Apple may be blamed for hurting Finland with its success, but according to new figures from Australia’s Bureau of Statistics the popularity of the iPhone can help rescue economies, too.

Retail turnover in the country jumped 1.2% in September, compared to a minuscule 0.1% increase the month before. What could have prompted this?

“This figure was influenced by the release of the iPhone 6 during the month,” noted the Bureau of Statistics in its press release. “The increase in electrical and electronic goods retailing represents about half of the total Australian sales movement of 1.2 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms.”

Christian Bale says he’s not the Steve Jobs we deserve.

The actor was tapped to star as the iconic Apple CEO, but has reportedly turned down the part in Sony’s upcoming biopic that is also rumored to star Seth Rogen as Woz, with sources saying he doesn’t think he’s fit for the part.

Christian Bale might seem like the perfect actor to play Steve Jobs. Like the Apple founder, Bale is a perfectionist who cares so deeply about his craft that he can come across like a raging lunatic.

Bale, who will star in Danny Boyle’s upcoming biopic about Jobs, might be the best hope yet for a riveting onscreen representation of Apple’s late leader. But for many Apple fans, a 1999 TV movie remains the definitive depiction of Jobs.

That movie is Pirates of Silicon Valley, which tells the story of Apple versus Microsoft during a 20-year stretch starting in the late-1970s. With Pirates of Silicon Valley turning 15 this year, Cult of Mac spoke with its director, Martyn Burke, about Noah Wyle (who plays Jobs in the film), threatened lawsuits, and the miraculous way Jobs spun a potentially disastrous bit of PR into good press.

An ultra-rare working 1976 Apple-1 computer — thought to be one of the first 50 ever produced — has sold at auction for an incredible $905,000, between twice and three times the expected asking price.

The computer was part of Bonhams History of Science auction in New York City. It sold to the Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, a museum dedicated to showcasing the ingenuity and innovation that helped shape America.

The machine had been expected to fetch “just” $300,000 to $500,000.

“It’s very rare to be able to collect the beginning of something, but the Apple-1 is exactly that,” Henry Ford curator Kristen Gallerneaux told Cult of Mac, speaking after being onsite at the auction earlier today.

Steve Jobs wasn’t in the habit of dancing at Apple events. But in 2010, prior to a press conference where he addressed concerns about the new iPhone’s antenna, a song lampooning the controversy got Jobs dancing in the wings before he faced off with journalists.

The song in question, which played on a big screen to kick off the event, was the work of YouTube musician and Apple fan Jonathan Mann, who has spent the past five years composing a new song each day and posting it online.

“I heard later on from an Apple PR person that Steve Jobs was bopping along in the wings as the song was playing” at the Antennagate press conference, says Mann, speaking with Cult of Mac. “It was a surreal moment in my life.”

Antennagate went away, but Mann became the go-to guy for jingles about all things Cupertino. To date he has written 38 songs about Apple, touching  on everything from Craig Federighi’s WWDC performance to the unveiling of the Apple Watch. His clever ideas and quick turnaround times have turned him into YouTube’s premier Apple songsmith.

Interviewed at the recent Vanity Fair Summit, Jony Ive had strong words for companies like Xiaomi producing iPhone copycats.

“I don’t see it as flattery, I see it as theft, and it’s lazy,” he said, when asked about the Chinese smartphone maker whose devices bear something of a striking resemblance to the iPhone.

Responding in an interview with the Economic Times, Xiaomi’s VP for International markets Hugo Barra suggested that it’s unfair to place the blame on Xiaomi — because Apple copies other people too.

Nestled among the vintage globes, surgical drawings and reflecting telescopes at Bonhams New York’s upcoming “History of Science” auction are spectacular several Apple-related goodies.

Most impressive of all of these is an Apple 1 motherboard, circa 1976. Described as being in “superb overall condition,” this is the first computer ever built by Steve Wozniak under the Apple banner, prior to the far more successful and mainstream Apple II.

Only 200 units of the Apple I were ever made, although just 63 are thought to still survive — and only 15 of these are documented as having worked since 2000.

This is one of them.

Apple co-founder and visionary CEO Steve Jobs passed away three years ago today, at the age of 56.

In addition to co-creating the company with Steve Wozniak in 1976, Jobs personally oversaw the creation of the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes and OS X — as well as funding Pixar during its rise to prominence.

While there are plenty of great videos featuring Jobs to mark the occcasion (anyone with the slightest bit of interest in working in tech should make a point of viewing all of his Apple keynotes) the below is one of my personal favorites. It features Jobs, less than three months into his 1997 return, talking at an internal meeting about his vision for taking the company forward.

“Will it bend?” has become the hottest question in tech this week as some iPhone 6 owners have discovered that the laws of physics still apply to the aluminum frame of the new Apple phones … even when neglected in a back pocket.

We pointed out yesterday that any smartphone made of metal will bend when subjected to pressure, but the Internet has jumped on the BendGate controversy like a joyful Steve Wozniak pounding through the polo fields on his mighty Segway.

#BendGate, #BentGate and #BendGhazi started trending on Twitter within the last 24 hours, and while Apple’s PR machine remains silent, the Internet has given its hilarious opinion on the controversy.

Here are some of the funniest BendGate reactions:

The closing of Macworld is the end of an era. Thirty years ago, the publication was the midwife to the launch of the Macintosh.

Cult of Mac has a series of exclusive recollections by the magazine’s founder Dave Bunnell, which chronicle the journalist’s close encounters with a young and volatile Steve Jobs, the Mac’s difficult gestation and the birth of modern desktop computing. It’s a great trip down memory lane — with plenty of outbursts, last-minute changes and even a cameo by Ella Fitzgerald.

Read on for the full series.