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How low will Apple go?

First, Apple CEO Tim Cook was forced to grovel and kowtow to the Chinese Communist Party over their obviously false and politically motivated claims about Apple’s warranty.

Now, Apple is being publicly insulted and used by Facebook.

There is no way Steve Jobs would have put up with this kind of humiliating abuse.

Here’s what’s going on.

This week on The CultCast: Jony Ive’s huge sweeping iOS 7 changes; Apple Television and the Ring of Power; our favorite April Fools pranks; and careful, your iPad might be giving you Gorilla Arm… all that and the best listener shout out ever on this minty-fresh episode of The CultCast!

Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing now on iTunes, or hit play below and let the good times roll.

Show notes after the jump.

Ulysses 3 is a superstar text editor which takes a whole new approach to, well, to editing text. I love it – it’s my favorite new piece of software in a long time – but there are one or two gotchas which could stop me using it full-time to write posts for the web.

Want to know more?

Apple is reportedly gearing up to make big changes to iOS 7, changes so big that it’s had to pull engineers away from OS X 10.9 development to help get it finished for its release later this year. I’m just hoping that the Cupertino company adds some of the features included in the latest iOS 7 concept video below.

Designed by Federico Bianco, the concept adds almost every feature we’ve ever wanted in iOS, including quick message reply, quick settings, widgets, Mission Control, and lots more. Check it out below.

Apple and T-Mobile have begun pre-orders for the iPhone 5. The launch date for the iPhone 5 is scheduled for April 12th, so if you’re eager to jump the gun on the T-Mobile iPhone 5, here’s your chance.

T-Mobile is the last of the four major carriers in the U.S. to start selling the iPhone. To attract new customers, T-Mobile is selling the iPhone 5 for $99 without a cellular service contract. Although the carrier is still working to expand its LTE network as fast as possible, customer might not mind the service renovations in exchange of a cheaper monthly bill.

Source: T-Mobile

Today Facebook unveiled “Home,” its new, immersive Android experience. HTC has partnered with Facebook to launch the HTC First, a smartphone designed from the ground up for Home. Other Android handset makers are in the pipeline to release Home-based devices down the road.

Home is a great idea for Facebook and Facebook lovers, and it will probably be very popular on Android after it becomes available next week. But don’t expect to get Facebook Home on your iPhone. Not in this lifetime.

First, remember one thing: this isn’t a full review of the Fujifilm X100S, even though I had to write it up there in the title to please our CMS. I’ve only had the thing for a few days, and even though Cult of Mac isn’t DP Review, a few days isn’t enough to evaluate an iPhone case, let alone a camera like the X100S.

On the other hand, the X100S is So Hot Right Now, and I’ve been staying up tip 3AM since I got it because I can’t stop playing with the thing. Combining those two interesting facts leads me to think that an in-depth first look might be a good idea — especially as you can now convert the RAW files on your Mac using the just-released Lightroom 4.4.

Let’s take a look — You might want to go make a cup of coffee first.

Do you ever worry that federal agencies might be hacking into your smartphone to read your text messages and listen to your calls? Then you’re probably up to no good, but you can sleep easy if all of your dirty business deals are carried out through iMessage on your iOS device.

Apple’s iMessage encryption is so good, not even federal agencies are able to crack it.

The budget for Apple’s “spaceship” campus has ballooned from $3 billion to “nearly $5 billion” since 2011, according to a new report from Bloomberg Businessweek. Five people close to the project say its cost will now eclipse the $3.9 billion being spent on the new World Trade Center complex in New York City.

Today is the iPad’s third birthday. It was on this consecrated day that Apple shipped the original iPad with WiFi. It’s hard to believe that Apple has invented and popularized an entirely new market in only three years, but it’s the truth. Tablets just weren’t a thing before the iPad, and now they’re cannibalizing PC sales. As Apple calls it, we’re in a post-PC era.

A lot of people mocked the iPad from the beginning. Sure, there were the faithful believes, but many wondered why anyone would want to use a limited, 10-inch slab of glass over a full-fledged laptop. It just didn’t make sense at the time. The iPhone and iPod touch filled the need for portable computing… or so we thought.

The question was, as always with Apple, whether the iPad could live up to all of the hype. Looking back, the answer is obvious: yes. The iPad has seen—and continues to see—monumental success, and competitors are still playing catch up.

In honor of the iPad’s birthday, let’s take a look at some of its early critics. As it turns out, the iPad was rather hated during its infancy:

It seems like we’ve been using iPads forever now, but the greatest tablet computer ever made is still an incredibly young piece of gadgetry. In fact, it’s celebrating its third birthday today.

What other three year old do you know who has changed the world like the iPad has?

A ton of tech luminaries and pundits thought the iPad wouldn’t even make it this far, but boy, were they wrong. Over the the last three years the iPad has become a cultural phenomenon.

Here are 25 ways showing how the iPad has taken over the world in just three years.

I have done a lot writing in my day, and there are times when I want to just let the words fly freely faster than I can possibly type them. When I’ve worked on my talks for seminars or wanted to work out some thoughts on a major piece of writing, I have given the reins to Dragon Dictate.

