With many expecting Apple to unveil gangbuster numbers for its first quarter of 2011, analysts early today were busy raising earlier predictions. One observer increased both Apple’s expected earnings to above $24 billion, with 16 million iPhone and 7 million iPads sold.

JP Morgan’s Mark Moskowitz writes Apple could “beat our above-consensus revenue and earnings-per-share estimates of $24.778 billion and $5.38.” Many Wall Street experts had predicted the Cupertino, Calif. company would earn $24.226 billion for the first financial quarter of 2011.

Verizon Wireless appears to be preparing for the sudden onslaught of new customers coming to their network for the Verizon iPhone by making it harder and more expensive to upgrade their phones at the end of two years.

Yup. Sadly, Verizon has quietly discontinued their long-running New Every Two promotion, which allowed any customers who successfully completed a two-year contract to either get a free new low-end phone or rack up credit ranging between $30 and $100 to apply to the downpayment of their next phone.

Case makers don’t necessarily know anything more than the rest of us about what the next iOS devices will look like — see, for example, the insistence of second-gen iPod Touch case makers that the next iteration of the PMP would have a camera, which didn’t happen until the FaceTime-capable model came along a year later — but they are always of interest, as they usually come from information leaking out of the factories of Apple’s own Chinese manufacturers.

The latest case designs coming out of China, then, is interesting for showing off two new openings that we haven’t seen before. The slot for the rear camera and speaker are, of course, there in their usual places, but two new holes have been carved out to fit an SD card slot and either a mini DisplayPort or an HDMI port.

Intriguing. Of course, if the iPad 2 does get an SD card slot, don’t expect to be able to use it to expand your device’s storage: it’ll strictly be for offloading photos and videos with an iPad Connector Kit.

A rather questionable new rumor is coming out of Three Guys And A Podcast. They’re claiming that Apple will not only discontinue iTunes this year but they’ll replace it with Safari. What?

You probably know Bump as the guys behind the iOS app that allows you to exchange contacts by “bumping” your device against someone else’s while the app is running. It’s such a good product that I’m mystified Apple hasn’t stolen their idea, integrated it directly into iOS and put them out of business already.

I’m glad they haven’t, though, because the Bump guys have just posted some interesting statistics gleaned from their 25+ million downloads. According to their figures, over 89% of their users are running iOS 4.0 or above.

If there was a financial cable show about hoarders, Apple could be the subject. Or, at least that’s how a growing number of large investors view the Cupertino, Calif. company’s decision to amass a mountain of cash without issuing dividends. One portfolio manager likens the inaction to getting a cash advance on your 11 percent credit card and squirreling it away in a savings account earning 0.75 percent annually.

“Who would ever do this in their personal lives?” a Delaware portfolio manager asked the Wall Street Journal. With a pile of cash surpassing the GDP of two-thirds of the world’s nations, Apple’s decision to not issue investor dividends “has been beyond the point of being rational for a while now,” one analyst says,

Politicians in Germany are using iPads en masse in the Bundestag, the German parliament chamber.

According to the English translation of this Spiegel article, the iPad is a reasonable expense claim for the politicians, so ownership has spread like wildfire through the chamber.

Although a popular tool for research and answering email, one member has been caught out playing chess during a meeting.

There’s a photo gallery of smiling German politicians and their iPads here, if that’s your sort of thing.

From NAMM this year comes news of one of the coolest synthesizers money can’t buy. The OMG-1 is a one-of-a kind, custom endeavor designed by Eric Persing of Spectrasonics, the grand prize for an upcoming fundraising effort benefiting the Bob Moog Foundation.

The OMG-1 contains a Moog Little Phatty analog synthesizer, Spectrasonics Omnisphere software synth, an Apple Mac Mini, two iPads, two iPod touches, and the Omni TR iPad app. Installed in a beautiful
handcrafted curly maple cabinet, the OMG-1 is designed as a highly versatile live performance instrument.

We’ve just looked at user accounts, and showed you how to go about setting up your own personal account.

New accounts will be created with what’s called a Home folder. This is the area of the filesystem where everything created and edited by you, using your user account, will be kept.

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The news of Steve Jobs’ health problems has saddened a lot of Apple fans. Rather than sit around speculating what may or may not be wrong with Steve’s health, we want to do something to try and lift his spirits. But we need your help.

