So it’s not quite an ax. It’s more of a hatchet.

But you can do some shredding on the diminutive Jamstik. It’s a portable smart guitar that gets beginners playing recognizable chords within a few minutes and helps the inspired musician instantly articulate those notes blooming in his or her brain. Connect it to most Apple devices and learn with the Jamstik tutorial app or record in Garage Band.

The first version was popular, but Minneapolis-based Zivix wanted to make improvements based on customer feedback. The music technology company raised more than $800,000 on a recent Kickstarter campaign to bring Bluetooth technology and a magnetic pickup to the newest generation, Jamstik+.

Now that I’ve got an Apple Watch I’ll never go back to boring wired headphones, and now that Jabra’s new wireless earbuds have built-in coaching, I’ll probably never have to hire a personal trainer either.

Jabra launched its newest set of earbuds today called the Jabra Sport Coach, that along with sounding excellent and looking cool, the wireless buds add an integrated motion sensor so you can get real-time feedback on all the burpees, lunges, squats, and planks you do at the gym.

Taylor Swift is a shrewd business woman and thought she was speaking for all the little artists when she told Apple to kiss off when it comes to featuring her album 1989 on its new music streaming service.

To not pay artists during Apple Music’s free three-month trial period is exploitive, the singer-songwriter suggested, not to mention “shocking” and “disappointing.”

So forgive music photographer Jason Sheldon if he is unable to Shake It Off and is bothered by the hypocrisy of her stance. Editorial photographers assigned to shoot her shows must sign away rights to their photos, preventing them from being paid while giving Swift unlimited use of the pictures for publicity and promotion.

Apple’s been using antenna lines in its smartphones ever since the days of the iPhone 4 and antenna-gate, but a new patent filed by the company could soon make those unsightly lines disappear for good.

Go from gamer to game designer. We’ve put together a bundle of four courses worth $796 to help—and right now you can pay what you want for it.

If you didn’t back the Pebble Time on Kickstarter and now you want one, you can now pre-order the device from Best Buy. The black, white, and red options are all available, and they’ll be delivered to your door within a month.

I’m a sucker when it comes to upgrading to the latest iPhone, but like a lot of people I’ve stopped to think about how bizarre it is that new iPhones go from coveted items we’ll queue up for hours to get our hands on, to scratched, slightly-battered handsets we’ll sell or pass on to friends — all within the course of just one year.

Filmmaker Paul Trillo has taken this idea and used it to put together a pretty nifty short film showing off the life, death and reincarnation of one such device — all shot from the point-of-view of the iPhone itself.

Check it out below:

In a Chinese-language interview, Tim Cook has revealed how Apple considers Chinese consumer tastes into account when designing any new products.

Given that Cook has previously talked about how China will soon overtake the U.S. as Apple’s biggest market this is unlikely to surprise many readers, but it’s another reminder of just how important the Chinese market is for Apple.

Apple is reportedly developing a single-chip solution for handling both the touchscreen and display drivers for future iPhones, according to a new report coming out of Taiwan.

Interestingly the report suggests that the integrated design is designed to fit into an ultra-thin and ultra-narrow display — while also allowing Apple to completely eliminate the need for a physical iPhone “home” button by integrating fingerprint sensors into the main display.

Apple has changed its mind on the decision not to pay streaming music royalties to artists and labels during the three-month trial period of Apple Music.

Yesterday, Taylor Swift penned an open letter to the company arguing that, “We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.”

SAN FRANCISCO — While other people were crapping their pants or scratching their heads during the Apple Music unveiling, Philipp Sonnleitner was having an “aha!” moment.

It happened right after Apple took the wraps off of Connect, the social element of Apple Music designed to let artists share intimate moments with fans, from backstage video and unreleased tracks to private performances from couches anywhere in the world.

“You saw the Apple Connect?” Sonnleitner, CEO and founder of Mikme, asked during the getgeeked tech showcase here during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. “We have the tools!”

Taylor Swift may have announced she was shaking off Apple Music last week, but today she published an open letter to Apple explaining in more detail why her hit “1989” album won’t be joining the other 30 million songs available on Apple’s streaming music service when it launches.

