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Get 8 killer Mac apps at 96% off with The Mac To The Future Bundle [Deals]

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CoM_Mac to the Future

Great Scott! We highlight a lot of bundles here and they’re all really awesome, but today we profile a bundle that, hands down, you absolutely need to have.

In The Mac To The Future Bundle you get 8 elite Mac apps plus 25 comprehensive OS X and web development courses with a combined value of over $950. For a limited time at Cult of Mac Deals, though, The Mac To The Future Bundle can be yours for a paltry $29.99.

Angry Birds Transformers ‘rolls out’ worldwide

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Autobirds, roll out! Fans of the Robots in Disguise will be pleased to hear that today marks the worldwide availability of Angry Birds Transformers, following its soft-launched in New Zealand, Finland, Canada and Australia last month.

Following the well-received Angry Birds Star Wars, the game takes another beloved childhood property and applies the popular Angry Birds formula, with an added 2D run-and-gun dimension that keeps the title feeling fresh.

Check out our above video by Cult of Mac’s own Joshua Smith for first impressions.

Check out this amazing ‘working’ iPhone in Minecraft

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Photo:
Photo: SHUFFLE/YouTube

In a game where you can build anything you want, it was only going to be so long before someone constructed an iPhone in Minecraft.

Even with that said, however, the version of Apple’s iconic handset which one player put together is impressive; being not just a block-based reconstruction of the iPhone’s outward appearance — but a slavish recreation of the iPhone UX, complete with iOS apps.

What to expect from tomorrow’s Apple event

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Until September, 2014 was a pretty quiet year for new Apple products. But the drought is over.

After announcing new iPhones and the Apple Watch last month, another media event is being held October 16th at Apple’s Town Hall auditorium on its Cupertino campus. “It’s been way too long,” joked Apple in its invitation to select members of the press. For those itching to see new iPad and Mac hardware, indeed.

While Town Hall is only a fraction of The Flint Center’s size, October 16th’s event shouldn’t be viewed as any less important. iPad sales are stagnant, and Apple’s desktop displays have been needing an upgrade for years. Apple Pay, an entirely new venture for the company, is expected to come out any day now. And then there’s always the chance that Apple still has at least one surprise up its sleeve.

Apple reportedly plans to debut 3-D logo for all future products

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Photo: Nowhereelse.fr

Apple is reportedly upgrading the technologies used for printing its logo onto devices, using new laser-cutting and embedding technologies that will give the logo a 3-D appearance that will “shine at the edges.”

This logo is apparently set to feature on all new Apple products from next year, beginning with the the next-generation iMac.

The YouTube musician who made Steve Jobs dance with glee

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Jonathan Mann turns his fascination with Apple into catchy pop songs. Photo: Funcrunch Photo/Flickr

Steve Jobs wasn’t in the habit of dancing at Apple events. But in 2010, prior to a press conference where he addressed concerns about the new iPhone’s antenna, a song lampooning the controversy got Jobs dancing in the wings before he faced off with journalists.

The song in question, which played on a big screen to kick off the event, was the work of YouTube musician and Apple fan Jonathan Mann, who has spent the past five years composing a new song each day and posting it online.

“I heard later on from an Apple PR person that Steve Jobs was bopping along in the wings as the song was playing” at the Antennagate press conference, says Mann, speaking with Cult of Mac. “It was a surreal moment in my life.”

Antennagate went away, but Mann became the go-to guy for jingles about all things Cupertino. To date he has written 38 songs about Apple, touching  on everything from Craig Federighi’s WWDC performance to the unveiling of the Apple Watch. His clever ideas and quick turnaround times have turned him into YouTube’s premier Apple songsmith.

Samsung has created a flexible, rollable battery for wearables

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Although we’ve yet to see a truly mass-market wearable device sweep the world, most people working in high tech believe that devices like smartwatches represent the next big frontier.

With that in mind, Samsung has debuted a potentially transformative creation at the ongoing InterBattery 2014 exhibition being held in Seoul, Korea: a rollable, flexible battery.

Although not too many details are known yet about the exact materials and structural design advances used to create it, it is reported that the battery can function even when bent in half, or rolled up into the shape of a paper cup.

