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Stroll into your local record store and you won’t find the dusty-floored wasteland of empty bins you might imagine. Chances are you’ll see something that’s more vibrant, relevant and vital than before.

Like the nerdy know-it-alls at specialty wine stores and comic book shops, today’s typical employee at an indie record store is still a tastemaking wizard — just turned up to 11. Staff picks bear the unerring zeal of the true believer, and staffers are more focused on uncovering stuff that you’ll never find on a Walmart CD shelf.

“Since there’s been a turn to Spotify, Bandcamp and iTunes, we sell way more vinyl,” said Jim Haynes, assistant manager at San Francisco’s Aquarius Records. “We’re at about 75 percent vinyl to 20 percent CD and a smattering of cassettes. People are turning to an even more seemingly obsolete medium.”

Predictions of the end of physical media are as played-out as those reports about the death of rock ‘n’ roll, with everyone and their mother proclaiming that Spotify and other streaming services have killed the local record store. That fear-mongering sounds smart and might even contain a kernel of truth, but the reality is much different.

Hearing an Apple executive talk about their work in a relaxed setting is pretty unusual stuff, but that’s what happened earlier this week when Lisa Jackson, Apple’s VP of Environmental Initiatives, spoke as part of Fortune’s Brainstorm Green conference.

The 16-minute conversation, with Fortune Senior Editor (and former Apple author) Adam Lashinsky, touches on various topics related to Apple’s desire to go green — including some potentially revolutionary plans for its 400+ chain of retail stores.

An anonymous hacker who has exploited an iCloud security flaw that lets anyone unlock a lost or stolen iPhone says Apple contacted him about the matter today, but he deleted the email.

“They have asked me to contact [them] as quickly as possible, but why now?” the hacker, who goes by AquaXetine, said in an email to Cult of Mac. “I’ve already warned Apple couple months ago.” Cult of Mac confirmed that the email did in fact come from Apple.

The hack, which is the first of its kind, bypasses the iCloud security system for locked iOS devices called Activation Lock. By using the free DoulCi site, which appeared to be offline most of the day but is now back up, a locked iOS device can be tricked into thinking it’s talking to Apple’s iCloud servers when connected to a computer.

It’s time to cancel your cable subscription. The best TV shows, movies, and documentaries have landed on Amazon Prime thanks to a deal with HBO that unleashes the networks’ exceptional collection of content to the Internet for the first time ever.

Starting today Amazon Prime users can catch up on entire seasons of HBO’s top shows by streaming them to your Mac, iPhone, or iPad at absolutely no extra cost. It’s an unprecedented treasure trove of greatness that required an HBO GO subscription to access until today when it was finally set free for the first time ever.

HBO has been reluctant to embrace a paid-streaming model that would cut its ties to lucrative cable subscriptions, but the move is a sign that a top-down approach could be on the way as HBO adds its GO app to Amazon Fire TV and other services.

The entire HBO lineup isn’t available quite yet, but the company says shows like Veep and The Newsroom will be added once they pass their third seasons, making them available for the low-cost of a $79 annual Amazon Prime subscription.

Here are five shows you should start binging on today.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation needs to hire more hackers — and that means changing the rules about how much pot you can smoke on the job.

“I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cybercriminals, and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,” FBI Director James B. Comey told the Wall Street Journal.

Apple is having some fun with the mystery surrounding its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference, updating the WWDC app to include whimsical session titles designed to give devs a chuckle even as they’re guessing what’s next.

Just about the only solid piece of information from the app update is that Tim Cook and company will kick off the annual event with a special keynote June 2 at 10 a.m. Pacific in San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Apple is expected to reveal details of iOS 8 and the next version of OS X during the address.

SAN FRANCISCO —  Brendan Nee is a walking contradiction. He’s car guru who doesn’t own one, a 21st-century geek with an 18th-century mustache who has come up with a novel bit of nagware that could help Americans get off their spreading behinds.

