When I was a kid, I wanted to be a drummer. When it came time to assign instruments in elementary school, I started on a practice drumming pad.

The music teacher never let me graduate to a real drum because he knew what he was hearing on the rubber pad would be a disaster on a simple snare. But an aspiring drummer in Japan has mastered the pad — the iPad, that is. His fast-moving fingers earned him the title of “sickest drummer in metal right now” on Digg.

Hot deals are introduced every day at Cult of Mac Deals.

As new ones arrive, older offers must leave. We’ve highlighted 5 such deals that are ending very soon and we wouldn’t want anyone to miss out. Read on to check them out.

NASA’s spaceship of tomorrow might make a critic of skeuomorphic design cringe.

Orion, which flew successfully on an unmanned test Friday and is seen as a critical first step toward flying a crew to Mars, is guided by sophisticated computer control panels.

But instead of a modern digital interface, NASA designed the controls to look like something from the Gemini missions from the ’60s. Orion’s computer screens are full of virtual flip switches and levers that would put Yuri Gagarin at ease.

It’s a little like Apple putting a virtual rotary dial on an iPhone.

Protesters streamed into an Apple Store in New York City on Friday to stage a “die-in” and call attention to a man who died at the hands of a police officer.

The peaceful Apple Store invasion came on the third night of protests after a grand jury failed to indict the cop who killed Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black man who was stopped on the street for selling cigarettes. Garner, who was asthmatic, died after Officer Daniel Pantaleo applied an apparent choke-hold.

What does the bacon above have in common with The Amazing Spider-Man 2? Both were created with 3D animation software called Houdini by Toronto-based Side Effects Software.

The newest release is coming next month, and, as you can see in the stunning video below, it’s going to further revolutionize the world of 3D animation in movies, TV and video games.

Check the video out below, and try not to lick your screen when the bacon shows up.

The holidays are less than 3 weeks away. Are you prepared?

Shop for your gifts the easy way at Cult of Mac Deals. Today we feature 5 desirable deals for under $75 that anyone on your list would love to receive, like a quadcopter drone, Bluetooth speakers, and more.

The $350 million class action lawsuit against Apple might not even have a legitimate plaintiff anymore, but the trial continued in Oakland today with one of the key witnesses being none other than Steve Jobs himself.

The late Apple CEO appeared on a TV monitor in court today in an unreleeased deposition video that was filmed six months before his death in 2011. CNET reports that in the video Steve Jobs maintained the same stance as Eddy Cue and Phil Schiller earlier this week, that Apple wasn’t trying to block competitors and hurt customers by removing some songs off of iPods. It was simply protecting iTunes from hackers and trying to not violate its record label contracts.

Jobs’ demeanor and responses reportedly suggested he wasn’t taking the antitrust case very seriously, and that Apple didn’t perceive any competitors as legitimate threats.

The only thing missing from Friday’s Orion test flight was a black-and-white live stream and the voice of Walter Cronkite calling the moment of the capsule’s splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Orion may be the future of deep-space travel, with ambitious missions planned for an asteroid in the next decade and eventually Mars, but the event had a nostalgic feel, like a 1960s or ’70s living room with all eyes on a black-and-white television set.

Google has been tightening up its policies on piracy services the last few weeks and today it just gave The Pirate Bay one its biggest blows on Android by banning its apps from Google Play.

Pirate Bay developers were sent an email from Google today notifying them that their apps had been removed. Apps that provided optimized browsers for the Pirate Bay were Google’s main target in the ban. Many of the apps, which included “The Pirate Bay Proxy,” “PirateApp,” and “The Pirate Bay Premium,” also had proxy sites for users to circumvent ISP restrictions.

The sudden banishment apparently came without a DMCA takedown notice, reports TorrentFreak, who spoke with one of the developers that claims his app really isn’t any different than Google Chome.

Smartphones have been linked to rising crime in New York and San Francisco thanks to their allure among thieves, and according to the FCC it’s getting even worse, with a new study finding 10% of all robberies now involve the theft of a smartphone.

For iPhone owners there is some good news though. The FCC says theft of iOS devices has been on the decline ever since Apple added Activation Lock in iOS 7. Thieves in San Francisco are reportedly passing up on the iPhone now that users have a kill switch, leading to a 38% decline in iPhone robberies.

iPhone thefts in New York City were also down 19% in the first five months of 2014, and in London they’ve dropped 24%. Android owners aren’t as lucky though.

Just like The Force, the Internet has both dark and light sides. How you see the possible spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens that just leaked is mostly a matter of perspective.

If you read on, you’ll be exposed to an embarrassing wealth of spoiler-y plot and character details about J.J. Abrams’ upcoming film. But be aware: Whether true or not, the sheer volume of close-up detail and conflicting information will change you.

If you want to go in unspoiled, read the following rumors at your own risk.

As for the supposed insider who leaked the information? Who knows their motivation? Even the Sith think they’re doing “the right thing.”

Apple has been fighting an iPod-related class-action lawsuit for nearly a decade now, but just as the trial is heating up in Oakland, the New York Times reports that the lawyers suing Apple have suddenly found themselves down to just one plaintiff.