NASA captures Halloween cheer with jack-o’-lantern sun

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Black hole sun/Won't you come... Photo: NASA/SDO
Black hole sun/Won't you come... Photo: NASA/SDO

Is there anything cooler than images of our solar system? Especially ones of the actual Sol, or, our sun. No, there is not.

This fantastically seasonal Halloween image was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which does nothing but stare at the sun all day and night in complete disregard of what its mother told it not to do.

Regardless, this image is amazing.

“The active regions in this image appear brighter,” writes NASA on its website, “because those are areas that emit more light and energy. They are markers of an intense and complex set of magnetic fields hovering in the sun’s atmosphere, the corona.”

This image blends the images taken with two different ultraviolet wavelengths highlighted, one at 171 and the other at 193 Ångströms, to create this one-of-a-kind jack-o’-lantern sun.

Whatever — this thing is just creepy cool and I want a giant poster of it.

Source: NASA

This is who should have played Apple’s iPhone 6 event

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These rockers might have thrilled more people than U2 did. Screen capture: Late Night with David Letterman
These rockers might have thrilled more people than U2 did. Screen capture: Late Night with David Letterman

Imagine this: Tim Cook walks out on stage to introduce a special musical act at the end of the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch event last month.

Instead of trotting out “aging Irish rockers,” though, imagine if the Foo Fighters came out. Then Zach Brown. And then they launched into the killer rendition of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” you can see below.

Imagine that.

Sapphire supplier COO made $1.2 million offloading shares before bankruptcy

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Could Gorilla Glass soon be even better than sapphire? Photo: Corning Glass
GTAT's sapphire glass didn't land in the iPhone, but its execs still made a fortune.

The sudden collapse of GT Advanced Technologies surprised everyone last week, including Apple, but according to new info obtained by the Wall Street Journal, key executives at GTAT knew its sapphire production deal was in trouble as early as February of this year.

Apple’s third payment of $103 million, which was due in February, wasn’t paid to GTAT on time according security filings which reveal GTAT faced sapphire production problems just months after inking its exclusive deal with Apple.

Supercapacitor-powered Bamboo speaker charges in minutes and lasts for hours

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This speaker charges in minutes, plays for hours. Photo: Blueshift
This speaker charges in minutes, plays for hours. Photo: Blueshift

A few years ago, Portland resident Sam Beck built a bike-powered speaker that wouldn’t cut off when he stopped pedaling at stoplights. He accomplished such a feat with an amazing new technology: supercapacitors.

Instead of stopping there, however, Beck decided to bring his vision to the portable bluetooth speaker market, and his company — Blueshift — was born. Crowd-funded and open sourced, these gorgeous bamboo speakers charge in minutes and sound amazing for hours. The original unit, called Helium, is a big, bold bamboo speaker that packs a ton of sound.

Beck is releasing a second generation speaker called Hydrogen on crowd-funding site Crowd Supply. This new boombox is smaller and a little less loud, but it’s the same quality and design as its larger sibling, and a little less pricey.

Part of the appeal, for Beck, of figuring out this entirely new way of powering a speaker was the inherent challenge of doing something that no one else had.

“It seemed like such a good idea,” he told Cult of Mac over the phone, “I wondered why no one else was doing it. I saw that there was another way to do things that no one else was doing.”

Check out the video below for more details on this gorgeous high-tech portable speaker cabinet.

The Macworld Expo conference is no more

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Steve Jobs presenting at Macworld in 2008. Photo: Dan Farber/ Flickr CC
Steve Jobs presenting at Macworld in 2008. Photo: Dan Farber/ Flickr CC

Macworld Expo, the conference where Steve Jobs unveiled products like the original iPhone and MacBook Air, is no more. After closing Macworld magazine and laying off much of its staff, parent company IDG has announced that 2015’s Macworld/iWorld Expo has been cancelled.

The MacIT conference for enterprise professionals will still take place next year, but Macworld itself has been put on “hiatus.”

How to access Hyperlapse’s secret settings and record in 1080p

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hyperlapseLABS

Instagram’s new Hyperlapse app is a phenomenal tool to capture buttery smooth timelapse video with more options and tweaks offered than iOS 8’s built-in timelapse feature. But if you’ve got a new iPhone 6 and want to record 1080p Hyperlapses you’re out of luck, unless you know how to access its secret settings menu.

