Cult of Mac

The iPad revolutionized the way we read books, surf the web, and use apps. As great as the iPad is, it can also be difficult to multitask with one, not to mention the hand and neck strain from holding your iPad for long periods of time. But now, the revolution can continue thanks to the iRest.

The iRest comfortably props up your iPad on a table, on your lap, or anywhere else you see fit, freeing your hands to do other things and saving your hands and neck from unnecessary strain. For a limited time, you can get the iRest at the discounted price of just $35.99 at Cult of Mac Deals.

GT Advanced Technologies, a sapphire supplier that works closely with Apple, today confirmed that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection. Its share price has been falling since it was revealed that Apple opted for Gorilla Glass rather than sapphire for its iPhone 6 displays, but GT insists it’s not going out of business.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Sunday was the third anniversary of Steve Jobs’ death. I drove my family down from San Francisco to Palo Alto to see if anyone had left tributes at his house or the local Apple store, which were scenes of remarkable memorials following his death in 2011.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus may be killing it in terms of demand, but that’s just because they’re the hot new devices on the market, right?

Not according to industry sources, who claim that chip orders for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus devices have already exceeded 50 million units for the first quarter of 2015.

In real world terms, what that means is that Apple is forecasting that the iPhone 6 won’t slow down its sales domination one bit after the holiday season, since the Q1 2015 chip order is just as strong as the one for Q4 2014.

Apple’s new UFO-shaped campus is coming on in leaps and bounds, as per a new video from drone photographer and YouTube user myithz.

Myithz flew his DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus quadrocopter over Cupertino’s Campus 2 and recorded footage showing that the front portion of the building is now cemented, while the subterranean walls have also been built along the sides.

It’s not just Apple Pay that’s going to let you transfer funds using your iPhone. According to hidden code discovered in Facebook Messenger’s iOS app by Stanford student Andrew Aude, Facebook is also exploring the area — with a forthcoming feature that lets you send money as easily as you would “like” or share a photo.

Apple’s all about pushing into developing markets, and with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus now available for preorder in China, the next question is when customers in India can expect to get their hands on the next gen handsets.

According to Apple, the answer to that question is October 17, when the iPhone 6 family devices will go on sale. Preorders, meanwhile, start tomorrow on October 7.

Prices haven’t yet been officially announced, but authorised Apple dealers in the country are sending out price lists to customers, as follows:

ROSEVILLE, California – This is where your electronics go to die.

In a nondescript, 200,000-square-foot warehouse 20 miles northeast of Sacramento, box after box of discarded electronics and parts sit at Sims Recycling Solutions, awaiting their date with the “mega-shredder” at the end of the line. That’s where four rows of 22 hardened-steel blades will rip and grind the metal housings and circuit boards into tiny chunks.

“We recycle almost everything,” said Bill Vasquez, Sims’ vice president of U.S. operations, during Cult of Mac’s recent tour of the facility. He said more than 99 percent of the materials that pass through Sims’ doors gets recycled. “Our focus is to divert everything from landfill as much as possible.”

Tim Cook, Phil Schiller and others who knew him have made public comments commemorating Steve Jobs, who passed away three years ago today.

Cook sent out two tweets, quoting Jobs from his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address as saying, “You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.” In the second message he said that he was in Grand Canyon National Park, backpacking and “thinking of SJ and his many gifts to the world.”

You can talk about stress testing and Apple’s potential liability until you’re blue in the face, but sometimes you need to just speak about overblown subjects like the Bendgate controversy using a shred of common sense.

Happily taking up that baton is T-Mobile CEO John Legere, who responded to questions about Apple’s allegedly bendable iPhone 6 Plus at this year’s GeekWire Summit 2014 with a distinctly non-corporate-sounding statement. Simply put: try bending that brand new super computer handset you’ve paid good money for and you’re a f****ing idiot.

Well, someone had to say it.

There are hot deals on all kinds of software, services, and electronic gadgets available every day at Cult of Mac Deals.

Today we put the spotlight on a few of the best. Go to the Cult of Mac Deals page to check out all of the special, limited time offers.

Apple co-founder and visionary CEO Steve Jobs passed away three years ago today, at the age of 56.

In addition to co-creating the company with Steve Wozniak in 1976, Jobs personally oversaw the creation of the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes and OS X — as well as funding Pixar during its rise to prominence.

While there are plenty of great videos featuring Jobs to mark the occcasion (anyone with the slightest bit of interest in working in tech should make a point of viewing all of his Apple keynotes) the below is one of my personal favorites. It features Jobs, less than three months into his 1997 return, talking at an internal meeting about his vision for taking the company forward.

Want to own a super-rare prototype iPhone 6, as accidentally sent out to a Verizon customer? You’d better have six-figures to spare.

The alleged prototype in question has appeared on eBay, running the internal Apple applications the company uses to test new devices as opposed to the consumer version of iOS.

