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Keep your favorite tunes untethered with this booming Bluetooth headset [Deals]

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These REMXD on-ear bluetooth headphones keep you connected to your favorite sounds without tying you down.
These REMXD on-ear bluetooth headphones keep you connected to your favorite sounds without tying you down.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

The more we carry our music and audio programs in our pockets, the more those pesky headphone cables get in the way, or give way to fray. REMXD’s On-Ear Bluetooth Headphones offer full-spectrum sound unbound by wires, at an unbeatable price. You can get your hands on one of these hands-free sets for $35.99.

Catch the best Mac, iPhone, PS4, Xbox and Wii U Black Friday deals on The CultCast

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Ready to punch, kick, and bite your way to this year's best deals?
Ready to punch, kick, and bite your way to this year's best deals?
Photo: Jingle All The Way

This week: get your mace and taser ready for Black Friday! We share some of the best deals on MacBooks, iPhones, Playstation 4s, Xbox One’s, Wii U’s and more. Plus: why your Mac store apps could be corrupted (and what to do about it); RDIO bites the dust; and the iPad Mini 4 proves far better than we originally thought.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Build a beautiful website quick at Squarespace.com, and enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off.

Pay what you want for a full-course education in JavaScript [Deals]

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PWYWJavascriptDevBundle

Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

JavaScript is one of the most essential languages underpinning the modern internet. It’s an invaluable entry on anyone’s resume, and with this bundle of 10 JavaScript development courses you’ll be able to claim that knowledge with confidence. What’s more, you can pay whatever you want for the whole thing, and 10 % of anything you pay goes to the good work over at Project Hope, which delivers essential medicines and supplies, health expertise and medical training to aid in disasters, prevent disease, promote wellness and save lives around the world.

Now you can carry a wall outlet in your pocket [Deals]

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The ChargeTech Portable Power Outlet means you'll never be without an outlet for your laptop, phone or tablet.
The ChargeTech Portable Power Outlet means you'll never be without an outlet for your laptop, phone or tablet.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

If you’ve ever tried to charge your laptop at the airport, you know that wall outlets are in demand like never before. ChargeTech’s portable power outlet means you’ll never be far from an outlet even if they’re all taken up or there’s not a wall around. It’s a game changer for anyone who needs a charge when they travel or go about their day, and you can get one now for only $139.99.

Cult of Mac Magazine: Quirky product reviews + Mac and iOS Pro Tips + Black Friday

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CoM

It’s one week away from Black Friday, and in addition to our killer live blog with up-to-the-minute deals, we’ve got a new magazine with all sorts of quirky products that our loving reviewers have taken the time to get to know.

We’ve got a funky clip-on lampshade for your iPhone, a Pro Tip to max out your iPhone battery, a conceptual piece on how Apple could fix the next version of its wristband, a secret messaging app that pulls in 1 million downloads every day, and (of course) our weekly gabfest about all things Apple, The Cultcast.

Here’s the rundown of what we’ve got for you in this week’s Cult of Mac Magazine.

Review: Sonos Play:5 speaker is a rumbling, room-shaking rabble-rouser

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The new Play:5 speaker is a great update to Sonos' top-of-the-line box.
The new Play:5 speaker is a great update to Sonos' top-of-the-line box.
Photo: Traci Dauphin/Cult of Mac

The flagship speaker from Sonos has been revamped, redesigned and relaunched. The result is awesome.

The new Play:5 is a big, beefy speaker that sounds absolutely wonderful. It’s available in stores today, and although it’s not cheap, I’d recommend you go out and get one. Or two. Stereo is even better.

Is there a class divide between iPhone and Android?

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The war wages on!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

The war between iPhone and Android will wage on for years to come, but in this week’s Friday Night Fight, we’re not going to be bickering about which is best. At least not in terms of design, features, flexibility — and the other things normally discussed during a platform war.

Friday-Night-Fights-bug-2Instead, we’re battling it out over the supposed class divide — the notion that the wealthy only buy iPhones, and the poor only buy Android because they can’t afford that Apple logo. It’s going to be a fun one!

So, join us below for one of our hottest Friday Night Fights yet, and be sure to weigh in at the end!

