The Apple Watch looks far more elegant than the rectangular smartwatches we’ve already seen from competing companies, but we couldn’t help noticing that some of its straps look a little… familiar.

In fact, several of Apple’s new strap designs look almost identical to straps from luxury watchmaker Ikepod, which not so coincidentally used to be run by Marc Newson, an Australian industrial designer who recently became a part of Apple’s design team.

Thanks to its work on the iPhone 6, Apple supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has announced record high revenues for August — representing an earnings increase of 6.7 percent from last month and a leap of 25.8 percent from the previous year.

TSMC made a massive $2.31 billion in August, with the phenomenal performance being credited to the company’s production of A8 processors for the iPhone 6-series of handsets — in addition to other chips such as Touch ID fingerprint sensors.

We love it when Apple live-streams its keynotes so that we can watch along with those lucky enough to have gotten an invite, but yesterday’s was nothing short of a disaster. It was down more than it was up, and it made Tim Cook and Phil Schiller sound like Chinese girls. But if you missed anything, you can now catch up on-demand and uninterrupted.

Apple’s new iPhones are a big improvement over their predecessors in almost every way. Both the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus pack the larger, sharper displays loyal users have been begging for, as well as a faster A8 processor, twice as much RAM, and improved iSight cameras.

But how does the iPhone 6 stack up against the latest devices from Samsung? Check out our comparison below to see if Apple’s new baby has what it takes to beat the Galaxy S5 and the Galaxy Note 4 in a specifications smackdown.

We’re mere hours away from Apple’s September 9th special media event at The Flint Center, and as expected, the company has added an “Apple Events” channel for those planning to watch on the Apple TV.

Fans without an Apple TV can watch a livestream of the event on Apple’s website, provided they are running Safari 5.1.10 or later on OS X 16.6.8 or later.

The event kicks off at 10 a.m. Pacific today, and we expect to see the public unveiling of both the iPhone 6 and iWatch.

Cult of Mac will be covering the event live from the Flint Center, so stay tuned for our moment-by-moment coverage. It’s going to be a blast!

With just under five hours to go before Apple kicks off its iPhone event, the Apple Online Store is now offline in preparation for new products. When it returns, you can expect to see two new iPhones and a brand new wearable decorating its pages.

Although it has been widely reported that the 5.5-inch iPhone won’t come out until months after the 4.7-inch model, both sizes are now expected to ship on the same day later this month.

Trusting the Internet can be one of the silliest things you can do, especially when it comes to private matters. While what you do within the comfort of your own circle deserves to stay within its parameters, sometimes things don’t play that way.

Some celebrities found that out the hard way this week when their “personal” photos were hacked from their iCloud accounts and leaked online. With the world frantically sharing the photos left and right, this has turned all eyes toward Apple and the security of its cloud operation.

According to a new report from Digitimes, U.S.-based GT Advanced Technologies will be supplying sapphire screens for the eagerly anticipated 5.5-inch iPhone 6.

Based on Digitimes’ research, GTAT has 2,500 crystal-growing furnaces and mature crystal-growing processes that would allow them to produce enough sapphire to produce 45 million 5.5-inch covers in 2015. Cost-wise these are likely to come in at around $30, which Digitimes suggests will be a competitive price for a 5.5-inch sapphire cover in 2015.

Apple’s construction project outside the Flint Center has sprouted up a ton of wild theories. Is it for a secret U2 concert? An iWatch demo area? Or something much more boring?

We tried to get a peak inside the massive white building ourselves, but after getting turned away by security at the gates the mystery remains. Sachin Patel has taken a different approach though and used his drone to spy on Apple’s secret project from the sky.

Here’s a short drone tour of the secret building: