“Oh. Oh. Oh!” was the ejaculative ‘sentence’ I uttered when I saw the press release for this new Micro Four Thirds lens. It comes from Panasonic, and runs from 12-35mm, or 24-70 in old money, and also packs in image stabilization.

That’s fine. But the reason I’m excited is that the maximum aperture is a constant ƒ2.8 along the whole zoom range — a first for mirrorless systems says Panasonic.

FarSight Studios, creators of Pinball Arcade, is looking for your help to digitize one of the greatest pinball machines of all time: The Twilight Zone. The Twilight Zone table was released by Midway under the Bally label and is currently number one in user rankings on the Internet Pinball Database. Many pinball experts consider it to be the most complex pinball machine ever created, and being able to preserve it in digital form is a dream of FarSight Studios.

AT&T is one of 48 carriers worldwide which have a network vulnerability that allows hackers to intercept cellular data and inject malicious content into the traffic that passes between smartphones and the websites they visit. The flaw can be used to transfer code to unencrypted pages which causes a user to perform unintended actions, like sending messages or friend requests from Facebook and Twitter. And your iPhone may be vulnerable.

Finally, a magnetic iPhone mount that won’t embarrass you, either when actually mounted on the wall or in transit. It’s called the Wallee M, and it is about as sleek as a mounting set could get.

One way to look at the consumerization of IT is as a democratization of workplace technology decisions. Executives and employees alike have become much more sophisticated users of technology. Through iPhones and iPads, they see how well-designed devices, platforms, and apps can create enjoyable and, more importantly, productive user experiences. As a result, they don’t tolerate clunky business systems and slow IT responses as much as they did a few years ago.

Many executives and pundits believe this has already changed the balance of power between the CIO/IT management and the CFO and other executives. A recent Gartner survey found that overall, CFOs are leading IT decision-making more than they were just two years ago. One could even argue that in addition to disrupting industries like music and mobile technology, Apple is subtly disrupting IT and business itself  (with some help from other tech and business innovators).

Imagine that you could buy a tiny USB-powered box that detected your motion like Microsoft’s Kinect, only instead of watching you jump around a room, it watched your hands and fingers. Imagine that the box was sensitive enough to track the tip of a pencil tracing out letters in a 1cm square of space, and to turn that into accurate handwriting on the screen.

Amazingly, that box is available for preorder right now. It’s called the Leap, and it works with your Mac.

You know those awful bendable lamps that coil from your computer’s long-suffering USB port and let you point the cold, bluish-green LED light in any direction except the one you want? Well, somebody took one of these silvery snakes, improved it, turned it into an iPhone charger and gave it a ridiculous name: The Une Bobine. It’s probably French or something.

Apple is renowned for obsessing over tiny details and making its products as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside, and the company maintains that design policy for everything it creates, whether it’s a $1,200 MacBook Pro, or a $30 iPhone charger.

In fact, Apple has gone to great lengths to ensure those tiny iPhone chargers are safe and efficient, and it uses state of the art technology to do that — which is why its chargers are more expensive than most.

Late last week, RIM got FCC approval to ship LTE models of its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. The news isn’t a complete surprise. RIM had announced plans for a 4G PlayBook option last year when the tablet originally shipped. Sprint was the targeted as the primary U.S. carrier for the device, which would’ve operated on Sprint’s WiMax network, but the carrier announced it was canceling that plan after the initial Wi-Fi PlayBook shipped (and got less than stellar reviews).

FreezePaint is a very neat iPhone app that lets you “remix” the world around you. Or rather, it allows you to make a scrapbook of anything you see, just by pointing your iPhone camera at it and painting in the parts you want to keep. And don’t be put off by the photos on the site — they’re a little cheesy, but when you actually start playing with the app, you’ll be surprised by its potential.

Anytime a new jailbreak comes out, there’s a degree of confusion about what devices are supported, whether it’s safe to upgrade your firmware, etc. That’s as true now on the eve of pod2g’s upcoming iOS 5.1.1 Absinthe 2.0 jailbreak as it ever was before. Thankfully, pod2g and fellow jailbreak maestro MuscleNerd have put together a quick info sheet about everything you can expect when the untethered jailbreak drops later this week.

The summary? It’s safe to upgrade your devices to iOS 5.1.1 now, and the only iOS device that Absinth 2.0 won’t crack open is the third-gen Apple TV. As for the release date? Plans are this week, if everything goes to the plan.

Ever wished your Mac could look more like your iPhone? Well, according to this video and today’s tip, it can. Pull up a chair, the nearest Mac with OS X on it, and your downloading fingers. Here’s how you do it.

There are a ton of terrific iPhone apps that turn your device into a pocket-sized scanner, allowing you to capture documents and photos for copying, emailing, editing, and more. But the problem with these apps is that they only work well if you capture your subject at the right angle with a steady hand.

Scanbox aims to make this process a whole lot easier by turning your iPhone into a sturdy portable scanner for just $15.

When you open up your MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro, the glowing Apple logo on its hood sits upright so that everyone in Starbucks knows that you’re using a Mac. However, it hasn’t always been that way. There was a time when Apple logos were upside down on the lid of Apple notebooks, until Steve Jobs realized his mistake.

