Apple still hasn’t opened an official store in the Middle East — and in Dubai that has allowed some otherwise past-it brands to not only eke out a modest existence but to thrive, complete with upmarket retail stores in shiny shopping malls.

Posted by Twitter user Mark McLaughlin during a sojourn in the UAE, the pictures portray a tranquil tech oasis as yet undisturbed by the disruptive forces of official Apple Stores. Like an island with no natural predators, that means that BlackBerry Stores, official Nokia outlets, and others can live together in non-threatened harmony.

But maybe not for much longer.

Apple already has its in-dash operating system CarPlay, which it hopes will make its way into more than 24 million vehicles over the next five years. But if a new patent published today is anything to go by, that’s the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Apple’s hopes for the car-world.

What Apple describes is a way of linking your iPhone to your vehicle by way of a Bluetooth connection, thereby allowing drivers to lock and unlock car doors, start up engines, establish personalized car settings, and even shut off engines during specific time windows.

It all sounds a bit like 1997’s (underrated) James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies, where Bond takes his BMW for a backseat spin, via his Sony Ericsson JB988 cellphone. Implemented correctly, it could be another massive boon for Apple — which has already made clear its home automation ambitions with the arrival of HomeKit.

But how exactly would it work?

iPhones are expensive, and leaving your new, shiny iPhone 6 or 6 Plus without a case on is akin to driving a car without insurance. Why risk it?

In today’s video, I run down my five favorite cases for Apple’s current-generation iPhones, selecting the ones that will keep your phone both safe and stylish at the same time.

The fate of GT Advanced Technologies’ failed sapphire plant in Mesa, Arizona, has been decided. After committing to repurposing the 1.3-million-square-foot facility, Apple revealed today that it will invest $2 billion in making it a global command center for all of its cloud networks.

The company plans to have 150 full-time employees based in Mesa to operate the center once it’s built, and there will be an accompanying solar farm to power the facility with 100% renewable energy.

You’ve seen it before, of course: the parting of the clouds, the nuclear-reactor-powered city of Springfield, Bart’s varying chalkboard standards, Lisa’s inability to stay in key (so jazzy!) in orchestra, skateboarding past tons of regular characters through the streets, and the final landing on the living room couch.

But you’ve never seen the iconic television show intro like this before, decked out in deliciously retro pixel art, directed and animated by Paul Robertson and Ivan Dixon, with music by Jeremy Dower.

Today Apple seeded the fifth beta of iOS 8.2 to developers. While nothing too significant seems to have been added, there are some updates to WatchKit.

We all need to get rid of photos from our iPhones from time to time, and iOS 8 makes it pretty simple to select a single or group of photos and delete. Deleting a photo at a time is all well and good, as is tapping a bunch of them and then deleting. But what if you want to just seriously delete a whole ton of them at once?

There’s a better way to bulk delete photos from your iPhone (or iPad), and it takes a lot of the tapping out of the process. Here’s how to do it.

Remote controlled quadcopters have experienced a sharp increase in popularity recently due to their new-found affordability and increasing number of options. Now, drones come in all shapes and sizes and there are models to cater to every skill level.

You will experience huge fun no matter your skill level with the small and lightweight Blade Pico QX RTF Double-Flip Drone, specially priced at just $49.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

We’ve seen a few pictures of filming underway for Sony’s Steve Jobs movie, but today we got the first look at Michael Fassbender as Jobs. Some on-set stills show the X-Men and 12 Years A Slave star in an outdoor scene with Seth Rogan as Steve Wozniak.

With “plane” in the name, you expect to see wings. But the European Space Agency’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle IXV, or spaceplane, will have to earn them.

A critical test takes place Feb. 11, when the spaceplane will get a push into space aboard a Vega rocket and splash down 100 minutes later in a vetting of the agency’s re-entry technologies.

About the size — and even look — of a small boat, the 2-ton spaceplane will keep an even keel as it re-enters at hypersonic speeds with the assist of thrusters and a pair of aerodynamic flippers on the back. Chutes will deploy to slow it down and give it a gentle landing in the Pacific Ocean.

Apple is reportedly planning to unload $5 billion worth of bonds in its fourth multibillion-dollar debt offering in two years, according to Bloomberg.

The news outlet is reporting that the deal could happen as early as today, with proceeds used for stock repurchases, dividend payments and debt repayments. Apple sold $17 billion of bonds in April 2013, in what was then the largest corporate bond offering of all time. Since then it has issued $32.5 billion of bonds in total.

With the number of smartphone muggings high enough to earn the crime its own category in the police stats, holding a pricey little computer in your hands is like toting a big target.

However, you could also be holding a layer of security: Several apps have emerged that sound an alarm to family, friends and law enforcement in the event a smartphone owner feels threatened, faces an assault or suddenly gets nervous about their surroundings.

