Parallels, regarded by many as the premier virtual Windows solution for the Mac, announced Tuesday a special Switch to Mac Edition, extending a welcome lifeline to computer users who are choosing to embrace the elegance, power and simplicity of Apple’s Mac OS in increasing numbers every day.

Cult of Mac received an extensive tour of the new “Switch to Mac” features recently and it’s a good bet Parallels will deliver on its promise to have former Windows users working comfortably in the Mac UI within hours instead of the more usual learning curve that can often take weeks.

“For years I have worked with switchers coming into Apple stores with questions about how to use their new Mac,” says Saied Ghaffari, Switch to Mac Advocate, who gave us the tutorial demo.

“Parallels Desktop Switch to Mac Edition thoroughly addresses the concerns switchers have,” Ghaffari said, adding, “the product is designed to make moving to Mac as fast and simple as possible, regardless of the level of technical knowledge of the switcher.

Featuring a set of easy-to-use tools and interactive tutorials such as Click to Learn, Watch Saied, and You Try incorporated with Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac, the Switch to Mac edition promises to help “Switchers” understand how to operate Mac OS X, transfer all PC data and applications, and seamlessly run their Windows applications on their new Macs.

“It’s like a friend teaching you the Mac at your own pace,” according to Ghaffari.

Parallels Desktop 4.0 Switch to Mac Edition is available from today at Apple stores, at Apple.com and through other preferred retail partners in English, German and French. The suggested retail price (SRP) of the product is $99.99.

Hit the jump for more information and detailed explanation of the Switch to Mac edition’s features.

If you want the feel of a touchscreen monitor for your MacBook but don’t want to wait until Apple unveils its rumored tablet, Mimo Monitors may have an alternative: a 7-inch display with resistive touchscreen for USB 2.0 Intel Macs.

The Mimo 720-S has all of the features of the Mimo 710-S plus a touchscreen. The screen provides 800×400 resolution and is on a 90-degree pivot. The device weighs less than 1 pound.

The monitor also offers an integrated stand and cover. The Mimo 720-S is $229.99 and requires USB 2.0. Mac users must download Mac OS X drivers.

[Via Mimo]

It’s easy to take for granted how rapidly Apple upgrades Mac OS X with meaningful new features. After all, with Friday’s Snow Leopard release, the world’s best desktop OS will have seen its fifth major leap forward in the same time it’s taken Microsoft to add only Vista and the promise of Windows 7 (I know it’s coming soon, I’m just impressed Apple’s beaten Microsoft again).

Three days from the next great version of the best great thing, here are 10 reasons why you should upgrade to Snow Leopard.

10. It’s Leopard Done Right
The release of Mac OS X Leopard was fraught with peril. It was late, it ran a bit slow, and it offered amazing new features — some of which weren’t fully ready for prime time. Snow Leopard is all about performance, optimizing features to deliver a great experience. It takes what you know today and makes it perfect.

Apple has tapped the comic genius of actor Patrick Warburton for its latest “Get A Mac” TV ad. But despite a very promising start — you smile just seeing him – the ad is a dud.

Warburton is best known for playing Elaine’s boyfriend, David Puddy, on Seinfeld. The man is just funny, period. Unfortunately, Apple’s new “Top of the Line” ad is not. (Watch it below).

Warburton plays a top-of-the-line PC — a fast, smooth machine with a big screen.

The computer shopper — a young woman — is initially impressed, but is turned off when he admits he’s not immune to viruses and other headaches. The silly fool forsakes Warburton’s charms for the unbearable Justin Long, who plays the Mac.

The ad isn’t funny, just like the rest of the ailing series. This joke has definitely run its course. Like Sieinfield itself, it’s time for Apple to pull the plug.

Via iClarified.

Now that he’s back at work full-time, Steve Jobs is focusing his full attention on the Apple tablet, the Wall Street Journal reports. And he’s kickin ass!

“Mr. Jobs’s focus on the tablet has been jarring for some Apple employees, who had grown accustomed to a level of freedom over strategy and products while the CEO was on leave, said a person familiar with the matter. “People have had to readjust” to Mr. Jobs being back, this person said.”

This is excellent news. Nothing is better for Apple products than Jobs throwing a fit over them. It’s such an important part of the cooking process.

Also important is the ritual killing of the project during the development process. Almost every major project at Apple has been killed before it was started over, from the iMac to Apple’s retail stores. Killing a project and starting over is Jobs’s MO. The Journal says Jobs has already killed the tablet twice. The first time because the battery life was too short, and the second time because “there was insufficient memory,” the Journal says. (This last one’s a puzzler. Presumably it refers to solid-state memory (SSD hard drives), which until recently have been pricey. Perhaps earlier prototypes used SSD drives that were too small and crippled the device?)

Though the Journal report uncovers few new details, it does say that Jobs is currently working on the tablet’s advertising and marketing — which suggests the tablet’s launch is imminent. The Journal has no time line though: “The people familiar with the matter declined to give details on the tablet or disclose when the device would come out.“

Also, it’s stating the obvious, but the Journal notes that Jobs’s focus on the tablet is a clear sign of its importance. Although Apple has released several important pieces of hardware recently, the last product to get Jobs’s full attention was the prototype iPhone back in 2006/2007.

The report doesn’t detail what OS the device will run, which is perhaps the key unanswered question. Nor does it name the price: It’s somewhere between $399 and $999, the Journal helpfully reports.

