Cult of Mac

After more than a decade at BBC Radio 1, well-known DJ personality Zane Lowe has taken a job with Apple in Cupertino, California.

Although the five-time Radio Academy Award winner hasn’t said what he’ll be doing at Apple, he will reportedly work on iTunes Radio.

Like a shiny new penny, Cult of Mac Deals gleams with new products that are sure to streamline your life, up your game, and offer new opportunities.

Get in in this action now before you miss out. Check out Cult of Mac Deals to see all that’s in store right now and read on for our personal picks.

If Apple really is working on a car, what would it look like? And what would we want it to look like and do?

The growing chorus of rumors about Apple’s possible automotive ambitions — and the hard facts about the car designers it’s already recruited — don’t prove Cupertino is working on a car. But if Apple is staffing up to transform the transportation industry, what features might it deliver in its human-transport device?

Here’s what we’d like to see in the very first iCar.

This week: The iCar rumors are swirling. Is Apple preparing to give Tesla a run for its money? Plus: The industries we want Apple to conquer next; why we need Cupertino to get into the space game; college kids love iPhones more than sexy time; we tell you our favorite packs for toting about your Apple and DSLR gear; and stay tuned to the end for our new segment, “Cross the Streams,” where we’ll cover the shows we can’t stop binge-watching.

Our thanks to Varidesk for support this episode. With models starting at just $275, Varidesk is the highest-quality, least-expensive way that we know of to get started with a standing desk. And you should absolutely check them out, because moving to a standing desk will change your life.

Full show notes ahead!

Like a bucket of extra crispy, Cult of Mac Deals has got tasty offers that are finger licking good – and you won’t need coronary bypass surgery afterwards! Huzzah!

There’s a whole bunch of deals on cool tech that are closing pretty soon, so we thought we’d bring them to your attention. Read on for all the deets, yo.

Most clothing designers like to see their clothes well photographed. Betabrand’s Steven B. Wheeler has menswear that just might ruin a photo — and that’s part of the cool factor.

Wheeler and DJ Chris Holmes teamed up to design five pieces called Flashback, clothing made of a highly reflective fabric that will bounce any iPhone flash right back through the lens.

In most cases, the result produces a nuclear look, with the silhouette of the clothes distractingly white hot. Surrounding details either get lost in the shadows or simply go unnoticed because the eyes zero in on the aura of the Flashback clothing.

Johann Jungwirth is a new Apple employee with one of the world’s most unbelievable job titles.

Until the middle of last year, Jungwirth headed up the big Mercedes-Benz R&D facility in Silicon Valley that, among other things, is responsible for the futuristic self-driving car you see below. (The astonishing Mercedes F 015 is very real, BTW).

Jungwirth was hired by Apple last September and given the title of “Director of Mac Systems Engineering,” according to his LinkedIn page. The title appears to be total hogwash. Jungwirth spent his entire 20-year career working on connected cars, not computers.

Apple is famous for obfuscating about its new hires to throw off competitors and journalists, and the company is reportedly working on a top-secret electric car. If Apple is interested in the stuff Jungwirth has worked on, it’s going to be a wild ride.

If you’re feeling lonely this Valentine’s Day, don’t think your favorite personal assistant will be there for you. In fact, Siri will do anything to avoid saying “yes” to your proposal.

Check out what happened when we tried to take our working partnership to the next level after the jump. Spike Jonze’s Her this ain’t!

For a brand that made all our dreams come true as kids, Nintendo sure seems content to play the Bowser-style troll these days.

First of all, the company announced that it is finally embracing YouTube videos featuring game footage; only to turn around and reveal that content-makers will have to give much of the ad revenue to Nintendo. Now, Nintendo has said that after years of taking down third-party emulators, it’s giving us an official iOS app at long last.

“Will it allow us to play the company’s classic games?” you may breathlessly ask.

You must be joking!

Three-and-a-half years after the debut of Siri, virtual assistants haven’t yet become a user interface element on par with, say, the mouse cursor — but that’s not through any lack of trying.

According to a new study carried out for Venture Beat, Siri not only defeats Microsoft rival Cortana and Google’s Google Now automated assistants in understanding English; it absolutely slays them when it comes to other languages.

¡Viva Siri!

The Apple Car rumor mill has been heating up today with reports that Apple has been hiring auto talent from companies like Mercedes and BMW. Now the Wall Street Journal is chiming in with its own report that claims Tim Cook approved Apple’s project over a year ago.

Apple reportedly has several hundred employees working on the secret project that’s aiming to create an Apple-branded electric vehicle that can take on Telsa.

Silicon Valley’s top CEOs snubbed President Barack Obama’s appearance at Stanford University today for the White House Summit on Cybersecurity and Consumer Protection, but Apple CEO Tim Cook used his invite to make the case for improving security.

Cook addressed attendees before Obama took the stage and reaffirmed Apple’s belief that everyone has a right to privacy and security. In part of his speech, the Apple CEO warned of “dire consequences” if the proper balance between security and privacy isn’t maintained.

“We must get this right!” Cook told the audience.  “History has shown us that sacrificing our right to privacy can have dire consequences.”

Apple wasn’t kidding when it said Apple Pay would transform mobile payments. Built around easy of use and security, Apple Pay is the industry’s first solution that benefits users and banks.

The security aspect of Apple Pay has been especially crucial to its early success, and now the big credit card companies have been spurred to follow suit. Today both Visa and MasterCard announced new security initiatives to protect against cyberattacks. Visa in particular has borrowed one of Apple Pay’s key ideas: tokenization.

Apple Pay has already become the top mobile wallet at a number of stores, but now Apple’s about to take on the great outdoors.

During his address at today’s White House cybersecurity summit, Tim Cook said that starting in September you’ll be able to use Apple Pay for transactions with the federal government, including paying fees to get into Yosemite and the other national parks.

Cook’s visit to the summit was a big win for Apple Pay, which Cook says is now supported by more than 2,000 banks, putting us one step closer to the age when your wallet will be a thing of the past. The White House has given Apple Pay its stamp of approval, too, and announced plans to enable it on all federal-payment cards.

Apple has set up a top-secret automobile R&D lab and is recruiting experts to possibly build a car, the Financial Times reports.

The lab is in a secret location away from Apple’s HQ. Apple recently hired the head of Mercedes-Benz’s Silicon Valley R&D unit, and has staffed the new lab with “experienced managers from its iPhone unit,” the Times says.

“Three months ago I would have said it was CarPlay,” said one of FT‘s sources. “Today I think it’s a car.”

Tim Cook and President Obama are attending today’s White House Cyber Security Summit to talk about a range of issues facing the U.S. tech industry.

Mark Zuckerberg, Marrisa Mayer, and Google CEO Larry Page all decline invites to the summit where Obama is expect to urge tech firms to share data with the government. While Silicon Valley’s elite have snubbed the event, Cook’s appearance could be a big deal in his effort to advocate for the importance of privacy for users. Tim Cook’s appearance is expected soon, while President Obama is scheduled to take the stage at 2:15 ET.

You can watch a live feed of the summit below:

We still don’t know the exact date the Apple Watch will ship, but a new rumor claims you won’t be able to pick one up at BestBuy, Walmart, or other non-Apple Stores at launch.

Apple plans to make its timepiece an Apple Store exclusive, according to German distribution sources who claim resellers will be shut out so Cupertino can suck up as much Apple Watch profits in the first year as possible.

Professionals who work in creative industries know that the best media creation software titles are made by Adobe. Whether it’s getting pictures just right with Photoshop, or putting together an engaging digital newsletter with InDesign, Adobe makes software to tackle just about any creative situation.

While Adobe products are the industry standard in creativity software, they can also be complex and frustrating for novice users. That’s why Cult of Mac Deals is offering, for only a short while longer, Adobe Training Videos: Lifetime Subscription for the remarkably low price of $79.

To use hip hop parlance, Canadian rapper hip hop artist Drake has “dropped” a new surprise mixtape on iTunes. The precursor to his next studio album, “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late” is a 17-track opus — announced late Thursday via Drake’s Twitter.

Boasting guest appearances from Lil Wayne, Travi$ Scott, and PARTYNEXTDOOR, the mixtape is expected to be the artist’s last under his current contract with label Cash Money Records.

However, while hip hop-heads will no doubt see the release as the big news here (and, if you’re a Drake fan, check out the track “You & The 6”), for Apple-watchers it’s significant for another reason.

Although Apple Pay has seen rapid adoption, it’s still only technically available in the United States. Credit cards issued by U.S. banks have been reported to work with NFC terminals around the world, but no international banks have supported the mobile payments solution yet.

Apple is already working on rolling out Apple Pay in Europe and China, and now it’s been reported that the company is in talks with banks in South America.

Apple plans to launch a new streaming music service this spring, but music industry insiders say Apple isn’t trying to just compete with Spotify, it wants to become the music business.

Tim Cook and Jimmy Iovine were two of the most in-demand people at this year’s Grammys. Eddy Cue and iTunes VP Robert Kondrk were also in attendance according to a new report from Billboard, which claims artists and labels execs alike were lined up at Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy gala to get a meeting with the biggest names in tech that are now poised to take on music, again.

Jimmy Iovine has devoted recent weeks to meeting senior execs at major and indie labels to talk about the new music service that will launch by summer at the latest and come alongside a major redesign of the iTunes Store as the company struggles to adapt to decline music sales.

Stephan Brusche was bored and starting to play with his food when he made a discovery that would change his life: Bananas are nice to draw on.

Graphic artists are paid to think this way, and Brusche was being urged by his wife to promote his work to a wider audience using Instagram.

“There wasn’t anything exciting to photograph,” said Brusche, 37, an artist for a travel agency in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. “I still had a banana and I thought maybe if I draw a smiley face on it, that would make a nice picture. I discovered how nicely the ink flows on the peel. It was really a pleasant surface.”

That smiley face, posted more than three years ago, received more likes than his work illustrations. And thus Fruitdoodles was born. Since then, Brusche has transformed more than 200 bananas into fine art.

Becoming a supplier for an Apple product is big competition among Asia Pacific suppliers, but Apple will rely on just one supplier to make all of its Apple Watch displays this year, reports J.P. Morgan analyst J.J. Park.

LG Display will be the sole supplier of the p-OLED display for the Apple Watch, according to Park’s recent note to investors. His firm also predicts LG’s stock could jump as much as 25% because of the new deal.

If you’ve been interested in trying out Apple’s iWork suite of productivity apps for yourself, but don’t have an Apple device to try them on, you’re in luck: Anyone can now create an Apple ID and sign into the iCloud Beta website to use Pages, Numbers and Keynote for free.