It’s that time of year again. A time where we are getting busier and busier by the hour. A time where there doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day. And a time where stellar deals come along all across the web.

But very few of these deals pack a ton of apps that not only offer a little something for everyone, but they all offer the ability to save significant pockets of time for everyone as well. That’s what The Mac Productivity Bundle 3.0 does, and while the regular price of all 9 apps would be $1150 if sold separately, Cult of Mac Deals has it for just $50!

One of the better Yuletide traditions is the venerable holiday Advent Calendar, in which each day of December leading up to Christmas is marked off on a special calendar by opening its corresponding door to find a small gift, toy or chocolate squirreled away inside.

This year, we here at Cult of Mac decided we wanted to give our readers their very own Apple-themed advent calendar, filled with the year’s best apps, gadgets, stories and other curios. So each day in December, we’re going to lovingly peel back the door on the Cult of Mac 2012 Advent Calendar to reveal another delicious morsel, something really special that came out this year that we think every one of you should enjoy.

So what’s behind the door on Saturday the 15th? Arcane Legends for iOS, a free-to-play, massively multiplayer online game (MMO) that’s bound to please.

This week’s must-have games roundup begins with a wonderful new building game called Middle Manager of Justice, in which you take charge of Justice Corp., a team of superheroes that are on a mission to save the city’s inhabitants. We also have Monsters, Inc. Run, a new running platform game from Disney; Sport Interactive’s latest Football Manager Handheld title, and more.

One of the best cloud-based services out there, Dropbox, has gotten its iOS app updated with a shiny new design and photo gallery, which adds its own tab and a scrollable timeline of the automatically uploaded photos from your iOS device of choice.

Believe it or not, Black Friday has already come and gone. Pretty soon the Christmas season will begin, and we’ll mark this midwinter festival by getting together with friends and family and continuing to drink and eat far too much.

Meanwhile, we also buy gifts for those same friends and family members, whether they want them or not. Luckily, we’re here to help, and if you follow our festive advice, your gifts just might make it into the “wanted” category.

From now until Christmas, Cult of Mac will be putting together holiday gift guys full of ideas for the special ones in your life, no matter what their interests or your budget. Today, we’re looking at gifts for Mac lovers (not Mac fighters).

Ever since iOS 4 (I think – thanks, Shane!) came out, you’ve been able to send more than one photo attachment per email message, up to a maximum of five. What happens when you need to send more than five photos in one email, though?

That’s where Instamail Photos comes in. It’s on sale right now for $0.99 in the App Store and works pretty darn well.

When the iPad mini first became available in Apple retail stores, it was hard to gauge just how popular it was among fans — and how well it was selling. It seemed that the tablet wasn’t moving as quickly as other iOS devices on their first day, and for many customers it was easy to walk into store once the queues had died down and find one still in stock. Some assumed people didn’t want a device that started at $329, didn’t have a Retina display, and featured older hardware.

Despite that, the iPad mini’s on track to become a hugely successful product during its first year. NPD DisplaySearch expects it to reach 100 million shipments during 2013, eclipsing sales of the larger fourth-generation iPad.

It’s almost 2013. High-quality web and blog design are no longer a luxury – they’re a necessity.

Picturesque is an awesome little app – and the latest Cult of Mac Deals offer. This app will improve any web design by adding some serious sizzle to your images. Drag and drop images onto Picturesque & choose from 5 tasteful effects. It’s that easy. And it’s only $5 for a limited time!

Rovio, one of the most successful iOS developers around, has slashed all of its iPad games to just 99¢ for a limited time. That includes all titles in the Angry Birds series, the new Bad Piggies game, and Amazing Alex. Has Christmas come early?

Ok, so we may not be rockstars (yet), but we just hit 1,000,000 downloads of The CultCast, our fun, quirky, totally off-base podcast covering everything in the wonderful world of Apple. That’s like earning a platinum record! Now we know what Led Zeppelin felt like… But we couldn’t have done it without our smart, good-looking, worldwide audience supporting us all the way. If you’ve ever listened to an episode of The CultCast, thank you, we love you, and we would like to hold your hand.

But enough self sycophancy! On our newest episode, we talk Google Maps reborn on iOS. We’ll tell you what we love, what we don’t, and if it scratches the itch we’ve all had since the demise of the last Google Maps.

Plus: why Twitter wants to be your next Instagram, and a new Flickr app rises from the ashes—but is it too little too late?

Join us on our newest CultCast! Subscribe now on iTunes, or easily stream new and previous episodes via Apple’s free Podcasts App.