We’re asking all our readers and anyone else who’s a fan of Steve Jobs to use their creativity and join us in making an awesome Get Well Soon video message.

Click on the YouTube video above and submit your own video reply. You can upload video or record a quick message with your webcam. It’s the easiest way we can think of to get a bunch of video messages that we can edit together into a big group message.

Uniquely express your well wishes to Steve and upload it. The more video replies we can get the better. It’s your choice if you wish to make your message funny or dramatic or sincere. Just make it you. Spread it on Twitter with #getwellsteve.

Let’s let the world’s best CEO know that we care about him.

Here are step-by-step instructions showing how to use YouTube’s Video response feature. And again, please spread the word.

t’s time for yet another Monday iPhone App Giveaway brought to you by Appular! We’ll be dropping A LOT of app codes like they’re hot on the Cult of Mac Facebook page, and it’s up to you to grab them first. We’ll be dropping codes at a secret time tonight.  If you were in Reykjavik, Iceland at 2am on Tuesday morning and you checked our page, you’d be seeing the codes posted. So, do your research on time zones to figure out what time that is in your time zone.  It’s best to Like us on Facebook so that the codes are immediately delivered to your desktop.

Special Thanks to Appular for helping us put together these app code giveaways! If you’ve got a mobile app that you’d like marketed effectively, contact the good folks at Appular!

Here’s a look at the apps we’re giving away:

I need hardly explain this one. Love it or loathe it, Skype is found pretty much everywhere else, and millions of people are happy users of it on a wide range of computer platforms and mobile devices. Even if you don’t particularly like using it, it’s a good bet that some of your loved ones to – so it’s worth keeping around, just for those occasional video chats.

There are other benefits, too. Skype works on older Macs (even G4s) running older versions of OS X (right down to 10.3.9 with Skype 2.8), and will support a variety of external webcams, mics and headsets. If your hardware is modest, Skype’s still an option for effective videocalls (bandwidth permitting, of course).

Get yer normal Skype here; if you’re feeling brave, try the (rather different) Skype beta – here’s Lonnie’s review from last November.

(You’re reading the 25th post in our series, 50 Essential Mac Applications: a list of the great Mac apps the team at Cult of Mac value most. Read more.)

Apple COO Tim Cook is a bit of a cypher. Despite being the number two guy at Apple for a good dozen years, his public appearances have been few and brief.

To get better acquainted, check out this video of a commencement speech he gave at Auburn University, his alma mater.

In it, Cook thanks Steve Jobs for changing his life and how joining Apple in 1998, when the company was on the ropes, turned out to be the “best decision of my life.”

Thanks Les!

Did you promise yourself that 2011 would be the year that you would quit smoking? Are you having trouble sticking to your new year’s resolution? Well maybe there’s an iOS app that will make it a little easier for you. Here’s our list of the best iOS apps that may help you succeed in your quest to quit this year.

The apps we’ve selected will help you find the motivation you need to stamp out those nicotine cravings. Quickly calculate how much money you spend on cigarettes each week and see how much you could save as a non-smoker; create personalized plans that are tailored to help you quit in a way that suits you; and even estimate how much of your life you might be saving by saying no to cigarettes. If that’s not enough motivation, we don’t know what is!

Check them out after the break and get help to kick the habit in 2011.

Apple Insider has a juicy scoop from the same source who revealed the negotiations between Apple, Imagination Technologies and Samsung back in 2008 that ultimately led to the creation of the A4 CPU: Apple is reportedly building a new version of their A4 chip that will bring faster dual graphic cores to the iPhone 5 and iPad 2.

I hate to say it, but I have a bad feeling about Steve Jobs’ latest leave of absence. I’m not optimistic he will return to Apple. He’s been gravely ill and has cheated death, but there are some hard numbers about cancer and transplant survival rates that even someone as charmed as Jobs can’t escape.

I sincerely hope I’m wrong, but I get a feeling this is the start of Steve Jobs moving on from Apple. There will be a slow phasing out this year as he hands the reigns to Tim Cook. I expect it will be drawn out, a gradual transition of power. But I don’t think Jobs is returning to Apple.

The big question, of course, is how Apple will do without him.

