Practically every mobile phone carrier in the U.S. has relied on the iPhone to boost their sales numbers and increase customer satisfaction in recent years (sorry, T-Mobile). It turns out that betting on the iPhone isn’t just great because it gives customers the pretty device they want, but converting users into iPhone owners might mean that they will be more likely to stay with your carrier in the long run even when your service sucks. On the other hand, BlackBerry and Android owners are quicker to jump ship when the service has problems.

As a bunch of professional underpants bloggers, the editorial bullpen at Cult of Mac drinks a lot of beer. Seriously. When you’re taking your first sip of coffee in the morning and pouring your cornflakes, we’re already a six pack up on you, and by the time at the end of the day when the last words come trembling off our fingers, that’s about the same time the DTs are setting in. In fact, Cult of Mac’s San Francisco headquarters isn’t even a proper office, but rather a skunky, wobbling skyscraper made up entirely of our empties. You might have seen it towering on the horizon off of the local garbage dump.

The point is, basically, we’re all just sheets to the wind all the time, and can open a beer with anything. Pen. Knife. Our teeth. Another bottle. The curb. Anything. So why the heck didn’t we ever figure out you can use an iPhone, iPad or MacBook power brick to bust a beer open? How did OS X Daily of all people outscoop us?

Source: OS X Daily

Whether or not Foxconn’s running sweatshops is some matter of debate. The China Labor Watch says Foxconn’s iPhone assembly lines are sweatshops, while the Fair Labor Association says that factory worker conditions are much, much better than at actual sweatshops.

Now Foxconn CEO Terry Gou is trying to settle the debate. Yes, Gou says, Foxconn may well be running a sweatshop… but what’s wrong with sweatshops anyway?

At last, here’s the Apple TV everyone is waiting for. Well, kinda. Bang & Olufsen’s new V1 is a 32 or 40-inch 1080p TV with a hole in the back where you can hide your little puck-sized Apple TV. This, combined with a remote that can be used to control Apple’s set-top box, means that the V1 is the closest you’ll get to an actual HDTV from Apple.

Can the iPad help finance, wealth management, and corporate banking companies rebuild a sense of trust with their customers after the global financial crisis? According to the analysts at Ovum, the answer is yes.

Analysts at the research firm released a note this week noting that the iPad (and tablets in general) is a perfect tool for the industries, which are often dominated by in-person “face-time” meetings.

Transferring files from your Mac to your iPhone is supposed to be an easy process thanks to iCloud, but sometimes the lack of a physical connection between your devices can make the process feel daunting. Or that’s what Ishac Bertran thinks, anyway. He’s come up with a neat concept idea that is simple and clever for tranferring photos, webpages, music, etc., to your iPhone or iPad, even if it’s not what users really need anymore. Ishac claims,

Our devices are well connected virtually, through services like DropBox or iCloud. Those offer wireless synchronization for data, but the devices that contain this data still miss a tangible connection. I thought that a representation of a physical connection would facilitate a more intuitive interaction based on traditional mental models from the physical world.

Here’s a video of Bertran’s concept in action:

According to reports from Twitter, the music subscription service Rdio, appears to have secretly launched in the U.K. and France. While Rdio has yet to chime in on the subject, users in those locations are now able to sign up for a free 7-day trial of unlimited listening. Everything seems to work, although I’m hearing quite a few people in the U.K. are unable to stream or download a significant number of albums (probably why we haven’t heard an official announcement from Rdio).

How do you like the idea of a solar-powered iPad keyboard case? Sounds pretty neat, right? What’s even better is that it comes from Logitech, a company that already makes some great iPad keyboards, so at least we know that the keyboard itself won’t be marred by mushiness.

When analysts and companies compare mobile devices, the big number everyone focuses on is how much market share each platform or product has in relation to its competitors. While this makes for a good overall view of the playing field, it doesn’t always give a clear or accurate picture of which companies are doing well on a single metric as a model for success and ignores others, like whether a platform or manufacturer managed to turn a significant profit.

This is, of course, a very big point when discussing Apple’s iOS succes compared to Android as a whole or to individual manufacturers – and something that Asymco’s latest review of the mobile phone market in which Apple accounts for a small 8.8% of handsets but reaps a whopping 73% of the industry’s profits.

The world’s first iPad-only newspaper, The Daily, is no longer an iPad-only newspaper after making its debut on the iPhone today. Launched back in February 2011, the publication is optimized for the digital age, and provides the latest breaking news for a whole host of topics, including business, the arts, technology, and sports.

iLounge has had decent luck predicting new iOS devices recently, managing earlier this year to correctly prophesize most of the details about the new iPad (although consensus had pretty much agreed upon them already).

Now iLounge is doing the same for the iPhone 4S, and while they echo a lot of the current speculation about a thinner iPhone 5 with a longer 4-inch display, the professional renders iLounge has put together are absolutely top-notch. This would be an incredibly attractive iPhone.

Penultimate, one of the two best pen-and-paper apps for the iPad, has gotten a Retina upgrade. This is a pretty big deal, as the feel and look of the ink, plus the responsiveness of the app, are what make it so great. Now, with super-smooth, hi-res graphics, can it keep its crown?

