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Remember that recent story about Apple’s lack of racially diverse emojis?

A patent, published Tuesday, may solve some of those problems by promising Automatic Avatar Creation for Apple users — literally putting a virtual “you” inside your Apple device.

The patent explains how devices could create three-dimensional avatars that resembles users by first photographing them, and then comparing this image to a database of pre-created facial components which can be fitted together in different combinations. The resulting creation could be used in gaming, social media, and video conferencing.

Want to know what a business lesson about Apple looks like at Harvard Business School?

A whole lot like a comic book, apparently. The publishing arm of Harvard Business School is turning to comics to help tell case studies related to high profile companies. One of these — called “Apple’s Core” — turns the story of Apple’s early days into sequential art, reminiscent of the Steve Jobs manga from last year.

This change was reportedly done to make the story more interesting and palatable to visual and foreign learners, who would prove less inclined to learn about Apple if made to read a printed case study.

Apple is reportedly planning on creating an R&D team to develop baseband chips for future iPhone models, according to a new rumor from Digitimes.

Baseband chips, for those who don’t know, are used to control a device’s radio functions related to modulation, signal generation, and more.

If the rumor is to be believed, these chips could debut with the round of iPhone updates following the iPhone 6 — which would mean they could arrive with the iPhone that, by current naming standards, will be called the iPhone 6s.

Lightroom for the iPad is here. It’s called Lightroom Mobile, and it runs smoothly on anything down to an iPad 2 (or first-gen mini). You can use the app to edit and organize any photos in your Lightroom collections, and it syncs automatically (and near instantly) with Lightroom on your desktop (you’ll need to upgrade to v5.4).

And the price? It’s free, but only if you already subscribe to Adobe’s $10-per-month Photoshop Photography Program, which also gets you the desktop versions of Photoshop and Lightroom. There’s also a 30-day free trial to check it out.

So how does it work? Lets take a nice long look.

Does your iPhone battery constantly drain from 100% to nearly 0%? You might think the battery is to blame, but there could be a far more dastardly culprit: Facebook.

In the past, when anyone has talked about the possibility of a low-cost iPhone aimed at the budget market, most have assumed that Apple would essentially take the iPod touch — currently the cheapest iOS device, after subsidies, which saves on cost in a number of key regards like screen quality, speed, storage and more — and graft some cellular modems onto it. Yet when Apple unveiled the iPhone 5c, what they showed was a smartphone that was essentially an iPhone 5 in a plastic shell. In other words, a last-gen iPhone that was cheaper for Apple to make, but not necessarily to buy.

Yet according to new court documents coming out of the latest Apple vs. Samsung case, such a vision for the ‘cheap’ iPhone was not always meant to be. In fact, Steve Jobs himself believed that the budget iPhone should be based off of the iPod touch.

Like some sort of corporate Willy Wonka, Apple has thrilled 5,000 eager coders by inviting them to the Worldwide Developers Conference this June. But, like the fictitious candy man, Cupertino also crushed the dreams of thousands of would-be attendees who didn’t snag a golden ticket to the Apple event of the year.

“I’m going to WWDC!!!!” tweeted Kevin Sliech after he got an email Monday saying he had been selected to buy a WWDC ticket. “So incredibly pumped it’s absurd.”

Thanks to a new lottery system, this year’s rush to get WWDC tickets didn’t result in a crippled website that sold out in 71 seconds. Still, the odds of securing a spot at the San Francisco event were probably higher than ever, since developers could register for a chance to buy a ticket without ponying up the $1,600 in advance.

New York is known for its architectural beauty and intense surroundings. With so many buildings, lights and more there is plenty of action to take place. In the new app Skyline Skaters you can become a part of that action, as you skate from the authorities jumping from roof to roof. Grind on railings, hop over rockets and so much more. How far do you think you can make it before you get caught in this new addition to the endless runner genre?

Take a look at the video and find out what you think.

Apple has already shown us how the iPad is used to explore the deepest oceans and tallest mountains, but in for its newest segment of the ‘Your Verse’ campaign the iPad has gone totally Bollywood.

Famed Bollywood choreographer Feroz Khan stars in the new Your Verse microsite on Apple.com that chronicles how he’s integrated the iPad into his entire production processes and how it helps him create spectacular Bollywood dance numbers.

All the down time must get painfully boring after serving as the most powerful man in the world for eight years, which is how former George W. Bush somehow tumbled into painting.

Bush just picked up a brush two years ago, but the former president’s portraits have been all over the news the past few days and it’s all the iPad’s fault.

Each week we pull the best Apple-related gadgets from the Cult of Mac and collect them here for your perusing pleasure.

