Review: Early 2011 Apple iMac (27-inch screen, 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i5)

Apple updated its venerable iMac this week with new machines that are fast, sleek, and beautifully packaged.

Sporting Intel’s Sandy Bridge processors, powerful new graphics cards and Thunderbolt ports that can support two external monitors, the new iMac is the undisputed champion of all-in-one machines. Plus, it’s the only one out there that’s not butt ugly.

As well as being the most attractive desktop computer available, it offers just about everything modern computer users might need in a self-contained package, from a HD webcam to a gesture-sensitive trackpad.

I’ve been testing a 27-inch model with a 3.1Ghz Core i5 chip (the biggest, fastest stock model currently available at the Apple Store), and it may sound silly, but it’s almost too much machine for my needs. The screen is so big, I have to sit back lest I get motion sickness. And the i5 chip has power to spare for someone like me, who doesn’t do high-end video or graphics work.

Still, I’ll take it. If the chip is too powerful now, it sure won’t be in a couple of years.

Summer is upon us friends, and if you haven’t started losing that winter gut to get ready for the beach and other summer festivities now is as good a time as ever to get started. A lot of the guys here at Cult of Mac are fans of cycling and our favorite iPhone app for cycling workouts is the recently updated Cyclemeter ($4.99) by Abivo. One of the nicest things about the app is that it can be used not only for cycling but also running, swimming, or hiking. To celebrate the coming of summer, Abivo sent us 10 promo codes to give out today. We’ll be giving them out to 10 of our faithful Twitter followers on Saturday, May 7th at 10am PST.

Here’s how to enter the giveaway:

1: Follow Cult of Mac on Twitter (this contest is open to current followers and new followers).

2: Tweet the following line: “I need the new Cyclemeter app from @cultofmac because [insert your personal reason]”

3: 10 winners will be selected on Saturday morning at 10AM PST. I’ll DM the winners their promo codes.

Note: 5 Instant Winners will be chosen for the first 5 people who tweet us a picture of them riding a kids bike in Walmart.

Have fun, and good luck.

The hits just keep coming from Cupertino. Apple is breathing down the neck of cell phone giant Nokia, posting triple-digit year-over-year growth in smartphones — and climbing to the 35th spot on the Fortune 500 list of U.S. corporations.

Apple “not only continues to expand its reach in existing markets, it also keeps creating new ones,” lauds Fortune. The iPad maker not only “showed the world the power of tablet computing” but also introduced the iPad, “one of the most highly anticipated electronic products this year.” The tech giant rose more than 20 places on the vaunted list compared to 2010, when Apple ranked 56th.

Ben Hopkins is the developer of the forthcoming iOS platformer, 1-Bit Ninja, and while ostensibly the aesthetic he’s going for is that of the Game & Watch titles of his youth, the effect is much closer to early Gameboy titles. For my money, that’s a good thing, and has made 1-Bit Ninja a title to watch out for, even if its Fez-like 3D effect — in which the game world is rotated by a multitouch gesture to reveal its depth — appears to be a cool but ultimately pointless gimmick.

1-Bit Ninja is due out later this month.

The iPhone Dev-Team’s PwnageTool has just been updated for Mac OS X users to provide a stable jailbreak for the latest iOS 4.3.3 release. Just as before the application provides an untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad (1st-gen) and the iPod touch (3rd- & 4th-gen).

PwnageTool uses i0nic’s untethered exploit to safely install jailbroken 4.3.3 firmware whilst preserving your 1.59.00 baseband. This gives users the opportunity to continue to use UltraSn0w to unlock their device.

Like Mike Schramm over at TUAW, I love this photo of an iPhone that has been “aged to perfection”. In fact, it looks very similarly to the way my first iPhone looked a few years in.

No doubt Steve Jobs’ heart would stop if he saw one of his products looking this way, but in truth, that’s one of my issues with Apple’s products: they have never been designed to age gracefully, but instead, seemingly to exist in a vacuum of asceticism.

