Proving that news embargoes and electronics trade shows attended by tens of thousands of people do not play well together, word of Blue Microphones’ new Yeti Pro USB microphone leaked from the desert Tuesday night as the giant Consumer Electronics Show began picking up steam in Las Vegas.

The highly anticipated successor to Blue’s successful, top-of-the line USB microphone, Yeti Pro is the first USB mic to combine 24 bit/192 kHz digital recording resolution with analog XLR output, making it potentially one of the finest, most versatile recording tools on the market.

Like its predecessor, the plain old Yeti, Yeti Pro features premium condenser capsules set in Blue Microphones’ proprietary triple capsule array, which supports four different recording patterns for capturing a wide range of recording situations.

Yeti Pro looks quite promising from here, an assessment shared by CES judges, who made Yeti Pro a 2011 CES Innovations Winner in High Performance Audio. The mic is set to retail for $249 and should be available at authorized Blue Microphone distributors later this month.

LAS VEGAS — Griffin revealed something really cool today: a sensor that hooks up to your car’s diagnostic computer and feeds all kinds of info to your iPhone. Griffin calls it the CarTrip, and it attaches to your car’s OBD-II sensor (the thing car mechanics uses to diagnose problems), collects and stores the data, then sends it to your iPhone (we’re not sure how, because the press release doesn’t say), which then displays the data in realtime with the help its free partner app, CleanDrive.

The app/hardware package will reveal all kinds of information, like fuel consumption rates, acceleration, and it’ll interpret diagnostic codes. It’ll also display a “Carbon Score,” so you can figure out how much you’re befouling the planet by driving around.

CarTrip should be available in early 2011 for $90.

Update: CarTrip is equipped with Bluetooth for relaying the data to an iPhone. Thanks Levi!

LAS VEGAS — After hours of driving through the cow-infested flatness of California’s Central Valley, CultofMac Editor Leander Kahney and I have finally arrived in Vegas, primed to report from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. The doors only officially open on Thursday, but here’s some of the sparkly new stuff we saw released today that we’re mega-pumped to get our hands on at this year’s show:

Here’s more evidence that the iPad is a day-to-day computing device, not just a media consumption toy.

Silicon Valley supergeek Jack Dorsey says he’s using his iPad for most of his computing needs.

“90% of my computing is now on the iPad (with a keyboard dock),” Dorsey said on Twitter. “And I love it.”

Dorsey is the creator of Twitter, and serves as the company’s chairman. He’s also the CEO of Square, a startup that turns the iPhone into a personal credit card terminal.

It’s not all roses though. There are a coupe of things Dorsey says he can’t do:

“Only thing I can’t do are big presentations & code,” he says.

We start with free and discounted iPhone applications, led by dueling weather apps. In the free corner is “The WeatherApp,” which provides weather alerts and updates. This is just one of the entries in the latest crop of freebies from the iPhone App Store. In the “discount” corner is “WeatherNow,” a weather and clock combo once sold for $4, but now yours for just $0.99. This is just one of several iPhone apps being offered at discounted prices.

Also on tap is a deal on Apple’s AppleTV. The 160GB model is going for $120. Along the way, we also check out various ways to keep your iPhone powered-up, as well as insured from spills and drops. There is also a deal on an OEM version of a Mac OSX update and other Mac software.

Like always, details on these and many other bargains can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Android reportedly may soon not be the monolithic threat it once was. The operating system codenamed “Honeycomb” from Google reportedly will be optimized for tablets, creating two tiers for products. The first tier will be using the first-gen Android, originally designed to compete with Apple’s iPhone. The second tier will use Android 3.0, require more powerful chips, and be aimed at the iPad 2.

As a result, some earlier Android-powered devices, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, may soon be obsolete. But does it really matter? Surveys find most iPad owners use their tablet for checking email, surfing web sites, and keeping up with their social media contacts.

A company called Ten One Design has announced a $25 joystick for iPad called Fling that attaches to the screen with suction cups.

The Fling goes on top of the on-screen controls, and replaces your direct finger or thumb. The joystick is mostly clear plastic, so you can see through it.

Does this defeat the whole purpose of using an iPad for gaming, which is direct touch on an elegant surface? Or is this just cool?

Fling is available for pre-order Jan. 6.

We all may have started 2011 with a New Year’s resolution, but Apple seems to have found the best way to get started on the right foot. The Cupertino, Calif. company gained $6 billion in value on the first business day of 2011, pushing the iPhone maker to a market capitalization of $302.32 billion.

Monday, investors rewarded Apple for its long string of popular electronic gadgets with a 2 percent jump in the stock’s price at $329.57 per share. If breathing down the neck of Exxon, history’s most profitable company isn’t enough, there’s even better ahead for Apple, if you believe Wall Street analysts.

2010 was the year of the hot Apple auctions, with an Apple 1 fetching its highest price ever, $213,000 to an Italian collector.

What’s next?

Cult of Mac’s own Adam Rosen, a Mac consultant whose vintage mac museum collection counts some 36 different models and about 75 total computers, was asked to opine for AntiqueWeek on the going prices for some popular Apple collectibles.

