How much would you endure to get a cheap deal on a new Apple product?

When we wrote about the traditional Japanese “Lucky Bag” special offer — which gives customers the chance to buy a $300 gift bag, containing cut-price luxuries like MacBook Airs and Apple TVs — many U.S.-based Cult of Mac readers complained that they weren’t given similar promotions.

I saw their point — at least until I glimpsed something much worse: photos showing the freezing Apple fans in question, lined up outside the Sapporo, Japan Apple Store on January 1.

You know that moment when an otherwise fun special offer turns into the last scene of The Shining (spoilers!)? This is it.

Mercury is the most cratered planet in the solar system, a popular destination for asteroids and comets.

As bleak a place as this sounds, you may be able to give the pockmarked planet some personality.

The team piloting the MESSENGER spacecraft exploring the closest planet to the sun is calling on “all Earthlings” to name some prominent craters after famous people in the arts and humanities.

The deadline is Jan. 15 and inspiration can be found in pictures of the five craters on MESSENGER’s official website.

If you’re like me, you’ve got a junk bin full of old technology. It’s just the way we’re made; there’s nothing better than sifting through the detritus of technology that you loved.

I’ve traded in my iPhone for the last five generations, from the iPhone 3G to the iPhone 5, or passed them along to my kids or significant others. The first generation iPhone, however, was something special, so I kept it.

As I was looking for ways to let my daughter listen to music at night without the temptation (or networked connection) of her more modern mobile phone, I chanced upon this lovely little rounded gadget from 2007 in the plastic bin I lovingly refer to as my Dead Technology Museum.

I figured I’d add some music to the thing, and that would be that. But the more time I spent messing around with it, I realized that I could make it into a pretty great little device; even though it pales in comparison with the iPhone 6, there’s still plenty of use in this baby.

 Here are seven things, then, that you can do with your own old iPhone to make it just a bit more useful, whether it’s an original iPhone or an even more modern model. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out these old iPhone uses.

The Cult of Mac team spent the past week sweating it out in Las Vegas and gathered up a ton of hands-on looks at some of the hottest products heading down the tech conveyor belt to you in the near future.

We’ve got the two guys who’s gadget can help you bake the perfect cookie, a self-adjusting belt for when you’ve eaten too many cookies, and a sexy sci-fi car that will help you feel better about not having your futuristic flying vehicles, yet.

Be sure to click on through and see this week’s top stories, and subscribe to our free weekly digital magazine right here.

There’s a ton of reasons why a disc may get stuck in your Mac. Not only is it frustrating, but it can also bring you into a cold sweat — panicking about how to remove it when there’s no easy access.

But don’t worry: in today’s video we go over a few simple tricks to force eject your favorite album or movie without ripping apart your beautiful Mac.

Make sure to Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to catch all our latest videos.

The iPhone has become such a major part of our existence, a piece of technology that we almost take for granted, that it’s difficult to remember a time when we were instead tapping away at our Moto Q, Palm Treo and Nokia E62 handsets.

But while the iPhone has gone on to revolutionize our lives (and Apple’s business) it’s not that long ago — eight years today — that Steve Jobs stood on stage at MacWorld 2007, and told the world that Apple had created a touchscreen iPod, a cell phone, and a breakthrough Internet device all-in-one.

Coming off its most profitable holiday season ever, and a record-breaking week for the App Store, it’s worth taking a moment to rewatch Jobs’ first iPhone presentation: both to see an iconic moment in tech history, and to be reminded of how far we’ve come since then!

Check it out after the jump:

Some manufacturers have seen great success in taking inspiration from (copying) popular Apple products, and now Nokia is getting in on the action. Its attractive, Android-powered iPad clone, called the N1, sold 20,000 units in just four minutes when it went on sale in China this week.

Can’t wait to get your hands on the Apple Watch? Well, tough, you’ll have to. But if you’d just like to play around with the interface, we can help you out, thanks to this new online Apple Watch simulator.

Samsung reportedly has Apple’s blessing to manufacture the processors for the Apple Watch, which will be allegedly be made using the company’s 28nm process technology.

