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iPhone 6 components have been leaking out of China like a broken fire hydrant, and while we’ve joked that someone could probably make a working iPhone out of all them, the guys at Feld and Volk actually went and did it.

Using parts sourced from their suppliers in China, the Russian luxury iPhone modifiers have assembled an iPhone 6 using a leaked case, logic board, display, true-tone flash and camera, and then connected the hacked-together device to iTunes just to see what would happen. To their surprise the device booted up, but couldn’t connect to the software update servers.

Check out the full hands-on video below:

Although it’s being widely reported that Apple’s mythical wearable will share the stage with the iPhone 6 on September 9th, that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to get your paws on it anytime soon.

Recode, the same publication that nailed the September 9th Apple event date weeks ago, is now saying that the iWatch won’t be ready to ship until early 2015.

What’s the difference between a businessperson and a regular person? According to Evernote, a businessperson has secrets, whereas a regular person is happy to share everything. This somewhat cynical take is a pretty good model of the world, and it is embodied in the Evernote Business Notebook, a “collabo” with Moleskine that lets you snap/scan a photo of your pages into Evernote, and selectively share the result.

Let’s take a look.

All photos: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac. Additional reporting by Nicole Martinelli.

Apple has sent out media invites for its previously rumored September 9th event, so now it’s official. “Wish we could say more,” reads the especially cryptic invite.

The iPhone 6 is going to attempt to replace your wallet, according to a report from Wired, claiming Apple’s mobile payment system will debut as a major feature in the iPhone 6, and NFC is a key piece of the puzzle.

Apple’s mobile payments platform will take on Google Wallet, Square, and others this September by adding NFC and a secure element to store all your credit cards info on the iPhone 6, allowing users to make NFC payments with retailers with out having to fumble around with your cash or credit card.

We’re 23 days and counting (most likely) from the iPhone 6 going on sale, and more and more components are surfacing to tease what we can all look forward to in our next generation handsets.

The latest leak comes from French Apple website NowhereElse.fr and depicts a selection of SIM trays, Home buttons, Apple logos, speakers, and vibrator motors.

If you like mechanical keyboards, but those inconsiderate jerks in your office or home can’t stand the clackety racket they make, then you might consider something that uses “tactile” keys instead, which look and work like clicky keys — only without the click.

And if you’re into wireless keyboards, but you don’t like the NSA van parked outside snooping the connection and recording your keystrokes, you might like something with an encrypted wireless connection.

Well, guess what? We have just the thing. The Matias Secure Pro, a tactile keyboard with 128-bit AES Encryption.

Judge Lucy Koh has denied Apple’s second attempt at banning certain Samsung phones. After Apple won its second major patent infringement case against Samsung earlier this year, it requested that a permanent injunction be placed on nine Samsung devices in the U.S.

Just like when Apple was denied a sales ban after its 2011 landmark victory against Samsung, Koh has not granted the second request. This time around, the ruling signals that Apple and Samsung’s court disputes are indeed settling down.

Apple will unveil its first foray into wearables at a special event in September, reports Recode’s John Paczkowski who previously reported that Apple had an October event scheduled for the iWatch, but the plans have changed.

Rumors of production delays have hounded the iWatch over the last few months, suggesting Apple might not even reveal the device until early 2015, but according to Recode’s report, the iWatch will actually debut alongside the two new iPhone 6 models during an event on September 9th.

Instagram’s decision to release Hyperlapse as a standalone app yesterday was a bit of surprise to users, but not adding the feature directly into Instagram certainly hasn’t seemed to hurt its rising popularity.

Hyperlapse was only released 24 hours ago on iOS, but grammers have been eager to take it for a spin, and have tagged over 32,000 Instagram posts with #hyperlapse. Most of the videos are rubbish time lapses of what it’s like to drive in a car, but Instagram made sure Hyperlapse got into the hands of some of its top photogs before the public release, and the results were are pretty breathtaking, whether it be cruising Yosemite on a longboard, or just watching an army of ants march by with its cargo.

We’ve gathered up 12 of the best Hyperlapse videos to hit Instagram so far from both pros and amateurs alike. Check out the videos below to see what’s sure to be the next big trend on Instagram:

If you’ve got an EyeFi wireless SD card in your camera, or even just rattling around inside your desk drawer, IFTTT has just made it a lot more powerful. A new update to the powerful web-based automation engine has supercharged EyeFi cards.

Is it any wonder that Steve Jobs — who transformed Apple from an incredibly leak-heavy company during the 1990s, into one of the most secretive tech companies in existence — hated word getting out about his future products?

While bloggers and other reporters could get harsh treatment from Apple, however, it was loose lips on the part of actual Apple partners that really threw Jobs into a rage.

An anecdote from a new story about Time Inc. in this week’s New York magazine illustrates this, by relating how Jobs responded to Time Inc. releasing a YouTube video showing how its publications might survive the digital age, by harnessing the possibilities offered by the iPad.

The problem? Apple hadn’t yet announced the iPad’s existence.

How do you celebrate the arrival of a new member of the family? If you’re super Apple fan and former training manager for the Apple Online Store team Andreas Kleinke the answer is that you announce it in the same way Apple introduces a new product.

Adopting the minimalist design Apple is known for, Kleinke created a website for his new baby Jonathan, describing his son’s “20-inch seamless unibody enclosure,” “ten meticulously aligned fingers” and “maximum volume going all the way up to 120 dB.”

