China is planning to take on Apple and Google with a new homegrown operating system that will launch this year, as Chinese government seeks to distance itself from imported rivals.

The new operating system created by the Chinese government will hit desktops first when its released in October, according to a report from Reuters, and will hopefully supplant Windows, OS X and Chrome OS as the top desktop operating system in China within one to two years, with a mobile version planned as well.

Until today, Google had free apps for making documents and spreadsheets on iOS: Google Docs and Google Sheets. To complete the trifecta, Google Slides has been released in the App Store for creating Powerpoint-like presentations.

Google is gunning hard at Apple’s iWork apps and Microsoft’s Office 365 suite. Docs, Sheets and Slides are not only completely free, but they have offline mode and the ability to convert and edit Microsoft Office files.

Dong Ngyugen’s highly anticipated follow-up to Flappy Bird finally landed on iOS last week, but after months of waiting for an addictive new 8-bit game, fans found Swing Copters to be Ngyugen’s most impossible game yet.

To make Swing Copters slightly less impossible and a few degrees more enjoyable, Ngyugen released an update this morning, tweaking the gameplay so that your little copter is able to make a few more corrections before flying through the diabolical maze of swinging hammers and propeller-annihilating green steel bars.

In today’s Cult of Mac TV video we go hands-on with the Swing Copters update that certainly doesn’t make the game easy, but does manage to put the gameplay on par with Flappy Bird’s addictiveness.

Check out the Cult of Mac TV hands-on review below:

Our ever-popular podcast – The CultCast, hosted by Erfon Elijah – is now on the Cult of Mac TV YouTube channel. It’s a whole new way to digest your favorite 30-minute (-ish!) Apple conversation.

Click the video above to check out the latest podcast, which covers topics like NFC on the iPhone 6, Steve Ballmer landing the perfect job and a mobile payment system for iPhone that will make credit cards obsolete.

Watch the latest episode above and don’t forget to subscribe to Cult of Mac TV to stay up-to-date on all the latest happenings from the world of Apple.

Apple is still reliant on Samsung for many of the iPhone’s internal components, including the fabrication of its almighty A-series processors, but in an effort to secure more processor orders from Apple, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is already ahead of schedule with production of the next-generation A9 processor.

Almost three years ago to the day, I enthused about Legend of Grimrock, a throwback to the first-person dungeon crawlers from the 80s (Dungeon Master, The Bard’s Tale and even the first Phantasy Star game for the Sega Master System) that was coming to iPad “by the end of the year.”

What a joke. While Legend of Grimrock did eventually come to the Mac, it’s iPad version most definitely come out by the end of 2011. But good news! A new update at the official Legend of Grimrock blog says the wait is almost finally over.

With the iPhone 5s, Apple debuted its first non-A-series chip within an iOS device. Called the M7, it was a motion co-processor that tracked your movements while drawing minimal power, making the iPhone 5s the first smartphone that could passively do what an activity band like the FitBit can do: track all your steps during the day.

We haven’t heard much about whether or not we can expect an update to the M7 in the iPhone 6, but according to the latest leak, we can. An Apple chip internally code-named Phosphorus is now believed to replace the M7 in the iPhone 6./

Moshi’s Xync packs a Lightning-to-USB charging cable into a handy, dangly carabiner-clip package, and adds a secret compartment on the side. But is it better than just carrying a regular Lightning cable in your pocket/bag? The short answer? Hmm…

The long version? Read on.

Over the past week, two new leaks from abroad have given us new details about what accessories will be coming with the iPhone 6. The first leak suggested that the iPhone 6 would ship with a Lightning cable with a fully reversible USB plug; the second leak — which came just this morning — suggested that the iPhone charger was also getting a redesign.

We now have video of both the new fully reversible Lightning cable and the new iPhone 6 charger in action. They look great, but unfortunately, there’s at least one disappointment: while the charger will indeed ship with the iPhone 6, our source says that USB Lightning cable won’t be available until next year.

In a new blog post, famed ex-Apple executive Jean-Louise Gassée has given his thoughts on the recent IBM and Apple strategic alliance. And while Gassée notes that most strategic alliances don’t work, he thinks the Apple/IBM one will work out… in favor of Apple, that is.

These days you can easily share data and collaborate on almost anything, from Rdio playlists to photo streams. But when it comes to plain old written text, your options are terrible. You’re pretty much caught between working on a shared file in Google Docs or shuttling versions of your work back and forth via email. Add more than one collaborator and this becomes a total nightmare.

Thankfully, tools exist to smooth the process of collaborating on writing projects. I’m currently editing the second draft of a novella, and I’m looking for a way to work with “beta” readers. I’m testing several pieces of software, and so far one called Draft is in the lead. Not only does it let you share a document with other people, it lets the team comment on any part of the source document and also allows them to edit a copy. Then, when they submit their versions, you can preview any changes before accepting or rejecting them.

Better still, because Draft can sync with a document in Dropbox (as well as several other cloud services), you can sync the edits from your beta team with a local app, like Scrivener. Here’s what you need to make the collaborative magic happen.

