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Here’s Mac OS 7.5.5 running on an iPad Air 2

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An iPad Air 2, running Mac OS 7.5.5
An iPad Air 2, running Mac OS 7.5.5
Screenshot: Cult of Mac

Since it was first released, people keep asking when the iPad will be able to run OS X, and while iOS keeps on becoming more like OS X with every passing version, you still can’t run Mac apps on your iPad… right?

Not quite. Technically, it’s possible to run Mac apps on your iPad Air 2. But prepare for it to be sloooooooow, and don’t expect El Capitan, Yosemite, or even Snow Leopard compatibility. This technique tops out with Mac OS 7.5.5, which was first released 19 years ago.

Enhance your computer or mobile with these awesome peripherals [Deals]

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Back up and expand your mobile capacity by 32 gigs without having to sign up for cloud storage.
Back up and expand your mobile capacity by 32 gigs without having to sign up for cloud storage.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

iPhones, iPads, and Macbooks are great, but they can always be improved. Whether you’re looking to game better on your mobile or just make sure you’ve got a spare charger when your old one goes kaput, we’ve collected some of the best deals on peripherals for your portable tech.

How knockoff Apple Watch bands are nearly as good as the real thing

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Spot the difference. On the left is Apple's $450 Link Bracelet for Apple Watch. On the right, a $90 knockoff that gets 4.5 stars on Amazon.
Spot the difference. On the left is Apple's $450 Link Bracelet for Apple Watch. On the right, a $90 knockoff that gets 4.5 stars on Amazon.
Photo: Apple

The internet is awash with knockoff bands for the Apple Watch that are almost as good as the genuine articles.

Knockoff products are traditionally cheap and nasty, but tons of these replica Apple Watch bands are so good, they rival Apple’s own products — at a fraction of the price.

We’ve taken a tour of knockoff band land, and found that there are lots of cheap, inexpensive bands on eBay and Amazon that are high in quality and are getting glowing reviews from customers.

“My black Apple Sport band has started flaking off, while the third-party knock-offs still look brand new,” said Neven Mrgan, a designer for Panic software in Portland, Oregon who bought a less-than-half-price band on Amazon.

Make yourself an online marketing master [Deals]

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Attract more users with this live course, and earn two diplomas in the process.
Attract more users with this live course, and earn two diplomas in the process.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Marketing in the digital age comes with a whole new set of tools, concepts and challenges. Social media, SEO, video content, the range of avenues to promote a brand or product are are a vast topic, but we’ve found some great lessons for helping you chart your way to marketing mastery. Most of them are 98% off, and it doesn’t take any marketing knowledge to know that’s a good deal.

New December iOS games to jingle your bells

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Best ios games December 2015

Photo: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

We’re finishing up 2015, and now that you’re all good and tired of your families, we’ve checked out some great December iOS games to help you decompress in solitude.

This month’s offerings should cover all of your needs, whether you like to relax with a simple match-three title or need something more strategic. We have high-def graphics, pixel art, orchestrated music, chiptunes, straight-up fighting, and strategizing. December had something for everyone.

In no particular order, here were our favorite diversions from the December rush.

Cult of Mac Magazine: Apple’s best and worst of 2015, must-have apps, and more

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Happy New Year everyone!
Happy New Year everyone!
Cover Design: Stephen Smith

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. We take a look at them all from 2015 in this end-of-year issue of the delightful and informative Cult of Mac Magazine. We’ve got Apple’s best and worst wins and fails of the year, the must-have apps on Apple TV, Mac, iOS, and Apple Watch, how to keep your toughest New Year’s resolutions with your iPhone, a quick trick on adding emojis just about anywhere, and our thoughts on why 2015 was actually Apple’s most important year since 2007.

Dive in with your own copy of Cult of Mac Magazine. Below is the rundown for this week.

Happy New Year from all of us here at Cult of Mac.

2015: The year Apple super-sized its ambitions

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Apple year in review 2015
2015 was a great year for Apple -- mostly.
Image: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

Cult of Mac's Best of 2015 You could say 2015 was a product-ive year for Apple. The company entered the wearable market with the Apple Watch, released a hugely updated version of the Apple TV streaming box, unveiled the massive iPad Pro (and considerably less massive iPad Mini 4), took on tune-streaming with the Apple Music service, and made its annual update to the iPhone with the 6s and 6s Plus.

We also saw updates to the operating systems that run all those things, as well as a new desktop OS in El Capitan, but it wasn’t all great news. Apple encountered lawsuits, shakeups and investigations by countries and entire federations thereof.