The site notes that parental sleep mode is disabled by default, and that gibberish comes as the pre-installed language, although additional language packs are available.

“The response has been truly amazing,” Kleinke tells Cult of Mac. “We already got hundreds emails from all around the globe, and there’s not a single mean one among them. Only very friendly people wishing the best. I’m sure Jonathan will be pleased, once he gets over that whole screaming thing.”

September 9 seems all but officially confirmed as the date when Apple will unveil its eagerly-anticipated iPhone 6, but when can users expect to get their hands on Apple’s next generation handset?

According to a new report coming out of China — from PCinLife, the country’s top IT portal — Apple’s new flagship phone will be available in stores between the 16th and 19th of September. This tallies with another earlier rumor from May, in which a German retailer stated that the iPhone 6 would hit the market on September 19: suggesting that this date may be the global date.

I recently watched The Lady try to convince a friend of ours to download WhatsApp. The friend is moving to the United Kingdom, and we want to stay in touch. Our friend tried to say that email would do the job, but we all know that will never work.

Our friend doesn’t want WhatsApp (maybe because it’s owned by Facebook), and she doesn’t own an iPhone, so iMessage is out. Thankfully, there are plenty of free and good alternatives. Some are more secure, some have more features, and none of them is owned by Facebook.

Let’s take a look at what’s available and how these very different messaging apps compare on a number of key features.

For a company as secretive as Apple, one of the few ways you can learn anything about what it has planned next is to see who it has been hiring. High-profile hires say a lot about where Apple’s priorities are for the future.

Looking back at the hires Apple has brought on over the last year reveals something pretty obvious: it’s assembling a wearables and fashion dream team.

While overweight kids have long been prime targets for bullies, activists are calling out smartphone apps that make anyone look fat.

“Applications such as “Fatify,” “Fatbooth,” “Fat You” and others greatly perpetuate fat-shaming and weight bias in today’s society,” said Joe Nadglowski, president and CEO of the Obesity Action Coalition, in a press release about his organizations campaign against these apps. “Children are the primary users of these types of apps, and the apps are teaching children that the disease of obesity is a funny cosmetic issue, which we know is not true.”

Apple is working with suppliers to make a 12.9-inch iPad by early next year, according to Bloomberg.

Although is was rumored that Apple was working on a larger iPad throughout 2013, we have yet to see such a tablet come out of Cupertino. Will 2015 finally be the year of the mythical iPad Maxi?

In an amazing twist of celebrity, Community star and rapper Donald Glover has gotten to voice Miles Morales, the Ultimate Spider-Man, in the Disney XD animated series.

As it’s Glover that was the original inspiration behind the alternate universe Spidey, written by comics star Brian Michael Bendis, this is a treat for fans and the actor himself.

“That’s the great part about the Spider-Man costume: He can be anybody,” Glover told USA Today. “Spider-Man could be a girl. Spider-Man could be an old man. You don’t know. So I just tried to be as me as possible, because you’re always just going to bring it back to yourself when you watch the show.”

Check out the clip below as Peter Parker (voiced by Drake Bell) meets Miles Morales, voiced by Glover.

For decades Mac and the PC have been at each other’s throats, competing for that No. 1 spot in the computing world. Vitriolic ad campaigns and entire product launches aimed at decimating Windows or OS X have firmly established a war that somehow hasn’t ended even in the post-PC era.

With Apple’s release of OS X Yosemite sitting just around the corner, the time for Microsoft to answer with Windows 9 is nearly here. In today’s video, we go into everything we know about OS X Yosemite and what we think we know about Windows 9 so far. We break down all the new features, design elements and more to help you start forming your opinion about which OS is best.

Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to catch all our latest videos.

Super Battle Tactics is a free-to-play iOS game published by DeNA that has you using virtual tanks to face off against other players or AI opponents; you’ll choose which upgrades and tactics you’ll use your available action points on to outwit and destroy the enemy tanks.

Sometimes, though, you just want a little help in climbing the leaderboards, ranking up as fast as you can. To that end, we went straight to the publisher for these exclusive tips and tricks to help you take your game to the next level. Check them out below, and feel free to add in your own.

SACRAMENTO — California just flipped the kill switch for smartphones, in a move to make iCrime a thing of the past.

Governor Jerry Brown signed into law State Sen. Mark Leno’s Smartphone Theft Prevention Act (Senate Bill 962). The law will affect any smartphone manufactured on or after July 1, 2015.

There’s some reason to hope that the kill switch will do for smartphones what sophisticated alarm systems did for cars: make stealing them less appealing than a pair of leg warmers. Car thefts plummeted 96 percent  in New York City when engine immobilizer systems came into play.

Dong Ngyugen’s highly anticipated follow-up to Flappy Bird finally landed on iOS last week, but after months of waiting for an addictive new 8-bit game, fans found Swing Copters to be Ngyugen’s most impossible game yet.

To make Swing Copters slightly less impossible and a few degrees more enjoyable, Ngyugen released an update this morning, tweaking the gameplay so that your little copter is able to make a few more corrections before flying through the diabolical maze of swinging hammers and propeller-annihilating green steel bars.

In today’s Cult of Mac TV video we go hands-on with the Swing Copters update that certainly doesn’t make the game easy, but does manage to put the gameplay on par with Flappy Bird’s addictiveness.

Check out the Cult of Mac TV hands-on review below: