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5 affordable ways to give back-to-school an upgrade for 2015 [Deals]

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The Jorg Messenger Bag adds a 11,000mAh charger to a sleek and stylish carryall.
The Jorg Messenger Bag adds a 11,000mAh charger to a sleek and stylish carryall.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

School’s changed a lot in recent years, as technology keeps creeping into every aspect of learning along with our lives. Time to get with the times — whether it’s keeping your cash and cell phone in one place, getting a bag that can charge your devices while you walk, or a cyber-secured lock for your locker, we’ve got some of the best deals for making 2015’s back-to-school actually feel like 2015.

Apple Watch demand is ‘so strong,’ says Best Buy CEO

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Apple Watch sales figures are basically analyst roulette right now.
Apple Watch sales are doing great.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple still hasn’t publicly released sales figures for the Apple Watch, but according to Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly, the wearable device is doing great.

“Demand for Apple Watch has been so strong in the stores and online,” Joly told analysts during the company’s latest earnings call.

HTC ditches its own design language to copy the iPhone

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Cover up the logos and you can hardly tell them apart.
Photo: Steve Hemmerstoffer
Cover up the logos and you can hardly tell them apart. Photo: Steve Hemmerstoffer
Cover up the logos and you can hardly tell them apart. Photo: Steve Hemmerstoffer

HTC appears to have given up on its own design language in an effort to make its next flagship smartphone an iPhone clone. Leaked images of the so-called HTC Aero look almost identical to an iPhone 6, with the same flat form factor and protruding camera.

Number 2 on the App Store: a social network for pooping

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Great. Just what the world needed. A social network for pooping.
Great. Just what the world needed. A social network for pooping.
Photo: Pooductive

Look, we know you’ve taken your iPhone into the bathroom with you for number two. Everyone has. That doesn’t mean you should tell people about it. But a new app, charmingly called Pooductive, is for just that. It’s dedicated to facilitating meaningful, anonymous conversation on the toilet about… you can guess the topic.

Pixeljam snubs Kickstarter, rolls out own crowdfunding platform

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Dino Run is part of Pixeljam's crowdfunding experiment.
Game developer Pixeljam is changing crowdfunding for the better.
Photo: Pixeljam

Pixeljam is no stranger to making iPhone and Mac games, but now the studio is taking on another challenge: transforming the way crowdfunding works to make it better for game developers and other creative types.

Company co-founder Miles Tillman describes the crowdfunding project as an “experiment” that’s an alternative to popular services like Indiegogo and Kickstarter. Pixeljam’s new platform lets backers donate money just like the others, but prioritizes transparent communication, instant gratification and actually making the game ahead of crowdfunding staples like producing slick videos and stressing out over fundraising goals and deadlines.

Flip off meter maids with AwareCar, an app for better parking

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It's just the size of a quarter, but this $9 dongle can supercharge your parking.
It's just the size of a quarter, but this $9 dongle can supercharge your parking.
Photo: Aware Stack

If you have trouble finding your car in a busy garage, or always find yourself coming back to a lapsed parking meter and a ticket stuck under your windshield wiper, you’re in luck. A new Bluetooth sensor, in combination with an iPhone app, can make losing your car and racking up fines a thing of the past.

Start saving now for your 24-karat gold iPhone 6s

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iphone6sflyer
Want to make the other iPhone 6s owners jealous?
Photo: Goldgenie

The iPhone 6s isn’t even out yet, and already luxury goods companies are preparing to give folks with way too much money the chance to preorder their next-generation Apple handset in 24-karat gold.

Hot off the mark is Goldgenie, which is currently letting customers register their interest in an exclusive luxury box set containing both a gold-plated iPhone 6s and a gold Apple Watch.

Asus and Samsung, not Apple, have the fastest-charging smartphones

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Which of these smartphones charges fastest? Not the iPhone.
Which of these smartphones charges fastest? Not the iPhone.
Photo: Adrian Isen
Which of these smartphones charges fastest? Not the iPhone. Photo: Adrian Isen
Which of these smartphones charges fastest? Not the iPhone. Photo: Adrian Isen

What’s the fastest-charging smartphone? It’s not an iPhone. If you care about how fast your phone goes from 0 percent to fully juiced, you should buy an Asus Zenfone 2 or Samsung Galaxy S6. Here’s why.

