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This week’s Cult of Mac Magazine is all about apps that push boundaries – enabling us to share, connect and get stuff done.

Think back: When was the last time you hitchhiked? Crashed on the couch of a stranger? Did you get your last job on the street corner? Or meet that special someone there?

You’ve probably used your iPhone recently to couch surf, catch a ride downtown, find a date or maybe even source a freebie for dinner.

We talk to experts to understand why we feel comfortable doing things with our iPhones that were traditionally “Stranger, Danger” territory and our intrepid reporters find out what happens when you catch a ride, look for work, open up your house and try to get rid of Cheetos snack packs to perfect strangers.

There’s a crazy gallery of apps that pushed Apple’s boundaries too far — remember Baby Shaker? — and an update on why you can still find your dictator of choice in the iTunes store.

Our exclusive Ask An Apple Genius column weighs in  why Mavericks scrolling seem so sluggish and why the geniuses sometimes don’t seem as smart as you are.

Check us out on iTunes.

We aim to please – and read all of your comments and questions – so keep ’em coming!

As part of their upcoming charity auction for Project Red, Jony Ive and Marc Newson announced that they’ve created a one of a kind, red Mac Pro as part of their auction for Bono’s Project (RED).

The red Mac Pro is estimated to sell for $45,000-$60,000 dollars and will be included in a lot of items to be auctioned off at Southeby’s on Nov. 23rd to fight AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. Jony and Marc collaborated on curating a list of items for the auction, as well as co-designing many products themselves, such as a custom Leica M, gold EarPods, and this aluminum desk.

A listing of the items in the auction block can be viewed on Sotheby’s site. Here are some more pics of the red Mac Pro:

While Apple’s iLife and iWork software suites are considerably cheaper than competing products from rival companies, there’s still a bunch of people who would rather download them illegally than have to fork out the $20 fee for each app. And believe it or not, those who do will get a free upgrade to the latest versions direct from Apple.

When the Cupertino company pushed out its latest OS X apps following the iPad event earlier this week, anyone who had already installed the apps on their Mac was entitled to the latest version for free — even if the were using trial software, or they had downloaded the apps illegally.

Apple knows this, and it says it wasn’t just a bug. It also accepts that it’s easy to pirate its software — but it would rather trust you not to than implement some cumbersome anti-piracy feature.

Apple unveiled a couple of incredible new iPads on Tuesday, including the new iPad mini with Retina Display and the svelte, one-pound iPad Air. They even kept the low-res iPad mini for sale as an entry-level iPad at $299.

What, then, is Apple doing selling the iPad 2 still? At $399, it’s as expensive as a more powerful Retina iPad mini. It’s also less powerful than the $299 iPad mini Apple is selling at the price-tier below it. So why does Apple even bother selling them? It’s as simple as the fact that people keep buying the iPad 2.

Tapbots has released its highly-anticipated iOS 7 redesign of Tweetbot, a popular third-party Twitter client. Version 3.0 is a radical departure from the iOS 6 app, and it’s available now in the App Store for iPhone.

Venerable pop artist David Hockney brought his art from the screen of the iPad to towering heights in San Francisco.

If you’re used to seeing his quick iPhone sketches on a screen, the 12-foot-high views to Yosemite are an eyeful. You can catch them at San Francisco’s de Young Musuem in the aptly titled “David Hockney: A Bigger Exhibitiion” until January 2014.

We’ll have more on Hockney’s stunning work and the exhibit in the November 2 edition of Cult of Mac Magazine, dedicated to mobile art.

Last night Carl Icahn took to Twitter to talk about one of his favorite subjects, Apple. The billionaire investor tweeted that he had just sent a letter to Tim Cook and would be publishing the letter on his new website tomorrow.

True to his word, Icahn published the full letter this morning urging Tim Cook and the Apple Board to immediately tender an offer for $150 billion AAPL shares at their current price, rather than wait, as other investors have suggested. Icahn also stated that he will continue to invest in Apple and has already increased his stake in Apple from 4 million shares to 4.7 million.

Here’s the full letter:

Blackberry’s in trouble. Ever since the iPhone’s debut in 2007 blindsided them, the once-dominant smatphone company has been struggling to recover its mojo. Who can save the floundering Canadian company from ruin? Former Apple CEO John Sculley to the rescue!

If you’re hoping to get your hands on the new iPad mini with Retina display next month, then you’ll want to be one of the first in line at the Apple store when it goes on sale. According to one tablet industry expert, supply of the new device will be “ridiculously tight” at launch, likely leading to long delays for those who aren’t lucky enough to bag one on day one.

Written by Greg Keonig, product designer and publisher of Atomic Delights.

As a product designer, one of my favorite parts about any new Apple product launch is the inevitable “How it’s made” video. The Mac Pro incarnation did not disappoint.

What makes Apple fascinating is not that they are using some wiz-bang alien technologies to make things – even here in Portland, Oregon, all the technologies Apple shows in this video are in-practice across numerous local factories. What makes Apple unique is that they perform their manufacturing with remarkable precision and on a scale that is simply astonishing, using techniques typically reserved for the aerospace or medical device industries.