It’s something I have always liked about the first iPhone that it can handle scratches better than the models that followed it, as long as the display is protected. It’s hard to imagine that a workman’s iPhone 4 will look nearly as good despite its blemishes four years down the line.

According to Semiaccurate, Apple is working on a plan to migrate all of their MacBooks over to ultra-efficient ARM processors by 2013. But does that really make sense?

Other World Computing has just announced its latest Mercury Aura Pro Express solid-state drive designed for the latest generation of MacBook Airs. Boasting a whopping 480GB of storage, the upgrade offers nearly 4x more capacity than currently available from factory available SSDs, and is an incredible 68% faster.

As you’d expect from an SSD, however, especially one designed for the latest MacBook Air, these babies come at one heck of a price. The 480GB upgrade will set you back a staggering $1,579.99, but you’re not going to find this kind of storage for Apple’s ultra portable notebook anywhere else.

Working conditions at the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China, have long been the center of attention. 1 million Chinese workers build electronics for Apple, HP, Nokia, Palm and Sony at the plant, some are reportedly as young as 12; having to endure long, repetitive work under notoriously harsh conditions. At last count, at least 14 Foxconn workers have committed suicide in the last 16 months.

The plant is now ordering its employees to sign an ‘anti-suicide pledge’, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail. Under the pledge, employees must not attempt to kill themselves, and if they do, their families can only seek the minimum in damages.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w85fxNueX4g

Apple has provided us with some of the best ads ever created. The Mac vs PC Campaign ads have been some of the most memorably entertaining advertisements to grace the television. Unfortunately Apple pulled the plug on the fun banter between Mac (Justin Long) and PC (John Hodgman) last year. However, should you feel so inclined to walk down memory lane with the plethora of Mac vs PC advertisements, Adweek has compiled all 66 ads for your viewing pleasure. They’ve even got them ordered out chronologically.

[via Adweek]

update: you can also view the ads in a much more pleasant layout on Squrl.

Have a new white iPhone 4? Looking for a case to go along with it? The SwitchEasy TRIM ($19.95, Big Shoulder Devices) in white just might be the one that you’re looking for. It’s made of “super tough Scratch Resistant Hydro Polymer materialfused with highly durable polycarbonate” to give your iPhone 4 some great protection as well as making it look pretty slick. It’s available in several different colors, and is all around a nice value. Check out my full review below.

Contrary to reports of growing friction between Apple and publishers over iPad subscriptions, the Telegraph said working with Apple was just peachy.

Telegraph Media Group digital editor Edward Roussel told the Financial Times that Apple has been “cooperative and helpful” during the development of the newspaper’s latest iPad app which launched today.

Roussel says his company has no gripes with forking over a percentage of profits to Apple because the app store is such a “user-friendly” way to pay – and similar to the costs of distributing a print product.

Subscribers who want to read daily will fork over £9.99 a month (nearly US$15); single editions of the digital paper can be bought for £1.19. The app is free to download.

“The bottom line is we don’t have a gripe with Apple on the subscription model that they have,” Roussel says. “We found they were prepared to enter into a dialogue with us.”

Via FT

Adult chat service iP4Play has been using FaceTime, Apple’s live video chat service, for one-on-one video sex chats since August 2010.

Following the adult industry’s long tradition of calendar girls and monthly playmates, they’ve named the first Miss FaceTime, Charlotte Stokely. To celebrate the crowning of the petite Utah-born blonde, iP4Play is giving away an iPad 2 to a randomly selected customer May 5.

CultofMac.com talked exclusively to this former “PC girl” about her Apple gear and why FaceTime is “incredibly arousing.”

If you are looking for a MacBook Pro, you’ve come to the right place. Today, we feature two version of the computer. First up is a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo-powered laptop with 13-inch LED screen for $1,049. If that’s not the right fit, how about a Dual Core i5-powered MacBook Pro for $1,049? Finally, we turn the deal spotlight on an 8GB iPod touch (previous generation) for $149.

