Cult of Mac

Deadlines can be rough, but they also push us to do what needs doing. Today’s deadline is one you might want to honor, it’s the last day you can pay whatever you want for a massive bundle of productivity-boosting Mac apps. The process is simple: just name your price, and if it’s less than the average you’ll take home something great from the bundle. If you beat the average price you get the whole bundle of 13 apps, and if you beat the leader’s price you’ll be entered into an additional giveaway.

It’s been more than 500 days since the last MacBook Pro release, but Apple’s
“Hello again” Mac event will change that this week.

So what should you be expecting to see? Here’s a rundown of everything we predict Apple will reveal at the eagerly anticipated event, which takes place Thursday at Apple’s 1 Infinite Loop campus.

New Macs aren’t the only new products on the horizon for Apple this week.

Apple revealed today that the Nike+ edition of the Apple Watch Series 2 will be available in over 41 countries starting Friday. More countries will get supply during the weekend. But if you want to buy a Nike+ band for the Apple Watch you already own, you’re out of luck.

The days of Macs avoiding the fate of the rest of the ailing PC industry may be over.

Analysts who have filed their predictions for Apple’s quarterly earnings call, which is coming tomorrow, think Mac sales finally failed beat those of PC competitors. And they’re expecting to see Apple’s fourth consecutive year-over-year quarterly decline in Mac sales.

An important anniversary passed this weekend, but you’d have been hard-pressed to remember based on the lack of recognition it received from Apple.

That milestone event was the 15th anniversary of the iPod, the portable music player that squeezed 1,000 songs into our pockets, sold upwards of 350 million units, and — up until the iPhone — was the best-known product in Apple history.

Looking to get up to speed on the top apps we checked out this week? We’ve got your back!

In a week in which China finally overtook the U.S. as Apple’s most profitable market for apps, some great apps, and app updates, found their way onto our mobile devices.

Whether you’re looking for some great puzzle games or a third-party keyboard worth downloading, we think you’ll find something to entertain you…

It’s mid-October and the temperature is dropping but the flood of new deals shows no sign of stopping. This week we’ve got access to a top shelf VPN service, a sleek car mount for your iPhone, a duo of productivity enhancing apps and a trio of extra long, MFi-certified Lightning cables. They’re all discounted by more than half off, read on for more details:

There’s a lot of love right now for the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. But what if you’re a fan of the small yet mighty iPhone SE?

While the size of the iPhone SE certainly makes it possible for you to dust off your old iPhone 5s cases for another go round, there are plenty of great new cases designed especially for Apple’s compact iPhone SE.

Check out our video roundup below.

This week on The CultCast: Is Apple about to make massive updates across the entire Mac line? Don’t miss our Oct. 27 Mac event predictions! Plus: Decoding the Apple event invitation, and everything we know about Nintendo Switch.

This episode is supported by CultCloth, the best way to keep your iPhone 7, Apple Watch, Mac and iPad sparkling clean. Check them out at CultCloth.co and, for a limited time, save 20 percent with code JetBlack.

This week’s been a good one for deals on gear and productivity apps, and here are the best of the bunch. We’ve got a set of workout-ready wireless earbuds, a quartet of productivity-enhancing Mac apps, a 3-pack of extra long MFi-certified Lightning cables, and a Chrome extension that makes capturing screen videos a breeze, each discounted by big margins. Read on for more details:

The Workout app in Apple Watch Series 2 includes two new swimming options to show off its waterproofing. This is a key differentiator over the cheaper Series 1 model, and yet very few reviewers actually took their test units for a swim. One even claimed that all the pools and beaches in New York were closed, so they couldn’t test this feature.

So I decided to take the plunge with Series 2 and find out for myself if it sinks or swims.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve tested my Apple Watch in a variety of swimming conditions, including various public pools — and even the Mediterranean sea.

AT&T isn’t the only company interested in acquiring HBO’s parent company Time Warner Inc.

