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Apple’s online stores in Australia and New Zealand have been taken down while reductions are made to a whole host of products for the company’s Black Friday sale.

Apple has been embracing subscription-based iOS applications for some time, such as those that offer magazines and newspapers, but the same model did not appear for iOS games until earlier this week, when the Cupertino company approved a title from Big Fish Games that offered gamers the opportunity to pay a monthly fee of $4.99 to access the companies entire catalog through one app.

When the title hit the App Store, it was reported that Apple had begun accepting subscription-based games for iOS, and that the new release from Big Fish could be the first of many games to offer a similar service. However, Apple has quickly put a stop to those dreams after it pulled Big Fish’s title from the App Store.

For those of you heading over to gawk at Sonic and the other floats at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC tomorrow, there’s a new tool this year that’ll help you make the most of the day — that’s right, the parade has its own free iPhone app.

In a recent interview with Forbes, Microsoft’s chief strategy and research officer, Craig Mundie, sat down to talk about the future of the “Kinect effect” and other aspects of the company’s business.

When asked about his opinion on the hype surrounding Apple’s Siri voice technology in the iPhone 4S, Mundie promptly stuck his foot in his mouth.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs5ddFlc5Tw

The highly anticipated sequel to Chair Entertainment’s Infinity Blade is launching on December 1st, and the official trailer has been made available with commentary from the game’s developers.

Infinity Blade II will feature 40 new locations, millions of new hit points, and stunning visuals for iOS devices that boast the A5 processor, like the iPhone 4S and iPad 2.

I’ve always had a little crush on Susan Kare, the graphical interface pioneer who designed most of the original Mac OS icons and also designed the first proportionally spaced digital font, but this incredible piece on her over at PLOS had me wooed all over again, especially when I saw her incredible original sketches of the Mac OS icons we all know and love, which Susan laboriously designed on graph paper.

Check out some of her work on icons both familiar and foreign below, it’s the best thing I’ve seen all day.

For the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, the saying about death and taxes being life’s only certainty probably rings true — particularly taxes. Laurene Powell Jobs learned she must pay $867 million in capital gains taxes and is being advised to unload millions of Disney and Apple shares worth nearly $7 billion.

Apple has a tendency to make businesses nervous — just ask the CD folks assimilated into the iTunes universe, or the companies swept aside by the iPhone in 2007. A similar nervous tick is growing in the television set manufacturing business, already skating on razor-thin margins. TV makers reportedly are snooping around for details on an Apple-designed iTV that could start production in February, but is it too late for them to do anything besides be bulldozed by Apple like so many industries before them?

Aaron Sorkin’s one of the most respected names in screenwriting these days. Not only did he write The Social Network and Moneyball, but he’s also behind the fantastic series Sports Night and The West Wing.

Needless to say, then, Sorkin’s high on the list of people that Sony wants to write their upcoming bio pic of Steve Jobs, based on Walter Isaacson’s best-selling bio. And apparently he’s really considering it.

Interesting, but I personally hope this is more Moneyball and less Social Network, which was a pretty flawed film.

It’s the crown jewel of Cupertino’s 10th anniversary in retailing: Grand Central Apple, a backdrop for the tech giant’s largest site that’s flooded with history. Although the site isn’t complete, images are leaking out, including an homage to the setting — a huge ticker above the main passageway like those from yesteryear. Instead of arrivals and departures, however, the sign urges visitors to grab an iPod for that long commute. So cool!

Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Communication Commission, has spoken out about AT&T’s proposed acquisition of  T-Mobile and deemed the merger to be against the public interest. Genachowski has called for commissioners to vote for an administrative public hearing against the $39 billion, which could prove to be a huge setback for the two carriers.

Jundiaí, Brazil – Foxconn’s iPhone and soon-to-be iPad factory about 45 miles north of Sao Paulo is an open secret; despite all the conjecture, it’s exactly where it’s supposed to be and three curious reporters had no problems poking around.

On Oct. 31, the Brazilian telecommunications document agency ANATEL issued the OK for Foxconn to start producing mobile phones for Apple. Although the government started talks for a Foxconn plant back in April 2011, this was the first official document wedding Apple’s name with Foxconn in Brazil. After reading about the news in the Sao Paulo daily Folha, I spent about 20 minutes fudging around with my minimal Portuguese to track down the document with the exact address on the agency’s website.

