Write it off as a smokescreen to cover sliding profit and margins if you want, but Tim Cook’s belief in the culture of Apple came across loud and clear during Monday’s conference call with analysts and reporters.

Speaking about Apple as a “force for good in the world beyond our products” Cook claimed that, “Whether it’s improving working conditions or the environment, standing up for human rights, helping eliminate AIDS, or reinventing education, Apple is making substantial contributions to society.”

The Los Altos family home that Steve Jobs grew up in has now been designated as a site of historical significance, thanks to the seven-member Los Altos Historical Commission  that unanimously approved a recent historic property evaluation on the home.

Steve Jobs and his foster parents moved into the house on 2066 Crist Drive in Los Altos, California, when he was in 7th grade and continued to live there though his high school days. The decision to mark the house as a historical site gives the single-story, ranch house protection from builders seeking to demolish it, although Steve Jobs step-mom, Marilyn Jobs, still  lives there, so good luck getting her out anytime soon.

Regarding the reasons for why the Jobs house is worthy of being historicized, the property evaluation cited the following:

If you thought BBM was going to be a massive flop on Android and iOS, then you thought wrong. BlackBerry has today announced that the service has added 20 million active users since making its debut on the two rival platforms, taking its total number of monthly active users across Android, iOS, and BlackBerry to 80 million.

A Google smartwatch powered by Android with built-in Google Now is in the late stages of development, according to people familiar with the matter, who have been speaking to The Wall Street Journal. Google is now in talks with Asian suppliers, which could begin mass producing the device “within months.”

There you are, sitting in front of your Mac, important work on the screen, when an Update notification shows up. Oh no! Your Mac wants you to update some software, but you really do not have the time.

What’s a busy professional to do? Before Mavericks, you could dismiss the notification, and wait for it to pop up again. In Mavericks, however, you have a bit more control over your Mac than that.

Before iTunes Radio came along, everyone thought it would be the death knell of good old Pandora. But it doesn’t look like Pandora is going anywhere: even those Pandora users who have access to iTunes Radio either don’t use it, or listen to Pandora alongside iTunes Radio.

Although Apple is still (very) profitably plugging along with the iPhone, there’s a new king of smartphones, and it’s Samsung. The Korean gadget maker continued to dominate smartphone sales in the third quarter, shipping over 88 million smartphones this quarter compared to just 33.8 million iPhones shipped. And it gets worse for Apple.

With all of Apple’s sales numbers save iPhone either flatlining or declining, calls are louder than ever for Apple to release a revolutionary device in an all new product category. People want the iWatch, and so does Apple.

A new rumor says that final manufacturing plans for the mythical wristmounted iDevice are underway, and LG is likely to be the main provider of Apple’s new iWatch OLED display.

According to research consultants Counterpoint Research, Apple captured 34% of the 2.8 million Japanese mobile phone sales this September, marking a sizable increase from the estimated 14% seen in both July and August.

The news is even more impressive when, as Counterpoint director Tom Kang notes, “This is the first time any handset brand has crossed the 30% mark in the last decade in one of the most modern digital handset market in the world, Japan.”

It might not be the iCar that Berenberg analyst Adnaan Ahmad recently recommended Apple invest in, but Tim Cook nonetheless dropped some hints about forthcoming new products in previously unexplored categories while announcing the company’s final quarter financials.

During his introductory remarks, Cook noted that Apple sees “significant opportunities ahead of us in both current product categories and new ones” and later reiterated that the company was working on some “great new products in areas where we do not participate today.”

Isn’t it frustrating when you spend your whole weekend trying to reach the top of the Game Center leaderboard in your favorite game just to find that the top spot has already been claimed by a cheat, whose score couldn’t possibly be beaten by playing the game properly?

Unfortunately, it’s a common problem because Game Center has long been far too easy to hack. But Apple has finally done something about it. Developers now have the power to delete fake Game Center scores and block gamers who persistently cheat.

Back in 2010, when the idea of the iPhone as a great gaming device was generally scoffed at, the game developer dudes at One Man Left offered up an instant classic called Tilt To Live. It didn’t try to minimize the iPhone’s weaknesses; instead, this brilliant little gem seemed like it was built specifically for the iPhone, and perfectly harnessed its strengths. The result was a beautifully addictive game that had the player frantically twisting and tilting the iPhone in order to both survive and destroy a horde of menacing…dots. Yes, dots.

Now, over three years and one strategy game later, One man Left is finally revealing details, in the form of a short video, about their the ridiculously titled Tilt To Live sequel — Tilt To Live 2: Redonkulous.

We’ve all been there: Some mornings simply aren’t compatible with a task as sophisticated as groping for an iPhone and then pawing at the screen or volume button to activate the snooze.

And for those especially drooly mornings when even smacking a massive rubber button is too much of a challenge, there’s the wobL: a stand-app alarm combo for iPhone that works simply by  — you guessed it — wobbling it.

As you may have seen in our previous post on Apple’s fourth quarter (Q4) financial report, the Cupertino company has beat out Wall Street expectations this quarter, showing off a revenue of $37.5 billion with a hefty 7.5 billion profit to go along with it.

