Ever noticed that slapping a case on your iPad somewhat restricts its 3G signal? That’s because your iPad is equipped with a clever proximity sensor that reduces the power of its 3G sensor by as much as 75% when it detects your device is close to your body, thereby reducing your exposure to harmful radiation.

Unfortunately the sensor isn’t clever enough to work out the difference between your body and a protective case, so as soon as it comes into contact with a case its 3G signal is restricted. However, this particular case from Pong Research not only prevents your iPad from limiting its 3G signal — giving you faster, more reliable data — but it also redistributes its radiation away from your body.

The New York Times reports that Apple is “secretly” working on a number of wearable devices including a new “curved-glass iPod that would wrap around the wrist.” The devices will have Siri built-in allowing us to control them with our voice, and may even relay information back to our iPhones.

T-Mobile has over 1M+ unlocked iPhones on its GSM network, which is quite impressive, considering that up until now, all of those iPhones have been stuck with 2G data speeds thanks to T-Mobile’s bizarre implementation of 3Gm which is not compatible with the iPhone.

But that’s all about to change. Some unlocked iPhone owners are now reporting that for the first time ever, they are now getting proper 3G speeds on their iPhones, just like the rest of us have been enjoying for the last three years. Hurrah!

OS X remembers and autocompletes passwords for you, but what if you forget them? And then what if your hard disk should suddenly shake itself apart and you have to start with a fresh installation? Here’s how to view any password that OS X stores for you, for applications and websites.

If you haven’t already seen Apple’s new iPhone 4S ad in which Santa uses Siri, then go and check it out — it’s really great. You may notice than when Santa checks his calendar, he has 3.7 billion appointments on Christmas Eve, four of which are with Whitney Kollar, Mark Sloan, Paula Cristalli, and David Young.

These aren’t just random names dreamt up by employees at Apple’s marketing firm — they are employees at Apple’s marketing firm.

A Pegatron plant in Shanghai, China, where rear panels for Apple’s iPad will be manufactured, suffered an explosion over the weekend which hospitalized 23 workers and injured a further 38. Though the explosion did not cause a fire, according to a Reuters report, the Pegatron factory reports there is “some damage” to machinery.

Literature & Latte, the development company behind the popular word processing app called Scrivener, has announced that an iOS version of Scrivener is in the works for a 2012 release.

Fans of Scrivener for Mac will be happy to know that the app is now in development for the iPhone and iPad. The professional writing tool will likely offer the most robust word processing experience for iOS to date.

The Wall Street Journal has shed light on Apple’s plans for entering the TV industry. According to the WSJ, Apple is planning to reinvent not only the television itself, but the way we consume media every day.

Apple has been working on its top-secret TV project for quite some time. While the project is still in its early stages, all signs point towards Apple destroying and rebuilding the traditional way we watch movies and TV shows. The company wants to implement a unified experience that extends to the living room.

Facebook has released an update to its iPhone app that brings the highly-anticpated Timeline view to mobile users. Version 4.1 of the Facebook for iOS app brings with it the ability to access friend lists, subscribers, and subscriptions. Photo viewing and overall speed improvements are also included.

An iPad version of Timeline is coming soon, according to Facebook. Users can download the latest update for free in the App Store.

Apple’s advertising runs the gamut from motivational to touching, pragmatic to inspiring. They don’t play the humor card very often, but this latest ad showing Santa using Siri on an iPhone to help him through his rounds is actually pretty funny and appropriate for the season.

Thanks Siri! Thanks Santa! And Happy Holidaze to all…

Apple recently seeded a second revision of its iOS 5.0.1 firmware, and besides decrypting key files that aid in the legality of a Siri port, the update seemed to bring nothing new to the table. Some speculated that the second update had something to do with Apple’s continued international rollout of the iPhone 4S.

It turns out that the new iOS 5.0.1 (Build 9A406) is meant to fix SIM-related errors that a limited number of iPhone 4S customers have been experiencing.

Let’s get two big facts out the way right now: Yes, these Scosche IEM856m canalphones ($250) look a little like several of the canalphones in Monster’s lineup (eg. the Beats Tour), mostly because of the flat, ribbon-like cable; no, they’re not anything like any of the Monster earphones they somewhat resemble. In fact, one big detail makes them very different from almost any other IEM on the market.

As the Apple iPad succeeds beyond expectations, it leaves in its wake an enormous body count of dead and dying products. While consumers love it, several major industries have grown to hate it. And for very good reason.

As we reminisced in our previous poll, 2011 has been a monumental year for the Mac App Store. There have been countless new releases and updates that we’ve covered on the site, and the Mac app ecosystem has reached a whole new level of excellence.

We told you to choose the 10 most innovative Mac apps of this year, and your votes garnered some interesting results. Here are the 10 most innovative Mac apps of 2011. And now we need you to choose your number one.