New features have quietly been introduced to iTunes movies that allow users to search for specific words within a film’s script, and select their favorite clips to share with their friends through social networking sites. The features are being “quietly tested” in recent movies released by Sony Entertainment Pictures, as noted by PaidContent.org.

The movies that are known to include the new features at present are “The Other Guys,” which provides users with a search button enabling them to enter words to be found within the film’s script; and both “Salt” and “Resident Evil: Afterlife,” which include the “clip & share” function that allows users to select their favorite scenes and then share them with their friends through social networking sites. Users also have access to a playlist of songs from the movie and an opportunity to purchase them from iTunes.

The introduction of these new, iTunes-only features gives movie fans an incentive to purchase the latest films through Apple’s iTunes Store, rather than on DVD or Blu-ray. According to PaidContent.org, the capabilities found in the latest Sony movies are unique to iTunes, and not just a repackaging of additional content available on the Blu-ray or DVD counterparts:

“Mind-blowing add-ons? No, but they do represent the intent of studios like Sony, which declined comment, to offer differentiating value on digital platforms from that on DVD, where extras are often nothing more than a collection of additional short videos.”

These new features are only accessible to users who choose to purchase movies from iTunes, rather than rent them.

About a week after the first successful modification to the new iPod Nano’s .plist file was made — whisking away one of the pre-installed icons from the home screen — dev Steven Troughton-Smith has brought the nano one step closer to jailbreaking: he’s figured out how to put his iPod nano into the equivalent of the iPhone or iPod Touch’s DFU recovery mode.

The feat is accomplished by holding down the restart buttons across two separate reboots, at which point iTunes will see the device and alert the user. Once accomplished, Troughton-Smith is apparently able to push firmware files to the device and execute them.

Pretty exciting stuff. For more information on what this means for the possibility of iPod Nano hacking, check out Erica Sadun’s informative post over at TUAW.

Google’s new Cr-48 laptop is supposed to usher in the future of cloud-based operating systems thanks to the search giant’s own Chrome OS, but surprise surprise: a computer made for early developers to hack to their hearts content ends up being Hackintoshable. It’s apparently a lot of work, but honestly, it seems appropriate in a way: the Cr-48 always channeled a lot of the elegance of the old black plastic MacBook, and it’s nice to see a doppelganger of the old girl live again.

According to popular theory, we should either have the Verizon iPhone confirmed at CES later this week, or not hear anything and keep on scuttlebutting about it amongst ourselves until it eventually does come out.

The latest fodder for Verizon iPhone rumor mongering? Verizon’s Trademark services department has just snatched up iphoneforverizon.com and iphoneonverizon.com… a couple of two year old domains purchased from the previous owner (and alleged link farmer) Jim Benton.

Honestly, this is probably just business as usual, in which a company protects its trademark and brand by snatching up domains. Still, the very fact that this news hit during the week the Verizon iPhone is rumored (almost definitely wrongly) to debut was pretty choice timing.

We start the first week of 2011 with a number of deals for your iPhone, iPad or Mac. First up is the year’s latest crop of price cuts on iPhone applications, including “WeatherNow.” Next is several refurbished iPhone 4 handsets from AT&T, starting at $79 for a slightly-blemished 16GB model that was $129.

Along the way, we also check out a leather case for the iPad, sharply-reduced prices on iPod touch cases and VPN software for the Mac. As usual, details on these and many other bargains can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

With the release of AirPrint late last year, Apple finally gave iDevice users what they’d been clamoring for (and quite loudly, since the iPad’s debut): the easy ability to print from a wifi connected printer. Hurrah! Problem is, it only works with printers made by HP — owners of Epsons, Canons and the rest were left out in the cold.

However, for Epson owners willing to shell out $10, Thinxtream‘s PrintJinni app already provided a means to print to select Epson wifi-connected printers. In late December PrintJinni became a free download to put itself on even footing with AirPrint, pricewise  — question is, how good of a solution is it?

All good things come to those who wait. That could be the motto for Apple fans anxiously awaiting what new goodies emerge from the folks in Cupertino.

If you are looking for Apple to introduce the long-awaited CDMA iPhone for Verizon customers, you will likely need to cool your heels until the March financial quarter of 2011, according to a prominent analyst out with his predictions for the upcoming year. Additionally, if you have your eye on an iPad 2, Apple’s second-generation tablet, you may need to wait until the flowers of Spring.

Samsung sold 10 million Galaxy S smartphones in 2010, the Suwon, South Korean company announced Monday. Although the handset helped goose Samsung’s third-quarter profits by 20 percent, the Android-powered device still lags behind Apple’s iPhone. The Cupertino, Calif. company sold 14.1 million iPhones in the September quarter.

“For the time being, Apple’s presence in the smartphone market will remain solid,” Seoul-based analyst Young Park told Bloomberg. However, Samsung could continue its rise “based on their brand power and their relationship with telecommunication companies,” Park adds.

Where do you characterize the iPad and iPhone in the music making process? They can be your instruments, recording console, video edit system, and playback devices all in one. With new tools comes new talent, taking advantage of what progress has to offer. The Age of the iDevice in Music has only just begun.

