LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – You’ve probably never looked at a nice ceramic vase and thought, “Geez, I would love to have one of those made based on my self portrait!” but the guys at Sculpteo are here to help you out just in case. Sculpteo is a free app that allows users to instantly covert a 2D image into a 3D image in the shape of an object such as a vase. So if you’re one of those types that is jealous of everyone who gets to look at your beautiful outline all day, you’re now in luck.

A group of Chinese authors have reportedly filed a lawsuit against Apple in Beijing claiming that the Cupertino company is infringing copyright with books sold through its iBookstore. The Chinese financial magazine Caixin reports that nine authors from the China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) are involved in the suit, which is hoping to secure 11.9 million yuan ($1.9 million) in compensation.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – iPhone cases are like the condoms of CES: with an insinuating wink, everyone’s always handing you a free one. Speck’s latest case, though, managed to impress us despite the perpetual bombardment of its competitors. It’s called the Candy Shell grip, and it’s a sporty looking case aimed at gamers with a couple of neat little twists.

Don’t you wish your iOS device would do something a little more spectacular when you use that “slide to unlock” button? Well UnlockFX from Filippo Biga might be the answer. It’s a tweak that offers all kinds of fancy effects designed to transform the unlock animation on your jailbroken iOS device from boring to beautiful.

The popular video sharing service Vimeo is at CES in Las Vegas this week to announce new mobile apps for the Android and Windows Phone platforms. However, it also has some exciting news to share about its existing iOS app.

An update set to hit the App Store later this month will not only bring support for the iPad, but also full HD video streaming, and lots of great new features.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Debuting here at CES 2012, the GoPano Micro ($80) is an odd-looking little device that lets you record 360° panoramic videos on your iPhone 4 and 4S. You can then scroll around those videos in a way similar to how you move around in Google Maps street view, watching your video from a ton of different angles and perspectives.

Microsoft has recently shown a surprising willingness to develop all sorts of software for rival mobile operating systems, with a number of popular releases for iOS devices in particular. Many believed, however, Microsoft would make Xbox LIVE games exclusive to its Windows Phone platform in a bid to encourage gamers to adopt Windows Phone devices.

But according to a recent Microsoft job listing, it seems that may not be the case. The software giant is currently looking for an experienced developer who will “bring the latest and greatest gaming and entertainment experience to mobile platforms including Windows Phone, iOS, and other mobile platforms.”

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Remember those old “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” ads (and the never-ending parodies that followed) for LifeAlert in the ’80s? Zomm has leveraged the new Bluetooth v4.0 technology to create a device with features that harken back to that older gadget; it too comes with a live operator — but the Zomm Lifestyle Connect‘s inclusion of Bluetooth makes it way cooler and vastly more useful.

Sometimes when our computers have been in use for many years it can help to clean house and start fresh. Restoring from a Time Machine backup via Migration Assistant doesn’t allow for picking and choosing which data you put back, but hard drive clones can help in a situation like this:

I have been putting off this for some time… but I am finally motivated to do a clean boot on my now getting older Macbook. Over the years I have collected many extraneous files, documents, apps etc. and am looking for a fresh start with that “new mac” feeling. I was wondering if you could provide a step by step procedure on how to best prepare for doing this. Obviously there are certain files, photos, music and applications that will need to be transferred or reinstalled, but beyond that everything can pretty much go.

ION Audio is showing off two new iCade products at CES in Las Vegas this week that provide retro gamers with physical controls while they’re on the go.

Unlike its original iCade Arcade Cabinet, which you wouldn’t dream of carrying around in your rucksack, the iCade Core and iCade Mobile accessories from ION are compact, lightweight, and ready to follow you about.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – We figured health and fitness was going to have a large footprint at CES this year, and so far we haven’t been disappointed. Case in point, the Zensorium Tinke dongle: it measures heart rate, respiratory rate and the amount of oxygen in your bloodstream — all just by pressing your thumb on it.

While popular iOS games can make their developers a small fortune in the App Store, not every title is a huge success. With over half a billion iOS apps currently available, some are bound to go unnoticed. However, one developer is attempting to make money from his iOS game in a different way.

With his latest game struggling to take off in the App Store, indie game developer Adam Schwartz is looking to bring in some cash by selling the title’s source code on eBay.

Las Vegas, CES 2012 — The French have done it again. Dolled up in their designer suits and dreamy accents, Parrot’s French Legion of PR Reps hit the show floors of CES with another amazing quadricopter that is controlled by an iOS device. Their newest product is called the Parrot AR. Drone 2.0, but it’s more than just a modest upgrade, it’s a beast of flying machine that flies smoother and captures breathtaking video better than any comparable product on the market.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – With an eye on improving the way parents monitor their children’s health, French company Withings announced their Internet-connected baby and toddler scale, the Withings Smart Baby Scale. Providing a new way to monitor children’s growth, from birth to age 8, the Withings Smart Baby Scale integrates with iOS via the WiScale App that gives parents quick access to growth statistics to monitor their child’s health and compare measurements with child growth health standards.