So whether we ultimately decide Cupertino had a good or bad year, at least it was pretty interesting. Relive the ups and downs with this Apple year in review 2015, Cult of Mac-style.

Wireless iPhone charging case is stacked with power

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Wall charger, battery pack, iPhone case all stacked up and ready to go.
Wall charger, battery pack, iPhone case all stacked up and ready to go.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Best List: Wireless iPhone Charging System by Stacked

If there’s one thing I can never have enough of, it’s power for my iPhone. Even on normal, about-town sort of days, I’m always looking for ways to keep the battery topped off, in case I need it for something power-intensive later on. I carry around external chargers like some people carry around ChapStick and tissue, and I’ve always got a spare cable to share. All of that stuff can add up to a ball of wires and plugs, making for a nasty mess in my backpack.

I’ve long wanted an easier, wire-free charging existence, and that’s where the Stacked iPhone charging case comes in. It’s a clever system that’s a truly wireless solution to keeping my iPhone at the top end of the charged-up spectrum.

Best Apple Watch apps of 2015

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Ready to set your wrist on fire? Download these hot, hot, hot Apple Watch apps now.
Ready to set your wrist on fire? Download these hot, hot, hot Apple Watch apps now.
Image: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

Cult of Mac's Best of 2015 While the Apple Watch is still waiting for its “killer app,” plenty of great apps already exist for the new wearable. They ease us through common tasks, add value to awesome iPhone apps, or delight us with subtle functions that we didn’t necessarily know we needed (but now practically can’t live without).

These apps might not be homicidal, but they make us want to strap on an Apple Watch each and every day. These are our favorite Apple Watch apps of 2015.

Start the new year paying what you want for new workplace skills [Deals]

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Get a complete tour of development for iOS 9.
Get a complete tour of development for iOS 9.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Enter the new year with a head full of new ideas and your wallet full of cash. These bundles on essential web and mobile development courses are brimming with invaluable knowledge that give your professional life an upgrade. They can be yours for whatever you’re willing to pay for them, and a portion of whatever you spend goes to support the good work of Save the Children.

Crushgate? What happens when 3,500 pounds of force meets an iPhone 6s

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Screen Shot 2015-12-31 at 14.19.43
This doesn't end well.
Photo: TechRax

Remember Bendgate, the massively overblown period following the iPhone 6’s release, in which people acted like Apple’s handset was about as sturdy as a slice of processed cheese?

Well, destructive YouTuber TechRax is back with a new “stress test” designed to see how the studier iPhone 6s fares against 3,500 pounds of pressure. Answer: nNt very well at all.

If, to paraphrase Fight Club, you want to see out 2015 by watching the destruction of something beautiful, check out the video below.

Apple’s biggest wins (and most epic fails) of 2015

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It was the best of designs, it was the worst of designs. Apple  really went for it in 2015, with varying degrees of success.
It was the best of designs, it was the worst of designs. Apple really went for it in 2015, with varying degrees of success.
Image: Stephen Smith/Cult of Mac

Cult of Mac's Best of 2015 2015 was a bold year for Apple. The company jumped into new product categories, polished its existing hardware and software lines, and wowed us repeatedly.

Apple also made most of us throw up in our mouths a little bit now and then, due to some questionable (and some undeniably bad) choices.

These are Apple’s biggest wins and most epic fails of the past year, as remembered — fondly and otherwise — by Cult of Mac staffers.

NFL player hands out Apple Watches to his teammates

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Apple Watch
A gift worth taking a tackle for.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Quarterbacks and running backs will often reward their offensive linemen with gifts, but veteran NFL Baltimore Ravens punter Sam Koch recently gave out a particularly welcome high-tech pressie to his teammates — when he handed out Apple Watches.

Japanese temple hopes Steve Jobs’ name will revive interest

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1280px-Eiheiji08bs3200
This is the temple where Jobs' spiritual advisor was trained.
Photo: 663highland/Wikipedia CC

It’s no secret that Japan is a big fan of Steve Jobs, which goes some way to explaining why Apple’s late co-founder is being used as a (pretty tenuous) connection to help reinvigorate interest in the country’s Buddhist Zen tourism trade.

How? Because, as it turns out, the 13th century Eiheiji temple Japanese local authorities hope to drum up interest in happens to be the same place which trained Kobun Chino Otogawa, a.k.a. Jobs’ spiritual advisor and wedding officiator.

We warned you it was tenuous!

Rumors of iPhone crash in 2016 may be greatly exaggerated

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Apple raked in the cash last quarter.
Don't expect Apple's iPhone business to crash any time soon.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

This time of year yields more Apple doom predictions than New Year’s resolutions, so it’s no surprise that Apple analysts have been naming 2016 as the year iPhone sales finally fall off a cliff.

