About 30 years ago, Monster began to carve out a name for itself selling cables-on-steroids to musicians. Recently, they’ve decided to take on the likes of Bose and Audio-Technica with a line of hip-hop inspired headphones called Beats by Dr. Dre.

In between the series of massive, battery-operated over-ear models and in-ear buds sits the Solos, a folding, on-ear set that seems to hit all the key points for a stylish set of traveller’s headphones: Fly looks? Check. Portability? Yeah. Sublime, bass-infused sound? In spades. It even has a microphone. In fact, the only thing missing here — except for in one component — is Monster’s legendary build quality.

Had enough curling? Of course not! No one ever gets sick of curling (and if they do, they’re surreptitiously hauled off to Scotland/Canada/Sweden and fed a steady diet of haggis/mapled moose/IKEA furniture until they recant or end up completely insane, or both).

That’s why we’re pretty excited to see iCurling come to the iPhone. Unfortunately, as much as I’d like to slather this post in sarcasm, the graphics look slick and the app’s only a buck; pretty sure that flaming stone isn’t regulation though.

Gay hook-up app Grindr, in the hot seat after a 15-year-old Canadian teen says he was assaulted by a 54-year old met via the free app, has issued a statement about the case.

App makers Nearby Buddy Finder are standing by their terms of use and parental control in the hopes of avoiding legal problems:

“Grindr has a very strict 18 years-and-over terms of use policy that all users of our service must agree to, additionally we actively monitor for potential violations of this policy and bar anyone who violates its terms.

We voluntarily have this policy in place to help protect the safety of minors. Unfortunately, as with any Web technology, people can find ways to bypass even the most robust control mechanisms.”

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We start off with another deal on MacBook Pros. This offer includes a number of MacBook Pros, starting at $1,349 for a 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo. Also on tap is a deal on a 8GB iPod touch for $170. Finally, we round out our top trio with a deal on an iBook G4 (2.66GHz) with a 12-inch screen for $300.

Along the way, we’ll check out new software deals for the Mac, iPhone and iPad, as well as intriguing hardware bargains for the Mac fan. As always, details on all of these item, plus many more, are available on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page, starting right after the jump.

Yesterday I installed Adobe’s new preview of Flash 10.1 on a couple of my Macs, and even though Steve Jobs has just dinged his old partners for being slow to release good Mac software, this release rocks.

Here’s why you need to install it on your Mac right now.

These grips made from recycled tire rubber in five different designs assure your iPad won’t slip. (Insert obligatory sanitary pad joke here).

They look cool —  throwing star design anyone? — and will make sure your device will stay firmly in hand, even in those awkward situations like the iPad puppy effect.

NinjaGrips cost $15 each and ship most places worldwide starting the first week of May.

Most laptops and portable media players have pretty terrible bass, no matter how great their audio may otherwise be, but subwoofers aren’t exactly easily luggable devices. Digivoid’s latest device attempts to shore up your iPod and MacBook’s weak vibes.

The Zo Personal Subwoofer is a small gadget about the size of an iPod Nano. All you do is plug it into your device’s headphone jack through a supplied mini-stereo cable. You then plug your headphones into the Zo for improved sound, which is itself powered by an internal rechargeable battery.

According to DigiZoid, the Zo Persona Subwoofer offers bass that’s the equivalent of a 12-inch subwoofer. That seems like a little bit of a stretch to us, but if you’re interested, you can pick up a Zo to supplement your iPod’s bass for just $99.

The iPhone perhaps does not have the native tele-dildonic abilities of more prolifically vibrating devices like the Nintendo Wiimote, but if you’ve ever looked at your beloved handset and wished that love could be exhibited in a deep muscular rubdown, there’s an app for that… along with a $5,999 chair.

