Wish Jonny Ive’s aesthetic sense was more like an old flea-market VCR? A mere $25 will get you one of Karvt’s wood-panel iPhone 4 skins, coming in flavors of dead tree flesh ranging from bamboo to cherry and from walnut to pine.

Now if only someone would just come up with a musty orange shag bumper and my iPhone 4 would be the spitting image of my creepier grandma’s basement.

Remember this case from China that allows you to use a regular SIM to make phone calls and SMS messages from your jailbroken iPod Touch? It’s been reviewed.

Not so surprisingly, it works, but it’s buggy. You can’t adjust the call volume, the SMS delivery shorts out occasionally, etc. The Peel 520 was a neat idea, but if you want to use your iPod Touch as a smartphone, Sprint’s forthcoming 3G hotspot case combined with a good set of headphones and a SkypeOut account seems like your best bet… no jailbreak required.

Digicams, like Darwinism, tend to exhibit certain mutations that define their species from the rest of the genus. In other words, it’s common for digicams to have a gimmick.

The Samsung PL90 point-and-shoot’s gimmick is pretty neat, though: a built-in USB connector eliminating the need for an external cable to sync and charge. That makes this an excellent choice for an entry-level camera for laptop users.

Quality-wise, the Samsung PL90 packs 12 megapixels onto its tiny sensor, which means you can expect a good deal of noise in your snaps. On the positive side, though, the lens here is great for an entry-level, with a 29-116mm equivalent zoom and a ƒ2.8-6.5 aperture range, which is surprisingly bright.

At $150, this actually looks like a really good camera to give an amateur in need of a new casual snapper. It even has some pretty great self-organizational software features, including the ability to sort pictures according to criteria ranging from their date, time and even dominant color. Pretty neat.

Inundated with a deluge of iPhone 4 jailbreaks at their retail locations, Apple has finally locked down access to JailbreakMe from inside the Apple Store. If you try to go to jailbreakme.com from within an Apple Store now, a DNS forward will just route you back to Apple.com.

Good move, Apple… but what’s taken so long? JailbreakMe.com has been around since 2007, and even back then offered an instant jailbreak to anyone visiting the site in Mobile Safari running iOS 1.1.1. You’d think they would have shut jailbreakme.com access off at their retail stores three years ago.

An uncanny resemblance, don’t you think?

On the left, an in-app screenshot of Where To?, an iOS app nudging travelers along a GPS trail to local points of interest. “Where To? makes it incredibly easy to locate the closest steakhouse, bank branch, billiard club or anything else you may be looking for, at the drop of a hat!” That in-app homescreen has not changed since version 1.0, which was a Day 1 download on the App Store.

On the right, Where To’s eerie doppelnganger, plucked from the Aha-like inner mindscape of an Apple patent attorney. The patent is dated December 18, 2009 and describes “systems and methods for integrating travel services in a single application available to a portable electronic device,” allowing users to easily be directed to local restaurants, banks or nightspots. Sound familiar?

In other words, Apple seems to have patented the functionality of another company’s app, right on down to that app’s physical design and title.

Either Steve Jobs is so ticked off with the media, he’s spending his off-hours fiendishly drilling fake holes into forthcoming iPod Touch parts and leaking them (which is…well, who knows) — or we really are about to get a FaceTime-capable iPt when iPod unveiling-time rolls around, traditionally in early September.

MacRumors is brandishing these photos, leaked to them by an iDevice repair service, as further proof of earlier whispers that the imminent next-gen iPt will have a forward-facing camera. In the photo of the bezel above, the small hole on the right would likely be where the forward-facing camera would sit.

We know what you’re asking: How the heck did a repair service get ahold of future iPt bezels, and why does their website look so sketchy ? We don’t know. We’re just giddy that the new iPt is going to have FaceTime. Probably.

We start the day with two hardware deals. Expercom has a deal on a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo 27-inch iMac, bundled with three years of AppleCare for $1,599. The Apple Store has a number of unibody MacBook Pros, starting at $929 for a 2.26GHz model. We round out our featured deals with the latest crop of App Store freebies, including “Made in USSR: Merry Cook,” a game and watch-style LCD game.

