For a long time, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were two of the biggest competitors in the technology industry. They were both early pioneers of desktop computing, and their companies were battling each other for every ounce of market share they could get their hands on.

But those shared experiences eventually led to the two becoming good friends. In a new interview for CBS’ 60 Minutes, Gates fondly remembers his old foe, and emotionally recalls his last visit to Jobs’s Palo Alto home before he passed away in October 2011.

With over 500 episodes of The Simpsons aired on TV, and tons of Apple links, even a hardcore Simpsons and Apple fan might have missed this tribute to Apple. In episode #497 “The D’oh-cial Network” Lisa builds a social-network called SpringFace. The computer behind Lisa’s coding prowess was a Lisa computer by Mapple at the Springfield High School computer lab.

The Apple nod is a reference to the Apple Lisa which was released in 1983, and is named after Steve Jobs’ first daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs. The logo on the Simpsons’ Lisa computer is the Mapple logo which is just an apple that has been bitten on both sides.

Source: Reddit

If there’s one part of iOS that Apple needs to be paying more attention to, it’s the lockscreen. Case in point: jailbreak developers and concept designers are coming up with some really innovate ideas for making use of the first screen we all see when we check our iPhones.

Axis, a new jailbreak tweak that began as a simple concept some months ago, is another great example of doing more with the lockscreen. Apps can be assigned to the bottom of the screen and quickly opened with a swipe gesture.

When you die as a billionaire who created one of the most influential companies in modern history, people automatically assume that you were pretty smart. And smarts mean good grades in school, right? That’s what your teachers want you to believe.

Mr. Stephen Paul Jobs was a genius, but not at getting As on his report card.<!–more–>

It’s common knowledge that Jobs was a college dropout. He left Reed College after only six months and ended up getting a job as a low-level technician at Atari. He would then go on to create the Mac with Steve Wozniak, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The Atlantic did some digging through Jobs’s recently released FBI file and found a great nugget of history: his high school GPA. During his years at Homestead High School (1968-1972), Jobs averaged a 2.65 GPA, meaning he got mostly Cs and Bs. So he wasn’t a bad student, but definitely not the scholar you would expect from a future industry titan.

Source: The Atlantic

Image: AP

I’ve decided to use Google Now exclusively for a long list of tasks. I’m calling it the Google Now Diet.

Here’s why I’m doing it. New technology is great. Trouble is, we’re all stuck with habits formed by old technology.

For example, when you want to search, what do you do? I habitually type in a search in the URL address bar or go to Google.com.

When I want to give myself a reminder, I tend to open the Gmail app on my phone and send myself an email.

And when I want to play a YouTube video, I thumb through the apps, find the YouTube app, open it, tap on the search field and type in the name of the video or song I’m looking for.

I know that Google Now does all this stuff easier, faster and better. Yet my habits were formed in olden days before Now existed. So I forget to use Google Now.

The good news is that there’s a way to break old habits and form new ones. And that is the diet concept — limit yourself only to the new way of doing things.

And that’s why I’m going on the Google Now diet.

Whether you’re a fan of music, podcasts, or audiobooks, there’s nothing quite like being able to take your favourite audio with you wherever you go. It’s even better when you don’t have to worry about wires. This Cult of Mac Deals offer takes care of you on both fronts – and at a price that sounds just as sweet.

The Soundbrick is a high-quality Bluetooth speaker that gives you the freedom you crave and for only $39 you really can’t beat it. Not only does it put out crystal-clear sound but it also comes with a built-in microphone so you can use it as a speakerphone as well. Best of all, this price includes the cost of shipping for all continental USA customers. What’s not to like about this great-sounding offer?

Cult of Mac Deals has another great freebie lined up for you – but this offer won’t be around much longer! Ondesoft AudioBook Converter for Mac allows users to easily strip DRM and any unwanted protection so your purchased m4b and aax audiobooks can be played on any device you like.

This converter is completely comprehensive which allows for top features to perform flawlessly. Chapter information will be preserved in the output M4A files, so don’t worry – you can easily start from where you left off.

Notification Center, introduced with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, has quickly become an integral part of the Mac OS experience, replacing third-party apps like Growl and the like with a built-in system for notifying you of system and other events on your Mac.

Let’s take a look, then, at five tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your use of Notification Center, including getting rid of it all together, if that’s your thing.

Listen, you tech-savvy, trend-resisting cynic you. I want you to stop dismissing wearable computing as a pointless, narcissistic fad.

Wearable computing is not for people too lazy to look at their phones. It’s not a trendy toy for wealthy yuppies. And it’s not about joining Robert Scoble in the shower.

What you need to know is this: Wearable computing is the next evolution of consumer electronics. And it changes everything for everyone and not just the people actually wearing the computing.

And it will change Apple, too. Here’s how.

iOS 7 concepts are a dime a dozen these days. Everyone is coming up with short video walkthroughs of what they think the next version of Apple’s mobile operating system will look like.

Rumors say that Apple is making iOS 7 “flatter” and less skeuomorphic (no pool table felt in Game Center, for example). That has led a lot of concept creators to what I think are, frankly, some overdone conclusions. Yesterday on Twitter I made the comment that, “My gut somehow tells me that all of these iOS 7 concepts are horribly wrong.” I haven’t seen a single iOS 7 concept that actually looks believable, well… until now.

Apple’s new Passbook app and system is really a nascent technology, but it’s here on your iPhone, so why not figure out how to use it, right? Below are five tips and tricks to help you get the most out of this futuristic, if not-yet-mature technology from our favorite technology company.