The Human Touch Connect is your typical Brookstone-esque massage chair, with the added ability to be controlled through the Internet, Bluetooth or any iPhone OS device. Use the app and you have access to a full library of massaging programs like the Coccyx Blaster or the O-Ring Loosener, although be wary of using the triggering the latter setting without a waterproof iPhone case.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said Thursday his company and Adobe have “grown apart” as he claims the Cupertino, Calif. company moves beyond the PC era into an age of mobility. In an open letter entitled “Thoughts on Flash,” the co-founder of the computer company outlined his reasons for breaking away from the traditional Web animation application.

Jobs said his objections to Flash center on six issues, including openness, reliability and security.

Today, Patently Apple revealed a whole slew of new multi-touch gestures that Apple might introduce in new products and software updates, most of which are detailed in the image above… which, incidentally, looks like the pictogram instruction set for the secret high five that was in vogue my senior year in high school, and which I could never pull off without the tendons in my wrist rolling up like a window shade.

Patently Apple’s post also indicates a neat new iPod technology which is unrelated, but plenty cool: automatic adjustment of music tempo based on your performance. For example, if you’re flagging on the hill, the tempo increases, while if your heart is about to explode, it slows on down. Looks like a smart evolution of Apple’s current Nike partnership to me.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fyx7U7TH2bQ

This fantastic proof of concept video by the guys over at Magic Jungle Software demonstrates their forthcoming game, Chopper 2, being output from an iPad to a 42-inch HDTV, with an iPhone or iPod Touch used as the game’s controller.

It looks incredible, but perhaps more interesting is Distorted Loop’s take on the video, which is that this would be a fantastic direction for a relaunched Apple TV to take: an audio-visual, app-running console hooked up to your television that can be controlled by an iPhone, iPod Touch or even a “future low-cost touch sensitive remote control” that would ship in the box.

A product like that would not only finally realize the wasted potential of the Apple TV product line, but put Apple on track to compete with the likes of the Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as furiously as the iPhone currently competes with the Nintendo DS.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg isn’t the only politician to use an iPad. Russian President (and Putin-wielded political hand puppet) Dimitry Medvedev was spotted using an iPad during a recent meeting of the State Council, the Council of the Arts and the Council for Science and Technology. Unlike Stoltenberg, though, Medvedev was quick to reveal his own Ludditical tendencies, claiming that he initially found the iPad “impossible to read” (perhaps he prefers e-paper) and only warmed up to it when he downloaded the beautiful Russian novel A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov… which, incidentally, you should definitely read in the Nabokov translation if you can find it.

[via TUAW]

Borrowing design motifs from Blade Runner’s Tyrell Corporation, this hideous, glowing pyramid is the kind of coffee table cum iPhone dock that only a degrading Replicant could love. It’s called the Horus, and if owning a glass topped coffee table is the sort of thing that made you paranoid before, we’re sure you’ll love the addition of a razor sharp, impaling spike on the surface top. You can contact the designer for pricing information, but furniture this garishly tacky doesn’t come cheap when you’re not buying it bulk in a storage auction.

[via Born Rich

Amid speculation of when the iPhone 4G will be officially released and a brewing court battle over its premature disclosure by a gadget blog, manufacturers are already ramping up production of Apple’s upcoming handset, reports suggest. LG Innotek has starting making the 5-megapixel camera and could reach full-tilt by July, according to a Korean publication.

“LG Innotek will supply 5-megapixel cameras for Apple’s next-generation smartphone, the iPhone 4G,” reports the Chosun Ibo. Production began this month with mass-production expected in the second half of 2010.

In part 9 of “My Close Encounters With Steve Jobs,” Macworld founder David Bunnell tells how he shouted “Steve Jobs is a fucking genius!” in front of a bunch of kids at a Super Bowl party.

John Stewart on The Daily Show rips Apple a new one for going Big Brother on Gizmodo:

“Apple – you guys were the rebels, man, the underdogs. People believed in you. But now, are you becoming the man? Remember back in 1984, you had those awesome ads about overthrowing Big Brother? Look in the mirror, man! …It wasn’t supposed to be this way – Microsoft was supposed to be the evil one! But you guys are busting down doors in Palo Alto while Commandant Gates is ridding the world of mosquitoes! What the fuck is going on?!