We’ll also check out a couple iPhone protectors, an alarm clock that also serves as a dock, and software for your Mac. As always, details on these items and many others can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

In yet another example of art imitating life — or imitating an iPhone app, or whatever — nefariously addictive app Pocket God is now a digital comic book, available at the App Store.

But developer Bolt Creative says the comic will also materialize as an honest-to-goodness printed comic, with a feature in the app helping users find comic-book stores stocking the title. Digital issues are a buck, and future issues will be available as in-app purchases; no details on the printed version yet.

And just in case you missed it, the comic’s first issue is accompanied by Pocket God’s — wow — 33rd  episode, which has our little half-pint islanders evading a massive gorilla in the jungle and performing rituals. Sound familiar?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqlhzve4BOw

Electric Pig editor and lucky duck James Holland gives us a walk through Apple’s store in Covent Garden before it opens on Saturday, August 7.

Some of us at Cult of Mac weren’t too convinced of the store’s aesthetic appeal from the pics we posted yesterday — but on further inspection this new retail outlet is, well, stunning.

The store has two, count ’em two, of Apple’s signature glass staircases, one spiral and one square,  nicely offset by the exposed brick.

We also especially like London’s “largest pigeon magnet!”

Via Electric Pig

Sometimes analysts release numbers and information speculators take them and turn them into headlines, such as those we saw when Canalys released figures suggesting Android was outselling the iPhone. Often, the real story is buried in the details – or comments, as the case was today.

Aside from headlines declaring Google’s Android sales were beating Apple about the head and shoulders, Canalys analyst Horace Dediu put the figures in perspective. “Android is mostly competing with non-consumption and not iPhone. Android buyers are not choosing between it and an iPhone but between it and a dumb phone,” he writes on the asymco.com blog.

Serious>PC heavy, but if you game under Boot Camp, that shouldn’t be a problem, and there are numerous Mac titles like World of Warcraft, Civilization IV and Unreal Tournament 2004.

Other features of the G510 include custom-color backlighting, allowing you to truly tart up your keyboard according to your own chromatic specification, integrated USB audio for headset support, 18 programmable keys and simultaneous key input for up to five keys at once, allowing you to deploy some truly polydactyl shortcuts.

The G510 costs $119.99, and although it’s temporarily sold out, you can sign up to be notified when the keyboard’s next available over on the official Logitech website.

Independent app developer Tim Sears has just released his latest creation for iPhone, and if you are a Foursquare user, this is one for you.

Future Checkin utilizes the new background location features available with iOS 4 and allows you to check-in to your favorite, recent or nearby venues without even getting your phone out of your pocket.

You’d be hard pressed to identify a peripheral maker whose sense of design is more anathema to Apple’s than Logitech. Where one is symbolized by the plinth of aluminum, the slate of glass, the opalescent bar of plastic, the other is a PC-centric slab of black plastic and glowing LEDs. That said, Logitech makes some of the best gaming mice in the business, and their new G-Series Wireless Gaming Mouse G700 is no exception.

Featuring over 13 programmable buttons easily identified by their individual sculpting, smooth gliding polytetraflyoroethylene feet and a comfortable ergonomic design, the G700 is specifically designed for MMORPGs like World of Warcraft. Onboard memory profiles guarantee that it’ll always remember your settings even across Macs, while the 5,700 dpi laser promises to track your slightest twitch and jactitation accurately.

The G700 is even rechargeable: simply plug in a micro-USB cable to switch it into corded mode and give the internal battery a juicing good for over two weeks.

If you’re interested, the Logitech Wireless Gaming Mouse G700 is available for pre-order now for just $99.99. Sure, it doesn’t exactly match Jonny Ive’s vision for your desktop… but Ive’s clearly not a gamer, is he?

The Android platform is on fire. Phones based on the Google operating system are being activated at a rate of 200,000 per day – and have eclipsed Apple iOS sales. Google CEO Eric Schmidt points to the Verizon Droid X for the rapid rise.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday night at the Techonomy Conference, Schmidt said the Mountain View, Calif.-based Internet giant still has a soft spot for its rival iPhone.

Ever since Dev Team member Comex unleashed his latest jailbreak on iOS 4 users through the website JailbreakMe, an extremely dangerous exploit in the way Mobile Safari opens PDF files has effectively been in the wild.

