In Ray Bradbury’s dystopian sci-fi classic Fahrenheit 451, books are outlawed by the government in the 24th century.

According to Bradbury, this imagined ban didn’t happen overnight. It was preceded by gradual trivialization of information in general. People increasingly preferred TV sound-bites and frivolous, out-of-context nuggets of information over reasoned argument and well-researched books about important ideas.

Eventually, writers and readers of books became so culturally marginalized that it was easy for the government to just eliminate them and their work by burning down any home or building that contained books.

Bradbury’s nightmare is in fact happening, and way ahead of schedule. 

If you’re tired of moving your main speakers from place to place and don’t want to put headphones on (or in) your ears every time you want to hear music while you’re on the go, this soon-to-end Cult of Mac Deals offer is for you. The Sphear speakers we’re offering go beyond your bedroom. Take them anywhere and play them on any of your Mac devices. For the size, the sound is flawless and for a very limited time we have this speaker set on sale for only $20! And yes, that includes shipping!

Here’s the catch with this deal: once all 200 of these Sphear speakers are gone, this sale is history…and this deal is only available to a shipping address in the 48 continental United States.

Spotify is a wonderful platform for streaming music and sharing playlists with your friends, but the service’s lack of an official iPad app has been a great disappoint for Apple users. Spotify’s main competitor, Rdio, boasts a beautiful iPad app that lets its users browse and play music.

Spotify has been saying that an official iPad app is coming for over a year, but the trail has grown cold for many months. There are no unofficial Spotify for iPad app alternatives in the App Store at the moment. But it looks like that’s going to change soon.

Following two independent Java security updates and one last patch to detect and remove the Flashback trojan, Apple has released another software tool for getting rid of Flashback on a Mac running OS X Lion without Java installed.

Flashback is the name of a virus that was able to infect a Mac and link it up to a botnet of around 600,000 other Macs. If you’ve updated your Mac with the latest Java patch, you should be fine, but Apple has provided this new tool for safe measure to Mac users running Lion without Java already installed.

An unconfirmed report surfaced yesterday saying that Apple CEO Tim Cook was spotted at Valve’s headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. Whenever Cook is spotted out and about, people take notice. The CEO of the world’s most valuable company doesn’t personally visit other tech companies to simply have a chat.

Many speculated as to why Cook would be visiting Valve, maker of popular game series like Half-Life, Team Fortress and Portal. Valve also boasts an incredibly robust online PC gaming platform called Steam that operates similarly to Apple’s App Store.

We’ve gotten word that Cook was indeed at Valve yesterday, and what’s more, Apple is planning a full-on assault to take over the living room. This assault won’t just be limited to the long-rumored Apple HDTV set, but will also include a revolutionary home console as well.

Verizon continues to blanket the US with 4G LTE while the rest of the carriers desperately play catch up. We’re quick to complain about Verizon’s high prices but at least they’re putting that money to work. Today, Verizon announced it will be expanding its 4G LTE reach in ten California markets as well as Reno, Nevada within the coming weeks. 3G will soon be a thing of the past for those living in the following California cities:

One of the traditional ways for IT professionals to highlight their knowledge of specific technologies and technical concepts is through the acquisition of certifications. There are a number of vendor-crafted certifications available as well as vendor-neutral certifications that illustrate competence in various technical disciplines like troubleshooting and repair, security, healthcare, and overall network management. Certifications have never guaranteed a job in and of themselves, but they do help candidates sell themselves to recruiters and IT managers.

One of the many challenges with the consumerization of IT, mobility, and cloud services trends is that they are dramatically shifting the skill sets required to succeed in the IT field. As a result, the perceived value of certifications has fluctuated as softer skills like business integration and project management have become more desirable. The need for professionals that have extremely specialized skills is being surpassed by the need for IT generalists.  

Episode 8 of The CultCast just hit iTunes, and this one is more action-packed than an Aw-nuld Schwarzenegger flick from the 1990s.