There are no FCC markings or any other text on the handset’s body, other than the word “iPhone.” There is also a red lightning port, which seller kimberlyk1018 claims “is a sure sign of a prototype.”

The full listing reads:

Andy Rooney once quipped that anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there’s a 90% probability you’ll get it wrong.

With that sentiment in mind, a new Kickstarter campaign is in the process of raising funds for a fantastic project: a fully reversible, nigh-unbreakable USB Lightning charging cord for your iPhone. Check out the video after the jump.

China may be getting the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus a little later than many parts of the world, but that doesn’t seem to have slowed down demand any.

Ever since being made available for preorder late last week, upwards of 4.85 million iPhone 6 family handsets have reportedly been ordered, according to the Chinese live tracking website JD.com.

Bose just laid a major smackdown on Beats, courtesy of a new deal with the NFL which bars any non-Bose headphones from being shown during interviews on NFL broadcasts.

The wide-ranging agreement covers TV interviews during training camps, practice sessions and, of course, game day — extending from prior to kickoff through 90 minutes after play has finished.

Beats has already responded with a statement, noting that, “Over the last few years athletes have written Beats into their DNA as part of the pre-game ritual. Music can have a significant positive effect on an athlete’s focus and mental preparedness and has become as important to performance as any other piece of equipment.”

Awesome stuff is offered every day at Cult of Mac Deals. Things like exciting electronic gadgets and toys, software that will turn you into a productivity dynamo, and services that will give you more free time. Deals like these can’t hang around forever, though.

Today we put the spotlight on three incredible deals that will soon be riding off into the sunset. Many have already taken advantage of these bargains. Don’t get left out. Check out Dragon Dictate for Mac 4, the Karma Go mobile LTE hotspot, and the LithiumCard mobile power bank today.

It’s no coincidence—your love for Apple and their pretty little gadgets was Steve Jobs’ master plan, and on our newest CultCast, we’ll tell you how did it. Plus: Bendgate might be overblown, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire; we love our iPhone 6 Pluses, but dear lord, they’re huge… And finally, Jony Ive gains a counterpart in Apple’s newest Industrial Designer.

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 Backblaze for supporting this episode! Backblaze online backup is Mac Native, unlmited, unthrottled, uncomplicated, and only 5 bucks a month. Try it totally free for two weeks at backblaze.com/cultcast.

This Sunday will mark three years since the death of Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs at the age of 56. Although many Apple employees will doubtless be working over the weekend, Tim Cook took today as the opportunity to send out a note to Apple employees, sharing some of his thoughts on Jobs’ legacy at Apple.

The note can be read in full below:

Deciding to buy a new iPhone is always easier than figuring out what to do with the old smartphone its replacing. 280 million used smartphones are expected to be shoved back into closest and drawers by the end of 2014 rather than being recycled, but the folks at MindHelix have come up with a novel solution: turn it into a smart-home security robot named Rico.

Rico – a smarthome security device that tracks changes in your home – gives your old iClunker a second life by putting it’s processing power and sensors back to work, so that you can track all the data from various sources in your home, and make changes remotely.

The Rico Kickstarter project just launched this week, and while the little security bot can do a number of things on its own, like monitoring temperature, carbon monoxide, smoke, humidity and motion detection, the device becomes more powerful when you feed it your old smartphone eWaste.

Check out Rico in action in the video below:

In the timeless game of hating on Apple, Bill Gates is an O.G. When his kids ask for iPads and MacBooks, he shoves a Microsoft Surface in their stockings. But when it comes to Apple Pay, even the former CEO of Microsoft thinks his old rivals’ mobile payments solution is absolutely fantastic.

In an interview discussing his latest philanthropic endeavor – leveraging cellphones to make banking more affordable for the world’s poorest countries – Gates told Bloomberg TV that he sees Apple Pay bringing NFC payments to a critical mass for all devices in the near future.

“The fact that in any application I can buy something, that’s fantastic,” Gates gushed.  “The fact I don’t need a physical card anymore… and you’re going to be quite sure about who it is on the other end, that is a real contribution.”

Yeah, Bill. We’re impressed too. Check out the full interview below:

Apple went bigger than big for its unveiling of the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch, but when it hits the stage with a new iPad later this month the event will reportedly be much more low key.

Apple is planning to unveil its latest update on Thursday, October 16, reports John Paczkowski at Recode, only instead of hosting an encore at the Flint Center, the event will be held at Apple’s Town Hall Auditorium in Cupertino.

Cult of Mac Deals is all about bringing you killer gadgets, software, and services at deeply discounted prices. Sometimes, though, Cult of Mac Deals gives you an opportunity to get something awesome for absolutely nothing.

Today, you can enter to win an iPhone 6, a Canon DSLR, or a Multi-Sync Keyboard at Cult of Mac Deals. Don’t risk missing out on these. Entering is easy peasy.