Equalizers haven’t been a fashionable tech feature since Boomboxes went out of style in the 90’s, but Spotify just released a major update to its iOS app and I can’t stop playing with its fun new equalizer.

Spotify’s 1.1 update includes a number of other new features like a redesigned Artist page on iPad and new Discover feature, but the simple equalizer is perhaps the most useful new addition, allowing users to customize presets with six sliders.

Now is your last chance to take advantage of two amazing offers: The GripGo Universal Car Mount to make your travels safer while keeping the communication lines open; and NoteBook 4, the ultimate note-taking and organizing software.

Both are available now, but not for much longer, at Cult of Mac Deals. Read on for more information about both of these incredible offers.

Apple added two new channels to Apple TV for customers in the U.S. on Tuesday, along with a few other additions for countries around the world.

Starting today, Apple TV users can access the new CNBC and Fox Now channels to watch on-demand video content from the company’s top programs like Cosmos & 24 on the Fox end, and uhhhh, American Greed and Restaurant Startups on CNBC.

Could Apple be working on a higher-resolution version of FaceTime for use in enterprise?

A new patent published Tuesday suggests that it’s at least something the company is looking at, as it describes a multi-view video conferencing camera system that uses scalable video encoding. The patented device, which was first applied for back in June 2012, could compete with Microsoft’s 360 degrees Roundtable conferencing technology, as shown below.

Given Apple’s recent deal with IBM to make hardware and software for businesses, and its successful focus on enterprise under Tim Cook, this could certainly be a valuable area for Apple to explore — particularly since it could conceivably work with a range of Apple devices, including Macs, iPads and iPhones.

Can’t get enough of NPR? Literally? Have we got an app for you. It’s called NPR One, and it’s an infinite stream of personalized radio stories that will keep you going all day long.

If you’re like me, you hate OS X’s Dock. While a useful UI innovation on Apple’s part, the dock takes up a surprising amount of screen real estate on what, in the end, adds up to a superfluous amount of visual fluff.

You can hide your dock, sure, but isn’t there a better alternative to dock? As it turns out, there is… and thanks to a cheap Mac app, that alternative is the Menu Bar.

Over the weekend, we saw some incredible trailers come out of Comic Con 2014, including the new Sin City and The Hobbit: Battle Of The Five Armies trailer.

But if you ask me, the best trailer to come out of Comic Con was easily the trailer to the new Mad Max movie. Starring Tom Hardy as the titular character, Fury Road‘s trailer is so incredible… well, you just have to see it for yourself.

Ever wonder how badly graphics and gaming performance gets compromised in the hottest apps on older hardware? As it turns out, not very badly at all. Maybe that’s why iOS has become a major gaming platform.

Having recently snapped up book recommendation tool BookLamp and made moves to acquire podcast recommender startup Swell, Apple clearly realizes the importance of good recommendation algorithms.

In that vein, it’s well worth checking out a similar app called Newsbeat, which launched under the umbrella of the Tribune Company earlier this year, and which recently received a notable update.

We’ve seen a couple of videos purporting to show the display of the iPhone 6, but so far mostly just images of the handset’s back panel.

That’s apparently changed today, courtesy of a new video from Tech Tech Info jailbreak tutorial writer Tanner Marsh, who claims to have received an example of the iPhone 6’s back housing component from Apple’s supply chain in China.

The video — which can be viewed below — compares the back assembly enclosure of the 4.7-inch device to Apple’s current generation iPhone 5s.

Six months after being unceremoniously booted out of the App Store, popular bitcoin wallet app Blockchain is back where it belongs, with Apple having let it back in after seemingly changing its mind about the digital currency.

Blockchain was removed from the App Store back in February this year, having briefly been excised and then re-accepted before that. It followed in the footsteps of fellow wallets BitPak and Coinbase, which were also removed by Apple.

Popcorn Time is a fantastic — albeit questionably legal — Mac app that allows you to treat BitTorrent like Netflix, searching for movies and TV shows on sites like The Pirate Bay that you want to watch and then streaming them directly to your computer.

It’s a great app, but it has at least one glaring problem: You can’t stream a movie over Popcorn Time directly to your Apple TV using AirPlay. Luckily, thanks to a new Mac app, you can.

As expected, Apple’s Retina MacBook Pro line received its first refresh since October — adding speedier Haswell chips to its 13-inch and 15-inch models. The 13-inch notebooks now boast 8GB of RAM as standard, while the 15-inch models feature 16GB of RAM.

The minor refresh, which comes right in the middle of Apple’s back to school season, is to tide customers over until the arrival of the more significant Retina MacBook line refresh, which is expected in 2015 when Intel’s next gen 14-nanometer Broadwell processors are ready.

