With all the excited chatter about the iPhone 6 and the iWatch, the iPad is starting to look like a relic from the past — and the sales back this up.

Across the board, tablet sales have flatlined. On the back of another lower-than-expected tablet quarter, research firm IDC recently slashed its 2014 forecast for worldwide tablet shipments from 260.9 million units all the way back to 233.1 million. With Apple’s leading position in the market, even Tim Cook has had to admit that this has represents a bit of what he calls a “speed bump”.

The iPad took a crack at disrupting classrooms, cash registers, hospitals and airplane cockpits, but sales nonetheless slumped 10 percent from the same quarter last year. Simply put, Apple’s once white-hot tablet brand has cooled off. Relegated to a second-tier product, it just doesn’t seem as exciting any more.

“I own an iPhone, a Mac and an iPad, and out of these I use the iPad the least,” says Michael Grothaus, a former Apple employee, and the entrepreneur behind SITU, an iPad-enabled set of smart kitchen scales. “It occupies a bit of a no man’s land. As much as I love Apple products, recently I’ve been looking around at other tablets on the market to see what’s out there.”

Here’s what the top developers we talked to said might make the iPad a game changer again.

As Apple knows full well, it’s lonely at the top!

As if the constant shots from Samsung weren’t enough, Microsoft has just unleashed a new ad pitting its Cortana virtual assistant against Apple’s Siri. The ad, for those who can’t view it, begins with Siri ‘singing’ “I feel pretty, oh so pretty” into a mirror, only for the HTC One M8 with Windows to turn up, apparently dazzling the iPhone 5s with its superior size.

Apple has been awarded a new patent for adding moving radial menus to both Macs and iOS devices.

The use of radial menus would give Apple an alternative to the pull-down menus currently used in most applications — allowing context-specific menus and submenus to be created at optimal positions close to a user’s mouse cursor or, in the case of an iPhone or iPad, their finger.

Apple is “actively investigating” if and how iCloud is to blame for the hacking of numerous celebrity accounts.  Dozens of nude and scandalous photos were posted on the internet over the weekend featuring famous actresses like Jennifer Lawrence and Kirsten Dunst.

Though still unconfirmed at this point, many have speculated that the hack was a result of a flaw in iCloud’s security.

Apple’s 2014 iTunes Festival begins today with performances every day through the month of September. Like previous years, each performance will be streamed in HD for free through iTunes and the festival’s dedicated Apple TV channel.

To kick things off, electronic artist Deadmau5 is headlining tonight at The Roundhouse in London. Apple has revealed that Spanish singer and conductor Placido Domingo will close the festival on September 30th.

A slew of reports and leaked pictures have suggested that Apple could ship a new Lightning cable with reversible USB connector in the iPhone 6’s packaging. That’s not happening, according to venerable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Kuo, who is rarely off the mark with his Apple predictions, has said that a new charging cable won’t debut this month due to “cost concerns” and “limited improvements to overall user experience.”

We’re fairly confident that Apple will show off the iPhone 6 at its September 9th media event next week, but when will the new hardware actually go on sale?

Signs are pointing to Friday, September 19th for the date that preorders begin—at least in the Netherlands. The Chinese media and Deutsche Telekom support representatives have already mentioned the 19th as new iPhone day too.

Your Mac is a productive device. What makes it even more productive is having killer Mac apps that will open new doors and make your life better.

Today, we feature 4 Mac apps that you just cannot live without. Check out TextExpander 4, TuneUp, Flip PDF, and iMedia Converter Deluxe. What’s even better than those Mac apps? Saving money on those Mac apps. All are heavily discounted at Cult of Mac Deals now.

If you’re the type of person who enjoys/has a work-related need to track airplanes using their iPhone or iPad, you may want to download plane-tracking app Plane Finder, which has just received a brand new update — letting you watch previous flights, dating all the way back to April 2011.

The app lets you replay holiday flights, diversions, and major incidents, as well as easily seeing the effect of storms, ATC strikes, volcanic ash clouds, and more.

SEATTLE — It’s like Halloween two months early at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), with gamers and geeky fans of every stripe dressing up in costumes of varying quality and seriousness.

More than 70,000 gamers converge each year in Seattle for PAX, a fan-centric celebration of all things gaming that was created by web cartoonists Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik as a way to honor their passion for video, board and card games.

We saw hundreds of people wearing elaborate costumes from their favorite games, television shows and movies. Some do it for the attention, others really enjoy making the outfits, and all the folks we encountered in the expo halls were excited to show off their final products.

Take a look in the gallery above at the best of the many fantastic cosplay outfits we ran into this year.

All Photos: Hunter LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

An alleged mass iCloud hack has seen a veritable who’s who of Hollywood nude selfies leaked onto the Internet.

The photos — which include the likes of Avril Lavigne, Hayden Pannettiere, Kate Upton, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Rihanna — appeared first on 4Chan, with an anonymous poster telling people he/she had obtained the photos by hacking iCloud accounts. In addition, the photos were being sold for Bitcoins, which most likely makes this a first.

While we don’t yet know what kind of battery life the iPhone 6 is going to have, it’s always good to have a way of charging your smartphone when you’re out and about.

With that in mind, the city of Seoul in South Korea has announced that it is building a series of outdoor recharging ports along manmade stream, the Cheonggyecheon, in the city’s downtown region. Rather than drawing from the city’s regular power grid, the chargers will instead draw their current from various hydroelectric turbines which are embedded in the stream itself.

If you love learning about the technical intricacies of your favorite gadgets, chances are you’ve heard of the website AnandTech.

