If you’ve had a horrible experience with Apple’s new Maps app, you’re probably anxious for Google to hurry up and get Google Maps back onto your iPhone. The Google Maps app is reportedly in development and should be ready for launch by the end of 2012, but some people at Google say they’re not optimistic that Apple will approve the app.

According to a new report, Google employees think that Apple will reject the app once Google submits it for approval because Apple will want to “keep moving forward in an effort to make its obviously inferior product better.”

During the fiscal year of 2012, Apple made more money than ever before and became the world’s most valuable company. But they also managed to pay only 1.9% of income tax on earnings outside of the U.S.  Of the $36.8 billion Apple earned outside the U.S. Apple only paid $713 million in taxes.

Some may see those numbers and cry foul, but Apple hasn’t done anything illegal. Like a lot of other Fortune 500 companies, Apple keeps their international profits stashed somewhere outside the U.S. rather than having to pay a heavy tax rate for bring that cash back to America. The strategy saves Apple billions on their tax bill, but it also limits what they can do with those profits.

Sony has become the latest company to bring its digital book service to iOS with the new Reader app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Available to download for free from the App Store, the app offers access to all the books you have stored in your Reader library, and allows you to sync your bookmarks between other Reader devices.

IShredder is a curious app. It claims to securely erase the files on your iOS device using better-than-military grade algorithms. The idea is that you can then sell your device without leaving sensitive data behind.

The problem is that this is already built in to iOS.

The MagSafe 2 power plug is so intent on escaping from its socket that it doesn’t seem a great idea to hook it up to a portable battery, but if you need the extra power, you need the extra power. And right now pretty much the only way to get it is to grab one of QuickerTek’s MacBook Air batteries.

Finding the right kind of earbuds for your ears – and provide great sound to boot – can be a real chore. Even when you do wade through all of the options out there, they often only fit one of those criteria and in that rare instance that they do sound and feel good, the price would give anyone pause. Yes, the reason they are more money is because they’ll also last for years – but wouldn’t it be great if you could get all of those features (looks great, feels great, will last a long time) at a cost that won’t put a serious dent in your wallet?

Well, this Cult of Mac Deals offer – which is winding down – “fits” the bill because we’re offering some great earbuds for only $45!

Quick Route is my new favorite routing app, not least because it’s so bike and pedestrian friendly (regular readers will know how I feel about those death boxes they call “cars.”) It’s optimized for the iPhone 5, it exhibits the level of design and polish you’d expect from a developer who also works for Panic, and it has a unique and neat way to pick your origin and destination.

Belkin has become the first accessory maker to get authorization from Apple to build third-party accessories for the Cupertino company’s new Lightning connector. It just announced a new lineup of Lightning accessories, which are compatible with Apple’s latest lineup of iOS devices, including the iPhone 5, the new iPod touch and iPod nano, the fourth-generation iPad, and the iPad mini.

Desktop pictures, or wallpaper, are one way to make your Mac truly your own. Choosing from one of the beautifully rendered images that are provided along with OS X is one way to be sure to impress any passers-by, as well and give you something beautiful to look at as you go about your daily Mac business.

Now, however, Mountain Lion lets you easily use any of your own images from iPhoto (or Aperture) as a Desktop Picture, right within the Desktop & Screensaver preference pane. Here’s how.

Apple’s much-anticipated iPad mini went on sale last Friday alongside the new fourth-generation iPad, and the Cupertino company just announced 3 million units were sold during the launch weekend alone — breaking its previous iPad launch record.

The iPad mini is Apple’s answer to smaller Android tablets from the likes of Amazon and Google. But there’s a good reason why it doesn’t come with the same $200 price tag. A teardown has revealed that the new iOS device costs at least $188 to build, and that price rises when you add bigger storage options and 4G connectivity.

Instagram: gimmicky retro filter-fest or serious social network? Time Magazine seems to thing it’s the latter, and despatched five pro photographers to go out and shoot the aftermath of super-storm Sandy with their iPhones, posting the results to Time’s Instagram feed.

Steve Jobs said that touchscreen desktops just don’t work, pretty much ruling out the possibility of a touchscreen iMac in the future. But he also said that tablets under ten inches don’t work, and his company is now selling the awesome iPad mini. There’s every chance, then, that we’ll see an ‘iMac touch’ someday, and it’ll fit in perfectly alongside Apple’s iOS devices — as this awesome concept commercial demonstrates.

If you frequently buy brand new Apple products, you know the cycle: initial pre-order stock sells out quickly, launch day stock goes fast, and then Apple starts offering next-day reservations for in-store pickup. The iPad mini has reached the last stage in the cycle.

Apple retail stores get a limited supply of new products (in this case, the iPad mini) each night. If you’re having trouble getting your hands on an iPad mini, your best bet is to order one through Apple’s online store and see if you can walk in and pick it up in person the next day at your local Apple Store. 