Surprisingly, once the exploit used to effect the jailbreak was known, jailbroken iPhones were counter-intuitively more secure than their locked-down cousins, thanks to a Cydia-only software hack that plugs up the PDF vulnerability.

Needless to say, Apple wasn’t about to let that stand, and after marking the bug as “critical,” Cupertino has now released a statement on the matter.

“We’re aware of this reported issue, we have already developed a fix and it will be available to customers in an upcoming software update,” Apple has said.

This is a huge vulnerability, and to me, that sounds like Apple intends to have the hole plugged within the week. If you plan on jailbreaking, better do it now… just remember that if you decide to stick with iOS 4.0.1, you’re going to need to watch out for malicious PDF files.

HardMac thinks they’ve got quite a scoop on their hands with this leaked illustration of what they say is a next-generation iPod Touch in a clear case. They claim their source is “very reliable.” I’m not sure I buy it.

Look, it’s all hearsay until Apple actually unveils something, but this “next-gen” iPod Touch doesn’t have a front-facing camera… and we’ve got very strong reasons to believe the next iPod Touch will have exactly that. We saw an LCD assembly unit for the next iPod Touch as recently as last month that had a FaceTime camera oculus, and Steve Jobs himself has said we can expect “millions of FaceTime devices” to ship this year. Since the iPod Touch is the only other iOS device we can reasonably expect this calendar year, a FaceTime iPod Touch seems like a lock.

Another point: it would be easier to put a forward facing FaceTime camera into the iPod Touch’s existing footprint than it would be to put the iPhone 4’s 5MP camera into that same footprint. In fact, the latter might be downright impossible… yet that’s exactly what this image seems to suggest.

Finally, if this is a current mockup according to Apple’s own next-gen iPod Touch specifications, then why didn’t they bother showing the iPod Touch running iOS 4?

It doesn’t quite grok for me. What do you guys think? Sound off in the comments.

3G? Pfft. What are you, some kind of stone-humping caveman? WiMax is the new hotness, and your pitiful iPhone 4 can’t even do it… or can it?

Thanks to Clear’s iSpot WiMax hotspot, it certainly can: in fact, the iSpot can serve up to 40 Mbit per second of mobile broadband throughput collectively to up to eight connected iOS devices… but only iOS devices.

That’s right: Clear’s iSpot has a special software feature that detects the operating system installed on the devices connecting to it and shuts out anything not running iOS.

On the plus side, that means that the iSpot is pretty cheap when it debuts on August 10th: that soap-like bar of WiMax goodness will cost just $99 with a $25 month-by-month unlimited data plan.

On the other hand, if you want to connect your Mac, expect to lay out another $15 per month: Clear won’t brook no moochers.

It doesn’t take much to get rumors flying. For example, the news Verizon’s CEO will deliver the keynote speech at CES 2011 in January. Naturally, this points to the oft-rumored CDMA iPhone. Maybe.

Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg’s speech could have a number of meanings. It could be a sign of the rise of the cell phone as a key component to consumer electronics. It could be an opportunity for Verizon to talk about its leading role in advancing Android-based handsets. However, it is unlikely Seidenberg would upstage Apple CEO Steve Jobs, given the Apple co-founder’s penchant for controlling the message.

Rolling Stone‘s Special Issue of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time made its debut Tuesday on Zinio, a digital publishing platform that could spell the difference between “survive” and “thrive” for old-school media publications looking to keep the doors open in coming years.

With a stable of top-tier periodicals such as National Geographic, Esquire, American Photo, Car & Driver and many more, Zinio definitely leads the way in showing how paper publications might remain not only relevant but vital and attractive to a new generation of “readers” weaned on the sizzle and flash of gaming and 3D entertainment.

Publication is morphing into something beyond simple words and pictures, evolving into an immersive medium that both pushes ideas and information out to consumers — and draws them in with interactive features and activities that take one beyond the superficial layers of what an article or essay might seem to offer.

Thus, with such crucial stakes at hand, did Zinio, Apple and Rolling Stone produce something of a mixed scorecard with the 500 Greatest issue.

