This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: Why we’re convinced we’ll see an iPad Pro come fall, and what we expect from Apple’s giant shield tablet of power. Plus: The iPhone 6s back gets a bend test, and the results are surprising; and Apple leases a secret facility to test its autonomous car.

Our thanks to Casper for supporting this episode. Casper’s American-made mattresses have just the right amount of memory foam and latex, and people everywhere love them. Learn why and save $50 off your order at casper.com/cultcast.

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It’s the weekend, which means that it’s time to relax, kick off your shoes, and download some great apps. And, man, have we got some picks for you this week!

Check below for our list of the best of the apps of the past 7 days, which demand a place on your Apple device right this moment:

Times are moving fast, and keeping up can be tough. That’s why we’ve gathered some great ways to step up your game without feeling the pain in your wallet. From comprehensive coding courses to gadget self-repair and sci fi-worthy lightbulbs, we’ve got something to take anybody to the next level. But act fast — like the present moment, these deals will be gone before you know it.

Apple might be unfairly painted as an aging company run by middle-aged white dudes with “dad dancing” moves, but it’s certainly not shying away from controversial characters.

Cupertino’s roster today includes employees like Dr. Dre — a man who was the epitome of gangsta rap before becoming “hip-hop’s first billionaire” — and Trent Reznor, aka the singer who once made public his desire to, erm, sleep with you in an animalistic fashion.

It’s a safe bet that Apple wants to be down with the kids, but this controversy-seeking behavior comes with a fair share of risk. And it’s only going to be a matter of time before Apple is hit by it.

Apple has already scooped up a cadre of automotive experts for its not-so-secret electric car project, and it appears the company just added one more Tesla Motors engineer to its growing roster.

Jamie Carlson, a senior engineer from Tesla, appears to have joined Apple’s Project Titan. His most recent LinkedIn posting that reveals he’s been working on “Special Projects” at Apple since August 2015.

There are so many ways technology helps us record information. Yet, the analog notebook hangs in there. Paired with a pen, nothing commits information to memory quite like sketching or jotting thoughts and observations by hand on nice paper.

A London design agency, understanding how personal notebooks inspire creativity, has created a platform called Book Block for creatives to design their own notebooks.

This week we’ve got a magazine positively laden with great stuff: a piece on how great Apple Music actually is, a look at how veteran music service Rhapsody struggles for relevance, a chat with the young hacker who added custom watch faces to Apple Watch, and quite a few helpful how-to tips.

If you want a full-to-the-brim Apple news experience this weekend, be sure to download the latest Cult of Mac Magazine, or subscribe if you’re into that sort of thing!

Apple stock continued to tumble Friday, closing at $105.76 — down more than 20 percent from its all-time high of $134.50 earlier this year.

The precipitous drop is in line with dozens of other big-name stocks that have taken a turn for the worse in 2015, but what’s driving the downturn?

Riot Games, developer of insanely successful online battle arena game League of Legends, has created a new game as a love letter to its fans. Titled Blitzcrank’s Poro Roundup, the side-scrolling game is available for Android, iOS and as a web app.

Apple fans have good reason to love the Cupertino company, which continues to revolutionize new product categories and deliver hugely successful products year after year. But how far should that love go?

Some might say there is a group of fans who are irrationally loyal to the Apple brand, devoted to buying its latest products just because they sport the Apple logo, and dismissing all competitors just because they don’t. But is there really a “Cult of Apple?”

Join us as we battle it out over that very question in this week’s Friday Night Fight between Cult of Android and Cult of Mac.

In the news business, a story that has legs stays in our heads, conversations and spins off follow-up headlines. Such was this week’s major newspaper expose describing Amazon as a hellish pressure cooker where employees cry at their desks.

Not everyone agreed with The New York Times piece that drew this conclusion after interviews with more than 100 current and former workers. Now even a Times editor is questioning whether the story was fair.

Hip-hop producer and Apple employee Andre Young, aka Dr. Dre, has been all over the news the past week thanks to his hit new album Compton and the movie Straight Outta Compton, which chronicles his rap group NWA’s rise to fame in the late ’80s.

Not all the attention surrounding Dre has been positive though, as critics have lampooned the Dre-produced film for glossing over some of the less-savory bits of NWA’s history, like the time Dre beat up Dee Barnes and a few other women. In an effort to stem the backlash, the first billionaire in hip-hop released a statement this morning, apologizing to the women he’s hurt.

Here what the doc had to say about the past:

Apple is looking to bring even more fitness sensors to your wrist by creating special Apple Watch bands that will take advantage of the device’s hidden port, according to a new rumor.

Apple has been slowly poaching some of Daimler’s top talent for its own car project that is nearly ready for testing, but according to Daimler CEO, Dieter Zetsche, it wouldn’t be totally inconceivable for Apple and the Mercedes-maker to work together on a future automotive project.

Zetsche said that “different types” of cooperation with Apple and Google are possible in the future, as carmakers have realized they need software experts and telecoms to help create the next-generation of automobiles.

Another year, another massive operating system update to learn and master. If you design games for mobile, you’ll soon have to reckon with the sweeping changes in the upcoming iOS9 update. Here’s your chance to get ahead of the curve with a comprehensive bundle of 8 game-building lessons for just $49 at Cult of Mac Deals.

Got an iPhone and want to try out the competition?

For just $1, Samsung will let you test drive its brand new Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge+, or Galaxy S6 edge for 30 days — and provide you with free cellular service during the trial.

The rumored 4-inch iPhone 6c will boast an A8 processor, Touch ID and Apple Pay, according to a new report coming out of the Apple supply chain in China.

There’s more evidence that preorders for the iPhone 6s will start on September 11, courtesy of a screenshot showing what appears to be information relating to a French mobile carrier.

A post containing selfies taken by a group of iPhone thieves has gone viral on Facebook, being shared more than 100,000 times since being posted by the handset’s rightful owner yesterday.

Call me cynical, but when I saw the latest ad in the “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone” series Thursday afternoon, I felt a little uneasy.

Sure, there’s over a million stores you can use Apple Pay in, but if this ad is to be believed, they’re all the same corporate-owned stores you’ll see in every mall across the US.

Ugh.

Check out the Apple Pay video below.

Apple’s Marc Newson is one of the best designers in the industry. His plane-inspired Lockheed Lounge chair was reflective, smooth and looked incredibly uncomfortable. And we’re still enjoying the look and feel of our Apple Watches, even if the other night a drunk girl at a bar made fun of me for wearing mine in public. And that was hurtful.

But Newson isn’t just about shiny devices and even shinier chairs. He’s recently teamed up with luxury accessory designer Montblanc to create the Montblanc M, a classic fountain pen that looks like it came from the future.

There are a million reasons to hate group selfies, but now there’s a new one: Pose with the wrong person and you could wind up with head lice.

A 14-year-old modder has apparently managed to replace his Apple Watch’s bubbly default home screen with something a little boxier and more classic: iOS 4.2.1, which launched all the way back in 2010.

Billy Ellis, a self-described “iOS app and tweak developer,” posted a video of his project on YouTube. Check it out below:

“I guess I’m known as that firmware-poking guy,” says Hamza Sood, the young hacker who most recently found a way to create and add custom watch faces to Apple Watch.

Cult of Mac chatted with the London-based 19-year-old via email to find out more about what makes him tick.