The age of virtual reality is here, and you’re probably closer to taking part in this exciting new form of interaction and storytelling than you think. If you’ve got a smart phone, you’ve got most of what you need to drop into virtual reality today — the only other thing you’ll need is something like the Homido VR Headset. Simply slide your smartphone into the headset’s receiver and you’re on your way to another reality, all for $69.95 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Steve Jobs was considering building an Apple Car as far back as 2008, the year after successfully launching the iPhone, according to a new interview with Nest CEO and iPod co-creator Tony Fadell.

Speaking with Bloomberg TV’s Emily Chang, Fadell says that he and Jobs enjoyed “a couple of walks” (Jobs’ favored way of taking meetings), talking about a possible Apple vehicle.

Microsoft has long been threatening to bring Cortana to iOS as a rival to Siri — and it’s almost ready for you to test it out.

The Redmond, WA company is currently accepting sign-ups for the Cortana beta, although you’ll have to live in either the U.S. or China to take advantage of the offer.

Living in the U.K. as I do (in contrast to most of my California-based Cult of Mac co-writers), Christmas ads are one of the few bright spots at this time of year.

And Lloyds Bank just kicked off the season with a cracking 40-second ad showing off the fact that it is now well and truly on the Apple Pay bandwagon. The ad tells the story of a girl looking for the perfect Christmas gift for her mom — with Apple’s mobile payment service coming to the rescue.

Check it out below.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has branded a new proposed law banning encrypted communications in the U.K. as “stupid,” and says that if it is passed, Apple should stop selling iPhones in the country out of principle.

“I would like to see Apple refuse to sell iPhone in UK if government bans end-to-end encryption,” Wales posted on Twitter. “Does Parliament dare be that stupid?”

The new Steve Jobs movie has bombed at the box office — but director Danny Boyle thinks the failure has nothing to do with the movie he made, but rather the decision to open it nationally too quickly.

“We did brilliantly the first two weekends,” he said. “Then [the studio] went too wide too soon, and that’s a mistake. But hindsight experts are always around on Monday mornings.”

Apple has just released its second beta for iOS 9, coinciding with the release of Apple’s latest developer figures for iOS 9 adoption — showing that the company’s latest mobile OS can now be found on 2 out of every 3 compatible iPhones and iPads.

A 4-inch iPhone 6s — resembling an “upgraded iPhone 5s” — is on the way in the first half of 2016, says renowned Apple prognosticator, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Kuo claims the handset will come with an A9 processor and metal casing — although customers shouldn’t expect Apple to incorporate its 3D Touch technology into the handset, as a way of differentiating it from the premium iPhone 6s and 6s Plus models.

A company that specializes in making Lego-ized versions of tech-world giants is offering minifigures based on Apple co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, current CEO Tim Cook, and some people who work for other companies, if you want to be all diverse about it.

The figures won’t even set you back that much, really. Depending on how much you value plastic that looks like people.

The openings to my ear canals are small. There, I said it. Hearing is not a problem, but finding earbuds that fit is a pain in the, well, ears.

Apple’s customary earphones that came with every iPod or iPhone I bought got tossed in a drawer. At least there, they wouldn’t fall out.

Decibullz, a startup company when they hit it big with moldable earbuds last year, is now trying to bring to production a set of wireless earphones with the moldable tips. The molding process requires nothing more than a glass of hot water.

The new Apple TV remote is a thing of beauty. It’s got six simple buttons, it’s rechargeable and it features a beautifully simple touchpad at the top to swipe across menus, app icons and letters to enter passwords.

But the simple joy of using the touchpad is very Apple-like. There are hidden secrets to the surface uses, with

Here’s how to get the most out of your Apple TV remote touchpad.

Apple has released its first beta for tvOS 9.1 to developers this morning, marking the first big software update in the pipeline for the fourth generation Apple TV that launched last Friday.

The first iOS 9.2 beta was released less than a week ago, but Apple has already seeded the second beta of the upcoming beta to developers today with build 13C5060d. OS X El Capitan has received a new beta update as well in the form of OS X 10.11.2 beta 2.

Twitter decided to take a step toward Facebook today by changing its star icon for favorites into a heart icon and calling them Likes.

The changes have not gone over well, with many Twitter fans questioning the decision while others are just down right angry that Twitter took away the best way to say, ‘I saw your tweet, but don’t want to reply to it.’