Dorky Ruck Pack Is Like A Giant Kids Back Pack For Astronauts

The Ruck Pack is a big box for your back, with zip-up pockets no the back and a clip-closure flap on the top. I like that the square design lets you fill the main bag without stressing the iPad you can keep in the bigger rear pocket, and I also like that this iPad pocket is protected by both its own zipper and the main flap, making it a little harder for pickpockets to lift your iPad out on a crowded subway, say.

Buy it $70

Each week we pull the best Apple-related gadgets from the Cult of Mac and collect them here for your perusing pleasure.

Sick of waiting for your iPhone to finish charging? By 2017, your iPhone could completely charge from 0% to 100% in just 5 minutes, in a portable, consumer-friendly package that will make long charging times a thing of the past.

Business owners who use the iPad for retail will likely want to check out the latest update of point-of-sale app ShopKeep POS, which has just been updated to version 2.0.

A significant update, ShopKeep Version 2.0 radically overhauls the look and feel of the app, with an attractive new interface inspired by iOS 7.

The app also features streamlined functionality — allowing vendors to ring up customers faster than ever with a Single Sign On feature that means that both managerial functions and ringing transactions can be done with one code.

Having launched its iPhone trade-in program back in August last year, Apple has now expanded the program to cover Apple Retail Stores throughout Germany.

The trade-in program lets customers trade in older iPhone models and receive gift cards of up to €230 ($315), which can then be used toward the purchase of a brand new iPhone.

Popular video-sharing website Vimeo has added another update to its official iOS app.

Up front, the single most prominent update relates to the in-app search feature — something that was initially absent when Vimeo made the jump to iOS 7, then restored but hidden, and now made constantly visible within the app. Since search is of vital importance on video sharing sites, this improvement means that Vimeo users can breathe a sigh of relief.

Looking for a more explosion-filled egg hunt this Easter?

If so, you may want to check out the latest version of popular third-person shooter Respawnables which adds a new Easter Egg Hunt mode, where players must gather as many Easter eggs as they can and collect prizes in doing so.

Growthy is an app that finally – finally! – replaces the biro-etched notches on your kitchen door frame with a series of in-app purchases, codifying your precious memories as stars on your iPhone screen. Welcome to the future.

Are we finally getting closer to the existence of the Apple TV set Steve Jobs told Walter Isaacson he had “finally cracked?”

According to a new rumor/report from the South Korea-based Korea Herald, an “unnamed” South Korean display manufacture is currently making 65-inch organic light emitting diode (OLED) panel samples for Apple’s proposed “iTV,” which the company expects to “be mass-produced next year.”

Of all the ambient noise apps I’ve tried, myNoise is the best. Based on the well-regarded website of the same name, myNoise for iPhone is a “noise generator,” not just an app that plays recordings of rain and coffee shops.

And it also looks as good as it sounds.

Ever wanted to take photos of people without them knowing? Perhaps a sneaky shot of a pretty girl to help you “remember” her later, or some equally creepy bit of deceit? Well then, we have good news for you, you pervert: it’s the COVR Photo, an iPhone case which lets you shoot in secret.

Evernote’s web clipper extension for OS X Safari is a thing of beauty. The Evernote bookmarklet clipper (on iOS and OS X) is a slow piece of crap.

Phillip Gruneich’s bookmarklet, however, is a thing of beauty, a concerto features some of your favorite players: Drafts, Markdown, Readability, and some plain old clever thinking.

This cute little case is the Cargito, a lovely leather-lined pouch with space for the iPad mini (or Air), plus a battery to charge it as it lays inside.

The new Sony A7S is a mirrorless full-frame camera which shoots 4K video and has a top ISO of 102,400, expandable to 409,600.

Remember back in 2006 when Palm CEO Ed Colligan said this, about Apple and the iPhone:

PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.

If you switched Apple for Sony (those gadget guys) or Fujifilm ("film guys), and Palm for Nikon and Canon, then the same thing is happening today.

You want iPhone rumors? Well CultCast’s got’em, brotherrrr! This time: the rumored 5.5-inch iPhone 6 gets delayed and patents indicate a future of interchangeable iLenses. Plus, what FireTV has that Apple TV needs; iWork online gets an update; Office finally comes to iPad; and Facebook bought Oculus, but why?

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 audio adventure begin!

Our thanks to New Relic for supporting this episode, the all-in-one web application performance management tool that lets you see performance from the end user experience, through servers, and down to the line of application code. New Relic helps the people who build modern software understand the stories their data is trying to tell them. Start your 30-day free trial at NewRelic.com/cultcast.

Click on for the show notes.