The Dock is one of those things that we all use on our Macs, but may not really do much more than swap out applications and use whatever Stacks were put there when we got the darn Mac.

However, if you really want to get the most out of your Mac, you might as well learn how to do a bit more with the Dock, and master your use of this oft-overlooked bit of user software. Here are four great ways to do just that.

I was browsing around the internet, looking for a fun, inexpensive game to play on my Mac, and maybe pass along to you Cult of Mac readers for your weekend fun. I found Tower Wars, a fairly deep tower offense and defense title, and it seemed to be a nice price at eight dollars.

Then I went over to the Steam store and found it going for 40 percent off, making this already inexpensive Mac game even cheaper at $4.79.

So, if you’ve got five bucks, some time to spare, and you like tower defense (and offense), you might want to grab yourself a copy, too.

Tired of slingshotting those angry birds at ever-more preposterous structures build by pigs? Bored with trying to best your friends using nothing more than words?

Bloom Box is a new, cutesy puzzle game from Nexx Studio (Pig Shot, Glow Puzzle) where you’ll need to set up chain reactions to explode the aforementioned boxes, make flowers bloom, and collect all the stars in each level.

Did you know that you can add Passbook passes to your iPhone from your Mac? It’s a feature Apple hasn’t really promoted, but iCloud syncs passes added from OS X to the iPhone with a click of a button.

Hat tip to David Chartier for pointing out this feature on his Finer Things in Tech blog. When viewing a Passbook pass from a source like Ticketmaster or Second Gear Software, simply click the “Add to Passbook” button. You’ll then see the above prompt, and the pass will be added to your iPhone via iCloud.

For more great Passbook tips, check out our handy roundup.

Source: Finer Things in Tech

The Chicago Sun-Times, one of the remnants of traditional paper journalism, has let go its entire photography staff of 28 people. Now its reporters will start receiving “iPhone photography basics” training to start producing their own photos and videos.

The move is part of a growing trend towards publications using the iPhone as a replacement for fancy, expensive DSLRs. It’s a also a sign of how traditional journalism is being changed by technology like the iPhone and the advent of digital publishing.

It takes practice to learn how to efficiently type on the iOS keyboard. Because all the keys are virtual, you have to tab through multiple layouts to access all of the available characters. I remember how slow I was at alternating keyboards to type numbers and punctation when I got my first iPhone. Over time, muscle memory kicks in and it becomes second nature.

What if there was a more productive way to type on iOS? A new jailbreak tweak called AltKeyboard is a fantastic enhancement every iPhone typist needs.

Have you ever contemplated just how many displays Apple’s manufactured for the iPhone since 2007? And then, have you ever thought how cool it’d be to combine all those iPhone displays into one gigantic Monophone that’s docked in the middle of Manhattan?

Josh Orter over at Stupid Calculations was wondering what such an object would look like too, so he did all the calculations and discovered the Monophone screen would stretch 5,059 feet into the sky, and measure 2,846 feet across, for a total surface area of 23-acres. It would be enough screen space to watch Game of Thrones on all fours sides of fourteen World Trade Centers.

Here’s another picture of what the Monophone would look like in Manhattan:

As an Evernote junkie and web-searcher, I use Evernote Web Clipper on my Mac, like, all the time. When I come across a great website, story, or even just some text on a page, I clip it right to Evernote, and then have the clipped notes with me on any platform, whether on the go with an iPad, iPhone, or at home on my Mac.

I’ve long wished for a way to do the same thing from my iOS devices, though. I typically copy the URL from my iOS browser of choice, then launch Evernote for iOS and paste it in there. Thank goodness, though, there’s another way, with EverClip, an iOS app for iPhone or iPad that lets you keep everything you copy to the clipboard–images, text, website URLs, whatever–synced up in an Evernote note.

Here’s how.

Apple hasn’t updated the Mac Pro in forever. It’s been 1,039 days since the Mac Pro received a respectable upgrade. Tim Cook promised us something really great for the Mac Pro will be coming in 2013. It’s possible we might even see it at WWDC.

In the build up towards WWDC and Apple’s first keynote of the year, Mac Pro supplies have started drying up at retail stores. Diminishing stock can be a decent sign that a refresh is imminent for some Apple products, so MacTrast checked in with a dozen major Apple resellers and found that the entry level Mac Pro is getting harder to find.

Here are some the companies that are out of stock:

There are a few things I really like about Kubxlab’s AmpJacket. It’s soft and squiggly, so it’s kind of fun to play with even when not on the phone. It’s also very small when you consider what it does – it’ll even slide into a pants pocket. And finally, there;s the fact that it not only amplifies the sound fro the iPhone’s speaker, but protects that iPhone and even raises it out of the way of spills in the kitchen.