But according to Brean Capital, not only is Apple stock still worth buying, with a $170 price target, but investors should look through the “supply chain ‘noise'” and see the potential for iPhone sales to hit around 250 million units next year — or 7 percent to 10 percent growth from Apple’s already stellar 2016.

Apple is close to signing deal for OLED iPhone displays

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20151008_iphone-xt1_0014-780x520
OLED displays are on their way.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The arrival of OLED displays for future iPhones is looking more of a sure thing than ever, with a new report stating that Apple is on the verge of finalizing an agreement with Samsung Display and LG Display to build its future screens.

According to sources, Samsung will produce around 90,000 OLED substrates per month for Apple, while LG will produce 60,000.

Total number of smartphone displays that should generate? The report doesn’t make it explicitly clear, but it is likely to be in the region of 400 million displays per year.

Apple could be forced to add more ‘executives of color’

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diversity Apple
Apple is stepping up its pro-diversity game.
Photo: Apple

Apple could be forced to add more non-white executives and directors, due to a proposal put forward by an investor who thinks the current makeup of Apple execs is “a little bit too vanilla.”

The possible pro-diversity push was reportedly prompted after the son of investor Antonio Avian Maldonado II, who owns just 645 Apple shares, asked why nearly everyone on Apple’s board of directors was white.

App Store app acting weird? Try this quick fix

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You'll want to find these.
You'll want to find these.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Twitter user and developer Peter Steinberger shouted out to the Twitterverse when his App Store app kept showing an app that needed an update, but would never actually update, even with an iPhone restart.

He got a reply from Zachary Drayer, a mobile developer himself, on how to get the App Store to force refresh.

It’s totally nonintuitive, but utterly cool, and you can do it on your Apple Watch and iTunes app as well. Here’s what to do if you’re in the same situation.

AT&T will kill two-year contracts at the beginning of 2016

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Two-year contracts are about to be a thing of the past.
Two-year contracts are about to be a thing of the past.
Photo: Mike Mozart/Flickr

If you want to buy the iPhone 6s on a two-year contract with AT&T you better hurry.

Internal documents from AT&T leaked online this morning revealing the carrier plans to finally kill the two-year contracts it’s offered long before it become the first carrier to sell the iPhone.

Twitter for Mac doesn’t suck anymore

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twitter-mac-update-4
That didn't take too long, did it?
Photo: Twitter

Twitter finally resurrected its Mac app with just about everything its users have been asking for over the past several… well, for a really long time. The update at long last looks much like the Twitter you’re familiar with on your smartphone or desktop browser. It’s complete with highly requested features like GIF support and group direct messages with up to 50 people, plus a dark theme for power users and more.

“Don’t call it a comeback!” Twitter wrote in the update description. “Twitter for Mac is getting the update you’ve been asking for.”

The easy way to add emojis to everything on your Mac

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Emoji for all your textual needs.
Emoji for all your textual needs.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre / Cult of Mac

In Apple’s Messages app, you can easily add emojis with a quick click on the little happy face icon in the iMessage text field. If you use a chat app like Slack, you can do the same.

But what if you want to add an emoji to an email, a letter, or any other text field? Turns out there’s an often-overlooked menu item (with a corresponding keyboard shortcut) that lets you do just that.

Check it out.

Clever aluminum iPad stand upgrades your Apple lifestyle

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iQunix iPad stand
It's a beautiful life (thanks to aluminum).
Photo: Rob LeFebvre / Cult of Mac

Best List: Zand Aluminum iPad Stand by iQunix

Living in an Apple ecosystem, my world revolves around brushed aluminum and white cables. My iPhone 6 Plus is silver on the back, my iPads are black and space gray, and my MacBook Pro is — you guessed it — a lovely brushed aluminum.

The new iQunix Zand Aluminum iPad stand looks like something Apple would design to set your iPad next to that MacBook Pro for a perfectly matched finish.

Apple Watch is four times more accurate at timekeeping than iPhone

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Apple Watch is a killer device, even without a
Apple Watch is a killer device, even without a "killer app."
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

When you’re counting down the seconds to New Year’s tomorrow night, make sure you’ve got an Apple Watch nearby.

“As a piece of hardware, [Apple Watch is] far more accurate as a timekeeping device than the iPhone,” Apple VP of Technology Kevin Lynch revealed in a new interview. “With New Year’s coming, those who have the Apple Watch will be the most accurate watch in the room. There will be no question about when New Year’s Eve actually is now.”