Cult of Mac

The iPhone and iPad are revolutionizing business as we know it, causing companies to throw out old playbooks that mandated strict control over every piece of technology in the workplace. That revolution is liberating workers everywhere to choose their own devices, pick the best apps, and enjoy using technology in the office for the first time since… well ever.

All this month, we’re going to spend time highlighting the businesses helping to power that revolution: companies that take iPhones and iPads into the office and let them drive and control all the enterprise systems in place in your workplace.

Do you carry a backup battery, a camera connection kit and a charger with you in your man-sack? Yeah, me too, and it’s really no big deal as even together they weight almost nothing. But if you’d rather combine these items into one easy-to-lose box, then the Cellink I is just the thing for you.

This is a rather beautiful concept for what the next-gen iPhone could look like, courtesy of French designer Antoine Brieux. . It’s fanciful stuff, of course, featuring a Liquid Metal casing, but what I find most interesting is this idea that the home button could be replaced with a “virtual home button” that displays on a larger 4.5-inch widescreen display.

Several musicians who are involved in a class action lawsuit with Universal Music Group are demanding to see sensitive documents from a previous case that involved Apple. The documents include trial exhibits, expert reports, and a deposition from Steve Jobs that reportedly caused one judge to order almost everyone out of the courtroom.

Apple sees the material as “highly confidential” and strongly objects to handing it over. But why is the company trying so hard to keep this mysterious document under wraps?

According to the latest report from the International Data Corporation, Samsung has ousted both Apple and Nokia to aquire the top spot in both smartphone and total mobile phone shipments for the first quarter of 2012. This marks the first time since the inception of IDC’s Mobile Phone Tracker that Nokia did not lead the global market in total mobile phone shipments. That’s quite a testament to Samsung’s tremendous growth over the past year, which according to the IDC, was nearly triple in the smartphone category.

I can’t be sure, as I was a brainless, sieve-memoried child at the time, but I’m pretty sure that our family’s first portable (B&W) TV had a screen that wasn’t much bigger than the screen of my iPad. Still, the crappy picture and bulbous, almost circular screen didn’t stop my brother and I laying belly-down on the end of our parent’s bed and watching Monkey roll up the screen in a fuzz of snow and bad reception.

Now I can relive those dark days by putting my iPad into the Handmade Natural Stained Wood Retro TV iPad Dock, an Etsy product whose name is as good as a description.

When asked about Microsoft’s attempt to converge its mobile and desktop platforms into a single Windows 8 release, Tim Cook responded with an analogy of trying to converge a toaster and a refrigerator. If interest in Microsoft’s Consumer Preview release of Windows 8 is any guide, it seems that the public might agree with him.

According to Net Applications, a web analytics company, only a very small fraction of devices connecting to the Internet were running the preview – just 0.11% (or 11 out of every 10,000).

Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that his girlfriend and Steve Jobs were the inspiration behind a new, “life-saving” Facebook feature that allows users to share that they’re an organ donor with their friends via their Timeline. The social networks hopes that the new feature will help spread awareness for organ donation, and encourage as many people as possible to donate.

Command-Shift-3 is so last year. Using Grab to, well, grab shots of your screen is blasé. If you’re really hip, you’ll use today’s tip to get your screenshots and thank us for it in the comments below.

Alfred, an incredible productivity tool for Mac OS X that was voted the best Mac application of 2011 by Cult of Mac readers, has just received a “huge” update that introduces two new color themes and large type support, plus a whole host of improvements.

The Flashback malware which was found to be infecting over 650,000 Macs at its peak was earning its creators up to $10,000 a day, according to security specialists Symantec. The OSX.Flashback.K trojan, which is believed to be the largest Mac infection to date, is designed to steal page views and advertising revenue from Google.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has promised to investigate Apple’s claims of 4G connectivity for the new iPad in the United Kingdom after the Cupertino company failed to remove all references to ‘4G’ from its U.K. online store. Although the device boasts 4G capabilities, they are not available in the U.K. where there are currently no 4G networks.

If you have been reading Ken Segall’s new book about Apple, Insanely Simple, then you’ll recognize the hallmarks of simplicity all over JawBone’s work. Even the e-mail containing the press release for its new speaker reads as little more than “Jawbone just released a BIG JAMBOX.”

That’s what it’s called. The BIG JAMBOX. And from its name, you know almost all there is to know about it.

There is perhaps no name in the world of hacking as legendary as Geohot. George Hotz was the first person to unlock the original iPhone back in 2007. He was 17 years old at the time. He also released multiple jailbreaks, including “purplera1n” for the iPhone 3GS. Hotz later went on to hack the PlayStation 3 and battle Sony in a high-profile lawsuit.

