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One of the biggest ways Apple has changed the world is by inspiring people across the globe to focus on great design. Take Rainer Spehl for example.

Rainer is a European furniture designer who, after purchasing a 12inch iBook in 2003, was so inspired by Apple’s design ambitions that he set out to create the perfect case for his new machine despite lacking any previous experience in case making. A series of prototypes were created and ideas where tossed around, but it wasn’t until five years later that he settled on a design that he loved. His passion for his craft would be inspiring to anyone and his products speak for themselves. His MacBook Pro cases are gorgeous.

Made from solid oak and lined with genuine cow-leather, the cases are friendly and subtle. Something that reunites nostalgia with the high-tech world of the present in a way that is comfortable and sincere. Rainer Spehl is a true master craftsman striving for perfection. It takes fives hours just to complete one case over the course of three days.

If you’ve been looking to get some great music at a ridiculous price, now’s the time. Google Music has kicked off their “Music Blowout Sale,” discounting over half a million albums to $4.99 and over ten million tracks for only $.49! Now that’s a deal worth listening to. I’ve already perused over a bunch of discounted tracks and I’ve found a plethora of alternative classics from Radiohead, Beck, and Nirvana.

If you thought Android was on a roll and RIM was toast — surprise, surprise. The mobile operating system that Google built continues to cool down while Apple and the Waterloo, Ont. gang that can’t shoot straight gain momentum. Just half of November mobile ad requests came from Android-based devices, a new report shows.

EA has kicked off a huge iOS sale that has seen dozens of popular games reduced to just $0.99 in a bid to top the App Store’s charts this Christmas. Some of the company’s hottest games are included, a number of which haven’t only just been released, such as Dead Space, FIFA 12, Tetris, and Trenches II.

Here’s the complete list of titles on sale for just $0.99!

New at PhotoJojo is this crazy Holga iPhone lens case that gives you nine special effects for your photos.

Users who are still running the iOS 3.1.3 software on their iPhones and iPod touches are reporting that a recent App Store update has blocked them from downloading new apps directly to their devices. The update was issued on December 16, and users have been unable to download new apps since, though they can still download updates to existing apps.

It seems Apple’s stock of refurbished first-generation iPod nanos has now run out following the launch of its worldwide replacement program last month. Customers who have applied for a replacement device in recent weeks report that they are now set to receive the current sixth-generation model instead.

Apple is offering the popular Bejeweled game for free to customers who ‘like’ the App Store on Facebook. The limited-time sale is a continuation of app giveaways that Apple has been offering on Facebook for the last couple of months.

The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) has ruled in favor of Apple and declared a ban on the import of many HTC devices in the US, including flagship phones like the Sprint Evo 4G and Verizon Droid Incredible. The ruling would effectively end HTC’s business in the US.

After a lengthy back-and-forth between the two companies, the ITC has ruled that HTC infringes on two of Apple’s patents. Should the President of the United States decide to let the decision pass through, the ban will be put into effect on April 19, 2012. HTC plans to implement “alternate solutions” to combat the ruling.

Though it wasn’t in our readers’ top 10, Apple named Localscope the best navigation app of 2011. Yeah, well they ain’t seen nuthin’ — its new update adds a whole new exploratory facet to the app that’s arguably cooler than the app’s original focus.

VoxOx’s free telephony app was already heavy on features when it launched earlier this year. Now it adds two more big features: outbound faxing capability (previously the app only had the ability to receive faxes) and two-way, realtime SMS translations.

According to a report from App Data, Facebook for Android garners more daily users than Facebook for iPhone.  Android’s very own Facebook app boasts 58.8 million daily active users while Facebook for iPhone attracts 57.6 million.

Based on App Data’s projections, the Android adoption of Facebook’s app is accelerating faster than iPhone user adoption.

AT&T has officially backed out its proposed merger with T-Mobile. The deal has been undergoing intense scrutiny from the FCC and DOJ. A $4 billion pre-tax fee charge will be paid by AT&T as agreed upon.