It’s time, Tru Believers, to watch the very last episode of HBO’s vampire romantic drama, True Blood.

Overall, this final episode is slow and sweetly-paced, funneling down from the crazy, too-many-characters and plot lines of the past several seasons to a gentle, musing (and ultimately narratively safe) tale of people trying to find themselves and growing up in the process.

Luckily, since this is TV, they all eventually do. Hoyt and Jessica, Jason and Bridgette, and — of course — Bill and Sookie all find their own version of a happy ending, with very few surprises along the way; it’s a very safe finish to seven seasons of fangbangery.

As always, spoilers ahead. So keep reading at your own peril.

Time sure flies. Another week comes to a close at Cult of Mac Deals. Over the past 7 days, we’ve highlighted tech, software, and training deals at bargain-basement prices.

We don’t want you to miss out, so read on to review some of the amazing offers. Don’t forget to check out the Cult of Mac Deals page to see all of the deals currently available.

For years now, the tiny 5-watt charger that has shipped with the iPhone has gone more or less unchanged. But according to a new report out of China, this fall, Apple will ship a new, squatter charger with the release of the iPhone 6.

Tim Cook stepped up as the CEO of Apple on August 24, 2011. The soft-spoken Southerner, who has worked at the Cupertino company since 1998,  had previously acted as interim CEO when Steve Jobs stepped down to battle cancer.

Cook’s ascent to the permanent CEO position marked a sea change for Apple. Once called the stage manager to Jobs’ star, he’s now running the show. After endless speculation about whether Cook’s rule marked the end of Apple or signaled a bright new era, going by the numbers, it looks like he’s earned a solid B.

Here’s a look at his first three years as the head of Apple, a job he got paid $4.25 million to perform in 2013.

At this point, thanks to myriad leaked parts, we have a pretty good idea what the iPhone 6 will look like. One question some of us still have, though, is what the antenna panes of the rear shells we’ve been seeing so far will actually look like.

On the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s, the cellular antenna peeks out of two glass antenna panes, installed specially for just that purpose in the aluminum rear shell. The rear shell leaks we’ve seen so far suggest that the iPhone 6 will keep the antenna panes, but they may not actually be made of glass. Other leaks have suggested the opposite, indicating that the iPhone 6 might look more like the iPhone 5 and 5s in the back than previously thought.

Hedging his bets, iPhone conceptualist Martin Hajek has created renders comparing both possibilities. Check them out after the jump. For my money, the glass antenna panes look infinitely better. What do you think Apple will go with?

Secret, the iPhone app that is supposed to let users share secrets anonymously, is nowhere nearly as anonymous as it first appears. But an upcoming update to the app is looking to beef up the app’s anonymity, by banning real names, preventing users from uploading images on their Camera Roll, and the addition of a new polling feature.

With the iPhone 6 set to come in two separate display sizes — a 4.7-inch model, and a 5.5-model — Apple needs to increase the iPhone’s resolution to keep up. But what will the new resolutions be? Up until now, Apple has stuck with 326 pixels-per-inch for all Retina iPhones, but will larger iPhones require higher pixel densities.

Pulling out a spreadsheet, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber worked out the math for what he thinks the resolutions of the iPhone 6 will be. Using the Pythagorean Theorem, Gruber says that he thinks the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 will keep the current iPhone’s 326 pixels-per-inch, but the 5.5-inch model will have an astonishing 461 pixels-per-inch, making it practically Super Retina.

This week on the Cultiest of Casts: Steve Ballmer lands the perfect job; NFC and your iPhone make credit cards obsolete; iPhone 6 gets even faster data access; new photos give us our best look yet at a 4.7-inch iPhone 6; Apple wins their first Emmy; APPL stock hits an all-time high; and, behold, Podcasting turns 10! Oh, and it’s growing like crazy, too.

Snicker 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 brings you the very best deals in technology, software, training, and more every single day. As new deals emerge, others must end.

Today we feature three such offers that we don’t want you to miss. Check out Cult of Mac Deals for these and much more.

When my 2001 Subaru Forester died on the side of the highway a week or so back, I was not excited about trying to find a replacement.

Buying a car is right up there with heading to the DMV, going to IKEA and attending your ex’s next wedding. It’s depressing. And inevitable. The load of anxiety-ridden, “hurry up and wait” BS that has marred my every interaction with car dealerships both new and used is overwhelming.

So it was with glee that I bypassed all that crap and used my iPhone, email and Twitter to buy myself a new car. Let me explain.

Apple has launched a new iPhone 5 battery replacement program for a “small percentage” of iPhone 5 devices that “may suddenly experience shorter battery life or need to be charged more frequently.”

The idea behind Secret is that you can share anything to your social circle with the comfort of total anonymity. Users’ identities are kept hidden, and that’s what’s supposed to make the app enjoyable or whatever.

As it turns out, it’s not that hard to see who someone actually is on Secret. The catch is that you need their email address.