Rumors are circulating about a new design feature in the upcoming iPhone 5: An edge-to-edge screen.

The scuttlebutt originated a couple of months ago with a post on iDealsChina, and has been re-enforced by the appearance of a case for such a design on AliBaba, a disreputable online clearinghouse for buying cheap crap from China.

It all sounds pretty shady, but these kinds of sources predicted other Apple products in the past. Even more compelling is that the Wall Street Journal claims a source that has seen a prototype of such a design.

The rumor is either true or false. Who knows? Regardless, an edge-to-edge screen makes sense. If it’s possible to engineer, it’s likely to be built.

Here’s why: There is a fundamental tension in mobile design between minimum case size and maximum screen real estate. For the overall size of the phone or tablet: the smaller, the better. For the size of the screen: the bigger, the better.

Something’s gotta give.

Google announced this week the June 15 launch of its shiny new Chromebook product. People are comparing it to the Apple iPad, with some even saying the iPad doesn’t stand a chance.

The Chromebook is a laptop designed to run only browser-based applications. The idea is that nothing resides on the device. Everything is in the cloud. The Chromebook is cheap, gets great battery life, and because data resides in the cloud, idiot users can’t screw up.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said that with PCs, “the complexity of managing your computer is really torturing users… It’s a flawed model fundamentally.”

True enough. What you didn’t hear anywhere in the Google announcement is the dreaded “i” word.

The iPad has already solved the problem for consumers that Brin talked about. And that’s the biggest reason Chromebook will fail.

Go here to read the whole story.

At the top of this week’s list of must-have iOS applications is one of our favorite instant messaging tools: IM+ Pro. It has already featured in our list of the ‘Best iOS Apps for Instant Messaging‘, but the introduction of its new Neighbors service meant we couldn’t help but shout about it again.

TweetyPop is a super new Twitter application from TapFactory that allows you to view and interact with your tweets in a unique new way. It throws away the chronological list you get with every other Twitter client and delivers a 3 dimensional Twitter space.

Adobe first announced its first three Photoshop Touch applications at Photoshop World back in March, and they’re now available to download from the App Store. Color Lava, Eazel and Nav are all designed for the iPad and aim to enhance your desktop Photoshop experience with the help of a touch-based device.

Find out more about the applications above and check out OmniOutliner – this week’s final must-have – after the break.

(Update: Many — but not all — of the users in the Apple Support Communities are now reporting that the activation servers are back online, and their devices working again.)

Looks like the Lion Beta 3 Preview might not be the only problem Apple’s dealing with this morning.

As of last night, an ongoing problem with Apple’s activation servers seems to be leaving many iDevices recently updated or restored to iOS 4.3.3 bricked around the world.

Apple has released the fifth version of its developer preview for Xcode 4.1. But what’s new?

We’ve received various reports from developers testing Lion Developer Preview 2 that the Preview 3 update is no longer appearing in Software Update on machines running Lion Developer Preview 2 released on March 30th.

Here are the new wallpapers in OS X Lion Developer Preview 3, released this afternoon. There are poppies, ducks, and an actual lion.

They come courtesy of it’s all tech, who bundled them up into a downloadable zip file (26.1MB).

Check them out:

This is new the login screen in Lion Developer Preview 3, which was just released this afternoon. And we also have a list of some of the biggest changes.

Apple has just released the third major Developer Preview of Lion, the upcoming update of Mac OS X.

The 1.07GB update is avaliable to registered Mac developers running developer preview 2 update 2.

There’s also an update to Xcode, which is now version 4.1. Developers must upgrade Xcode to 4.1 after installing Lion Preview 3.

We’ll have more details soon…

Look, memory and me just don’t get on. I forget where I’ve left my keys, even when I’ve left them on the Special Key Hanging Hook that I put up precisely to avoid that.

I forget why I went upstairs. I forget why I walked from one room to the next. Once, I forgot why I stood up from my chair, stayed there swaying in confusion for a moment, then just sat down again.