We’ve seen Siri do nearly everything imaginable, but did you know that Apple’s virtual assistant is also a musician? The Yamaha Disklavier can be controlled by Siri, as demonstrated in the above video.

Siri takes a song from your iPhone’s Music library and sends it through an Airport Express to then get analyzed and played perfectly by the piano. Hey, it’s a lot easier than learning the piano yourself, right?

Apple has posted two HD trailers for Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticpated Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises. While you’ll have to wait until summer of 2012 to watch the whole thing, 3:41 minutes of glorious footage is available from the movie trailer section of iTunes right now.

If you need more of a Batman fix, the 6-minute prologue to The Dark Knight Rises is showing before Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol in IMAX. The official trailer is also showing before Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

Don’t forget that you can see these trailers and more in Apple’s official Trailers app for the iPhone and iPad.

Apple’s iOS devices come with a default mail signature that reads “Sent from my iPhone/iPod/iPad.” It was a nice novelty in 2007 when the iPhone was first released, but over the years, it’s gotten a little boring.

But did you know that it’s incredibly easy to customize your Mail signature and remove Apple’s default? Here’s how to change your signature on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

Looking for that last minute Christmas gift for the hyper-obsessed Apple fan? How’d an iPod shuffle signed by Steve Jobs himself suit you? Just be warned: prepare to pay through the nose for it. Amongst philographists, a Steve Jobs autograph is considered a very rare prize indeed.

BiteSMS is a strong contender right now for our best jailbreak tweak of 2011, and almost as if it were trying to get ahead in the poll, they’ve gone ahead and released the new 6.0 version of the bite-sized text messaging app, which is the first to fully support iOS 5.

The design of this little Mickey Mouse digicam might be for kids and ears-and-yellow-button-short-pants wearing man-children only, but look down a little at the 30-pin Apple connector and you might just see the future of digicams that hook up directly to iOS devices, no intermediary computer necessary.

Earlier this month, Orbotix apologized for dropped the ball (all puns intended) on their shipment deadline of pre-holiday arrival. They blamed themselves entirely and promised to “ramp up” production. Thankfully they’ve gotten the ball moving and have rolled out their first batch of Spheros. We’re not entirely sure how many Spheros have gone out but some of you may have the opportunity to play with your balls right before for Christmas.

Halfbrick Studios’ Jetpack Ride is already just a stupidly good bargain at $0.99. It was my personal vote for best game of 2011, and it’s essentially reduced my girlfriend to a shaking, caffeine-fused creature who can’t stop babbling about flying robot chickens and fruit-blasting jetpacks.

If you haven’t bought Jetpack Joyride yet, you’re absolutely mad. But if you don’t snag it now that it’s free, you’re not just crazy, you’re stupid. Do it! Do it now!

With countless iOS devices being handed out this Christmas, Apple’s App Store is going to see a heck of a lot of business. It’s in your best interests, then, if you’re an iOS developer, to have your apps in the App Store and ready for sale before Apple shuts down for the holidays. You now have less than 24 hours to submit your app before it’s put on hold until January.

Psst. You wanna buy a stolen iPhone or iPad? New York City police say the iPhone is such in demand shop owners will buy the handset even when they know the device was stolen. The NYPD recently arrested 141 employees who purchased hot iPhones to sell at pawnshops, grocery stores and barbershops.

While hackers have already managed to figure out how to get a tethered jailbreak working for any iOS device released before the iPhone 4, and there’s even an untethered jailbreak on the horizon thanks to jailbreak master pod2g.

But what of the iPhone 4S and iPad 2? Thanks to security enhancements made to the A5 CPU, they are tougher nuts to crack. But hope is in sight, thanks to the efforts of pod2G, who thinks he’s almost managed to successfully jailbreak the iPhone 4S… except for one little hiccup.

For some time we’ve known that companies are increasingly encouraging their employees to bring their iPhones and iPads to work. The trend known as BYOD, or Bring Your Own Device, will likely accelerate as enterprises seek ways to cut costs and workers push to bring consumer-grade devices to the job. In a new report, researchers find the larger the company, the more willing firms are to junk the company phone for something from Apple or Google.