Along the way, we check out a number of cases for the iPod touch, nano, as well as the iPhone 4 and iPad. As usual, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

More than 8 out of 10 U.S. tablet users own the iPad. That’s the word from a new survey of the domestic tablet market and the device’s impact on PCs, e-readers and game consoles. The news reminds us of Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty’s remark that the iPad could have “iPod-like market share.”

“Despite the addition to the market of new tablet computers like the Samsung Galaxy and the Motorola Xoom, in the United States, Apple’s iPad is still dominating the conversation — and the market,” research firm Nielsen announced Thursday. The Android-based tablets have single-digit market share.

Morgan Stanley’s chief Apple analyst Katheryn Huberty recently visited Oz (also known as Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple) and came away with “increasing confidence” in the iPad-maker’s continued ability to amaze Wall Street. After a general conversation with finance head Peter Oppenheimer, Apple Store chief Ron Johnson, and Internet guru Eddy Cue, Huberty believes more than ever in a bullish future.

Apple iPads sales could grow 74 percent over the next two years, describing an “iPod-like market share in tablets.” Likewise, iPhone sales may grow 55 percent in what she sees as a “natural expansion” of distribution. As for Apple Stores, which celebrate their 10th anniversary on May 19, the company will build up to 50 new locations, expanding current stores to handle more product set-up services, Huberty reported.

Popular jailbreak tool PdaNet has just been updated to introduce a nice new feature that hides iPhone tethering usage from its carrier. The update comes as AT&T begins a crackdown on customers who illegally use their device’s data connection without paying for a tethering plan.

To identify illegal tethering, AT&T looks at the type of packets hitting its network; any packet that doesn’t come from an iPhone is checked and warnings are then sent to the offenders informing them they must cease their wrongdoing or be billed for their use.

PdaNet’s new feature works by masking those packets and making the carrier believe they’re coming from an iPhone, and that all of their subscribers are being good boys and girls.

A shameless clone of the popular Canabalt running game for iOS has passed Apple’s approval process and is now available in the App Store. Free Running uses the Canabalt source code and makes no effort to be different or hide its imitation.

Canabalt’s source code was released by its developer last year so that other developers code use its game engine to create their own games. It was released under an MIT open source license, and its developer makes it clear that other developers cannot “distribute or redistribute [the] game code, art or sounds.”

PLD Soft have done exactly that with Free Running; taking the code, repackaging it with little to no changes, and submitting it to the App Store under a new name. Unfortunately for the great Canabalt, Apple approved it, leading to questions about its App Store approval process.

The growing number of mobile devices – such as the iPad, the iPhone 4 and iPod touch – powered by ARM processors now have a bit more recognition. Well-known analyst firm IDC decided it will count ARM processors alongside the Intel chips found in PCs. The move is a recognition of the growing number of tablets being purchased and just the latest sign analysts are warming to lumping together tablet and PC sales.

“For the first time, IDC is forecasting PC microprocessor units by processor architecture, including those based on x86 (Intel and Advanced Micro Devices) and those based on ARM,” the firm announced in a research note. By 2015, more than 13 percent of PC processors will be based on ARM designs, according to IDC.

Apple released iOS 4.3.3 on Tuesday to address the infamous location tracking issues with the iPhone. To our surprise, however, the update to does prevent the latest untethered jailbreak solution, leaving 4.3.3 still vulnerable to the hack.

Dev-Team member C0mex posted a message on Twitter yesterday that confirmed the exploit was still successful. While we don’t recommend you try jailbreaking the latest iOS release with Redsn0w or PwnageTool, it’s only a matter of time before both tools are updated.

In its fight against the jailbreak community, Apple usually fixes the vulnerabilities that make the latest jailbreaks possible, forcing hackers to find another exploit. The fact that it hasn’t with the latest iOS release is evidence that Apple rushed to get the 4.3.3 software out and quickly quash the location tracking bugs, putting an end to the whole ‘Locationgate’ saga.

