Cult of Mac

Tim Cook made a surprise appearance today at the Fifth Ave Apple Store in NYC ahead of his appearance on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert tomorrow night.

During his visit, Cook mingled with the customers, took selfies, and photobombed Eddy Cue before getting swarmed by a mob of fans anxious to get a close-up with the Apple CEO. Buzzfeed created a Snapchat story of the CEO’s visit which wasn’t announced to fans or employees before he dropped in for some quality times with customers.

Here are a few highlights from Cook’s NYC debut:

Have you ever found yourself staring at the Netflix or Amazon Prime Video screen on your TV, or drooling a bit while you page through the Redbox screens at a red kiosk near you?

It’s frustrating, especially when you’re always hearing about movies that you must see right now, but can’t seem to remember when you’re on the couch (or sofa, get it?) with a remote in hand.

The developers of Sofa have you covered, though, with a new app aimed at helping you find and track all those flicks you haven’t seen, but want to.

“Me and My Other Me” is a series of illustrated portraits of celebrities. The roster of folks drawn up include tech giants like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as well as music mega-stars like Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson.

What makes them creepy–aside from the highly detailed cartoonish art style, that is–is that they’re portraits of both younger and older versions of the subjects.

Just take a look at a few of these disturbing pieces of art below and you’ll see what I mean.

Apple Music has done a pretty decent job of suggesting content to users over its first couple of months. Between its auto-generated playlists based on your preference bubbles and curation straight from famous acts and DJs, you should have little trouble finding something you might not mind sticking in your earholes. And a new batch of ads for the streaming service has even more suggestions.

You can check out what Apple Music wants you to discover in the videos below.

Sometime in the last few weeks, I’ve had a big problem with Apple Music.

Whenever I’d start an album or playlist, I’d only hear the first song I chose, over and over and over.

I’d hit the Up Next list button and see the same song, endlessly repeated.

The fix is an easy one, but man did it frustrate me for weeks. Here’s how you can make sure you’re not stuck on repeat.

Shipping dates for the iPhone 6s Plus have already slipped to 3 – 4 weeks on Apple’s website, and it appears that the low supply may be due to production problems with its bigger than big display.

In a new note to investors, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that one of Apple’s suppliers of the backlight display module is experiencing issues creating the new 3D Touch display, which could make the new iPhone hard to find in stores on launch day.

It seems a bit risky for your tech startup to make its first product a keychain. But London-based Mirai has one you’ll get a charge out of – literally.

The PowerClip is a key fob that serves first and foremost as a charger for your iPhone or Android smartphone. But it also has other functions, including an activity tracker, flashlight, key- and phone-finder and serves as a data storage device.

We were told that computers would make word processing way more efficient and less time-consuming. By now we all know the truth — writing on a computer is like fighting through an obstacle course of distractions, scattered notes and half-read articles. Scrivener is a word processor and project management app that streamlines and organizes research and writing on your computer, an invaluable resource that you can get for $19.50 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Accessories company Catalyst likes to assume the extreme in everybody. Its marketing wants us to fret not about getting our iPhone or Apple Watch wet or dirty. Catalyst projects the confidence that it has your investment protected.

So, less than a week after Apple announced a new iPad Pro, Catalyst is touting the specs of a military-tough iPad Pro case that will be available after the first of the year.

It looks like HopStop is doing the walk of shame back from Apple’s apartment. The city transit mapping service is shutting down as of this October. Apple acquired HopStop in 2013 and seems to have used up just about all of the data it wants for its own Maps app, so the folks in Cupertino have apparently moved on.

With his soothing British accent, love of flowery design terms, and immediately recognizable pronunciation of “aluminium,” few people in tech are as widely parodied as Jony Ive.

Impressions of Ive have become a tech industry trope in their own right, but last week an Ive-centric joke debuted online, which Apple’s design guru apparently found so offensive that he had Apple’s legal team contact the creators to take it down.

Comic books are considered an important part of Belgian culture. So it seemed only fitting that one of the biggest icons in pop culture, Apple, would team up with comic artists for the opening of the first-ever Apple store in Brussels.

Apple released a two-minute video over the weekend on its YouTube channel to show off the artists behind the marketing to announce the store’s opening, set for Saturday.

Apple is reportedly on track to beat 2014’s record-smashing 10 million+ iPhone 6 and 6 Plus pre-orders, according to a statement released by the company.

