We start off the week with several deals on Xserve servers from Apple. Although the Cupertino, Calif. company announced Friday it would discontinue the hardware line January 31, 2011, The Apple Store is offering a selection of refurbished units, starting at $2,499 for a quad-core 2.26GHz unit. Also on tap is a 16GB Wi-Fi iPad for $449 and a new crop of price cuts on apps for your iPhone or iPod touch, including “Prince of Persia” for just 99 cents.

Along the way, we’ll also check out add-ons for your iPad, screen protectors for your iPhone and mind mapping software for your Mac. As always, details on these and many more products can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

TextExpander turns short text snippets into longer ones, saving you a great deal of time if you spend a lot of time in front of a keyboard.

You define your own snippets, and the shortcuts you’ll use to trigger them. Every time you type the trigger, the snippet takes its place instantly.

Remember the ApplePeel 520? It was basically an iPod Touch case that contained a cellular radio: plug it into your jailbroken iPod Touch and you could transform it into an iPhone… or at least make or receive phone calls and text messages with it. Right.

Well, Yosion — the company who made the device — is now preparing a version of the ApplePeel 520 for the iPad. They don’t seem to want to turn the iPad into a big phone with it, though, but rather to bring 3G capabilities to WiFi-only iPads.

iOS 4.2 is likely to be released sometime this week, unifying the iPhone and iPad into one operating system while simultaneously bringing AirPrint, AirPlay and more to all devices. For iPad owners, it’s a particularly exciting update, since it brings many of the features (most obviously multitasking) that iPhone owners have been taking for granted since iOS 4.0.

The Gold Master Seed has gone out to developers, so it’s imminent, but when exactly is iOS 4.2 coming to us regular joes and janes? It’s unknown, but there’s a couple of good guesses: either November 9th or November 12th.

The November 9th date comes via Inside-Handy, which says that Apple told Deutsche Telekom (aka T-Mobile in Germany) of the release date.

On the other hand, the November 12th release comes from reports that Apple will be pushing some carrier updates in Europe on November 12th.

In all honesty, both these dates are pretty suspect, but considering the fact that Apple is probably going to release iOS 4.2 and iTunes 10.1 this week, there’s a good chance one of them will be right… at least as a fluke.

Last week, the Skyfire browser made headlines for two separate “firsts” on the iOS platform.

First up, Skyfire finally did what Adobe couldn’t and brought Flash to iOS, albeit non-natively. Instead, the Skyfire browser converts Flash videos to HTML5 on their own servers, then pumps the HTML5 to your iPhone or iPad instead.

Pretty neat, but I actually like Skyfire’s second accomplishment more: they managed to be the first iOS app to ever “sell out.”

Quite a trick with an infinitely copyable, digital good, but the Skyfire team had a good excuse: their app was selling like such gangbusters that the servers used to convert Flash to HTML5 on the fly couldn’t cope with demand. They’d sold out of bandwidth, not copies of the app itself.

Skyfire has spent the weekend beefing up its servers. The good news is that if you’re lucky, you should be able to buy Skyfire again soon. The bad? Skyfire’s selling the app in batches to make sure they servers don’t get overwhelmed: they’ll put the app back up on the App Store for a little while, pull it, then put it back up a few hours later.

An interesting approach to say the least. If you’re interested in giving Skyfire a spin, check out their Twitter feed for word when the next batch will go live.

Speculation and squatting on app names has been a going on in the App Store for a while. It eventually became so problematic that Apple initiated some serious new guidelines aimed at cracking down on App Store squatters who were sitting atop popular app names without any app to show for it. That policy change seems to have worked in cutting down on name squatting in the iOS app store…. but if early indications are to be believed, it appears that Apple’s forthcoming Mac App Store might have an even bigger squatting problem on its hands, and that problem could keep some of the Mac’s best loved software frozen out of the Mac App Store indefinitely.

Without a front facing camera, there’s not much an iPhone 3GS can do with FaceTime, even if it could be be enabled… but when has the mere logistics of a hack gotten in the way of the jailbreak community? Here it is: FaceTime on the iPhone 3GS, courtesy of iPhoneIslam.

How much is a good iPad app worth? According to a new report, quite a bit more than a decent iPhone app… and the margin between the two is growing every day.

