Hackers are always hustling to find the next big loophole in computer and internet security. Do yourself a favor and take advantage of this Cult of Mac Deals special offer so that you don’t get caught with your virtual pants down.

Bitdefender is premier anti-virus software that will secure your computer so vital information regarding your identity and finances remain tightly encrypted, and Cult of Mac Deals has one year of Bitdefender available for a very limited time for just $19.95 – a savings of 60%!

Apple denies working with the National Security Agency to create a backdoor into the iPhone and other products that would give the spy agency access to users’ data.

The denial is a response to leaked NSA documents published yesterday from 2008 that detail a backdoor into the iPhone called “DROPOUTJEEP.” The spyware is able to intercept data like the iPhone’s SMS messages, contacts, location, and more after being installed.

Ever wonder why that PDF with just text in it is somehow bloated to a massive file size? Why should something that would be under 500 kilobytes if it were a Text Edit file be two or three megabytes when put into PDF form?

Well, the answer can vary, but if you ever get a PDF from someone that’s too darn big, say, to send via email, then you can use Preview to shrink the file size down to, well, size.

Preview is the built-in file viewer for images and PDF documents, so it’s super easy to find and use.

2013 was an enormous year for Apple.  Yes, there were hyped keynotes galore, fabulous new products, record breaking sales, and much, much more. But 2013 was about more than just hardware for Apple Inc. During Tim Cook’s second full-year reigning over Apple we saw the CEO really settle into his role helming the largest tech company in the world while Jony Ive’s influence grew to greater heights than in the Jobs-era as he spread his design tentacles from hardware to software.

Jony and Tim weren’t the only stars of 2013 though. There was the up-and-coming VP of software engineering Craig Federighi and Craig Federighi’s Hair, while Apple’s hiring of Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts received heaps of praise from both the financial, tech, and fashion markets. Oh and don’t forget about goons like David Einhorn, Carl Icahn and even cranky old John McCain getting their jabs in at Apple throughout the year.

Here’s Cult of Mac’s look back on Apple in the year 2013:

As we approach the end of 2013, it’s time to take a look back and pay some recognition to some of the finest apps that have hit the App Store over the past 12 months.

It’s not easy to build a successful iOS app anymore — with over 1 million of them in the App Store, competition has never been tougher — but some developers have proven it’s still possible to stand out among the crowd with titles that are either completely unique, or just far greater than their rivals.

We’ve picked 15 that you really shouldn’t miss.

Smartwatches today are a little bit like PDAs in the early 1990s: that technology that everyone seems sure is the future, but which no one has really got right yet.

Well, add Archos’ name to the list of companies willing to try and rectify that situation.

If you’re constantly switching between devices while also handling large quantities of different document types, finding one app that allows you to easily sync them with each other is essential.

That is pretty much the remit of the newly-launched Notebooks 7 app, which offers users a single, unified place for all their writing, minutes, tasks and documents.

iOS 7 adoption is currently stealing 1 percentage point away from iOS 6 every week.

That’s according to Apple who have just updated their iOS adoption figures, presenting the data on its developers’ support page. Apple first reported iOS 7 numbers based on App Store usage on December 1, when 74 percent of users were on iOS 7, compared to 22 percent on iOS 6, and 4 percent on earlier versions.

The iPhone won’t officially launch on China Mobile until January 17, but the world’s largest mobile carrier has already begun accepting preorders for the iPhone 5s and 5c.

In terms of numbers, analysts Wedge Partners place the preorder figure at around 100,000 for the first two days of availability.

When I was in high school, I got the jump on all the other photography students because my dad bought weekly and monthly photography magazines that he passed on to me when he was done. I learned a ton about photography (and also the female anatomy, thanks to the “glamour” sections that seemed to be featured in every issue.

These days we have the internet for both learning and porn, but I still have a soft spot (ahem) for photo magazines, which is why I’m checking out FLTR, “world’s first smartphone photography magazine.”

Wonder what it would look like if Tim Cook (or a similarly high-powered executive) was forced to augment their usual duties by battling lycanthropes? Riverman Media may just have an answer for you.

I gave up on buying FitBits after my second $100 device dropped from my pocket and ended up who knows where. So I was interested in yesterday’s update to the iOS app which lets you track your steps using just the app and the iPhone 5S’s M7 MoCoPro.

But apparently this tracking doesn’t offer the full FitBit kit and caboodle, eliminating the useful functionality of recording individual activities. Thankfully, another app just added these features. It’s called StepTracker, and it’s free.

I recently scored an awesome second-hand sofa for my office, which means that I can sit back behind my 27-inch iMac and watch TV and movies on the big screen. But I’m used to watching everything on my iPad, I’ve been using AirServer to turn my iMac into an AirPlay screen. It works flawlessly, and this alone would be worth the $15 price.

But now a new update adds screen recording, plus support for using your keyboard’s media keys to control playback from the iDevice

When your working relationship begins with the company you’re working with making an official complaint about your “unprecedented” bill, you know things are off to a rocky start.

Cult of Mac reported back in late November about Apple’s dealings with court-appointed monitor Michael Bromwich: the former U.S. attorney and Justice Department inspector general given the job of ensuring Apple’s antitrust compliance regarding e-book price fixing.

1Keyboard looks like a great way to avoid having to spend $100 on Logitech’s K811 Easy Switch keyboard. It’s an app that takes the input from your Mac’s keyboard and sends it to the iDevice of you choice, and it costs exactly $0.

The Fitbit is one of the most popular fitness trackers out there, and today its companion iOS app was updated with an interesting new feature for iPhone 5s owners. By taking advantage of the new phone’s M7 co-processor (a chip also found in the latest iPads), Fitbit has turned the 5s into a health monitor without the need of an additional wrist strap.

MobileTrack uses the M7 to track the user’s activity throughout the day and distill it into helpful data, like miles traveled and calories burned.

It’s at least six months until Apple reveals iOS 8, and probably nine months until we see the iPhone 6 for the first time, but that hasn’t stopped Eric Vasille of iPhonesoft from imaging what the iPhone 6 and iOS 8 will look like.

Have you ever wanted to easily run Windows applications & PC games on your Mac? Well, you can…and thanks to this Cult of Mac Deals offer you can do so at a price that makes choosing to do so a whole lot easier.

CrossOver 13 allows you to install Windows software right onto your Mac without a Windows license, without rebooting, and without a virtual machine. Your Windows applications and games integrate seamlessly on your Mac OS X and run alongside your other Mac applications. And Cult of Mac Deals has this revolutionary piece of software available for a limited time for just $29.99.

Many of us got or received iPhones for Christmas, and I’m guessing you thought you were pretty smart, putting it in a gift bag to disguise the telltale shape. But you’ve got nothing on this guy, who fooled someone into thinking that the iPhone they were actually unwrapping was just a crappy old chair. Check out how they did it, after the jump.

Want to capture a square image from the get-go, rather than cropping in Instagram later? How about Taking a panoramic photo or a video? If you have an iPhone 5s, you can take a slow motion video, as well.

It’s pretty easy to get these options, though it may not be as intuitive to find. Here’s how.

A promising prototype stand called the Plinth fits in a pocket but quickly deploys to support a large tablet, a smartphone or even an old-fashioned book.

Developed by U.K. product designer John Bull, the super-portable Plinth would make it easier for him to use his beloved iPad by holding it rock-steady at three different angles.

The U.S. National Security Agency has spyware designed to grant backdoor access to the iPhone specifically, according to leaked documents shared by high-profile security researcher Jacob Appelbaum and German publication Der Spiegel.

While speaking at the Chaos Communication Congress in Germany, Appelbaum shared his knowledge of “DROPOUTJEEP,” a top-secret NSA program that can intercept an iPhone’s SMS messages, contacts, location, camera, and microphone.

Occasionally a rare piece of Apple gear will appear on eBay and be suddenly pulled. Why? Apple doesn’t like it when its internal hardware gets exposed out in the wild. But sometimes a prototype slips through Cupertino’s watchful eye and gets sold.

An eBay seller in Australia has sold what appears to be an original iPhone engineering prototype for a nice sum of $1,499.

Besides its fantastic longform features, The New York Times Magazine is known for its striking cover art. The Sunday publication has been creatively led by Arem Duplessis for the past decade, and now Duplessis is leaving to join Apple as a creative director within its marketing department.

Dragon Dictate for Mac 3 offers incredibly accurate speech-to-text and allows you to run your favorite desktop applications by voice. It’s the #1 voice recognition software on the market for good reason, and it’s available for 50% off – just $99.99 – from Cult of Mac Deals during this limited time offer.

This software solution offer far more than speech-to-text. With it you can create and edit documents, manage email, surf the Web, update social networks, and more – quickly, easily, and accurately – all by voice. Just read your text aloud and watch the magic appear before your eyes right on your computer screen.