Mail will notify you whenever an email comes in via the new Notification Center in OS X Mountain Lion. While this seems to be a pretty cool feature, it might get a bit overwhelming, especially if you have a lot of mail coming to one of your accounts, or several email addresses, each with their own high volumes of electronic communications.

It’s fairly easy to control the Notifications preferences for Mail, of course, but here’s the thing. Mountain Lion’s Mail app lets you choose one specific mailbox to receive notifications from. This can be a valuable time and attention saver, especially if you marry it to the power of a Smart Mailbox to filter even further.

Apple parody commercials are nothing new, but this is the first I’ve seen for the upcoming iPhone 5. According to video artist and creator Adam Sacks, Apple’s next iPhone will be perfectly suited to those who feel the need to take pictures of their food “to create the illusion of a fulfilling life.”

Production of the 7.85-inch “iPad mini” is expected to ramp up next month, according to sources in Apple’s supply chain, reaching a target of 4 million units per month. Apple hopes to build enough units to launch the device before the end of the year and serve with busy holiday season.

Finnish gaming company Kukouri Mobile Entertainment created and developed Tiny Troopers, which was picked up by Chillingo, one of the larger and more successful iOS publishing company, itself owned now by Electronic Arts (EA). Tiny Troopers was released to iPhone and iPad as a universal app at the beginning of June, updated a month later, and then given a price drop mid-July.

Today, excitingly, it’s available for pre-order on Mac via Iceberg Interactive, an up-and-coming publisher of Mac, Linux, and PC games. Iceberg Interactive may best be known for Oil Rush, a real-time naval strategy game for all three computer platforms.

In a fantastic blog post, designer Josh Lehman begs us all to stop using the metaphor that many of us, press and developer alike, continue to spout when we hear a complaint about the price of a $0.99 app. “Look,” we say, again and again, “you’ll spend $4 on a cup of coffee at (insert your favorite coffe brand here, usually Starbucks), why won’t you spend a paltry $1 on my app?”

Lehman sees through the falsity of this argument, and then shows us why this attitude isn’t selling apps, either, regardless of its accuracy.

As we reported earlier today, Apple and Samsung CEOs were on deck to sit down and have a last chat before jury deliberations begin in the next couple of days. The plan was for Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Kwon Oh Hyun to talk on the telephone and perhaps come to some sort of peace before any potential damage can be done by the full jury resolution of the trial taking place in Northern California over the alleged patent infringement Apple took Samsung to court over, and that Samsung then countersued Apple for.

While the telephone call took place today, there was no resolution, according to an in-court report by Kevin Johnson, a Samsung attorney.

“We will see you tomorrow,” he said.

You didn’t think Samsung was going to idly sit by and watch as Apple took home the award for crappiest commercials of 2012, did you? After Apple released its Genius commercials, which were anything but, Samsung went straight to the drawing board, which coincidentally happens to be the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.

The iPhone is the most popular device among medical professionals, followed by the iPad and then Android smartphones. That’s one of the key findings in a new study that examines the relationship between electronic health records (EHR) systems, mobile technology, and how doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers use both mobile devices and EHR systems.

One of the biggest points of the survey, however, is that the vast majority of U.S. healthcare providers do not use a mobile device to access electronic records. In fact only about in one in twenty (6%) use a mobile device to access electronic records or prescribe medications using an electronic prescribing system. That’s despite the fact that almost three-quarters (72%) of providers report using mobile technology as part of their practice.

Although Apple pitched iBooks Author as a tool for educators, the company fully supports anyone who want to create an ebook using iBooks Author to do so. Apple also lets anyone that creates an ebook with iBooks Author to distribute it through the iBookstore – the catch being that the iBooks Author edition of an ebook can’t be published using another company’s store (though the text of the title can be repackaged using other apps and sold elsewhere). As usual, Apple will take a 30% cut of any sales.

There are, of course, plenty of non-education uses for iBooks Author.

One of, if not the, staple app for jailbreakers is called biteSMS. Apple’s Messages app is nice, but biteSMS takes it to a whole other level. If you have a jailbroken iPhone, there’s no reason you shouldn’t get biteSMS. A marquee feature is the ability to quickly reply to a message from anywhere in iOS (including the lock screen) without entering the actual Messages app. It saves a lot of time and looks really cool. And Quick Reply just scratches the surface of what biteSMS can do.

Fans of biteSMS will be happy to learn that a major update has been released today that brings several new improvements. The Cydia app’s developers have also offered a 50% discount for those of you wishing to buy the version without ads.

For the past couple of years, Ecoute has been a considered a staple third-party music player on the Mac. Known for its lightweight, minimalistic design, Ecoute works as an iTunes companion. With access to a Mac’s iTunes library, social network integration, shortcuts, and a simplistic design, many Mac users swear by Ecoute as their music player of choice on the desktop.

Today the makers of Ecoute have launched an official iPhone app in the App Store. Ecoute for iOS serves as a beautiful music player with Twitter integration, AirPlay support, music filters, podcast support, and more.

We’re getting to the stage where we could almost build a complete iPhone 5 out of all the parts leaks that have surfaced in recent weeks. Everything from the front panel to the slightly-tweaked home button has been shown, and now we’re just waiting for Apple to officially lift the curtain next month.

While we wait, more parts continue to leak out from supply chain sources overseas. Today hi-res shots of a fully assembled back casing for the next iPhone reveal the new headphone jack placement at the bottom of the device along with the rumored micro dock connector.