The secret messaging app getting millions of downloads

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SOMA Messenger is gaining popularity around the world for free and secure communication.
SOMA Messenger is gaining popularity around the world for free and secure communication.
Photo: Instanza Inc.

Harvard classmates Lei Guo and Oliver Hayen created what could have been just another messaging app. They knew they had something unique, as every app development team claims, so they put it in the hands of 2,000 people and hit launch.

Within 30 days, their app SOMA Messenger had 10 million users and has been growing since. They’d love to brag about who is using it, except they can’t because of security measures built into the app that prevents even them from knowing SOMA’s users.

These comprehensive coding lessons are priced to move [Deals]

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Become a master of a wide range of coding techniques and languages with this massively discounted lesson bundle.
Become a master of a wide range of coding techniques and languages with this massively discounted lesson bundle.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

This doorbuster of a deal will give you a wide range of essential coding knowledge that can pay for itself by pumping up your resume. With 8 Courses and over 74 hours of training, you can gain the major coding languages and skills that you’ve been waiting to learn. This body of knowledge normally runs for over $1,000, but right now you can get the whole shebang for $59.

Use the coupon code ‘DOORBUSTER’ at checkout to save an extra 15%.

Apple forces you to buy only approved Apple Watch wireless chargers

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Screen Shot 2015-11-18 at 14.09.19
Want to do this? It'll cost you.
Photo: Apple

Apple’s official charging pad may be a not-too-cheap $79, but if you want to wirelessly charge your smartwatch, Apple’s not leaving you a whole lot of options.

That’s because, despite the wide range of Qi chargers around, Apple has made it so that its watch will only work with a select few which have received the Cupertino stamp of approval.

Apple’s spaceship campus is big enough to hold Disneyland

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Well, they're both working to build Tomorrowland.
Photo: Disney

Boasting a 100,000-square-foot fitness center, 11,000 parking spaces, 2,000 bike parking spaces, 2.8 million square feet of office space, and a 100,000-square-foot lab thrown in for good measure, Apple’s “spaceship” Campus 2 is pretty darned massive.

Struggling to wrap your head around that? Then consider that it’s big enough to house pretty much the entirety of Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California. And we’ve got the (mocked-up) photos to prove it.

Transform your regular desk into a healthier standing one with this sturdy add-on

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Testing in a the real world is always best.
Testing in a the real world is always best.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Best List: Sit-Stand Desktop Workstation by Ergotron

I’ve got a love/hate relationship with standing desks. While I love the health benefits of standing, I seriously cannot stand at my desk all day every day. It needs to be easily adjustable.

Also, not all of us have the space for yet another desk in our homes or offices. Most of us have a regular, plain old desk. If you’re looking for a standing solution – you can convert that plain desk super easily with this Sit-Stand Desktop Workstation. It’s a heavy-duty, solid piece of work, and it sits right on top your regular desk. There’s room to strap on a monitor or two, or even just place your Macbook on top with an external keyboard and mouse below.

Make Black Friday an occasion to get your Mac organized with this Mac app bundle [Deals]

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This massive bundle of deals can organize anyone's digital life in time for the holidays.
This massive bundle of deals can organize anyone's digital life in time for the holidays.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Instead of standing in line after Thanksgiving, get your productivity in line with these massively discounted apps for organizing any Mac. Everything from tuning your hard drive to editing PDFs and creating mixtapes and animations, if you work on a computer there’s something you can use, all for just $39.99.

Jony Ive was right — Swiss watchmakers are dying

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apple-watch
Do Swiss watchmakers wake up sweating at the sight of the Apple Watch?
Photo: Apple

Jony Ive memorably (allegedly) described Swiss watchmakers as “f**ked” due to the then-impending launch of the launch of the Apple Watch, and one year later — like some kind of creepy, well-dressed soothsayer in an Apple-centric episode of The Twilight Zone — it seems he may have been correct.

Swiss watch exports suffered their biggest decline in six years in October, with sales dropping 12 percent to $2 billion. Jon Cox, an analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux in Zurich, describes 2015 as a year “to forget” for watchmakers.

Unless their name is Apple, of course.