Alleged China Telecom rep dashes hopes of pink iPhone 6s

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Is this a figment of our imagination?
Photo: Daliulian

A person claiming to be China Telecom’s social media manager has published a new blog on Chinese social media, offering a few details about the upcoming iPhone 6s.

Most interestingly, the poster claims that — despite all the rumors to the contrary — he has not seen or heard any evidence supporting the existence of a pink handset.

Tim Cook’s Mad Money email might have violated SEC rules

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Apple raked in the cash last quarter.
Apple stock has been on a wild ride recently.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple stock plummeted Monday morning before Tim Cook stepped in by emailing Mad Money‘s Jim Cramer to reassure investors that all is well for Apple in China. The move quickly turned Apple’s stock price around, but Cook might have violated Securities and Exchange Commission rules in the process.

Apple may introduce iPhone 6s at the same venue it unveiled the Apple II

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Apple's iPhone 6s venue may have historical significance for the company.
Photo: Hoodline

Apple still hasn’t made an announcement as to where next month’s iPhone 6s event will take place. However, according to a new report it may be set to rock San Francisco’s 7,000-seat Bill Graham Civic Auditorium — the same venue where Steve Jobs and Wozniak first unveiled the Apple II.

Shelf-size stereo delivers massive sound from a tiny footprint

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So much sound in such a small package.
So much sound in such a small package.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Now that we’re in the era of the portable Bluetooth speaker, it’s hard to justify spending money on a stereo that just sits on a shelf at home.

That perception is exactly what this tiny stereo system from German audio giant Thonet and Vander aims to fight, though. The Rätsel brings old-school stereo sensibility to the modern age, with an absolutely room-filling sound in a tiny, tiny package. Why not have something that sounds this great right there on your shelf?

Tim Cook to talk future of work at BoxWorks

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Tim Cook is going to BoxWorks.
Tim Cook is going to BoxWorks.
Photo: Apple

It usually takes a big tech conference like All Things D/Code Conf. to pull Tim Cook away from the mothership for a public interview, but this year Apple’s CEO will make his first ever appearance at BoxWorks’ cloud storage-focused conference.

Tim Cook will join Box CEO Aaron Levie on stage at BoxWorks On September 29th in a fireside conversation to talk about the future of work and how iOS will have a transformative impact on enterprise.

SmartPlug turns your home into a modern-day Clapper

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iHome SmartPlug HomeKit
You may not get a whole lot of use out of a single SmartPlug.
Photo: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

Home automation, specifically Apple’s HomeKit framework and its compatible accessories, is the latest Thing We’re Supposed to Get Excited About™. And it has a lot of promise for convenience, time-saving, and just generally feeling like you live in the future.

The first HomeKit-compatible smartplug is upon us, courtesy of iHome. The ISP5 SmartPlug is a $40 device that plugs into your wall outlet and lets you run whatever you plug into it from your iPhone, using either Siri or the companion app.

It does everything it says it will: You can set up rooms and zones, and control individual appliances or whole groups of them with a tap or quick voice command. It also lets you build “rules” to make your stuff turn on and off without your input. All of this is cool, but when you actually have one, you might struggle to think of useful ways to use it.

Microsoft app turns iPhone into 3-D scanner

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Microsoft has developed an app that can turn the smartphone camera into a 3D scanner.
Microsoft has developed an app that can turn the smartphone camera into a 3D scanner.
Photo: Microsoft/YouTube

If you keep track of the ways the iPhone is a revolutionary tool, you can soon add 3-D printing the growing list.

A Microsoft research team has created an app that turns any smartphone camera into a 3-D scanner without the need for extra hardware.

Web cam attachment will improve your face time

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The ViW can attach to any tablet, smartphone or computer for an improved picture on your video calls.
The ViW can attach to any tablet, smartphone or computer for an improved picture on your video calls.
Photo: Frankly

The extra long goatee is part of my look, but the two-toned thicket of coarse chin hairs can be a little jarring in a video call. If a screen’s built-in camera is not angled right and or placed at a proper distance, the beard may be the only thing the person gets on the receiving end. That and a lunch crumb or two.

A Swedish design firm has developed a camera attachment that increases the field of view so you can take in the whole face. The ViW will even illuminate your face in bad lighting.

