Cult of Mac

Rather than focusing its efforts on its diminishing smartphone business, it seems RIM may be planning to launch a device that will rival the Apple TV, packed with PlayBook hardware.

Apple’s developer betas of future versions of iOS are just that, betas, which means that there’s all sorts of problems that can come up when you install one. Total device meltdown, though? That’s the sort of thing that ought to be ironed out in alpha, yet that’s just what at least one iOS 5 Beta user is reporting after installing the dev preview on his iPad: massive, device crippling overheating issues. And Apple says it’s a known issue.

Should tablets be classified alongside notebooks as Mobile PCs? HP has its fingers crossed and hopes no as the rising popularity of the iPad could see a new mobile PC king crowned in 2012.

In a bid to tempt unhappy customers away from Apple’s Final Cut Pro X, Adobe has slashed by the price of its Premiere Pro professional video editing software by 50%… but will its ploy be a success?

Companies within Apple’s supply chain are currently preparing materials for the production of the iPhone 5, which they believe is likely to launch this September… but it may not be launching alone. Instead, it will be accompanied by the iPad 3.

iPhone apps are live streaming the trial of a mother accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter.

Casey Anthony, 25, is standing trial in Orange County, Florida on a charge of first-degree murder. Her 2-year-old daughter Caylee’s disappearance in the summer of 2008 became a national obsession.

A series of interviews with retail employees conducted by a labor movement website paints a scathing picture of what it’s like to work at the Apple Store: underpaid, demoralized, physically drained and with no way to secure full-time benefits without turning your personal life over to Apple.

City commissioners in a Florida town approved iPads for themselves to save money on paper costs despite budget problems.

The expense of $2,916 was approved for four iPads despite a cash crunch. Last year, Coral Springs dipped into reserves for $4.8 million plus raised fees and property taxes to carry on.

Following rumors that Facebook was planning its first iPad app, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has told everyone to stay tuned for the world’s largest social network to ‘launch something awesome next week.”

A senior manager at Research In Motion, utterly embarrassed by the travesty that was the BlackBerry Playbook, has published a public plea to the press. Stop selling Flash. Look at how Apple is working its mobile business. And fire those two joined-at-the-hip bozos running the company.

Today’s June 30th. That’s an important day for app developers. It’s the day Apple expects app makers to comply with new guidelines saying you can no longer link directly to a way to buy in-app content out of app. Hulu Plus has already jumped through that hoop, but you know who hasn’t? Amazon with its Kindle app.

HP will be releasing its own would-be iPad killer on Friday. Called the HP Touchpad, it’s the first tablet running webOS 3, the tablet-sized operating system HP picked up from Palm last year. But what is the critical consensus? Is the HP Touchpad a viable competitor to the iPad?

Across the board, the answer is no, but most critics agree that six months from now, webOS 3 — if not the Touchpad itself — could be a viable threat to iPad. Right now, though, the HP Touchpad is unpolished and messy.

Here’s the only review of the HP Touchpad you need, glommed together from the Internet’s gadget blogging hivemind.

Apps, those tiny games and other bits of code on your iPhone or iPad, are adding up to serious money. After doubling to $14.1 billion this year, revenue from apps will generate more than $36.7 billion by 2015. But can web apps cash-in on this goldmine?

Apple — not Android — has the momentum in the United States, a new study finds, and their powerhouse move was the Verizon iPhone, which flattened domestic Android growth.

One of Windows 8’s key tablet features is the ability to run two apps on the same screen side-by-side. It’s a feature that iOS 5 has yet to adopt, but that hasn’t stopped one jailbreak dev from swiping the idea and creating a hack that can allow two or more iPhone apps to run side-by-side on any iPad. Sick.

Sync versus streaming. Essentially, that is the difference between how Apple, Amazon and Google view the cloud. However, a closer looks finds iCloud could pay off big for the Cupertino, Calif. company looking to cash-in on the falling price of flash memory.

Are iPad component makers too busy fulfilling Apple orders to build any competitors? That’s appears to be the case for Amazon, where at least one parts maker may already be too busy churning out iPad displays to build a tablet version of the Kindle.

It’s not official until Apple makes it so, but expect this blip to pop up Apple’s July 19th financial results call: the iPad now has more than 100,000 native apps available for it.

Apple’s currently in the process of sprucing up their New York retail locations, most notably taking down and reinstalling the 5th Avenue Store’s iconic Glass Cube. But the slate of renovations won’t end there: Apple will also close its landmark SoHo store this summer and replace it with a temp location somewhere else within Manhattan to compensate.

We know the release of OS X Lion is imminent, not just because Apple said it was coming in July, but because supplies of MacBook Airs and MacBooks are dangerously constrained, yet Apple is holding back new models.

So when’s Lion dropping? The latest rumor says right after this holiday weekend… and we’re inclined to believe it.

As if on cue, the first teardowns of Apple’s Thunderbolt cable have hit the Internet, and prepare to be surprised: that $49 retail price isn’t just the usual Apple tax, but a fair asking price for the advanced circuitry within!

A 23-year-old man was arrested for using the iPod video camera to film up the skirts of women at a local Walmart.

A 9-year-old girl with sight problems has swapped out magnifying glasses and other clunky equipment for  an iPad.

Holly Bligh, of Melbourne Australia, has albinism, which affects her vision. To read, teachers had to make photocopies with enlarged text for her or she had to use a magnifying glass or other devices to read.

We start out with two hardware deals and an offer to protect your MacBook Air. First up is a number of Mac mini desktops, beginning with a 2.4 GHz unit for just $599. Next is several MacBook Pros, starting at $899 for a 2.4GHz unit with a 13.3-inch screen. Finally, there is a MacBook Air sleeve from Belkin for just $13.

Along the way, we also check out a Bluetooth keyboard case for your iPhone 4, a micro SIM card for your iPad or iPhone and “Brush Pilot 2” for the Mac. As always, details on these items and many more can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Today is the fourth anniversary of the release of the original iPhone, and for Cult of Mac’s writers, it’s a particularly important birthday: not only does June 29th mark the anniversary of one of our most all-time beloved gadgets, but it’s also a day so momentous that it has rippled through every aspect of our professional lives as both Apple fans and writers.

To mark the occasion, five of Cult of Mac’s writers got together to talk about where we were when the first iPhone came out, what it meant for us then and what it means for us now. Check out our stories, then please feel free to hop in and leave a comment telling us where you were when the iPhone was born.