An engineer working on “smart car assistant” Automatic, he spends many of his weekends at hackathons and has a coder’s physique to show for it. In January, he won the Clinton Foundation Code4Health Codeathon by developing a working prototype of an app called Walkoff in just a weekend. A few months later, Nee and team rolled out a more polished version that mashes up the data Automatic pulls from cars with info gathered by a Jawbone Up fitness tracker, showing a user how much time they’re spending behind the wheel versus walking.

“Clearly, without an actual car, I’m not the ideal tester,” admits Nee. The closest he comes to owning a set of wheels is a retired public bus dubbed the PlayaPillar that he only rolls out for Burning Man.

Google has overtaken Apple as the world’s most valuable brand, according to a new survey.

As per Millward Brown’s BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands, Apple’s brand value fell by 20% in the past year to just under $148 billion, while Google’s value increased by 40% to $159 billion.

“Google has been extremely innovative this year with Google Glass, investments in artificial intelligence and a range of partnerships,” says Benoit Tranzer, regional managing director of Millward Brown Europe. “All these activities send a very strong signal to consumers about the essence of Google.”

Instead of taking on the iPad Air’s 9.7-inch display, Microsoft is thinking even bigger with a 12-inch Surface Pro 3 that could make it the perfect competitor for Apple’s long-rumored 13-inch iPad Pro.

Like Microsoft’s other’s tablets, the Surface Pro 3, which the company revealed Tuesday morning, comes with a kickstand and a collapsible keyboard that Microsoft Surface chief Panos Panay says will remove all the conflicts you’ve had about buying a laptop or tablet, plus they’ve added a Surface Pen for seamless digital writing.

Some Apple collectors gather one of every Mac, iPod or iPhone, while others specialize in portables or all-in-ones. Then there are the outliers, the super-collectors who search out the incredibly rare items most people never get a chance to see.

“I’m always on the hunt,” says Henry Plain, a California man who specializes in tracking down impossible-to-find Mac prototypes.

Plain owns some of the rarest, most unusual Apple machines ever produced. These are the speed bumps, works in progress or developer’s editions that the secretive Cupertino company never intended for outside eyes. His vast knowledge of Apple’s production gave him a role in facilitating the sale of the Storage Wars-esque Macintosh collection of Marion Stokes that came to light last month. I like to think of him as Prototype Man.

What’s in Plain’s amazing Apple menagerie? Transparent versions of the Macintosh SE and PowerBook 140. A Mac mini with a built-in iPod dock. Prototypes of the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (TAM), the Power Mac G4 Cube and iDevices too numerous to mention. Even to other collectors — and I have a Mac Museum in my house — his inventory is crazy-impressive.

George Orwell once wrote that, “The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous.”

Yesterday we reported on the fact that Samsung and Apple were sitting down to negotiate an end to the ongoing litigation between the two companies — and unlike all the previous occasions, this time the plan was to make it stick.

Well, one day later, and talks between the two warring factions are reportedly breaking down — as lawyers from both sides express difficulty working with each other. What is seemingly particularly grinding gears in the Apple camp are statements made by Samsung’s top lawyer, referring to the protracted lawsuit as “Apple’s Vietnam” and Apple as “jihadist.”

The web has spun about 13,000 different theories on why Apple bought Beats. Did they want the headphones? Or was it Beats Music that tipped things over?

It’ll be months, if not years, before we learn Apple’s real play with the Beats acquisition, but Steve Jobs’ biographer Walter Isaacson has his own theory on why Apple bought Beats and it has nothing to do with music, overpriced headphones, or other wearables.

It’s all about video.

Apple is finally giving iOS developers the opportunity to provide promotional codes for in-app purchases. EA will be one of the first to take advantage of the new scheme with a Real Racing 3 promotion that will allow players to redeem free in-game gold that would usually cost $1.99.

Apple’s iconic Fifth Avenue retail store might be turning eight today, but the company is looking to boost its New York presence with a new store on the city’s Upper East Side.

City building permits, dated May 15, detail soil testing at the new site, along with the demolition of the building’s current interior — costing a total of $80,000. The new Apple Store is set to be located at no. 940 Madison Avenue, a limestone and marble building currency occupied by luxury retailer VBH.