To help you make sense of Apple’s business this quarter, as well as some general trends of the last five years, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to put together some charts in an easy-to-read format to show you how the numbers break down, from revenue and profit margins to how many devices Apple is selling, to how much money it’s making from those sales.

Let’s take a look at some of the numbers in visual form, and see what we can take from it.

During this afternoon’s earning call, Tim Cook was asked about the iPhone 5c and whether the company is disappointed with sales after customers were expecting Apple’s plastic iPhone to be significantly cheaper than its $99 price tag on-contract.

Before diving into iPhone 5c expectations, Cook clarified that even though customers may have expected the iPhone 5c to be Apple’s entry level phone, the company has never considered it to be its cheapest model. That honor goes to Apple’s other cheap phone – the iPhone 4s.

Tim stated that the iPhone 4s is priced as a entry-level offering to giving customers full-access to iOS at a cheap price, while the iPhone 5c is being sold as a mid-tier offer with the 5s of course at the top. Cook elaborated the the iPhone 5c was a good way for Apple to enter the mid-tier market and expand sales in the category. With a record number of iPhones being sold last quarter Tim says he’s pretty pleased with the results so far.

The arrival of iOS 7 has not only demonstrated a whole new look to Apple’s mobile platforms, but also new opportunities for exceptional design. So if you’ve got a great app idea for this beautiful new platform, but your design skills leave a lot to be desired then Cult of Mac Deals a deal for you.

This deal is for some stellar templates that will give even the most aesthetically challenged app creator the ability to make a great-looking iOS 7 app. And you can get your hands on these 7 templates for only $29.99 – a savings of 94%!

We’re still waiting for Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer to start today’s earnings call, but now that the closing bell has rung Apple just released its official financial results for Q4 2013. So far the numbers look pretty good with Apple beating analyst estimations for revenue and profit with $37.5 billion and $7.5 billion respectively.

Sorting through the pile of information and numbers Apple just gave us can make your head spin, so we’ve broken it down for you. Here are the most important numbers you need to know from today’s earnings:

Apple just announced its earning for the final fiscal quarter of 2014 and compared to the year-ago quarter the results are pretty good. The company reports that it made $36 billion in revenue with $8.2 billion the net profit. Along with the 9 million iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c units it sold during launch weekend, Apple says it sold 33.8 million iPhones, along with 14.1 million iPads – both an improvement from the same quarter last year.

Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer will hold an earnings call with investors at 5PM EST to discuss its results, until then dive right into the full press release below:

One of the great things about Messages, for me, is the “read receipt.” I know if my child has seen my messages to them, of if they’ve just been “delivered” but not read. I like it.

Some folks, though, might want to turn off this feature so they don’t give off the signal that they’ve actually seen a message. it goes a long way towards plausible deniability when things go wrong.

If you’re one of those folks, though, you might have noticed that when you upgraded to iOS 7 that–even if you have the preference for receipts toggled to OFF, you might still be sending out read receipts.

Luckily, there’s an easy fix.

Apple is set to announce its earnings in just a couple hours and while the company probably won’t say how many iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c units it sold specifically, research firm Localytics just released a report this morning claiming the iPhone 5s and 5c already account for  5.5% of all global active iPhones.

On Friday, we caught an early glimpse at MOGA’s upcoming iPhone control pad, the Ace Power, thanks to leaked photos that were published ahead of its official debut. And now we have a leaked trailer, too. The 30-second clip shows off the Ace Power’s features, including that neat portable design.

Last week at Apple’s iPad keynote, Phil Schiller finally unveiled the baseline price for the Mac Pro will start at $2999, to the surprise of many. Keep in mind that’s only for a quad-core unit and the six-core units start at $3999. However, Apple announced 12-core units will also be available as a customized option, meaning that baseline price is just the tip of the iceberg for how deep Apple will reach into your pockets for a maxed out Mac Pro.

Apple still hasn’t announced official pricing for those hefty upgrades, but pros should expect to pay upwards of $10,000 for a top notch Mac Pro. According to the estimations of Unbox Therapy, a top-of-the-line Mac Pro with max upgrades will probably cost around $14k!

Watch Unbox Therapy break down the numbers in the video below:

Clear and Clear+, the popular list-keeping apps from Realmac Software, have been updated to take advantage of iOS 7’s new background refresh feature. This allows the apps to update even when they’re closed, ensuring your lists are up-to-date and ready for you when you open them up.

My Mountain of Debt — Finance — $0.99 (50%-off launch sale price)

My Mountain of Debt, a new financial app by developer Fun with Data, believes that paying off your debt is as hard as removing a giant pile of bricks from over the opening to your anthill. At the start, you enter your total debt in up to four categories, and then adjust the amounts as needed. Each time your debt shrinks, the formic hero mounts the pile with his trusty pickaxe and whittles down the stack. It could be a valuable tool to keep your debt in perspective and show your progress — plus that ant looks pretty cute in his little miner’s helmet.

My Mountain of Debt

It’s a little hard to describe what exactly Device 6, the new project from developer Simogo, is, exactly.

It’s kind of a visual novel. It’s also kind of a puzzle/escape game. But it’s also its own unique animal, a challenging artistic experiment unlike anything I’ve seen before. It will confuse you, impress you, and ultimately provide one of the most memorable experiences the App Store has to offer.

So, yeah. It’s pretty good.