Steve Jobs was a Buddhist, a religion founded on the concept of the impermanence of all things.

And everything is impermanent. Especially Apple products.

A lot of users complain about Apple’s everything-is-temporary philosophy. But I think Apple will increasingly embrace it — and even launch a social network whose main feature is the deletion of your posts. 

As someone who is involved in public speaking on a regular basis – and not being a fan of PowerPoint – I’ve really embraced Apple’s Keynote application. I’ve gleaned a ton of tips on delivering a great talk from experts like Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte, but when it comes to dealing with Keynote, I’ve had to learn in bits and pieces as I’ve gone along. In my case, I’ve had the time to learn it – and I’ve taken my time to as well. But if you’re a startup with a fresh idea that you want to get out in front of people who will pay for it, then this Cult of Mac Deals offer is just what you need.

And we’re offering this course — normally valued at $39 — for absolutely free.

We’ve got some great new apps in this week’s must-have roundup, including Path, which finally makes its debut on the iPad; a nifty utility for monitoring the data consumed by your iPhone apps; plus a great new cooking magazine that every foodie should have installed on their iPad.

There are a lot of budding entrepreneurs that are taking their ideas online – but many of them do not have the tools or skills to make a real go of it. Simply surfing the web looking for tips and tricks isn’t enoguh these days, you need to have more at your disposal than that. And Cult of Mac Deals has put together a deal that will really help out anyone who is looking to build their knowledge – and a business – online.

The Online Entrepreneur eBook Bundle contains three eBooks that will help turn your website into a marketing dynamo. And you’ll get them for just $20!

This week’s must-have games roundup kicks off with the latest Need for Speed title from EA games, which is quite possibly the best arcade racing game available on iOS right now. We also have an excellent dual-stick shooter from Gameloft, Disney’s Wreck-it Ralph, and more.

Gorgeous body; super slim profile; al-lu-minium backside; yes, we’ve been fondling Apple’s new iPad mini for hours and hours now, and on our just-recorded special edition CultCast, we report what we like, what we don’t, and our overall first impressions of Apple’s brand new much-hyped tiny tab.

But we also had to ask the question: without a retina display, is the iPad mini a worthy replacement for its larger, retina-pixeled brother?

We cover all that and more this special edition CultCast! Subscribe now on iTunes, or easily stream new and previous episodes via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

I think PDF is one of the best file formats around. I send client files in PDF. Invoices in PDF. Resumes in PDF. Reports in PDF. The problem is when I get PDFs…and I want to do something else with them.

Yeah, that’s where PDF files can fall down. PDF files are awesome if the folks on the receiving end just need to read or review the content, not build on it. Sure, I can mark up PDF files. I do it all the time for galley proofs of my books, but when I get data or large chunks of text that I need to use in some other document…I can be up a creek.

This is exactly the situation PDF2Office is for—Edit PDF Files with PDF2Office Professional v6: Convert PDF & Windows XPS files into Editable Information

Steve Jackson (not the designer of Munchkin card games, sorry) started out writing an adventure gamebook for Penguin back in 1983. As it’s coming up on the 30th anniversary of his four-book Sorcery! series, Jackson decided to bring the proto-RPG to the modern age by teaming up with development studio Inkle and releasing four new iOS gamebook apps for iPhone and iPad.

I just got an iPad mini a couple of hours ago from the UPS guy. I took it to lunch and we’ve been playing around with it here in the office.

Couple of observations:

The screen is not great: John is absolutely right about the quality of the screen. It is manifestly lower resolution than newer Retina Displays.

A lot of discussion is raging around the iPad mini display, with pundits and tech-savvy consumers alike taking to Twitter, Facebook, and gadget review sites to villify the iPad mini display screen.

With a pixel density of *only* 163 pixels per inch, the iPad mini looks to be, on numbers alone, far lower in resolution than, say, an iPad 4. Which is the truth. But how does that stand up under the microscope? And, since tons of folks are saying the iPad mini is a shrunken-down iPad 2, how do the two screens compare when looked at as closely as possible?

The fine researchers at the Repair Labs blog decided to find out, placing all the currently released iPads, from the first generation to the mini, under the scrutiny of a microscope. What they found may surprise you.

If you live in a house divided in the smartphone wars, where some members cling to their Androids while you relish the joy of your iPhone 5, you probably have a plethora of USB cables in your house that are completely useless to you. Apple now has a solution.

You can pick up a Lightning to Micro USB Adapter from Apple for $19 now. Use the adapter to connect an iPhone, iPad, or iPod with Lightning connector to a micro USB cable to sync and charge, or to a compatible micro USB charger to charge your device. The adapter is available online, or at your local Apple Store.