It used to be so easy to remove items from the sidebar of OS X Finder windows. You’d simply click, drag, and poof! The offending item would disappear like a well-heeled Dock icon in search of greater opportunity in the world.

Today, however (and for quite some time, really) you can’t just click and drag the sidebar items away without giving it a little more thought. That’s where this handy keyboard shortcut comes in.

Sure, you could use the right-click (Control-click or two-finger click on a trackpad) to bring up a contextual menu, but where’s the fun in that?

A hacked carrier update that has the potential to deliver improved data speeds is now available to iPhone 5 users on Sprint. The modified update, which has previously been made available to devices on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, does not require a jailbroken device — just a Mac or PC with iTunes.

Still using that Ikea wind-up kitchen timer to take your time-lapse videos? Ditch it, because somebody has finally come up with a purpose-made iPhone motion rig that is cheap, fits in your pocket and can do double (triple?) duty as a panoramarator[1], and a passive sound-amplifying iPhone dock.

Shelfy is a new iPhone app which lets you quickly and easily keep a record of the books you have read, and the books you want to read. And unlike apps like Delicious Library, it doesn’t assume that you have a stack of physical paper books to scan: Input is strictly via search, and all the better for it.

Dispatch is the iPhone e-mail client I have been looking for for years. It’s kind of like Drafts for email, only in reverse – the emails come in from pretty much any service you like, then you quickly triage them. Then, you send the results off to another app or service on your iPhone.

Remember the Wally iPhone wallet? It was Kickstarted back in the misty far-off days of February, and is now a fully-available product that you can, like, buy. Don’t remember it? Then let me jog your memory: The Wally is a minimal and lightweight leather wallet that sticks to the back of your iPhone using hi-tech future adhesives. And the good news is that it’s currently shipping at 20% off – just $40.

Angry Birds fishing! Nope, it’s not the name of an awesome cross between Angry Birds and Ridiculous Fishing. Instead, it’s what you could do IRL with these ridiculous Angry Birds fishing lures. That’s right: Angry Birds fishing lures.

Camera Noir is just about the most basic B&W photo app I have ever seen. And yet, miraculously, it seems to have included just the right features. I can tell you in two words what you can tweak: almost nothing. And yet the results are fantastic.

Time Warner Cable is in talks with Apple to sign a video streaming deal for some of its content. After the successful launch of its TWC TV app on Roku devices this past March, Time Warner Cable announced that it’s trying to get ink more deals.

Speaking at an investors conference in London on June 4, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt told investors that the company wants to strike deals with Apple, Microsoft, and Samsung:

Thunderbolt really hasn’t taken off yet, even though Apple’s included the the tech in Macs since 2011. Intel is still plowing through with new updates for Thunderbolt though, and the company revealed some new details about the next generation of Thunderbolt.

Intel has officially named its next-gen high-speed data port ‘Thunderbolt 2’ and it will double the speed of first-gen Thunderbolt by supporting 20Gbps directionally on one connection. On a company blog post, Intel posted the following info on Thunderbolt 2:

According to the latest report on smartphone subscriber market share from comScore, Apple still tops out over Samsung for market dominance, with both companies showing decent gains. HTC, Motorola, and LG are also in the top five smartphone makers, but lost market share this past quarter.

David Shanks, CEO of Penguin Books, testified today that a provision in its e-books contract with Apple played a role in its decision to change contracts with other retailers, like Amazon.com, a crucial part of the US government’s case against Apple in the e-book anti-trust case happening now in federal court. Shanks said that the clause in question was “certainly a factor” in seeking out other retailers to an agency model, in which publishers control prices, not retailers, a model Amazon originally flouted.

In the anti-trust case, the US government is charging that Apple conspired with five publishers to fix prices for e-books between 2009 and 2010. Penguin is the first publishing company named in the suit which also includes HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, and Macmillan.

Apple has already gone on record, saying that it was the publishers that came to Apple, not the other way around.

Every year thousands of Apple developers flock to San Francisco to attend Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference to be educated in all things Apple. Over the past decade the conference has undergone some big changes as Apple has introduced products like the iPhone, Mac Pro, Intel Processors, Mac OS X operating systems, and much more.

An event that used to be lightly attended has now become the most popular developers conference in the world and sold out within 2 hours this years

Here’s a look at the many banners that have decorated the halls of WWDC over the past 11 years:

WWDC 2013 is ready to kickoff in San Francisco next week, and in preparation for the event, Apple has already started decorating Moscone West with WWDC 2013 banners.

The banner art shows the same graphics that Apple used on the official WWDC 2013 logo. the graphics appear to be a bunch of flat app icons, which support the rumors that iOS 7 will ditch its skeumorphic roots for a more minimalist and modern look. One of the tag lines for the banners reads, ‘Where a whole new world is developing.’

