The first successful personal computer didn’t have a screen — not even a command-line screen. It communicated with the user through blinking lights. It was called the MITS Altair 8800. This blinking-light box was such a revolution, a kid named Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard to write software for it.

I have the feeling that the first successful wearable computer will also show nothing more than blinking lights.

I’m going to tell you why the high-rez wearables may not go mainstream over next couple of years, but why blinking-lights devices might. But first, let’s check out two interesting blinking light wearable devices.

Following his comments that he would be pulling his wildly popular, $50,000-a-day game Flappy Bird from the App Store, developer Dong Nguyen has actually gone through with it, removing the game from both the App Store and Google Play Store.

We’ve seen concepts of the iPhone Air before, but I can’t think of one I like more — or that I think looks more plausible — than Joseph Farahi’s 5.1-inch iPhone 6 concept. This actually looks like a device Jony Ive could design.

Cables wear out, get lost, and you never know when you’ll need another, so grab one of these to keep in the car, at the office, or tightly wound in its packaging until you call it up from the reserves.

Cult of Mac Deals has another great deal lined up for those of you who have been looking for that extra cable for your iPhone. And this Apple-approved Lightning cable is available at an amazing price…just $17.99!

Everyone knows that there’s a lucrative black market in iPhones, particularly in Asia, but did you know that iPhones are increasingly being used as currency? That’s the case in Rome, at least, where at least one journalist is using iPhones as a way to pay his bills.

Samsung is trying to weasel out of paying up to Apple, asking Judge Lucy Koh for a mistrial based upon the supposedly “racist” remarks of Cupertino’s attorneys. But Judge Lucy Koh was having none of it.

The other day, our Google-loving friends over at Cult of Android breathlessly hopped on a story suggesting that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak wanted Apple to make an Android smartphone.

It was always a bizarre story — what could Apple possibly have to gain from that, when it is already has the best-selling smartphone in the world — but it certainly made for a good headline. The only problem? Woz says he never meant it.

In a tweet earlier in the day on Saturday, Dong Nguyen–developer of the wildly popular iOS and Android game, Flappy Bird–apologized to fans while simultaneously promising to take his game down, assumedly from the various app stores it’s been selling like crazy on.

Like, $50,000 per day crazy.

His tweet hints at the insanity of success, and we can only assume that a shy, retiring game developer might have a hard time with the kind of success Flappy Bird has seen.

I am sorry 'Flappy Bird' users, 22 hours from now, I will take 'Flappy Bird' down. I cannot take this anymore.

— Dong Nguyen (@dongatory) February 8, 2014

No matter if you’re a beginner, have a basic understanding of web design or fundamental programming skills, or simply want to learn how to build a website from scratch, this Cult of Mac Deals offer is worth exploring. After all, the web really is at your fingertips when coding with Python.

Infinite Skills offers an ever growing range of high quality eLearning solutions that teach using studio quality narrated videos backed-up with practical hands-on examples. The emphasis is on teaching real life skills that are essential in today’s commercial environment. And that credo is on full display in The Ultimate Python Programming Course For Beginners, which Cult of Mac Deals has available for 60% off the regular price right now…only $39!

Evidence that Apple is going big with sapphire is overwhelming. But the reasons for Apple’s sapphire obsession range from scratch-resistant screens to solar-charging screens.

I have another theory: Apple wants to eliminate both the need and the desire for an iPhone case, cover or sleeve. There’s a lot more to this idea than simple scratch resistance.

Here’s my case for Apple’s case against cases.

The Cable Key is a seamless solution to all your power needs. This lightweight charger cable is there when you need it and out of the way when you don’t. The high-speed USB 2.0 connection ensures a quick charging session while allowing you to enjoy your device, uninterrupted.

Cult of Mac Deals has this little wonder for 62% off during this limited time offer – just $14.99!

This week, Cult of Mac Magazine is all about the Olympics.

Whether you’re a cord cutter or just like to slack off at work, our ever-resourceful reviews editor Charlie Sorrel has compiled all the tips you need to watch without a traditional TV – from streaming services to apps and, like any good British expat, he’s also given a thought to beverages – so you can get more Sochi action across all your Apple devices.

The 2014 Winter Olympics may also be the first quantified games in history. Sure, coaches have been standing by with stopwatches and clipboards since, well, some dude sprinted down dusty roads in sandals, probably. But now, there’s an app for that. To find out more about what the teams are using (and how you can improve your form on the slopes) we talked to the people behind some those performance apps.

We’re also featuring the winners of our epic Selfie Olympics contest. But just so you know: you’re all winners in our book!

Cult of Mac Magazine

With rumors of a new Apple-made “fitness app” coming to iOS 8, secret meetings with the FDA, and murmurs of more sleep and fitness experts joining the Apple ranks, the iWatch rumors are heating up on this week’s CultCast! Plus, a classic Nintendo game makes its way to iOS; Microsoft says goodbye to the one and only Steve Ballmer; and new job openings in Cupertino could mean big upgrades in battery life for future MacBooks…

Thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode! Treat yourself to a brand new website with the help of Squarespace – a drag-and-drop, do-it-yourself site builder with everything you need to create an exceptional website. Head to Squarespace.com to try it for free, and use the offer code “CultCast” to save 10% on any order.

Softly giggle 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 audio adventure begin.

Until Apple finally comes out with its eagerly anticipated iWatch, Nike — at least in terms of style — is perhaps the closest thing to Apple in the wearable computing space (Tim Cook does, after all, sit on its board). I resisted picking up the original 2012 Fuelband but, motivated by a desire to get fit for the new year, bought its sequel, the Fuelband SE, earlier this year. Having had a bit of time to try it out, here’s what I make of it. (Thoughts registered between exercise-related wheezes.)

