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Apple recently followed Amazon’s lead in unveiling a “Free App Of The Week” category, and this week’s is a doozy: Nik Software’s practically perfect image editor, Snapseed.

Normally priced at $5, Snapseed is a fantastic photo editing app that allows you some fantastic control over manipulating and editing photos that you’ve taken with your iPhone. It’s simple enough that even the most Photoshop-unfriendly Instragrammer can use it. This isn’t the first time Snapseed has been free, but my guess is a lot more people will download it this time.

In addition to making Snapseed free, Apple has also declare their Editor’s Choice picks for the week: Nick Jr Draw & Play (iPhone), Nick Jr Draw & Play HD (iPad), Rock(s) Rider (Universal) and Heroes Call (iPad.

If you’re a mobile gamer, then you already know the pangs of those on-screen controls. That’s why any serious gamer heads straight for some form of bluetooth controller to get his/her game on. Snakebyte (Sunflex), a company that makes gaming-related peripherals, has announced their plans to sell a new bluetooth gaming controller for Android and iOS. The idroid:con looks to differentiate itself from other bluetooth conrtollers by being the first to have five different functions and come with no app obligation.

I really love these poignant ads for the Brazilian iPad magazine app, Veja, all of which feature a single finger “dipped” in a different news story after loading up the app. A story about an oil spill features a digit dripping with crude, while a story about genocide coats the finger in blood. The effect is more subtle for the third ad, which shows a pruned finger being held up after a story on a flood.

Not only are these ads gorgeous to look at, but the dripping finger metaphor is a poignant one, not only for the way the iPad has changed the way many of us experience news, but for the immersive power of iOS as a whole.

Beautifully done. Here are the other two ads.

The concept of shared data plans has been floating around in the U.S. mobile industry for a while.  So far, however, only Verizon has announced plans to offer them. This idea of shared data plans is based on the various family and business plans available from almost all major carriers in which multiple lines and corresponding devices are bundled as a single plan on a single account. That allows all the devices share the same pool of minutes.

While it seems like shared data would function in a similar manner, the issue isn’t quite so clear-cut from the perspective of mobile carriers. In fact, according to AT&T CFO John Stephens, carriers still aren’t sure how to configure shared data options or how much money they would make or lose by implementing them.

Cricket Wireless became the first prepaid carrier to offer the iPhone yesterday, but it’s unlikely it’ll be the last. One source claims that both the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S will also be arriving on Boost Mobile later this year.

Apple’s ability to turn over its inventory incredibly quickly is seen as one of the Cupertino company’s greatest strengths. But just how quickly does it sell its products? According to Gartner’s Supply Chain Top 25 league table, Apple clears its entire inventory every 4.9 days. That’s faster than Amazon, Coca-Cola, Dell, and Samsung. In fact, the only company that turns over its inventory quicker is McDonald’s.

Apple has begun a hiring push to find lead design engineers to help them make the long-rumored iPizza a reality, Cult of Mac has exclusively learned.

The advert, posted today on Apple’s jobs board, calls for a candidate with at least four years experience in the Neapolitan supply chain. Intriguingly, one of the skills required for the position is the “ability to hand stretch the pizza (without using a rolling pin),” suggesting that the new iPizza will be built with a revolutionary new manufacturing process.

Talk of an iPizza is not new. Over the years, Steve Jobs was spotted many times in Silicon Valley researching slices of pizza, leading to ongoing speculation that Apple was interested in entering the saucy Italian pie industry.

Apple’s meticulous focus on design and usability is one of the hallmarks of its products. That attention to detail is evident in almost every Apple product, but iOS devices epitomize Apple minimalist approach and its goal of removing any barrier between the user and a great user experience. Unfortunately, not all iOS developers or mobile web developers get to that same level of minimal and effortless design.

There are probably hundreds of small ways that developers can miss the mark when designing iOS apps or creating content designed for mobile devices, but Gartner research director Johan Jacobs notes that most mobile app/experience design failures boil down to ten common mistakes.

Remember the original Carmageddon, the violent vehicular combat game that encouraged you to mow down pedestrians in search of bonus points? Of course you do! Well, its developers, Stainless Games, have just announced that it’s coming to iOS this summer. The title will be a complete conversion of the original PC game, but it’ll boast a better game engine and better visuals, in addition to several optimizations for touch-based devices.

Despite disapproval from its rivals, Apple’s new 4FF nano-SIM format has been approved by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) this morning, edging out other proposals from the likes of Motorola, Nokia, and Research in Motion. The new card is said to be 40% smaller than existing micro-SIM cards, but it offers all of the same functionality. 

Dolphin is widely regarding as one of the best third-party web browsers for the iPad, and it’s a particular favorite of mine, firmly stuck to the first page of my home screen on all of my iOS devices. With version 5.0 for the iPad, Dolphin gets even better, with the ability to save passwords; autocomplete browsing history, bookmarks, and searches; share URLs via email, and more.

A lot has happened in the world of jailbreaking over the past few weeks. The Chronic Dev Team, a group of mastermind hackers from around the world, recently released Absinthe 2.0, a tool that quickly jailbreaks iOS 5.1.1 on all iOS devices, including the third-gen iPad.

As with the release of any new jailbreak, millions of eyes are turned to the taboo process of freeing an iOS device from Apple’s restrictions to gain access to Cydia, the App Store’s quirky stepbrother. What about the brainiac hackers who keep Apple on its toes? The newest face of jailbreaking, “pod2g,” recently gave a brief interview.

