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 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.

Lenovo’s new Sisley handset may not feature the protruding camera and unsightly antenna bands that were criticized in some corners about the iPhone, but don’t let it be said that this is entirely an iPhone 6 carbon copy without the compromises.

Having had its hardware capabilities revealed, it’s clear exactly where the sacrifices have been made: and they’re entirely related to the specs.

Read on to find out why this is no iPhone beater.

Update: A Dropbox spokesperson has confirmed that its service has not been hacked and that the exposed logins were mostly expired and harvested from third-party services. More information below.

An anonymous party has allegedly hacked 6,937,081 Dropbox accounts and gained access to email addresses and passwords in plain text. Hundreds of account emails and passwords have been posted online as proof, with whoever is responsible claiming that more will be shared after receiving Bitcoin donations.

Mailbox, the iOS app that makes whittling your inbox down to zero as easy as a few finger swipes, has been working to bring its popular service to OS X since April, but after a long beta testing period it’s announced that Mailbox for Mac is finally available to everyone.

The full details of Apple’s second-generation iPad Air will be revealed in just four short days, but Apple.Club.tw has published a photo of an alleged iPad Air 2 logic board that reveals Cupertino has a souped up A8X chip ready for the new tablet.

If the logic board is genuine, it confirms rumors that Apple will improve the Air’s performance with a special A-chip variant, like the A5X and A6X processors used in previous iPads. The logic board also appears to contain 2GB of RAM, though the chip numbers are a bit hard to read.

You know you hate showing up to the Halloween party with that lame generic pirate costume. We all do, but we all end up doing it.

Then there’s those of us who want to make the coolest, most unique costume ever. But we never do, because, let’s face it, we just don’t have the time.

Your solution, then, just may be these amazing just-add-iPhone costumes from Digital Dudz. You buy the mask or shirt, download a free app, and you’re suddenly the best costume at the party. Check out the video below to see how it all works.

In an effort to make the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus as thin and as light as possible, Apple made some sacrifices. Battery life — particularly on the smaller iPhone 6 — isn’t as good as it could have been, and the rear-facing iSight camera on both devices sticks right out. Could the Cupertino company have done a better job?

Lenovo seems to think so. Leaked pictures of its upcoming Sisley handset show a device that looks almost identical to the iPhone 6 — without the protruding camera and with slightly less unsightly antenna bands.

Apple’s iPhone 6 ad campaign featuring Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake has churned out some of the company’s funnest ads in years, but to put a British twist on the commercials, Apple’s getting some help from The IT Crowd.

Chris O’Dowd and Richard Ayoade have teamed up for Apple’s UK iPhone 6 campaign and re-dubbed the first two iPhone 6 commercials – ‘Duo’ and ‘Health’ – that were first broadcast in the U.S. last month. The iPhone action and dialogue are pretty much the same as the U.S. version, except listening to O’Dowd’s Irish accent wax poetic about Health.app sounds so much better.

Check out the other ad below:

iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite are designed to work closely together. Just like iOS 8, third-party developers are even encouraged to write extensions and widgets for their Mac apps. The result is a more seamless experience between an app’s iOS and OS X versions.

Such will be the case with Things by Cultured Code, an Apple Design Award winning task manager that was recently updated for iOS 8. Cultured Code has shared with Cult of Mac its plans for the Mac app when Yosemite drops, including a first look at how third-party apps will utilize Notification Center on Yosemite.

Last week we reported on how new, slimmer 12-inch Retina MacBook Airs have supposedly entered production, set to arrive in iPhone-inspired silver, gold and space gray color options.

With that being the case, some people have been asking whether we’re going to see the MacBook refresh at this Thursday’s Apple event.

Now that iOS 8 has been released, the need for developers familiar with Apple’s new platform is bigger than ever.

Be in demand with The iOS 8 & Swift eLearning Bootcamp, available at 96% off for a limited time at Cult of Mac Deals.

A Dropbox bug has left a number of users with missing files that may never be recovered. The issue, which affected those who enabled the Selective Sync feature, is now fixed — but Dropbox has conceded that it may not be able to rescue everything that has been lost.

I’ve always liked Jonathan Mann, the YouTube artist who became popular for writing and uploading a brand new song each and every day. Mann’s a big Apple fan, too, and over the years has put together numerous songs concerning everything from the iPhone 4’s Antennagate (which Steve Jobs actually danced to,) to duets with Siri, to a recap of the Apple Watch unveiling.

In his latest song (number 2,110!) he uses iOS 8’s new autocomplete function to compose a nonsensical song that — how do I put this delicately? — is still more entertaining and listenable than a large percentage of the music on the radio.

