Cult of Mac

This week’s best deals are your opportunity to upgrade your digital workspace without downgrading your checking account. We’re looking at more than a dozen award-winning productivity apps for whatever you’re willing to pay, a charging hub that does double duty as a device organizer, a terabyte secure cloud storage, and a keyboard shortcut app that can vastly improve efficiency on your Mac. It’s all going for cut-rate prices, read on for more details:

The top grossing app in the iMessage App Store is about to be officially banned by Apple for allowing users to send “prank” blue message bubbles that put words in your friend’s mouth.

If you’re an early iPhone 7 adopter, you’re already getting accustomed to life without a headphone jack. But what if it started to disappear from other devices you use everyday, such as your iPad or MacBook?

With a MacBook Pro refresh on the horizon, fans fear it will be the next device in Apple’s lineup to see its headphone jack disappear. The move could allow Apple to make its most powerful portable even slimmer, but would it be worth it?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight as we discuss whether the MacBook Pro should lose its headphone jack this year, or whether Apple should give consumers and the industry time to adapt to other standards.

If you thought Apple’s new spaceship campus looks impressive during the day, just wait until you see it at night.

Apple’s stunning new HQ looks like it’s glowing in the latest drone videos that show construction is nearing completion. Landscaping is now underway on the campus with new trees popping up all over, along with walking trails for employees.

Check it out:

Apple plans to put an OLED display in the next generation iPhone and according to a new report it is close to striking a deal with Sharp to supply the screens.

The speakers in our iPhones and iPads keep getting better and better, but they’re not close to replacing Bluetooth speakers just yet. If you’ve just splashed out hard-earned dollars for a new iPhone 7 or 7 Plus, a low-priced, quality speaker may come as a welcome relief.

There are a few rare finds out there that deliver good bang for buck, and the $60 DKnight Big MagicBox is one of them.

Check out the full video review below.

Remember Hissgate, the short-lived (but, for a few days, massive) story about how some iPhone 7 Plus owners were experiencing strange hissing sounds when their handsets were performing processor-intensive tasks?

Well, the guy who first reported it has written a blog post about his experience after the video blew up on YouTube, racking up more than 1 million hits. And it actually makes pretty interesting reading.

Apple famously knows what we want before we do, yet so many fans say the iPhone maker got it wrong when it took away the earphone jack on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus.

Jokes, outrage, even night terrors, erupted on social media in real time as the new iPhone design was revealed. Not long after, a startup went to work to bring the anxious a $10 fix.

If you’re online — and you’re reading this, so you are — you’re exposed to annoying ads and dangerous data thieves. You’re also subject to location-based content restrictions. A virtual private network offers a way through and around these internet irritations, and there’s never been a better time to look into VPNs.

As of today, you can get a lifetime of OneVPN access for just $29 at Cult of Mac Deals.

South Korea’s three mobile network providers will reportedly start selling the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus from October 21, according to reports coming out of the country.

The news comes at a bad time for South Korea’s Samsung, which is still reeling from a costly recall of its exploding Galaxy Note 7 handsets, which it reportedly rushed to market to beat Apple to the next great smartphone.

A bizarre incident has taken place in a French Apple store, with an unidentified man entering the retail outlet and methodically smashing thousands of dollars’ worth of iPhones, using a steel ball used for the game boules.

Check out the video below.

Before it arrived in China earlier this year, Tim Cook called launching Apple Pay for the Chinese market “top of the list” in terms of Apple’s priorities.

Coming up to a year later, it now appears that Apple’s mobile payment service is also set to launch in Taiwan — at least according to a new report.

With new iPhones being released each year, I’m used to being tempted by the latest and greatest Apple device. The iPhone 7 is no different, but it’s always a tough decision whether you should upgrade your existing device for the latest model.

For the last 6 months or so, my daily driver has been the iPhone SE, and I’ve loved it. In fact, I did a whole video on why I was switching to the much smaller device from my 6 Plus.

