Ever since Apple finally published their long-requested App Store Review Guidelines, we’ve been seeing a lot of reversals in previously unbendable policies, with no example of that phenomena being more striking than Apple’s decision to let third-party Google Voice apps back on the App Store.

So far, though, Google’s own official Voice client has yet to be republished to the App Store. Things are looking good, though, that Google Voice for iOS may once again be on its way, with sources telling Techcrunch that Google has already submitted the application to Cupertino.

Wall Street analysts have been at it again attempting to prognosticate upcoming Apple products. It’s Goldman Sachs’ turn at the crystal ball – with a little help from those chatty “supply chain” folks. Goldman believes the Cupertino, Calif. company will launch a second version of its popular iPad with a 9.7-inch screen, a camera and mini USB connection.

This report shares some of the same qualities of a DigiTimes post published Sept. 17. Both agree the new iPad will advance Apple’s plans to offer Facetime videochat on every iOS family-member. Oh, that 7-inch iPhone 4 look-alike version one Chinese publication claimed was “finished” has “yet to be finalized,” according to Goldman analysts Henry King and Kevin Lu.

One of the biggest problems with physical media is that it breaks. As soon as your DVD gets a couple scratches it’s rendered un-usable and worthless. Copying a DVD with encryption isn’t as easy as it should be. The good news is that with this walkthrough Cult of Mac will show you how to do it.

PlainText is the latest text app from Hog Bay Software‘s Jesse Grosjean.

Jesse, as many of you will know, is the genius behind several other apps for iOS and the desktop, including WriteRoom and TaskPaper.

PlainText is very similar to, but not exactly the same as, another of his apps called SimpleText. Where SimpleText was built to sync with a home-made service called simpletext.ws, PlainText has been built from scratch to sync with Dropbox.

PlainText is a simple text writing tool for iPhone and iPad. It will sync with Dropbox, and includes support for TextExpander snippets if you use them. It’s free, supported by adverts. If you want to switch them off, you can for a one-off payment of $4.99.

Amazon announced Tuesday morning the first chapter of Kindle books can now be embedded and viewed on web sites. “Kindle for the Web” also allows the initial chapter to be shared on Twitter, Facebook and e-mail.

“With Kindle for the Web, it’s easier than ever for customers to sample Kindle books — there’s no downloading or installation required,” Amazon Kindle Director Dorothy Nicholls said. Along with allowing authors to provide a sample of their books, the new Web application permits bloggers and website owners to earn money when visitors purchase a Kindle title on their websites.

Are you an overactive iPhone user? Addicted to Twitter, Facebook, and e-mail? Is your iPhone battery not lasting as long as you would like it to? If you answer yes to any of these questions you might need emergency backup power. It doesn’t matter about your circumstances, you need a battery pack.

Just Mobile’s Gum Plus, which I tested this week, gives an iPhone over two additional full charges. I don’t have any major complaints about it and I’ll never leave home without it.

Apple began shipping the new Apple TV this week and the new gadget isn’t in anyone’s hands yet as far as we know. So it came as a surprise when an iPhone developer, chpwn via Twitter, found a firmware update for it and posted a download link for it. The new firmware, “AppleTV2,1_4.1_8M89_Restore.ipsw,” a 242 MB download can be downloaded from Apple’s servers now.

Apple TV is running iOS, something people were only guessing about after it was announced, and now hackers are claiming that it can be jailbroken.

The Dev-Team has posted an entry on their blog stating that they had already successfully used SHAtter, an in development iOS 4.1 exploit, to jail break the new Apple TV firmware:

It’s looking like SHAtter is going to be the gift that keeps on giving.  Even though the new AppleTV isn’t yet in people’s homes, the firmware is available on Apple’s normal public distribution servers and SHAtter has been used to decrypt its keys!

The Apple TV being released this week isn’t setup to run third-party apps, but it is possible that an Apple TV Store could happen in the near future. Hypothetically that new store could allow content creators to sell their content directly to you via Apple TV. If this ever comes to pass I might be able to finally tell cable good-bye.

Long time readers of Cult of Mac may remember a series we carried a year or so ago, under the title WTF App Of The Week.

We’ve not had any of those apps for a while now, but I saw something today that made me reach for the old WTF-ometer, because this most certainly qualifies.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: Poo Log HD. Readers of a squeamish disposition may wish to stop reading right here.