There are a few of us iPad users that may have gone a little bit crazy with the Newsstand app when it first came out. We thought it would be super cool to read ALL of our magazines on the iPad, especially when we travel – what better way to avoid paying the per-issue price in the airport magazine stand when we could have the latest issues of our favorite rags all loaded up on our magical iPad? Sounds great, right?

And then we got on the plane, and realized that we still had to turn off all electronic devices before take off, and wait till about 10,000 feet before we could read them. What a bummer. Then, when we tried to figure out how to unsubscribe from the darn things, we realized we were at a loss. We tried going back into the iTunes App store app description, we messed around in Newsstand, all to no avail.

Here’s how to do it, though, with little to no hassle.

One of the best things about using an iPhone to shoot your photos is the huge range of accessories you can buy to help out. But what if you’re on a budget? Or you just aren’t really into photography enough to spend more money? Or if you’re just bored today and feel like playing around?

Then you’re in the right place, because we’re about to take a look at DIY iPhone photo filters. And lenses. And other modifiers. And best of all, you probably have most of them around your home or office, ready for some instant procrastination. Let’s go!

When Apple unveiled iMessage, one of the first thoughts for many IT professionals and business users was that Apple had come up with a secure messaging platform that could rival RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger. While iMessage has a lot going for it as a secure messaging platform, there are still some reasons that it may not be an ideal business solution.

Every time you drop by your local Apple Store it’s probably crazy busy. Even when they haven’t launched a new product in months, the floors are always packed with people. Apple just opened its 374th and 375th retail stores this weekend in Canada.

While he was up in Canada, Jim Dalyrmple talked to Apple about the success of their retail operation and came away with some interesting statistics – like the fact that the genius bar services about 50,000 people a day, for over 18 million appointments a year.

This is the SuperTooth Disco 2. It’s the sequel to one of my favorite Bluetooth speakers ever, the SuperTooth, only smaller, a little quieter, and a lot more stereo-er. It also has a quirky little flower-vase style which will probably grow on you, especially if you have small tables.

If you’re going to be in the Los Angeles area this week, you should really check out The LA Mobile Arts Festival. Tons of artists will be at Santa Monica Art Studios celebrating iPhoneography and the underground mobile arts movement with tons and tons of cool art installations that were all made with an iPhone.

The festival contains the largest ever exhibit of iPhoneography art, and will be open from August 18th-August 25th. The exhibit looks really awesome, and the organizers even sent Cult of Mac a sneak peak at some of the stuff you can find at the festival.

Here are just 12 of the many amazing iPhoneography works you can see at the festival:

Where is Steve Jobs right now? According to the abbot of a Buddhist temple in Thailand, Apple’s iconic co-founder has been re-incarnated as a mid-level angel currently residing in an ethereal six-storey building located not far from his Apple office in a parallel world. He is also a half-giant.

The rumor-mill has been churning for weeks and it seems almost guaranteed that Apple will unveil the new iPhone on September 12th. That gives you a little over three weeks to find a buyer for your old iPhone before its value drops once Apple announces the new iPhone.

Problem is, if you sell your iPhone right now you’ll have to go a couple weeks without it, maybe pick up a crappy Android phone for cheap, and no one should have to suffer through that. This year there’s actually a way to sell your iPhone and keep it, because Gazelle is offering a pretty sweet deal you’ll want to check out.

There has been no shortage of iPhone and iPad accessories that attempt to mix old school technologies with the new. Some pull it off pretty well, while others are just comical. The iTypewriter is probably the most preposterous thing we’ve seen all month, but hipsters everywhere are going to love it.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 made its debut last week and has already found its innards spread across a table for all to see. That’s right, I’m talking about the customary iFixit teardown. That’s when a member of the iFixit team dissects a device to expose its parts and determine its level of repairability. You’ll be happy to know the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 scored an 8 out of 10 for ease of repair, completely shaming Apple’s new iPad, which barely scored a 2.

PC games: they can be the bane of a Mac gamer’s existence. The Mac may be a better computer than a windows box, but even so, most games don’t support OS X. Even on Steam, the leader in cross-platform computer game support, most games run only on Windows. The reasons for this are manifold, including mid-level integrated graphics chips and less customizable hardware, but it shouldn’t be this disparate.

There are a few options for running those PC games on Macs, of course. There’s Boot Camp, which allows you to run a full copy of Windows right on your Intel-based Mac, but it requires a reboot to switch between OS X and Windows environments, which can be tedious. There are emulators you can buy, like Parallels and VMWare Fusion, but these never quite pan out, in my experience, as they always seem to be fraught with issues when connecting peripherals, mice, etc. They also cost a bit, and require a full copy of Windows, which will run you some money, too.

I just want a way to play a game that is created for the Windows operating system on my Mac, without a reboot, without buying a new program or new copy of an operating system I really don’t want to use.

Luckily, there’s a way to do just that.

Last week, analyst Andy Zaky revealed that investors are scrambling to plough their money into Apple before the company releases its iPhone 5, and that its stock price will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. And unsurprisingly, Zaky was right. Apple stock hit an all-time high of $636.64 last Friday, but that’s nothing compared to today’s price of $660.73, which makes Apple the most valuable publicly-traded stock of all time.

Square’s announcement of its partnership with Starbucks and the launch of new mobile payment company by several key retail and service chains were signs that the mobile payment industry and digital wallet concept is big business. Late last week, however, there was more news on the mobile payments front that proves that the race is far from over – one could even say that it’s barely started.

In a move that could make Square’s deal with Starbucks seem small and limited, Reuters reports that PayPal may soon be expanding its brand of mobile payments to include on the biggest fast food chains on the planet – McDonald’s. PayPal is currently testing a payment system in 30 McDonald’s locations in France. The company demoed the technology earlier this year.