We’ve all seen YouTube videos like the above, showing a time-lapse of a person’s changing face over time. If you’re anything like me, you’ve momentarily thought about how interesting it would be to create a similar video for yourself, just to see how much your features alter from month-to-month, or year-to-year — only to drop the idea because you realize you’ll never remember to take selfies every single day.

Well, Grzegorz Aksamit’s suitably-titled Selfie App can help you, since it will automatically trigger your MacBook’s built-in iSight camera every time you lift the notebook’s lid, or wake your iMac up from its slumber. Useful, huh?

The iPhone recently celebrated its eighth birthday, and what better way to mark the occasion than with a mesmerizing animated GIF — showing the evolution of Apple’s mobile handset from the revolutionary but (now) small and slightly bulky device Steve Jobs unveiled in 2007, to the landmark iPhone 6 which racked up more than 10 million sales in its first weekend alone?

If you’re a long-time iPhone fan, or a relatively new user, it’s an astounding glimpse at just how far we’ve come in just a handful of iPhone iterations. To paraphrase The Simpsons, it’s hypnotic… almost like watching a lava lamp.

From gorgeous new architectural concepts, to its most ambitious retail store opening plan in years, Apple certainly isn’t slacking off when it comes to its continued expansion into China: a market that Tim Cook has said will one day be Apple’s largest of anywhere in the world, including the U.S.

Ahead of opening its latest brick-and-mortar retail store at West Lake in Hangzhou this Saturday, Apple has added a new video to its Chinese webpage — showing famous calligrapher Wang Dongling creating an astonishing mural for the store.

It’s a great nod to Chinese tradition, while also managing to be quintessentially Apple in spirit.

According to industry analysts, video games account for several billions of dollars in revenue every single year. That’s an astounding number and speaks to the relative health of the gaming industry.

You could secure yourself a slice of that enormous money pie by learning game development skills with the Name Your Own Price Game Design Course Bundle, available for a limited time at Cult of Mac Deals.

From its outspoken CEO with his unabashed Apple love, to the company’s insistence on trying unorthodox strategies to hook customers, there’s plenty to like about T-Mobile. Plenty to like, that is, unless you work on the business side of things.

In a new interview, Timotheus Höttges, CEO of T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom, says that while he loves the carrier’s “super-maverick” approach to the mobile business, it’s just not sustainable in the long term.

We still don’t have a launch date for Apple Watch, but if you can’t wait to line up at Apple Stores for Jony Ive’s timepiece, you can do the next best thing and buy a knockoff.

Earlier this morning, an eBay listing for a “prototype Apple Watch” sold in just hours for $260. The seller claims it’s an Apple prototype obtained from a cousin who works at Apple, but the sticker on the front and cheap leather band give it away as an obvious fake.

Here’s a look at the listing:

The forthcoming Apple Watch may be Apple’s first tentative steps into the wearables market, but it’s not the company’s first attempt at a timepiece — as YouTube user Jonathan Morrison shows in a new video.

You see, back in 1995, when Apple was still reeling from the damaging blow that was Windows 95, the company produced a limited collection of custom-made wristwatches to reward users who upgraded to Mac OS System 7.5. And despite its slightly Saved By The Bell appearance, it was actually pretty neat.

Check out Morrison’s video after the jump.

As promised by the web service, a glitter bomb sent to an enemy can be a real nuisance.

But the glitter that just wouldn’t go away turned out to be on the hands of the man who created shipyourenemiesglitter.com, who after a few days of viral attention and web-site crashing orders begged off.

“Hi guys I’m the founder of this website,” wrote Mathew Carpenter on Product Hunt last week. “Please stop buying this horrible glitter product — I’m sick of dealing with it. Sincerely, Mat.”

Some quick cash might be the remedy to remove the glitter off Carpenter’s hands.

His site went up for sale on flippa.com, receiving more than 300 bids and quickly exceeded the $60,000 reserve bid.

I think we can all agree that the iPhone and other smartphone cameras have been a boon for photography. For the first time in history, the vast majority of people have an incredibly powerful camera in their pockets at all time. Because of this, our age will be the most well-documented age in history. And that’s awesome. But some critics claim that because we can take as many pictures as we want now, we give a lot less thought to what they shoot, and how, than they did when they had to measure out each and every shot.

That’s why I love this new app for iOS, White Album. It basically makes a disposable camera out of your iPhone. But don’t worry, you don’t have to throw your iPhone away when you stop using the app.

If you’re looking for something to do with today’s public holiday, here’s an idea: why not seize the opportunity to buy a Google Glass headset, knowing that this could be your last chance to ever do so?

That’s right — from tomorrow, Google’s $1,500 Glass Explorer augmented reality goggles will no longer be available through Google’s Play Store. Headsets will continue to work, although users shouldn’t expect any official software updates for them.

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and to mark the occasion Apple has changed the image on its homepage to one commemorating the beloved civil rights activist and pastor.

The black-and-white image is accompanied by a line reading, “Today we reflect on the life and vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the work that continues in service of the broader concerns of humanity.”

Ever since Tim Cook unveiled the Apple Watch last September, it’s been one disappointment after another as far as I’m concerned. Apple’s first wearable won’t come in the minimalist form factor of the fitness bracelets I love. Worse yet, the launch version of the fashion-forward device will lack GPS, suffer from underwhelming battery life and fail to offer truly native third-party apps.