Secrets is a preference pane rather than an app, so once you’ve installed it, you’ll find it inside System Preferences, not in your Applications folder.

What is it? Think of it as “System Preferences Plus”. Secrets gives you point-and-click access to hundreds of hidden preferences in OS X and many applications. Without Secrets, the only way of changing these settings is by using a Terminal window and typing stuff like “defaults write com.apple.iTunes hide-ping-dropdown -bool TRUE” (which is the secret setting for hiding the Ping drop-down menu in iTunes.)

So if you’d rather avoid having to mess around with geekery like that, Secrets is your friend. You can browse through all the hidden preferences on your system, or filter them by application. So if you want Mail to always display messages in plain text, or if you want Safari’s tab bar to stay in view even when there’s only one tab open, or if you want to change how often Time Machine does its backups – well, you can change all of those, and loads more, inside Secrets.

It’s free to download, and frequently updated with new items as and when Apple and third party developers push out updates to software packages.

So much for the laughable idea, spouted just months ago by some, that the iPad is just an iFad. Today, heavy-hitter Research In Motion, maker of BlackBerry smartphones, unveiled the PlayBook, a 7″-screen tablet at its annual developer’s conference in San Francisco.

“RIM set out to engineer the best professional-grade tablet in the industry'” said RIM President Mike Lazardis in a press release today about the tablet.

The new iPod nano’s diminutive size keeps inspiring geeks worldwide to a variety of hacks.  News today from Japan of the iSpeck’s ability to fit nicely inside the display slot on an old Sega Dreamcast VMU.

The Sega buttons do not control the iPod (yet?) but it’s safe to say this case offers good drop protection, and the headphone cord coming out the side doesn’t look as dorky as with an iWatch.

More photos and videos of the making on the vendor’s original Japanese website.  [via TUAW]

Proof that politicos are just like the rest of us: David Axelrod, senior advisor to President Barack Obama,  keeps himself entertained during meetings by playing video games.

Axelrod confessed to logging in some quality time with old-school favorite Pac Man on his iPad.

Site Real Clear Politics asked Axelrod what does with the iPad he’s been “known to sneak into meetings with.” His answer: “It depends on whether my Cubs are playing…(but) it’s really actually very useful to keep track of what’s going on….I google things all the time.”

There are a few Essential Apps that handle themselves so well on the iPhone they quickly eclipse the website they evolved from; apps that, once installed on the iPhone, completely replace their browser-based ancestors.

Essentials Yelp, The Weather Channel and Twitter clearly fall into this category. But Facebook’s app is different. It doesn’t just replace — it hooks.

We’re giving away a very sophisticated bundle of apps this week. We’ll start out in the study, browsing through and listening to the Classics. Then we might dabble in a little alchemy with the flaming Professor Helsing! We’ll pick 5 random winners to win 4 great apps and if you want a chance to get your hands on some these iPhone apps this week, then follow the instructions carefully below:

1. Like us on Facebook AND Like Appular (you have to do this to complete step 2)
2. Tag us both in your status : “Cult of Mac and Appular are throwing one classy iPhone App Giveaway!”
3. Your status tag will be your entry into the giveaway, only ONE entry is allowed per person, and the giveaway will last until 11:59pm tonight. We’ll contact the winners on Tuesday or Wednesday about how to get the codes!
4. Optional step – Tell us what you think about these apps if you own them already in the comments section.

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:

At the top of many OS X applications you’ll see something like this:

…a row of buttons, known as the Toolbar. This particular Toolbar is from word processing application Bean; different apps will have different buttons and different toolbars, but they will all look something like this.

The point is, wherever you see a Toolbar like this, you can customize it to suit your needs. You can put more buttons up there, or have just one or two. Or none at all.

Here’s how you do it.

We haven’t…uh…tried this yet (primarily because Cult editor Leander Kahney refuses to get back into his fencing Mexican-wrestler costume after last year’s Halloween fiasco) but it looks pretty damn cool, or something.

Sonic Speed Ball sets up a Bluetooth connection between two iPhones (or BT-equipped iPods), then simulates a virtual ball that can be smacked around using an iDevice as a paddle. Different gestures affect the virtual ball in different ways, à la the Nintendi Wii controller.

Sonic Speed Ball is $1; leash not included.

We start off another week with a mix of bargains. First up is 10 refurbished iMacs from the Apple Store, starting at $1,099 for a 22-inch 3.06GHz desktop. Next is “Apache Strike: Desert Storm” for the iPhone or iPod touch. The game, usually $3, is being offered free. Finally, we check out an 8GB iPod touch for $223.