This Cult of Mac Deals offer has a huge savings on Dragon Dictate 3 for Mac – which has been an indispensable tool for me as a writer. You can get it for only $100 – that’s 50% off the regular price!

Brian White, an analyst with Topeka Capital Markets, brings us a crazy new rumor about the much-anticipated Apple television today following recent meetings with supply chain sources in China and Taiwan.

White claims that the “iTV” will finally launch during the second half of 2013, and that it’ll come with a miniature device called the “iRing”, which the user will wear on their finger to act as a pointer. The device will enhance the motion detection experience and take over some of the functions of the traditional remote control, apparently.

One would think that the self-evident answer to the question posited in this post’s headline would be “No,” followed by a pregnant pause, a licking of the lips and then followed it up with the words “You idiot.”

And, in fact, that probably is the answer. But if Apple’s not working on a robot, then why the heck is Apple hiring one of the country’s foremost robotics experts, John Morrell?

Alan Kay is a bit of a legend at Apple. A computing pioneer, Alan Kay’s lab at Xerox PARC led Steve Jobs to commercialize the concept of a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, and Alan Kay’s philosophy that “people who are really serious about software should make their own hardware” is one of Apple’s core principles.

But Kay doesn’t think much of Apple these days, and in fact, seems to think the company has always been broken.

Just before the weekend, a new Read Later app launched. Yes, you rightly shout, there are a ton of these apps around already. Hell, even Safari can save pages off line for reading later. But the new app/service, called DotDotDot, shows what these services should be. It’s not polished (it’s an early beta), but it already shows up the competition.

Which brings me to “the competition.” I just ditched Instapaper, the grandaddy of read-later apps, for Pocket. Why? Read on.

We’ve heard rumors that Apple will unveil the iPhone 5S in June of this year, and it turns out that there might actually be some truth to the rumors.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that Apple plans to begin production of the next iPhone in Q2 of 2013. The new iPhone will have the same shape and 4-inch screen as the iPhone 5S and will probably launch this summer.

In China, the state-run press has been attacking Apple non-stop for the past couple of weeks over warranty policies that showed the company’s “unparalleled arrogance.” Apple Stores were fixing broken iPhone returns instead of replacing the devices entirely like they do in the United States. There was also an issue with Apple’s 90-day warranty on replaced parts not matching China’s mandatory one-year warranty policy.

Things got so heated that Apple CEO Tim Cook had to issue a public letter to Chinese customers apologizing “for any concerns or misunderstandings.” Apple’s scrutinized warranty and return policies have also been changed to address the concerns.

After the apology, China is starting to warm back up to Apple.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) will reportedly land a deal for Apple’s future “A7” processors when the Cupertino company’s current contract with Samsung expires in 2014.

Samsung has been responsible for Apple’s mobile chips since the introduction of the A4 back in 2010, but Apple has seemingly been looking to take its business elsewhere since the pair became embroiled in a series of lengthy legal battles.

We’ve been excited for iSteve, Funny or Die’s upcoming Steve Jobs movie, since it was announced on March 18, and with just under two weeks to go until its release, we’ve got its first teaser trailer. Check it out below.

Apple has been dealt yet another blow by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office after receiving confirmation that its famous “rubber banding” patent, which plays a key role in the company’s fight against Samsung, is invalid. The “final” decision comes after the USPTO tentatively rejected all claims in the ‘381 patent back in October 2012.

iPhone theft has become a huge problem in places like New York City and San Francisco.  District Attorney George Gascón is on a mission to curb smartphone theft by having manufacturers implement a kill switch once a phone has been reported stolen, but that’s proven more difficult than Gascón imagined.

During his crusade to get answers from manufacturers, Gascón talked with Apple’s government liaison about getting a kill switch added to the iPhone, but was told that might not be possible because the next two iPhones were developed while Steve Jobs was still CEO at Apple.

On April 1st, 1976, Apple Computers was officialy founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne to sell the Apple I computer kit, personally hand-built by Wozniak himself. Thirty-seven years later, Apple is the most successful and profitable technology company in the world.

There’s no way to celebrate an anniversary that weighty with proper due reverence, so let’s celebrate it in a more frivolous (and delicious) way: looking at the best Apple-themed birthday cakes ever baked!

Apple has been getting pounded by the Chinese press lately for its warranty policies service and not talking to the press whenever they want a statement (welcome to Apple news my friends). Hoping to end the onslaught from the government-supported press, Apple issued an apology letter to Chinese customers signed by Tim Cook.

The letter, which was written in Chinese and posted to Apple’s website, said that Tim Cook and the rest of the company have been reflecting on the feedback regarding its warranty policies and apologizes the poor communication that has made customers so angry.

Apple and Foxconn’s jumper problem might not be a thing of the past after all, as reports over the weekend broke that two workers have jumped from the roof of Foxconn’s Shenzhen factory on Friday in reaction to job cuts, lowered wages and the end of free amenities at the world’s largest gadget manufacturer.