If you use Apple’s Mail app on your Mac to read and manage your email, you know that it puts the number of unread emails in a little red circle on the top right of the Mail icon in the Dock. If you’re like most of us, however, that number is usually a.) larger than you want it to be; b.) not very descriptive. How many of those emails are actually for you, personally? Today’s tips shows you how to make that happen.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jNJOd3muQg

Although several rather bizarre rumors have claimed Apple will integrate a projector into a future iPhone, it seems a little unlikely — at least for many years. But thanks to PoP Video, you can add your own projector that displays 960 x 540 video for just $99.

Deep down in my soul, I want to believe that Apple is going to come out with a holographic iPad and iPhone someday just so I can watch three dimensional Lady Gaga dance parties unfold in Lilliputian fashion. CES totally sold me on the idea, and even if we have to wait 15 years for a holographic iPad, I’m cool with that.

LA-based 3D artist Mike Ko decided to take it up a notch though, and envisioned what it would be like if three dimensional objects could blossom into life from the iPhone’s screen. Objects like, say, a miniature city with whimsical little cars zipping around the streets. Check out Mike’s iPhone 3D video masterpiece below and let us know what you think.

Saving up for that widely-rumored Apple television set? Well, according to one analyst, you have plenty of time. J.P. Morgan’s Mark Moskowitz issued a note to investors this week in which he states there is no indication Apple’s TV will make its debut during 2012, and that the current economic climate just isn’t suitable.

Moskowitz believes we’ll be waiting until 2014 instead, but suggests we could see an exciting new Apple TV set-top box before then.

If you’re a fan of first-person shooters and gaming on your mobile devices, then you should be looking forward to N.O.V.A. 3 from Gameloft. The company’s first N.O.V.A. titles have been two of the best smartphone shooters available — particularly on iOS — and the latest promises to be even better.

In its latest trailer, Gameloft teases N.O.V.A. 3’s incredible multiplayer mode, and damn… it looks good.

Jiggle mode. That’s what we call the moment you hold an iOS app icon until it starts wiggling uncontrollably on your home screen. There’s no technical name for when you tap, hold, and drag icons around, so jiggle mode it is.

Now that we’ve defined that comical term, meet AlwaysArrange. This new jailbreak tweak lets you arrange app icons on your iPhone without having to enter jiggle mode, and the experience is actually better than it sounds.

Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of Instagram secured the social networking giant ownership of the largest and fastest growing mobile photography network on the planet. Instagram has 50 million users, and Facebook is already the top site for image hosting on the internet.

There were rumors that other companies, like Google, were also in talks to buy Instagram before Facebook could sink its teeth in. The New York Times even said that Twitter was trying to court Instagram at one point. According to a new report, Twitter ended up approaching another hugely popular iPhone photography app after Facebook swooped in and stole Instagram.

FileMaker is offering early registration pricing for developers and database professionals attending the company’s annual developer conference. The conference, known as FileMaker DevCon will be held July 16-19, 2012 in Miami. Special pricing for conference attendees extends for nearly three weeks until May 22. Special hotel rates for attendees will continue through the middle of next month.

FileMaker DevCon is a four day event that will feature “under-the-hood” sessions, an Exhibitor Showcase, and several opportunities to connect with FileMaker engineers, product managers, and the company’s tech support team. The event includes more than 70 sessions for creating, managing, and deploying FileMaker solutions. The sessions will cover the latest version of the FileMaker lineup including desktop, server, and mobile versions of the product.

RunKeeper makes fitness apps for a variety of smartphones and is widely considered the premiere platform for tracking and sharing workout information. Today the company announced that it will be the first third-party service to partner with the Pebble watch, a record-breaking Kickstarter project that has collected over $8 million in funding. Pebble sports a customizable interface that can connect with apps and smartphones like the iPhone and Android.

Thanks to the partnership with RunKeeper, Pebble owners will be able to see live fitness data and control RunKeeper without touching their smartphones during a workout.

This is just awesome. Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust” as performed entirely by OS X system sounds. The only slight quibble we have is that it really should be using Siri to sing the lyrics… or, since Siri’s nowhere to be found on the Mac, at least the Samantha voice in OS X’s Text-To-Speech mode.

[via MacMagazine]

Rumors have been flying about Apple’s next-gen iPhone featuring a liquidmetal alloy casing, unlike the glass backing that currently cradles the iPhone 4 and 4S’s precious internals. Liquidmetal would assumedly create a lighter iPhone that’s also more durable and scratch resistant. There’s also been rumors that the next-gen MacBooks will be made of liquidmetal, but no hard evidence has surfaced to support the speculation.

Two years ago Apple bought exclusive rights to use material from Liquidmetal Technologies in its products, but we have yet to see a liquidmetal iPhone. The only liquidmetal material to be incorporated was the pin used for ejecting the iPhone 3G SIM card. Will 2012 be the year Apple’s product line goes liquidmetal? Sadly, the odds don’t look good.

In my day job, I work with folks with disabilities. Some of them have lost the ability to speak through an accident or stroke, and come to us looking for technology and devices to help them reclaim their ability to communicate with others. One of the apps I find myself frequently recommending is today’s tip.

May is Mobile Management Month at Cult of Mac, where we will be profiling a different mobile management company every weekday. You can find all previous entries here  and read our Mobile Management manifesto here.

AirWatch provides a full range of mobile management features and implements all of the iOS 4 and iOS 5 management and monitoring capabilities. The software integrates with a range of enterprise technologies including directory services. The service works with a wide range of clients including small and mid-size businesses, large and enterprise organizations as well as government agencies.