Join us and our pal, Ars Technica Writer Chris Foresman, as we divulge the secrets of the rumored new Air-like Macbook Pro; explain why Facebook just ate Instagram and what it means for you; and the scary new Flashback virus — is your Mac infected?

All that and lots more on this week’s CultCast — subscribe now on iTunes!

It seems that every week for the past few months, there’s been at least one or two announcements of app developers, cloud service providers, and mobile management vendors developing strategic partnerships to create or integrate their products into a single unified workflow.

Box’s OneCloud initiative, in which the storage provider teamed up with more than two dozen app developers to create seamless workflows for several different business and productivity tasks, is probably the biggest example of this trend. Others include Quickoffice launching its own cloud service as well as integrating with Accellion’s kitedrive, LogMeIn’s new Cubby service, and CloudOn’s virtualized version of Microsoft Office that integrates with Box and Dropbox for storage.

Apple has spoken out regarding the rumor that French designer Philippe Starck is working with the company on a “revolutionary” product to be released in the next 8 months. Starck and Apple are working on no such thing, according to a spokesperson from Cupertino. In the interview that caused the original rumor, Strack was instead referring to a yacht he was working on with the late Steve Jobs.

What a month it has been for Instagram. The lean and mean social photography app was just acquired by Facebook for a jaw-dropping $1 billion. Instagram for Android also launched at the beginning of April and has seen unprecedented growth.

Last we heard Instagram was wielding 30 million users, making it the biggest mobile-only social network in existence. According to new data, Instagram has now hit over 40 million users, and the app is averaging around one million new signups per day.

Jawbone’s Jambox is already one of the best loved miniature portable Bluetooth speakers out there, and we’re here to add to the praise: this is a great piece of kit for anyone who wants to take out the headphones and pump up the volume far more than what the iPhone or iPad’s dinky build-in speakers allow.

But it’s more than just a great speaker. It’s the very distillation of the great design that has sprung up in the accessory space in direct response to the way Apple has redefined the way we look at computers, from pieces of assembled technology to experiences. If you were looking for just one gadget to pick up and show a friend how Apple has revolutionized design outside of its, the Jambox would be a good contender.

A good pair of calipers can measure a small object much more accurately than a ruler or tape measure. Buying one, however, could cost around $100 or so, according to RealCaliper developer Pocketdemo e.u.r.l. Here’s how to use this $1.99 app to measure something small.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was reportedly spotted at the headquarters of PC gaming platform Valve this morning. The Washington-based company boasts the most robust and established desktop gaming network in existence. Think of Valve as the iTunes of PC gaming. Is a Valve/Apple partnership in the works?

So you’ve wanted the opportunity to learn how to code your own website but you just…haven’t…done…it. Well, Cult of Mac Deals is here to get you started on the path to, well…doing it.

With the Web Dev and SEO Course Bundle, you’ll learn how to code, attract thousands of visitors to your brand new website and get certified in HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP and MySQL. By the time you’re done with these two video courses, you’ll be a certified web developer and will be able to implement strategic SEO tactics to make sure people can find your brand new website. Cult of Mac Deals is offering this bundle for a limited time for only $79!

The Apple rumor mill got thrown into a tizzy this morning when an obscure interview with renowned French designer Philippe Starck surfaced. According to translations of a radio interview with France Info, Starck said he was working on a “revolutionary” new project with Apple to be unveiled in the next 8 months.

iTV? New iPhone? A yacht for the late Steve Jobs? A new Iron Man suit? Everyone immediately started speculating about what the mythical project could be. As it turns out, Starck was probably just referring to his design work for a new Apple Store.

We’ve long been in love with Italian design house Ciccarese Design’s incredible renders of upcoming Apple products, and the images they just sent us of what they envision a 7.85-inch iPad mini would look like in the flesh are no exception. No implausible whimsy here: these could just as well be product shots pushed up on Apple’s site the day after the iPad mini is officially announced by Tim Cook later this summer, and really puts the totally usable size of such a device in perspective. Check out some more after the jump.

