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With less than 24 hours to go, security precautions for Apple’s big press event Tuesday have been taken to unprecedented levels.

Apple has wired the entire event auditorium — the Flint Center for the Performing Arts — with a brand new, state-of-the-art security system to lock down access and prevent leaks.

The auditorium is crawling with 24-hour security personnel. Anyone working at the massive show, from caterers to construction staff and technicians, is required to submit their phones to Apple’s security team. The phones’ cameras are being covered in special tamper-proof tape, which changes color if removal is attempted.

“If it changes color, we’ll be fired on the spot,” said one person who is working at the show but asked to remain anonymous.

We’re in a frenzy of anticipation about Apple’s September 9 event. Just like you, we’re expecting big and bigger iPhones, the iWatch and something to take the stage of that immense box Apple has constructed outside the Flint Center auditorium.

As we tweet, liveblog and take you hands-on with new products from what may be the most important Apple event in years, you can play along with this awesome set of free bingo cards, courtesy mobile PR firm Appency.

When Adam Levine appeared at a Samsung event last week to promote the Galaxy Note 4 he joked that the company should hold a ceremonial iPhone burning, but don’t expect the Maroon 5 crooner to volunteer his own iPhone to the sacrificial fires.

American Horror Story: Freak Show is set to premiere this October 8 on FX. As each season of the acclaimed FX series is a self-contained mini-series, this fourth season will focus on a big-top freak show.

Below is the first full reveal of the main cast, which includes a mysterious Jessica Lange (who’s played a different character in each season of this drama), dressed in a circus tent-style dress that just begs to be compared to the tents that fall to the ground at the end of the trailer. Also, as above, Kathy Bates is playing a bearded lady for the win.

Check the trailer out and enjoy the creepy music, courtesy of Melanie Martinez’s haunting “Carousel.”

A former Apple senior mechanical engineer has confirmed to Cult of Mac that, judging by pictures, the iWatch most likely comes with wireless charging.

Earlier today a Reddit user posted schematics supposedly showing various components of the iWatch. One of these refers to BCM coils, meaning Battery Charging Module or Battery Control Module. These components are routinely found in electric cars featuring wireless charging.

“If it has wireless charging then it needs an internal coil and the screen shots look to have a coil,” says Abraham Farag, Apple’s former Senior Mechanical Engineer of Product Design and owner of product development consultancy Sparkfactor Design. 

While the Reddit post alluded to wireless charging by noting the lack of ports on the iWatch, it did not explicitly state this to be the case.

Although it has been widely reported that the 5.5-inch iPhone won’t come out until months after the 4.7-inch model, both sizes are now expected to ship on the same day later this month.

It’s been a week since the Great Fappening rocked Hollywood and the rest of the internet, and true to Tim Cook’s promise, Apple is already adding extra security to iCloud.com.

Apple is now sending email alerts when an iCloud is accessed by a web browser. The alerts are being sent even if you’ve already accessed iCloud.com from the browser previously, but only occurs on the first login.

Here’s a copy of the email Apple notification:

What will Apple call its new iPhones tomorrow? The safe bet is “iPhone 6” for the 4.7-inch model, but what about the larger 5.5-inch version? iPhone Air? iPhone Pro iPhone 6L?

“iPhone 6 Plus” will be the name Apple goes with, according to a new report.

There’s just one day to go until Apple reportedly unveils its long-awaited iWatch and — as if anticipation couldn’t be any higher — a Reddit user just posted what he claims to be half a dozen technical images of Apple’s wearables device.

The user claims that the device will feature a microphone, speaker, and Siri virtual assistant. It is also reported that there will be a flexible multi-touch screen, that it will be waterproof to a depth of 20 meters, and that Apple will announce the availability of 4 colors and 2 different sizes.

If you’re a free Spotify user, prepare for your experience to get a lot more annoying: video ads are coming to the a la carte music streaming service.

Text shortcuts are one of the most useful settings in iOS. Having the potential to just hit a couple of keys to input an entire string of text is a wonderful time saver… as long as you have the foresight to set them up first.

Alas, most of us never delve into text shortcuts on iOS 8. But here’s a shortcut anyone can take advantage of: a text shortcut that allows you to cycle rapidly through your email addresses with just a single keypress.

Former Apple exec Jean-Louis Gassée has posted a new edition of his always enjoyable Monday Note blog, arguing that Apple isn’t intending to disrupt banks and credit card companies with its entry into the mobile payments world.

It’s an interesting read, and makes a whole lot of sense: pointing out that Apple’s mobile payment drive is simply an extension of the company’s current strategy.

