Aviiq’s Portable Laptop Stand ($60) is very similar to the manufacturer’s other stand we reviewed a few weeks ago, the Portable Quick Stand. The big difference? You can actually use this one on your lap, and it’ll even work with an iPad. It’s also considerably more expensive.

Hey, here’s something new in the new OS X 10.7 Lion Gold Master: a handy little introduction to how to use the new multitouch gestures which loads as soon as you boot up Lion for the first time. Neat. We’ll delve in more today and over the weekend and report what else is new, but that’s such an obviously new addition it’s impossible to not just knock up a quick post about it.

One of the design geniuses behind the original Macintosh software now works at Google, and led the team responsible for interaction design and implementation of the Google+ circle editor, according to a public post on — what else? — Google+.

Andy Hertzfeld “conceived, designed and implemented a compelling prototype for it almost single-handedly, and then wrote a fair percentage of the production javascript code with lots of help” from other Google engineers.

Hertzfeld’s post is meant to spread the credit around. But the truth is that the “circle editor” is the single coolest thing in Google+.

(Photo courtesy of the Computer History Museum)

Hot on the heels of the OS X Lion Gold Master release is the release of Xcode 4.1 Developer Preview 7 for Lion. The world’s best developer tools are only getting better. Kudos to Apple on this new release. But what’s new in the seventh version of Xcode 4.1?

One of the cool new functions of iOS 5 is the ability to set the iPhone’s LED to flash for various system level alerts… but how useful is that functionality when the LED is on the back of the phone?

Not very. That’s why sources are now saying that the iPhone 5 will boast dual LEDs, one on the front, one on the back. Like a Blackberry!

With the Gold Master of Lion now released, the question becomes: when will end users be able to download the latest version of OS X 10.7 through the Mac App Store. We’ve heard July 6th, we’ve heard July 19th, but now a new source is positing a new date: July 14th.

Guess what’s just been seeded to developers? The Gold Master of OS X 10.7 Lion… the last developer seed before Lion becomes available for download to all Mac users through the Mac App Store. What a way to start off the holiday weekend!

In a sign patents are playing an increasing role in protecting marketshare, Apple and a group of other companies paid an ‘unprecedented’ $4.5 billion to keep Nortel patents away from Google. How will the 6,000 patents be used? First stop, sue the pants of Android, experts predict.

The New York Times has issued an update to its iOS apps today that now allows users to subscribe to paid content through in-app purchases. The change comes a day later than the June 30 deadline Apple imposed on subscription apps that must now provide a way for users to sign up without being redirected to a website.

For this week’s giveaway we’ve partnered up with the friendly folks at Appular to bring fans a great package of iOS gaming apps, for free. We’ve got codes for five of the hottest games in the iPhone App Store right now and we’re ready to dish em out to our awesome fans to liven up your iPhone gaming lives. Today’s package of apps includes Cars 2, Tiny Wings, Hanging With Friends, The Game of Life, and Sea Battles. If you want a chance to win all five games then hurry up and enter the contest.

It’s become a pattern for consumers – word of a new Apple device puts the brakes on purchases of the current version. Verizon Wireless is now seeing that as Apple fans hold off buying the iPhone 4 to wait for the iPhone 5.

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.