One of the challenges of BYOD programs is the need secure corporate data on an employee’s personal device. That usually includes locking down the device and applying varying management profiles to it. This can be as non-intrusive as requiring a passcode meeting certain criteria or it can be very restrictive and limit core features and services like iCloud or Siri on the iPhone 4S.

While there’s a technical challenge to securing employee-owned devices, there’s also a personal challenge. It’s not a small demand to ask for someone’s brand new iPhone or iPad and impose limits on what they can do with it, even if that means something as trivial as enforcing a passcode policy. It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that employees sometimes object to that intrusion, particularly when it comes to more severe management requirements.

The question is: how does IT respond to this situation?

I’ve had the pleasure of using the HEX 13-inch Recon Messenger Bag ($80) for the last couple of weeks. We at Cult of Mac love bags, and I was excited to try such a good-looking messenger bag for my MacBook.

The HEX Recon differs from many bags in its class by offering a pouch specifically designed for holding and offering quick access to an iPad. With it’s top-notch build quality and minimal design, the Recon bag is an attractive option for everyday use.

Video games were about 50 times better when I was a kid than they are now. Maybe it was because we had to fill in the 8-bit graphics of Contra with our imaginations, rather than having all the gory beauty envisioned for us like in Modern Warfare 3. We’re big fans of iCade and their efforts to resurrect retro gaming, so when news hit today that they’re coming out with this cute little iOS controller called the iCade 8-Bitty, our news room collectively swooned over the contraption’s ambrosial charm.

Last week, the web exploded with the news that social iOS app Path was uploading your entire address book to its servers, and then keeping it there. Worse, it was sending and storing them in plain text (although the connection was at least SSL-encrypted). Clearly, having Path notify you when your friends join the service is handy, but is there a way to do this without compromising your privacy? According to Edinburgh iOS supremo Matt Gemmell, there is.

DoodleDesk ($5.99) turns your Mac’s desktop into a digital whiteboard you can write on and attach sticky notes to.

No one would ever argue that the MacBook Air is a fatty. At just 0.68 inches at its thickest point, the MacBook Air is thinner all-around than most axe blades, which will surely come in handy in a zombie apocalypse to come.

But how thin is 0.68 inches, really? Here’s a test you can show your friends to wow them. Open up your MacBook Air, then hold it up to the sun. The MacBook Air is so thin you can actually see sunlight shining through the screen through the Apple logo in back.

Try it for yourself, it really works (and it’s quite eerie). Thanks to Redditor Flemming Madsen for the great image and tip!

The consumerization of IT along with the growing trend of BYOD programs in business is requiring virtually all companies to at least look at mobile device management (MDM) solutions. There are dozens of MDM vendors out there that support iOS as well as most flavors of Android. The cost and complexity of implementing mobile management can vary widely depending on the extended feature sets of MDM products.

Until now, most MDM vendors offered enterprise-style licensing programs and there were very few low cost cost options. That changed this morning with Amtel’s announcement that it will be offering a free cloud-based MDM solution that supports a basic set or features for iPhones, iPads, and some Android devices.

If you are remodeling your home and wish to spend ten times the price of a regular power socket on each and every wall wart, you can opt for one of many USB-enabled faceplates which let you charge your gadgets right from the wall. But for a more practical and portable option, you might take a look at the RCA USB Wall Plate Charger, a gadget which does exactly what it says on the label.

Following claims that it isn’t doing enough to end worker mistreatment in Chinese factories, Apple has publicly asked the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to “conduct special voluntary audits of Apple’s final assembly suppliers, including Foxconn factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China.”

The FLA acknowledged Apple’s request almost immediately and began its first inspections at a Foxconn factory in Shenzhen this morning. Apple will be hoping that the FLA’s report puts the allegations that it is not doing all it can to bed and proves that working conditions are improving thanks to the company’s work.

ImageXY is an image resizer for OS X, available for 10 dollars on the App Store.

Instagram 2.1, which launched at the end of last week, has fixed up the frankly horrible interface of v2.0, and added in some significant new features. Other things — like the proliferation of scantily-clad ladies and (normally-clad) pets in the “popular” section — remain just the same.

Yup, it’s finally happened: buoyed by the imminent launch of the iPad 3, Apple (AAPL) stock has just hit a historic high of over $500.00 a share, and now is worth a $466.29 Billion, over $70 billion more than the world’s second most valuable company, Exxon Mobil.

