“So, what do you cosplay as?” asks this geek girl in the comic book shop. “Slutty Hawkeye? Slutty Thor? Slutty Iron Man?”

The video below is one of those “funny because it’s true” situations, as many women who love superheroes and comics hear the same kinds of questions and face the same sort of dismissive candor from geeky men who can’t seem to realize that everyone loves comics and superhero movies.

Check it out and see how annoying it would be to face this kind of discrimination.

Retailers and consumers alike love Black Friday for all it represents: pure, unadulterated consumerism. Gamers love sitting on their couches all day, playing video games. Lucky for both groups, you can have it all next weekend.

If you’re looking to save big bucks on hotly anticipated holiday gifts, you’re going to have to get out into the feeding frenzy the day after Thanksgiving and elbow your way to the front to grab some of these amazing gamer-centric deals.

Best Buy,  Toys R Us, Walmart and Target have some great upcoming deals for Black Friday, including some fine Sony PlayStation 4, Nintendo Wii U, and Nintendo 3DS hotness.

The iPhone 6 is outselling the iPhone 6 Plus by a margin of 3-to-1 in the U.S., but that’s no knock on Apple’s giant-sized handset, according to a new report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

The research firm’s sales breakdown looked at the first 30 days the iPhone 6 family of handsets were available to buy. It concluded that the iPhone 6 represented 68% of iPhone sales, with the iPhone 6 Plus making up 23-24%.

Combined, this means that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus represented a massive 91-92% of iPhones sold in the United States. The remaining iPhones were previous generation iPhone 5s and 5c units. This figure is even more impressive when you consider that last year the then-new iPhones represented a smaller 84% of iPhone sales after the first month.

Marc Newson is tag-teaming design at Apple now with Jony Ive, but that’s not stopping him from working part-time on some incredible part-time projects. We saw Newson redesign the beer keg, now he’s taking aim at redesigning Berretta’s classic shotgun.

Berretta unveiled Newson’s redesign of its 486 shotgun at an event last night in London. The boomstick has been updated with a 21st century design, adding a new opening lever design to go with the intricate engravings.

Take a look:

AAPL shares closed at an all-time high yesterday, putting the company’s market cap at $663.2 billion. Never before has Apple been so profitable. In fact, Apple makes so much money, it’s now worth more than the entire Russian stock market.

Check out the chart below:

Although many — including Apple — would argue that Bendgate is overblown, and the iPhone 6 is no more prone to bending when treated right than any other smartphone, there’s a small but vocal minority that disagrees. If you’re one of them, there’s now a resource to track Apple Stores that will be sympathetic to your plight.

Do you want a new iPad Air or iPad mini, but can’t afford $399 or $499 to start? Well, thanks to Sprint, you can now lease an iPad Mini 3 starting at just $17.00 a month, or iPad Air 2 for just $20.

Anyone who travels a lot internationally has likely been stung by roaming Internet charges at some point in other. While it is possible to buy or rent a local SIM card when you’re abroad, this requires that your iPhone be either unlocked or jailbroken — and also limits users to just one mobile carrier in each country.

Trying to solve this problem is a nifty Kickstarter project which aims to build a its multi-carrier, virtual SIM-equipped iPhone case that means travelers get affordable data roaming in 100+ countries for just $2 a day.

Another week, another full docket of great stories at Cult of Mac, so we’ve put together yet another special Newsstand issue just for you, with all of the best news stories and features compiled in one place to easily read on your iPad or iPhone. This week we’ve got some great stuff: Jony Ive’s design secrets, some sexy slim cases for your iPhone 6, quick tips for OS X Yosemite, the best Black Friday deals (so far), and a hot tutorial on making GIFS on your Mac. All that and more, like we do, in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine.

Dig into Cult of Mac Magazine November 14 Edition, Free on iTunes

For us old farts, T9 texting still has a sort of nostalgic allure. Now a new iPhone keyboard allows you to text message your friends like it’s 1999 all over again.

These days, the closest most iPhone owners come to experiencing what it’s like to take a picture on a Polaroid instant camera is loading up the Instagram app. But a new startup is hoping to bring a built-in instant printer to your iPhone by way of a Polaroid style case, with a little dash of augmented reality on top

Following the discovery of the serious iOS vulnerability known as Masque Attack, Apple has issued a statement to iMore, claiming that it is not aware of users experiencing this problem, but that users should be aware of online malware that circumvents Apple’s existing security measures.

“We designed OS X and iOS with built-in security safeguards to help protect customers and warn them before installing potentially malicious software,” said an Apple spokesperson. “We’re not aware of any customers that have actually been affected by this attack. We encourage customers to only download from trusted sources like the App Store and to pay attention to any warnings as they download apps. Enterprise users installing custom apps should install apps from their company’s secure website.”

One thing that makes iPhones so great is how each one can be so different, thanks to all the applications available, the many different ways to organize your home screen and all the other customization options that help you make Apple’s smartphone your own.