And it’s that time again! The iPhone 7 has caught my eye and after using it for the last two weeks, it is tempting me away from my SE.

Check out my reasons in the video below.

Looking for a quick way to become a millionaire? Just try hacking the iPhone.

Software security firm Zerodium revealed today that it has raised the price of its permanent bounty on iOS zero-day exploits, giving hackers a chance to earn up to $1.5 million if their exploit meets all the requirements.

Apple has been quick to tout all of its amazing new hardware in its iPhone 7 ads, but the company’s latest spot is all about software. And balloons.

The new expressive messaging features of iOS 10 take the spotlight in Apple’s new ad that features a lonely red balloon drifting across the globe before meeting up with hundreds of its balloon friends to throw an iMessage party for one special person.

Check it out:

Apple’s new AirPods may look dork as hell when you wear them, but they’re already proving to be more popular with fans than the new Apple Watch Series 2.

Based on a new survey of US consumers by Bank of America, about 12 percent of of respondents say they definitely will purchase the shiny white AirPods, and it could mean billions for Apple.

I often encourage Apple to steal certain features from Samsung’s smartphones, like its super-sharp Quad HD displays and wireless charging. One thing I didn’t want it to rip off is the Galaxy Note 7’s tendency to explode.

According to one unlucky Reddit user, whose brand new iPhone 7 is now a charred piece of aluminum and shattered glass, that’s exactly what just happened.

Next year’s iPhone won’t be another repackaged iPhone 6. According to one reliable analyst, fans can look forward to an overhauled design with a scratch-resistant glass casing, and stainless steel edges on high-end models.

Lauren Wilkin’s life was about to get better. So she decorated her fingernails to reflect her shift in social status much like women of royalty did 7,000 years before.

Upper-class Egyptian women may have had a front-row seat to a growing civilization, but none experienced the excitement of trading in an iPhone 4 for an iPhone 6.

Don’t you just hate getting bombarded with emails? Our inboxes can be filled with junk every day, and half the time, you might not know what’s spam and what’s worth reading. Now there’s a new tool from AOL called Alto Dashboard that can help.

Alto Dashboard, which is integrated into the do-it-all Alto mail client, intelligently scans, analyzes, and restructures your emails to present you with the most valuable content right away. It then makes that content actionable so you can deal with email faster.

When you first get a Mac, your power user friends probably tell you about the time-saving benefits of learning all the keyboard shortcuts. That’s certainly true, but there’s a whole new dimension of efficiency that opens up with Keyboard Maestro, winner of Macworld Editor’s Choice Award in the category of Productivity Software. It lets you create and record custom macro shortcuts that can be activated at any time, and right now you can get it for a mere $19.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

If you decided to pick up an Android Wear device instead of Apple Watch, you may have trouble using it with iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

Those who have upgraded to one of Apple’s latest smartphones have found they just don’t play nicely with Google’s wearable platform, despite the fact that their predecessors have no trouble connecting after being upgraded to the same iOS 10 software.

Still not come to terms with Apple’s decision to ditch the 3.5mm jack for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus?

If so, you may want to support a new crowdfunding Indiegogo campaign for the so-called Fuze case, which integrates Apple’s abandoned headphone jack into its design — without requiring a dongle to do so.

George R.R. Martin missed the projected deadline for the sixth novel in his Song of Ice and Fire series. However, have no fear: Game of Thrones addicts can enjoy all-new material — including a sneak preview of the forthcoming The Winds of Winter — courtesy of the iBooks Store.

Here’s how.

Apple has reportedly set up its first R&D center in China, located in Beijing’s Zhongguancun Science Park, according to a statement issued by the Zhongguancun Park Management Committee.

The plan is for the center to hire a total of 500 employees, who will focus on a wide range of Apple products and devices including, “the development of computer software and hardware products, communication, audio and video devices, as well as advanced technologies for consumer electronics products and the information industry.”