If you’re looking for that last minute gift, an Apple Store is a fine destination. But if, like my hirsute Uncle Bob, your wrapping skills max out at wadding a clump of disintegrating newspaper around your gift and entombing it in an impenetrable, inch-thick layer of duct tape upon which you’ve written your season’s greeting in bold, permanent marker, the Apple Store might also have you covered: select Apple Stores are now offering free wrapping.

The way Apple is handling wrapping is smart. Instead of buying your iPod or MacBook Pro and then thrusting it at some beleaguered wrapper temp, already light-headed from papercut induced blood loss, Apple has set up an express line which sells exclusively pre-wrapped gifts.

Good news for last-minute shoppers via Dealnews: The Apple Store offers free shipping via next-day delivery with no minimum purchase required. That’s Apple’s best shipping discount this year. Sales tax is added where applicable. Customized items and gift cards are excluded. Orders of in-stock, non-custom configuration items placed by 1 pm ET on December 23 will arrive in time for Christmas.

With the official start of winter, we look at the few remaining days until Christmas. We start the week with three hardware deals, including a free one-day shipping offer that could rival the Macs being sold. First up is a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook for $870 from PC Connection. Next, are two more deals from the Apple Store, each offering free next-day delivery. If you still want a Mac under the tree, but have been waiting for lower prices, this may be your day. Apple has a number of Macs, starting with Core 2 Duo iMacs for $849. There are also offers on MacBooks, MacBook Airs, Mac Pro desktops and Mac Pro Xeon servers. An 8GB iPod nano for $99 from the Apple Store rounds out our top trio of deals.

As always, for details on these deals and more more, check out the CoM “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

If you know your way around Macs,  can untangle the gnarliest iPod problems and love sales, Apple wants you for its retail stores.

To handle the general surge in customers — Apple’s 5th Avenue store is outperforming Tiffany’s, to name just one — the stores are adding a new role called “Expert.”

Previously these were internal promotions, so it sounds like you’d have to be a cut above the average “Genius”  with an interest in sales and management.

Apple’s ideal Expert from the job description:

•    (Seeks) A career in sales where you can share your passion for Apple in a fast-paced and dynamic team environment.
•    You love working with people — it energizes you.
•    You embrace Apple’s standards of customer service and live them every day.
•    You like being the first person on the block to touch new technology. And you like to share that knowledge.
•    You love learning. And you’ll learn from people every day.

If you think you can cut it, it looks like every Apple retail store is on the lookout for in-house Experts to don the new sky-blue T-shirt.

Via Ifoapplestore

So what if Time magazine passed him over for person of the year:  Steve Jobs beat out a couple thousand CEOs around the globe to be named the best-performing CEO by Harvard Business Review.

Researchers looked at what execs brought to the table and to shareholders from 1,999 publicly-held companies worldwide during the entire time of their tenure.

Though they admit “it may come as no shock that Steve Jobs of Apple tops the list,”  it does seem a little surprising that Bill Gates is absent. No shocker: Gates is out of the running because the research only considered execs who took the helm from 1997 on.

Even without Microsoft, tech execs took the lion’s share of the top 10, including Yun Jong-Yong at Samsung Electronics (ranked 2), John T. Chambers, Cisco Systems (ranked 4), Jeff Bezos from Amazon (7),  Margaret C. Whitman eBay (8) and Eric E. Schmidt Google (9).

So what put Jobs ahead of the pack?

Apple seems to have been caught off-guard by the success of its App Store. Launched around one year ago, the online store for iPhone and iPod touch applications recently topped 2 billion downloads. Now an iPhone investor says Apple would have been satisfied with a fraction of the current demand.

“We had no idea there would be 2 billion downloads by October,” Matt Murphy, a partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, venture capitalists that helped fund the first iPhone developers, told the Financial Times.

A widening gulf appears to be growing separating iPod touch and iPhone owners’ willingness to run the latest Apple operating system software. Only 55 percent of iPod touch users have upgraded to OS 3.0 or higher, in stark contrast to around 95 percent of iPhone owners, a survey indicates.

At the heart of the disparity appears Apple’s decision to charge iPod touch users for upgrading, while OS 3.x is free for iPhone owners. Also, many features in OS 3.0 and higher are targeted toward the iPhone, rather than the non-cellular iPod touch.

When Apple purchased streaming music service Lala a couple of weeks ago, the most plausible use for such an acquisition — the addition of streaming functionality to iTunes — promptly caused our butts to scuttle in anticipation of iTunes-in-the-cloud.