The founder of the 17-year-old site, Anand Lal Shimpi, has been a highly regarded tech reviewer for years. Over the weekend, he announced his retirement from the world of journalism with no explanation.

Now it has been revealed why he quit: to work for Apple.

Apple will show off the iPhone 6 to the world in less than two weeks, and like always, an executive in an untucked dress shirt will explain why it’s the best iPhone ever.

If you pride yourself on knowing Apple history, then we’ve come across a cool summary of each iPhone launch to date. The six-minute video hits the highlights from each iPhone event since 2007.

One of the great mysteries of the App Store is why certain apps get rejected and why others don’t. Apple has let a surprising number of ripoffs and clones through the store’s iron gates, yet some developers face rejection for seemingly innocent apps.

“Before you develop your app, it’s important to become familiar with the technical, content, and design criteria that we use to review all apps,” explains Apple on a new webpage called “Common App Rejections.”

To get a true appreciation for how massive Apple’s new UFO-shaped campus will be, a drone equipped with a GoPro was flown over the construction site.

We’ve seen some aerial pictures of the site beginning to take shape as work begins on Campus 2, but this is by far the coolest look yet.

After years of reports saying that NFC is coming to the iPhone for mobile payments, it looks like it will finally be a reality on September 9th.

Part leaks have indicated that Apple’s next-gen iPhone hardware will indeed be equipped with NFC to make transactions for physical goods at brick and mortar stores. Now Apple has struck a partnership with American Express, Visa and MasterCard to support mobile payments in the iPhone 6, according to new reports.

What a great week it has been at Cult of Mac Deals. We have featured some incredible bargains on tech gadgets, software, and training that make your life easier and giving you the time to do what’s most important to you.

Don’t miss your opportunity. Today, we present the best of what we have right now. Jump on these before they’re gone for good.

SEATTLE, Washington — Table top miniatures are some of the geekiest board games, coming as they do with thick rulebooks and complicated sets of play mechanics. Developer Harebrained Schemes, the folks behind video games Shadowrun Returns and the more recent Shadowrun: Dragonfall, has decided to bring this arcane, geeky gaming genre to players who might want to try it out without having to fight their way through an extreme learning curve.

With the time we spent with the game at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle this weekend, we’ve got to say, we’re pretty impressed. While there’s still quite a bit of learning that has to occur in order to fully and deeply play this fantasy-themed miniatures game, even players as young as four can grasp the basic concepts of move, battle, and conquer that the game’s iPad app and bluetooth-connected stylus allow.

“There are a lot of rules to these kinds of games,” said Harebrained Schemes’ Ray Winninger. “Sometimes there are these giant, thick rule books and that sort of thing. It’s especially hard to bring someone in who’s never played before and to just kind of plop them in the middle of it. So, we’re trying to manage all of that for you.”

SEATTLE, Washington – Walk into a comic shop, and you’ll probably see titles from publisher Dark Horse Comics. Known for its creator-owned series like Mike Mignola’s Hellboy and Sergio Aragonés’ Groo the Wanderer as well as television and movie adaptations like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or 300, the comic book publisher has a booth at the Penny Arcade Expo this weekend in Seattle to show off a different genre of comic.

The booth at the Washington State Convention Center in is full of video game-themed books of all stripe, from Mass Effect and Tomb Raider single-issue comics to larger, coffee table volumes like Hyrule Historia, which is chock full of the lore of The Legend of Zelda, and The Art of Naughty Dog, an art book that focuses on the popular game developer’s artistic output.

Dave Marshall says that video game books are the third pillar in the Dark Horse publishing strategy, and have become just as valuable a content stream as the creator-owned or media-based titles.

“We get the original writers and artists from the video games themselves to actually write or consult on these books,” he told us at the Dark Horse booth Saturday morning, “so we can come to the fans at a deeper level than just a crummy tie-in or cash grab.”

Apple could charge an upwards of $400 for its highest end iWatch, according to Recode. Apple executives have reportedly “discussed charging around $400 for the company’s new wearable device,” although there will also be different models set at lower prices.

Does that mean the top-of-the-line iWatch will actually cost $400? Not necessarily.

Have you ever cracked a Lightning connector, or — perish the thought — your iPhone itself when roughly yanking it out of a dock? Apple’s working on the problem. Cupertino’s patent department just filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a sort of super dock that will make docking your smartphone safer and easier than ever.

This week: Mark your calendars for Sept. 9th, friends, because iWatch is nigh! Plus: an insanely accurate iPhone 6 leak hits Youtube; the apps we use to send our friends and family money; why everyone’s buzzing about Hyperlapse; rumors of a 12.9-inch iPad resurface; and privileged apps that live in our menu bars.

Loudly guffaw 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.

And our thanks for Smile Software for supporting this episode! Sign a contract, fix a typo, correct a price list, or fill out a form while you’re on the go—PDFpen for iPad lets you edit PDFs anywhere you are, and it also supports popular Bluetooth styluses. Find out more at smilesoftware.com/cultcast.

Depending on who and when you ask, the iPhone 6 may or may not ship with a futuristic new Sapphire Glass display. Widely rumored to be nigh-invulnerable, Sapphire Glass is widely believed to be the technology that will make shattered iPhones a thing of the past. But will it really?

Seeking answers, the repair experts over at uBreakiFix have taken a piece of Gorilla Glass and a piece of Sapphire Glass through a series of torture tests to see which resists damage better. And the truth is that Sapphire isn’t actually as good as Gorilla Glass in one key scenario.