Luckily, there is a way to change the hearts back to stars when using the social network through a browser. You can even change the hearts to a beer, poop, unicorn, or any other emoji and it doesn’t require much work.

Here’s how to strike back against Twitter’s new hearts icon:

Best List: Dynafit Khion Carbon

It is never easy to design something that’s going to serve two distinctly different purposes, like a car that turns into an airplane or a fork that doubles as a spoon. Or, in this case, a ski boot that is helps you skin up a mountain or ski the downward slopes reliably, precisely and with some sense of ear-grinning enjoyment.

The art that flows from Salavat Fidai’s pencils actually never leaves the pencils.

A curvy stallion, a row of circus elephants or the Eiffel Tower remain on the tips of pencils thanks to Fidai’s steady hand and patient craft knife that carves the soft lead into a sculptural symbol easily recognized in the most unexpected place.

Web development skills are essential to many of today’s top jobs, but it’s a time-consuming process to learn, especially for those without coding experience. With OSTraining’s collection of lessons, you can take as much time as you need — literally your whole life. With over 2,500 video lessons covering the whole landscape of web development, it’s an invaluable source of knowledge that you can access now for $69 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Google’s Inbox app is getting a handy “Smart Reply” tool that’ll suggests short, simple responses to your emails when a quickly reply is all that’s required. The tool hopes to help you wade through your busy inbox a whole lot faster.

There’s now a faster way to flip the middle finger or display a steaming pile of poop – along with your other favorite emoji.

EmojiWorks has introduced what is probably the first portable keyboard with built-in emoji shortcuts. Each letter key displays two or three different emoji, which can be inserted into a message by pressing a dedicated emoji key.

Banks may refuse to refund disputed transactions, or help customers who are victims of fraud, if the person in question has their fingerprints stored on a phone or tablet that does not belong to them.

According to a new report, several banks in the U.K. are making the decision now that fingerprints are used to authenticate payments within Apple Pay. Lloyds Bank, for instance, features the following line in its terms and conditions: “If Touch ID is available on your device, you must ensure you only register your own fingerprints (and not anyone else’s).”

Apple has steadily been rolling out its 3D Touch/Force Touch technology across as many of its devices as possible — and the next step may be Mac keyboards.

According to a newly published patent for an “Ultra low travel keyboard,” Apple’s futuristic keyboard would allow different functions or commands to be assigned as per, “different levels of force input” received when you press a key.

The new Apple TV remote is a wondrous touch- and motion-enabled trackpad with a few simple buttons that lets you do everything on your new black hockey puck of joy, including playing games, swiping through apps, and, well, playing and pausing your movies and TV shows.

What happens when you lose it somewhere in the depths of your couch, though? The iPhone Remote app no longer works with the new Apple TV, and unless you have an Apple Store nearby, you’re gonna want to have a backup plan in place.

Might as well take a couple of minutes and set up your regular old TV remote to work with Apple TV, right?

Here’s how.

Apple, Amazon and Google aren’t exactly techie BFFs, as can be seen from that whole Android vs. iOS thing, or Amazon’s recent decision to boot Apple TV out of its online store.

But you know what can bring the heads of all three companies together? Let’s try a quick pop-quiz.

A) Team-building paintball trip.
B) Romantic candlelit dinner.
C) The promise of lots and lots of cash.

Click below to find out. (Hint: the answer is C.)

Despite the iPhone 6s’ record-shattering 13 million unit sales in its first three days, reports coming out of Apple’s supply chain suggest that manufacturer Pegatron has stopped operating several of its iPhone 6s production lines in Shanghai — and may even be laying off some employees who were hired to work on the handset.

While this has the distinct feel of an unsubstantiated rumor to it, Pegatron has come forward and acknowledged that it’s actually true.

But hold back your “Apple will go bankrupt in six months” placards for now; things aren’t exactly as they first appear…

How time flies! This month marks two years since ground broke on Apple’s futuristic new “spaceship” campus, and — despite the odd hitch along the way — things are looking impressively together.

To show just how together the pieces all are, drone videographer Duncan Sinfield recently flew his DJI Inspire 1 drone over the building site to produce a stunning video of Apple’s forthcoming dream campus.

Check it out below. You won’t regret it.