Apple is planning to open a massive new research and development center in Japan, according to local media, which were told about the plans by the country’s Prime Minister Abe Shinzo.

For the kid expecting a Lionel model train set under the Christmas tree, unwrapping a pack of copper wire, a couple of magnets and a battery is sure to disappoint.

But show them how to make a train out of those items, and you just might spark their curiosity and instill a love of science. Now that’s a gift — here’s how it works.

Seen a better deal elsewhere but want free Prime shipping? Amazon’s new “Make an Offer” option allows you to negotiate prices with sellers to bag a better deal. Just like eBay’s “Best Offer” function, it allows buyers to submit their own valuation for hundreds of thousands of items which sellers can then accept, decline, or counter.

A Mac is the ultimate tool for creatives — you’ll find Apple computers littered throughout graphic design houses, music and video studios, marketing agencies and newsrooms.

Chances are, if you know a creative, you know a Mac user.

So, what are you going to buy them for Christmas? If you’re stuck for ideas, let us help.

Our gift guide for creatives will help you pick the perfect present.

Whether you’re looking for an affordable stocking stuffer or a budget-breaking gesture they’ll never forget, we’ve got you covered.

A class action suit accusing Apple of violating antitrust laws with the iPod and iTunes will continue — despite every plaintiff in the case being disqualified.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers disqualified the last remaining plaintiff in the case on Monday, after Apple’s lawyers successfully argued that she did not buy any of the iPods she is seeking damages for.

Apple wanted the case thrown out of court, but Judge Rogers has given the plaintiff lawyers one more chance: ordering them to find more iPod customers ready to step into the case. The qualifications of these new plaintiffs will be analysed at a hearing on Tuesday, to take place out of earshot of the jury.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard a peep from Jeff Bezos, regarding his plans to deliver Amazon packages by drone — and now we know why: he’s busy battling the Federal Aviation Administration regarding the use of unmanned aircraft.

Amazon sought permission from the FAA back in July to test drones near to Seattle, but the FAA has apparently been slow to grant its approval.

Bezos reportedly has a plan, though, and it means that U.K. Amazon users may be able to try out the bold new delivery system ahead of their American cousins, since Amazon is threatening to its drone research overseas if it doesn’t get permission to test-fly in the U.S. soon.

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin previously claimed that Steve Jobs’ life was rich enough that it could make 10 movies. Based on the evidence we’ve been presented with, however, it’s having a tough enough time making one.

This week’s setback is the news that Natalie Portman, who was reportedly in talks to play a role in the movie, has decided to part ways with the project for unknown reasons.

This is the latest in a long line of challenges for the movie adaptation of Walter Isaacson’s bestselling movie. Multiple A-list actors and directors passed on the project early on, before Sorkin’s handpicked Steve Jobs thesp Christian Bale was cast as Apple’s co-founder, only to later throw in the towel.

Most recently, the movie was put up for sale by its original studio Sony, which wound up selling to Universal Studios for development costs only.

Now that we’ve got all the parts for our Hackintosh, it’s time to put them all together. This is the really fun part of this project: You’re turning processors and chips and motherboards into a working computer that’s going to do all kinds of things for you.

You’ll get an incredible sense of satisfaction at the end — especially if you’re building a computer for the first time.

In this piece, I’ll walk you through the building process from start to finish.

Building a computer is actually a pretty simple process — much simpler than most people realize. So long as you’re careful with the components and you make sure you’re installing them in the right places, there’s little chance anything will go wrong.

It’s a pretty common sight: Using an iOS device that is short on battery life while it’s charging with an even shorter Lightning cable.

Now you can get the range of motion you need to comfortably use your iOS device with The 10 Ft. MFi-Certified iOS Lightning Cable, more than half off for a limited time at Cult of Mac Deals.

Apple’s new interpretation of a particular iOS 8 feature could severely cripple countless third-party apps like Dropbox and Evernote.

The new interpretation came to light after Panic, a very respected indie developer, was told to remove the ability to send files to iCloud Drive in its file transfer app Transmit. And because of the way iOS 8 is designed, the app can no longer send files to any other storage provider.

What’s worse is that Apple provided little to no explanation for why it was implementing the policy change, and there’s no telling which app will forced to comply next.

Bose’s lineup of headphones and speakers were kicked out of the Apple Store earlier this year after the company filed a patent lawsuit against Beats Electronics, but now that the beef has been squashed, it appears that Apple is having a change of heart.

Apple Stores are set to bring Bose products back to shelves in time for Christmas, according to a source at iGen.fr, which claims some stores have already received inventory.

Tim Cook has been shortlisted again for Time magazine’s Person of the Year award following a remarkable year that saw record stock prices, iPhone sales, and the Apple Watch, as well as Tim Cook opening up about his personal life.

Steve Jobs never managed to earn the Person of the Year award, but Tim could become the first Apple CEO to nab the honors if he manages to beat out Vladimir Putin, Jack Ma, and Ebola.

Classic adventure game Grim Fandango is getting a brand new coat of paint, with a newly restored version of the noir/Day of the Dead mashup coming to Mac and other gaming platforms in January.

The game will have all-new advanced lighting effects, high-resolution textures, and remastered audio for today’s high-end gaming devices. It wall also have all the charm and cleverness of Tim Schafer, the designer who created many other classics of the genre first at LucasArts, and later at his own company, DoubleFine Productions.

Grim Fandango is one of the more influential games of the late 1990s, with 3D environments and a high quality level of writing and plotting that is rarely seen in video games. This new version will bring the legendary title to a whole new generation of gamers, letting them experience the genius alongside those who just want to re-live the joy of the original game on a machine that they currently own.