Along the way, we’ll also take a look at a business card reader for your iPhone, a USB power adapter for your iPhone or iPod, along with other items. As always, details on these and much more can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Earlier this month saw the debut of Awareness, an app that should make life considerably safer and less embarrassing for people who (like me) walk around with earphones semi-permanently attached to their ears. And now, it’s on sale.

As I once discovered through unfortunate and unspeakable accident, iPods do not react well when they are dropped in the drink… or, in my case, the toilet. Oh, sure, the flash memory can technically be dunked and will function again as long as it doesn’t short out, but the other electronics aren’t nearly as resilient to wetness without shorting.

That can make the iPod a bad fit not just for clumsy urinators, but more importantly for swimmers. Luckily, there’s H20 Audio to the rescue, a company that specializes in headphones and cases for people who want to listen to tunes while they do laps. They’ve just released the Amphibx Grip for the new iPod nano or Shuffle: a completely watertight case that is fully submersible up to twelve feet thanks to their patented LatchTight locking closure. You can even use the nano’s touchscreen while in the pool through the pane.

The Amphibx Grip is available now directly from H20 Audio and costs $59.99. You can use your own headphones, if you’ve got a waterproof pair, but if you want H20’s own, they’ll cost you another $59.99.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoX1Q8ym2J8&feature=player_embedded

If you’ve just picked up a brand new iPod Touch or you bought an iPhone 4 after the update to iOS 4.1 and are eager to jailbreak, you’re probably looking forward to the SHAtter exploit, which — once rolled out — will not only allow any current iOS device to be hacked, but which can’t be patched by Apple through software.

We’re still waiting for an end-user jailbreak using SHAtter to release us from the shackles of iOS 4.0.2 and above, but the Dev Team just released the above proof of concept video, showing how the SHAtter explot baked into a beta version of PwnageTool was enough to allow them to load their custom IPSW onto a fourth-generation iPod Touch.

Sennheiser is a stalwart brand in consumer headphones, but their latest range will be of specific interest to iPhone or iPod Touch users looking for excellent audio quality coupled with hands-free or Voice Control functionality.

In a headphone range spread across the Sennheiser MM 70i, IE 8i, PX 100-IIi, PX 200-IIi, HD 218i and HD 238i models, each pair of Sennheiser’s latest cans comes with an in-line microphone and remote control.

If you’ve been one of the many people who has expected Apple to drop Google as the default search engine in iOS due to the escalating rivalry between the iPhone and Android handsets, think again. According to Business Insider, Apple and Google have just agreed to extend the deal that makes Google search reign supreme on iOS devices.

The news comes from Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who revealed the extension in a recent interview with Charlie Rose.

This week’s Apple patent news comes out of China, where a couple of new iPad designs have been discovered in line drawing, describing an iPad with dual dock connectors and an iPad with a smart bezel button.

Usually when we write about jailbreaking iPods here at Cult of Mac, we’re specifically talking about hacking your iPhone or iPod Touch to be able to run unsigned code… not iPods that are actually able to perform jailbreaks on other devices. That makes this story somewhat unique, because if you have an iPod Classic and a PlayStation 3, you can now use the former to perform a jailbreak on the latter.

The first PlayStation 3 jailbreaking solution was discovered earlier this month, and allows devices that can connect to a PS3 through the console’s USB port to permanently hack the device to run unsigned code. What’s so interesting about this jailbreak solution is that a wide range of devices can perform the hack, from a USB stick to an official controller to a Ti-84 calculator.

The latest variation of this jailbreak uses the iPod Classic family combined with the Rockbox open source media firmware. Right now, the jailbreak only works using select generations of the iPod Nano and iPod Classic, but given Rockbox’s expandable nature, we wouldn’t be surprised to see support creep to other clickwheel iPods — and media players support by Rockbox — sooner rather than later.

About a month ahead of America and Europe, New Zealand clocks fall an hour back when they switch to Daylight Savings Time on the last Sunday of September. Apparently, though, New Zealand iPads and iPhones are proving a tad overzealous when it comes to falling back this year: numerous iOS users are reporting that since yesterday’s switch, their alarms are going off an hour early. Given that Kiwis were already having to wake up an hour earlier than they were used to, that’s quite a rude awakening.