Hyperlapsers can tap into their iPhone’s full potential by accessing the hidden ‘Labs’ menu that lets you tweak everything from your recording resolution, frame rate, speed multiplier options and even the sound levels.

Here’s how to access Hyperlapse’s secret settings:

Skullduggery will turn you into a skull-flinging tax collector and you’ll like it

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Flinging skulls, collecting taxes, like you do. Screengrab: Clutch Play Games
Flinging skulls, collecting taxes, like you do. Screengrab: Clutch Play Games

Picture this. You’re a disembodied skull with stretchy brain parts. You use this elasticity to fling yourself around the afterworld, Angry Birds-style, in order to collect taxes from the deadbeats who reside there.

Sound like fun? It is, oddly enough. While Skullduggery may be one of the odder platforming games you’ve played, it’s as challenging and action-packed as anything out there. Once you’ve wrapped your, ahem, head around the control scheme, you’ll find yourself flying through level after level with glee.

Check out the launch trailer below to get a sense of what we mean.

Apple Stores might fix broken Beats headphones

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Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns/Flickr
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns/Flickr

If you’re not satisfied with the banging bass blasting out of your Beats headphones, you might soon be able to take them to the Genius Bar for a tune up.

Apple notified its service providers this morning that they will soon be responsible for offering post-sales support on all Beats headphones and speakers, according to an email obtained by TechInGreek, indicating Apple retail stores will be adding Beats support in the near future.

Here’s the note sent to official Apple Service Providers:

Apple offers female employees 21st-century fertility perk

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Apple now offers free egg freezing for female employees. Photo: Apple

Working for Apple takes an insane level of dedication, so to help keep its top female talent around long, Apple is joining Facebook to provide free egg freezing for non-medical reasons.

Successful egg freezing allows women extend their fertility by storing eggs at a younger age for use when they’re older. The new process has become a viable family planning option for women who don’t want to put their career on hold, but procedures usually come at a steep price.

Get some serious air with the exclusive Code Black Drone w/cam pre-order [Deals]

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CoM_Black Hawk Drone

Like having fun? Like playing with state of the art gizmos? Like exclusive offers that you won’t find anywhere else no matter how hard you look? Then you want to check out today’s killer deal.

Get non-stop fun with Cult of Mac Deals exclusive and limited edition Code Black Drone Plus SD Camera. You can pre-order yours now for half price, just $69.  Or pre-order with an HD Camera for $89.  Either way, it’s a fantastic deal.

What if the new iPads were as pretty as the iPhone 6?

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Photo: Martin Hajek
Photo: Martin Hajek

When the next generation iPads are unveiled this Thursday, we’re expecting a thinner form factor, recessed volume buttons, refined speaker grills, gold color option and, of course, Touch ID.

But what if Apple went ahead and rethought the devices’ design language so as to match up with the stunning appearance of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus?

That’s the idea behind some beautiful new 3D renderings from one of our favorite concept designers Martin Hajek, who previously imagined what it might look like if the iPad was also struck with a case of Bendgate.

Check them out after the jump.

‘Strong demand’ for new iPads earns manufacturer big revenue boost

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Photo: Apple
Photo: Apple

People may talk about tablet sales flatlining, but if earnings of iPad parts makers are anything to go by, Tim Cook was absolutely right when he called this year’s sales lull a mere “speed bump.”

Casetek Holdings, aka the Pegatron subsidiary responsible for constructing the iPad chassis, has announced impressive revenues of 108.22 million for September: an increase of 21.25 percent on month and 16.48 percent on year.

According to a new report from Digitimes, this growth is the result of shipments for Apple’s eagerly anticipated next-generation iPads, set to be unveiled Thursday.

Ireland plans to close tax loophole that helped Apple save billions

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Heading
Photo: The Dark Knight
Photo: The Dark Knight

Ireland will apparently announce plans to phase out its “Double Irish” tax arrangement that has allowed companies like Apple and Google to save billions, according to a Reuters report citing sources familiar with the matter.

Over the past 18 months, the country has been criticized by both the United States and Europe for tax loopholes that let companies slash their overseas tax rate to single digits. Preliminary findings by the European Commission recently slammed a “sweetheart” tax deal on the part of Ireland that allowed Apple to avoid paying taxes by building up a massive offshore cash pile of $137.7 billion in the country.