How to skip those skimpy mobile versions of websites

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New Safari feature will come in handy.
New Safari feature will come in handy.
Screen: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Using the mobile web is an uneven affair in terms of what you’ll see once your little blue progress bar slides across the page to let you know your page has loaded.

Some sites give you a crippled version of the original, making sure you can’t find any information on them at all. Looking for a tiny link to load the desktop site can be an exercise in frustration.

iOS 9, currently in public beta, has an answer to this issue baked right into Safari. Here’s how to make it happen.

Start making movies with one of the easiest video editors around

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iSkysoft Video Editor makes it easy to dazzle your friends.
iSkysoft Video Editor makes it easy to dazzle your friends.
Photo: iSkysoft

This post is brought to you by iSkysoft Studio.

Videos are the new family slideshow, a way of turning visual memories into entertainment for friends and loved ones.

Our computers double as digital junk drawers, with photos, video clips and audio recordings collecting in folders and collecting dust — one of the best ways to bring those memories back to the light of day is to make videos out of them.

Apple Watch charger concept ditches the cord for portability

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Apple Watch charger concept by InnovationBox
This Apple Watch charger idea cuts the (excessively long) cord.
Photo: InnovationBox

 We don’t have any major problems with the Apple Watch charger that comes in the box with the device — although nobody has been able to give me a solid answer as to why the cord has to be so damned long. But one design company thinks it isn’t quite portable enough. If you’re looking for a more versatile c port charger, check out this 10-port USB-C charger that offers multiple charging options.

InnovationBox has its own idea to get power to an Apple Watch, and it will fit in your pocket without you having to whip out a twist tie.

You just missed your chance to buy cheap Apple stock

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Apple shares have already bounced back.
Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac

Apple’s stock price fell off a cliff this morning, trading below $100 a share for the first time all year. The best time to buy AAPL shares all year was at 9:30 a.m. today, when the stock opened at $94.87 — before Tim Cook intervened.

NASA’s space shuttle to fly again – or at least pieces of it

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NASA recently pulled the water tanks from the space shuttle Endeavor.
NASA recently pulled the water tanks from the space shuttle Endeavor.
Photo: California Science Center

If you get to a museum to see one of the shuttles that actually flew in space, your jaw may drop. Just don’t mind the guys pulling parts from it.

NASA recently sent engineers to the California Science Center in Los Angeles to dust off the mothballs of the space shuttle Endeavor and remove four water storage tanks for future use aboard the International Space Station.

Save up to 97% on 5 certification bundles to give your skillset and resume a boost [Deals]

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Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

As the job market gets tougher, your resumé had better be doing the same. To help give you the edge in getting an interview, we’ve collected five certification courses that’ll maximize your marketability, all going for a fraction of the usual price. From learning the ins and outs of servers, to the secrets of wall street trading and project management, upgrade your skills and knowledge to make the next career step that much more of a sure thing.

iPhone owners snap up all of Samsung’s test drive devices

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Samsung has already run out of test drive handsets.
Photo: Samsung
Try Samsung's latest smartphones for free. Photo: Samsung
Samsung has already run out of test drive handsets. Photo: Samsung

Samsung has been forced to postpone its Ultimate Test Drive promotion that gives iPhone owners the opportunity to try out its latest devices free for 30 days. The South Korean company says it ran out of test drive devices in just a few hours after “overwhelming demand.”

Tim Cook reassures investors as Apple stock falls below $100

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Apple raked in the cash last quarter.
It's not the best of times for AAPL investors.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

It’s not a good start to the week for Apple, as shares fell below the $100 mark even before the market opened.

Seeing investors panicking, Tim Cook shared a few thoughts with CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer — particularly reassuring him about Apple’s continued success in China, which Cook continues to be bullish on due to its “unprecedented” opportunities.

Photoflow, a beautiful Instagram client for the Mac

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This might be the best way to experience Instagram on your Mac.
This might be the best way to experience Instagram on your Mac.
Photo: Photoflow

Instagram is great on the iPhone. It kind of sucks on the iPad. And it’s nonexistent on the Mac. But Photoflow aims to change the latter.

It’s a beautiful new Instagram client, just for the Mac. And while Photoflow won’t ever replace Instagram on your iPhone, it does supplement a lot of the app’s features for power users.