Remember the old “killer app” concept? The idea is that an application becomes so desirable that it guarantees massive sales of the hardware platform it runs on.

The Wikipedia has the best definition I’ve seen: A killer app is “any computer program that is so necessary or desirable that it proves the core value of some larger technology, such as computer hardware, gaming console, software, or an operating system. A killer app can substantially increase sales of the platform on which it runs.”

The best examples are VisiCalc on the Apple II and Lotus 1-2-3 for the IBM PC. Don’t laugh. Without those early “killer apps,” you may never have even heard of the Mac or Windows. (“Cult of Commodore,” anyone?)

Right now, everyone thinks the iPad is successful, and it is. But the number of iPad users sill pales in comparison with, say, the number of Windows users or the number of Facebook users (each boasting well over half a billion users). As much as we love our iPads, we must admit that so far the tablet is an optional toy for rich young people. The iPad dominates tablets, but tablets are on the fringe. The iPad, and the tablet, have not yet found their “killer app.”

But they will. And soon. Both Google and Facebook are both about to release their first-ever iPad apps for social networking. And I think the experience will be so compelling that it will drive millions of new users to get iPads, just for social networking.

Cult of Mac needs your help to raise money to help fight blood cancer. And we need it ASAP!

This morning, Leader will be up in the California Alps, where he will be undergoing The Death Ride, an extremely challenging 130-mile bicycle route that goes up and over five mountain passes in the awesome Sierra Nevada. Leander is doing all of this to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training Program.

The Death Ride? As its name suggests, it is absolutely fricking insane. It amounts to 15,000 feet of climbing in one day, most of it between 6,000- and 9,000-feet above sea level, where the air is pretty thin. Here’s the elevation map. For an idea of how high that is, see this amazing infographic. It’s a masochistic ordeal.

With just a few hours until the Death Ride starts, Leander is still short $250 of the minimum $3500 pledge he needs.

Please, if you’ve got any money to spare, consider pledging it to Leander. I don’t know if you’ve seen Cult of Mac’s Editor-in-Chief, but he’s not exactly in what you would call peak physical conditioning. Most of the time, he’s really more martini than man. That Leander’s going to ride 130 miles up and down mountains today until the meat sloughs off his bones is an awesome enough feat for him to accomplish without him having to pay $250 out of pocket to do it.

Here’s the link to support Leander. All donations are tax deductible. Help Leander out, would you? This really is for a very good cause.

Apple may have banned apps that helped drivers find DUI checkpoints, but it has approved a game where drinkers try to follow a straight line to see how drunk they are.

The iPhone is a powerful reporting tool, so much so that the BBC is creating an app that will help reporters make the most of it in the field, replacing more expensive and sometimes less reliable equipment like satellite phones.

Many other mobile journalists are using them in the field. Their tips for recording and editing audio and video can come in handy for any iPhone user who wants to capture a lecture, conference or family moment — then edit and send with minimum hassle.

Electrical fault or bug? We’d be willing to guess the former, but an iOS developer testing his software running iOS 5 Beta 2 says that the latest developer preview caused his iPhone 4 cable to erupt into flame.

Wow, check out this absolutely bonkers iPad DJing kit by Numark. Sure, it’s not for serious DJs, but for amateurs who want to play at being daftly punk, this is a very cool accessory.

In a striking sign of how the iPad dominates the tablet market, Android phone owners will likely bypass tablets powered by Google’s Honeycomb for Apple, one Wall Street analyst told investors Friday.

Apple’s latest Snow Leopard update seems to be wreaking havoc with audio out through the optical and HDMI ports on the Mac mini.

A staggering number of unlicensed Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cables are to be recalled, after HDMI Org, the firm that licenses HDMI cables, said that the product should not be sold.

Has Apple priced itself out of a potential $2.5 billion mobile ad market? As top-name advertisers flee iAd, the Cupertino, Calif. company cutting prices up to 70 percent. Is iAd in free fall?

A new Apple patent reveals an interesting new method of exchanging information between your devices through “metaphorical gestures” that would, for example, allow you to “pour” your files into your iPad by tipping your iPhone over it.

