John Browett didn’t last long at Apple. He was brought on by Tim Cook at the beginning of last year to lead Apple’s retail division and then he was fired 9 months later. The former Dixons CEO didn’t mesh well with Apple’s culture, and he caused unrest among Apple Store employees.

Since legendary retail guru Ron Johnson left Apple for JC Penny, Apple hasn’t been able to find the right executive to fill his shoes. Now that Browett is gone, who should Apple give the reigns of Apple retail to?

Izik is a new web search app from the makers of Blekko, a web search engine for people who are looking for a change from Google.

You could be forgiven for saying “Blekwhat?” there. Although it’s been around for a few years now, Blekko isn’t what most people think of when they go looking for somewhere else to search.

But that doesn’t mean you should dismiss it without trying it. Blekko does search pretty well in your browser, and this app is a decent attempt to do search differently on your iPad too.

Ballistic is at CES in Las Vegas this week showing off its latest lineup of iPhone 5 cases, the Aspira series. Decorated with bright and pretty patterns, the new selection delivers sleek, “sexy protection” for Apple’s latest smartphone, but it’s not all about looks. The cases are made from a combination of soft rubber and hard plastic to ensure protection against drops and dings.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – Wooden speakers apparently make the sound that issues from them seem warmer and more appealing. Maybe so, but in the $99 headphone range there are probably other cost-based design factors that make more difference. Still, these WoodTones headphones from Griffin certainly look warm and appealing.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 –

No, it’s not really a toast rack, but it would totally work as one if you wanted to stack a few slices without letting steam making them go soft.

The PowerDock 5 is in fact Griffin’s new five-way charging station for, well, for anything. It works great with your iDevices, but also your Kindle, Android device, or anything that hooks up to USB.

You might laugh, but here at CES we’re constantly overloading the nearest power outlets whilst keeping our iDevices juiced. Well, all apart from Leander, who seems to forget that his iPad 3 needs to be plugged in for more than five minutes before he leaves the hotel room.

The only thing I don’t like is the non-portability – it’s not exactly carry-on friendly. Then again, I guess you could just use any old powered USB hub for most devices anyway.

Available very soon, for $100.

Source: Griffin Technology

Ever wonder how long it’s going to take to charge your iPhone up all the way? Would it be helpful if your iPhone made some type of sound if it was ready to be taken off the charging cable?

Cleverly named iOS app, Battery, can help you with both of these things, and it’s free to boot. Check it out.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – The Canopy Sensus case puts a multi-touch surface on the back and the right edge of the iPhone. It recognizes all of your fingers at once, and in my brief time trying it out, it works great. But who the hell is going to buy it?

LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 –  LG’s mission for 2013 is to help you “touch the smart life.” At least, that’s what CEO Wayne Park claimed when he jumped on stage at CES this morning. They make a lot of products that are smart, and LG just wants your life at home to be simple and stress-free.

LG makes everything for your home. I mean literally everything. Yeah, they make smartphones and TVs, but they also make ovens, refrigerators, robot vacuums, microwaves, washing machines – EVERYTHING.

Nearly every major appliance that you have in your house could probably be replaced by an LG version. If any company could make a Siri-controlled iHome before Apple, then it’s LG. But because they’re trying to do so much, their version of the smart home still sucks, and it gives Apple an advantage to become the company that controls your home.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 –

The Nectar fuel cell is yet another attempt at freeing our devices from their relationships with power outlets. And technically, it looks great – compact and easy to use with a simple USB socket.

But unlike charging your cellphone via the mains, which is so cheap that a single charge is virtually free, the Nectar costs a buck a pop.

At CES in Las Vegas, Madfinger Games just announced Dead Trigger 2, the sequel to its mobile first-person shooter Dead Trigger, to be available on iOS and Android in the second quarter of this year.

We’re in Vegas! That’s right, team Cult of Mac has descended on Las Vegas to attend the Consumer Electronics Show, the largest and in-chargest technology show in North America. And to bring you the best and worst tech we’re seeing here at the show, we’re releasing a brand new episode each night until Thursday.