“I’m sure you are aware that Apple Music will be offering a free 3 month trial to anyone who signs up for the service,” Swift writes. “I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months. I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company.”

Shop our top picks of the week at Cult of Mac Deals, including a lifetime of mobile backup, an activity and sleep tracker, and more.

Looking for an app or two to while away the weekend? Then you’ve come to the right place, my friend!

From reading apps to Terminator navigation tools to gorgeous RPGs, we’ve got everything you need to know about the latest must-have apps.

Check out our top picks below:

We’re getting down to the wire on the chance to save big on the KeySmart 2.0 organizer, the Innori battery pack, the Sound Kick Bluetooth speaker, and more.

A teardown of a set of Beats headphones, which sell for hundreds of dollars at retail, revealed that the hardware contains less than $18 in components. And that sounds like the ‘phones are an insane ripoff, but that’s not even the most interesting thing we learned from the examination.

We’re used to hearing about how our expensive gadgets “only cost” whatever amount, but of course you’re not just paying for the parts when you pick something up. That price includes labor and manufacturing, as well as the research that went into designing it and future iterations, post-purchase support, and a bunch of other invisible costs like the non-specific luxury and status values of the product.

Cheap materials aside, Beats contain a bunch of very cool design decisions that also help keep the real costs down for their makers.

Siri is a pretty handy virtual assistant on your Apple Watch. It can tell you the temperature, convert measurements, send text messages, and do several other things without you having to take your iPhone out of your pocket.

The one thing you should never have to do, however, is ask it what time it is because you’re wearing a watch, and that’s the minimum of information it should provide you without you having to ask. Seriously, just bring up your wrist. The time is right there.

But if you’re thick as a brick and ask Apple Watch Siri what time it is, it’ll come back with one of over a dozen silly responses. Check out our results below:

If you ever dig into the privacy policies of app developers, be prepared for a shock. This is where they confess their sins: invading your privacy, selling your data, and pestering you with popups and unwanted ads.

As the App Store becomes increasingly crowded and competitive, many developers struggle to make a profit. Some turn their attention to alternative sources of revenue, and the quality of their apps suffer as a result.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Here are the 10 rules for developers to keep things “classy.”

Every week, we pull together all the great stuff from the past week of Cult of Mac’s coverage of Apple, culture and technology news into a slick Newsstand magazine.

This week’s Cult of Mac Magazine, then, has all the details we can share about the upcoming iPhone 6s (with more to come in the months to follow, for sure), a few more Apple Watch details, a review of an amazing iPhone camera add on, a profile of the best Apple analyst around, and a look at the oddest little waterproof Bluetooth speaker you ever did see.

All of this and much, much more. Check it out.

Leander is having a bit of a moment. One of his favorite features of Apple product design is missing on his shiny new MacBook.

Jony Ive, what have you done with the magnet?

You can commiserate with our Editor and Publisher over the loss of the magnet that secured the cable to the charging port in the latest Kahney’s Korner video.

Are you rich? Do you live in one of the world’s richest countries? If you answered “yes” to both of these questions, guess what: you probably don’t have an Android phone.

A new report reveals that Android market share worldwide is almost directly correlated to how rich each market is. The richer the market, the lower the market share for Android. iOS market share is also related to wealth, except it’s polar opposite. So if you’re rich or in a rich country, odds are you own an iPhone instead.

The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry (FSWI) has announced today that for the first time since 2009 exports of traditional timepieces are down, and it looks like Apple Watch is to blame.

Apple has launched a replacement program for certain iMac models with 3TB hard drives. If you bought a 27-inch iMac with a 3TB hard drive between December 2012 and September 2013, you might be eligible for a free replacement hard drive.

An Apple spokesperson claims that the company will not remove artists who decline to sign up for Apple Music from the iTunes Store.

This is the latest development in the tense negotiations leading up to the streaming service’s launch on June 30, with indie musicians and labels claiming that Apple is trying to bully and coerce them into putting their music on the new platform.

Pinterest is looking for fresh blood to inject some more life into it’s mobile experience this year, so the company announced that it has nabbed Scott Goodson, a former Apple and Facebook engineer, to come in and improve the app’s performance across various platforms.