Cult of Mac

Apple is planning a major flagship retail store in India, with a design reminiscent of its Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York, according to a new report.

Sure, the Internet is a risky place, but what are you doing to protect yourself? Something you can do right now to avoid pitfalls like identity or data theft is to connect to the Internet via a virtual private network. ZenMate VPN offers an easy and powerful option, and right now is the last chance you have to get a lifetime premium subscription for just $49.

The FBI was reportedly “stunned” when it first got to see what Apple had planned for iPhone encryption, after it received early access to iOS 8 (where Apple introduced its new, stronger iPhone encryption) so that it could examine how its evidence-gathering techniques would have to change.

Twitter turns 10 years old today — with the company having been founded back in the halcyon days of March 2006, when V For Vendetta had just arrived in theaters, James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” was being played on repeat by every radio station, and the iPhone was still an excited rumor on tech sites.

#ManyHappyReturnsOnYourBirthday.

The Apple Online Store has temporarily gone down in advance of today’s Apple keynote.

When it returns, we’re expecting to see a new 4-inch iPhone SE, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, additional Apple Watch straps, and more — although you probably won’t be able to order them right away.

Steve Wozniak sure likes to wax lyrical about the Apple II, and now he can do so with his very own wax figure (sorry for the awful pun!) — which was unveiled over the weekend at the first ever Silicon Valley Comic Con at the San Jose Convention Center.

“I am so honored. I have always wanted to be in a wax museum due to characters we idolize like our superheroes. You live on forever,” said Woz.

There are plenty of rumors that Apple plans to ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack connector for the iPhone 7 — and now we’ve got our first (possible) photo of the company’s next-gen EarPods, complete with Lightning connector.

The picture first appeared on Chinese social network Weibo over the weekend. Check it out below.

Happy Sunday everyone!

If you’re looking to kick back and relax, we’ve got you covered when it comes to the apps you need to download to enjoy the rest of your hard-earned weekend — and the 7 days to come.

From nifty adventure games for your iPhone to a great music app for Apple Watch, check out our picks for awesome apps of the week below.

If you use your mobile a lot, anything you do to get more out of your device can go a long way. We’ve found four of the best deals on upgrades to the mobile in your life, from portable keyboards to solar powered chargers and multitalented phone cases. Get in on it now though — these deals won’t last.

This week on The CultCast: Will we see new Macs? Perhaps the elusive “One more thing”? Don’t miss our March 21 Apple event predictions and expectations. Plus: How Instagram is about to be ruined; reports of an Apple Car price and ship date surface; why pirates are excited for the AyeCar; and some new iPhone 7 leaks echo familiar rumors.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to build a website that looks beautiful on any device at Squarespace.com. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off.

Python’s name isn’t accidental — it’s one of the most flexible and wide-reaching web development languages around. It can seem intimidating to learn such a massively applicable language, but this comprehensive bundle of lessons make it easy to learn Python from stem to stern. Comprising 7 courses and around a dozen hours of content, you can get it now for just $49.

The ability to send tiny finger drawings — or “Digital Touch sketches,” as Apple calls them — is probably the least-popular Apple Watch feature. Which is a shame, because once you get the hang of drawing them, they can be a lot of fun.

To help get you started, I’ve put together a compendium of 101 Digital Touch sketch ideas you can quickly and easily draw with your Apple Watch. I’ve sorted them by theme, and given them star ratings to indicate how difficult they are to draw. (Don’t miss the holiday section for some Easter greetings ideas.)

But first, a few tips on how to copy my drawings — and create your own — using your Apple Watch.

Apple’s set to bring the noise at an exciting new keynote event March 21, full of iPad Air 3 and iPhone SE news, and we’re sure you’re ready to hear it.

While you wait for Apple’s big event, though, we’ve gathered together all the things we think you need to know about the upcoming Apple-fest and put them into this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine.

Enjoy the noise, and check out this week’s top stories.

We’d play this game in a heartbeat, especially if it can bust video games into our living rooms in such a realistic way.

Putting on a typical virtual reality (VR) headset like an Oculus Rift can be disorienting at first, as VR tends to shut you out of the real world and into a, well, virtual one. Augmented reality, like you might find with Google Glass, for example, tends to place the digital world into the real one.

This Sulon Q looks like a VR rig, but lets you see the real world through it, with some digital overlay to make the fantasy of a video game look like it’s in the same place as you are.

