Tim Cook has been an ardent supporter of LGBT rights while leading the ship at Apple. That continued this weekend, as Apple (in a display known as “Apple Pride”) participated in the San Francisco Pride Celebration & Parade, one of the many gay pride parades held Sunday across the United States.

Apple gave out $1 iTunes gift cards to onlookers at the parade, allowing them to download free songs from the iTunes Store. It also celebrated the event by including an “LGBT Gay Pride” station on iTunes Radio.

iPad screenmaker Sharp is allocating a major chunk of its LCD production facilities to Apple — but doesn’t seem all that happy about it.

According to an interview published Monday with Sharp Senior Executive Managing Officer Norikazu Hoshi, the company worries about what it means for the entire output of the Japanese display maker’s Kameyama No. 1 plant to go “to just one company (Apple).”

The iPhone is the perfect tool to make you a better, hipper parent, or at least that’s what Apple wants you to believe in its newest TV ad. Entitled “Parenthood,” the minute-long spot is the latest in a string of ads for the iPhone 5s.

The song is “Life of Dreams” by Julie Doiron, and apps shown include Withings Withbaby, Nike+ Running, and Parrot Flower Power.

There’s definitely a connected-home vibe throughout the ad, especially when a dad uses his iPhone to turn the lights off. Apple just announced its HomeKit platform for developers to integrate with smart home gadgets, and the company is even rumored to be working on its own hardware for the home.

Lots going on in this week’s episode of HBO’s vampire-romance television show, including answers on Eric’s whereabouts, more info on the infected, zombie-like Hep-V vampires, and a whole bunch of callbacks to the first season of the show.

If you missed last week’s recap, head on over and read up on the first episode of the seventh and final season of this HBO cult-hit, or read our massive recap of the first six seasons to catch up on the whole story, loosely based on Charlaine Harris’ bestselling novels, so far.

Be warned – there be spoilers ahead, so if you don’t want to know what’s going on in the world of Sookie Stackhouse, keep moving, folks.

If you’ve been looking to jailbreak iOS 7.1.1 and you have a Mac, then check out the new version of Pangu released today.

The Chinese team of hackers behind the tool dropped their jailbreak for iOS 7.1.x out of the blue last week, but until today it could only be used on Windows. Not only is there now an OS X version, but the interface has been rewritten in English.

Sometimes you need to blow off a little steam after a tough week at work. All you want to do is take out your frustrations on a bunch of virtual characters in a virtual world. This Cult of Mac Deals offer lets you do that in spades.

The Call of Duty Modern Warfare Bundle combines the ferocity and fun of three of the best combat games ever made: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for one low price. You can go on missions and kill enemies for hours with this dynamic package – priced at just $39.99 – for a limited time.

Unless someone’s *ahem* Putin us on, this 18-carat gold plated iPhone 5s featuring the visage of Russia’s controversial president is currently selling for around $4,363.

Called the Caviar iPhone 5s Supremo Putin, it is the work of luxury jewellery house Perla Penna, and is available only in Russia.

In addition to an etching of Vladimir Putin, the phone case is accompanied by the Russian coat of arms, along with the first two lines of the Russian national anthem.

This week on the CultCast: Leander’s Big Adventure! Leander’s back to tell us about his top-secret mission to Apple HQ. Plus, CoM reviews editor Charlie Sorrell tells us about some cool gear he’s reviewing. We also run through a list of all the great hardware we’re expecting Apple to dump on us in just a few short months. And we wrap up with an all-new Get to Know Your Cultist, and this round has us diving into some of our favorite movies ever made. Guess who has the weird choice? You’re right, it’s Leander.

Hem and haw 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.

Do you want to supercharge your WordPress skills? Do you want to save a ton of money while doing so? Then this Cult of Mac Deals offer is exactly what you’ve been looking for.

The 0–100 WordPress Starter Kit packages 10 premium themes and 6 WordPress tutorials in one stellar bundle. You’ll get over 33 hours of content at a fraction of the regular price – just $49 – during this limited time promotion.

It’s all about home automation here in 2014, and General Electric are taking full advantage. More than a century after General Electric founder Thomas Edison created his version of the light bulb, the company has introduced a new smart LED light bulb called Link.

What’s neat about Link light bulbs is that they can be remotely controlled by iPhone users from anywhere in the world, being Internet-connected and operated using the so-called Wink app which allows for the control of its settings and syncing with associated devices.

By enhancing discoverability and human curation in its App Store, and favoring innovative indie developers over brainless money-hungry giants, Apple is doing a lot of things right these days when it comes to iOS.

An area it could still work on, however, is kicking out knockoff titles — or making sure they never make it into the App Store to begin with.

