Cult of Mac

Sales of the iPhone and Mac are topping analyst expectations for the holiday quarter, eating into Android marketshare. On the flip side, despite reaching new record sales, iPad demand is described as “a little light,” one analyst told investors Wednesday. In the kind of bad news rivals could only hope to have, iPhone demand continues to outstrip supply and those soft iPad figures are partly due to increased interest in another Apple product: the MacBook Air.

We’ve been anticipating Apple’s revolutionary new television set, dubbed the “iTV,” since Steve Jobs revealed he had “finally cracked” the TV to his biographer, Walter Isaacson. What we’re most excited about is its rumored Siri integration, but you don’t need to wait until Apple’s set is launched to get a Siri-controlled TV — it’s already here.

If you’re using your Mac to give a presentation, you might not want everybody to see your messy desktop! If so, you can run a quick command that will hide your desktop icons.

Apple Giveth, and Apple Taketh Away. The Walled Garden approach Apple has taken with its App Store means that not everything you once bought is still available. However, that doesn’t mean you’re out of options for installing software that was previously downloaded:

Hello, I got the iTether app yesterday before Apple pulled it out, but my daughter didn’t get the chance to download it. How will I install it to my daughter’s iPhone? I back up my phone to my PC and I have the app in my file. Please help.

Rodante

Like many of us, 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin has a love for Apple’s iPhone. He frequently uses the device to send messages to his Twitter followers, and his addiction, the popular word game Words With Friends, recently got him thrown off an American Airlines flight to New York.

We first heard about Apple’s new “spaceship” campus when the company’s co-founder and former CEO, Steve Jobs, presented its plans at the Cupertino City Council Meeting on June 7. The company has now submitted revised plans for the campus, in addition to a new rendering.

Flipboard has launched its official iPhone app with a gorgeous design and the new “Cover Stories” layout, or “the feed to check when you’re in line at the coffee shop, commuting on the train or just hanging out at home.”

Riding the coattails of a phenomenal iPad app, Flipboard is looking to be the best place for reading the internet on your iPhone.

Your next MacBook Air should support a total of three displays at once via one Thunderbolt connection, according to a leaked roadmap of Intel’s plans for its Ivy Bridge processors in 2012.

With Apple’s next-generation laptops primed to sport Intel’s Ivy Bridge silicon, it’s very likely that future MacBook Airs and Pros will be able to support two external displays plus the MacBook’s built-in screen.

Apple has issued an update to its iBooks app on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Version 1.5 of iBooks brings two major additions: a nighttime reading theme and full-screen mode.

The update also brings several new fonts, more covers for public domain books, pop-up footnotes, and a redesigned annotation palette.

Photo Toaster is a photo editor for iPad, packed with features and on sale now at a bargain price.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then this Chinese imitation of the MacBook Air is the biggest compliment that Apple has received in a long time. Cleverly called the “AirBook,” this feat of design plagiarism looks exactly like Apple’s MacBook Air.

Costing only $499, the AirBook possesses many similarities to Apple’s notebook, but there some crucial differences. Did we mention that it runs Windows?

Did you love that gorgeous “Here’s To The Crazy Ones” letter press poster we showed you earlier today, only to balk at the $200 asking price?

Here’s a poster that might float your boat, especially if you’re an App Developer: this beautiful radial infographic shows off the last ten years of the iPod and iTunes. And if you’re willing to print it yourself, it could cost you as little as $99!

Apple’s latest flagship store in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal is set to finally open Friday at 9 AM. While we’ve seen multiple shots of the store’s covered exterior, and even a concept of what the interior will look like, we have yet to see Apple’s finished product on the inside.

Some photos taken inside Apple’s new retail store reveal the Genius Bar and more.

Remember those sneaky Smurfs? The in-app iPad purchases from the free game Smurf’s Village – and dozens of games like it – had parents seeing red as their toddlers accidentally ran up credit card bills.

The Kindle Fire also has a similar problem. Kids who play about with the 7-inch tablet are just a few swipes away from Amazon’s famous 1-Click Ordering, a feature that cannot be disabled on the device. (If you haven’t disabled in-app purchases on your iPad, here’s how.)

Reuters reports that Jason Rosenfeld’s 3-year-old daughter basically bought her own Christmas presents after seeing Dad’s shopping history on the tablet.

Apple has posted two new job listings for Siri UI engineers. The positions mainly focus on improving Siri’s on-screen conversation view, but there also some hints in the job description that suggest Apple is looking to do more with its voice assistant’s API.

It’s usually pretty hard to get excited about an Apple Dock Connector, but this one’s fantastic. It uses a Russian Nesting Doll style of cascading connections to fit a mini USB plug into a micro USB plug and then in turn into an Apple 40 pin dock connector plug. For just $20, then, this is literally the only USB cable you need. Awesome.

[via Everything USB]

We heard it was coming, but now, we’ve got a release date: Grand Theft Auto III is coming to iOS next week!

The smiling faces make it look like a rowdy night out, but this jubilant photo was snapped with an iPhone in the back of a Russian police van.

Yesterday, Moscow-based blogger Alexey Navalny was carted away by the authorities while documenting the massive protests following the country’s contested parlimentary elections.

“With my lads on the police bus. They all say hi,”  Navalny tweeted in Russian. An hour later, he posted another Instagram photo, this time a group portrait in the Izmailovo jailhouse of everyone arrested.

For the second year running, AT&T has ranked as the worst carrier in the United States in an annual satisfaction survey.

One of the things that really stands out using an iPhone is just how smooth it feels compared to using Android. Where as Android is laggy, with a measurable interim between when you touch the screen and when the OS responds, iOS almost seems to anticipate what you want to do before your finger touches the display.

How has Apple managed this incredible feat? A better question might be: “How has Google managed to screw up Android’s multitouch so much?” According to Andrew Munn — a software engineering student and ex-Google intern — Android is so messed up that Google might never be able to match an iPhone or iPad’s performance. Ouch!

The next time you are pulled over by police you may encounter a familiar face: your iPhone. Faster than you can say “Book ’em, Dano,” Apple’s handset is quickly becoming law enforcement’s favorite tool for identifying unknown fingerprints. The iPhone’s touchscreen will even be enlisted by the FBI to spot terrorism suspects.

Looking for last minute gift ideas for the proud rebel or misfit in your life? What about this beautiful letterpressed poster by Brightwurks replicates the full text of Steve Jobs’s iconic 1997 “Crazy Ones” ad, with all proceeds going to Acumen Fund, a charity that helps relieve poverty.

The poster is printed on 140# paper and measures 10 inches wide by 26 inches tall. It’s stunningly beautiful, but letterpress isn’t cheap: expect to pay $95 for it unframed, or $195 framed. Full poster can be seen below.

Don’t you go all warm when a billionaire able to pal around with lions and tigers jumps all over how Steve Jobs led Apple? Seems Richard Branson would roll differently as Apple CEO. No yelling at employees or being such a control freak. Yep, the Virgin Group CEO would create a kindler, gentler Apple right from the pages of “I’m OK, You’re OK.”

We eagerly waited for Mojang to release the much anticipated port of Minecraft for almost a year, and while we ended up loving Minecraft: Pocket Edition on its own merits, it was missing a lot of stuff from the desktop game, including crafting, monsters and more.

If you were disappointed by Minecraft: Pocket Edition, though, turn that frown upside down. A post on the official Mojang blog says that their future plans include bringing many of the desktop’s best features to the mobile edition.