Oddly named social photo sharing app, Oggl is available now in the App Store. It’s currently invite-only, so you’ll need to download the app and request an invite. Once you do that, you’ll be in line to get a spot in this new experiment from Hipstamatic, one of the first “put a filter on it” photo app developers in the iOS space.

Hipstamatic wants to position this app as more than just a way to snap retro-looking photos of your dinner, but a way to capture and curate some of the best iPhone photography around.

Hero Academy is a pretty fantastic iOS strategy game that plays out like a cross between chess and a tactical role playing game (RPG), played against a single opponent in asynchronous turns. Developer Robot Entertainment has created an experience that’s equal parts dead easy to learn and super fun to play, with a depth of tactics and strategy gameplay that hits the sweet spot for a fun on the go game.

Well, Hero Academy is now available on the Mac App Store, and it’s free to download and play.

This week on The CultCast: Adobe goes rental, Bill Gates gets crazy, Nintendo doesn’t come to the iPhone, 5S begins productio, Buster gets hit on by a goat, and the other fun Apple stories from the week. Baaaah!

All that and more on this week’s CultCast! Stream or download new and past episodes on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing now in iTunes, or hit play below and let the good times roll.

Click through for the show notes!

Yeah, we get it: Passbook is awesome. It’s also woefully under-populated with only a handful or three of official apps.

But look, Passbook files aren’t even that special. They’re just specially formatted computer files with a .pkpass extension. What’s neat about that is that anyone can create one of these files, and then send them to you in email, or have you download them from the web. That way, you can take advantage of Passbook system without being limited to the official Passbook apps on your iPhone.

Here’s how.

If you’re looking for a new solution to back up your iPhone’s photos to the cloud and access them on other devices, Amazon has a new solution for you. The company just launched it’s new iOS app, Amazon Cloud Drive Photos, that lets you upload your photos to Cloud Drive.

Have you ever thought about building your own website without spending thousands of dollars…or thought about starting a freelance web development gig? What if we told you that it’s all possible without knowing how to code?

It’s true. WordPress is a full content management system and so much more through the thousands of plugins, widgets, and themes. It’s a system that makes it easy for anyone to get a professional website up and running without knowing how to code. WPMU has created an amazing membership service – we’ve called it The Ultimate WordPress Starter Kit – that will give you all the essential tools you need to get a WordPress website up and running for only $99 thanks to Cult of Mac Deals.

Mother’s Day is in just a few days, and if your way of saying “I love you” is gadgetry, then T-Mobile thinks they have the perfect gift for you by heavily promoting its deal to get an iPhone for $0 down.

The deal has been running since April 12th, when the carrier rebranded itself as “The Uncarrier”. T-Mobile will ramp up the promotion by displaying prominent ads Mother’s Day iPhone 5 ads in the top 20 markets, along with 3 National ads in USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times.

It seems crazy that iOS is six years old now, and Apple still hasn’t introduced a way to trial apps before buying them. Apple’s motivations in this aren’t clear — are they concerned that trialing apps will give users less incentive to buy them, and therefore make it less likely for Apple to get a 30% cut? — but it seems obvious to me that trial versions of apps would ultimately be a boon to the platform, allowing app developers to command higher prices on apps than they currently can.

How would such a system be implemented, though? iOS and Mac developer Amy Worral has some really smart ideas. And the best thing of all, they’re simple for Apple to implement.

The security features built into Apple’s iOS software are so good that the police are unable to gain access to defendant’s iPhones when they need to. Apple itself is able to bypass the security software and decrypt locked devices — and it do so when the police request it. But the company has so many requests that it has to add police to a lengthy waiting list.

If you weren’t grandfathered into an unlimited 3G data plan, then you probably spend each minute on your cellphone judiciously deciding what to spend your data on before you reach your limit. It sucks for users, and it sucks for content providers who want you to stream more videos and consume more content.

ESPN is trying to make thing better for consumers though by striking a deal with the carriers to subsidize your data plan so you can watch more sports video and analysis on your smartphone without it costing you anything against your data plan.

Google has been forced to hand over Android source code documents sought by Apple in an ongoing patent-infringement lawsuit against Samsung.

The search giant initially argued that it was not required to give up the documents and that it would be too burdensome to collect them, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal in San Jose, California, has given the company two days to give them up.

Asian messaging service Line, which has been a big success on iOS, turned over $58 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2013 with its new monetization model. But it’s just been dealt a massive blow by Apple.

The Cupertino company has unexplainably forced Line to remove its gift sharing feature, which allowed users to send stickers priced around $1.99 to their friends.

Nothing’s driving design nerds as crazy as the rumor that Jony Ive is taking a torch to iOS’s egregious skeuomorphic design elements and coming up with something for iOS 7 a lot more modern and flat like Windows 8.

In truth, any hopes that Ive is going to completely raze the ground of iOS skeuomorphism for iOS 7 are probably optimistic: Ive hasn’t had enough time, and it’s just too deeply ingrained into the operating system. More likely, Ive’s sensibilities will more immediately be felt in more subtle pairing-downs, like the way Apple’s Podcast app had the reel-to-reel player removed in a recent version.

But what does Jony Ive eventually want iOS to look like? A stunning new concept video has a very compelling take on that question.

Google Babel, the new communication service from Google, has been renamed Google Hangouts ahead of its public debut at Google I/O next week, according to an unnamed Google employee. Babel had been its name internally throughout the service’s development, but that moniker has now been dropped by Google.