That’s amazing, but there’s still plenty of room to grow, believe it or not. In fact, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes that Apple could go as high as $1000 per share, at which point, every man, woman and child on this Earth will be an Apple employee, grown to order in special chemical vats in Brazil and China, but designed, as ever, in Cupertino, California.

VLC, the cross-platform play-everything-and-we-mean-everything video client is about to go 2.0 on the Mac. And amongst all the new features is one very welcome change: A completely re-designed interface that makes it look a lot more at home on Apple hardware than the open-source v1.x ever did.

U.S. retailer Meijer has begun slashing the price of Apple’s iPad 2 as rumors continue to claim that its successor will be unveiled early next month. The 16GB Wi-Fi only model is now available for $429, with $70 off its original price, and that price will run until the retailer shifts its remaining stock.

As a nerd, it’s almost certain that you still haven’t bought a Valentine’s Day gift for your significant other (heck, as a nerd it’s not even certain you have a significant other). An inkling at the back of your mind tells you that flowers are too obvious, but your geek brain can’t conceive of any romantic gift that isn’t also practical. Fear not. We have news of the most romantic (and practical) gift money can buy: the Pink Little Black Book for iPhone.

Steve Jobs was obsessed with making the Mac run silently, even going so far as to tell Mac hardware designers to make the internal fans kick-in at a much higher temperature than contemporary PCs. It seems strange, then, that in this zen quest for quietness, the first thing that happens when you turn a Mac on is here a loud bootup chime. If you’d like to get rid of that chime and boot-up as silently as a submarine running deep, it’s easy, thanks to this cute little app.

There was a certain irony that was almost comical last week when RIM CEO Thorsten Heins announced to 2000 BlackBerry developers in Europe that the company was “ready to compete” because that statement came during a week when the BlackBerry maker lost to high profile enterprise clients – both Halliburton and NOAA will be dropping the BlackBerry support and replacing existing handsets with iPhones.

The statement became even more ironic, though with a tragic rather than comic tone, over the weekend as it became widely known that one major travel company that it was canceling all plans future updates on the BlackBerry platform as well as terminating technical/user support for BlackBerry users.

Spotify has issued an update to its hugely popular iPhone app that introduces the ability to stream music at an “extreme” 320kbps — the same quality Spotify Premium members enjoy from the Spotify applications for Mac and Windows.

After having its tablet banned in one Chinese city today for using the iPad name without permission, Apple could be about to enter into another dispute if it names its television set the “iTV.” Britain’s biggest commercial broadcaster ITV has warned Apple not to use its name for the second time.

Retailers in Shijiazhuang, China, have halted sales of Apple’s iPad after it was claimed that the Cupertino company does not have the rights to the iPad trademark in the country. Proview Technology, which believed it still owns the iPad name, is seeking $38 million in compensation from Apple and seems to have secured a ban in at least one city as Chinese authorities begin confiscating the device.

A “credible” Target employee who is “intimately acquainted with the retail giant’s web presence” has confirmed that Apple’s iPad 3 will launch in early March.

Mac OS X comes with a nice selection of applications, but sometimes you may want to get rid of one. Well, if you’ve tried to delete many of these apps, you’ll notice that you probably don’t have permission to. In this video, I’ll show you how to get around this limitation.

Apple VP and iCloud guru Eddy Cue recently accepted a Special Merit GRAMMY Award for the late Steve Jobs. Cue gave an acceptance speech on behalf of Apple and the Jobs family, saying that “Steve was focused on bringing music to everyone in innovative ways.” Cue worked with Jobs closely for 15 years.

The GRAMMY was awarded to Jobs for his contributions to music with the iPod and iTunes Store.

The 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held tonight at 8:00 PM at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. You can stream the event live, including the pre-show this afternoon, for free on your mobile devices.

Thanks to the free GRAMMY Live app in the App Store, you can stream today’s festivities to your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

With Apple expected to announce the iPad 3 during the first week of March, rumors regarding the upcoming tablet have reached a fever pitch. Little attention has been given to the Apple TV, besides the occasional ‘iTV’ rumor and pundit speculation.

Supply shortages across several key retailers suggest that Apple’s set-top box will be seeing a significant update within the next few weeks.