As one of the only people who ever truly gave Steve Jobs a job, Atari’s Nolan Bushnell has a pretty big claim to fame. Now 71 years old, Bushnell gave an interview to The Australian Financial Review over the weekend in which he talked about Jobs, passing up the opportunity to become a one-third owner of Apple, and the big problem the company faces today.

One of the most interesting things about Apple’s continued expansion into China is going to be watching how it tweaks its marketing to target a country Tim Cook has claimed will soon be Apple’s biggest market.

Ahead of Chinese New Year on February 19, Apple has debuted a new ad in China, updating it’s warmly-received U.S. ad “The Song” for a new audience. Both ads tell the story of a young woman who uses a combination of their Mac and GarageBand to record a duet featuring their grandmother’s voice from the past.

As with virtually every ad Apple has ever put out, the message is less about technology for its own sake, and more to do with how it can be used to enhance the life of individual users.

You can check out and compare both versions of the ad after the jump:

PORTLAND, Oregon — The glowing light from the beer signs in the window reflects off Bear’s face. He is standing guard tonight at one of Portland’s favorite hot spots, and the line stretches down the street.

A motley-looking cast of characters wait patiently for their chance to get past security. But they are not here to see a punk or metal show, or even for a hot DJ. They are in line to rid their pockets of quarters playing Ms. Pac-Man and other vintage video games at Portland’s Ground Kontrol.

With 60-plus video games and almost 30 pinball machines in operation — all at the price they were circa 1985 — it’s no wonder the arcade is packed with gaming nerds.

One day someone is going to come along and write a paper on the psychology of tech fans who will queue up for hours to get the latest smartphone, and then log onto the Internet to watch it getting destroyed. When they do, at least several chapters will be dedicated to Ukrainian YouTuber TechRax, whose channel on the video sharing website shows the iPhone being pitted against everything from angle grinders to boiling Coca-Cola.

Today’s “stress test” for Apple’s record-breaking iPhone 6? No less than a bath of molten sodium acetate, a.k.a. hot ice: the substance found in hand warmers.

And, amazingly, it survives intact.

Cult of Mac Deals is proud to present the Best Deals Of The Week, where we feature can’t miss products that everyone can benefit from whether at work or at play.

Right now, you can save huge sums of cash when you purchase the Ruby on Rails Coding Course, Build-A-Startup Course Bundle, and cool accessories for your iOS devices.

Since the very earliest days of jailbreaking, Cydia has been the go-to source for jailbreak-specific tweaks and apps. What makes tweaks work is the Cydia Substrate, low-level software written by Cydia founder Saurik that lets third-party programmers hook into the iOS operating system in ways not endorsed by Apple. But Cydia Substrate is closed-source, which makes it harder for alternative jailbreak stores to compete with Cydia.

That could soon change, though. Jailbreak superstar Comex — the developer of JailbreakMe, and a former programmer at Apple — is working on an alternative to Cydia Substrate.

If you’re still thinking of trying to make your fortune on the App Store, it’s time to think again. While App Store developers made more than Hollywood studios did in combined box office revenue in 2014, a new report suggests it will be almost impossible for new developers to break into the App Store in 2015. Why? Because of zombies. Or zombie apps, at least.

When the first iPhone came out in 2007, third-party apps were limited affairs: glorified web apps without a lot of access to the iPhone’s more advanced functionality. According to a new blog post from Eleks Labs, a developer working on an Apple Wacth Tesla app, the same could be true of third-party Apple Watch apps when the wearable launches in April.

This week: Apple has its best quarter ever, Apple Watch is coming in April and the best parts of the iOS 8.1.3 and Yosemite 10.10.2 updates. Plus, Disney considers a reboot of the beloved Indiana Jones movies, and then things really go off the rails in Facts of Life, a new game where we mix real facts with fake ones, then guess which is which!

Our thanks to Varidesk for supporting this episode. With models starting at just $275, Varidesk is a high-quality, inexpensive way to get started with a standing desk. And you should absolutely check them out, because moving to a standing desk will change your life.

Read on for full show notes.

There are some pretty hot savings on some spectacular products that are ending very soon at Cult of Mac Deals.

Don’t miss out on getting yourself the NetSpot Pro Wi-Fi Optimizer, Stellar Phoenix Mac Data Recovery, the 10-For-$10 Mac App Bundle, plus much more at savings of up to 87% off the regular price.

This year’s Super Bowl will be streamed for free over the internet in full HD, no cable subscription required. Completely unbundling the big game is an effort on NBC’s part to promote its TV Everywhere service, which ironically requires a cable subscription.

11 hours of content will be streamed for free on game day, February 1. That includes the full game, commercials, halftime show with Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz, and even an episode of The Blacklist.

It used to be that you had to wait until Sunday to see the hot, out-of-this-world-expensive Super Bowl ads during the big game.

In our modern, always-connected age of sneak-peek overindulgence, you can actually skip the game itself and watch the ads on your own time, via YouTube and your sweet iPad or iPhone.

Here are 13 of the most hotly anticipated short films that you can preview right now, and spend your commercial time during the game making snacks and taking bathroom breaks.