Unfortunately iOS 7.1 brought an end to the versatile Evasi0n jailbreak,which let anyone using iOS 7 to iOS 7.0.6 run unsigned code on their iOS device.

But no-one thought that would be it forever when it came to jailbreaks, and this weekend two prominent hackers posted evidence of iOS 7.1.1 jailbreaks online.

Silicon Valley, much like the place it depicts, is one big sausage fest. An “inclusive” tech conference is one where there is almost a line for the women’s bathroom and flirting involves some guy trying to exchange PGP keys with you.

So it makes sense that the show’s only main female character — Monica, the right hand of billionaire VC Peter Gregory — feels obliged to tell the crew of Pied Piper before they head to the battle at TechCrunch Disrupt that the place is a “vortex of distraction.” But it’s not the gizmos or other gimmicks, it’s the women.

“Normally, the tech world is 2 percent women, the next three days it’s 15 percent,” she warns gravely.

“It’s a goddamn meat market,” Gilfoyle deadpans.

The episode is all about how sparks fly when sex meets the single startup guy.

Some spoilers follow. Medium, though. 

We’re mixing Sunday Tips a little for the next two weeks, with 10 great, quick tips for your iPhone, some of which hopefully you don’t know about yet.

Make sure to check back next week for the last 5 tips and visit our Youtube channel, for all great videos, 7 days a week!

We get slammed 24/7 with new Apple rumors. Some are accurate, most are not. To give you a clue about what’s really coming out of Cupertino in the future, we’re busting out our rumor debunker each week to blow up the nonsense.

As another week passes your host Joshua Smith is here to give you a wrap-up on some of the latest and biggest news features. The return of cassettes, iPhone 6 release dates and Flappy Bird 2 are among just some of the featured stories in today’s rundown. Take a look at the video and be sure to return next week for another.

Subscribe to CultOfMacTV on youtube.com to catch new episodes of the roundup and other great video reviews, how-to’s and more.

Apple and Google are bringing out the white flags. A landmark decision has been reached between the two Silicon Valley giants to drop their patent lawsuits against each other, specifically with regards to Google’s Motorola Mobility.

Google has bought Quest Visual, the company behind the popular Word Lens translation app.

Apple’s most recent iPhone 5s ad featured Word Lens, and rightfully so; it’s one of the most magical tools you’ll ever use on a smartphone. The app works by instantly translating text in different languages seen through the iPhone’s camera. It’s an astounding piece of technology, and it will now be incorporated into Google Translate.

The good news is that now is the best time to download Word Lens, because its creators have made all of its language packs free for a limited time.

A former iPhone owner is suing Apple in San Jose court over Apple’s Message app not delivering texts to Android phones. The issue has plagued iMessage since its inception, but it is just recently starting to get attention.

Someone in global ad agency Oglivy & Mather is clearly thinking different (read: not really thinking at all) because they’ve featured Steve Jobs as one of the historical figures in a bizarre, and bafflingly offensive, ad campaign for Indian mattress company Kurl-On.

The theme of the ads is the idea of bouncing back (because, you know, mattresses have bounce in them) with famous people shown recovering from low points in their life to “bounce back” to greater levels of success. Jobs’ own advert shows him being booted out of Apple in 1985, only to return to glory as the creator of the iPad.

A metallic back for what appears to be a larger ‘iPad Pro’ has been posted on the Chinese forum Weibo. The part looks to be for an unreleased 12.9-inch model, and the same person has also shared images of an iPhone 6 dummy that matches previous leaks.

I have a personal Instagram filter that protects my eyes from all the cute pet pictures. But now and then, a dog or cat slips through. One pretty pooch in particular — an Alaskan husky with arresting, ice-blue eyes — has me looking forward to her daily adventures in rural New Hampshire.

Stare into the eyes of Bella, and you’ll get a glimpse into the heart of her owner, photojournalist Cheryl Senter.

“There is total love in every image that I take of her,” Senter told Cult of Mac.