How far in advance would Apple film a commercial for the second-generation iPad? Depending on the answer to that question, Apple might be readying the iPad 2 for release, getting an ad in the can for next April… or, well, not filming an ad for the iPad 2 at all.

The Solid State Drive, or SSD, appears to be the future of Apple devices, including the recently updated MacBook Air. Toshiba, the maker of the SSD in the razor-thin MBA is making the Blade X-gale series more widely available. The drives – just around 2.2mm thick – are available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB configurations to resellers and bulk purchasers.

“Delivering a product that enables superior user experience in a smaller footprint is the ultimate goal,” said Scott Nelson, vice president, Memory Business Unit, Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. A denser memory module permits the smaller size, Nelson explained.

On a Mac, the green “Maximise” button (found alongside the yellow “Minimise” button and the red “Close” button in the top-left corner of every window) doesn’t do what you’re used to its counterpart doing on a Windows PC.

In current versions of OS X, “Maximise” really means “display the contents of this window in the most efficient way possible,” – and different applications will interpret that in different ways, and in different circumstances. The results can be frustratingly unpredictable, especially for newcomers who aren’t used to a Mac.

Over the weekend, Apple CEO Steve Jobs provided a few (very few) reasons why the Cupertino, Calif. was shelving the Xserve: it wasn’t selling well. “Hardly anyone was buying them,” Jobs explained in an email to a French website.

In a related mini-mystery, an Apple executive publicly affirmed Apple will still support its server customers, but then mysteriously deleted the message.

This just in: RetromacCast reports on another variation of iPhone art, this time a large framed replica of an iPhone.  Created from individual iPhone app coasters, RMC co-host James initially suspected a force of iEvolution at work but was pleased to learn this was a 40th birthday gift from his wife.  Famed Banana Jr creator (and RMC co-host) John assisted with framing details like the home button and speaker.

Wisely, they didn’t attempt to create a white model.  Full photoset on Flickr, coasters from Meninos.

Skyfire Web Browser is a full-featured web browser and the first application for iOS that converts Adobe Flash videos in to HTML5, allowing you to play them on your iPhone and iPod Touch. It’s been incredibly popular in its first week and has rocketed to the top of the paid chart in the App Store. It’s also one of our favorite apps for iOS this week.

Also on our list of must-haves is iDJ – an application from Numark that makes it simple to create seamless, synchronized playlists using you iTunes music library on your iPad. iDJ’s patented technology allows you to assemble customized soundtracks to accompany and enhance every occasion.

AppSwitch is another great app that deserves a place in our favorites this week. It has been described as “the missing app that should have been in the box,” and allows you to monitor all apps and processes running on your iOS device so you’ll always know what’s running in the background.

Check out our full list of iOS must-haves after the break!

Small, portable, expensive and hard to trace. A young police officer in Samoa must have been thinking the same things most that most iPod thieves think when he devised a plan to get his hands on Apple’s portable music player.

And evidently that “gotta-have-it” impulse was strong enough not only to push him to cross the line between law enforcer and law breaker — but to plan a break-in to get the iPod from the office of the head of state.

23-year-old police officer Aumua Marcus Hunt first pleaded not guilty to one charge of theft, but then copped to stealing the iPod from the government office.

One of the App Store’s must-have games this week is Floop – a highly entertaining physics-based puzzler in which you shoot acorns in to the mouth of a squirrel. It sounds easy, but you’ll need to practice your skill and accuracy to complete each level.

NBA Elite 11 by EA Sports is also a Cult of Mac favorite this week, and it’s also the only true 5-on-5 NBA game for iOS. Delivering authentic basketball action with graphics made to maximize your device’s Retina display, and EA’s trademark impressive gameplay.

Revolt is a dual-stick 3D shooter that boasts advanced, fast-paced gameplay, sharp 3D graphics, and killer music & sound effects – also on our list and guaranteed to blow the socks off any shoot ’em up fan!

A study conducted at the USC Marshall School of Business found that attachment to brands like the iPod “can even be strong enough to induce separation anxiety when… replaced” by another brand, according to the university’s press release.

