When the Mac App Store first came out, any app that you already had downloaded onto your machine outside of the App Store was reported as “Installed.”

Apple’s made a new change to the way the MAS handled things. Now, instead of previous apps being unavailable to purchase because they are already installed, you get a warning that asks you if you want to buy the software all over again.

I still wish Apple would figure out a way to at least give devs the option of porting over their existing customer bases to the Mac App Store, but I guess this is nice: at least it warns me if I’m about to buy the same app twice.

[via MacWorld]

One of the cool things about Apple’s new Thunderbolt I/O standard is its daisy chaining abilities. You can string one Thunderbolt device through another one to a single Thunderbolt port with no degradation in speed or quality.

So let’s say you’ve got Apple’s old 27-inch Cinema Display, the one that connects through Mini DisplayPort. You may have gotten the notion in your head when Apple started shipping out Thunderbolt versions of the Cinema Display of daisy chaining them together. After all, why not? Other Thunderbolt peripherals can handle a Mini DisplayPort monitor. 54 horizontal inches of muilti-display splendor should easily be at your fingertips!

Think again.

Cult of Mac Presents… “Jonny Ive And The Vinyl Wood Sticker.” A humorous play in one part by Mr. Giles Turnbull.

INT.DAY.

(Jonathan Ive’s secret underground lair. Prototype Apple products litter the desks – an iPhone 5, an iPhone 6, and an iPhone 7. Versions 3, 4 and 5 of the iPad. An iPad mini. An iPhone Pro. A MacPro nano. An AppleTV that’s actually a TV. A bunch of other things that don’t even have names yet. Most of these products are partly disassembled, with wires and circuit boards hanging out at odd angles. Between them are soldering irons, bits of wire, aluminum and duct tape.)

(Standing amid all the chaos, with shirtsleeves rolled up, a pencil behind his ear, and eye protectors pushed up on top of his head, is Jonathan Ive. He’s peering at the screen of a MacBook Air and frowning. He picks up the phone.)

IVE: Get me the Design Abuse Team. Now!

Too often, the image of older people and technology comes with seniors using bowling with the Wii, fumbling with web cams or being ripped off by Facebook scams. A new book about learning the iPad appears to feed into that misconception: use small words and speak very, very slowly.

Apple is trying to fast track the training of retail employees in the proper use of iOS 5 and iCloud ahead of their early October debuts, Cult of Mac has learned.

I liked this photo, which Sameli Kujala posted to the Cult of Mac Flickr pool.

On the right, Mac OS 8 on CD-ROM, packaged in its huge cardboard box. Vintage 1997 stuff. In the centre, today’s diminutive Lion USB stick – which you don’t even have to use if you download direct from the Mac App Store. And on the left, a bottle of champagne, adding suitably classy balance to the whole scene.

If you have a great photo of your smart Apple stuff – retro or modern or both together – and you’d like to share it with your fellow Cult of Mac readers, do send it in: [email protected]

(Photo used with permission. Thanks Sameli!)

The fallout from Apple’s lengthy battles with Samsung has started. The tech giant has inked a contract with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to produce the A6 and successors. The move ends an exclusive deal with the Korean Samsung to produce chips for Apple’s iOS devices, according to a Friday report.

Developer Moritz Haarmann put together this neat experimental “fluid layout” concept for retail on the iPad.

The introduction of the Mac App Store earlier this year has seen a boost in big-name games coming to our Macs. Rockstar Games has re-released its awesome Grand Theft Auto titles, Aspyr brought us (but we didn’t want it!) Duke Nukem Forever, and now Feral Interactive is set to release Batman: Arkham Asylum on October 13.

The news just never seems to be good for RIM. Thursday, the Canadian company announced it sold just 200,000 PlayBook tablets during the last quarter. Today, an analyst predicts the iPhone 5 will “steamroll” RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry 7 smartphones.

If you’re unhappy that Apple is quashing your favorite MobileMe feature in the move over to iCloud, now is the time to do something about it. The Cupertino company has already stated that it will consider bringing features back to iCloud if enough people ask for them, and to help things along, Command Guru has started an iCloud Petition that allows you to vote to save your favorite MobileMe feature.