On our newest episode (#51), discover some of the cool tech we’ve seen so far at the show, and our why we think Apple is gunning to transform your house into an all-connected iHome.

All that and more on our CES 2013 special edition CultCast! Stay caught up on the best of the show, subscribe now on iTunes or easily stream new and previous episodes via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

Lego Mindstorms has just evolved. The latest announcement from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas from the Denmarased toy company is that their popular robotics hardware and software, Mindstorms, is getting a new command module, the EV3. It will be iOS and Android compatible from the start, letting even more kids and the young at heart program and control their robots from mobile devices.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – What do a four-rotor, remotely-piloted vehicle, touch-screen car audio and a little, Bluetooth-armed facsimile of a plant stem have in common? Not much. Yet they’re all concoctions from French-based Parrot; the latter is their newest gadget, a sensor-laden gardening device they’ve named the Flower Power.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – Withings has now added a heart-rate monitor and an air-quality sensor into their WiFi Body Scale, which previously just measured weight and body-fat percentage. In fact, their scale now has so many sensors, they’re not even calling it a scale anymore.

According to mobile industry analyst, Bernie Evans, Facebook reported a huge growth in mobile app Facebook use, with Android users growing from 66 million users in September 2011 to 175 million users this past September. iPhone users also increased greatly, with the number of users of the iPhone Facebook app growing from 91 million last year to 140 million this year.

Lunatik’s new Taktik Extreme case for the iPhone 5 heads a lineup of rather overprotective phone prophylactics. If cases were condoms, the Taktik extreme would be the extra-strength safety model, the Seismik would be the ribbed version, and the Flak would be the ultralight, “natural feel” member of the group.

Apple is one of just two smartphone makers currently seeing any kind of growth in the United States at the moment, and together with Samsung the company is slowly but surely clawing away at the market share held by the likes of LG, Motorola, and HTC. One analyst believes, however, that the Cupertino must make big changes if it wants that growth to continue.

Apple’s either has to dramatically reduce its iPhone profit margins and make the handset cheaper, or face losing valuable market share to cheaper smartphones.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – Here’s a question for you: it’s CES, the world’s largest electronics trade show. So where the hell are all the Lightning accessories?

LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – Party rockers were in the house last night at CES. Ion unveiled several new products from their 2013 catalog. Two in particular caught my eye.

Hyundai is set to showcase a number of new vehicles at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, and the company has announced that they’ll all include Siri Eyes Free technology. The feature allows iPhone owners to perform a whole host of tasks using the intelligent assistant — such as taking calls or creating Reminders — without taking their hands off the wheel.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2013 – Unless you’ve got a bizarre predilection for robophilia, there’s nothing exotic about cellular antenna boosters, but we stopped by Wilson Electronic’s booth at CES Unveiled last night to take a look at their latest booster anyway: a cradle for your car that can amp any 4G signal up to five bar status, even when you’re zooming down the causeway.

You wouldn’t normally associate HP devices with the Android or iOS platforms, but the company’s latest gadget plays nicely with them both. It’s called the Pocket Playlist, and it allows you to stream all of your media wirelessly to all your smartphones and tablets. It boasts 32GB of internal storage, and it can stream to up to five devices simultaneously.

Pentax has just announced a new retro-styled point-and-shoot zoom camera, the MX-1. The trend for cameras that look like they’ve fallen through a time warp from the 1960s is trickling down from the high-end and into lower-cost, consumer-oriented models.

Griffin has a new lineup of charging accessories at CES in Las Vegas, one of which is ideal for those who have collected an entire family of iOS devices. It’s called the PowerDock 5 and it charges up to five devices at any one time, storing them away neatly to save space on your desk.

A company called Spicebox is showing at CES a hardware-software product called Mauz that turns your iPhone into a mouse that can also read motion gestures through the camera.

The product comes in three parts: a snap-on thing for your iPhone, an app for your iPhone and a driver for your Mac.

Mauz connects with your Mac over WiFi. It works like a regular mouse. But it can also register movement of the phone like the Nintendo Wii remote, as well as register in-air gestures like the Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360.  Here’s a video.

The product should sell for less than $70 when it becomes available in June.