I won’t reproduce the lyrics here, since they’re essentially meaningless, but it’s a fun exercise nonetheless that may just be able to displace Mann’s WWDC song, which is still kicking around my head months later.

Via: The Loop

Apple’s bankrupt sapphire supplier GT Advanced Technologies might have stayed quiet about its reasons for the bankruptcy, but a few details are nonetheless starting to emerge.

Two of the most intriguing tidbits concerning the case regard the cost of sapphire production for GT Advanced Technologies, and the financial penalties Apple imposes on any supplier who leaks information about future products.

People blame Apple for the craziest things: from crafting metal devices that bend if you apply enough pressure, to giving out free albums, to — now — crashing national economies.

Today’s “gate” incident (Finnishgate?) comes from Finland Prime Minister Alexander Stubb, who blames the iPhone maker for bringing down two of his country’s biggest exports: Nokia and paper.

“The iPhone killed Nokia and the iPad killed the paper industry, but we’ll make a comeback,” Alexander Stubb told an interviewer for CNBC.

Apple is bringing the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus to 36 new countries by the end of this month. The Cupertino company today confirmed that the devices will be available in Monaco on October 17 — the same day they go on sale in China and India — and then in Israel on October 23.

Interviewed at the recent Vanity Fair Summit, Jony Ive had strong words for companies like Xiaomi producing iPhone copycats.

“I don’t see it as flattery, I see it as theft, and it’s lazy,” he said, when asked about the Chinese smartphone maker whose devices bear something of a striking resemblance to the iPhone.

Responding in an interview with the Economic Times, Xiaomi’s VP for International markets Hugo Barra suggested that it’s unfair to place the blame on Xiaomi — because Apple copies other people too.

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus may have shattered preorder records in the U.S. and elsewhere with a massive 4 million units reservations, but that’s apparently nothing compared to China.

Having had its arrival in China delayed to a lack of regulatory approval, preorders for the iPhone 6 family of devices have reportedly hit 20 million in the country since officially being made available on Friday.

I’m a sucker for Apple history, and I particularly enjoy hearing from the people who had an impact on shaping Steve Jobs into the incredible force of nature that he became.

In a new interview with John Sculley, the former Apple CEO sheds some light on what may have been his single biggest lasting impact on Apple: the drive toward making the experience of using an Apple product one of the company’s most important focuses.

Sculley catches a lot of flack for being the CEO who kicked Jobs out of Apple back in 1985, but after Jobs and Tim Cook he was the best of CEO Apple ever had, and someone who’s always interesting to hear talk about Apple. In this particular video he shares his thoughts on the original Macintosh ad and why Apple trumps everyone else at marketing.

More of Sculley’s thoughts after the jump.

There’s a veritible treasure trove of cool stuff available every week at Cult of Mac Deals and, best of all, none of it will cost you an arm and a leg.

Today we put a spotlight on just a few of those supremely awesome deals so be sure to check them out. Of course, you can go to the Cult of Mac Deals page and see all the deals if these don’t tickle your fancy.

This week on The CultCast: Just when you thought it was safe to close your wallet, Apple goes and announces yet another hardware event. Yessir, Oct. 16 is just days away, and if you’re eyeballin’ a new Mac or iPad, don’t miss our event-day predictions. Plus—-ever wonder what it’s like to have a brand new iPhone 6 Plus stolen right out of your hands? Well we can tell you firsthand, and we want your help to catch the crooks.

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 lynda.com for sponsoring this episode! Learn virtually any application at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials at lynda.com.

Click on for the show notes.

Cult of Mac Deals is all about bringing you the best of the best in cool gadgets and services at rock bottom prices. Unfortunately, these sweet deals can’t stick around forever.

Today we feature 4 hot deals that are ending very soon. Don’t wait to take advantage of these, or you could miss your chance.

We’ve witnessed a quick unraveling of GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT), Apple’s main sapphire supplier, since the company suddenly filed for bankruptcy earlier this week.

New court filings indicate that GTAT wants to take legal action against Apple for its “oppressive and burdensome” terms. The sapphire maker also plans to shut down its Arizona plant by December 31st, which leaves Apple’s sapphire production in limbo. The Arizona plant shuttering will also result in the loss of 890 jobs.

A budding feud between Bose and Beats Electronics has ended with both sides settling out of court. Although the terms haven’t been made public, according to Bose the matter has been satisfactorily “resolved” and will no longer go to trial.

Both sides have agreed to pay their own costs and legal fees, and have asked the International Trade Commission to suspend its investigation into the disagreement.