Do you love creepy dolls, their heads spinning around on crackling neck cartilage like Linda Blair, surrounded by crawling disembodied limbs, covered in Satanic tattoos and riding some sort of monstrous pony with stilted nightmare legs? Then you’ll love Nokia’s new ad for the N8 Pink!

No ad could better exemplify why Nokia is on the decline. An Apple ad for the iPhone focuses on the features and the apps, the experience of actually using the phone. Meanwhile, Nokia’s paying stop-motion animators to bring to life their LSD fever dreams.

[via MacTrast]

A rogue TSA Agent who stole more than $50,000 worth of property has been fired and arrested after he was caught trying to shove an iPad down his pants.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis just took off from Cape Canaveral, launching into outer space in what will be the last launch of NASA’s historic shuttle fleet. Aboard the shuttle are not only the crew of astronauts and the hopes and dreams of hundreds of millions of Americans, but a very special payload: two custom, zero-G iPhone 4s.

By now, you’re likely one of the over million strong iDevice owners who jailbroke their iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches using Comex’s latest JailbreakMe V3 userland exploit. Because JailbreakMe exploits a security hold in iOS’s PDF rendering code, then allows you to patch that vulnerability with PDF Patcher 2, a jailbroken iDevice is ironically more secure right now than a device running stock iOS 4.3.3.

That’s not to say there weren’t problems though. If you jailbroke your device over the last few days and tried to use Apple’s Camera Connection Kit, you’d experience issues. But Comex is coming again to the rescue.

Finally, right? After almost four months of availability, the iPad 2 is now available to order online with shipping times of only 3-5 business days. I think we can officially say the iPad 2 supply crisis is over.

A very questionably sourced report claims that the next iPod Touch will join the iPad and iPhone and gain 3G data connectivity. That’s certainly always been the dream, and it would be enough for many iPhone users to ditch their cell phone contracts and go totally VoIP on a cheaper iPod Touch. But is it really plausible?

The iPad is becoming the perfect evening companion. Usage of Apple’s tablet peaks between 8pm and bedtime, with the PC relegated to the bleary-eyed early morning and mid-morning, new research finds.

Speculation that claims Apple is set to launch two new iPhones this September doesn’t look like it’s going to die down anytime soon. The latest report, citing information from a previously reliable source, claims that in addition to an all-new iPhone 5 this September, there will also be a low-end device, possibly based on the iPod touch.

Apple is planning overnight shifts at international retail locations around the world to prepare for a July 14th release of OS X Lion, according to reports. And new Thunderbolt-equipped Sandy Bridge MacBook Airs with blistering 400MBps SSD drives might also be in the cards.

Earlier today, we reported that Apple is invisibly filtering certain outgoing messages sent through their MobileMe email service.

Apple has now responded to that story, and while they admit that there is some level of filtering going on with MobileMe’s email service in order to protect users from spam, they are not censoring emails based upon political content.

UPDATE: Youtube has marked the ad “private,” though a few other copies were available when we checked. It no longer appears on the official Pecos channel, either. We’ll let you know if we find out whether they have pulled it for copyright violations or something else.

This ad is a twofer of bad taste: Taiwanese tea makers use a Steve Jobs lookalike as they violate Apple’s policy on third-party promotions.

The 21-second ad stars a fake Steve promoting Pecos tea and the company’s iPad 2 giveaway.

A 25 year old digital artist who installed a program that secretly took photographs of the people using the Macs at two New York City Apple Stores has had his own computers confiscated by the United States Secret Service. He may face criminal charges.

As an alternative to the iPhone 5 mock-up we posted last week, Mac Magazine put together this great concept of what the iPhone 5 could look like.

Over the last few months, the rumor mill has just been incapable of agreeing whether or not the next iPhone will be a modest update on the iPhone 4 called the iPhone 4S, or a more revolutionary update called the iPhone 5. We’ve even heard that Apple will release both an iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 in September.

Now ThisIsMyNext is reporting that there is no iPhone 4s at all. Rather, reports of an iPhone 4s have been informed by Apple’s method of testing the iPhone 5 prototype inside of the enclosure of an old iPhone 4.