“Customer response to iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus has been extremely positive and preorders this weekend were very strong around the world,” a spokesperson for Apple says. “We are on pace to beat last year’s 10 million unit first-weekend record when the new iPhones go on sale September 25.”

The Apple Watch is gradually rolling out to more and more outlets — with British department store John Lewis and electronics retailer Currys saying that they will start selling the wearable devices from 18 September.

The iPhone 6s isn’t even out yet, but already reports are claiming that Apple has awarded its A10 processor orders for the next eagerly-anticipated iPhone upgrade, the iPhone 7.

The winning company if you believe said rumors? None other than Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company — the manufacturer said to be making half of Apple’s A9 chips for the iPhone 6s.

Do we believe it? Count me in the “skeptical” pile.

Just because you can buy the same model of iPhone 6s all over the world doesn’t mean that you’ll be paying the same for it.

When international prices are converted into U.S. dollars, some markets pay up to 30 percent more for the basic 16GB iPhone 6s than customers in the United States.

The country being hit the hardest? France, due to the domestic weakening of the Euro over the past twelve months. Sacré bleu, indeed!

Surprise, surprise! Former Google CEO and current Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt has a bone to pick with Apple Music.

In an article published over the weekend, Schmidt takes what appears to be a shot at Apple over its choice to embrace human curation for its streaming service.

If you haven’t already pre-ordered your new iPhone 6s, you’ve still got a great chance of getting one on launch day — unless you want a Rose Gold model.

The new color option has become the first to sell out completely in many markets, but the Silver, Gold, and Space Gray are still widely available for delivery and personal pickup on Friday, September 25.

This is a guest post by Fraser Speirs, a teacher, systems administrator and consultant specializing in the application of modern mobile technology in schools. It originally appeared on his personal website.

“The iPad is the clearest expression of our vision of the future of personal computing.” — Tim Cook

The above statement by Apple’s CEO is — by far — the most important thing that happened for iPad at Apple’s event last Wednesday. We have been through more than three years of the iPad playing a distant second to the iPhone and, to some extent, even the Mac at Apple events. It’s been three long years of “Here’s the new thinner, faster iPad. We can’t wait to see what you do with it. Bye!”

Whether it’s emails, newsletters, or blog posts, if you spend any amount of time typing you likely also waste a lot of it by repeating yourself. After the 300th time typing out an address, the name of a business, or anything that bears repeating, you’ve spent valuable seconds that quickly add up, and which you could’ve been saved by using TextExpander. The app makes it easy to program convenient shortcuts for your most commonly written phrases, and right now you can get it for just $31 at Cult of Mac Deals.

In what appears to be a first, Apple is providing free hardware for software developers.

Monday could be the lucky day for a limited number of developers who signed up for the Apple TV Developer Kit.

Not only will they get the new hardware six weeks in advance of it going on sale, they’ll get it for free, Apple has confirmed.

The weekend lasts a way-too-quick 48 hours, so it’s essential that you don’t waste time downloading the wrong app.

Fortunately, Cult of Mac is here to fill you in on the best pieces of mobile software to hit the App Store as of late. From a photo-app-with-a-difference to a fantastic new Star Wars title, we’ve got you covered whatever your interests.

Make sure you check out our picks below:

The interconnected tech in our lives is only as strong as the weakest link, and most of the time that’s a flimsy charging cord. Titan’s MFi-Certified lightning cable flips that script, with a steel-sealed cable that’ll outlive us all. And right now you can get this cable that’ll last at least one lifetime for just $24.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

New research suggests that iOS fitness apps stink at giving you a complete workout. As the developer of one such app, you might think I would disagree. But I don’t. In fact, the only thing I would challenge is the researchers’ conclusion that app developers could do better. They can’t.

Fitness apps can be indispensable if you already know what you are doing, but If you are new to exercise, you should not rely on them to get you started.

We’re all pretty excited about the upcoming release of the iPhone 6s, Apple’s latest and shiniest hardware. And it seems that some people are so excited about the new phone that it makes them forget a bunch of things — like what an original iPhone looks like.

Kimmel sent an interviewer out on the street, where he presented passersby with the original, 2007 iPhone, told them it was a demo version of the 6s, and asked them how the “new” phone looks to them. You can see the cringeworthy results in the video below.