Yesterday Apple announced that all of its consumer software, including OS X Mavericks, is now free. Customers who buy Apple’s hardware will have full access to the completely new versions of iLife and iWork at no additional cost. It’s a bold move that The New York Times called a direct attack on Microsoft Office.

The decision to make iWork free wasn’t Apple’s only jab at Microsoft during yesterday’s keynote, and now the Redmond giant has gone on the defensive.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says he’s not interested in Apple’s new iPads because the neither model meets his needs. Woz didn’t get a chance to watch the keynote live because he was on a plane, but he caught up with the news when he landed and then emailed his wife to say, “nope, I don’t want one of those.”

Apple packed a lot into one hour and 20 minutes today, with announcements about OS X Mavericks, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, Mac Pro, and the stars of the show: iPad Air and Retina iPad mini. We think that this is about an hour and 18 minutes too long to watch, though, so we’ve condensed it to around 90 seconds.

Here is the Apple iPad Air and iPad mini keynote, right from Yerba Buena, in just 90 seconds:

With every new release of the iOS operating system, there’s a chance that Apple will close security holes that the Dev Team needs to make an untethered jailbreak possible. Luckily, it appears that Apple’s new iOS 7.0.3 update is safe, allowing motion sick potential jailbreakers to update with impugnity

OS X Mavericks is Apple’s next major version of its desktop OS that has been in beta all summer, and today Apple announced that it’s ready to ship to the public. For the first time, Apple is offering the new OS X as a completely free downloaded in the Mac App Store, so there’s absolutely no reason for you to not get it.

Apple has released iOS 7.0.3 following today’s keynote. The update is rolling out via OTA, and it is also available for direct download from Apple’s servers.

Included in 7.0.3 are a host of bug fixes, including one for a nasty glitch that was causing many iMessage users to pull their hair out. iCloud Keychain has also been added back to iOS 7 after its sudden removal during the beta process. Today’s update also fixes a software bug involving the iPhone’s accelerometer that got a lot of attention for causing incorrect measurements with the iPhone 5s.

Complete change log and direct download links are below:

Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage today at San Francisco’s Moscone Center to kick off the special keynote event that we’ve dubbed here as the iPad Event.

Cook began his presentation with some numbers, including the nine million new iPhone 5s and 5c models that were sold over the first weekend of availability. Cook called it the biggest iPhone launch, ever, and showed a video to underline his point.

The day has finally come. Apple has unveiled an iPad mini with Retina display. The second-gen model packs the new 64-bit A7 processor and the expanded LTE support in the iPad Air. Apple has also added another 128GB storage option to the Retina mini.

Color options for the new iPad mini are Space Grey and Silver, so no Gold this time. Apple has raised the price from $329 to $399, which likely has something to do with the higher expense of shipping a Retina display. Availability will begin “later in November.”

The first-gen iPad mini is still being sold, and Apple has lowered the price on that model to $299.

Phil Schiller just announced Apple’s new lineup of MacBook Pros with Retina display. The new machines received beefed up graphics, processors, and RAM, but Apple has been able to drop the price on both the 13 and 15-inch models.

Apple software chief Craig Federighi took the stage today to talk OS X Mavericks. With his usual sense of humor, Federighi demoed new features in Mavericks and joked about his sense of style with his wife via iMessage. He also announced that the new OS is shipping today.

Tim Cook has finally taken the stage in San Francisco. No big announcements have been revealed yet, but Tim started his keynote off by reiterating Apple’s earlier announcement that the iPhone 5s and 5c shattered previous launch weekend records with 9 million unit sales.

Cook also showed off a new video celebrating the iPhone 5s launch and announced that over 200 million devices were running iOS 7 after the first week of shipping, making it the fastest software upgrade ever. Over two-thirds of iOS devices are now running iOS 7.

iTunes Radio now has 20 million users since its launch this Fall and over 1 billion songs have been streamed. Apple also announced it’s paid over $13 billion to developers of the App Store.

Apple’s iWork for iCloud apps have been made unavailable ahead of today’s iPad event, pretty much confirming that we will see updates for Pages, Keynote, and Numbers during the keynote. “In just a few short hours, you’ll be able to create and edit documents, and enjoy great new features,” a notice reads.

The Apple online store has gone down ahead of this morning’s special event event. When it comes back up, you can expect to see new iPads, updated MacBook Pros with Haswell processors, and possibly even a new Apple TV.

The next best thing to actually being at an Apple press event is being able to watch the whole thing live from the comfort of your own living room. Unfortunately, the Cupertino company doesn’t live stream every event to the public, but you’ll be pleased to know it will be showing today’s iPad event.

“We still have a lot to cover,” is Apple’s promise this time around. On October 15th, the company sent out press invitations for a media event that will be held at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco this coming Tuesday, October 22nd.

Last month we saw the unveiling of the iPhone 5s and 5c, and this second event is expected to center around new iPads. But that’s not all; the future of OS X, iOS 7, and the Mac are also rumored to be waiting in the wings.

Here’s what to expect from Apple’s October 22nd event: