We Americans have stuffed our faces with turkey and various assortments of tasty dishes, and now it’s time for Black Friday. That means Apple’s online stores around the world are getting updated with special sales. Many other retails are also offering hot deals on our favorite Apple gadgets and accessories.

Things aren’t looking good for AT&T’s T-Mobile USA acquisition proposal. AT&T withdrew its merger application with the FCC today and agreed to pay a $4 billion pre-tax charge to the affected parties in its next quarterly earnings report.

While AT&T and Deutsche Telekom are still committed to the merger, this action signals that the deal will likely not make it past the courts. The proposed merger is facing opposition from multiple sides, including the FCC’s own chairman.

There seems to be a lot of noise made about the still camera abilities of the iPhone 4S recently, and for good reason; but let’s not forget that it’s also a very competent filmmaker (and the 3Gs and 4 aren’t slouches either). And if you’re even semi-serious about shooting video on your iPhone, you might want something like FiLMiC Pro, a video-production app with real video-production muscle and features.

Once you’re done stuffing your face full of turkey and gravy and recovered from your food coma, you’re going to need some entertainment for the rest of the weekend. How about some new games? Aspyr is currently having an awesome 50% off deal on some of their games biggest games. We’re not talking crappy boring titles either, we’re talking legit amazing games for 50% off. Call of Duty 4, Civilization V, Duke Nukem Forever, Star Wars The Force Unleashed, and many more titles are available between now and Monday, November 28th for download.

If you’re looking for something to do during your long weekend, you should probably head over to their site and get a few games for your Mac.

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Apple has aired a new commercial for the iPod touch called “Share the Fun.” The advert features the white and black 4th gen iPod touch and several of the main features in iOS 5.

In the ad, people tweet from the iPod touch, use Game Center, talk on FaceTime, take pictures, and more. This new iPod touch ad joins Apple’s recent iPhone 4S and iPad 2 commercials.

In the spirit of the holiday, most of here at Cult of Mac have decided to spend the day with our friends and families, but like last year, we thought we’d observe the holiday by writing about why we’re thankful for Apple and its products this year. We hope you’ll join in in the comments

I have this terrible habit of doodling on things while I’m on the phone. Often it’s to jot down information that the person on the other end is feeding to me, but sometimes it’s simply to draw silly faces and obscure patterns to pass the time. When I don’t have a notepad to hand, almost anything could become my biro-covered victim.

But the Papernomad case for iPad is begging to be doodled on. It’s a tear resistant sleeve made from a patented material that consists of several layers of paper, cotton, and Australian sheep wool; and it’s completely biodegradable.

Programming Siri to do weird and wonderful things that are yet to be sanctioned by Apple is quickly becoming a hacker’s favorite hobby. We’ve already seen how well the digital assistant can control your home’s thermostat, but this latest hack is even more impressive.

One developer has created used the same proxy featured in the thermostat hack to connect Siri with his Viper car alarm system. He can now tell his iPhone to lock his car, enable his alarm, pop his trunk, and even start his engine.

iOS developers aren’t the only ones slashing prices for Black Friday 2011; there’s also some awesome discounts to be found in the Mac App Store. One of the best we’ve discovered this morning is over half off all three of Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto titles for Mac.

Apple’s online stores in Australia and New Zealand have been taken down while reductions are made to a whole host of products for the company’s Black Friday sale.

Apple has been embracing subscription-based iOS applications for some time, such as those that offer magazines and newspapers, but the same model did not appear for iOS games until earlier this week, when the Cupertino company approved a title from Big Fish Games that offered gamers the opportunity to pay a monthly fee of $4.99 to access the companies entire catalog through one app.

When the title hit the App Store, it was reported that Apple had begun accepting subscription-based games for iOS, and that the new release from Big Fish could be the first of many games to offer a similar service. However, Apple has quickly put a stop to those dreams after it pulled Big Fish’s title from the App Store.

Mac OS X Lion includes many features that are very similar to those found in iOS. In this video, I’ll show you how to expand it even further, and make Mac OS X Lion even more like iOS.

For those of you heading over to gawk at Sonic and the other floats at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC tomorrow, there’s a new tool this year that’ll help you make the most of the day — that’s right, the parade has its own free iPhone app.

I was exploring some of the new features in iTunes 10.5.1 this week and I found out that iTunes offers a lot of technical information about our iOS devices. The only problem is that the information is hidden on the device summary tab and unless you know how to get to it you wouldn’t think about looking for it.

This is iF Poems, a new educational app aimed at children, but with much to offer to grown-ups too.

In a recent interview with Forbes, Microsoft’s chief strategy and research officer, Craig Mundie, sat down to talk about the future of the “Kinect effect” and other aspects of the company’s business.

When asked about his opinion on the hype surrounding Apple’s Siri voice technology in the iPhone 4S, Mundie promptly stuck his foot in his mouth.

I use multiple keyboards on my iOS devices English (US), Emoji, and Deutsch (German). It used to be a drag to have to click the globe icon on the keyboard multiple times to get to the keyboard you needed, but not any more. You can reach all your keyboards with just one finger!

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs5ddFlc5Tw

The highly anticipated sequel to Chair Entertainment’s Infinity Blade is launching on December 1st, and the official trailer has been made available with commentary from the game’s developers.

Infinity Blade II will feature 40 new locations, millions of new hit points, and stunning visuals for iOS devices that boast the A5 processor, like the iPhone 4S and iPad 2.

I’ve always had a little crush on Susan Kare, the graphical interface pioneer who designed most of the original Mac OS icons and also designed the first proportionally spaced digital font, but this incredible piece on her over at PLOS had me wooed all over again, especially when I saw her incredible original sketches of the Mac OS icons we all know and love, which Susan laboriously designed on graph paper.

Check out some of her work on icons both familiar and foreign below, it’s the best thing I’ve seen all day.

For the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, the saying about death and taxes being life’s only certainty probably rings true — particularly taxes. Laurene Powell Jobs learned she must pay $867 million in capital gains taxes and is being advised to unload millions of Disney and Apple shares worth nearly $7 billion.

Apple has a tendency to make businesses nervous — just ask the CD folks assimilated into the iTunes universe, or the companies swept aside by the iPhone in 2007. A similar nervous tick is growing in the television set manufacturing business, already skating on razor-thin margins. TV makers reportedly are snooping around for details on an Apple-designed iTV that could start production in February, but is it too late for them to do anything besides be bulldozed by Apple like so many industries before them?

Aaron Sorkin’s one of the most respected names in screenwriting these days. Not only did he write The Social Network and Moneyball, but he’s also behind the fantastic series Sports Night and The West Wing.

Needless to say, then, Sorkin’s high on the list of people that Sony wants to write their upcoming bio pic of Steve Jobs, based on Walter Isaacson’s best-selling bio. And apparently he’s really considering it.

Interesting, but I personally hope this is more Moneyball and less Social Network, which was a pretty flawed film.

Last week I wrote a few tips about disk encryption, but I didn’t write about what to do with the startup disk on your Mac. I cannot think of any reason you shouldn’t encrypt your startup disk after the release of Mac OS X Lion. Apple has made it just to easy for you to encrypt your drive.  It is quick, fast and easy. I’ll show you how today.

It’s the crown jewel of Cupertino’s 10th anniversary in retailing: Grand Central Apple, a backdrop for the tech giant’s largest site that’s flooded with history. Although the site isn’t complete, images are leaking out, including an homage to the setting — a huge ticker above the main passageway like those from yesteryear. Instead of arrivals and departures, however, the sign urges visitors to grab an iPod for that long commute. So cool!

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.