Got a new Mac? You’ve probably realised that OS X provides an excellent out-of-the-box experience. Unlike with Windows, few add-ons are required. There’s a great browser, for example, and full PDF support. But there’s still some tools that most experienced Mac users download the minute they boot-up a new Mac. Here they are, listed for possibly the first time…

Here’s a great sleight-of-hand trick from Samsung: trumpet that you’ve sold 300 million phones through November. While everyone is amazed that the South Korean company pumped out nearly six times as many mobile phones than Apple, people will forget the iPhone maker rules smartphone profits. Nice try, but it won’t work.

Did you miss checking out Apple’s new Grand Central Terminal location on its totally insane launch day? Apple doesn’t want anyone to miss out, which is why they’ve posted a 360 degree panorama of the inside of the store on their official website.

Late last week, Apple uploaded this fantastic new ad to their official YouTube account, and it really is a beautiful piece of work: a magical mystery tour through a collection of living, breathing Beatles covers.

It’s really charming how proud Apple is of getting the Beatles on iTunes, to the extent that over a year later, Apple is still advertising the Beatles as if they are one of their own in-house products, like an iPhone or iPad.

Half a million. Most app stores would be happy to have half a million users, but that’s just the number of apps Apple has in the App Store. And while they are bragging about their big swinging stats, Cupertino’s got another one to announce: over 100 million apps have been downloaded from the Mac App Store since its debut in early November last year. Wow.

Rovio, the creators of Angry Birds, celebrated the game’s second birthday on December 11 with an update that’s guaranteed to please fans of the bird slinger. In addition to 15 brand new levels, version 2.0 of the original Angry Birds game unlocks every episode available.

AirPlay has been around for well over a year now, but the range of AirPlay compatible accessories available is still pretty slim. However, that could be about to change.

Apple is reportedly planning to introduce Bluetooth support to AirPlay, which would significantly extend the range of accessories currently compatible with the feature. The company will also improve iOS connectivity for third-party accessories.

Treating yourself to an iPad 2 this Christmas? Well, you may want to hold onto your cash for a few months. According to sources in Apple’s supply chain, manufacturers have already begun shipping parts and components for the iPad 3, which is expected to launch in just 3–4 months.

Now, I’m no audiophile — I don’t buy speakers made from rare woods and rich leathers — but I know what I like, and I like the Fanny Wang On-Ear Headphones ($170).

Originally released around last year’s CES, the Fanny Wang On-Ear Wangs, from sound to design, were built to compete squarely with the Dr. Dre Beats Solo On-Ear Headphones ($200) by Monster. So do they make the cut? Or are they wiggity wiggity wack?

Everyone knows that Apple creates products that are great for creating. But part of what makes that statement true is the deep selection of third-party gadgets that make the most of artistic impulse. We’ve painted this next section, Gifts for the Imagination, with examples that’ll help nourish the next Pissarro, Satriani or Cartier-Bresson.

Have you checked out the sweet bundle of apps that we’ve scored over on Deals.CultofMac.com? The package includes 11 awesome Mac OS X apps for a crazy price of $50 (retail value of $486). The bundle is filled with goodies that will make the Holidays on your Mac a ton of fun – I’m personally a fan of PhotoStyler and TidyUp. With the Winter 2011 Phenom Bundle you can either gift individual apps from your own bundle or better yet, get the entire lineup for your friends and family!

This weekend we’re giving away three bundles of the Winter 2011 Mac Phenom Bundle for free so that three of our lucky readers can have some extra Christmas cheer. Entering the giveaway only takes a few seconds, so don’t miss out on your chance to win.

Here’s How To Enter:

Never in the history of consumer electronics has there been a computer more universally desirable than the Apple iPad.

Market share numbers — 83% of the market — hint at the popularity and market dominance of the iPad.

But here’s the most interesting fact about the iPad’s incredible success that most people overlook: The qualities that make iPad desirable are replicable on bigger platforms — and may even be magnified by them. Which is why it’s perfectly reasonable to predict dominant market share for the iOS-like Mac desktops of the future.

First, let’s understand the unprecedented popularity of the iPad. 

For those of us setting out to catch the lunar eclipse early tomorrow morning — here’s a great piece in the Christian Science Monitor on why it’ll be so spectacular out here west of the Rockies — there’s nothing like an iPad armed with a great astronomy app. But according to Tim DeBenedictis, developer of SkySafari 3, his app is the only one that can predict this — and any other — eclipse. That’s fine with us, since he’s offering his app for free all this weekend.