The order would come at just the right time for Samsung, which recently announced another quarter of poor earnings: giving it its first annual profit decline since 2011.

With Samsung’s mobile division in the toilet, the company needs to focus on other areas, like securing orders for chip fabrication.

With the exception that most of us don’t routinely change our wives or husbands every couple of years for a newer, slimmer model, owning an iPhone can be a lot like being in a relationship.

And just like any relationship, time apart can lead to separation anxiety and other negative psychological effects.

A new study carried out by researchers from the University of Missouri suggests that iPhone users should avoid being parted from their iPhones during daily situations requiring large amounts of attention — such as taking tests, sitting in meetings, or carrying out important work assignments.

During Apple’s earnings call in October, Tim Cook described Apple supply as not being “on the same planet” when it came to matching demand for the iPhone 6. “It’s very difficult to gauge demand without first finding the balance,” he noted.

Well, jump forward a few months and it seems that balance has finally been achieved — since Apple’s online store in the U.S. is now showing all capacities, colors and carriers as in-stock for both the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

The recently-released unlocked, SIM-free iPhone 6 models are also showing availability within one business day.

The newest version of North Korea’s  state-controlled operating system was made available to the public for the first time ever this week. The last version (Red Star 2.0) was designed to look just like Windows, but for the sequel, Kim Jong Un’s minions have taken some inspiration from Apple and completely redesigned their Linux-based operating system to look just like OS X.

Red Star 3.0 was leaked via torrents a few days ago. We wouldn’t recommend installing it, but the folks at The Next Web took the plunge and discovered the painstaking details Pyongyang went through to replicate OS X.

Everything from the dock, menu bars, settings, and even the spinning beachball of doom, have been ported over to the operating system. A few remnants of the Windows copying days still linger, like the ability to run Windows 3.1 apps, but the rest of Red Star 3.0 is full OS X clone through and through.

Take a look at the similarities:

Your Mac is a powerful machine with the capabilities to keep you in touch, productive, and entertained – if you load it with the right apps, that is. Having the proper apps at your disposal will take your Mac experience to newer heights and make your life easier.

For a limited time you can get 10 top-rated apps with the 10-For-$10 Mac App Bundle at Cult of Mac Deals.

Apple’s French website has been updated with a stark black line and the simple message “Je Suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”) in solidarity with victims of Wednesday’s terror attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine.

The murderous rampage, allegedly conducted by French brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, left 12 dead, including four of the satirical magazine’s editorial cartoonists and two policemen. While French authorities search for the brothers, a third suspect, Hamyd Mourad, is reportedly cooperating after surrendering.

LAS VEGAS — Hearing aids aren’t sexy, so a lot of journalists here at International CES breezed right by ReSound’s booth.

The Danish company has been in the hearing aid business for 75 years, and launched the first iPhone-connected hearing aid at CES last year. Now the company is a back with a full lineup of iPhone-compatible LiNX hearing aids. The devices address the whole range of hearing loss, from the mild to severe.

As I approach 50, I’m wondering if I need a pair myself, so I went to check them out. I was impressed. Connecting a hearing aid to an iPhone adds a lot of very useful functionality.

Apple is serious about getting its products into the enterprise market — and to prove it, it’s calling in the services of longtime Hewlett-Packard executive John Solomon to take charge.

Solomon’s precise job title and role at Apple are unclear, but according to the well-connected Re/code, he will be helping Apple “boost sales to big companies and government agencies with large technology budgets.”

LAS VEGAS — In a sea of iPhone cases and other Apple-related gizmos, one would expect to find at least a few Apple Watch accessories at CES.

Sure, the Watch itself won’t come out for probably a few more months, but we already know what it looks like and a lot about how its apps will work. Where are the companies looking to hitch their wagons to Apple’s next big thing?

Out of the 3,679 exhibitors spread across the 2.06 million square feet of show floor at International CES this year, there is only one Apple Watch accessory, and it’s an unfinished prototype.

LAS VEGAS — iDevices’ first HomeKit-compatible product will be a simple on-off switch that turns your iPhone into a remote control for lamps and appliances.

It’s name is simple too: Switch.

