Hours before WWDC kicks off, a series of blurry leaked photos appear to show Apple’s next generation operating system, OS X 10.10 Yosemite, in action.

Two different sources of photos have been posted online: the first on the Reddit Mac community by a poster using a throwaway account, who claimed to have taken the photos himself at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino. These images have since been deleted.

Shortly after Twitter user UI designer Doney den Ouden posted another image, citing a “reliable anonymous source.”

Assuming that the photos are genuine, they reveal several interesting changes in the look and feel of the OS — making it far closer resemble iOS. For instance, there is now a Control Center, along with a slightly rejigged Safari, with larger buttons for bookmarks and frequently visited sites, similar to the version of Safari found on the iPad.

It’s the eve of the Worldwide Developers Conference kickoff, and tomorrow morning Apple will hold its first media event of 2014. Like always, there’s a ton of speculation on what will and won’t be announced.

Some last-minute reports share new information on what to expect from the stage tomorrow in more areas than just iOS 8 and OS X 10.10.

There’s an ongoing question in hit comedy show Silicon Valley: do you have to be a jerk to succeed? For the entire first season of Mike Judge’s HBO comedy about the new economy gold rush, it’s been Steve vs. Steve 2.0.

Part of what makes the show a resounding success – it’s already confirmed for season two – is how realistic it is. The startup lads at Pied Piper have been under the gun preparing for a big demo: they have a spot at the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield. Yeah, that’s an actual thing. The show is set where TCD takes place, in the barn-like San Francisco Design Center Concourse, and some 400 companies have duked it out in demos that raised over $2.4 billion in funding.

Nota bene: teensy spoilers follow.

Apple’s first keynote of the year is taking place tomorrow morning to kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

App Store developers from around the world started arriving in San Francisco over the weekend for the week-long conference. At event registration today in the Moscone Center, Apple gave each dev with a ticket some special swag. Excitement appears to be in the air. Before it was barely dinnertime, a line for tomorrow’s keynote started forming.

After reports of iPads, iPhones and Macs being hacked and held ransom in the U.K. and Australia, we put together this video to show you how to avoid the problem — and what to do if it’s already happened.

Related Apple resources:

• How to bypass your Apple passcode
• More information on two-step verification for Apple ID

Subscribe to the Cult of Mac YouTube channel so you don’t miss a single video.

Writing a novel, research paper, script or any long-form text involves more than hammering away at the keys. There’s research to collect, fragmented ideas to group, and index cards to shuffle around until you lock down that elusive structure – needless to say most writing software is fired up only after much of the hard work is done. Enter Scrivener – a word processor and project management tool that stays with you from that first, unformed idea all the way through to the final draft.

Scrivener lets you outline and structure your ideas, take notes, view research alongside your writing and compose the pieces of your text in isolation or in context. Scrivener won’t tell you how to write — it just makes all the tools you have scattered around your desk available in one application. And Cult of Mac Deals has Scrivener for only $20 during this limited time offer.

For any Apple coder, attending the annual Worldwide Developers Conference is a coveted opportunity. But for the young recipients of WWDC 2014 Student Scholarships, a free ticket to the event means more than an adventure in geekery; it’s the crowning achievement of their blossoming careers.

Take Shaan Singh, a 14-year-old developer and designer whose iPhone finance app Budgetize helped him bag a scholarship to WWDC, a prize that’s something like winning a golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.

“It’s a big honor for me to be selected because I made an app that I feel was creative and smart, and Apple thinks so too,” he told Cult of Mac. “I’ve always admired Apple’s design, and I’m excited that they like mine too.”

Nearly three years after Steve Jobs’ death, Apple’s keynotes have become pale imitations of their former glory. The last major keynote — November’s introduction of the iPad Air and Retina mini — was a major international snoozefest.

Utterly devoid of excitement, it served only to stoke the pervasive rumors of Apple’s lack of innovation after Jobs (which aren’t true, but nonetheless).

It’s time for Jony Ive to take over.

It’s all happening! WWDC 2014 is right around the corner, and if recent rumors prove true, Apple’s about to make major moves into your home with iOS 8 — we’ll fill you in. Plus, the Apple/Beats deal is now a reality, and the news hits right as we’re recording.

And don’t miss our all new CultCast 2nd Hour, this time with popular musician and YouTuber Jonathan Mann, who, for the last five years, has written a brand new song every. single. day. We talk to Jonathan about the inspiration, perspiration and agony of making art, and what it was like to have his song unexpectedly featured by Steve Jobs at one of Apple’s most infamous press conferences.

Our thanks to Slingbox for supporting this episode! Slingbox, the best way to watch your TV anywhere, and brings your cable set-top box, satellite receiver or DVR, right to your favorite mobile device, wherever you are in the world. With no monthly fees. Check it out at Slingbox.com/cult, and get $50 off plus free shipping on a new Slingbox.

Click on for the show notes.

The weekend is upon us — and we’ve got some great deals lined up for you courtesy of Cult of Mac Deals.

If you’re looking for a new wallet that is as slim and simple as they come, then we’ve got the Simple Wallet for just $14.99. If a more advanced wallet is your preference, then the A3 Aluminum Plate Wallet, priced at only $33.99, will fit the bill. And if you’re looking for a great deal on reliable batteries, then The Duracell Battery Bundle can be yours for just $56.

Welcome to Part 2 of our series on note-taking for writers (or anyone who takes lots of notes). In three posts we’re looking at ways to take notes on paper, on your iPhone or Mac, and collected from the web, and combine them all (optionally) into Evernote for easy browsing and retrieval. In theory you can do all of this just by launching Evernote, but that app is pretty terrible at capturing notes.