In today’s Cult of Mac video, I’ll show you what’s on my iPhone 6. You’ll find out how I keeps my iPhone organized, which apps I use most and more.

Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV for all our latest videos.

Remember when you’d hang out with your pals all night long, scheming and swearing and stabbing each other in the back as you played board games like Monopoly, Axis & Allies or Risk for hours on end?

The developers of upcoming mobile strategy game Subterfuge want to recapture that competitive and fun gaming magic on the iOS era’s platform of choice.

“We started with the idea of making a game that would give you a shared, epic experience with your friends,” designer Noel Llopis told Cult of Mac. “We’re hoping Subterfuge provides something like that,” Llopis says, “but in a way that meshes with people’s real lives.”

Tony Fadell might model himself after Steve Jobs, but from the sound of things he may have taken disproportionately from the bad side of Jobs’ personality rather than the good side.

A new article appearing on StrictlyVC reports on the experience of the recently Nest-acquired Dropcam — makers of an iOS-friendly Wi-Fi security camera — whose employees are apparently struggling quite a bit with dealing with a the prickly, micromanaging Fadell.

Microsoft’s been doing a stellar job promoting Apple lately, securing placement of its “iPad-like tablets” on CNN and the NFL. But it looks like Redmond has decided to give up and start pushing Apple products.

Microsoft published an ad on Facebook today that highlighted Skype’s ability to keep people in sync, but the real headliner is a huge orchestra of MacBooks — and there’s not a PC in sight.

The ad features a photo of a conductor in New York City’s Bryant Park, surrounded by an array of 11 MacBooks connected to the city’s celebrated subway musicians. Microsoft’s ad comes with the tagline, “The world’s first digital orchestra stays in sync with Skype,” but it looks like the MacBooks and iPhones (as well as the musicians using them) steal the show.

Watch the MacBook orchestra’s performance below.

You trust your mobile device to keep you in touch with your business associates, friends, and family. It also stores your vital data and apps so you can access them whenever and where ever you need. Your mobile device sure does a lot, which is why its battery tends to drain before the day is over.

You can prevent inopportune power loss with the Limefuel LP200X dual USB Battery Pack, only $34.99 at Cult of Mac Deals for a limited time.

Pre-orders for the iPhone 6 began just over two months ago, but I’m already looking forward to shelling out cash for the iPhone 8 now that Steel Drake published this glass unibody iPhone concept.

The design keeps its familiar form factor but wraps the bottom and top edges with a glass display. Given Apple’s success rate with Sapphire glass, making this thing might not be conceivable until 2018, but there’s still plenty of time for Jony to make it happen. The designer decided to swap out the rear aluminum shell with a stiffening plate on the sides. The finished look is simple, a little curvy, and drop dead gorgeous.

Check it out:

If you’re looking to get a new iPad for as little cash as possible, here’s an intriguing offer: Starting tomorrow, Sprint is letting customers lease an iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 3 for as little as $17 per month.

It’s an unusual offer, and one that Sprint describes as an “industry first.” The lease itself lasts 24 months and, enticingly, doesn’t require any upfront costs.

So what are the prices for an iPad lease from Sprint?

Apple’s HealthKit app for iOS 8 is great at capturing and storing personal health data from tons of sources, but according to a Reuters report, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission wants to know what it plans to do with all of it.

The FTC has reportedly met with from, seeking assurances that sensitive health data scooped up by the Apple Watch and other apps won’t be used without users’ permissions.

Sony announced its plans to replace your cable box today with its new Playstation Vue cloud-based TV service, that offers live access to 75 of cable’s best channels, without a monthly contract. And it’s coming to iPad too.

The invite-only TV service that’s designed to replace cable will begin to roll out in November to beta testers on the Playstation 4 and PS3, but Sony says it plans to bring Vue to ‘non-Sony devices’ like the iPad, at some point in 2015.

Not all of us have the chance to head to Europe, what with the cost of airfare these days.

Luckily, we’ve got the Internet, and amazing videos like this one from filmmaker Andrew Walker at 599 Productions. He filmed the various time-lapse images while exploring Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic last September using a Canon 5D Mark III and several Canon and Ziess lenses.

Check it out, and be sure to strap on a pair of high-end cans or route the audio through your huge Bluetooth speaker to hear the epic soundtrack.

When it comes to photo-editing apps on the iPhone, VSCO Cam has pretty much been the gold standard for the last few years. But to make the experience even better, the app is finally coming to the iPad.

VSCO 4.0 was released today with a redesigned look just for the iPad. Previously, iPhotogs could use the popular photo editor/social network on their iPads as a blown-up iPhone app, but the fresh design and new features will make you want to ditch your iPhone altogether. Take a look:

Samsung just can’t leave Apple alone. When it’s not mocking the Cupertino company in ads, or pleading for its chip-making business, it’s stealing its ideas.

Today, Samsung announced two new creations rolling off its Xerox machine out of its R&D labs: an iBeacon-style proximity beacon technology, and an OS X Yosemite Continuity-inspired feature that lets users sling webpages, phone calls and much more from one device to another.