Apple executives approached the company about a potential merger a few months ago, according to a new report that claims the iPhone-maker is keeping a close eye on Time Warner’s advanced acquisition talks with AT&T.

Fans have mourned the loss of the Galaxy Note 7 — perhaps the best smartphone released in 2016 — and while a small few are determined to cling onto the device despite the risks, most have handed theirs back and moved on.

The whole debacle is going to cost Samsung billions in lost revenue, and it will likely take years for the South Korean company to regain the trust it has lost. But just how detrimental could the problem be for Samsung’s smartphone business?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we discuss Samsung’s chances of recovering from the Galaxy Note 7 nightmare.

Apple just set an all-new record for the most App Store revenue brought in from one country in a quarter. Only instead of the United States taking the top spot, China is now Apple’s most profitable market for apps.

We love the internet. So much. It is so unrelentingly kind, and this week is no exception. PlayStation 4 is experiencing its first discounts since Playstation VR released, iPhone 6 prices continue to drop as iPhone 7 catches on, the Beats by Dre flagship earbuds are $240 off, and that awesome DJI Phantom 4 deal is still cooking.

Even though the iPhone 7 was only on sale for two weeks during Q3 2016, it accounted for more than 40 percent of all iPhone sales in the United States, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Finding an awesome spot to eat has always been easy on the iPhone. But iOS 10 makes it super-simple to book a restaurant reservation in Apple Maps.

With the new third-party app extensions in Maps, users can now reserve a table without ever leaving the Maps app. Just find the spot you want to dine at, and with a few extra taps you’ll be on your way to a fine dining experience.

Book a reservation in seconds with these steps.

If your iPhone feels precious out of the box, hand it over to Dmitry Lischina for a couple of weeks. Afterward, you will then understand precious as you hold an iPhone unlike any other.

Lischina’s company Aurum Editions could have made phone cases, but instead developed a business around pulling apart iPhones and plating them with 24K gold, exotic animal leather and diamonds.

South Korea is Samsung country, but that’s not stopping a local museum in Guri, Gyeongg from staging an honorary exhibition to the late founder of Apple, Steve Jobs.

Featuring a range of Apple computers starting with 1977’s Apple II and running through to the iMac models Jobs oversaw upon his return to the company in the late 1990s, the exhibition will run until November 27.

There are plenty of reasons you might want to record your screen — whether showing off your gaming prowess, creating a walkthrough for friends or coworkers, demonstrating a problem or bug, and so on. But creating and sharing a high quality video from your screen can involve a lot of work. That’s what makes HYFY so cool — it’s a simple extension for Google Chrome that makes it easy to capture and share video from your screen, no extra software required. And right now you can get a year of HYFY for $25 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Apple’s latest iPhones sell like hot cakes, which makes them a big target for thieves looking to make a quick buck. One teenage gang stole 19 display units worth over $13,000 from the Apple store in Natick Mall this week — and the “flash mob” robbery took less than a minute.

Apple has launched a new Facebook page to promote its Beats 1 worldwide radio station, which broadcasts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week exclusively on Apple Music.

The page features small sharable video clips of Beats 1 action, currently including snippets from Zane Lowe’s interview with Lady Gaga. Oh, and a whole lot of hashtags, too.

It’s all but certain that next week will bring the biggest update the MacBook Pro line has seen in years. That means now is the perfect time to sell your current laptop before it drops in value.

An exclusive Apple Watch mini-store at one of Paris’ fanciest department stores, Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, is reportedly set to close in January.

The report suggests the reason for the closure is poor sales — although it may also reflect a repositioning on Apple’s part concerning where the Apple Watch sits: moving it away from the world of high fashion and toward health-tracking and sport applications.

Watching television is still a dreadful experience, according to Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior VP of internet software and services.

The Apple exec sat down for a joint interview with HBO CEO Richard Plepler at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit in San Francisco today. The two media titans discussed the rapidly changing landscape of television, but Cue told the audience that more changes are needed to make the experience better.