Your Mac is a formidable machine. You can get the most out of it by supplying it with useful Mac apps that simplify your life and open new doors that you didn’t even know existed.

Today we highlight 3 such Mac apps that will transform your life: DSP-Quattro 4, Live Interior 3D Standard Edition, and TextExpander 4. All three are available for a limited time at 50% off their normal retail prices at Cult of Mac Deals.

Apple’s iPhone 6 is supposed to be a big secret in this part of the world, but in China, parts are readily available.

Although the iPhone 6 hasn’t been announced and won’t be in stores for a couple of weeks, everything from the new aluminum case to the sapphire-covered LCD screen is available on the Chinese gray market.

Cult of Mac has been contacted by a U.S. smartphone repair company that offered to sell us a bunch of iPhone 6 components — almost enough to assemble our own device.

“I can get all the parts except the motherboards are very rare and very expensive to purchase,” said the owner of the repair company, who asked to remain anonymous. “The display assemblies alone are $500 per piece right now.”

The repair company owner claims iPhone 6 parts — especially for the upcoming 4.7-inch model — are readily available in China from suppliers to the repair industry.

“All the parts needed for repairs they acquire shortly before release — this is normal,” he said. “Usually they have no need to sell the parts because there’s no demand this early but I’ve bought samples from them … so I can buy parts in the future.”

Remember your desk from the ’80s? If you were even alive back then it probably featured an old Macintosh surrounded by a disgusting mess of books, letters, a telephone, a fax machine and probably even a Rolodex. But thanks to the rapid pace of technology, you’d be hard-pressed to find any of those items on the modern college student’s desk.

Would you find it easier to get out of bed in the morning if you had to have a chat with a random stranger? Then you need Wakie, a new smartphone app that provides wakeup calls from people you’ve never met.

I’m a massive fan of nostalgic 2-D platformers, so the sight of Goblin Sword has me buzzing. An entirely new iOS action platforming game, the title nonetheless borrows its inspiration from classic 8-bit platformers of the NES era of gaming, with cartoony sprites and highly detailed pixel-rendered backdrops.

Frankly it looks gorgeous, and the promise of a whopping 48 levels, 6 bosses, multiple weapons and suits of armor, and (arguably best of all) utter lack of in-app purchases just makes it sound all the more promising.

The QuickType/Predictive typing feature found in iOS 8 has made its way to OS X Yosemite.

Although a similar feature has been used in OS X since at least Snow Leopard, accessible by hitting the ESC key, this ups the functionality by not just offering an autocomplete/autocorrect feature, but actually suggesting entire untyped words which can go on to write complete sentences.

Many people routinely avoid spoilers for TV shows and movies, but some also steer clear of clues about Apple’s upcoming product announcements.

Next Tuesday, Apple is expected to reveal two new iPhones and an iWatch. While the long-rumored wearable remains shrouded in mystery, many details of the next-gen iPhones are all but confirmed, thanks to an avalanche of rumor reports and parts leaks. So comprehensive are the leaks, some have even managed to build a working iPhone 6 from parts — and the device is still weeks away from shipping to customers.

But some Apple fans remain blissfully ignorant of the details.

Four tech giants, including Apple and Google, have attacked the decision of U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh for rejecting a proposed $324.5 million settlement over Silicon Valley hiring practices.

In a court filing made later on Thursday, Apple, Google, Intel and Adobe asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overrule Koh’s verdict.

Koh had rejected the proposed settlement, claiming the amount was too low.

According to a new report from Digitimes, U.S.-based GT Advanced Technologies will be supplying sapphire screens for the eagerly anticipated 5.5-inch iPhone 6.

Based on Digitimes’ research, GTAT has 2,500 crystal-growing furnaces and mature crystal-growing processes that would allow them to produce enough sapphire to produce 45 million 5.5-inch covers in 2015. Cost-wise these are likely to come in at around $30, which Digitimes suggests will be a competitive price for a 5.5-inch sapphire cover in 2015.

I can’t tell you how much I love Adobe’s Lightroom Mobile. But like an insatiable lover, I want more. Specifically, I want to add my own presets. LR Mobile ships with a selection of the desktop app’s image presets built in, but unlike the desktop version, you can’t save your own settings as a preset, nor can you add any made by third parties. Or can you?

In this tutorial, we’ll see how to add any preset to Lightroom Mobile, using any and all of the image-editing tools available in the Mac version and making them available on iOS.

It was only a matter of time before Apple spoke out more publicly about the controversy surrounding the compromised iCloud accounts of numerous celebrities.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Tim Cook revealed that Apple is adding new security measures to iCloud in the coming weeks. Users will be notified by email and a push notification for account activity, including whenever an iCloud backup is accessed. Two-step verification will also be strengthened to cover more aspects of iCloud.

Cook also said that Apple plans to raise more “awareness” about internet security.

Apple has updated its official retail app with a cleaner look for iPhone that matches the iPad version.

In fact, today’s update is mostly about tying the experience of the app together between devices. From now on, any shopping you do inside the Apple Store app will be wirelessly synced from device to device. So you can add items to your cart on the iPhone, add more on the iPad, and then complete the purchases on your Mac.

Some smaller design tweaks, new icon, and layout improvements have also been added.

When Apple pitched the iPhone 5 to the world, it was adamant that its 4-inch display was designed to still fit easily in one hand. And indeed it was, because the screen was only elongated. The width stayed the same.

