Julius Genachowski, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Communication Commission, has spoken out about AT&T’s proposed acquisition of  T-Mobile and deemed the merger to be against the public interest. Genachowski has called for commissioners to vote for an administrative public hearing against the $39 billion, which could prove to be a huge setback for the two carriers.

Jundiaí, Brazil – Foxconn’s iPhone and soon-to-be iPad factory about 45 miles north of Sao Paulo is an open secret; despite all the conjecture, it’s exactly where it’s supposed to be and three curious reporters had no problems poking around.

On Oct. 31, the Brazilian telecommunications document agency ANATEL issued the OK for Foxconn to start producing mobile phones for Apple. Although the government started talks for a Foxconn plant back in April 2011, this was the first official document wedding Apple’s name with Foxconn in Brazil. After reading about the news in the Sao Paulo daily Folha, I spent about 20 minutes fudging around with my minimal Portuguese to track down the document with the exact address on the agency’s website.

Curious to see what was actually at that address, I asked (well, pleaded with) MacMais editor Sérgio Miranda to drive me there. He and Alessandro Salvatori from Blog do iPhone agreed to spend the day taking me on a wild goose chase.

iPhone cases that allow you to leave your wallet at home by making room for your credit cards and cash are becoming increasingly popular. And because they’re popular, there’s a ton of them available. But nearly all of them have one thing in common: they’re made from leather (or a cheap leather lookalike material).

If you’re looking for something a little more robust, check out this Kickstarter project called the CASELLET.

Apple famously keeps its Black Friday deals a closely guarded secret until the day of the event. But thanks to a leaked sales pamphlet from a “trusted tipster,” we already know where the Cupertino company will be slashing prices, with savings to be made on the iMac, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, iPod nano and iPod touch, iPad, and plenty of accessories.

[via RetroMacCast]

Onmaway is a location sharing app designed to let you concentrate on your travels, rather than interrupting them to tell everyone where you are.

While Samsung itself is quick to take Apple’s innovation and pass it off as its own, resulting in a number of lawsuits, the Korean electronics giant is still happy to mock the device that inspires many of its Android-powered smartphones. In a new TV commercial for its popular Galaxy S II handset, Samsung pokes fun at the iPhone and its devoted fans who wait in line for hours to pick up the device on launch day.

I think someone’s a little jealous that they don’t see endless queues when they churn out a new product.

To be fair to Samsung, it is rather humorous. My favorite bit: “You know, if it looks the same, how will people know I upgraded?”

[via The Mac Observer]

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is looking to recruit more senior-level executives to help run iCloud. As the company continues to build up its cloud offerings, more expertise is needed.

Apple is looking for talented execs with a knowledge of web-based services to help manage and expand its iCloud services. The report also says that Apple is looking to introduce iCloud apps that “reduce the need for people to carry around numerous devices at once.”

Apple is allowing Big Fish Games to incorporate a subscription model for its iPad games in the App Store. According to Bloomberg, Big Fish will be the first game maker in the App Store to allow customers access to all of its titles for $4.99 per month initially.

Games from Big Fish will be streamed to users over Wi-Fi and a customer’s subscription is managed in a dedicated app for the iPad.

It’s about time! Apple finally made accessing emoticons via the Emoji keyboard a part of iOS. Prior to iOS 5 you had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get them. They’ve been a part of iOS for longer than I can remember, but initially they were only accessible by jailbreak and later by applications that were able to activate them. You used the app, discarded it and were on your way to emoticon heaven.

Now Apple has included an easy way to activate them and use them as much as you want.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXS5VHw7rwA

We stumbled across this rare video of Steve Jobs at the CAUSE 1998 Conference in Seattle. In the short clip, Steve Jobs gives a particularly comedic and lighthearted talk about the PC and TV.

The video quality is pretty awful, but what’s said in the talk is very interesting. In the video, Jobs says, “TV turns your brain off, PCs turn your brain on.” What most don’t know is that Jobs was quoting a failed campaign for the original iMac.

Simplier is a very simple $3 music player for people who just want to hear some tunes without having to trudge through the hassle of opening and browsing inside iTunes.

Apple has snatched up several iPhone-related porn URLs from a domain squatter. The sites in question were handed over to Apple after the company filed a complaint a few weeks ago.