Case in point is Cloned Blek. Brought to our attention by Gamezebo, the title is a shameless display by apparent ripoff artists Coffee House Apps.

It seems like ages ago that the original iPod touch helped boost the popularity of iOS. With seven years behind the device, Apple still believes in the product and has introduced a price cut. Watch today’s news roundup to hear all about the latest version of the iTouch. You’ll also get the latest iPhone 6 rumors, a look at Google’s wacky cardboard virtual reality goggles and the rest of this week’s big stories.

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

Verizon Wireless is having massive issues with its systems across the country today that has spurred a horde of frustrated customers to take to Twitter after the outage has blocked new phone activation for the past 24 hours.

Current issues with Verizon’s payment and upgrade systems aren’t affecting calls or data, but The Verge reports that Verizon and its retail stores have confirmed there’s a major issue they’re working to resolve, leaving new iPhone purchasers trapped with an error message until its fixed.

Apple gave developers an early preview of its upcoming Photos app this month at WWDC, but what it didn’t tell anyone is that new app for iOS will also overthrow Apple’s iPhoto and Aperture apps for OS X.

A new Photos app for OS X isn’t expected to land on Macs until next year, but in a statement released to The Loop, Apple says it has already stopped development on its professional photography application, Aperture.

Here’s the official statement:

Warhammer 40,0000 is nothing if not crazily over-the-top, as this new trailer for a first-person shooter set in the far-future setting of the game universe shows.

This is the first video captured exclusively within the game engine, Unreal Engine 4, showing off all the lighting and texture effects in great detail.

In this game from developer Streum On Studio, you’ll play as a Librarian of the Deathwing, an elite force of hugely-armored badasses from the future who are trapped in a Space Hulk, a massive derelict space ship drifting in the outer reaches of the galaxy. You’ll take on hordes of Genestealers, the Alien-like enemies who are out to, well, kill you dead.

Check out the trailer below.

Cult of Mac Deals has lined up a tremendous offer that will help you take the iOS apps ideas you’ve conjured up into something very real.

With The Untouchable iOS 7 Dev Master Bundle, you’ll get 6 in-depth courses and over 70 hours of app creation training. That’s right – you’ll get a training package worth over $900 for only $79 during this limited time offer from Cult of Mac Deals.

Yesterday, Apple quietly updated the 16GB iPod Touch, adding a rear-camera to the base model device while dropping the price of the entire line by $30 to $50 each.

Was anything else new? To find out, the famed gadget vivisectionists at iFixIt ripped apart a new 16GB iPod touch.

Endless runners are a popular genre on iOS, and the newly-launched Go Go Ghost looks like it’s not going to buck that trend.

A side-scrolling auto-runner, it varies up the formula by adding missions. To complete each mission, your character (a ghostly figure with a flaming skull, a bit like a cuter version of Marvel’s Ghost Rider) must collect coins, power-ups and other objects, chase down enemies, avoid pitfalls, and defeat sinister bosses. To help you are a variety of colorful supporting characters, who will do some of the gem-collecting work on your behalf.

There’s no shortage of killer iPhone cases, including the Yellow Jacket, a stun gun case that can deliver 650,000 volts of electricity to an assailant while extending your iPhone’s battery life for 20 hours.

But why buy a case when you can use a stun gun disguised as an iPhone to get the drop on people instead? That seems to be the questionable logic that seems to be sweeping a small community in Canada, which has seen more than a couple of people fried by a fake iPhone stun gun.

If you’re looking for a way to charge your Apple devices in the simplest, most hassle-free way possible, you may want to check out the new Kickstarter project, MOS Reach.

Acting as an extension of the traditional wall outlet, MOS Reach is a rectangular device that includes a standard socket alongside two 3.1 amp USB ports — giving you enough power to charge both your iPhone and iPad simultaneously.

Siri’s starting work — or at least something like that. SRI International, the brains behind the Siri standalone app bought by Apple back in 2010, has announced the creation of Kasisto, a business version of Apple’s virtual assistant.

Kasisto will enable companies to integrate their own branded Siri-style assistants within apps, providing a way of letting helping consumers navigate complex tasks through a conversational Artificial Intelligence program. While SRI International has yet to release many details, this means that it should be possible to harness the regular Siri interactions for more specialized tasks within apps, allowing specific businesses to “train” their own version of Siri to become an expert in a variety of areas, from medical advice to, say, movie rentals.

iPads are sexy, but would you have sex with one? Fleshlight sure hopes so. The company behind the gross silicon sleeves that aim to put a simulated vagina in the palm of your hand has just revealed the LaunchPAD, and surprise! It’s an iPad case you can pork.