We’ll keep you updated on the iOS 4.3.3 jailbreak as it progresses.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCP4dgqinYo

Spider Jack is a puzzle game from Chillingo that just hit the App Store, and I’m betting it will be the next iPhone game craze. It bears an uncanny resemblance to Cut the Rope and offers a similar style of play mechanic, but instead features an adorable green arachnid called Jack, whose mission is to return to his web to get his fill of flies.

It features 75 levels skilfully designed levels that promise to test your reflexes and foresight. Using pieces of web (not rope) you must carefully avoid the electrical beams and guide Jack safely home to his web. Use hairdryers to you advantage and try to collect as many stars as you can along the way.

Each level features multiple solutions, and the impressive visuals have been hand-drawn and optimized for the iPhone 4’s Retina display. Realistic physics attempt to give you a taste of “what real web-slinging is like,” and offer a puzzler that’s suitable for players of all ages and abilities.

Spider Jack’s similarities to Cut the Rope means many will already be familiar with its gameplay style, and to those who have beaten every level of Cut the Rope and are begging for something similar, Spider Jack has you covered. I’m sure it will follow in the footsteps of its inspiration and be the App Store’s next big success.

Give it a try and let us know what you think!

That e-reader you have today may soon be morphing into a full-fledged tablet device. Bookseller Barnes & Noble has become the second e-reader maker reportedly planning to launch an iPad rival. The company plans to announce May 24 “a new eReader device,” B&N included in Form 8-K filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The news, first reported by Reuters, follows a software update to the Android-powered Nook Color, providing users with tablet-like features such as games, web browsing and email. Internet retailer Amazon may also join the tablet fray, lowering the price of its Kindle e-reader to $114 while also talking to iOS developers about porting applications to the device.

Due to a deficiency of wrist-flipping motor skills that all too often see me smashing myself in the face with a plastic pie tin instead of gracefully floating it to my girlfriend down the beach, I much prefer my frisbees to be the tall-tale-spinning, alien-smashing Twilight Zone type than the throwing kind… but for Whammo’s officially sanctioned iOS app, Frisbee Forever I’ll make an exception.

With over 100 levels and 100 frisbees to collect, Frisbee Forever might be one of the biggest free games on the iOS Store, and the early reviews are surprisingly good. You can download it here for free for any iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad capable of running iOS 4.0.

Contradicting reports that the white iPhone 4 was delayed by almost a year because of problems with light leaking onto the camera sensor, Apple’s Phil Schillar commented during the handset’s eventual release that the delay was necessary to give the handset some much needed “extra UV protection.”

Once he said that, everyone guessed the real issue: yellowing over time, a la some of the earlier and uglier white MacBooks. Now here’s the proof. Nick Bilton over at the New York Times managed to get an original white iPhone 4 from a guy who knew a guy at the factory that made it. Paying $1000 bucks for his prize, he went about comparing models.

The results? The obvious ones, sure, especially regarding the camera and the proximity sensor, but while the new iPhone is pristine white, the year-old one is already looking like it was pulled out of someone’s ashtray. It’s already dirty and yellow.

If Apple’s releasing the white iPhone at this point, they’re doubtlessly reasonably certain that the new model isn’t going to be subject to the same problems. Still, as Wired’s own dirty and yellowing blogger Charlie Sorrel notes, how did this happen in the first place? It’s not like Apple’s never made a white gadget before.

Apple’s new family of iMac all-in-ones released earlier this week boast an Intel BD82Z68 platform controller hub that isn’t scheduled for release until May 11th. The Z68 chip, designed for Sandy Bridge 1155, was first discovered by TonyMacx86 and later confirmed in an iFixit teardown.

The Z68 allows for solid-state drive data caching when a system is equipped with a combination of storage drives. So users could install a small, relatively cheap SSD along with their traditional hard disk drive and have the SSD serve as a cache – dramatically increasing access speeds to their files and applications. The new iMacs can be ordered with both an SSD and a traditional hard disk drive installed, and the Z68 can allow users to see this combination as just one drive on their Mac.