The high profile domains, including iPhone4S.com, have been given over to Apple from the previous owner.

Here’s an amazing utility that every iPhone, iPad or iPod touch owner should be aware of. It will recover data from your iOS backups in iTunes, but only if the backup isn’t encrypted. I have a work-around in this tip for the encryption problem, but you’ll need to be using Mac OS X Lion.

Mark Zuckerberg’s faithful hund Beast has apparently gotten himself a job as an engineer at Facebook, and like all the best dogs, he’s an Apple fan, through and through.

[via Obama Pacman]

It was recently reported that Apple was putting the finishing touches on its new flagship store in New York City’s Grand Central Station. The store was supposed to be unveiled to the public by Black Friday on November 25th or during this upcoming weekend.

Eager shoppers will apparently have to wait to drop their hard earned cash on Apple products in Grand Central Station, as the store’s opening “won’t be any time too soon.”

The iPhone 4S has an amazing camera for a smartphone. Heck, it’s already the second most popular smartphone camera on Flickr. But how does it hold up for the professional photographer?

As this beautiful testimony by pro photographer and gallery owner Ryan Bolger makes clear, it doesn’t just hold up well… it reinvents photography.

When Apple announced that it was going to sell OS X Lion exclusively as a digital download, many were skeptical. By not selling physical copies of the operating system, wouldn’t Apple be crippling Lion’s consumer reach?

As it turns out, Lion has already sold more than 6 millions copies in the Mac App Store, making it 80% more popular than Apple’s previous desktop OS, Snow Leopard. The folks in Redmond have taken notice, and Microsoft has announced that its upcoming operating system, Windows 8, will also be offered as a digital download.

This is a cute little stocking stuffer for the narcissistic Mac fangirl in your life: the MirrorBook Air, a $12 hand mirror that looks just like a tiny, palm-sized MacBook Air. Get it now before Apple C&Ds it, which they will, but hopefully not before Christmas.

Over the years, Steve wrote hundreds of mostly terse, often funny, irritable or persnickety emails to Apple customers who wrote him at [email protected]. Now a whole book of them is being published.

Over the weekend, we reported that the 4.1 update to VMWare Fusion allowed users to virtualize Leopard and Snow Leopard; a strict violation of OS X’s licensing terms.

At the time, we supposed this was a conscious decision on VMWare’s part to leave Leopard and Snow Leopard virtualization up to the user. But no, nothing of the sort: it’s just a bug VMWare’s going to patch.

When it comes to huge investors who buy mammoth blocks of Apple stock, there’s only one question: what have you done for me, lately? If you want to know why product launches are so important to Apple, it’s because the launch of a new product is critical to investors who believe Apple isn’t worth a plug nickel without its latest and greatest products.

Thanksgiving is just two days away, and if you’re smart, you’re already prepared for it: you’ve got a turkey in the fridge, the ingredients in the cupboard, and the invitations all sent out. Or maybe you’re like me instead, and have found yourself up against the wire to throw a last minute Turkey Day feast. Either way, your iPhone and iPad can make putting on a holiday dinner much easier than the Pilgrims used to do it.

For months now, we’ve all read reports Apple’s iPad 3 will feature a Retina Display. Now we’re seeing proof pop up that an iPad 3 with a 2048×1536 display is already being tested and manufactured. But is a higher resolution screen really likely in with a device touted as slimmer than the iPad 2?

Have you ever had an amazing idea for an iOS app but then been devastated by the realization that you don’t know how to code and build an app? Yeah, me too… been there, done that. Which is why we’re stoked to bring you a deal on how to build a killer iPhone or iPad app with the Dive into iOS instructional course from Udemy. If you don’t want to wind up like poor George Costanza, then this deal is something you need to check out over at Deals.CultofMac.com.

Now is your chance to make it happen…

Here’s the steal (yes, when course material like this is only $79 it’s better than a deal):

After just a couple of hours of online instruction you will be well on your way to building your dream iPhone and/or iPad app. Yes, your DREAM app; an app that could turn your ghetto ride into a Ferrari (literally); an app that could give you some serious points with the ladies (or fellas…we don’t discriminate); an app that could turn your diehard hobby into a new thrilling career; an app that could change the world.