Imagine, then, the state of dribbling horror a game like Memneon leaves me in.

After indie dev James Thomson was threatened with a lawsuit earlier today by a patent troll called Lodsys for using Apple’s in-app purchase mechanism in his pCalc iOS app, his first instinct was to play things cautious and not release the update scheduled for today.

Several hours later, though, and Thomson is feeling bolder: he’s decided to release the update to pCalc anyway. But will the other devs hit with shakedowns today be so plucky and defiant?

Have you ever watched a YouTube video on your iOS device, and wish that you could download it and have the video forever? If you’re jailbroken, then YourTube 2 is the tweak that you’ll want to check out. Available in Cydia for $5.00, YourTube 2 is capable of downloading YouTube videos from right within your stock YouTube app. It’ll also give you the ability to add the video directly to your video library. Is it worth the $5 price tag?

What do you when you’re a maker of illegal Chinese iPhone knockoffs and the police come with a battering ram to your door? It starts raining fake iPhone 5s. Hallelujah?

Jefferies analyst Peter Misek has just coughed up a crusty old bezoar of regurgitated iPhone 5 rumors. You know pretty much all of them: that the next iPhone will be called the iPhone 4S (debatable, doubtful), that it’ll boast an A5 dual-core SoC (a certainty) and that it’ll be coming to Sprint and T-Mobile (maybe).

He does make one interesting new claim, though: the next iPhone will boast HSPA+ mobile broadband speeds. Depending on which carrier you believe, that might make it a 4G phone.

Remember that gorgeous $32 cardboard desk concept from yesterday? Wouldn’t one of these Dieter Rams inspired wooden iPhone and iPad stands by Frog look absolutely great on the corner of one?

So after all the complaining and all the controversy about Apple’s decision to eschew a camera in the first-gen iPad, how many people are actually using it now that a camera comes equipped in the iPad 2?

Almost no one… at least on Flickr.

AT&T will begin to roll out their nationwide 4G LTE network starting in New York City on June 30th. But will they penetrate enough markets for Apple to release a 4G-capable iPhone 5 in September?

We close out another week of bargains with three deals. First us is a number of iPods, starting at $149 for an 8GB iPod touch. Next is a fun accessory for either an iPod touch or the iPhone. You can pick either a CTA Digital iPhone/iPod touch steering wheel or a digital steering wheel with a suction cup stand. Finally, AT&T offers a refurbished first-generation 3G iPad with 16GB for $329.

Along the way, we also check out some iPad cases and Mac software. As usual, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Cult of Mac has learned Apple could be scheduling secret employee meetings with retail staff on May 28th between 8 and 10am. Is this just pre-WWDC preparations, or something more?

In addition to unveiling a display today that could give the iPad 3 a Retina Display, Samsung has just debuted a new foldable AMOLED display that could be used to make your next iPad fit into your pocket, your next iPhone an iFlipPhone.

The courts smacked Apple down today in a suit against Kodak, and it could cost Cupertino up to $1 billion in licensing fees.

Adding insult to injury, the ITC judge also ruled one of Apple’s patents invalid.

Sean Power, a Canadian tech consultant and author, recently had his MacBook stolen along with some other valuables in his bag, including his birth certificate and cell phone. Using a free piece of software, Sean was able to track down his belongings and organize their safe return with the help of a bunch of friends on Twitter… and we can tell you how to do the same if it happens to you.

Wondering who the mysterious patent troll suing indie devs for using Apple’s own in-app purchasing system is? We still don’t know, but we can add another company to the list of patent houses suing iOS devs… this time not for in-app purchases, but for upgrade links.

Amazon.com has just stopped all sales of MobileMe. It’s almost as if they know something’s coming that could blast their recently unveiled Cloud Locker music streaming service out of the water. There’s an iCloud on the horizon.

If you thought Android would be the choice of the pin-stripe business crowd, think again. Turns out the iPhone is the pick for the cubicle, as well as the art studio.