Cult of Mac

Skype has just released a new update, bringing OS X Lion support and HD video calls to the popular VoIP Mac application.

Many thought the first trading day after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. creditworthiness to AA+ would elicit some reaction from Wall Street. However, Monday has been crazy on the big board, with Apple leading other shares for wild swings.

Increasingly thwarted by customs, Chinese and Hong Kong iPad smugglers are taking to the comic books to learn some new tricks for getting their wares to customers: smugglers are now firing crossbows across raging rivers and ziplining across with smuggled iPhones and iPads strapped to their backs!

Time is money. If so, the iPad is capable of saving enterprises big cash due to its ability to free employees from the desk. One company integrating the iPad into its work environment is Business Intelligence software maker MicroStrategy. The company now uses 2,300 iPads at its $454 million software firm.

A button-cute 10 year old girl may have just set a new prestigious record. It’s not for the largest number of consecutive jump rope skips, or for chewing a piece of gum for the longest time, or even for collecting the most Facebook friends. It’s for identifying a zero-day exploit in a number of iOS and Android games! Isn’t that cute?

Remember the report that Apple was preparing its own Netflix-killer called iTunes Replay for launch in the next few weeks? Well, don’t hold your breath… it’s not coming anytime soon and, as usual, you can blame a reclacitrant Hollywood for having to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century.

Here’s one time Microsoft’s molasses-like startup routine could pay off. A Florida company is suing Apple, charging the tech giant infringed a patent for quickly booting Mac OS X. The lawsuit names the MacBook Pro as one of the Apple devices that is claimed to use the disputed patent.

We have theorized before that Apple was holding back its much rumored iOS 5’s Nuance speech integration as a feature to be revealed at the iPhone 5 launch event, and it looks like we may have been right, as a couple of new screenshots have popped up showing just how speech recognition will be integrated with the operating syste,.

Apple rivals are more likely to fight amongst themselves then score a knock-out blow against the iPad, one Wall Street expert said Monday. The iconic iPad will still have 60 percent of the market by 2020, he contends.

Many of us first encountered Apple Computers in schools, but Apple’s once dominant position in the educational market has seemed to fade over the last decade. Now Apple’s setting out to do something about it, as they’ve just released a brand new sub-$1000 iMac aimed for schools and institutions.

One of my favorite things about Mac OS X Lion is the introduction of new trackpad gestures that make my computing experience a lot more efficient. One of the gestures I use the most is the new swipe gesture in Quick Look.

This week’s roundup must-have apps features the long-awaited Skype app for the iPad, a beautiful new music app from Rdio, the quickest and easiest way to sell your old gadgets through eBay Instant Sale, and a new digital magazine from AOL that’s tailored just for you.

It seems as if I’m the only person having issues with Lion–it’s like I am trapped in Brain Candy and I’m the only one not taking the happy pill. I’ve been a Mac user for a long time, and every new upgrade brought butterflies to my stomach. This time around I was so excited I thought I was going to have a heart attack, but the excitement wore off quite quickly. Since then I have turned into a ranting bitch.

Two weeks after releasing iOS 5 Beta 4, Apple has now pushed a fifth beta out to developers. You can grab iOS 5 Beta 5 with your registered developer account in the Dev Center, and the update can also be received as an over-the-air update on a device running iOS 5 Beta 4.

A trendy Atlanta eatery is the latest to adopt a growing hospitality industry trend: using iPads as interactive menus.

Guests at the Do Restaurant at The View make their selections on Apple’s culture-changing tablet, which are then relayed to iPads in the kitchen. Waiters of the human variety come in only to bring orders to the tables.

Apple is mixed up in all kinds of patent issues. As a result, the company has been accused of unfairly trying to kill Google’s Android platform, and of being a “patent troll.”

But such criticism is misplaced. First, the accusations are false. Second, the real blame should be reserved for the US Congress, which has the power to fix our broken patent system, but year after year fails to do so.

If the rumors are anything to go by, the next iPhone will be unveiled sometime in the next month. We don’t know anything for sure about the iPhone 5 yet, but it seems likely at this point that the iPhone 5 will have an A5 chip, a larger display, a thinner design and (possibly) a capacitive home button for gestures.

That tells us a lot about what the iPhone 5 might be like, but not a lot about what it looks like. So for your perusal this weekend, we’ve put together a gallery of ten of the best iPhone 5 concept designs out there. Let us know which one is your favorite in the comments.

Apple is allegedly investigating complaints from some Mac OS X Lion users about system crashes related to graphics or sleep/wake issues on various Macs. Users that complain about the problem say that a person will see their Mac suddenly crash and display a black screen or a kernel panic. One common situation surrounding the problem is that some sort of graphics event is taking place or that the crash may take place when the computer wakes from sleep.

OS X Lion includes a plethora of new gestures to enhance the user experience. While the majority of these gestures are based around the trackpad, the Magic Mouse still has more than a few new gestures. In this video, I’ll show you how you can use Lion’s new gestures to make the most of your Magic Mouse.

Forbes has put together its list of the world’s most innovate companies, and the results are fairly shocking. Apple places fifth on the list, with Amazon sitting comfortably ahead at the number two spot. Google ranked a very surprising seventh place, with the number one spot going to Salesforce.com.

The question on everyone’s mind: How do you determine “innovation?”

AirBeam is a clever little app that lets you output realtime video from one iDevice (camera-equipped, obviously)  to another iDevice on the same local network. The app usually sells for  $4, but it’s free today through Saturday.

Belkin today released its Keyboard Folio for iPad 2, a $100 Bluetooth keyboard case. Like Adonit’s Writer 2 (review coming soon), Belkin’s take on the iPad keyboard/case is a faux suede folio with attached BT keyboard and placeholder to carry the iPad 2 around in.

While it may not be your own real life helicopter, the iRemoco is still a super fun remote control helicopter that plays nice with your iPhone. Thanks to a little adapter that you plug into your iPhone’s 30-pin connector, you can control this fun toy right from your iPhone.

According to the RBC Daily, Apple could start selling the iPhone 5 in Russia this November, with that date being “almost immediately” after the US release.

The Russian newspaper’s sources are unnamed smartphone retailers, and this report seems to echo another rumor that Apple won’t unveil the iPhone 5 until October of this year.

Apple may have started shutting down the developer accounts of those who sell their device slots to non-developers. Specifically, developers who have sold access to their developer account for unauthorized users to run iOS 5 beta software.

Email warnings are allegedly being sent to developers from Apple, and those that are selling device slots for profit are reportedly having their Apple developer account privileges revoked.