Part 1 dealt with paper notes. This part is all about grabbing quick text notes on your iPhone and Mac, and then using Hazel to send them to Evernote. Have fun!

We get slammed 24/7 with new Apple rumors. Some are accurate, most are not. To give you a clue about what’s really coming out of Cupertino in the future, we’re busting out our rumor debunker each week to blow up the nonsense.

Film or digital? Campfire or BBQ? Car or bike? Cable or wireless?

No matter which way you swing, this week’s gadgets have you covered. iPhoneographers can enjoy the Shoulderpod hand grip or slip the new iPad Olloclip onto their Mini or Air, and film nuts can get instant satisfaction with the new Lomo Instant Camera.

Camping? Take it easy in the giant Meriwether tent or go survivalist with the Blastmatch fire-starter. You can even choose how to arrive at the site, with accessories for your car or your bike. Happy traveling!

OS X 10.10, which Apple is expected to show at its Worldwide Developers Conference Monday morning, could very well be named after one of California’s most well-known national parks. While setting up for WWDC at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Apple has put up a banner for the next version of OS X that features Yosemite in the background.

As another week full of news passes, your host Joshua Smith is here to give you a wrap-up on some of the latest and biggest features. iOS devices held for ransom, Apple’s big Beats acquisition and a rumored Apple iWatch are among just some of the featured stories in today’s rundown.

Take a look at the video and be sure to return next week for another. Subscribe to CultOfMacTV on youtube.com to catch new episodes of the roundup and other great video reviews, how-to’s and more.

In case you somehow doubted that Apple would reveal iOS 8 next week at its Worldwide Developers Conference, here’s the confirmation. Apple has started putting up iOS 8 banners along with giant signage and logos outside the conference’s venue in downtown San Francisco.

How much C4 can you stuff in a Mac Pro?

That not a question most Mac Pro owners grapple with but the guys at RatedRR aren’t your average Apple fanboys. In their latest series of Apple destruction videos they’ve decided to pack an ungodly amount of C4 into Apple’s powerhouse machine just to see how big the explosion is.

Catch all the gory action in the video below:

Hours after Apple secured its $3 billion acquisition of Beats, Eddie Cue and Jimmy Iovine took the stage at Code Conference to talk about the new partnership along with the state of tech and the future of Apple.

Eddie boasted Apple’s 2014 product pipeline is the best he’s seen in his 25 years at Apple, but the duo also dished on their decade long relationship, the state of streaming music services and what Apple might do to make the TV experience a lot less sucky.

The interview has finally been posted in full by Re/code and while it’s slim on Apple secrets it does provide a fascinating look at where the company might be heading.

Check it out:

Robert Pfaff is a young illustrator living in Michigan. He’s also a hard-core gamer with a love for all things pixellated, so he decided to combine both passions together and create this amazingly evocative set of digital artwork.

We found his work to be compelling, so asked Pfaff to choose his favorites and tell us a little about what they meant to him.

Pfaff is thinking about printing and selling his work on posters; if you’d like to encourage him, be sure to visit his artist page on Adobe’s portfolio site, Behance.

Source: Robert Pfaff

The official unveiling of iOS 8 is less than three days away and even though I’m not expecting Jony Ive to debut huge overhauls to the UI, my six-year old homescreen of boring rows of app icons are desperate for something more. Something like widgets.

After deep diving into the mechanics of iOS, Jay Machalani has developed a phenomenal concept on how Apple could add widgets to iOS 8 similar to Windows Live tiles. It’s simple, functional, and doesn’t add unnecessary crap to your homescreen thanks to its novel pinch to expand feature.

Here’s how his widgets work on an iPhone:

Motorola has confirmed it will close its smartphone factory in Fort Worth, Texas, The Wall Street Journal reports. The plant, which employed 700 staff and was responsible for the assembly of devices customized with Moto Maker, is unsustainable due to weak sales and high costs.

The KICK is a revolutionary new way of lighting your photos and videos – and making sure you get perfect exposure every time.

It’s only about the size of your smartphone, but comes packed with a rechargeable panel of 40 completely adjustable RGB LEDs. At 400 Lumens (twice as bright as most Police flashlights) it’s powerful, but it’s also intelligent – once you pair it with the free KICK app (iOS and Android). And Cult of Mac Deals has the KICK for only $149 for a limited time.

Cole Rise has nearly one million followers on Instagram and the hottest new photography app in the App Store. He also made seven of Instagram’s built-in filters, which explains where the name for the “Rise” filter originates.

His app, Litely, is less than a month old with over 3 million downloads. Considering he was one of the first 100 people on Instagram, he really gets mobile photography and where it’s headed. During our conversation, Rise goes behind the scenes of Litely’s development, shares his influence on Instagram during its early days, and gives some great advice on how to take better pictures.

Bart van Olphen thinks he can conquer your fear of cooking fish if you’ll just give him 15 seconds.

The seafood chef from Amsterdam uses Instagram’s relatively new video feature for Fish Tales, which is probably the world’s fastest cooking show in this golden age of refined eating.

“People really like the simplicity of the recipes,” van Olphen told Cult of Mac. “You really can learn how to cook in only 15 seconds.”

Cooking shows have been simmering since the early days of television, with pioneers like James Beard and Julia Child unraveling the mysteries of the kitchen. With the emergence of the Food Network in 1993, the format boiled over into a ratings bonanza, turning chefs like Emeril Lagasse and Rachel Ray into celebrities. Now YouTube is home to dozens of shows featuring entrepreneurial cooks seeking to cash in on the foodie craze.

BlackBerry has today begun rolling out its version 2.2 update for BBM, which adds a bunch of new emoticons and makes some nice improvements. Signing up is easier than ever for new BBM users with this release — as is adding new friends to your BBM contacts list.