Despite launching iAd in 2010, Apple’s foothold in the mobile advertising business hasn’t really taken off yet. Tim Cook even addressed Apple’s advertising strategies during his interview at the All Things D tech conference this week, and stated advertising isn’t core to Apple’s business.

Apple’s enthusiasm for mobile advertising might start picking up soon though if today’s latest rumor turns out to be true. According to Business Insider, Apple is planning to launch an ad exchange, similar to way Facebook and Twitter have recently done.

Want to give your Apple TV more power? Want to open a whole new world of capabilities? Then aTV Flash from FireCore is the solution!

This hugely popular software package gives you a ton of functionality that will make your Apple TV more powerful than you could imagine. And Cult of Mac Deals has it for only $19.99 for a limited time.

Siri knows everything (kind of). She even knows when you’re trying to use the Konami Code to cheat your way towards world domination.

In a newly discovered Siri Easter egg, if you try to give Siri the Konami Code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start), she’ll chide you for your cheating ways.

Here are two other responses you can get in the Easter egg: 

Yes, you read that headline correctly. Someone developed an iOS theme that makes your iPhone look like it’s powered by the Apple online store. It’s called “Apple Web OS,” and although you probably wouldn’t want to use it every day, it’s actually rather impressive.

EE has expanded its rapidly-growing 4G LTE network yet again to cover an additional 12 markets across the United Kingdom. This expansion brings the total number of markets up to 74, and EE claims its 4G services now covers more than 50% of the U.K. population.

Android rules the worldwide smartphone market when it comes to market share, and its dominance in China could have a lot to do with that. At the end of the first quarter of 2013, Google’s platform claimed a whopping 51.4% share of all smartphones owned in China.

Southern gentleman and Apple Chief Tim Cook fielded a barrage of questions at this week’s D11, the big tech conference that puts top CEOs on stage for long chats. And on this week’s CultCast, we analyze and scrutinize Mr. Cook’s thoughts and statements on an Apple television, iWatch, wearable tech like Google Glass, and just when we can all expect Apple’s next big thing.

All that and more on this week’s CultCast. Stream or download our new or past shows on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing now on iTunes, or hit play below and let the anarchy begin.

We already have a pretty good idea of what the fifth-generation iPad will look like, thanks to the many rumors and leaked parts that we’ve seen in recent months. And the latest, a purported front panel with a new design, reinforces those expectations.

As you open applications on your Mac, you may notice your Dock getting a little crowded. That’s because OS X adds an icon for each running app to your Dock as soon as you launch it, to let you know that it’s actually doing something. It’s one of the many great visual reminders built into the operating system.

Sometimes, though, your Dock might get a little too crowded. For example, I run Google Chrome all the time. If I remove that icon from the Dock, even when the app is running, I get more space for things I may not always need in the Dock.

Interested? Here’s how.

Apple Worldwide Developer Relations has slapped down TransMedia CEO Donald Leka for suggesting no one cares about iOS in a press release for a new iPhone app. “Consumers really don’t care that much what platform they are on,” Leka said — but it turns out Cupertino does not agree.

The developers of the free, open-source Camino browser for Mac OS X have announced that it will no longer be developed after a decade-long run. They are now encouraging existing users to adopt a “more modern browser,” such as Chrome, Firefox, or Safari.

In the U.S, lucky market traders, beggars and panhandlers can stick a sugarcube-sized dongle into their iPhone’s (or iPad’s) headphone jack and start taking credit cards. Over in Europe, we don’t yet have the Square reader, so our street-folk have had to put up with old-fashioned cash. Until now that is. Thanks to a combination of Apple’s liberal policies governing how dirty you have to be before you’re refused entry to a store, and the newly-stocked Payleven chip’n’PIN machines, tramps and bums all over the EU can now take plastic.

If you use Google’s maps app on your iPad, you’ll know that it kinda sucks. Search is great, and the fancy maps look ok, but the UI elements are comically big when blown up to fit the iPad screen, and they cover most of what you really want to see – the maps. And Street View isn’t much better.

Enter Streets 2.0, an update to – you guessed it – Streets, which brings Googles vector map tiles and live traffic as well as big-screen Street View.

Oh man, those guys at Everpix sure know how to have some fun. *Nerd* fun, that is. When they;re not busy making my favorite photo-looking-after-and-looking-at app for the web, Mac and iOS, they’re adding little nuggets of gold like the new Mac Memories app. And no, it has nothing to do with RAM. Unless “you”ewe” take lots of pictures of male sheep — ba-dum-tish!

Remember Merek Davis’ Mextures? They were a bunch of image files for adding textures to your iOS photos using Photoshop Touch or other layering and blending apps. Now Merek, who was so proud of these textures that he named them for himself, has made an app.