Nikon Rumors has put out a good comparison chart showing the differences between Canon and Nikon’s new flagship D-SLRs, the Canon EOS 1D X and the Nikon D4. Specs-wise, the cameras look quite similar, but there are some notable differences.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – We’ve seen countless solutions to finding lost car keys over the past few decades, but this latest solution from Treehouse Labs makes the attempt to be practical and fun while solving one of mankind’s greatest problems through an iPhone app. Bikn is a location tracking solution to help you find anything that has a tendency to get lost: dogs, purses, cameras, your grandparents at Wal-Mart, you name it. By attaching a small location tracker to any item you tend to lose, Bikn makes finding things easier than ever.

There’s no need to break-out the calculator (either real or software) when you want to do a quick calculation. Just use Spotlight, as follows.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Fish and chips and Jony Ive may remain Britain’s most favorite imports among Cult staffers, but maybe Pure’s new Contour 200i Air will get close.

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – Go to House of Marley’s booth at CES and the first thing you’ll see is Bob Marley’s sell-out son mugging and aping for the press with not a care in the world, artlessly singing along to the lyrics of his father’s songs.

It can be embarrassing, not just for spiritual rastafarians but for any person who appreciates legacy and finds himself cringing in embarrassment at the betrayal of what they might think to be a grander, less capitalistic ideal. That said, as silly as you might think the motif of House of Marley’s gadgets (“Stereo for stoners”), it’s hard not to admire their design or construction. These are sound systems that are trying to make a point.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2102 — The Consumer Electronics Show is kicking off with some sobering news. Smartphones and tablets are eating all other electronics alive, says the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the organizer of the show.

“Smartphones and tablets are really sucking up most consumer spending,” said Steve Koenig, director of research at CEA, during a Sunday afternoon opening keynote outlining key trends for the industry this coming year.

https://www.cultofmac.com/138580/the-television-industry-is-scared-witless-of-apples-itv-heres-what-they-think-it-will-be-ces-2012/

The Consumer Electronics Show has officially kicked off here in Las Vegas, and if there’s one thing every Mac fan should go into CES knowing, it’s that the whole television industry is petrified of Apple entering it.

As CEA’s Chief Economist and Director of Research Shaun Dubrovik made clear in his introductory presentation on the trends they expect to see this year at CES 2012, the whole television industry is scrambling. They are all trying to anticipate just what the heck Apple is going to do when they unveil their long rumored television, the iTV.

What are TV makers betting that Apple has up its sleeves? A bezel-less, ultra high resolution TV that runs apps and is controlled by a mixture of gestures and voice control and effortlessly interact with tablets and smartphones.

No wonder they’re scared: no one is better positioned to roll out a next-gen television that does all of the above things than Apple.

The idea behind the Zeo Sleep Manager Mobile ($99) is that the quality of your sleep affects your health in a bigger way than we generally recognize, and that measuring the amount of time we sleep and its quality — then quantifying that sleep with a number on a 100-point scale — will give us the information we need to improve our sleep, and ultimately our health.

**Update: Contest ends tonight at midnight. Enter to win. One lucky winner will be chosen!

We’ve now added a sixth deal, our latest iOS Foundations Course, to the Holiday Giveaway which makes it worth over $950 worth of training courses. Happy New Year!**

Since launching Cult of Mac Deals this past fall, we’ve received a tremendous amount of support from our fans, and so this holiday season we wanted to give something back. We’ve compiled a fantastic giveaway including 6 of our top deals valued at over $950!

One lucky winner will receive one of each of the following online video courses:

1. Dive into iOS – Learn how to code iPhone/iPad Apps
2. UX for Founders – Make Steve proud with design that doesn’t suck
3. Adobe Photoshop CS5 Training – Learn the fundamentals of Photshop
4. Awesome Demo Videos – Create compelling demo videos for your business
5. Learn HTML/CSS – Start building your dream site today
6. iOS Foundations Course – Learn the basics of building your first iPhone/iPad app

Here’s how to enter the giveaway:

The biggest company at CES this year is Apple. No, Apple isn’t giving keynotes, hosting a booth or even taking meetings, as far as I know. But Apple dominates CES like cheesy hotel casinos dominate the Las Vegas Strip.

A consumer electronics show without Apple is like an Internet search show without Google, a social networking show without Facebook or a, er, MacWorld Expo without Apple.

But that’s not why Apple’s presence is so large at CES. The reason is that half the initiatives, product directions and announcements are responses to Apple, or anticipation of what Apple might do in the future.