In just a little over 24 hours, Tim Cook and Co. will take the stage of Flint Center for the Performing Arts in Cupertino, California and unveil at least one 4.7-inch iPhone 6. From previous leaks, we know that this iPhone 6 will have a 1,810mAh capacity battery, a 14% beefier battery than the 1,560mAh battery used in the iPhone 5s. It makes sense it would need one: it will have a sizably bigger display to light up.

But what about the 5.5-inch iPhone 6? Won’t it need a bigger battery even than that? It will, and a new leak out of Apple’s supply chain suggests that it will be a massive 2,915mAh battery, a battery 86% larger than the current iPhone 5s battery.

In addition to near field communication (NFC) as part of its mobile payments drive, Apple will be incorporating something called “tokenisation” technology, according to sources who spoke with Bank Innovation.

As the report explains, “Financial institutions — card issuers and networks — prefer token technology because it replaces primary account numbers, those 16-digit card numbers on the front of credit and debit cards. Instead, the tokenization technology uses complex codes that are easily transmittable over the air and between devices, but that are used only once, so even if they are intercepted, are of no use to fraudsters.”

Apple has been investigating tokenization technology for several years, with multiple patents relating to the process dating back as far as 2009.

Although we know that Apple has spent a lot of money to team up with GT Advanced to created a sapphire glass manufacturing facility, we haven’t up until now had any direct confirmation on whether or not it that glass would be used for the screen of the iPhone 6. All we’ve heard are rumors, which right now say that sapphire glass will be limited to the most premium models of Apple’s latest smartphone.

But thanks to a rather loose-lipped former GT Advanced employee, we might have our first real confirmation that Apple and GT Advanced have been working to ship the iPhone 6 with a sapphire glass display.

It happens all the time: The subject of a portrait tries to put their best face forward but the photographer senses a more authentic expression locked inside. To get to something real, the photographer utilizes a range of tricks and charms to peel back the subject’s veneer.

South Carolina photographer Patrick Hall used 300,000 volts.

Shockingly, close to a hundred people got zapped with a stun gun for Hall’s series of still photos and a slow-motion video that went viral soon after it was published on the Fstoppers website, which Hall co-founded.

“I wanted to start making more photo series of things I don’t normally do,” Hall told Cult of Mac. “Why don’t I get reactions of people doing something painful or joyful that is more than the standard portrait? What could I do to consistently get reactions?”

This week: With Apple’s big Sept. 9 media event just around the bend, we dust off our crystal balls and reveal our iWatch and iPhone 6 predictions! Plus: The Fappening. How did so many high-profile celebrity nudies leak for all to see? And is an iCloud flaw responsible for the debacle? We’ll tell you what happened, how it happened, and what you can do to help keep those sensitive selfies safe from prying eyes.

Softly chuckle your way through each week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the chuckles begin.

Our thanks to Lynda.com for sponsoring this episode! Learn virtually any application at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials at Lynda.com.

Pictures of what is allegedly a working iPhone 6 have surfaced on the Chinese social network Weibo. While tons of parts have leaked up to this point, this is the first time we’ve seen what appears to be the device powered on and running iOS 8.

The 4.7-inch device looks legit, although it’s authenticity cannot obviously be confirmed. On the screen, there’s a new Passbook icon. This hints towards the mobile payments platform Apple is expected to unveil at next week’s event.

As much as Apple wants the tech press on its side, tech writers aren’t the only journalists being invited to Cupertino’s September 9 event, where it’s heavily rumored the iWatch will be unveiled for the world to see.

Lending even more credence to the idea that Apple is set to announce its entry into the world of wearables, the company has reportedly been inviting unprecedented numbers of fashion editors and bloggers to the event.

“I assume it’s because they are unveiling a wearable,” Lea Goldman, features and special projects director for Marie Claire magazine told Reuters. “This suggests Apple is serious about tapping into the fashion world, which often sits on the sidelines.”

The iPhone 6 may be currently filling your newsfeed, but there’s somewhere else it’s filling too: the skies.

According to several sources, Apple is currently shipping so many new devices from its factories to sales outlets that it’s causing big delays for even “top tier” rival manufacturers.

Apple shipments via FedEx and UPS are said to be “incredibly high” for the holiday season, largely based on the new iPhone 6 and iPad refresh. It was previously reported that Apple had ordered an “unprecedented” number of iPhone 6 devices — more than twice that of the initial iPhone 5 order.

You’re most probably familiar with the expression “out of the frying pan into the fire.”

Having seemingly settled its e-book price-fixing lawsuit by agreeing to pay $450 million, Tim Cook and other top Apple execs are now being sued by Apple shareholders, claiming that the incident has damaged the company.

As per a complaint filed at the end of last week, Cook and other Apple executives were told that they should accept “responsibility for ensnaring Apple in a multi-year anticompetitive scheme.”