Korean musician Yoari and an all-iDevice band performed this cover of Beyonce’s Sweet Dream in June 2010. The apps used in the piece are noted during the performance – a nice touch. And not a bad jam!

Apple CEO Steve Jobs and design head Jonathan Ive are so close they are called “Jives” around the Cupertino campus for short.

The dynamic duo have been inseparable since the mid-1990s, when Jobs returned to Apple to find a young Ive stuck in a basement surrounded by hundreds of prototypes. Jobs recognized immediately that the company had a great resource that should be put to work.

NPR did a nice piece delving into how Jives have been working together to create some of Apple’s most memorable products.

Most tech companies go out of their way to publish product roadmaps, so their customers know what’s coming next. But Apple is not most tech companies. Ask anyone from Steve Jobs to the guy at your local Apple Store, and you’ll hear the same refrain, “we don’t comment on unannounced products.”

It’s this dearth of hard facts on what’s coming next from Cupertino that makes speculation so irresistible. And with the new year now upon us, it’s the perfect time to ponder what Apple may have in store for us in 2011.

Blogger Deon Devine, from Houston, Texas, has sent Cult of Mac some very interesting predictions.

So, you were a very good boy or girl this year and Santa brought you a brand new Mac.

Maybe it was a sleek MacBook Air, perhaps a studly MacBook Pro or a bright and shiny iMac for your desktop. You say it was an old-school Mac Pro workstation? Well, bully for you!

Isn’t it time to make a few resolutions about how you’re going to love and care for your new machine so you can get the most out of it and keep it running in tip-top shape long after your Apple Care subscription runs out?

Here are five suggestions to help you do just that:

1. Have a back-up plan.

The number one mistake made by 99% of the people who wake up one day with an empty feeling in the pit of their stomach as they realize all their photographs, all their music, all their software and the outline for that Oscar-winning screenplay are just…gone — is having no backup.

Fortunately (or unfortunately), Apple has left you no excuse for not having your data backed up, at least since the introduction of Time Capsule and its integration with Time Machine, a built-in backup solution that’s been part of OX X since 2007.

A 1 terabyte Time Capsule is only $299 and unless you are one of those Pirate Bay or LimeWire scofflaws you’re probably never going to fill it up.

Don’t want to pay the Apple premium for seamless integration and “Designed in California” panache? Dozens of excellent third-party backup solutions await from the likes of LaCie and Seagate — there’s even an eco-friendly Green solution from Hitachi subsidiary SimpleTech, the USB 2.0 [Re]Drive, made from bamboo and recycled aluminum.

Regular backups for your computer system are like roughage in your diet: just do it and you’ll never never be sorry you did.

Happy new year! Are you interested in learning why you should jailbreak your iDevice in 2011? Or are you just looking for some cool apps and tweaks after recently jailbreaking? Look no further!

In this guide, we’re covering ten of the most popular jailbreak apps and mods you can obtain through Cydia. These usually wouldn’t be possible, but with the help of jailbreaking, they are!

Here we go…

It’s already being dubbed Apple’s biggest glitch of 2011: iPhone alarm Clockgate.

Apparently, iPhone alarms aren’t ringing as clocks shift into the new year, according to users in Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

“We were the first to find out in New Zealand with thousands of shift workers late to work for relying on their iPhones as alarm clocks!” wrote reader Greg Ball.

Twitter is awash in frustrated users screaming about the problem. Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac has already dubbed it iPhone alarm Clockgate.

It sounds similar to the Daylight Savings Time alarm problem that surfaced in November, except the problem affects with users with one-off alarms, not repeating alarms.

The fix is to set a recurring alarm (select multiple days). See the screenshot:

Incredible technology products have emerged in the last 10 years, from Web 2.0 sites to Twitter, GPS-enabled smart phones to cheap pocket video recorders.

On New Year’s Day, 2001, blogs were still largely unknown to the public. RIM had yet to launch the BlackBerry, and Palm hadn’t yet announced its Treo. Blu-Ray was still several years in the future. Google hadn’t even started working on Gmail. A 3.1 megapixel camera cost $700. Almost nobody had heard of social networking.

There’s no question that technology has completely changed our world in the past ten years. But if I had to pick one product that was more impactful and more culture-changing – in other words, the most important technology product of the decade, it would have to be the Apple iPad.

We start off the last Daily Deals of 2010 with some New Year-themed apps for your iPhone. First up is a new crop of price drops on selected apps from the iPhone App Store, including the physics-based game “Burn the Rope.” Next is “Diner Dash,” an app seeming ideal for this time of the year when food is the center of our attention. We close out the deal spotlight with an app that might help you keep your New Year’s resolution for more exercise. “RunKeep Pro” keeps track of your fitness activity via the iPhone’s GPS sensor.

Along the way, we take a look at more apps for the iPhone, including “Real Soccer 2011”, as well as deals on the iMac and Mac Pro Xeon workstation.

Like usual, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page, which starts right after the jump.
Here’s our wish for a happy, safe and prosperous New Year.