There’s nothing like traveling with several thousand dollars worth of expensive photo gear to kick up the ‘ol stress levels: Will I be able to pack all my stuff, and will it ll be easily accessible? Will any of it break? Are colleagues or clients going to laugh at me because it doesn’t look pro enough? If it does look pro, will it make a tempting target for thieves? Can it fit into the overhead bin or under my seat on a plane? And what the heck am I going to do with my laptop?

So it’s always a welcome relief when a bag answers those questions soothingly, in a way that sets the mind at ease — which, except for one or two of those questions, Crumpler’s $172, ruggedly adventurous 8 Million Dollar photo/laptop bag does.

They say that no one but Apple can make a decent sub-$500 tablet, but Amazon not only thinks they can undercut the iPad in price once… they think they can do it with two tablet at once.

Interested in seeing the full letter Apple is sending indie iOS devs threatened by patent troll Lodsys over the use of Apple’s in-app purchasing mechanism? We’ve got it, and whether you’re versed in legalese or not, you’ll want to read this: Apple means business.

Apple has finally responded to Lodsys’ patent troll attempts to extort indie iOS devs for using iOS’s In-App Purchasing Mechanism: developers don’t owe Lodsys anything for offering in-app purchases, and if Lodsys cares to press the issue, Apple will be more than happy to step in on behalf of their devs… and wipe the floor with Lodsys.

With the iPhone unlikely to get NFC capabilities this year according to reports, waving your iPhone in front of a cash register to pay for your morning coffee will have to wait until 2012 at the earliest. Or will it?

Square has just unveiled their next-generation mobile platform, Square Card Case, and it’s not just an interesting precursor to the promise of NFC, but NFC’s first truly viable alternative in the mobile payments arena… at least when it comes to local merchants.

The Chronic Dev Team are a wonderful and ingenious bunch of guys, but they aren’t exactly the most punctual of hackers. It’s common for it to take months for the latest version of iOS or the newest iDevice to be cracked. So when Chronic Dev Team member p0sixninja recently said that we were “weeks” away from an iPad 2 jailbreak, we were skeptical we’d actually see it anytime soon.

On the contrary, says the Chronic Dev Team. You can consider that a promise.

The next iPhone is widely rumored to debut in September, but according to an AT&T rep, it’s going to slip even later, and won’t be seen until October.

Sounds like Sci-Fi malarkey: an app that measures the amount of calories burned throughout the day just by sitting in your pocket and using the iPhone’s accelerometers to measure motion. But nope, it’s real, and it’s at the App Store for $3.

We start out with three hardware deals for the Mac, the iPod and the iPhone. First is a deal on a group of MacBook Pros from the Apple Store, beginning with a 2.4GHz model for $899. Next is an 80GB iPod classic for $100. We wrap up the spotlight with a carbon fiber skin for the iPhone 4.

Along the way, we also check out cases for the iPad 2, a dock for the iPod and software for the Mac. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

If Apple Computers had been founded over a hundred years ago, not by Steve Jobs, but by Sir Digby Chicken Caesar, iTunes might very well have looked like this: the theatrophone, an 1890s invention that allowed you to “download” music into your living room, just fifty centimes per song.

To use a sporting metaphor, PC maker HP is ‘trash-talking’ about its chances to beat Apple’s iPad. Viewed in light of declining PC sales, HP is also whistling past the graveyard.

The unexpected explosion that rocked Foxconn’s Chengdu facility on Friday killing three has been blamed upon a build up of combustible dust at the iPad 2 polishing plant. As a two-week old report on factory worker conditions makes clear, though, the dangers of allowing such dust to build-up has been brought to the attention of Foxconn and Apple before.

Kicking off this week’s list of must-have iOS games is one of the most enjoyable music quiz games in the App Store called Tuned. It’s is an innovative new game for the iPhone that offers music lovers an endless number of entertaining quizzes from just about every genre there is.

Storm in a Teacup is an adorable little platform adventure in which you navigate your way through magical lands in a teacup, avoiding the bad guys and solving puzzles in an effort to complete every level.

Bumpy Road is another wonderful platformer that features a unique play mechanic and tells a wonderful love story. Despite its slightly soppy storyline, it’s brilliantly entertaining.

Find out more about the games above and check out the rest of this week’s must-haves – including Draw Jump and Casey’s Contraptions – below!

Are Lady Gaga followers Apple or Android fans? Amazon is using the flamboyant celebrity to push its cloud storage option, selling the singer’s new “Born This Way” album for only 99 cents. Along the way, the Internet retailer hopes you’ll pick it over Apple’s $16 iTunes price … and in doing so, be locked into using their Cloud Locker service instead of Apple’s forthcoming iCloud.

Apple’s resident master of the tap, the pinch and the zoom, Scott Forstall, has just come in second on Fast Company’s Most Creative People In Business Awards. But how did Apple’s VP of iPhone Software get an award that Steve Jobs and Jonny Ive weren’t up for?

Are your ears strained close to cochlear ejection trying to hear your iPad’s muffled sound? A new $20 accessory currently pushing itself through Kickstarter will help you boost sound by redirecting the speaker towards the front.

Beware that next email from Apple, advising you of the imminent availability of the iPhone 5GS. If the transparent display and the fact that “5G” isn’t even a real thing yet didn’t tip you off, these emails are part of a new wave of phishing scams.

While the impact of deaths and injuries from the Foxconn explosions should not be minimized, analysts Monday discounted the effect on iPad 2 production as minimal and ‘temporary.’ But is a 20-30% decrease in production when Apple is already struggling to fulfill demand really minimal?

The new “Apple Store 2.0” concept improves retail stores to make life better for customers. Apple bolted customized iPads to the tables next to products so you can get information, comparison shop, and even get help from a live human. Hmmm. Using iPads to improve stores. Great idea!

Now how about fixing the iPad App Store!

Don’t get me wrong. The current App Store is better than others in the industry. But so were Apple’s retail stores. Apple still improved those.

The biggest iPad App Store flaws fall into three categories. First, apps are not as “discoverable” as they should be. Second, the App Store seems overly optimized for bringing in revenue for Apple at the expense of user convenience. And third, arbitrary annoyances around downloading apps make the experience less appealing than it should be.

A native Google Maps application comes built-in to our iOS devices, and while it’s great for accessing maps and getting directions while we’re on the go, it is lacking a few important features. Thankfully, however, Google has just launched an updated Google Maps web app which offers a little extra.

The idea that Apple would launch a 64GB iPhone 4 months before the release of a fifth-generation iPhone seems ludicrous to me, but memos recently published by a Verizon retailer mention a “White iPhone 4 (32 and 64gb)” in the small print, and have sparked speculation that the device is on its way.

The latest Apple patent to surface from the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office details another of company’s ingenious little inventions, and suggests future devices could boast privacy screens that prevent curious eyes from gazing upon your tawdry activities while you ride the bus.

Just as you thought you’d heard all of the rumors surrounding the fifth-generation iPhone, we have a brand new one for you that claims the device could feature a “curved cover glass.”

In addition to the launch of ‘Apple Store 2.0’ on Sunday, the Apple Store application for iOS devices also got a much-needed revamp. The latest version of the application is now available to download from the App Store with some useful new features.

A couple of YouTube videos have surfaced demonstrating the new interactive iPad software located next to all Apple products in the Apple Store 2.0 retail layout.  Each iPad acts as a kiosk that customers can use to explore product features, perform product comparisons, and summon help from a sales associate.