Apple’s>”>suing a number of unlicensed third-party accessory makers for products of inferior quality that reflected poorly on Apple’s brands.

Of course, part of the reason why third-party accessories work so poorly is because Apple is sneaky and employ various hardware tricks to make sure that only “Made for iPod” accessories work perfectly.

The hackers over at Minty Boost have gotten to the bottom of one such trick Apple deploys to make sure that unauthorized accessories have a hard time charging your iPod or iPhone.

In essence, Apple uses secret resistors that are placed in the connectors for Apple devices: if these resistors aren’t there, your iPhone or iPod Touch won’t deted the 2.8V and 2V signals, and hence won’t charge, coughing up a “Charging is not supported with this accessory” message instead.

The good news for unauthorized accessory makers (and makers) is that once you know the trick Apple employs to stop iPod charging on non-“Made for iPod” devices, it’s pretty easy to work around. Now that the secret of how Apple gimps unauthorized accessories is out in the wild, though, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple come up with a new way to stick it to those unwilling or unable to pay their “Made for iPod” licensing fees.

While the East Coast has continued to get excited by giant floppy slices of pizza served out of a corner joint, the San Francisco Bay Area has somewhat quietly become the finest destination for real Neapolitan pizza (and stuff quite close to it) in the United States.

Above is photographic evidence that even Steve Jobs has gotten the word. On Saturday night, he attempted to get a table at Flour+Water, one of the insurgent pizzaiolos that has put SF pizza on the map (and was recently named best restaurant in the city by SF Weekly). And, like everyone else, Steve found out that unless you’re ready to wait for a table, you’re not going to get in the door.

Don’t worry, Steve! There’s plenty of other places to go! Zero Zero is a new powerhouse, Boot and Shoe Service is picking up steam, Delfina is unstoppable, and Anthony Mangieri, the you of pizza, will soon open his Una Pizza Napoletana close to Caltrain, so you can take Caltrain back home afterward.

Via SF Weekly

Ever since the iPad’s debut, it has handily dominated the 10-inch tablet space… but that hasn’t stopped companies like Dell from trying to make a dent in the iPad’s sales with smaller 5- and 7-inch tablets.

According to iLounge, Apple might be looking to compete with the burgeoning 7-inch tablet market with an iPad Mini of their very own.

It’s plausible, I guess: the iPad is pretty big — sometimes it seems a skosh too big to me — and a 7-inch iPad wouldn’t sacrifice much in usability for an easy gain in slingability.

9to5Mac is confirming that they’ve also heard this rumor from their sources, adding that the iPad Mini would likely have a 1500×1920 Retina Display.

What do you think? Is Apple aiming to shrink the iPad? If they did, would you want one? Let us know in the comments.

What good is an iPhone if you can’t run a tricorder on it?  Hiding out in the app store is this little gem called Tricorder TR-580, with realistic sound effects and a hidden trove of data.  Somewhat of a cross-series hybrid, it’s not an official Star Trek studio release but definitely worth 99 cents.

You can track crewmates in the field too. Makes a good companion to the iPhone Communicator app!

If I was in control of the available categories in the iTunes App Store I’d place MiTube in the “Quick! Get this App!” category. MiTube is a free iOS app designed for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad that allows you to download and save YouTube videos directly to your iOS device. If you haven’t gotten your own copy of this app then use this iTunes link to get it now.

Like we mentioned a few weeks ago, we’re pretty excited about the potential for the iPhone morphing into all kinds of contraptions through hooking up with a little extra hardware. New Potato is one of the lead outfits in this area, and they’ve just introduced a kit that turns the iPhone into a bike super-computer. Rad.

The $99 kit contains a rather large cadence/speed sensor, ruggedized rubber iPhone mount, mounting hardware and a dongle that the iPhone uses to communicate with the sensor; combine the  kit with the free LiveRider app, and presto — a cycling computer with all the standard functions (speed along with max and average, time, distance, cadence, pace) and more advanced functions like competing against a chase bike, ride map and speed graph.

Being the bike geeks we are here at the Cult, we’ve already started playing around with a test unit and we’ll have a full report up soon. Can’t wait? LiveRider is available from retailer J&R or directly from New Potato.