One of the features that I love most about iOS 5 is Automatic Downloads, which allows me to purchase an app, book, or song on my iPhone and have it installed on my iPad at almost exactly the same time. It’s great for users with multiple iOS devices, and it’s also coming to the Mac.

One developer has discovered the ability to turn on Automatic Downloads for Mac App Store purchases under the latest OS X Mountain Lion release.

Big news from the jailbreak community can tend to come out on the weekends, and this weekend is no exception. Earlier today Chronic Dev Team hacker pod2g confirmed that the upcoming untethered jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1 is only a “matter of days” away from dropping. We’ve been telling you that the jailbreak is coming for months, but it looks like things are finally coming together for a public release.

Coincidentally, a hacking convention called “Hack in the Box” will be taking place this week, and the Chronic Dev Team will be there in full force. We’re hearing that the new jailbreak tool will likely be announced at the conference. The name of the new jailbreak will be “Absinthe 2.0,” following the previous version of Absinthe that jailbroke the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 for the first time.

Apparently, Apple retail stores are like catnip (or, something stronger, no doubt) to cities across the US. According to a new report, Apple is courted by cities looking to capture the extra cash of the tragically young and hip urban consumers that Apple Stores bring to area malls everywhere.

Every once in a while an “insanely great” offer comes around that can’t be missed…and this happens to be one of those deals.

For only $40 (which includes free shipping) you’ll get this flawless iPad accessory delivered right to your doorstep. (Please note: This Cult of Mac Deals offer is only available to customers located in the continental United States.)

This 2011 Macworld Best of Show winner was designed to be used not just at your desk or on a table, but also on your lap while kicking back on the sofa or laying in bed, the iRest lets you view your iPad’s screen in comfort with excellent stability.

Leading this week’s must-have apps roundup is a terrific photography app called StillShot, which allows you to extract full-resolution still images from your videos. It breaks your clips down into frames and allows you to save the best ones — all for less than a dollar.

We’ve also got a great note-taking app that claims to be the “word-processor for visual thinking,” an app that will ensure you never forget your grocery shopping list again, plus terrific updates to Flipboard and The Weather Channel.

All the major mobile platform companies, including Apple, are working on solutions for “contactless payments” and digital wallets — the use of a phone as a credit card. Google’s Android supports NFC, or near-field communication. Google Wallet enables payments from phones.

Everyone has been waiting for Apple to catch up. The company has a pile of patents that reference a mobile digital wallet service called “iWallet.”

An analyst this week predicted something shocking: Instead of (or in addition to) adding NFC to future iPhones, Apple will use Bluetooth 4.0 for iWallet, a story first reported on Cult of Mac by John Brownlee.

One stunning fact about this prediction is that the wireless hardware has already been deployed at scale. Every major product Apple has shipped in the past year, including the iPhone and iPad, supports Bluetooth 4.0.

All Apple needs to do to make iWallet a reality is ship an app.

Another stunning fact is that Bluetooth 4.0 has a range of over 160 feet. That means participating retail stores can function like Apple Stores — without cash registers. The point of sale can be anywhere in the store. Restaurant diners can pay from the table — without the waiter being involved.

I think Apple wants to kill the cash register. Here’s why they might succeed.

Remember when people used to say that the iPad was a “content consumption device” useless for real “content creation”?

It’s a weird thing to say about a gadget offering a gazillion content-creation apps, but people said it. People still say it.

Pundits and writers say the iPad sucks for “real work” in general and writing in particular. I have come to believe the opposite: To me, the iPad is the best writing tool I’ve ever used.

And I think Ernest Hemingway would agree. 

We all know that Steve Jobs acquired Pixar in 1986. The studio released it’s first mega hit, Toy Story, in 1995, continuing on to win award after award with fantastic storytelling and groundbreaking computer animation techniques. A creative studio like Pixar needs a creative workplace environment, no? Andrew Gordon tells the story of one such secret place in the Pixar compound in an animated (natch) YouTube video.

According to Foss Patents, Apple filed a motion for an immediate US ban of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 yesterday. This comes in the wake of Monday’s Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruling that was partially in favor of Apple.

If Apple’s motion succeeds, there will then be a US ban in place against three major Android device makers. Last December, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) banned specific HTC products based on an Apple patent and this past Friday, the ITC banned some Motorola devices based on a Microsoft patent. Seems like litigation is the new weapon of choice in this war of supremacy.

It’s been nearly two years since Sonic The Hedgehog: Episode I made its debut on consoles, and Sony has finally managed to deliver a sequel. Thankfully, it was worth the wait — and it leads this week’s roundup of must-have iOS games.

We’ve also got Bejeweled for the iPad, a Doodle Jump knockoff that’s even better than the original, a monkey that flies an airplane, and more.

There are currently two movies about Steve Jobs in the works. The one we’re most excited for is based off Walter Isaacson’s official biography and is being made by Sony in conjunction with Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. An indie film dubbed jOBS and starring Ashton Kutcher as Jobs is also underway. More information about the second film has been released.

We’ve already seen pictures of Kutcher in the infamous black turtleneck, and now the people behind the film have confirmed that parts of jOBS will be shot in the garage where Apple was started.