Apple has been dreaming big since like forever. Even when they knew current technology couldn’t support their crazy dreams, they’d still throw wacky but brilliant ideas around. The iPhone didn’t change the world until it was launched in 2007, but Apple had been dreaming up “iPhone” concepts 24 years earlier.

This particular Apple Phone concept was created back in 1983 by Hartmut Esslinger from Apple’s design firm Frogdesigns. It features a touch-screen, apps, touch-screen keyboard, and even one of those pesky stylus things that Steve Jobs hated so much.

Maybe it couldn’t have mass produced these suckers back in 1983, but take a look at what could have been a phenomenal Apple product:

Over the last couple of months Sharp has been rumored to be Apple’s partner for producing the LCDs of the mysterious “iTV” the world is waiting for. While analysts, such as Peter Misek, have been linking Sharp to Apple for a while now, definitive proof of their connection has yet to surface. However, adding to the rumors, Sharp announced today that they have begun production on 32-inch Hi-DPI LCD’s displays this March that could be used in Apple’s new iMac line that is expected to be unveiled in June.

Ideas is an iOS app for managing, organising and sorting your ideas and thoughts. It stands out from the crowd thanks to a refreshingly different interface that does the job very well. It usually costs two bucks, but right now it’s on sale for one dollar.

There are a number of fields and professions in which mobile professionals share a pool of mobile devices. For companies with field agents, sales people, and marketing professionals, the need for each user to have a dedicated device may not be the most economical option and a better approach can be to simply configure a number of iPads with similar specs that users or teams can check out when they go on the road.

This shared iPad model can be  a way to implement the iPad while reducing overall expense. One challenge, however, is that a business typically needs to provide mobile Internet access for individuals or small teams – something that can be a pricey proposition.

Meet the world’s newest super-yacht, Adastra. It’s like looking at the embodiment of sex on water. She’s like the hottest chick from your high school that knows she’s fine and there ain’t nothing you can do to attain her as she floats by laughing at your pitiful life that will never glimpse her interior.

Not only is Adastra fine as hell, but she’s smart too, and ultra high-tech. She’s so high-tech that the entire yacht can be controlled remotely by an iPad, while the crew is frolicking on the shores of some fantasy island. After drooling over Adastra’s gorgeous metal and glass hull I can’t help but think this yacht would have been perfect for Steve Jobs.

I’ve always liked the idea of Bump: instead of trading contact details with someone by typing it all in, why not just pull out your iPhone and bump them together and have all the relevant details automagically traded between devices?

In reality, Bump’s main problem is that Apple hasn’t bought them and baked them into the core of iOS. I have Bump on my iPhone, but it’s not often I meet anyone else with it, which means I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been able to trade contact info with someone with a totally awesome fist bump.

Still, if you hang out with more Bump-centric circles than I, you may well want to know that the latest update added the ability to add a Bumpee as a social network contact on Twitter or Facebook.

The HandiZoom is an add-on camera grip that makes your SLR handle more like a camcorder. A really big, heavy camcorder. It is currently at the prototype stage, but looks like it could prove popular with one-man crews shooting documentary footage.

This is just totally sick. The guys over at Germany’s Hardwrk have taken 16GB of DDR3 RAM and a 1TB Samsung 830 SATA III SSD bundled up in an SSD-RAID-0, slapped it into a 13-inch MacBook Pr running an Intel Core i7-2640M 2.8GHz chip.

The result? A three-thousand euro behemoth of a machine — custom-engraved and covered in a beautiful matte black covering — that they say is the world’s fastest MacBook Pro, and with a 1.7 second PhotoShop boot-up time, we’re inclined to believe them.

Best of all? They’re giving this bad boy away to one lucky winner. All you have to do is leave a comment on their post.