Cult of Mac

Apple Pay makes buying items quicker than ever thanks to its tap-to-pay technology that is ridiculously easy to use. But if you want to use Apple Pay to purchase gas, you still have to deal with going inside the store and making a transaction at the register rather than at the pump.

That could soon change, though, as Chevron announced today that it has started a pilot program in Northern California that lets drivers fuel up and pay for their gas with Apple Pay, right at the dispenser.

Here’s where you can find the Apple Pay pumps:

A new report suggests that the Apple Watch’s maker has sold its wearable short when it comes to its performance in water.

Developer Craig Hockenberry says that the wearable works (mostly) fine in liquid and knows because he swims with his smartwatch regularly. In the ocean.

Where sharks live.

Twitter managed to create a swarm of disgruntled developers over the past few years. It worked tirelessly to break down many of the third-party apps that made the social network successful. Now, as Twitter discovers what it really is as a service, it’s working to repair relationships with developers and elevate the platform. This ought to be a win-win for everyone.

T-Mobile introduced a new family plan that’s directly targeting Verizon Wireless and isn’t shying away from it. The new plan, which offers 10GB of 4G LTE data to each family member plus unlimited talk and text starting at $100 per month, bests Verizon’s shared 10GB of data for four members at $140.

T-Mobile’s CEO John Legere hasn’t been nice to competitors since taking the reigns and doesn’t seem interested in starting now. While Verizon claims its family plan is actually $80 per month, Legere argues that you’ll get charged at least $140 per month when all the additional fees add up.

The United States and Iran finally signed an official nuke agreement today after 20 months of negotiations, and according to a new report, Apple is already looking to move in.

If you’re afraid of ever being in a dangerous situation without any witnesses or good samaritans nearby, you might want to consider downloading this new app appropriately named Witness. Calling itself the ‘panic button for the smartphone age,’ one tap broadcasts live video and your current location to a list of preset emergency contacts, who can then decide if it’s appropriate to take action.

Of course, if they do nothing, they could potentially have front-row seats to a very morbid and disturbing show.

Apple seeded two new incremental updates for developers today, one for the current version of OS X Yosemite, 10.10.5, and another for iOS 8.4.1, the current version of iOS available for consumers on iPhone and iPad.

“The OS X Yosemite 10.10.5 update improves the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac,” writes Apple in its release notes. Further details on iOS 8.4.1 are as yet unavailable.

Irish software development studio Probendi is suing Apple in Europe over the use of the term ‘iWatch’ in its search engine ads.

Court documents filed by Probendi in Milan claim that even though Apple doesn’t own the trademark for iWatch, it has used iWatch wording on Google in an effort to direct customers to the Apple Watch website.

If you’re looking for a best-in-class photo retouching and editing app, you can’t go wrong with Pixelmator, available both for Mac and iOS.

The mobile version is utterly fantastic, letting you engage in the same sort of high-end photo editing, painting, and graphic design that you find in the desktop version for a fraction of the price.

The new update, which came out on Tuesday, ramps up the photo Repair tool to something that’s five times as fast, and even more precise. There’s also a new Dynamic Touch system, which lets you use the tip of your finger for thin strokes and the pad of your finger for thicker lines.

You won’t see this kind of subtlety and power in any other photo app, especially for $4.99.

We downgraded its status, but Pluto still showed us its heart.

A spartan but warm-toned orb with a prominent heart-shaped terrain came into clear view Tuesday morning after NASA’s New Horizons snapped a picture some 476,000 miles from its surface after nearly a decade of travel.

Pluto was still considered a planet when New Horizon’s took off in 2006 for the end of our solar system. Since then, astronomers changed its status to a dwarf planet, but that did not diminish the excitement scientists and fans of star-gazing as the probe approached Pluto and its moons.

If you want to build something that sticks online, you’ve got to understand how people interact with websites. Udemy’s UI/UX Designer Bundle will give you a grounding in the latest and practice-proven approaches for making your site as attractive and interactive as it can be. Right now this invaluable insight is yours for just $34, a massive 94% off the regular price.

Fox’s reboot of the Fantastic Four is set to land in theaters next month, but fans who attended Comic-Con last week in San Diego got a special peek at the new Doctor Doom who’s threatening to end life as we know it on Earth.

The fiery new trailer was released online this morning and in addition to giving us a better look at Doom, The Thing, and the Human Torch in action, it also reveals how Reed Richards and Ben Grimm became friends when they were just kids dreaming of unlocking the secret of dimensional travel.