Still, the buy was problematic. Considering that it has been rumored that Apple was buying LaLa to kill it and that it was a purchase made just to thwart Google, some wondered if Apple, in a worst case scenario, intended to shutter the entire site, or in a slightly better case scenario, would simply shut Google out of LaLa… an action that would promptly kill Google’s Music Search, which is powered by LaLa.

Luckily, it looks like Apple has no plans to shut Google out of LaLa. “We have enjoyed a good relationship with Apple for many years, and that continues to be the case,” R.J. Pittman, Google director of product management, told BusinessWeek. “We are agreeing to continue to leave the service as it is.”

Even so, this has to be a lesson to Google: make sure you own the companies and tech that power your search methods. With Apple now in control of LaLa (and consequently, Google Music), Google can’t be resting easy.

You can take your business school degree and cram it up your plush Christmas stocking: iPhone games developer Tapulous, best known for their rhythm game Tap Tap Revenge, are now bringing in $1 million a month in sales.

In the laughable understatement of the year, Tapulous says they are profitable. Tap Tap Revenge has been installed on over one-third of all iPhones and iPod Touches. CEO Bart Decrem says that he experiences his company to exponentially grow as the mobile app market gets broader. “It’s going to be big and all of a sudden people are going to say, ‘holy cow, where did those guys come from?'”he said.

That’s great for Tapulous and its small constabulary of employees — it couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of guys — but they are, of course, in the minority. I suspect Tapulous just has too much momentum to stop: they launched an iPhone game early inspired by a very popular and casual-friendly genre of music games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, and they can ride that early success for awhile. Things are doubtlessly not so rosy for the developers trying to get their apps noticed in a sea of a hundred thousand now.

According to Judge WIlliam Alsup’s ruling against the notorious Mac clone makers, Psystar has until December 31st to comply with a permanent injunction against the company from selling computers that have been modified to run Apple’s OS X operating system. But will Psystar come back from the dead?

There’s conflicting reports coming out from both Apple and Psystar’s camps concerning the fate of the Florida computer retailer. Psystar attorner Eugene Action was recently quoted by the Dow Jones Newswire as saying that “[Psystar] will not be in business” and that the company would be “shutting down immediately” by laying off their eight employees.

That seems pretty clear cut, but now K.A.D. Camara, who also represented Psystar in their legal battle against Apple, is saying the opposite: “Regrettably, Mr. Action was misquoted in an early story that seems to have been picked up elsewhere,” he said. “Psystar does not intend to shut down permanently.”

It’s hard to imagine how the tiny little company, already $2.7MM in the hole after having to pay Apple damages, will manage to survive: they aren’t known for anything besides their Open Mac computers, and they only ever successfully sold a handful of them. My guess this is just a blanket denial to keep options open, and the reality is more likely that they will have to close. Sayonara, Psystar.

Mark your calendars. It looks like we have a date for next year’s World Wide Developer’s Conference.

Thanks to an update to the Moscone Center’s summer schedule, it now looks like this year’s WWDC will be held from Monday, June 28th, 2010 to Friday, July 2nd, 2010. There’s no official confirmation just yet, but the Moscone Center has blocked off those dates for a “Corporate Event.”

That can really only be one thing. It overlaps nicely with the third anniversary of the iPhone’s release… and, not so coincidentally, the presumed lapse of AT&T’s exclusivity deal. Even if Apple doesn’t reveal a new iPhone model at WWDC this year (and they will, if only to bump screen resolution to be competitive with the likes of HTC Droid and the Nexus One Android smartphones), I imagine we will all be happy to hear the announcement of new carrier choices. God knows we need the option.

[via Macrumors]

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmgKDvWdi6o

Over the weekend, Seth Myers’ made a joke about the iPhone’s inability to actually place a call thanks to AT&T’s shoddy service during “Weekend Update” on Saturday Night Live. The joke was terrible, but as terrible as it was, the entire audience immediately burst into hysterical laughter: they all knew what he was talking about.

We close out this week before Christmas with more hardware deals. A 24-inch iMac with 3.06GHz Core Two Duo processor for $1,399 and a 15-inch 2.93GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, for $1,989 from ExperCom. The Apple Store is offering MacBook Airs, starting at $1,099 for a 1.60GHz 13-inch model. If you’re still looking for a deal on an iPod touch (and who isn’t?), the Apple Store also is selling an 8GB version for $149.