The $49.99 rectangular device plugs into an outlet. You plug a standard electrical device like a lamp or stereo into its convenient side outlet, and then you can turn that device on and off remotely. Switch comes in plain white, although a colored band of lights can be programmed to glow in custom colors to brighten up a dark hallway.

“You can change it to any color you like,” said Dan Cepa, iDevices’ senior director of sales, during CES International.

LAS VEGAS — Monitoring diabetes can be a pain (literally). Keeping track of your loved one’s diabetes is even harder, especially if you’re trying to ensure your tech-illiterate grandmother’s blood-sugar levels aren’t spiking.

Now you’ll finally be able to monitor all their vital stats from your iPhone, even if grandma’s not using one too.

iHealth revealed its new iHealth Gateway collection of devices at International CES here this week. The line of products allow loved ones or doctors to remotely monitor personal health stats for senior citizens who eschew iOS devices. All grandma and grandpa have to do is prick their finger with the supported blood-glucose monitor, and the Gateway hub will beam the data to their caretaker’s device. No more worries about whether they’re keeping up with their meds.

Older games that we all loved and played relentlessly as kids tend to disappear as the old operating systems that we played them on are sent out to pasture.

The Internet Archive, a free library of millions of free books, movies, websites, and other media, has also archived thousands of older MS_DOS games, like Maniac Mansion, Prince of Persia, and–yes–Oregon Trail, and has given us all access to them for free.

Turns out, you can still get dysentery while traveling to Oregon, even if you haven’t kept your old PC or Mac to play the seminal educational game on.

“The collection includes action, strategy, adventure and other unique genres of game and entertainment software,” writes Jason Scott, the Software Librarian for the Internet Archive. “Through the use of the EM-DOSBOX in-browser emulator, these programs are bootable and playable.”

If you look at the work of photographer and graphic artist Alberto Seveso, you might inadvertently feel you’re in the throes of a Rorschach inkblot test.

You are staring at ink for sure and, mesmerized, you can’t help but process what the eyes and brain see. Looks like lava, melted plastic or the gas explosions from an evolving star in deep space. The heart will no doubt see beauty but the gut may roil and struggle.

Seveso, a highly sought-after editorial and commercial photographer, hopes he is stirring our insides when he captures the fleeting art of ink or paint being poured into water.

LAS VEGAS — Drones are everywhere at the International CES show. You can’t walk though the South Hall without hearing the feverish buzz of quadrocopter wings luring people to their booths.

Most of the new drones we’ve seen are either too expensive for normal people, or they’re cheap and lack compelling features. But after hours of searching we’ve found the one drone you should pay attention to in 2015: The Hexo+.

On the outside, Hexo+ doesn’t look too different from other drones, but it packs a killer “auto-follow” feature that will allow budding drone photographers to capture epic aerial videos without needing a dedicated pilot to frame each shot.

LAS VEGAS — Your iPhone captures great imagery, but sometimes the built-in zoom just isn’t enough. An ingenious gadget that quickly connects smartphones to almost any optical device gives your everyday camera superpowers.

The Carson Universal is an incredibly simple idea, but it delivers some pretty astonishing results. You can use it to connect your smartphone to telescopes, binoculars, microscopes, spotting scopes or almost any other optical device with a rounded eyepiece. Instead of buying a specialized, device-specific adapter, it’s a one-size-fits-all optical attachment.

“It kind of opens up the possibilities,” said Michelle Hyers, the engineer who designed the Carson Universal.

We’re just one week into 2015, and already the App Store is setting new sales records. Apple today announced that during the first week of January alone, customers around the world spent almost half a billion dollars on apps and in-app purchases, with New Year’s Day 2015 the single biggest day in App Store sales history.

LAS VEGAS — Want to avoid gingivitis and tooth decay? There’s an app for that. More than one, actually, and they work with Bluetooth-equipped toothbrushes to help ensure you’re properly cleaning your choppers.

The app for Oral-B’s electric Bluetooth toothbrushes is designed to develop good brushing habits and keep your teeth healthy.

“We have a product that will work — if you use it,” Oral-B rep Kris Parlett told Cult of Mac during International CES.