Over the past two decades, WIRED has been looked at as one of the premier technology publications in the world. They’ve been churning out amazing tech content before some of our readers were born, yet they’re still going strong. The iconic inaugural issue of WIRED debuted in January 1993, but WIRED announced today that they are reissuing it on the iPad as a free download, filled with annotations and perspectives on how the magazine came about.

May is Mobile Management Month at Cult of Mac, where we will be profiling a different mobile management company every weekday. You can find all previous entries here  and read our Mobile Management manifesto here.

SOTI provides an interesting mix of mobile device and PC management solutions. On the desktop, it offers Windows PC management as well as remote access and screen sharing tools useful to many help desks. From a mobile perspective, it provides a range features including device and app management. Its on-device software and SDK support a range of useful features for iOS devices including two-way chat with users and remote access options. MobiControl SDK also includes a file sync solution for managing content and internal enterprise app data on iPhones and iPads.

Apple has added several whitepapers to its training site. All them address enterprise technologies in Lion. While many of the whitepapers have been available from Apple in the past, two of them appear to be new additions. The first of these details the use of Configuration Profiles to manage Macs running Lion as well as iOS device while the second covers 802.1X networking.

The first new whitepaper, which isn’t dated, is definitely the more interesting of the two.  It discusses Mac management as an extension of mobile device management (MDM). As we reported last week, Apple appears to be positioning Macs running Mountain Lion to be managed in the same manner as iOS devices rather than using its long-standing Managed Preferences architecture that has been built into OS X and OS X Server since their initial releases over a decade ago.

Well what do we have here. With rumors saying that the next iPhone will feature a taller, 4-inch display, a video has surfaced from Japanese site Macotakara detailing the new screen dimensions on video. After getting its hands on what appears to be the parts that have been floating around in the wild for the last few days, Macotakara’s video shows off a 4.07-inch front panel that could easily house the larger display everyone has been talking about.

While most new stories covering Internet piracy talk in terms of the entertainment industries and major associations like the MPAA and RIAA, software piracy is often part of the discussion and debate as well. While entertainment companies collectively call for extreme legal measures like SOPA and ACTA, software companies also battle piracy outside the legal arena by using extreme anti-pirating measures built into their products (and their accompanying license agreements). Microsoft is probably best example of a company that goes to great lengths to limit pirating of its products.

With digital piracy being a major issue in many countries over the past several months, the Business Software Association added user surveys to its annual piracy study. The results show that, despite measures from software makers, existing anti-piracy laws, and pending legislation, more than half of all Internet users admit to pirating at least one piece of software.

Samsung’s predilection for shamelessly ripping off Apple’s design is well documented at this point. Here’s Samsung shamelessly ripping off the iOS homescreen. Here’s Samsung shamelessly ripping off the iPod touch. Here’s Samsung shamelessly ripping off the Smart Cover. Here’s Samsung shamelessly ripping off the iPhone 3G. And here’s Samsung even ripping off an actress from an iPhone commercial.

If Samsung’s ever going to quit ripping off Apple’s design team and make their own damn products, they show no sign of abating, as the latest product design to be ripped off by Samsung is their new Chromebox, which looks almost identical to the Mac mini: a tiny aluminum box with a black circular opening at the bottom. Unbelievable.

Source: Dan Curtis

In a recent article over at The Wall Street Journal, Nokia’s challenges trying to make a dent in the iPhone 4S with the Lumia 900 are highlighted by some pretty grim numbers: Nokia makes more than $200 less on each Nokia Lumia 900 sold compared to Apple’s profit on an iPhone 4S.

AT&T has unleashed its 4G LTE fury upon the city of Cleveland, and its citizens are ready to Rock ‘n’ Roll. It continues to be a slow rollout for AT&T, but every little bit counts if you’re a customer. If you’ve already jumped ship over to Verizon, then you probably won’t care, but if you’re still an AT&T faithful living in Cleveland, you’ll know be able to enjoy:

Netflix announced an updated version of its iOS app on Thursday for customers in the U.S. and Canada. The update is centered around improving the overall user experience while streaming movies and TV shows to an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. One important improvement beyond that, however, is the ability to control mobile data use and avoid expensive overage fees.

Face it. Your Apple TV is boring. It looks just like every other Apple TV, everywhere in the world. Sure, you might say it doesn’t matter, that the whole point of the little puck is to get out of the way and let you watch TV shows and movies, but that shows a lack of imagination. What you need, my friend, is a set of decals. And not just any old decals. You need decals that make your Apple TV look like a NES console.

Healthcare has been a natural fit for the iPad and, to a slightly smaller extent, the iPhone. iOS devices can provide interaction with electronic records and other patient information as well as offer access to reference guides, medical images like X-rays, and even remote diagnoses via FaceTime.

A new program being tested in California’s Marin County aims to bring some of those abilities to paramedics in the field. The program, which equips paramedic teams with iPhones via a specialized QR reader app, is a joint venture with Silicon Valley startup Lifesquare. Its aim is to allow paramedics instant access to patient information using QR codes stickers.

Following the Fair Labor Association’s audit into Foxconn working conditions earlier this year, which unearthed several labor violations, including unlawful working hours, poor pay, and a total disregard for health and safety, Apple and Foxconn promised to make some major improvements.

However, two months on, activists say violations “remain the norm,” and that there is no evidence of any significant changes in Foxconn’s Chinese factories.

Echoing a report from last week, the The Daily has followed up its original scoop by saying that Microsoft will launch Office for iPad on November 10th, 2012. The Daily originally leaked images of the iPad app, but Microsoft denied the report by saying that it was “based on inaccurate rumors and speculation.”

Today The Daily gives a specific launch date for Office on the iPad. According to the report, the app is in the “hands of a usability team” at Microsoft and will be submitted to the App Store soon.