The new model Retina MacBook Pro specs can be seen after the jump:

Loop Attachment is famous for making some of the best silicone cases you can buy for iOS devices, but the company’s latest effort for the iPhone 5/5s is a little different. It looks a lot like Loop’s Mummy lineup and carries over some of those cases’ greatest strengths, but it’s made from a mixture of rigid polycarbonate and soft polyurethane.

It’s called the Straitjacket, and it aims to provide your iPhone with excellent impact protection without completely covering its aluminum chassis and iconic Apple logo. It doubles as a credit card holder; provides full access to all buttons, ports and switches; and comes in a number of pretty colors.

What’s more, it’s the best Loop case yet for the iPhone.

Imagine getting home after a hard day’s work in the year 2016: There’s no need for keys as you approach your house, since proximity sensors in the lock mean a simple iPhone voice authorization will open the door for you.

The house has been alerted to your arrival, so your Nest thermostat has adjusted the temperature to suit you, while your Philips Hue connected light bulbs change the lighting to fit your mood — predicted by analyzing your heart rate and schedule for that day. The iWatch on your wrist runs Jawbone app, letting you know your caffeine levels are a little high and that you should wait until 7:30 p.m. before going for a jog to ensure maximum sleep quality that night.

Five minutes after putting your car keys down, dinner’s ready. You’re running late, but your smart immersion cooker — which has been monitoring your location all day — has delayed cooking until the optimal start time.

Apple filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals yesterday, dropping its cross-appeal of Judge Lucy Koh’s verdict in its lawsuit against Samsung, and officially ending Apple’s pursuit of a product ban for the rival company.

Most Apple Store thieves we’ve seen prefer to go with the classic smash and grab technique, but according to federal court charges, one fraudster in Florida broke his Apple heist into 42 separate scams by using a simple but major flaw in Apple’s credit card processing system to plunder $309,768 worth of products from Apple’s retail locations.

We’re probably less than two months away from the announcement of the iPhone 6, but if you just can’t wait another minute to tell your fanboy friends that you’ve already pre-ordered the 6, luxury retailer Brikk is ready to accept your pre-orders. But it’s going to set you back at least $4,495.

“One day I’ll remember,” says Bilbo Baggins. “Remember everything that happened. The good, the bad. Those who survived, and those who did not.”

Thus starts the latest trailer for the upcoming sequel to The Hobbit movies: The Battle of the Five Armies. Check it out below in all it’s glory.

Hilton Hotels is planning to turn your iPhone into the ultimate control center for your entire hotel stay by allowing guests to check-in, choose an exact room, and even unlock your room, straight from its app.

The company announced its digital enhancements for the hotel experience will be available globally for over 650,000 rooms, at more than 4,000 hotels by the end of 2014, ensuring you won’t have to interact with a single human being the next time you stay at their hotels.

When it comes to iOS gaming, nothing tops the exhilarating feeling of beating your friends’ high scores. But with so many games and so many scores to keep track of, it can be a lot to handle. Luckily, Apple’s Game Center app can help you take down the competition.

In today’s video, we show you how to master the Game Center app and become the best of the best. Find the hottest trending games, challenge your gaming “foes” and more using this underrated stock app.

Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to catch all our latest videos.

Apple’s recently acquired music streaming service, Beats Music, just received its biggest update since getting scooped up by Apple at the end of May, adding new features that let you fine tune your musical tastes on the service and view songs that were just served up in The Sentence.

If you’re a fan of stylish, true-to-the-comics movie adaptations, you’ve probably already seen Sin City. The trailer (below) released during last week’s Comic Con shows us the sequel, based on the second book in the Sin City series by Frank Miller, A Dame To Kill For.

Rodriguez (Spy Kids, Sin City) will produce and Miller (Dark Knight Returns, 300) will direct a script co-written by the two men and William Monahan (The Departed).

Actors returning include Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, Powers Boothe, Mickey Rourke, and Bruce Willis. New folks to the series include Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Christopher Lloyd, Ray Liotta, Stacy Keach, Christopher Meloni, and yes, even Lady Gaga, who you can see as a waitress handing over some cash to Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character in the trailer below.

While most of the other rumors about the upcoming iPhone 6 have tended to sync up with each other, one thing we’ve still yet to get a clear answer on is whether or not Apple’s next generation smartphone will feature a sapphire display.

The latest report, coming from LEDinside, claims that the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 won’t be incorporating sapphire displays, due to limited volumes of sapphire being produced this year — mostly as a result of sapphire ingot manufacturers yield rate being lower than expected, alongside other issues involved in sapphire glass processing.