Smartwatches may have a lot of firepower, but what about a wearable that lets you shoot actual flames from your hands?

The PYRO Fireshooter puts fireballs right up your sleeve. It attaches to the underside of the wrist and contains four individually triggered barrels, each able to launch a fireball 10 feet.

MasterCard is keeping the Apple Pay party going with a new ad featuring Gwen Stefani who’s been armed with a ‘Surprise launcher’ to blast cardholders with sweet prizes each time they use Apple Pay.

The ad is part of MasterCard’s new Priceless Surprises campaign that rewards customers with everything from handbags and golf clubs, to concert tickets, or a chance to hangout with the No Doubt queen herself. Gwen’s new single “Spark the Fire” is featured in the playful new ad directed by Sophie Muller that also includes a cohort of fashionista minions to help hone her aim.

Check out the full ad below:

NASA’s Orion spacecraft is the most futuristic spacecraft to ever be built, but the tech inside it is shockingly old school, like the onboard computer powering the entire mission, that’s basically only powerful as an 11 year old G3 iBook.

On Earth scientists are all about pursuing the bleeding edge of tech, but in space the number one concern is reliability. Thanks to the higher amounts of radiation astronauts will travel through on the way to Mars, NASA’s engineers have to use a system that’s been tried and test. So to power their computer they’re are using an IBM PowerPC 750FX, that debuted in 2002 and isn’t even as powerful as an iPhone 6.

The minister of the Cyberspace Administration of China got a sneak peek at the Apple Watch during a recent visit to Apple’s Cupertino headquarters. Photos published by a state-owned website show Apple CEO Tim Cook demonstrating the device to Lu Wei, who also stopped by Facebook’s campus to meet Mark Zuckerberg.

Apple’s got some great things planned for 2015, but before we get there we need to look back at the year that was 2014.

With that in mind, today marks the release of the company’s annual iTunes Store awards — highlighting the best music, movies, books, podcasts, apps and games from one of Apple”s most eventful years in history.

If you’re looking for the best possible recommendations for enjoyably passing the time this holiday season (at least until Cult of Mac announce our own “best of 2014” lists), you can find out Apple’s list of winners after the jump:

A crooked former Apple manager will serve one year in prison and pay a whopping $4.5 million fine for leaking details of future Apple products.

Paul Shin Devine faced a maximum of 20 years behind bars for selling secrets to suppliers, which allowed them to negotiate more favorable deals with Apple. Devine was a global supply manager at Apple from 2005 until his arrest in 2010.

Three years ago he pleaded guilty to wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering after his home was raided and investigators discovered more than $150,000 in cash hidden away in shoe boxes — with more cash apparently kept in safety deposit boxes.

A British politician has owned up to sneaking a quick game of Candy Crush Saga during a particularly dull parliamentary debate.

Nigel Mills, a Conservative MP for Amber Valley in the U.K., was photographed getting his Crush on during a Work and Pensions Committee debate. In a statement to tabloid newspaper The Sun, Mills admitted that his attention wandered during the session, at which point he turned to the sugary fun of freemium games for a pick-me-up.

“There was a bit of the meeting that I wasn’t focusing on and I probably had a game or two,” he said, adding that he shall “try not to do it in future.”

Over the weekend, Apple debuted its latest ad for the iPad Air 2, named “Change.” As with all of the ads in Apple’s “Your Verse” campaign for the first generation iPad Air, the upbeat “Change” demonstrates the flexibility of the iPad Air 2, as it’s used by motorbike enthusiasts, teachers and artists to carry out a variety of tasks.

The ad also showcases the thinness of Apple’s slimmest ever tablet, by featuring a clever letter-boxing effect that gradually closes in over the course of the ad — eventually revealing itself to be the thickness of the iPad Air 2. In this way, the ad is reminiscent of Apple’s pencil ads for the iPad Air, in which the extreme slimness of the tablet is likened to a an everyday household object.

Check out the ad after the jump.

I recently decided it was time to get a proper desktop computer. I needed it predominantly for work, but I wanted it to be powerful enough to play the latest games in 1080p without worrying about stuttering or terrible frame rates.

The new Mac lineup didn’t offer a perfect fit — the Retina 5K iMac was too expensive, and the new Mac mini simply wasn’t powerful enough — so I set myself a goal: To build a gaming machine with a dedicated video card, capable of running OS X, for around the price of a Mac mini.

I set a budget of $650 for my build. That’s $150 more than the base model Mac mini, but $50 less than the midrange model. In this piece, I’ll take you through the components I purchased and why I chose them, and how I put them all together. Next week, I’ll show you how I installed OS X to turn my DIY gaming rig into a Hackintosh.

Cult of Mac Deals has a goal of bringing you the tech and related products you want and need at rock bottom prices.

Today we feature six great products whose value is extraordinarily high and we want to make sure you see them so you don’t miss out.

This week: warm up the telly—Woz is getting a tech-tastic reality TV show; we divulge our favorite new iPhone and Mac apps; we answer some ridiculous listener questions in an all-new Get To know Your Cultist; and finally, Steve Jobs denies Leander Kahney’s attempted handshake not once, but TWICE. Leander recounts the tale. We die laughing.

Quietly chuckle your way through each week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the chuckles begin.

Our thanks to Boom 2 for supporting this episode. Ever needed to turn up your Mac’s volume louder than it could go? Boom 2 can bolster your Mac’s puny volume to righteous levels your ears probably can’t handle. Try it out free for 7 days and save 20% off any a license with code CultCast at checkout.