To test their hypothesis, researchers used three completely different consumer products, and one of them was the Apple iPod. Attachment to some brands can be so strong that “consumers are willing to sacrifice time, money, energy and reputation to maintain their attachment to that brand.”

The researchers determined that “the greater the attachment, the greater sacrifices a consumer will make to connect with or remain connected to the brand.”

Cult of Mac joined the mobile vanguard Friday with a dedicated mobile version of the site’s content at https://m.cultofmac.com/. An automatic redirect should take mobile users to the leaner, cleaner version optimized for mobile devices but if Internet caching prevents that at present for particular users, simply point your device’s browser to the mobile URL.

Once you’re there, follow the easy steps below to place a Cult of Mac site icon in the next empty space on your (in this illustrated case) iPhone’s home screen, from which you’ll be able to easily access all the great news and information posted here daily.

This is a huge hack: a plucky modder has resurrected a Macintosh SE/30 using a Seagate Dockstar, a small Linux server running a 1.2GHz ARM processor, a few USB 2.0 ports and 128MB of RAM. Not only does it work as a server, but in runs a Mac emulator, and even the floppy drive works… but it reads SD cards mounted on a floppy-shaped protoboard instead of ancient 5.25 discs! He even restored the Mac to pristine condition by bathing it in chemicals to return it to its vintage, unyellowed color. Amazing!

Remember Epic’s stunning display of the Unreal Engine 3 running on the iPhone with Epic Citadel? That was more of a technology demonstration than anything else, but the first proper game running Unreal Engine 3 is coming to the App Store soon in Chair’s Project Sword, a swipe-controlled fighter with an RPG level-up and equipment mechanic…. and as you can see from the trailer above, it looks breathtaking.

As a gamer, I’ve slowly gotten used to the virtual D-pads and buttons in iOS games, but in all honesty, I still miss the tactility of real buttons underneath my thumb pads.

That said, I can’t imagine who would go in for this: the Tactile+Plus is a transparent overlay you put over your iPhone or iPod Touch’s screen to lend tactile feedback to a virtual D-pad.

Comment of the week comes from reader Flash Man regarding the story that Adobe’s Flash kills battery life. Writes Flash Mac:

A new study also indicates that using web and desktop applications will significantly decrease battery life. In fact, in a stunning series of tests soon to be released, scientists have determined that simply running the computer would decrease the battery by up to 50X compared to keeping it in the ‘off’ or ‘standby’ mode. Scientists are looking for solutions to this problem. One five year old girl suggested plugging in some kind of ‘charging device’ to combat this threat. Fanboys quickly dismissed the idea as too simple and instead suggested purchasing multiple Macbooks and having an elaborate series of spares available at all times. Additionally, Apple suggests purchasing an AppleTV and an iPhone to make end users feel better.

We close out another week of deals highlighting two hardware bargains along with another chance at free iPhone applications. First up is a 2GHz MacBook with 13-inch screen for $500. Next is a 2.53GHz Mac mini desktop for $699. How about a database of hacks at your disposal when you need a quick answer? That’s the goal of “I Fixed It!,” just one of the free applications available at the App Store.

Along the way, we have a deal on a quad-core Mac Pro Xeon as Apple announces the end of the line for this server. Also, in time for the football season are headphones bearing the logo of your favorite team. In addition, why not transfer your love of Apps from your iPhone to the fridge, with a set of 18 app icon magnets? As always, details on these and many other bargains can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

If you liked the idea of an iMac G3 coffee maker but held off spending a few hundred dollars because it only made coffee: listen up. Now you can make your morning cappuccino with it.

It’s the handiwork of Klaus Diebel at Kiwidee, who, not content to have made an subwoofer-amped stereo system with an iMac as well as the coffee maker, kept on DIYing.

The result? The iMac Coffee Edition was fitted with an injector system and a milk frother was added, so now it can make cappuccino.

The iPhone is undeniably huge in Japan, where the device accounts for over sixty percent of all smartphones sold. The iPhone 4 alone has been the number one selling handset in Japan for the last 18 weeks.

That’s not to say its dominance is unassailable though. Call it a spin, call it a blip, but this week saw the iPhone fall out of the number one spot in Japan for the first time in over four months, as Samsung’s Android-based Galaxy S smartphone careened into the standings at number one.