There are a couple deals on iPod and iPhone cases, including 80 percent off on iPod touch cases. If you haven’t upgraded to 10.6 yet, there is a bargain on a Mac Box Set with 10.6, iLife and iWork for $129.

As always, for links and details to all of these bargains and many others, check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

The image of Apple’s marketplace being only within the shores of the United States appears as valid as Microsoft’s claims about Vista. The United States was tenth in the countries experiencing the most growth in demand for Apple’s handset, a new survey found Friday. Instead, Japan, France and Australia are Apple’s top three markets for its iPhone and iPod touch.

The Mobile Metrics report from AdMob said sales to Japan in 2009 grew 350 percent, while France saw a 300 percent jump with Australia close behind. The U.S. and Canadian markets showed more than 100 percent growth this year. Although U.S. growth lagged far behind the leaders, 50 percent of all iPhone and iPod touch users make the U.S. home, according to AdMob.

Fanboys we. Ever since Paramount released the first official Iron Man 2 trailer, we’ve been looking for a reason to post a link to it. After all, Robert Downey Jr’s sublime cockiness and his high regard for the fusion between technology and design is pansexual geek porn for all.

Still, the grim-knuckled assertion that Tony Stark uses a Mac seems like a tenuous reason at best to direct readers of an Apple blog to watch Scarlett Johannson sultrily pose in a leather cat suit, or a shirtless Mickey Rourke to flail a couple of electric whips about.

Luckily, though, Apple accompanies the roll-out of the new Iron Man 2 trailer with a refresh of the Apple trailers page design, which brings it more in line with the way the iTunes Store now displays information. It’s an incremental roll-out, and the only other trailer to get the treatment so far is Shrek Forever After… but I don’t think that’s any reason to link you to a fourth installment of sassy donkeys and fairy tale fart jokes.

Anyway, enjoy the trailer, comforted by the fact that you are edifying yourself in the constantly evolving world of Apple interface design. Then join me in the comments to talk about all the robot smashing going on: is it just me, or does this trailer just sort of run out of steam halfway through?

Just came across Apple Rush, an organic apple juice and beverage company that turned up in an RSS feed for news on Apple Computers.

This one looks a lot more like the Apple logo than some of the logos with apples that have been taken to court by Apple over trademark issues.

Apple Rush, based in Dolton Illinois, sells apple juice and sparkling beverages in bottles and cans through a network of 40 distributors in the U.S. and abroad.

Granted, since confusion is one of the cornerstones of trademark infringement, unless consumers are likely to mistake a sparkling beverage with an iPod — though an Apple energy drink, to make your computing breezier would be pretty nifty — this one may end up in the copycat hall of shame instead of the courts.

Thoughts?

With USB 3.0 finally agreed upon, which allows for potential throughput of up to 4 gigabits per second, peripheral makers are slowly but surely dipping their toes into the waters of the new spec. Yesterday, LaCie announced that they were joining the fray with the world’s first USB 3.0 Dual-Drive RAID storage solution.

LaCie’s 2Big USB 3.0 is a dual-disc RAID 0/1 storage solution powered by Symwave’s dual SATA and RAID bridge controller. LaCite boasts that the 2Big will be capable of the highest throughput ever achieved in a USB 3.0 external storage product: it will even allow users to transfer high-definition uncompressed video at speeds up to 275MB per second, or prefer real time streaming and editing of multiple high-definition files at once.

That sounds like a great match for the Mac platform’s plethora of video professionals, but here’s the catch: there’s no support for USB 3.0 on any current Macs. Still, it’s pretty much a lock that you can expect at least one USB 3.0 port on Apple’s next Mac Pro refresh: USB 3.0 is exactly the sort of transfer standard that would appeal to the Mac Pro’s core audience of video professionals, especially considering Apple’s long-term effort to distance itself from Firewire.

If you’re interested in the LaCie 2Big RAID, you can luckily wait around for Apple to catch up with the USB 3.0 spec: both the 2Big and the Mac Pro refresh are due in the first quarter of 2010.

I’ve never been such a big fan of using voice search on my phone. Take Google’s own voice search app for the iPhone. As far as translating my own search terms, it does pretty well, but it has an issue with ambient noise. For example, I may need Google’s help to spell the longest town name in Scotland, but I’m pretty sure the correct spelling isn’t “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogery BEEP HONK SCREECH CRASH chwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.”