It sounds like a small detail, but one-handed use is something Apple has always stressed in its design choices for the iPhone.

And that makes the prospect of a 5.5-inch Apple phablet puzzling. How will you be able to use such a big phone with one hand?

New details about the bigger of the two rumored iPhone 6 sizes have surfaced, and Apple has reportedly solved the problem with software.

Apple’s September 9th event is nearly here, and you know what that means: last-minute rumors galore.

The New York Times weighs in today with several new tidbits, including details about the iWatch. Not only will Apple’s wearable sport a curved sapphire glass display, but it will reportedly power up via wireless charging.

The five largest banks in the U.S. have reportedly struck a special deal with Apple for its upcoming mobile payment platform.

According to Bank Innovation, Apple has managed to negotiate a lower transaction fee with American Express, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Capital One, and Bank of America. How? By convincing them that Touch ID and location-aware NFC will make its mobile payments more secure.

Mikey Boots is out now for your iPhone and iPad, and it’s a rarity: a full-price iOS game without any in-app purchases or any ads. It’s a model that’s served developers Mike Meade and Mike Gaughen well with their previous Mikey games, Mikey Hooks and Mikey Shorts, both of which were chosen as one of the best games of 2012 and 2013, respectively.

I’ve played some of Mikey Boots and it’s just as fun and just as infuriatingly addictive as the last two. My kids beat my times through each level repeatedly and they lord it over me, like the little talented jerks they are. Twitch skills, indeed.

While the previous two titles had your little character, Mikey, running, jumping and grappling his way through level after level filled with crazy traps, spiky obstacles and tricky enemies, this one has him (or his female companion) flying through each level with a pair of rocket boots. How can you not love rocket boots?

Here’s a video to show you how that all plays out.

Next week’s Apple event at the Flint Center promises to be one of the biggest tech announcements of the year with both the iPhone 6 and iWatch expected to make appearances, and to make it even more exciting for fans, Apple just announced it will stream the entire keynote live.

Apple’s event will kick off on September 9th at 10 a.m. Pacific at the Flint Center in Cupertino. Fans will be able to view a live-stream of the event on Apple’s website.

To view the Apple livestream user will need to use Safari 5.1.10 or later on OS X 16.6.8 or later. The stream will also be available on Apple TV via a dedicated channel. Cult of Mac will be covering the event live from the Flint Center so make sure to stay tuned for an onslaught of hands-on goodness and coverage when the event kicks off next Tuesday.

Apple’s construction project outside the Flint Center has sprouted up a ton of wild theories. Is it for a secret U2 concert? An iWatch demo area? Or something much more boring?

We tried to get a peak inside the massive white building ourselves, but after getting turned away by security at the gates the mystery remains. Sachin Patel has taken a different approach though and used his drone to spy on Apple’s secret project from the sky.

Here’s a short drone tour of the secret building:

Apple will unveil not one, but two different iWatch sizes when it takes the stage at the Flint Center next week, and according to the Wall Street Journal, Apple’s wearable will make mobile payments as easy as a tap on the wrist.

The new device is unlikely to launch this year, but the report claims that along with tracking your health and fitness data, the iWatch will feature a battery efficient OLED display, and an NFC chip an secure enclave to store all your credit cards for mobile payments.

We’re sorry, internet, but this new Funny or Die video has figured out the way to absolutely make the new iPhone 6 completely hack-proof.

No more iCloud, no more internet. The un-hackable iPhone 6, says this short film, is just a phone. And it only calls your parents.

Watch below as the three “interviewees,” playing Apple software designers, get angrier and angrier in their explanation, which comes down to “this is why we can’t have nice things.” Warning – there are a few colorful descriptions of things members of 4chan (the group behind most of the iCloud hacking) might want on their phone, as well. If you’re easily offended, skip the video.

Another Apple supplier is facing accusations concerning violations of labor rights and lapses in workplace safety.

The supplier in question is Taiwanese company Catcher Technology, which produces the metal casings for iPads as well as parts for the iPhone, plus components for other tech companies. The allegations concern a factory in the Chinese city of Suqian.

Among the accusations raised in a Thursday report by environmental nonprofit Green America and workers’ rights group China Labor Watch are the fact that employees are made to work excessive overtime hours, and handle toxic chemicals without the proper protective clothing.

Apple fans hoping to get elevated with Bono and The Edge at the Flint Center will be disappointed to hear the band’s spokespeople have squashed the rumor that U2 will play at the iPhone 6 event.

Rumors began bubbling on the internet this week that U2 would release its album by preloading it on the iPhone 6. Reports also claimed that Apple’s mysterious white box outside the Flint Center for the Performing Arts in Cupertino is really a giant soundstage for U2 to play on.

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With every waking moment before Apple’s big Sept. 9 reveal, competing tech companies are trying to to steal the spotlight. Samsung, one of Apple’s biggest rivals, revealed its latest creations Wednesday in Berlin. Will two new smartphones, a smartwatch and a virtual reality system be enough to overshadow Apple’s upcoming news?

In today’s video we take a look at Samsung’s latest products and see exactly what the company is cooking up to challenge the iPhone 6 and the iWatch. Check out Samsung’s new Android phone with a curved display (the Galaxy Note Edge), a redesigned phablet (the Galaxy Note 4), a wild virtual-reality phone accessory called the Gear VR and more in this quick roundup.

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