Curious to see what was actually at that address, I asked (well, pleaded with) MacMais editor Sérgio Miranda to drive me there. He and Alessandro Salvatori from Blog do iPhone agreed to spend the day taking me on a wild goose chase.

iPhone cases that allow you to leave your wallet at home by making room for your credit cards and cash are becoming increasingly popular. And because they’re popular, there’s a ton of them available. But nearly all of them have one thing in common: they’re made from leather (or a cheap leather lookalike material).

If you’re looking for something a little more robust, check out this Kickstarter project called the CASELLET.

Apple famously keeps its Black Friday deals a closely guarded secret until the day of the event. But thanks to a leaked sales pamphlet from a “trusted tipster,” we already know where the Cupertino company will be slashing prices, with savings to be made on the iMac, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, iPod nano and iPod touch, iPad, and plenty of accessories.

[via RetroMacCast]

While Samsung itself is quick to take Apple’s innovation and pass it off as its own, resulting in a number of lawsuits, the Korean electronics giant is still happy to mock the device that inspires many of its Android-powered smartphones. In a new TV commercial for its popular Galaxy S II handset, Samsung pokes fun at the iPhone and its devoted fans who wait in line for hours to pick up the device on launch day.

I think someone’s a little jealous that they don’t see endless queues when they churn out a new product.

To be fair to Samsung, it is rather humorous. My favorite bit: “You know, if it looks the same, how will people know I upgraded?”

[via The Mac Observer]

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is looking to recruit more senior-level executives to help run iCloud. As the company continues to build up its cloud offerings, more expertise is needed.

Apple is looking for talented execs with a knowledge of web-based services to help manage and expand its iCloud services. The report also says that Apple is looking to introduce iCloud apps that “reduce the need for people to carry around numerous devices at once.”

Apple is allowing Big Fish Games to incorporate a subscription model for its iPad games in the App Store. According to Bloomberg, Big Fish will be the first game maker in the App Store to allow customers access to all of its titles for $4.99 per month initially.

Games from Big Fish will be streamed to users over Wi-Fi and a customer’s subscription is managed in a dedicated app for the iPad.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXS5VHw7rwA

We stumbled across this rare video of Steve Jobs at the CAUSE 1998 Conference in Seattle. In the short clip, Steve Jobs gives a particularly comedic and lighthearted talk about the PC and TV.

The video quality is pretty awful, but what’s said in the talk is very interesting. In the video, Jobs says, “TV turns your brain off, PCs turn your brain on.” What most don’t know is that Jobs was quoting a failed campaign for the original iMac.

Apple has snatched up several iPhone-related porn URLs from a domain squatter. The sites in question were handed over to Apple after the company filed a complaint a few weeks ago.

The high profile domains, including iPhone4S.com, have been given over to Apple from the previous owner.

Mark Zuckerberg’s faithful hund Beast has apparently gotten himself a job as an engineer at Facebook, and like all the best dogs, he’s an Apple fan, through and through.

[via Obama Pacman]

It was recently reported that Apple was putting the finishing touches on its new flagship store in New York City’s Grand Central Station. The store was supposed to be unveiled to the public by Black Friday on November 25th or during this upcoming weekend.

Eager shoppers will apparently have to wait to drop their hard earned cash on Apple products in Grand Central Station, as the store’s opening “won’t be any time too soon.”

The iPhone 4S has an amazing camera for a smartphone. Heck, it’s already the second most popular smartphone camera on Flickr. But how does it hold up for the professional photographer?

As this beautiful testimony by pro photographer and gallery owner Ryan Bolger makes clear, it doesn’t just hold up well… it reinvents photography.

When Apple announced that it was going to sell OS X Lion exclusively as a digital download, many were skeptical. By not selling physical copies of the operating system, wouldn’t Apple be crippling Lion’s consumer reach?

As it turns out, Lion has already sold more than 6 millions copies in the Mac App Store, making it 80% more popular than Apple’s previous desktop OS, Snow Leopard. The folks in Redmond have taken notice, and Microsoft has announced that its upcoming operating system, Windows 8, will also be offered as a digital download.

This is a cute little stocking stuffer for the narcissistic Mac fangirl in your life: the MirrorBook Air, a $12 hand mirror that looks just like a tiny, palm-sized MacBook Air. Get it now before Apple C&Ds it, which they will, but hopefully not before Christmas.