The first Lytro is still ahead of its time, and more affordable than ever [Deals]

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The original Lytro is still well ahead of its time, taking images that are more like living moments than photos.
The original Lytro is still well ahead of its time, taking images that are more like living moments than photos.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

Light-field photography has been around for a number of years now, but it’s still mind-blowing. By measuring the direction of all the light rays in an image space, it produces pictures that can be refocused and explored like a living moment, a paradigm shift that was marked by the introduction of the first Lytro camera. Now this game-changing tech can be yours for a mere $69.99 at Cult of Mac Deals. Take an additional 10% off with coupon code EARLY10.

Pro Tip: Lock down your Amazon account with two-step verification

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Keep your Amazon details safe with two-step verification.
Keep your Amazon details safe with two-step verification.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Pro Tip Cult of Mac bugIf you’re an Apple ID owner, you know that two-step verification is the best way to make sure that only you have access to your personal credit card details along with your app, music, and video purchases.

Until a couple of weeks ago, Amazon–another company that probably has private financial information from you–didn’t have a way to do the same thing. That way, even if someone figures out your password, they’ll only have half the info needed to make changes to or access your account.

Now that the Seattle-based books-and-everything-else company allows for it, it’s time to zip up your personal details. Here’s how.

Bing’s redesigned iPhone app focuses on instant answers

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Bing's new app is both pretty and powerful.
Photo: Microsoft

Microsoft released a completely revamped Bing app for iPhone today with a redesigned home page and a much larger emphasis on instant answers to search queries. Finding what you’re looking for now takes much less time.  It’s possible that this release is a stepping stone to the iOS debut of Cortana, Microsoft’s answer to Google Now.

Learning to build 20 iOS games will cost you 20 bucks with this lesson bundle [Deals]

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This bundle of four lessons lets you cut your teeth on developing for iOS with 20 different games.
This bundle of four lessons lets you cut your teeth on developing for iOS with 20 different games.

If you think playing games is satisfying, try making them. Actually, try making 20. This bundle of four mobile game-making lessons from StackSkills usually goes for over $2,000. But right now the whole thing is just $20 at Cult of Mac Deals. Receive another 10% off with coupon code EARLY10.

Samsung Pay to beat Apple Pay to China next year

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samsung-pay-to-beat-apple-pay-to-china-next-year-image-cultofandroidcomwp-contentuploads201508samsung-pay-jpg
Samsung Pay will expand next year. Photo: Samsung
Samsung Pay will expand next year. Photo: Samsung

Samsung is already fighting Apple Pay head on in the U.S., and now the South Korean company wants to beat it to new markets. A new report claims Samsung Pay will make its way to China, Spain, and the U.K. next year — only one of which is already supported by Apple Pay.

Apple stock is a Must Buy, according to Goldman Sachs

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Apple raked in the cash last quarter.
Apple's untapped financial frontier could be software.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

I’ll never cease to be amazed by how Apple can announce record-beating quarters and introduce hit product after hit product, only for Wall Street to turn around and channel the old disapproving parental message of, “We’re not angry, just disappointed.”

Fortunately, Goldman Sachs has broken with tradition by issuing a note to clients with its strongest of recommendations that they buy AAPL stock — stamping it with a “conviction buy” rating, based on Apple’s potential for continued growth.

Stress test shows how tough it is to snap an Apple Pencil while it’s charging

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The Apple Pencil makes drawing on an iPad Pro incredibly precise.
Don't worry -- the Apple Pencil's pretty rugged.
Photo: Apple

One of the neatest features of the new Apple Pencil is its ability to easily charge it by plugging it into the Lightning port of your iPad Pro — with 15 seconds of charge giving you an impressive 30 minutes of use.

But how easy is it to break Apple’s high-tech stylus while it’s in this vulnerable position? In the long tradition of people buying the latest Apple products solely to break them carrying out informative stress tests for would-be customers, YouTuber Zach Straley recently picked up an Apple Pencil for this exact reason.

Check out the video below.

iOS 9 adoption runs out of steam after a starting sprint

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It's time to get ready for your iOS 9 upgrade.
iOS 9 adoption is starting to slow down.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

What does my performance in the gym have in common with iOS 9 adoption? Apparently the fact that both start strong, get a bit overconfident, and then run out of steam far too quickly.

That’s according to Apple’s latest developer figures, at least, which show that roughly 67 percent of eligible iOS users are currently upgraded to the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system.