With teens and young adults leaving Facebook in droves, it’s up to social networks like We Heart It to pick up the slack.

The new image-centric app is gaining a ton of traction with this highly-coveted target demographic, breaking the 25 million user mark and pulling in over a million new users monthly.

CEO Ranah Edelin spoke with Cult of Mac on the phone, and attributes this incredible growth to one thing: We Heart It is a safe space.

“Social networks mimic what happens in the real world,” he said. “There is a ton of bullying on them and they mimic popularity contests. Our users tell us they love We heart It because they can express themselves authentically without having to brag or worry about getting bullied.”

Did you watch that? It’s total crap.

The security expert quoted in the piece, Kyle Wilhoit, has just written a blog post that calls out the report, essentially saying that the hacks shown in the video can happen anywhere, and require some risky user behavior to even happen.

That’s a long way from “if [tourists] fire up their phones at baggage claim, it’s probably too late to save the integrity of their electronics,” as Brian Williams claims in the clip above.

Talk about fear-mongering.

Mark Smith’s Spell Quest: Grimm’s Journey is this week’s iOS Game of the Week, and it’s a fun one.

You’ll need to spell words to move Grimm from left to right, with longer words causing more damage to the baddies you encounter. You’ll pull letter tiles from a grid below, and some tiles will give you power ups, others will poison you. It’s a fun mix.

Check out our video below for some gameplay footage.

No one but actual, honest-to-God bicycle messengers had the authority to wield a Timbuk2 messenger bag. If you were an iron-assed hard case living life on a bike, you’d probably earned the right; though you might still have found yourself the target of diluted messenger disgust.

That was the pervading vibe 15 years ago when I bought my first Timbuk2 bag, a Bolo (back then, each size had a name; the Bolo was the large version). Make no mistake, these were Messenger Bags: simple, voluminous, virtually indestructible black holes, able to swallow an inordinate amount of awkwardly dimensioned deliverables, specially stabilized for use on the bike exclusively. The only grudging nods to civility were a couple of pockets sown onto the outside of the bag and an optional padded shoulder strap.

And apart from a few minor changes, it’s stayed that way. Like the coelacanth, the Classic Messenger has remained a living fossil, unchanged, while other Timbuk2 species have evolved and developed around it. Until now.

While iPhone calls these days are vastly better than those of iPhone models in the past, let a lone calls made on those old flip phones, they can still be pretty cruddy, depending on your service coverage and location within that area.

If you’re at home (or at a place with WiFi) and in a bad location for cell tower reception but still need to make a voice call, you can do one thing to immediately improve the audio fidelity of your iPhone to iPhone calls: use FaceTime Audio.

Getting Apple to dish on secrets is practically impossible, but if you’re looking for an inside line to one of the most powerful CEOs in tech, the house next door to Tim Cook just went on the market.

That’s right, even you could become Tim Cook’s neighbor, as long as you got a cool $2.8 million in the bank to drop on a condo.

The capabilities of today’s are so incredible, a few weeks ago we came across a 20-year old RadioShack ad and everything you could buy  has already been made obsolete by the iPhone. Still, the iPhone’s powers are so much greater than those products it doesn’t do justice to compare it to a $29.99 speed dial phone, so Bret Swanson at Tech Policy Daily decided to find out how much an iPhone would really cost in 1991.

Swanson’s back-of-the-envelope math estimates it would have cost Apple over $3 million to make a machine with comparable powers to the iPhone back in 1991, and that’s only counting some of the hardware.

Even though it feels like the iPhone 5s just came out, the rumor mill is already churning out little bits on the iPhone 6: a supercharged camera, a bigger display and a ton of sapphire crystal glass.

A number of designers have presented both wacky and plausible mockups for what the iPhone 6 might look like, but our concept designer friend Federico Ciccarese just sent us his rendition of what the iPhone 6 might look like. While it doesn’t have any wild design changes, it still has my pockets lusting after a 4.7-inch iPhone 6.

Check it out:

Bed Bug Proof — Utilities — Free

America is seeing a resurgence in bed-bug infestations, and here’s an app to help you screen a room and identify the little biters before they introduce themselves.

To be perfectly clear, Bed Bug Proof is an app created in part to sell an anti-bed-bug spray. But the practical information and tools it provides, like the inspection guide, comparison photographs, and a magnifier/light to let you use your phone to search for eggs and poop, are useful enough to let it stand on its own.

Although it will make you itchy just looking at it. Seriously.

Bed Bug Proof – Terramera Inc.

This just in: Someone has made a game about zombies.

You probably weren’t expecting that, huh? A zombie game? It’s crazy on the face of it.

Now, look: I hate zombies as much as the next person. Maybe a bit more, even. Stupid shambling a****les. But that doesn’t mean I want to spend all of my gaming time killing them. I have a lot of other things to pretend to kill, like Nazis and Pokémon. So I’ll admit that I wasn’t immediately sold on Overlive, a new undead-themed gamebook with role-playing-game elements, even though it’s hard to go wrong with me once you start offering choices and stats.

Once I started playing it, though, Overlive won me over.

Ever wanted to dabble in anime? Sure you have.

Anime Studio Debut is fun, easy, and exciting for any age and any skill level. This powerful and comprehensive animation software will help your ideas come to life. Plus, it includes detailed video tutorials and pre-made content to help you get started right away. And now you can get Anime Studio Debut through this special Cult of Mac Deals offer for only $19.99…a savings of 60%!