Watch the fantastic new trailer below:

Look, you wouldn’t put a “Git-R-Done” bumper sticker on a Lamborghini. So why would you muck up the chic of an iPhone with a garish or absurd case like the ones on this list?

Jony Ive understands self-expression and probably even appreciates when a person selects an iPhone case that puts them in touch with their inner selves. But when a case’s main function is to cushion a fall or fend off scratches, your next concerns should be how it fits in a pocket — and some taste.

And I don’t mean taste as in fried chicken. Apparently the Japanese are such big fans of Kentucky Fried Chicken, a product developer for the Colonel designed an iPhone 6 case shaped like a drumstick. Even better, it’s the size of one of those state fair turkey legs.

Apple’s upcoming R&D center in Yokohama will allow the company to tap into the materials, vehicles and health expertise that exists in Japan, according to a new report.

The R&D facility — which will be Apple’s biggest in Asia — will join similar offices in the U.K., China and Israel.

Having gotten exclusives from Eminem, Pharrell and Drake, could Metallica be the next artists to debut their new material on Apple Music?

In a new interview with the BBC World Service, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich described a potential team-up with Apple Music as “a no-brainer.” The band’s first new album 2008’s Death Magnetic? Yes, please.

Apple has Siri, Google has Google Now, Microsoft has Cortana, and soon Facebook may have the James Bond-inspired Moneypenny.

According to a new report, Facebook will introduce the assistant as part of its Facebook Messenger app, letting Facebook users set appointments, check the weather, or purchase products.

While that sounds relatively similar to the likes of Google Now and Siri, where Moneypenny will apparently differ is in the fact that it will connect users with real people to help with certain aspects of the research process.

Unsurprisingly, Apple’s attempts to reinvent television come with a few challenges attached. One of these is the fact that if the company wants to broadcast affiliate feeds, it must somehow wade through the complex rights issues that currently exist for local TV.

In short, Apple wouldn’t be allowed to show local programs from stations affiliated with networks such as CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox, because — despite these networks airing the content — they don’t actually own it.

Apple Pay today makes its debut in the United Kingdom, nine months after it launched in the U.S., and it has been greeted by plenty of support from local banks. Those with a supported device can register their credit and debit cards now through the Passbook app on iOS.

The upcoming Suicide Squad movie may be the most gritty and in your face version of the world-saving team of supervillains, but it isn’t the only one around.

If you can’t wait until next year to see Task Force X in action, you have a few options available to see Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and their crazy friends right now in both live-action and animated forms. And they’re available online, so you can crank up your iPad or Apple TV and watch them right now.

I didn’t have high hopes for Suicide Squad, the upcoming action movie that pits a team of supervillains together on a top secret government mission, but now that the first trailer for David Ayer’s action-packed film has been teased to fans, I’m starting to become a believer.

Will Smith, Cara Delevingne, and Viola Davis all make an appearance in the first trailer that debuted at International Comic Con 2015 over the weekend, but Jared Leto manages to steal the show as the Joker with a menacing appearance in the last few seconds.

Check it out:

Though Adobe Flash has been dying a slow death over the past few years, it’s far from dead yet. However, it seems like some people are getting pretty impatient with it and Facebook’s new chief security officer Alex Stamos is one of those people. He publicly tweeted yesterday calling out Adobe to just set a date already to kill Flash and make an announcement to put an end to its misery.

Siri can be used to quickly access a huge library of sound effects. Ask it to play fireworks, a babbling brook, or even a machine gun and Apple’s digital assistance will pull out the perfect sound effect. But if you ask Siri to ‘play loud farts’ you’ll get an unexpected surprise.

While Apple hasn’t been adding DRM to your music, there must have been some issue with the service when paired with iTunes Match.

iTunes 12.2.1 is out now, and it contains a fix for any iTunes Match users who saw iTunes change some songs from Matched (which gives you access to high-resolution audio files that you own) to Apple Music (which will disappear if you let your subscription lapse).

European leaders have finally agreed to a bailout plan with Greece this morning. The country’s financial crisis at one point capped how much cash citizens could withdraw daily, so Apple has decided to help its customers out by providing one free month of iCloud to current subscribers.

Amateur hour is over — it’s time for an iPhone cable that means business. Avoid the fray, the tangles, the scuffed up grossness that is the stock iPhone cable after just a few weeks of regular use by stepping up to the Titan MFi-Certified Lightning Cable. It’s built to be tough, but with the Cult of Mac special price of $24.99 it’ll be gentle on your wallet.