In a recent profile by The New Yorker, we get a fascinating look at Hotz and several stories from his career as a prolific, self-taught hacker.

When Apple introduced the MacBook Air without an optical drive, everyone freaked out. “How on earth will we be able to watch all of our DVDs and listen to our CDs?” cried the internet. And sure, totally disowning physical media with a disk drive-less laptop may have been a little preemptive of Apple back in 2008, but the times have changed since then. We live in a world of digital media and digital software distribution. The success of services like Netflix and the Mac App Store proves that.

With rumors saying that Apple will introduce new and improved Macs in the coming weeks, what can we expect? Faster processors? Solid-state hard drives? Retina displays? While these features certainly seem to be on the table, there’s also the chance that Apple’s next-gen MacBook Pro will sport significant physical changes. Namely, we could finally see the optical drive retire from the MacBook line once and for all.

Apple’s iTunes Match service is rolling out to more countries across the globe, including Italy, Greece and Portugal. The music storage and streaming service can be purchased directly in the iTunes Store.

This marks Apple’s second major international rollout of iTunes Match to date, following the service’s expansion to parts of Latin America and Europe back in January.

Take a look under your desk at that power-strip. My guess is that, even though it is probably overloaded with another power-strip plugged into it, there are at least a couple of spare sockets. It’s not that you don’t need them — it’s that you can use them thanks to all the awkward-shaped adapters jammed into it. If only you could bend and twist your power-strip to get better access to its hard-to-reach holes…

Cult of Mac Deals has what our readers have called “the best giveaway yet” — and it’s really hard to argue that.

It’s a giveaway that will level up your productivity…because we’re offering you a chance to win a bundle that contains all of The Omni Group’s top Mac apps!

This giveaway is valued at $580 — and it’s one that you definitely want to have in your Mac toolbox!

Earlier in this day, we reported on a New York Times piece in which the paper claimed that Apple was using a variety of measure to avoid paying U.S. income tax. It turns out that the Times based key pieces of its information on a study that had been discredited two weeks prior.

The data used by the Times included a report by the Greenlining Institute, which made errors in computing Apple’s supposed tax rate at 9.8% for the 2011. The data used by the report effectively compared Apple’s 2011 profit with taxes paid by the company for profits in 2010 and drew unfounded conclusions as a result.

The iPad has a pretty slick feature that you can access when it’s in the locked state. If you look to the bottom right of the lock screen, you’ll see an icon that looks like a picture of a little flower. Tap that and your iPad will start a slideshow of all the photos it has onboard. The default slideshow is fun, especially if you have your iPad up on display, but you don’t have to settle for the default settings. Today’s tip shows you how to change them to your heart’s content.

When it comes to our mobile devices and the operating systems we use, we can sometimes be a bit defensive and downright vile. We’re usually quick to make a joke or two at the expense of one another, but in the end, we’re all human, and most of us are surprisingly close friends who frequently kick back and enjoy a cold beer together (even if some of us accidentally leave our prototypes behind). That’s why this next invention will have tech-loving beer connoisseurs foaming at the mouth (literally).

Remember the IKEA cardboard camera that popped up in a Milan press goody-bag last week? It turns out that it was actually a thing — IKEA is billing it as the “world’s cheapest digital camera,” and it should be going on sale in the Swedish giant’s labyrinthine stores soon.

Like the rest of the BookBook range, Twelve South’s BookBook for iPhone ($60) is a luxury, handmade leather wallet case that’s designed to look like a pocket-sized vintage book. Not only will it lovingly house your iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S, but it also features three credit card pockets, and a larger pouch for notes and bills.

The BookBook is available in a dark tan brown leather, and every one is hand-distressed to ensure each one is a little bit unique. As you’d expect, the case provides access to your iPhone’s dock connector; headphone jack; mute switch; and volume, home, and sleep/wake buttons.

Readers, your desperate wish to have Monty Python in your pocket everywhere you go has finally – finally – been granted. With Python Bytes on your iOS device, you need never be far from a quick spurt of Pythonism whenever you feel the need for it.

So whether you must hear the Parrot Sketch while waiting for the bus, or would like to pass the time in dull corporate meetings by watching Michael Palin do the Lumberjack Song, or simply enjoy seeing John Cleese in a pink bra; whatever the circumstances, this is the app for you. Possibly.

Going camping this spring? And by “camping” I mean hiking or biking with your home on your back, and heading out into the wilderness. I don’t mean loading up your SUV and dragging a grill, a tent the size of a European house and enough ball games to keep an entire schools-worth of kids occupied for a month.

So, if you’re heading out under your own power, how about taking a stove that a) requires no liquid fuel, b) burns fast and hot and c) charges your iPhone? What’s not to like?