• The "Gather Round" event invites have been sent out.  
• Apple’s big fall event will take place at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park on September 12.
• The keynote will start at 10 a.m. PT, during which we expect to see the new iPhone lineup, an Apple Watch Series 4, major improvements to iPad Pro, and more.

Better late than never!  With Erfon and Buster out, Lewis and Leander take the reigns of their very first CultCast to discuss the week's best Apple stories!  Ladies and gentlemen, this is one for the record books.

This is last week's episode come late.  We'll have another new episode out this week.

• According to Kuo, Apple will launch an Apple Car sometime between 2023 and 2025.  He said this is a recent note to investors:
• "We expect that Apple Car, which will likely be launched in 2023–2025, will be the next star product. The reasons for this are as follows: (1) Potentially huge replacement demands are emerging in the auto sector because it is being redefined by new technologies. (2) Apple’s leading technology advantages (like AR) would redefine cars and differentiate Apple Car from peers’ products (3) Apple’s service will grow significantly by entering the huge car finance market via Apple Car, and (4) Apple can do a better integration of hardware, software, and service than current competitors

• The long-awaited launch of Apple’s AirPower wireless charging pad may coincide with the launch of the 2018 iPhone lineup.
• Based on a new report out of Asia, Apple engineers are in the debugging phase of the AirPower rollout. The product may not launch on the exact same day as the 2018 iPhones, but a Chinese site claims to know the planned price. And it’s not going to be cheap.
• Though a previous rumor claimed the price could hit $200, Apple will reportedly charge $149 for the AirPower charging mat, according to Chongdiantou.
• Overheating issues have allegedly caused delays with the Apple charging pad

• EU regulators are considering whether they need to force a common standard for phone chargers.
• The idea is to cut down on the 51,000 tons of old chargers and cables thrown away each year.
• Way back in 2009, the European Commission pressured Apple and 13 other companies to work toward a common charging standard by 2011. All the other signatories gave up their proprietary plugs and switched to USB.  Apple switched to lightning, their own proprietary port.
• Accordingly to Reuters, that didn't satisfy that EU Commissioner of Competition, and now the commission is launching an impact assessment study to evaluate costs and benefits of different other options, the other option being forcing Apple to adopt USB on the devices.

• Apple has removed the entire back catalog for five InfoWars’ six podcasts on iTunes and its Podcasts app. One of these shows is the daily “War Room” show hosted by owner and radio host Alex Jones.
• Shortly thereafter, Facebook removed InfoWars page, YouTube removed their channel, Pinterest pin boards, Linked In removed the InfoWars page, Mail Chimp refuses to send their emails, and website comment host Disqus has given them the boot.
• "Consistent with our existing policies, we take action against accounts that repeatedly save content that could lead to harm," a Pinterest spokesperson said in an email statement.

• YouTuber Max Yuryev pitted the 2.2Ghz and 2.6Ghz i7 MacBook Pros against the the 2.9GHz i9, and the results aren’t great.  These are the tests I’ve been waiting for.
• in his Cinebench test, he found the i9 beat the i7 by only 2 percent, averaging only 3.15Ghz, while both the 2.2Ghz and 2.6Ghz i7’s both averaged 3.05 Ghz.
• And in test after test, he showed that the i9 rarely performs better than the 2.6Ghz i7.
• Why?  It seems like it comes down to heat.  Even with the patch, the MBP struggles to keep the i9 cool enough to keep it in turbo mode, and sometimes it’s even not cool enough to run at base clock.
• For example: In his Red Raven 4.5K Raw rendering test, he noticed that the 2.2Ghz i7 ran about 500Mhz over base clock speed, the 2.7 ran about 200Mhz over base, and the 2.9 ran about 500Mhz below base clock.
• He noted that the GPU and CPU use the same cooler, so if you’re pushing the GPU, like many rendering apps do, the CPU won’t be cooled as well, so can end up throttling more than you’d want.
• So what does all these mean?  
• • It doesn’t seem to make sense to pay extra for the i9.  It matches or barely beats the 2.6Ghz in many tests, and sometimes can’t even beat the 2.2Ghz i7.
  • A better value, and bigger a bottle neck in the 2018 MBP isn’t the CPU, it’s the GPU.
  • The base MBP comes with a 555X Radeon GPU, whereas the premium 2.7Ghz i7 and 2.9Ghz i9 models come with a Radeon 560X, and that’s what made the biggest difference in his tests.
  • My thoughts, go with the 2.7Ghz i7, the 560X GPU, and use the i9 money you save for extra SSD space.

• Apple beat Wall Street’s expectations today with its Q3 2018 earnings report, shooting its stock price just below the $204 price needed to mint it as the world’s first TRILLION dollar company. 
• iPhone sales were up slightly year-over-year. Revenue was up big time. The ASP (average selling price) was also up big time. Even Apple’s EPS (earnings per share) was higher than some of the biggest Apple believers expected.
• When the iPhone X launched last year it was panned as too expensive by far too many critics, but Phone revenue was up 20% YOY.
• Wearable sales are up 60% year-over-year
• AirPods and Beats are also selling well. Combined with Apple Watch they’ve generated more than $10 billion in revenue in just the last year.
• TimCook also commented on Apple’s TV deal with Oprah, saying he “couldn’t be happier” that she’s on board.
• He also said there’d be “dramatic changes speeding up in the content industry,” and went on to say “We’re really happy to be working on something. We’re just not ready to talk about it in-depth today.”
• Apple sold only 3.72 Macs in its third quarter, less than any single quart since it’s Q3 of 2010.  This may be because it’s entire Mac line was ancient until just weeks ago, in Q4, when MBP was updated.
• iPhone and iPad now make up 65% of Apple’s yearly revenue.

• It was a year ago, in august of 2017, that MoviePass dropped their price to $9.95 a month. In the following two days, more than 150,000 new users signed up, crashing their website and app.
• Though AMC said MoviePass’s model could never work, they essentially created their own version of the service to compete. It’s $20 a month and their service includes digital reservations, iMax and 3D, and let’s you see the same movie more than once.
• Sinemia is another competitor that’s popped up.  They offer a 2 movie a month plan for $10 a month that works with any theater, offers advanced ticket options, and works on 3D movies, IMAX, 4DX, and more.