The $350 million case accuses Apple of stifling competition on iTunes from competing music services by deleting songs off users’ iPods from September 2006 to March 2009. But lawyers in the case have withdrawn one of the named plaintiffs today, after they discovered her iPod wasn’t purchased during the time period in question.

Eddy Cue and Phil Schiller have both testified this week at the trial regarding Apple’s use of DRM.  Evidence from Steve Jobs is also expected to be presented, however, there might not even be a case by the time they get to it.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has lashed out at Tim Cook’s privacy policy, calling it “ridiculous,” and knocking Apple for pricing its products as highly as it does.

Zuckerberg’s rebuttal follows comments made by Cook in September, in which he noted that, “When an online service is free, you’re not the customer. You’re the product.” While the message was most likely meant for long-time rival Google, Facebook’s head honcho definitely took it personally.

Read Zuckerberg’s impassioned response after the jump:

After an expansion into China that is nothing short of spectacular, Apple next has its sights set on India, with its vast population of 1.2 billion citizens and rapidly-growing smartphone market.

With that in mind, the company is reportedly finalizing plans to open 500 “iOS stores” in the country, ranging from smaller 300-600 square foot retail outlets, to ones over 2,000 square foot in larger locations.

These stores will likely be run as a franchise model, and operated by Redington, one of Apple’s two distributors in India, which supplies Apple devices to regional stores. Remington currently accounts for around 70 percent of Apple sales in India.

We all like our email signatures to look fantastic. Apple Mail began letting you make your special mark with an HTML-style email signature with OS X Lion back in 2011.

The process of setting up an HTML signature in Apple Mail has only gotten more complex over the years, unfortunately. Now it takes a bit of patience and a sturdy sense of adventure, but it’s not too difficult.

If you want to create your own HTML signature for Apple’s Mail app on OS X Yosemite, keep reading.

This week: the oddly uplifting tale of Apple co-founder Ron Wayne, who sold his stake in the company for $800. Plus, road-ready gifts for bicyclists, killer Vainglory strategy guide, and awesome iOS 8 widgets you won’t want to miss. That and more in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine!

Dig into Cult of Mac Magazine December 5 Edition, Free on iTunes

President Obama might not be allowed an iPhone for security reasons, but an iPhone 6 Plus did make into the White House recently — to photograph the Presidential Christmas decorations.

“If you are looking to capture something candid, people are so used to seeing mobile devices that their reaction time is slower,” said photographer Brooks Kraft in an interview with TIME magazine. “You have a better chance of getting the shot, and that was the case at the White House.”

Because the pre-Christmas event is less formal than many occasions at the White House (the President isn’t there for one thing), Kraft said he seized the opportunity to “try out new gear that I might use later in more news-oriented environments.”

And what better gear to try out than an iPhone 6 Plus?

Foxconn has been working to replace its human workforce with robotic “Foxbots” for some time now, but it seems that a 2011 promise by CEO Terry Gou to unleash an army of production robots by the end of 2014 won’t be coming true after all.

According to the Chinese financial publication Jiemian, Foxconn is facing numerous difficulties building robots capable enough to carry out the kind of precision needed for constructing Apple devices. First and foremost is the fact that the bots are simply too clunky to do the work required of them — primarily because they were designed for automotive work rather than for assembling iPhones.

The current crop of bots reportedly have a production accuracy of 0.05mm, making them a little shy of the 0.02mm accuracy needed to build Apple products.

Christmas is still a few weeks away, but Apple is getting into the holiday spirit by activating a number of its festive-themed curated iTunes Radio stations — ranging from collections of country Christmas songs, to stations featuring the kind of Christmas standards we all know and love.

The ten stations include Children’s Christmas Holiday Sing-Along, Country Holiday, Classical Holiday, Holiday Classics, Holiday Hits, Latin Holiday, Rockin’ Holiday, Soulful Holiday, Swingin’ Holiday and The Sounds of Christmas.

Of all the big companies that would interested in buying their employees the Apple Watch when it comes out, fashion brands like Louis Vuitton and Fendi come to mind first. What doesn’t come to mind is BuzzFeed.

But that’s exactly what BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti is doing for his 700+ employees. As a reward for reaching 200 million unique visitors and 750 million video views in one month, every BuzzFeed staffer gets an Apple Watch.

Besides a $75 million gym for employees, Apple’s massive new campus will have a number of nice perks, including a state-of-the-art theater for future product unveilings. The 1,000-seat venue will likely be where Apple holds the majority of its media events, and so the company is willing drop some serious cash on the space.

The internet is a fantastic resource, but one that is filled with perils and pitfalls. Even the most seasoned tech professional can fall prey to the dangers that await in the shadows of the net.

The only way to fully protect your internet experience is with help: The kind of help that Cult of Mac Deals is offering today. Get Sticky Password Premium for half price, and the VPN Unlimited Premium Plan for 70% off. Read on for details.

Apple was forced by major record labels to implement digital rights management technology in iTunes, according to testimony in an ongoing class-action lawsuit that accuses Cupertino of stifling competition with competing music services.

Apple contemplated licensing its DRM, called FairPlay, to other companies, “but we couldn’t find a way to do that and have it work reliably,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services.