We showed you our final round of the ‘Coolest Mac Setups’ gallery yesterday, and now we’re starting a new reader submitted series called “Me and My Mac.”

Happy Friday, developers! Apple has seeded iTunes 10.5 beta 8 and iWork beta 3 for iOS in the Developer Center.

The update fixes several performance bugs and adds updates to iTunes Match.

When they aren’t just accidentally losing their prototypes in bars, the security around Apple’s prototypes can be quite impressive. Just listen to what some early-access devs had to go through to check out the original iPad before it was released. The only thing they didn’t have to acquiesce to is wearing explosive collars around their necks.

You might remember a security kerfuffle from a few weeks ago involving DigiNotar issuing compromised security certificates to websites after being hacked, including one for Gmail. Well, Apple’s just fixed that at the root level of OS X Lion and Snow Leopard 10.6.8 with the latest Security Update.

Timing is everything. That could be the message from news Apple’s chief iPad 2 supplier is expected to churn out 20 million of the tablets for the third quarter – just in time for the all-important holiday sales period. Shipments of the iPad 2 for the quarter were already expected to hit 14 million, thus topping the last period’s 9.25 million tablets Apple sold.

When Sprint gets the iPhone 5 next month, expect it to differentiate itself from Verizon and AT&T with a truly unlimited data plan. Better? Unlimited data might not just be a bait-and-switch tactic to get new customers, quickly phased out in favor of 2GB data plans, but a permanent incentive to sign up with Sprint.

Apple’s iPhone again ranks as the most satisfying smartphone by JD Powers’ customer survey. This makes the fifth year the handset has been listed on top, scoring 795 in customer satisfaction. Motorola placed second while legal nemesis Samsung was dead last in customer satisfaction.

It was a tragic week in Cupertino as Allen “Skip” Haughay — a popular iPod engineer and six-year Apple veteran — was struck and killed by a truck in San Jose, California while riding his cherished horse, Regal Bull.

Lowe’s, the nationwide chain of handyman havens, is planning a new tool for the do-it-yourself consumer: an iPhone app able to store your home’s layout along with all the items needed for that weekend project. Meanwhile, 42,000 Lowe employees will get iPhone 4s enabling them to take customer orders and answer questions.

In the case of a German judge, looks are everything when deciding to permanently ban Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in that European nation. “For the informed customer there remains the predominant overall impression that the device looks” like Apple’s iPad, a Dusseldorf court ruled Friday.

Following the mysterious increase to shipping times for a number of Apple products yesterday — and the speculation that followed — it seems the Cupertino company has decided to remove shipping times completely from its online store.

Today the tip is for all you neat freaks out there. I get pretty sloppy when I’m working on a project and I tend to leave a bunch of different files on my Finder desktop. I tend to gather all these up after I complete the  project and later I throw them into a folder. I used to do it the hard way, but not any more.

“We will find you and redefine the experience of genital torture.”

Don’t mess with Lars Vortiz, president of Apple’s internal Torture Division!

Apple’s plans to build a ‘spaceship’ campus in Cupertino have had us all in awe over its magnificent design which will take up a whopping 3.1 million square-feet of land. However, not everyone in Cupertino is looking forward to ‘Apple Campus 2’.

While blogging services like Posterous, Tumblr, and WordPress have long catered to those of use who like to write up posts on our iPhones, Google made us wait a long time for an iPhone app for Blogger. But now it’s finally here, and it does a great job.

Wireless networking is de rigeur these days, but in large buildings or crowded urban environments it can sometimes be difficult to get connections working reliably throughout a facility. Extending your WiFi network allows you to provide strong coverage through a home or workplace while allowing wireless devices to roam about and keep connectivity.

The most reliable way I’ve found to extend WiFi network coverage is to create a single network with multiple Wireless Access Points, connected via a wired backbone to a single internet router. Here’s how this is done.

Following its move to shun T-Mobile and begin selling Verizon devices instead, a screenshot from Radio Shack’s internal system reveals the retailer is set to begin selling the CDMA model of Apple’s iPhone, and its iPad 2, from September 15.

That’s right, folks — that downtime earlier today wasn’t to introduce new products, but to update the online store instead. Apple has made purchasing the iPad 2 a much nicer experience, and seems to have tweaked things behind the scenes to make its online store a lot snappier.

The Apple Store is currently down. Nothing is rumored, AFAIK, but we all know that Apple loves surprises. Let’s hope it’s something big!

Anyone got any wishes?

Thanks Steven in Settle.

Pioneer has just launched its own versions of an AirPlay-equipped system, and they’re characteristically bigger and badder than the rest of the crowd.

The problem with battery cases is that they’re so big. Wrapping one around the iPhone 4 turns it from slim-and-sleek into a thick brick of a phone; and if you wanted fat and ugly, heck, you would have bought an Android phone.

But the PhoneSuit Elite iPhone 4 battery case ($80) changes everything. It’s the first case I’ve really felt comfortable carrying around in a jeans pocket, and it’s powerful and fast to boot.

A few short months ago, we wondered whether the wee ones should be learning their ABCs with iPads.

The answer appears to be yes: Fall 2011 brings a bumper crop of U.S. preschools launching iPad programs. From Maine to Tennessee, kids are saying teary goodbyes to their parents and being greeted in schoolrooms with sympathetic teachers (we hope) and Apple’s magical device.

Since we can no longer carp about people smoking, it would seem we have to find some bone to pick with fellow diners in restaurants.

Case in point: a server in a busy San Francisco restaurant (where else?) wonders if it is a breach of etiquette 2.0 to bring your own mobile entertainment to the table.

Google has just released an HTML 5 optimized iOS web app for its Google Music cloud service.

Now you can play your tunes on any iDevice from the browser.

Want to take your boring iOS screenshots and add a little flare? Are you a developer looking for an easy way to create iPhone and iPad mockups of your app screenshots?

Screentaker is a new app in the Mac App Store that lets you easily bring your iOS screenshots to life.