We start with software in today’s deal spotlight. No doubt, many readers received an iPhone as a present this year, so our first two bargains focus on the Apple handset. We take a look at the latest crop of price cuts from the App Store, including “Produce Tracker,” an app that keeps a history of your purchases. We also check out some free apps for the iPhone, including “Vectorama,” a vector arithmetic app. We finish up the spotlight with a number of Mac software titles that are part of a MacPromo bundle.

Along the way, we also check out some hardware deals for the MacBook Pro, as well as the Mac Pro. We also take a peek at some accessories for your iPhone or iPod.

As always, details on these items and much more can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

More and more information is coming out, suggesting how an expected iPad 2 might look or perform. Now comes word Apple may ship three versions of the updated tablet, adding a CDMA model to the already available Wi-Fi and 3G.

According to a Taiwan-based industry publication citing unnamed sources, production on the iPad 2 could begin as early as the second-half of January with Apple shipping between 500,000 to 530,000 units next month.

As we reported earlier this week, Apple blew out the competition when it came to prime real estate under the Christmas tree. Not only did Apple crush the competition when it came to laptops and MP3 players, the iPad rules and its rivals drool, according to an analyst Tuesday.

“Even with a handful of tablet competitors hitting the market, the iPad remained the only game in town” for the holidays, Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair told investors. Blair called Apple’s rivals “junk for lack of a better word.”

After taking the unprecedented step of forecasting it would sell at least 1 million Apple TV units last week, the Cupertino, Calif. company Monday confirmed it had met its goal. The milestone shatters Apple’s previous high-water mark for the $99 device set it October: 250,000 units. At the time, CEO Steve Jobs remarked he was “thrilled.”

This latest sales announcement seemed more to do with increased competition from the likes of Roku and Google than any real revenue benefit to Apple. Last week analysts described the $400 million in revenue from sales of 1 million Apple TV as “fairly immaterial.” Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu, however, said the Apple TV could become “a more material contributor and game changer in the TV space,” if Apple creates an App Store for the device, similar to how the Cupertino, Calif. firm has done for other products, such as the iPhone and iPad.

ElementCase specializes in making highly personalized aluminum products for iOS devices. They’ve created some of the best iPhone cases in the past, both in terms of design and functionality, and have recently released the luxurious Joule iPad stand.

The Vapor4 case for iPhone 4 is the latest addition to their catalogue, and for me, it’s love at first sight.

The father of a five year old boy born with a rare genetic disorder that delays the development of speech has designed a new iPad app that aims to help the speechless communicate.

Look, you and I both know that leaked third-party case designs for unannounced, unreleased Apple products mean next to nothing. In fact, we’ve all been burned by drawing conclusions from purely fanciful Asian case designs before. So please take this news with a grain of salt: a new third-party case design for the iPad 2 seems to imply that the second-generation tablet will have an all-together sleeker and more iPod Touch evocative look.

Following through with their Yuletide threat, Gorillaz has released their new album, The Fall, over on their official website… an album notable for being both written and recorded almost entirely on the iPad, using downloaded App Store apps.

Is it snowing where you live currently? Are temperatures well below freezing? Are you outside? If you answered yes to any of these questions then it is likely that you are wearing gloves right now. If you are just looking to keep warm that is okay, but if you want to use your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad you’re out of luck. The touch screens on these devices aren’t compatible with gloves so if you want to use them you’ll have to pull at least one of the gloves off and risk frostbite in order to use one of Apple’s popular devices.

Now there is a solution that will save your fingers, keep you warm, and still allow you to use your touch screens.

A new lawsuit filed Monday against Apple and a number of app developers including Pandora, The Weather Channel, Dictionary.com and — uh — Pimple Popper Lite is alleging collusion to create secret profiles of iPhone users, including location, and pass that data onto advertisers without users’ consent.

Retrospectively casting an eye over an incredible year for both Apple and its customers, one of the most surprising developments of 2010 was the Mac’s long-overdue maturity into a serious gaming platform after years of false hopes and promises.

More surprising than even that, though, is the fact Apple almost had nothing to do with it: even while Cupertino oiled and massaged iOS into a platform capable of rattling the nerves of gaming’s most unassailable colossus, they continued to ignore Mac gamers and its developers.

So who was responsible for the Mac Gaming Renaissance of 2010? There’s no one company in particular, but let’s start with Valve.

Ignoring the Zune HD (as most consumers seemed to have done), the dominance of Apple’s iPod Touch over the touchscreen media player market has gone essentially unchallenged ever since it first debuted in fall of 2007… but Samsung — makers of the popular Galaxy S smartphone and the Galaxy Tab — are looking to change that at this year’s CES, when they unveil the Galaxy Player.

When Apple updated the iTunes 10 icon earlier this year, it sparked huge controversy among Mac users everywhere — many branded the new icon ugly, lifeless, and unconventional. The debate showed that lots of Mac users like to see beautiful apps with beautiful icons.