…I know that it is slightly agitating that a blog dedicated to technology published all that stuff about your new phone. And you didn’t order the police to bust down the doors, right? I’d be pissed too, but you didn’t have to go all Minority Report on his ass! I mean, if you wanna break down someone’s door, why don’t you start with AT&T, for God sakes? They make your amazing phone unusable as a phone! I mean, seriously! How do you drop four calls in a one-mile stretch of the West Side Highway! There’re no buildings around! What, does the open space confuse AT&T’s signal?!

…Come on, Steve. Chill out with the paranoid corporate genius stuff. Don’t go all Howard Hughes on us.”

Via Gawker.

Hewlett-Packard is buying Palm for $1.2 billion, the company has announced. Of all the potential suitors, I don’t think HP was mentioned as a candidate. Looks like HP will be making smartphones running Palm’s WebOS, which it may or may not rebrand. The company currently makes Windows Mobile smartphones and PDAs. Looks like it wants to manage its own hardware and software, à la Apple.

Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein is expected to carry on, the HP statement says. Minor note: Rubinstein started his career at HP before working for Steve Jobs at NeXT and then Apple.

Fast Company has written up the iPhonegate saga as a funny Choose Your Own Adventure. The flowchart is spot on and made me laugh out loud.

Here’s the whole thing: Choose Your Own Adventure: The Gizmodo iPhone Saga

Do you still use a USB stick to move files between one computer and another?

You should be using Dropbox.

If you want to cover your precious iPad with the LV logo, be prepared to shell out about two-thirds the cost of the device itself.

In stores next year, the Louis Vuitton case will come with a price tag of $366 compared to the $499 for the basic iPad.

Touted as the first designer iPad sleeve from a major fashion house, you have to wonder what’s taking the rest of the overpriced, logofied pack so long. By the time this one, and others, are on shelves there may be an iPad 2G already available.

Via Geeky Gadgets, GQ

I’m happy to report that I was wrong about the iRetroFone Base. The handset works! Good Lord, I need one immediately.

A 15-year old teen is pointing the finger at social networking iPhone app Grindr for being assaulted by a 54-year-old man.

The incident happened in Vancouver, where Brent Tynan is being charged with sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching and sexual assault following an incident that took place last August. Tynan, who was arrested April 13, is expected back in court today.

Tynan met the teen through free app Grindr, which uses GPS in order to connect users to nearby gay and bisexual men.

We start off with two more deals on MacBook Pros. First are a number of unibody MacBook Pros, including a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo unit for $929. Next are some MacBook Pro deals that include AppleCare, starting at $1,358 for a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo computer with AppleCare. Finally, there is a deal on iPods, including a 8GB iPod nano for $99.

Along the way, we check out apps for the iPhone and iPad, as well as cases for your iPhone. Details on these and many other items are available at CoM’s Daily Deal page, which begins right after the jump.

Retail sales of Apple products grew 8 percent during the March quarter, an analyst said Wednesday. What’s even more intriguing was a 21.3 percent jump in Mac sales during a period when no new Apple computers were introduced.

Charlie Wolf, analyst with Needham & Company, told investors the March performance followed 19.8 percent year-over-year growth of same-store sales in December, a traditionally-strong period. Even more dramatic was March’s increase served as a nearly mirror image of a year ago, when Mac retail sales were down almost 22 percent.

Sure you can buy iPhone cookies and cupcakes, but artisan chocolates in the form of iPhone icons are definitely the most delectable knock-offs to date.

The original 20-piece sets of organic chocolates sold out within a week of launch, but there’s a special Mother’s Day edition “created as a tribute to modern mothers.”

The iChocolates box features four flavors of extra-dark, 100% cocoa butter chocolate, a graphic designer was called on to help give the yummy icons a true-to-life look.

That iconic goodness doesn’t come cheap, either, at $46, they cost about as much as a universal charging dock for your actual iPhone.

The Paris-based iChocolate seller says they ship worldwide and promises your iPhone chocs will arrive intact.