Here are some more pictures of Apple’s WWDC 2013 decorations:

Look, I’m no hippy; but there’s definitely something magical and awesome about the idea of transforming sunlight into music (really, I’m not a hippy — I don’t even know what patchouli oil smells like). And just like Eton’s other solar-powered Bluetooth speakers, that’s exactly what the new $200 Bluetooth-equipped Rukus XL does. Only in a bigger, badder, louder way.

The makers of Floome, a new breathalyzer dongle that clips into a smartphone’s headphone jack, say their gadget is more accurate than the Breathometer breathalyzer we featured in March, because Floome is equipped with a key ingredient missing from the former: a flowmeter.

Following a win by Samsung in the International Trade Court claiming that older Apple devices violate one of its patents, the ITC has issued an import ban on iPhone 4, iPhone 3, iPhone 3GS, iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G devices that run on the AT&T network.

In what might be Mountain Lion’s major last roar, Apple has released OS X 10.8.4, a minor update that fixes a few small bugs in Mountain Lion before the (presumed) WWDC debut of OS X 10.9.

The term “patent troll” tends to be thrown around a lot when talking about Apple, Samsung, et al.’s endless patent litigation, but there’s a big difference between companies trying to protect their patent profiles in court and the sort of trolls who exist for no other reason than to sue other companies for violations on overly broad patents that they aren’t using, stifling innovation (for example, notorious in-app patent troll Lodsys).

Reforms to the patent system to neuter patent trolls is something that have been called for for years, but it seems like President Obama is finally doing something. The White House has just announced that they are taking on the patent troll problem with seven new legislative proposal. But even if Congress won’t budge? Obama says he’s going to take five executive actions to thwart patent trolls, which he can do even without congressional approval.

Several technologies on your iPhone, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular data, are made to continually check for signal when you’re out and about. Continual checking requires power, which comes from your iPhone (or iPad, or iPod touch) battery.

It makes sense, then, that turning these different wireless features off when you don’t need them can help your battery last a little longer. Here’s how to do just that.

Following Gmail’s snazzy addition of categories for easily filtering your inbox mail, the Gmail iOS app has also been updated to support the functionality.

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference is just a week away and although it’s highly unlikely we’ll see any new iOS devices, we will get our first glimpse at iOS 7.

iOS 7 could be one of the biggest iOS updates to date, with many rumors claiming it will be completely overhauled with a new look and new features as Jony Ive makes his mark as the head of software design. A report that was published earlier this month claims that Apple has had to pull engineers away from OS X 10.9 to help complete it.

Personally, I couldn’t be more excited about iOS 7. I made the switch to Android just before Christmas because I found Jelly Bean on the Nexus 4 to be better than iOS 6 on the iPhone 5 at a lot of things, which I wrote about back in February.

Having used Android for four months, I’ve compiled a list of things iOS 7 should learn from its biggest rival. If Apple adds these things to its own platform — or variations of them that provide the same experience — then I think iOS 7 could be fantastic.

Check out the list below and see if you agree.

Apple just published a report prepared by Keyser Marston Associates that evaluates the “Economic and Fiscal Impacts Generated by Apple in Cupertino –  Current Facilities and Apple Campus 2.”

The report was prepared for the City of Cupertino under the contract of Apple, to evaluate the concerns the city has about Apple’s future Spaceship-like campus. The report states its principal objectives as the following:

• The on-going economic impact and benefits of Apple to the City of Cupertino;
• The ongoing economic impacts and benefits to the City of Santa Clara, City of Sunnyvale, and the broader region of Santa Clara County;
• Apple’s recurring annual fiscal impacts on the City of Cupertino;
•  The construction-related impacts of Apple Campus 2 on Santa Clara County; and
•  The construction-related tax and fee revenues to be received by the City of Cupertino and other local public agencies from the construction of Apple Campus 2.”

The full 82-page report can be read after the break –

Our computers aren’t meant just for work – they’re gaming machines as well. Cult of Mac Deals has assembled a bundle of games that not only take full advantage of what your computer can do as a gaming machine, but are loads of fun as well.

And you get to name your own price for this bundle to boot!

That’s right. We’ve partnered with 6 fun game developers to bring you The Race Against Time Gamer Bundle. Timing is (almost) everything with this bundle. Four out of the six games are in some way, shape, or form linked to the presence of time. You pay what you want for two games that will keep you gaming for hours – Little Things Forever and Dungeon Hearts. But if you pay more than the average price, you’ll also receive Royal Envoy 2, Waveform, Doc Clock, and Fishdom.

There are a number of tweaks you can install on your jailbroken iOS device that’ll add quick settings toggles to your lock screen, but some of them are far more complicated — and more ugly — than they need to be. LockscreenToggles takes the concept back to basics to ensure it isn’t one of them.