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One of the first tweaks I make to any Mac I use is this neat little tweak that adds the currently playing album’s art to any song playing in Tunes.

Wouldn’t it be cool, though, if you could do the same thing on iOS, replacing the Music logo on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with the album art cover of the song you’re currently listening to? As usual, with a jailbreak and a simple Cydia download, you can.

Apple is relatively unscathed by the recent Thailand flooding which threw for a loop PC makers more dependent on hard drives. That’s the word from Wall Street analysts who say Apple’s move to flash memory saved the Cupertino, Calif tech giant from the fate of Intel.

Wow, Merry Christmas indeed. Dieter Bohn over at The Verge has put together the end-all-be-all guide to iOS, an overview of Apple’s plucky little mobile OS so well-illustrated, informative and complete, all we can do is stew in jealousy we didn’t do this ourselves.

Apple’s new Siri assistant has really revolutionized the way in which we interact with mobile devices using our voice. It’s no wonder, then, that rivals are scrambling to introduce their own alternatives. Google already has one for Android, according to some reports, called Majel, and it’ll debut during the first quarter of 2012.

When you think of computer chips, Intel quickly comes to mind. However, Apple may have a lead on the chip giant when it comes to specialized silicon for mobile devices. A new report suggests Apple’s A5 design could lead to the Cupertino, Calif. company creating its own chips for MacBooks.

If you’re anything like me, you often sit around and wonder what the people and animals you know look like with their skin and musculature pulled off to reveal the screaming skulls beneath. Unfortunately, pulling the faces off of actual living creatures to stare at their skeletons tends to be considered, as I understand it, somewhat declasse amongst the bourgeoise, so until society reconsiders its values, there’s this: the Skulls app by Simon Winchester.

iOS hacker and Chronic Dev-Team member Pod2g is making quite a name for himself right now as he works away on an untethered jailbreak for iOS 5. According to his latest blog posts, he has now completed the code for an untethered jailbreak on all A4-powered devices, suggesting a public release of the exploit isn’t too far away.

Sega is set to release its latest Sonic the Hedgehog port for iOS today with the critically acclaimed Sonic CD — a title which first made its debut back in 1993 on the Sega CD. But just in case you weren’t already excited enough, the company has also released a teasing new launch trailer.

Microsoft seems more than willing to spend its time on developing software for Apple’s iOS platform, despite it being a direct competitor to its Windows Phone operating system. Why? We don’t know. But we like it.

Especially when the company throws up gems like Kinectimals. My kids love this game on the Xbox 360, which takes advantage of Microsoft’s Kinect accessory, and now it’s available for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Never mind a Retina display iPad, Apple has something special up its sleeve for next year. According to sources within the company’s supply chain, a Retina display MacBook Pro with a display resolution of 2880×1800 is coming during the second quarter of 2012.

Till now, HP has held a huge advantage over it’s printer rivals when it comes to printing from the iPad — because even though rivals have made strides with their own apps (like Epson’s slick iPrint app) HP’s printers remain the only ones with AirPrint, which is tied directly to iOS and allows printing from within apps, without having to use an intermediary app (eg iPrint).

It’s that time of year again. Not the holidays — I’m mean yeah, sure it is, but that’s pretty obvious. No, it’s the time of year when we drive ourselves (and others) a little crazy running around trying to find gifts at the last minute. Especially those pesky stocking stuffers — the little gifts that fill in the gap between “it’s Christmas? Geez, I completely forgot” and “honey, I bought you a Lexus.”

Artist David Datuna created a striking portrait of Steve Jobs titled “Viewpoint of Millions.” Shown at the recent international art fair Scope Miami, it became one of the most expensive art pieces sold at the fair, fetching $210,000.

It was created from a background pattern of thousands of miniature images of author/philosopher Ayn Rand; the large format iconic portrait rests under a wall of optical lenses made from nearly 80,000 parts.

It’s been a great year for jailbreaking, and with an iOS 5 untethered jailbreak on the horizon for 2012, the next year is looking even better. So why not help Cult of Mac out and tell us what your favorite jailbreak app or tweak of 2011 was?

Not only will your choices go into a “Best of 2011” jailbreaking feature next week, but you’ll help us reward all of the brave hackers who had the nerve to truly “think different” in 2011 by hacking into their iPhones and breaking Apple’s walled garden wide open, just for the fun of it.

If you’ve been itching to perform a DIY project on your favorite Apple gadget, then you want to check out iFixit’s new and improved toolkits. The company’s 54 Bit Driver and Pro Tech Base toolkits have been updated with new additions and improvements.

Whether you need to take apart your Mac or iPhone, iFixit has given you the tools you need to get the job done. Both kits are highly portable and available for less than $100.

For the exhibitionist, the free I Made Love app allows you to “check in” to places you have boned, down to the GPS location and sexual position.

Alarmingly, there is a high concentration of activity in I Made Love at the Market Basket parking lot across the street from me. I always thought those guys were just practicing wrestling moves in the back seat of their cars.

[via Gizmodo]

The mullet – that unfortunate haircut that is business in the front, party in the back –  makes kind of an apt analogy with what’s going on with enterprise cell phones.

The iPhone has eroded the number of BlackBerry users, but many of them still use (or are obliged to use) company-mandated RIM devices at work.

This is what a study by Pyxis Mobile, a cross-device cross-device mobile application development platform, found. They polled mobile-toting visitors of Oracle OpenWorld 2011 including people who work in financial services, consumer goods, manufacturing, higher education, government, real estate, technology, and health and life sciences.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has proposed a nationwide ban that prohibits the use of all non-emergency cell phone use in the car.

Currently, only select states have a law in place against cell phone use in automobiles, but the NTSB wants the U.S. government to make the use of personal electronic devices while driving illegal in all 50 states.

Remember when we told you about Apple’s founding contract that was going up for auction? Well, the three-page document just sold for $1.6 million to an unidentified buyer in New York.

The contract was originally owned by Apple’s third co-founder Ronald Wayne, but he sold it in 1994 for only a few thousand dollars. Wayne sold his original 10% share in Apple for $800 and a later payment of $1,500 when he left the company in the early years, which would now be worth $36 billion.

Estimates originally pegged the founding contract as being worth around $150,000.

The Christmas Holidays are coming up, and if you’re a gamer looking for a rare week spent pushing, punching and shooting pixels, we’ve got a great Yuletide bundle for you: the Humble Indie Bundle 4. Not to put to fine a point on it, but it’s a sick deal, some of my very favorite games on the Mac.

As much as I love the holiday season, trying to buy gifts and cards for all of your family and friends isn’t easy. However, there are some things you can do on your Mac and iOS devices that will not only make the process of sending greetings a whole lot easier, but it’ll also ensure no one is forgotten.

Here’s how to send Christmas greetings to all your friends and family the easy way!

Are you hoping to buy some last minute gear from Apple before the holidays, but the check hasn’t quite cleared yet? Apple just announced their holiday shipping deadlines this year. But how late can you push your last minute shopping out to?

American Airlines’ pilots will soon be able to exchange 35 pounds of charts and manuals for a 1.5 iPad. The airline becomes the world’s first to use the Apple tablet in the cockpit and throughout the flight, saving an estimated $1.2 million in fuel annually.

It’s here! After long years of waiting, you can finally – finally – get your hands on a copy of TextMate 2.