In the video below, you’ll see a demo of a Jack and the Beanstalk game which starts out in the Sulon offices, but then things get fantastic fast as the giant beanstalk finds its way upward to the sky.

Check it out and thrill along with us.

Silicon Valley, the HBO comedy about the hard knocks of startup life, is coming back for its third season this April, and based on the first trailer that was released today, it’s going to be every bit as whacky as the first two seasons, if not more.

The Pied Piper gang gets a new CEO to kick things off, after last season ended with founder and CEO Richard Hendricks getting booted from his top spot by the board. It appears that Richard hasn’t completely left the company despite getting fired, while Gavin Belson and the Piper’s other rivals are still trying to kill the nerdy compression company.

Watch the first trailer below:

Tim Cook will take to the stage to host another Apple keynote on Monday, but who cares?

It seems only a small percentage of Apple fans are interested in a 4-inch iPhone, and although the rumored iPad upgrade will be a big one, interest in tablets is falling like Jennifer Lawrence at big events. So that leaves… Apple Watch straps? Please!

Without a major unveiling, is Monday’s keynote really worth getting excited for? Or will it be another disappointment, with interest quickly turning to Eddy Cue’s colorful shirts and Craig Federighi’s impeccable hair instead?

Join us in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac as we battle it out over those very questions!

On a recent episode of The App Factor podcast I got into (or rather, confessed) how many apps were on my iPhone prior to me having to start from scratch and install the OS and apps fresh (for what it’s worth, it was 750+ apps).

While I try to use my iPhone and iPad for a number of things including writing, catching up with friends and more, a lot of times I’ll want a quick fix or even an in-depth game to play.

After having to install apps from scratch and picking up a new iPad Pro, a few games made the cut while I thought what I really wanted to install and play. Here are a wide variety of games that I love. From new games to classics, these are some of my favorites.

Countless YouTube videos and reviews have demonstrated just how impressive Samsung’s new smartphone camera is in Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, but just how good is it compared to the rest of them?

According to the experts at DxOMark, it’s the best you can get right now.

The Department of Justice has pulled another surprise on Apple this week by making a last minute request to turn the company’s court appearance on March 22nd with the FBI into an evidentiary hearing.

Apple lawyers told reporters this morning that they were caught-off guard by the last minute request which should have been submitted weeks ago.

Touted as “the ultimate iPhone leather case” by its creators, the Guardian Leather case for iPhone 6 and 6s is a new wallet-style accessory with a campaign that just launched on Indiegogo. It’s designed with various functions in mind, but the focus on music takes the cake: You can control the volume from the outside of the case and even store your earbuds along the side of it.

I spent some time with the Guardian Leather to test the various functions it promises to deliver and the overall quality of the case. If you’re a fan, you have plenty of time to back the Indiegogo project — just under one month left.

GT Advanced Technologies — a.k.a. the disastrous sapphire supplier which was hired by Apple to build iPhone displays, before collapsing into bankruptcy — has announced that it has reemerged from Chapter 11 as a newly-reorganized company with a “solid balance sheet,” and “renewed strategy focused on growth in the solar and sapphire industries.”

Fancy being its first new client?

Steve Jobs was such a perfectionist that, for years, he didn’t fill his house with furniture simply because he couldn’t find items that measured up to his high standards.

Which is why it is oddly fitting that only now — approaching five years after the former Apple CEO’s death — is work finally set to begin on building Steve Jobs’ dream family house on land he bought way back in 1984.

Cloud storage is incredibly, almost unbelievably convenient. It can also be incredibly expensive, which makes this opportunity from Zoolz all the more exciting. Right now you can get five years of 100 of top notch backup for whatever you’re willing to pay. Or, beat the average price to get 500 gigs.

Chances are, you’ve lost your iPhone a time or two, even in your own home. I’ve found myself stalking around the living room, kitchen, and even bathroom trying to remember just where I left that darn iOS device.

Tile, the popular “find your stuff” tracker, has a trick you can use to find your lost iPhone, even if you’ve put the iPhone on silent.

Here’s how.

In terms of marketshare, the Apple Watch’s watchOS compared to Google’s Android Wear is likely to follow a similar trajectory to iOS and Android.

In other words, while Apple is dominating right now in smartwatch shipments, that balance promises to shift somewhat over the coming years as new low-cost competitors enter the market.