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With the announcement of his leave from day-to-day operations at Apple, Steve Jobs set off a flurry of speculation and sent some stock prices skittering.

Jobs once again asked for privacy and respect — some believe he should have it, others believe Apple will be under too much pressure from shareholders to maintain much reserve.

Do you think Steve jobs will get the privacy he has asked for? And how much does he deserve?

The news of Steve Jobs’ latest medical leave is the top story on the New York Times‘ website right now. The Times‘ top slot is usually reserved for big international news stories, indicting the importance of Apple’s news to the business and technology world. It has pushed out news about Tunisia’s new government and a fresh Wikileaks scandal about offshore banks and alleged tax cheats.

Day Lyons, aka Fake Steve Jobs, has retired his online satirical column on news of Steve Jobs’ medical leave of absence. Lyons did this last time Jobs took medical leave, saying it was in bad taste to impersonate the CEO while he was sick.

This time around, Lyons has some harsh words for reporters who will inevitably pry into Jobs’ health:

We start another week of deals with some bargains for your iPhone, your Mac and your iPod. First up is the latest batch of price cuts on select applications from the iTunes App Store, including “SpinArt.” Next is a number of unibody MacBook Pro laptops from the Apple Store, starting at $1,019 for a 2.4GHz model. We wrap up the deal spotlight with a heavy discount on some iPod touch cases.

Along the way, we’ll also check out some cases for your iPad, a charger for your iPhone and a 27-inch LED Cinema Display for your Mac. As always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Everyone here is shocked and saddened by the news that Steve Jobs is taking another leave of absence.

Whatever ails him, we hope he is treated successfully and makes a speedy recovery. Our sincerest best wishes go out to him and his family.

However, subtle differences in his two leave-of-abscence letters make us wonder whether things aren’t a little more serious this time around.

Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook is becoming accustom to the role of understudy for CEO Steve Jobs. First in 2004, while Jobs recovered from pancreatic cancer surgery, then in 2009 for six months while Jobs had a liver transplant, and now while his boss takes a medical leave for unspecified reasons.

Little wonder Cook is seen as the top choice to lead Apple, should Jobs’ temporary leave become permanent. “I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the plans we have in place for 2011,” Jobs said earlier today. But will the transition be as smooth as Jobs’ hopes – or will Cook be snapped up by GM, HP, or others?

Over the weekend, some iPad-specific and resolution-doubled icons found in iBooks Version 1.1 made everyone speculate that the iPad 2 would have a 2048 x 1536 display. Not quite Retina, but close enough.

Unfortunately, the speculation breaks down upon closer examination. Not only are the pixel-quadrupled iBook icons old news, but there’s a conflicting mention of a 1536×800 pixel resolution in the same build.

In fact, Apple’s been suggesting that developers provide a double resolution icon for each iPad app since June. This is just Apple thinking forward: yes, they’d like to have the same pixel density in the iPad as in the iPhone and iPod Touch, but that doesn’t make a 10.1-inch Retina Display economically feasible this generation.

In other words, this resolution-doubled iPad icon business? Much ado about nothing. The iPad 2 might have a Retina Display, but not because of a couple of higher res icons.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ Monday morning announcement he is taking a medical leave of absence couldn’t come at a worse time. As in 2009, when Jobs underwent a liver transplant just prior to CES, this episode comes just days before the tech giant announces what many presume will be another gangbuster financial report Wednesday.

As a result of both Jobs’ cryptic announcement and Apple’s legendary tight-lipped PR, investors and observers are left parsing this morning’s short statement. “I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can,” Jobs said. However, some take the words as possibly the Apple leader’s swan song.

Late next month, Nintendo is set to release the 3DS, the successor to their popular Nintendo DS handheld console. Besides a few bumped specs, the main selling point of the 3DS is its glasses-free 3D display, which Nintendo hopes will give their latest handheld a leg up on the competition… most importantly by giving them a clear point of differentiation from the DS’s number one competitor, the iPod Touch.

How long will Nintendo have 3D superiority over the Touch, though? Perhaps not as long as Nintendo thinks. A new rumor coming out of Japan suggests that the next iPod Touch will have the same glasses-free 3D display found in the Nintendo 3DS, based upon Cupertino’s multiple patents for 3D related technologies.