Do you really need to spend a lot of money to get grade-A photo-editing tricks? Apparently not. With Snapheal ($20), developer MacPhun has taken arguably the coolest Photoshop feature in recent years, made it dead-easy to use and packaged it with all the basic photo-editing tools you’ll need — and more. And all for a fraction of what it should cost.

It’s been a great week for giveaways on Cult of Mac, but we’re not done quite yet. As our last giveaway of the week, we’ll be selecting 2 winners who will receive a free copy of the HTML and CSS for Beginners Course that we’re currently peddling over at deals.cultofmac.com. If you’ve been wanting to build a website but don’t know how then this is the giveaway you want to win.

This course is a stellar opportunity to learn the fundamentals of HTML and CSS you need in order to whip up that creative, high-quality website you’ve been mulling over for years! Two lucky winners will get the $29 course for free and will receive Mark’s HTML and CSS expertise jam-packed into nearly 4 hours of video instruction that includes highlighted lab exercises, so you can apply the very skills taught from the course. For this giveaway we’re going to do things a little differently and give you a few options for entry.

Here’s how to enter the giveaway:

Yesterday, we announced the results of our reader poll to pick the best games of 2011, but one title was mentioned by name again and again as one we had overlooked: Asphalt 6: Adrenaline by Gameloft, one of the best Forza-style racing games on the App Store.

It’s true, Asphalt 6 is an amazing game, and one of the best racing experiences on iOS, bar none. Sadly, though, it was first released in December 2010, missing our list of best 2011 games by just a month. But that’s not to say everyone shouldn’t play it, and now’s the best time yet to download Asphalt 6 and try it for yourself, because it’s now free on the App Store. Get downloading, you won’t regret it.

None of us enjoy typing out our email address, especially if we have to do it a number of times a day on an iOS device. But thanks to the new Shortcuts feature in iOS 5, we don’t have to. Here’s how to setup a shortcut that will save you from typing out your email address forever!

Over at 9to5Mac, Mark Gurman has pulled a nice little early Christmas present out of the new iOS 5.1 beta: four brand new wallpapers that Apple will roll out to customers with the update’s official release.

They’re really beautiful, although my personal favorite is the one with beads of dew on blades of grass. After the jump, we’ve put the iPad versions of the new wallpaper for your perusal, but if you’ve got an iPhone or iPod touch, head on over to 9to5Mac to grab the higher quality PNGs or their equally well-done resized versions of the same images, perfect for a smaller display. Great work, guys.

Yesterday, Apple began rolling out iTunes Match to over a dozen new countries, but as with the U.S. rollout, demand has temporarily exceeded capacity, and so Apple has halted new subscriber sign-up for iTunes Match until some of the initial crush peters out.

Not a big deal, honestly. This happened a couple times with the U.S. rollout, and frankly, iTunes Match can take an awfully long time even in the best of times to match a large collection, let alone when the servers are being hammered. You’re probably better off waiting a few days to sign up, anyway.

[via MacRumors]

It’s been a huge year for Apple. They’ve released a dizzying array of new products and services this year: two new operating systems, two new iPhones, major updates to their entire computer line, a revolutionary new voice control system, a new I/O interface that looks likely to steal the crown from USB 3.0, and even a greeting card app. All of this while dealing with the death of Steve Jobs, the design of a new, futuristic spaceship HQ, and a brand new CEO.

By any measure, it was an amazing year. Still, if you had to pick just one, what do you think was Apple’s best new product this year? Vote in our poll below, and next week we’ll declare the best Apple products of the year as voted by you, the readers.

Samsung dropped its lawsuit against Apple in Germany after discovering a Qualcomm licensing agreement could shield the iPhone 4S from 3G patent-infringement charges. The South Korean smartphone maker later denied it was letting Apple completely off the hook.

It’s always seemed like such a simple tweak, but SBSettings has turned out to be the jailbreak tweak I have the hardest time living without: a simple interface for turning on or off the most common iPhone or iPad settings with a single button press, opened by simply swiping your finger across your iOS’s status bar.

Now that Siri’s here, though, wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to just tell your iPhone to do the things SBSettings does? Turn Bluetooth On or Off, for instance, or go into Airplane Mode.

Apple mysteriously left the ability to use Siri to toggle system preferences out of iOS 5, but the functionality’s reportedly on the way thanks to a new app called Toggles. The only problem? We’ll have to wait for an iPhone 4S jailbreak first.

As Research In Motion circles the smartphone drain, its two CEOs cut their pay to $1. The Steve Jobs-like maneuver may not be enough to save a company that lost 70 percent of its profit to Apple and Android. The only question left: Are the BlackBerry maker’s leaders even worth a buck?

Can’t get enough of Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography? Apparently neither can he. Isaacson is now saying he plans to expand the Steve Jobs bio to include annotations and new addendums.