Apple fans hoping for an iPad 3 this year should just cool their jets, one analyst advises. There’s “no rush” to unveil a new version as rival devices stumble left and right. As Simon & Garfunkel might say: Slow down, you move too fast.

iPhone 4 bumpers. Sure, they look nice, but they don’t really protect your iPhone from damage and after the whole Antennagate, they’re cynically looked upon as bandaids for the antenna attenuation problem. Worse, at $29, they’re overpriced.

Well, say goodbye to bumpers comer the iPhone 5.

Apple’s recent firmware updates were famous for preparing the company’s latest Thunderbolt-equipped Macs for the upcoming Thunderbolt Display. However, they also enabled one feature than Apple didn’t tell you: SATA 6Gbps support.

There’s a lot to like about Iomega’s Mac Companion Hard Drive, an external drive designed for flat-screen iMacs. It’s the fastest way to charge an iPad, for example.

Apple was so impressed by the Mac Companion drive, it ordered the first two production runs exclusively for its stores. It won’t be available anywhere else for several weeks, Iomega says.

Is RIM’s PlayBook the next HP TouchPad? That’s the thinking of some reading the BlackBerry maker’s news that it shipped just 200,000 of its tablets last quarter, less than half that shipped the previous financial three-month period. What’s worse: there are also PlayBooks unsold at retailers. Can anyone say price cuts are on the way?

Okay here’s another annoying iOS feature that Mac OS X Lion has adopted. I actually hate this one, but it isn’t the one I hate the most I’ll talk about that next week. It’s smart if you need it, but stupid if you aren’t spending all day using different special characters. If you are a developer you might not like that fact that you cannot enter multiple letter A’s etc. The title of this post is an example of a creative way to use repeating characters that Mac OS X Lion won’t allow you to do by default.

Today, I’ll show you how to fix that.

In today’s high tech world, sometimes we can all use a bit of assistance. This week we’re launching a new troubleshooting column for Cult of Mac readers, Ask MacRx, to address your questions and issues about Macs and iDevices.

In today’s edition we’ll tackle restoring the Mail Message Preview Pane, more options for overcoming MobileMe sync problems, and questions about duplicates in iPhoto.

Many of you will have a number of Apple IDs, especially if you’re a MobileMe subscriber. So when you login to iCloud, or Game Center, or the iTunes Store, or FaceTime, or iMessage… how do you know which one to use? Well, thankfully, Apple is working on Apple ID account merging that will turn all of your 30 Apple IDs into just one.

Sources have reportedly confirmed that there are indeed two new models of Apple’s iPhone on their way: one of which will be a cheaper version of the iPhone 4, and the other a fancy new iPhone 5. However, thanks to production delays with at least one assembler, the best one may not arrive until 2012.

I was just speaking with another reviewer here about how surprisingly common it is for manufacturers to copy each other’s designs. To ‘port an entire line of products, though, is a little more unusual: iHealth has just announced an app-enhanced digital scale, blood pressure monitor and baby monitor that mirrors Withings‘ entire lineup, gadget for gadget.

There’s no space the iPad hasn’t invaded — the kitchen in particular seems a favorite for me place for me to plop it down in. I’ll look up recipes, stream live TV news in the background while I’m cooking or kick back with the Grey Lady over breakfast.

But Apple’s probably going to void your warranty if they find egg yolk in the iPad’s innards. Never fear — Belkin has just announced a whole aisle’s worth of iPad accessories for the kitchen that’ll keep the iPad mess-free.

With rumor after rumor claiming that Sprint will carry Apple’s iPhone next month, many are wondering if the carrier can handle the expected influx of iPhone customers.

Without blatantly stating that it will carry the iPhone, Sprint has reaffirmed that it can in fact handle the traffic associated with iPhone users.

Two unauthorized Apple stores in Flushing, Queens have agreed to give all of their Apple-related merchandise back to the mothership.

Both stores say they are willing to hand over everything they have in stock with the word “Apple” or any of the Cupertino company’s trademarks – but still maintain they have not violated any Apple trademarks.

Taking the opposite approach of most American students, China’s Peking University student body is mad at Apple for placing an Apple store inside the campus library. Why? Because it “goes against the spirit and environment” of studying.