Here are 15 of our favorite Mac OS X icons from 2010 that stand out for being beautifully designed, brilliantly colorful, and wonderfully unique. We’ve selected icons that make you want to find out more about an application, and that you’d proudly place in your dock for all to see.

We hope you like them. Check them out after the break. If you know better icons, please tell us about them in the comments. Free apps for the best ideas.

There is an interesting new video photography app called, 8mm Vintage Camera by Nexvio, Inc., that brings your iPhone and iPod Touch back in time to capture the beauty and magic of old school vintage movies.

It accomplishes this by mixing and matching different films and lenses and it does a good job of it. The total number of combinations allow you to get a glimpse into retro filming with 25 old school looks from bygone eras. It even comes complete with retro colors, flickering video, light leaks, dust and scratches (my favorite), and frame jitters. You can add any of these to your video with a flick of your finger.

You got another Apple gadget for Christmas, didn’t you? And you love it, don’t you?

So at what point do you officially declare yourself to be one of those Cupertino Kool-Aid-guzzling, Steve Jobs-worshiping, pathetically devoted Apple fans you used to loathe?

Ten years ago, there were two kinds of people: PC users (a.k.a. “regular people”) and Apple fanboys. At least that’s how it looked from the PC side.

Macs were pretty, but considered by us PC users to be overpriced, underpowered, insufficiently supported by either software or hardware, too hard to customize, optimize or repair and completely devoid of key application areas, such as games.

The world was black and white. You were either a PC or a Mac. Then things got complicated.

We start the first week after Christmas with a number of deals. First up is a 2.13GHz MacBook Air laptop for $1,100. (You can also get the same hardware, plus a bundle of 4GB memory and three years of AppleCare for $1,966.) Also on tap is the latest crop of price cuts from the iPhone App Store, including “Awareness Headphones” an auditory app. We wrap-up the deal spotlight with “Solomon’s Key,” an action role-playing game for the iPhone or iPod touch that is free.

Along the way, we’ll also check out some hardware deals, such as a 27-inch iMac and a unibody MacBook Pro laptop. Additionally, there are after-Christmas discounts on cases for your iPhone and iPod touch. As always, details on these and many other deals can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

Still got a lump of cash around after Christmas? An eBay seller has just posted a rare prototype of the first portable Macintosh for sale to the highest bidder.

Made from American Rosewood treated with a variety of washes and finishes, I love the look of Trunket’s wood finish stickers for the iPhone 4, right down to the adorable elephant icon. If only the font of Trunket’s logo itself didn’t look like something that would be more appropriate on some terrible nu metal band’s debut CD jacket. $24 a pop.

With Motorola’s upcoming Android Honeycomb tablet and Research in Motion’s imminent PlayBook both set to use new dual-core ARM processors, the iPad 2 will have make a similar jump if it is going to stay competitive according to a recent analyst note.

Last week, VoIP service Skype crumbled under the strain of holiday calling. In the aftermath, Skype published some support documents to help users out, but then quickly pulled them after it was discovered that not only were they looking to roll out FaceTime-style video chat to the iPhone, but also release a native iPad app… and rounding everything out? A juicy hint about the Verizon iPhone.

Eager to keep your nubile teenage daughter from using the new iPhone she got for Christmas as a sexting terminal? Cupertino’s just patented technology to keep her blossoming libido as virginal as the App Store.

Verizon may be getting a late Christmas present, if a new report proves correct. Apple is planning to ship between 20 million and 21 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2011 – 5 to 6 million of those CDMA-based. (Another 14 million to 15 million of the Apple handsets will reportedly be GSM.)

According to a Taiwan-based industry publication, citing unnamed suppliers, Asia will also get the CDMA phones. However, this latest talk of CDMA iPhones could bolster the already red-hot speculation Verizon will launch an iPhone early next year. The move would break the exclusive stranglehold AT&T has held ever since the iPhone was introduced in 2007.

Chances were, if you received some electronics this Christmas, it bore the Apple logo. Products made by the Cupertino, Calif. company were the most-gifted items, according to the online elves at Amazon.

Despite being No. 1 in “Most Wished For” TV and video products, No. 2 Roku actually reportedly was found under most trees. Amazon’s Kindle e-reader again topped the list as bestselling electronic device, the same as it has the whole holiday season.

When Stephen Colbert pulled the soon-to-be released iPad out of a custom pocket in his tux at the Grammys, he set the bar for wearable geek fashion pretty high.

Too high, maybe.

Of all the cool ways you can carry Apple’s new tablet computer, here are five that will earn you a citation from the fashion police and make your blind date run.

What’s past is present, at least in the Vintage Tech World. 2010 saw some significant stories involving those attic treasures: an Apple 1 sold for a whopping $213,000, a Mac Museum for $10k, and an Apple II Festival turned 21. Meanwhile iPads were spotted co-habitating inside old Macs, obsolete status befell our PowerPC friends, and The Macintosh Way lived again.

Travel back in time for this review of the Year in Vintage Apple News.