Still, voice search enthusiasts who own iPhones now have another program to loudly and emphatically yell at. Following up on last week’s Dragon Diction app, Nuance has released Dragon Search

It works very similarly to the Google Mobile app: you simply tap a button, clearly say your search term, and then beam your search query up to Nuance’s servers, which promptly spits back the applicable results. Where Dragon Search differs from Google’s efforts is it can easily extend its search beyond just Google results: it will also search iTunes, Twitter, Wikipedia, Youtube, Yahoo and Bing.

If you’re interested, the app is free for now, although you should move soon on that free download: the free introductory offer ends soon.

If Apple is preparing for a New Year’s bash, it may be with some nervousness. Android, the Google software powering Verizon’s Droid and other smartphones, may be a party-crasher, a new report says. Internet measurement firm comScore announced 17 percent of people intend to buy an Android phone within the next three months compared to 20 percent for Apple’s iPhone.

“While iPhone continues to set the bar with its App Store and passionate user base, and RIM remains the leader among the business set, Android is clearly gaining momentum among developers and consumers,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile.

If 80 percent of success in life is showing up, the Apple board of directors have it made.

Reuters released a list of the best-paid US corporate boards, Apple ranks number three.  In 2008, the seven-member board of directors pulled $633,000 each for attending five board meetings.

That works out to $127,000 per meeting for board members to sit in a conference room and — according to some, do nothing but graze on the pastries provided — while Steve Jobs calls the shots from the head of the table.

That’s the median price of a house in Greer, South Carolina or Pensacola, Florida. (Sure, neither places are likely to see Apple board member Al Gore plunk down his meeting money on a property, but just to give it a little context.)

The top two spots are held by Nabors, a global oil and drilling company, and Intuitive Surgical Ltd.  a robotic health care equipment maker that paid its seven non-employee directors an average of $697,000 last year or about $139,000 per meeting.

Reuters notes that both Shares of both Intuitive Surgical and Apple have more than doubled in 2009. Both companies pay directors largely with stock options, which have become especially valuable in light of their recent performance.
A spokeswoman for Apple declined to comment.

Via Reuters

We’ve lamented the iPhone’s unsuitability to be used as a weapon before. An iPhone wielded in the sock makes a satisfying nunchuku, don’t get us wrong, but in the viscera-choked inferno of the modern battlefield, you’re just never going to be able to close the projectile-perforated distance between you and your enemy enough to give him a really meaty thwack upside the head with one.

But while the iPhone’s physical design has inferior potential to cause mutilative harm to your fellow man, the App Store presents marvelous opportunities for the art of warfare. At least, that’s what U.S. military contractor Raytheon thinks, having just announced a range of military-oriented apps for the iPhone that will help soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan use their handsets for war.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZWC0kk77GI

Six iPhones daisy-chained together to simulacrum the full ivory-and-ebony array of a piano’s 88 keys, progressing upwards through five octaves from a low C. Upon them, Mario Raimondi of the El Desafio foundation turns in a note-perfect rendition of Yann Tiersen’s “Comptine D’un Autre Été: L’après Midi,” which you might recognize from the Amelie soundtrack. A beautiful song, and we can only marvel at the dexterity required to tickle such small keys without relying on any haptic feedback whatsoever.

The only question is: what app is Raimondi using? It looks a bit like Mini Piano. Anyone know for sure?

[via TUAW]

The iPhone now has more than 46 percent of Japan’s smartphone market, unseating the previous most-popular smartphone in under six months, according to a report. The iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS now are the No. 1 and No. 2 smartphones in the country.

The iPhone 3G has 24.6 percent of the market while the iPhone 3GS owns 21.5 percent of the smartphone market, Japan analyst firm Impress said Friday.

It’s that time of year again folks.

Last December, we asked you to nominate your favorite new desktop apps of 2008. Popular choices back then included Evernote, Dropbox, 1Password and Things.

But what new stuff has grabbed your attention during 2009?

There’s probably nothing so dissimilar to an iPhone as a fresh, greasy donut covered in powdered sugar; and Homer would probably be the last person on Earth to ever have one (an iPhone, not a donut, dufus). So pairing Homer Simpson with an iPhone might just be crazy enough to be brilliant (this is Homer logic, it doesn’t necessarily have to make sense).

The Simpson’s Arcade features a hungry Homer in a quest for — you guessed it — donuts, with mini-games that include using “touch and accelerometer controls to ‘Slap Homer’ back to life,” says game publisher Electronic Arts.

EA says the the game — which it says is due out sometime this December — is voiced “by the real, live actors” from The Simpsons; with any luck this means the incontestably brilliant Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer will be channeling Chief Wiggum and Mr. Smithers from iPhones everywhere, soon.