With his open letter defending Apple’s Irish tax strategy, Tim Cook positions his company as a sledgehammer-tossing freedom fighter at battle with Big Brother-style EU bureaucracy.

But unlike Cook’s previous missives on LGBT rights and the importance of privacy, this open letter seems unlikely to be met with near-unanimous support. While railing against the EU’s massive assessment of €13 billion euros in back taxes owed by Apple, Cook ignores the facts of the matter — and seems tone-deaf about painting the world’s biggest company as an underdog.

Creating your own Snapchat geofilter for parties and other special occasions just got a whole lot easier thanks to a new web-based tool Snapchat unleashed on the world today.

With competition intensifying from Instagram’s new Stories feature, Snapchat is expanding the revenue it gets from geofilters by charging a small fee to create your own for a short period of time. The tool lets users either upload their own art or modify existing templates, setting up custom filters to be the next big thing.

Sonos has teamed up with Amazon to bring Alexa voice control to its range of wireless speakers. The long-term deal will soon allow users to interact with their Sonos speakers via Alexa using voice commands.

Apple has added movie star turned business woman Jessica Alba to the cast of its first unscripted TV Series, Planet of the Apps, and just like her future co-hosts Will.i.Am and Gwyneth Paltrow, she’ll use her nonexistent coding skills to “mentor” developers.

Leaked SIM trays purportedly manufactured for the upcoming iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus hint at a new glossy black color option. The finish looks like it was inspired by the Mac Pro’s sleek cylindrical body that was first introduced in 2013.

It’s hard to know if we’re doing enough to protect our online identities and data these days. Got an email password with a dozen alternating numbers, letters and an upside-down question mark but somehow your email still gets hacked? This bundle of seven cybersecurity apps will cover the vulnerabilities in your Mac. And right now the whole shebang is going for just $52 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Tim Cook has written an open letter addressing Apple’s enormous tax bill, arguing that the European Union’s demand for €13 billion ($14.52 billion) in unpaid back taxes will have a “profound and harmful effect” on “investment and job creation in Europe.”

At present, Apple employs close to 6,000 people in Ireland, as well as “sustaining” 1.5 million jobs across Europe — including those at Apple and other manufacturers, developers and suppliers who rely on it.

Apple landing Europe’s biggest tax bill in history may be hot news today, but the tax arrangement behind it dates back 25 years.

In 1991, eleven years after Apple first opened its Ireland office, it came to a favorable arrangement with the Irish government — at a time when Apple’s market share had collapsed, but it was still one of the biggest employers in Ireland.

The verdict’s in on Apple’s European tax investigation, and the company has been handed a massive 13 billion euros ($14.52 billion) bill for unpaid back taxes in the Republic of Ireland.

The order was made by European Union competition officials, who ruled that Apple was taking advantage of illegal state aid that allowed the company to route profits through Ireland.

Apple is planning to make some huge improvements to the software on the iPad, but owners will have to wait until next year to try it out.

One of the biggest new features could involve the Apple Pencil, according to a new report that claims Apple’s big update will bring a powerful annotation feature to the device aimed at professional users.

Apple developers continue to hammer out bugs in macOS Sierra at an incredible pace with yet new beta build of the upcoming software for Macs.

Developers and public beta testers can now download macOS Sierra beta 8, just one week after Apple released the previous beta build of the new software that brings new features like Siri for Mac, auto-unlock with Apple Watch, Apple Pay, improved iCloud integration and much more.

The European Commission has finally finished its investigation into Apple’s tax breaks with Ireland and it appears that the company will be slapped with a fine for more than $1 billion in back taxes. 

The commission’s final ruling is expected to come tomorrow, according to a new report that claims Ireland will be expected to calculate exactly how much Apple owes. 

The iPhone turned your old cameras into relics. Why not turn a relic into a piece of art for your wall?

Outdated but still pretty, those old cameras can again see the light of day with Hangie, a discreet metal wall mount that gives something classic its rightful resting place.

This post is brought to you by Paragon Software Group, maker of Paragon NTFS for Mac.

Mac and PC are like yin and yang, or oil and water — essentially similar yet significantly distinct. It’s not just a difference in personal computing preference: The two platforms are literally built not to communicate with one another.

Apple and Microsoft coded their operating systems using completely different languages for writing files to drives, HFS+ and NTFS respectively. OS X offers only limited support for files written to a Windows-formatted drive, whether an external hard drive, SSD or USB stick, which can mean major headaches if you’re living or working in a cross-platform world.

Before corporate shine and the smell of success, there was a counterculture aura and a whiff of weed. Pot and the dreams of some industrious guys shared a garage where the personal computing revolution incubated under the Apple brand.

So what would the late Steve Jobs think if he could see Apple’s iPhone used to keep the growing and selling of cannabis legal? Jobs, who said he smoked it early on because it made him feel more creative, might smile and say, cool!

Touch IC Disease, a glitch with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus that results in gray, flickering bars at the top of the devices’ screens and a loss of touch sensitivity, has earned Apple its latest class-action lawsuit.

Caused by an apparent design flaw in the iPhone 6 series, Touch IC Disease is more prevalent among the larger iPhone 6 Plus devices. While the problem made headlines for the first time last week, a proposed class-action lawsuit filed Saturday claims Apple has long been aware of the defect, which can render devices useless.

Apple is set to deliver its biggest keynote of the year on September 7, when the company will unveil its most important new product of 2016: the iPhone 7.

Apple Watch 2, new MacBook Pros and updated iPads are likely on the horizon as well, so we wanted to know if this is the year you’re looking forward to something other than a new iPhone?

Tell us which Apple product you’re most excited about in our reader poll.

Apple is finally set to unveil something new on September 7. While the company hasn’t said what it will be, it’s pretty much certain a new iPhone or two will make an appearance at the invite-only San Francisco event.

The Apple rumor mill has been churning out juicy details about the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus for months and, if you stare at the blurry lights on Apple’s invite, you just might pick up a few more clues about what to expect during next month’s keynote.

The iPhone 7 is coming!

Apple just sent out press invitation to a special event to be held September 7 at 10 a.m. Pacific. The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are expected to be unveiled at the event, which will be hosted at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco.

The Apple Watch 2 may come with up to 35 percent more battery capacity, based on an alleged leaked component destined for the new device that is expected to be revealed this fall.

It’s ok to admit you pretend the shower nozzle is a microphone, but let’s be honest — rocking out in the shower is a lot better when you can actually sing along. With this waterproof Bluetooth speaker, Splash Tunes, you can bring your favorite music, podcasts, e-books, etc. into the shower with you. It’s a major upgrade for a major part of your (hopefully) daily routine, and right now you can get a Splash Tunes speaker for $19.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

The iPad Pro has taken a ton of fire recently from Microsoft, but the company’s latest ad shifts targets to attack the MacBook.

The company busts out the old-school disses in the ad, which calls the MacBook “square” during an annoying song that brags about the Surface Pro 4’s detachable keyboard, pen and touchscreen. And it runs Windows!

Listen to Microsoft’s horrible jingle:

Four years had passed and my crush on the Canon 5D Mark III showed no signs of fading. Even as rumors of a more exciting Mark IV began percolating, I couldn’t imagine a camera getting any better.

That is until the IV hit the floor last week.

Want to send your friend something private, but you’re worried someone else might see it? Well with the big Messages improvements coming in iOS 10 this fall, users will have the ability to send things in invisible ink. Here’s how!

If you’re looking to unwind this fine Sunday by sampling the latest delectables the App Store has to offer, have no fear: Cult of Mac is here to help.

From smart AI tools to a great strategic shooter, here are the apps we were busy checking out over the past week.