For the first time, I realized I would not be buying an Apple product when it first hit the market. “It’s not worth lining up for,” I told my dad when he asked what I thought after the Apple Watch’s big reveal.

But a funny thing happened on the way to Apple Watch’s launch day, which is coming sometime this spring. And I’m not talking about the previously unthinkable — an Apple fan calling the Microsoft Band the best smartwatch on the planet. No, I’m talking about wading through an ungodly sea of really bad smartwatches at International CES earlier this month and seeing indisputable proof of just how innovative and disruptive Apple Watch actually will be.

Apple has long been outspoken about the measures it goes to to keep your iPhone secure, but new documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden demonstrate how the British spy agency GCHQ was able to carry out “realtime tracking of target iPhones” — by compromising users’ computers.

Rather than directly targeting the iPhones, GCHQ agents focused their attack on the computers with which the iPhones were synchronised, enabling them to access much of the data stored on the handset. The method took advantage of flaws in Apple’s UDID (unique device identifier) system, which issued a unique code for every iPhone, linking it with its owner.

The iPhone tracking report was handed over by Snowden to a group of nine journalists — including Laura Poitras, the filmmaker behind the acclaimed documentary Citizenfour.

Incredible deals on state of the art technology are offered every single day at Cult of Mac Deals.

Need an iPhone 6 case that can recharge your battery? How about mobile data backup? Want to learn how to design iOS apps? Read on for deals to satisfy those needs and more.

After a number of delays in production, and a seemingly endless search for a leading man, Aaron Sorkin’s upcoming biopic about Steve Jobs has finally started shooting, at the garage where Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple back in 1976.

In a curious example of international geopolitics influencing the App Store, developers who have registered iTunes accounts in the Crimea are being told to stop using all Apple software, and destroy any materials related to it. Why? It all has to do with the United States imposing sanctions against Russia.

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is usually dead right with his predictions on upcoming Apple products. But lately, his predictions have been whoppers. First, Kuo predicted that Apple would ditch Intel chips in the Mac for ARM by 2016, and now, he’s predicting that the upcoming 12.9-inch iPad Pro will be the first to ship with a stylus. If true, Steve Jobs might just roll over in his grave.

There’s some pretty amazing deals ending very soon at Cult of Mac Deals.

We’d hate to see anyone miss out on a good thing, so check out some killer offers on Mac apps, cool technological gadgets, professional photography training, and more.

Rumors that Apple might ditch Intel chips in the Mac for ARM-based chips of their own design are nothing new. Back in 2012, we reported that Apple would soon be dropping Intel chips from all their Macs. And earlier this year, ex-Apple-executive Jean-Louis Gassée claimed that he thought Apple would soon ditch Intel too. Heck, even Intel has said in the past it considered Apple switching to ARM on the desktop to be a very real and scary threat. Yet it still hasn’t happened. So far, it’s the rumor equivalent of the Apple HDTV: even though it endlessly comes up in the news cycle, it still hasn’t happened.

Even so, when usually accurate analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from KGI Securities issued a note last week saying that Apple would fully switch from Intel to ARM by 2016, it caused a ruckus. People took the rumor more seriously than most, just based on Kuo’s amazing track record. But according to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, he’s not worried. But he’s also not denying it’s a possibility.

The Retina iMac is a sweet, sweet machine, but starting at $2,499, it’s one of the most expensive Macs you can buy, short of the new Mac Pro. But if you’re tempted to buy one, here’s a cheaper way to do so: the Retina iMac has finally been added to Apple’s online Refurbished store.

This week: Optical zoom and Force Touch rumored for the iPhone 6s, autonomous future-cars chauffeur us about, and we’re back from Vegas with a full report on the best gadgets, technology and trends from the 2015 International CES. And for a small fee, we cover your enemies in an explosion of spectacular glitter. Seriously.

Our thanks to Harry’s for supporting this episode. Harry’s super-sharp, German-made razors ship free right to your door and for way less than the drugstore razors. Learn more at Harrys.com and save $5 off your first order with code CultCast.

Full show notes ahead!

Successful computer programmers are educated in as many coding languages as they can handle. They maintain their knowledge through professional development opportunities to stay abreast of changes in the industry and to familiarize themselves with the newest and most up to date methods. The only problem with that is professional development opportunities can be costly.

Now you can learn to deftly manipulate in-demand programming languages such as Python and Ruby like a master with the Pay What You Want Back-End Developer Course Bundle. It’s available at Cult of Mac Deals for a limited time only and, best of all, it costs far less than you’d think.

This week, Leander breaks a story about how Apple’s secret product plans could be found using a little-known Web portal for retailers, Buster calls out a respected Apple analyst for a sketchy prediction, Stephen gets the skinny on removing adware from your Mac, and Rob gives you seven things you never thought you could do with an extremely old iPhone.

All that, plus all the news you’ll want to hear about, in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine, ready for you now on Newsstand in the iTunes App Store.

Keep reading for our top stories this week.

Samsung’s fingerprint scanners could be some of the worst available in today’s mobile devices; they’re so unreliable that most people don’t even bother with them. But sources familiar with the company’s plans say it is working to change that for the upcoming Galaxy S6.

How? By copying Apple, of course.