

These Chinese apps are impressive and convenient, and they are showing us the future of mobile: a world where everything is at our fingertips.

This week’s hottest deals on iPad Pro, Apple accessories, more

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These deals are hot, hot, hot!
These deals are hot, hot, hot!
Photos: Apple

One of Apple’s hottest products — the powerful new 9.7-inch iPad Pro, which Cult of Mac called the most important iPad since the original — is already selling at a discount.

We’ve got the scoop on that sale — plus sweet deals on other great gear, including refurbished MacBooks and spiffy Apple accessories — in this roundup of the best Apple deals you’ll find online this week.

Save over $200 on a refurbished iPhone 6 or 6 Plus

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iPhone-6-Plus-cam

Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac

Here’s another great deal on Apple gear, with $229 off a 16, 64, or 128 gigabyte iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. You can still buy the last-generation handset over at Apple, but only in the 16 or 64 gigabyte configurations, so if you’re looking for a high-capacity iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, this is your day.

These iPhone models are still fantastic, and this deal is kind of amazing, especially if you pay up front for your iPhones these days to save a bit of money in the long run.

Groupon bundles offer best deal yet on Apple Watch

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Get an Apple Watch Sport plus a bunch of free accessories.
Get an Apple Watch Sport plus a bunch of free accessories.
Photo: Groupon

Looking to pick up an Apple Watch but don’t want to spend extra on watch bands or a charging stand?

Groupon has your dream bundle, then, with a Sport edition of Apple’s famous wearable, along with third-party knockoffs of the Milanese Loop and leather strap and a charging stand all for the price of the actual Apple Watch.

Groupon Wants Everyone To Run Their Business On An iPad

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breadcrump

You see more and more of them every day: iPads, doubling as cash registers in businesses small and large, thanks to forward-thinking mobile payment companies like Square. Now Groupon, the deals-and-couponing social network, is getting in on the game with Breadcrumb, an incredible point-of-sale system which makes integrating an iPad into your business as simple as if Apple made the product themselves.

Groupon Adopts UDID Alternative That Could Become Standard For Developers

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AppRedeem is hoping iOS devs will follow Groupon's lead and adopt its UDID alternative.
AppRedeem is hoping iOS devs will follow Groupon's lead and adopt its UDID alternative.

Just six months after announcing that developers must stop accessing a device’s unique device identifier (UDID) within their iOS apps, Apple put its rule into practice last week amid increasing privacy concerns surrounding mobile apps. Any app submitted for App Store approval will soon be rejected if its attempts to access a UDID, and developers need an alternative.

That alternative could come from AppRedeem, a mobile advertising platform for app discovery, branding and monetization, which has developed a system called Organizational Specific Device Identifier, or “ODID,” already being used by Groupon.

Learn How To Build Powerful Programs With Our Discounted Ruby Course [Deals.CultofMac]

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ruby

There are less than 12 hours left on our awesome deal for the Ruby programming course. Head over to Deals.CultofMac.com to check it out

What do Groupon, Twitter, Hulu, and 37 Signals all have in common? They all use the incredibly powerful, dynamic, and highly scalable programming language of Ruby or Ruby on Rails. Why is that supposed to get your heart fluttering? Because this language is the future of the web. Not being a developer myself, I shamelessly Googled to find out why Ruby on Rails is such a popular language/framework and I came across a Quora post from Ian MacLeod that sums it up nicely:

1. The Ruby community moves quickly, adopting new technologies and patterns – and refactoring or throwing out the old. Programmers love being on the cutting-edge.

2. Ruby seems to be one of those languages that maps well to a developer’s mental model. It’s frequently mentioned as one of a few languages that developers find a joy to code in.

3. Ruby is one of the major languages that promotes widespread use of “language magic” to createeasily-readable DSLs. This makes it very easy for casual developers to learn the language.

So, whether you want to start your company or just lock-in job security for the rest of your life…this tutorial is where it all starts.

With more than 27 step-by-step video lectures, this Ruby Programming course is only $79 (normally its 3x that much…and well worth it) and will teach you the ten steps to creating your first web app.

Take Control Of Christmas With Your iPhone [2011 Holiday App Guide]

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santa-uses-iphone-4

With access to over half a million apps in the App Store, getting things done on our iPhones has never been easier. So instead of running around like a headless chicken this Christmas Eve in a desperate bid to buy gifts for all your friends and family, why not sit back, stick your feet up, and do you Christmas shopping on your iPhone?

We’ve compiled a list of the App Store’s best apps for Christmas shopping that will help you plan, save, shop and send cards directly right from the palm of your hand.