It could easily be imagined that the bookbinding industry is struggling to survive these days. As books cross over in ever-increasing numbers into the digital world, the demand for physical books have disappeared — and with it, the niche crafts that help create them. Ironic, then, that what’s breathing life into the industry now is that which began to kill it: e-books, e-readers and tablets (and in this case, the iPad 2 specifically).

Like the FieldFolio case Killian reviewed last week, Pad & Quill’s Contega Case for iPad 2 ($90) is a devilishly handsome iPad case that harnesses the mystic craft of bookbinding to create a stylish book-like home for the iPad 2. Unlike the FieldFolio though, Pad & Quill has given the Contega a large dose of practicality.

We’ve got just the thing to follow our Gifts for the Working Stiff section of our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide: This time around, we’re hooking you up with Gifts for Kicking It. So grab your fun hat (and maybe your shopping mouse) and check out this list of awesome gadgets that make it a party.

2011 has been a big year for the Mac app community. The Mac App Store was released to the public on January 6, 2011 and millions of free and paid apps have been downloaded since then.

After looking back at all of the great apps from this year, we decided to put together a list of the very best. But we need your help, so tells us what apps you think deserve to be included in our top 10 roundup.

Do you hate the new Twitter? You’re not alone. The backlash against the changes in the new iPhone app are so loud and raucous that Tapbot is going to extreme measures to help make sure everyone gets through the Twitter 4.0 “upgrade” in one piece: they are putting their industry fave Twitter client Tweetbot on sale for the first time ever!

AT&T’s plan to gobble up the fourth largest carrier in America is, for all intents and purposes, dead. After the Department of Justice moved to block the deal, AT&T began to back out of the deal.

So here’s a question. How does one of the biggest companies on Earth, with more lobbyists and politicians in its pocket than you can count, find itself incapable of closing a merger deal with a fourth-rate carrier, even after spending millions on campaign contributions, kickbacks and lobbying?

The simple answer? AT&T done $%!@ed up.

When we have an iOS device stolen, thieves don’t just obtain our precious iPhone, but they also obtain all the information that’s stored on it. Our devices are filled with personal data such as names and addresses for our friends and family, and for our convenience, they save usernames and passwords for all kinds of different services.

That’s why we secure our devices with passcode locks. But did you know you can use an alphanumeric passcode to make it even more secure?

Here at Cult of Mac, we’ve got our own axe to grind against freemium App Store games that try to get kids to max out their daddy’s credit cards with expensive in-app purchases, so it’s nice to see The Daily Show take freemium game makers to town in an absolutely hilarious, spot-on segment that shows how scummy these waters of the App Store can really be.

The iPhone 4S has finally been approved by Chinese regulators. Apple’s newest device today received its network approval, paving the way for carrier China Unicom to begin offering the smartphone in time for Christmas.

Which phone would fictional advertising genius Don Draper from AMC’s Mad Men use? No surprises here: as this picture of Jon Hamm from the set of the hit television proves, only the phone with the best and most convincing advertising campaign on Earth, an iPhone, would do for Draper.

[via iSource]

Earlier this morning, we told you about a promising untethered jailbreak for most older devices capable of running iOS 5. Unfortunately, though, this jailbreak will only work on past-gen devices like the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, and the iPod touch.

Why? So far, the A5 chip inside of the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S have proven impossible to jailbreak by conventional methods. The iPad 2 was jailbreakable under iOS 4.3.3 thanks to the JailbreakMe 3.0 userland exploit, but since then, no further jailbreaks — tethered or untethered — have been identified.

Here’s the good news, though. French jailbreaker Pod2G just took to his Twitter feed and while he didn’t confirm his new jailbreak exploit would work on the iPhone 4S or iPad 2, he at least suggested that it was possible it would. Could this be the ray of hope every iPhone 4S owner has been looking for?

In technology, two years can be a lifetime. It’s encouraging to learn the iPhone 3G is still going strong. According to reports, suppliers will ship 2 million of the handsets during the December quarter, making it the second best-selling iPhone behind the iPhone 4.

Japan’s Sharp, maker of huge-screen televisions, voiced confidence Thursday as it told reporters Apple isn’t much of a concern. What about the almost incessant chatter that the tech giant will enter the TV manufacturing market with an iTV in 2012? “It’s not something we’re studying very hard,” an executive claims. Unclear whether this is bravado or whistling past the graveyard, but perhaps Sharp missed class the day Apple mangled a whole string of industries thought to be untouchable.