| Cult of Mac

HBO unlocks 500 hours of free content, but not Game of Thrones

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You'll have to subscribe to HBO Now to see Game of Thrones.
You'll have to subscribe to HBO Now to see Game of Thrones.
Photo: HBO

HBO is joining the wave of companies that are offering free access to their content to placate everyone sheltering in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starting on April 3, the HBO Now and HBO Go apps will offer freebies to anyone the doesn’t already have a paid subscription. The trove of over 500 hours of free content includes all seasons of The Sopranos, Silicon Valley, The Wire and Ballers. But if you’re hoping to finally catch up Game of Thrones for free, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Apple Affordable Housing Fund launches with $150 million for projects

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Tim-Cook-Gavin-Newsom
Tim Cook discusses plans with Governor Gavin Newsom.
Photo: Apple

The first wave of Apple-funded affordable housing projects is about to get underway in Silicon Valley.

Housing Trust Silicon Valley revealed this week that Apple has given it a $150 million grant to help projects in the Bay Area. The non-profit organization is using money from Apple’s $2.5 billion commitment to help the affordable housing crisis in Silicon Valley and they’re ready to hand out some big checks.

Apple drops hilarious first trailer for Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet

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Apple TV+ comedy Mythic Quest coming to PAX South gaming expo
Apple TV+ has a quality. Now it just needs some more quantity.
Photo: Apple TV

Apple finally unveiled the official trailer for its first major comedy series Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet and so far it appears the wait has been worth.

Co-created by It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia stars Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day, Mythic Quest follows a team of video game developers hellbent on creating an epic sequel to the biggest multiplayer video game ever made. Mythic Quest‘s cast is packed with hilarious actors playing nerds with big egos that could turn it into the perfect successor to Silicon Valley which just aired its last episode.

Prepare to laugh your socks off:

Apple buys $290 million worth of more office space in Cupertino

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Applecampus
The new Apple campus in Cupertino.
Photo: Google Maps

It seems like Apple just completed its move into Apple Park just recently but apparently, the iPhone-maker is growing so quickly it already needs a major office space expansion.

Local news outlets in the Bay Area recently reported that Apple just gobbled up another two giant office complexes in Cupertino, giving the company over 200,000 square-feet within throwing-distance of the new Apple HQ and the old Infinite Loop campus it still uses.

Learn what it takes to be a Silicon Valley success story [Deals]

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Learn what it takes to make in Silicon valley, from more than a dozen people who have actually done it.
Learn what it takes to make in Silicon valley, from more than a dozen people who have actually done it.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

We’ve all heard the legendary stories of Silicon Valley success. But chances are, you haven’t heard from the people behind those stories. So this bundle of video lessons offers unique insight into the minds and experience of the Valley’s top players.

Apple employees think they make the world a better place

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Apple leases new offices near to Apple Park
Apple leases new offices near to Apple Park
Photo: Duncan Sinfield

A majority of Apple employees believe their company is making the world a better place, according to a survey by the anonymous workplace app Bind.

Blind sent its base a single True-False question – I believe my company is making the world a better place – and nearly 67 percent out of 10,589 Silicon Valley workers responded in the affirmative.

How Steve Jobs poached a Microsoft employee with a restaurant menu

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A successful Steve Jobs recruitment pitch came from an Il Fornaio menu. (It's an Italian restaurant in Palo Alto, California.)
"Do you want to eat pasta all your life, or join me and change the world?"
Photo: Lou Stejskal/Flickr CC

It’s not exactly breaking news that Steve Jobs was a great salesman. But a hilarious anecdote from Adam Fisher’s recent oral history of Silicon Valley, Valley of Genius, gives a great example of Jobs’ next-level skills.

Want to know how Jobs persuaded a product marketing expert from Microsoft to join his company NeXT? It turns out it involved little more than a bit of patented Steve Jobs charm — and a helping hand from a local Italian restaurant menu.

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Even a fat Apple paycheck won’t buy an overpriced Bay Area house

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Apple salaries
Hardware engineers at Apple's Cupertino campus.
Photo: Apple

Your fantasy about working in Cupertino probably leads you to believe the pay is good. You would be correct, but according to more than half of the developers and supervisors at Apple, even their fat paychecks aren’t not enough to afford a house in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Some 60 percent of Apple workers, as surveyed by anonymous messaging app Blind, say home prices are too spendy even with salaries that exceed the national average by more than double.

Apple lists good deeds to avoid Cupertino ‘head tax’

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Apple Park Close up
Apple has long been based in Cupertino, where Steve Jobs grew up.
Photo: Apple

Apple is the reason why most non-locals know the name Cupertino. Just in case free international advertising wasn’t enough, however, the company just sent a letter to the Cupertino City Council, outlining all the nice things Apple does to benefit its hometown.

Although it doesn’t mention it, the letter conveniently arrives on the eve of a discussion on whether to impose a “head tax” on Apple employees in the area.

Learn to code on iOS with awesome perks — for a price

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This is a great opportunity to add the super marketable skill of coding to your resume.
Lambda School's coding academy sounds almost too good to be true.
Photo: Cult of Mac

A Silicon Valley is offering wannabe coders the opportunity to get a free MacBook and free housing while taking their 30-week iOS coding course.

Of course, there’s a bit of a catch with the offer. Lambda School CEO Austen Allred revealed his school’s amazing offer along with the stipulation that if you do find a job and start earning over $50k a year, you have to pay the school back.