Jobs is also recovering well from his liver transplant, the Journal says. “People close to Apple said Mr. Jobs is still thin as he recovers from the liver transplant, but his health has improved significantly.”

Good news all round.

We now know that Snow Leopard will be released on Friday for just $29. Even better, that already  low price can drop to $10 if you’ve bought a new Mac since June 9 through the Mac OS X Up-to-Date program. Not sure if you qualify? Head here to find out.

Here’s a great idea for making tangle-proof earbuds. It’s so simple, I’m surprised no one has thought of it before.

To prevent your earbud wires from tangling when not in use, join them together using a Ziploc-like zipper.

By pinching the two wires together into a single wire, they become tangle-proof, like a piece of thick, rubbery string. The two wires are simply unzipped when you want to use them.

The idea was dreamed up by London design student Lee Washington, who has made a short video to demonstrate them in action — see below.

“The prototype was made very basically with a sandwich bag seal,” says Washington. “It was just designed to demonstrate the concept.”

As yet, Washington doesn’t have a manufacturer. He’s talking to his professors this week about patenting the idea. He now regrets making the video, which is fast becoming popular. He’s afraid his idea will be ripped off.

“This could go either way,” he says. “Either the video will get very popular and someone at Apple will eventually see it or someone will do the idea themselves. That would be a pity.”

Indeed. We wish Washington the best finding someone to market his brilliantly simple idea.

Today’s deals: upgrade to Leopard from your current Mac OS X for just $29; scan the latest App Store freebies for the perfect addition to your iPhone or touch; kick back and listen to some tunes with Logitech’s AudioStation Express iPod speaker system, plus much more.

Details on these bargains and others can be found at CoM’s Daily Deals page.

Apple’s Fifth Avenue store sells the equivalent of a Mercedes-Benz C300 in iPods, MacBooks and iPhones per square foot.

As our own Leander Kahney found out on a recent visit to New York, Apple’s Fifth Avenue location is recession-proof, filled with people waiting in lines to buy Apple gear in one of Manhattan’s most famed shopping streets.

But don’t take his word that the store is heaving, here’s what Bloomberg says:

Apple’s Fifth Avenue emporium probably has annual sales of more than $350 million,  said Jeffrey Roseman, executive vice president of real- estate broker Newmark Knight Frank Retail. The location is 10,000 square feet, putting its sales per square foot at a minimum of $35,000, based on Roseman’s estimate.

Those sales trump tony jewelry sellers along the famed street — currently earning about twice as much: Tiffany & Co. rakes in just $18,000 per square foot, Harry Winston between $12,000 – $13,000.

Leander noted the place topped by a big glass cube seemed more like a hip bar than an electronics shop, something not lost on the Bloomberg reporters:

Some people even use the Fifth Avenue store as a “pick-up place,” said Consolo, who passes the location every day on her way to work. Tourists used to ask how to find Bloomingdale’s, Saks and Louis Vuitton, she said. “Now they say Apple store, Apple store,” Consolo said in a telephone interview. “It’s the main event.”

Maybe someone will make a movie about Breakfast at Apple?

Via Bloomberg

What it is: The developers at Jump Associates – creators of the highly regarded iPhone photo application Pix Remix – have created a free version of the app, called Pix Remix Lite, that blows the doors off of any free photo manipulation software on the App Store.

Why it’s cool: Back in July, we wrote about Pix Remix, the very cool photo transformation application that allows users to easily combine a group of photos with captions into an animated collage or documentary-style narrative show within minutes – and share with friends and family easily via email or posting to Facebook and Twitter.

The free Pix Remix Lite has all the basic features of the highly acclaimed original software, plus some new features that have also been incorporated into an updated version of the 99¢ paid version, making Pix Remix a must-have tool for anyone who likes to share photos from their iPhone.

New features available in both versions let users remix shows others have sent to them, upload photos to a Facebook gallery while posting a show, and embed shows in any blog or webpage.

The paid version of Pix Remix now also lets users save shows locally on their device, export a collage as a high-res JPG (up to 1024×682), and use Copy and Paste to add photos to a show. Users can also save individual photos from a show (one they have created or one they have received) to the iPhone’s Photo Library, allowing for easy syncing with a computer.

Pix Remix Lite limits collages and shows to 5 images, while the paid version supports up to 10 images in a single collage or show.

Check out the YouTube demo here, and go here to see more sample shows like the one above.

Where to get it: Pix Remix and Pix Remix Lite are both available now on the iTunes App Store.

UPDATE: Ah, well it looks like the store was down for Snow Leopard, which you can pre-order now but ships Aug. 28.

Some of the changes (“refinements”) to the latest version:

• Activate Exposé right from the Dock.
• Wake from sleep and shut down faster than before.
• Install it more quickly — and get back 7GB of disk space.
• Dozens more tweaks for everything from iChat to Preview and more.

If there are any other major differences to the Apple store, we’ll let you know.

The Apple store is down. Mac World speculates it’s for the next release of Snow Leopard.

I’m hoping for more of a shake-up — price drops, new product.

We’ll keep you posted.

OK, so we’ve already established that the iPhone camera is capable of some pretty amazing photography, even if you don’t use one of the many fantastic photography-related apps available on the Store.

One thing I’ve not seen it used for to date has been action shots; but Oregon-based photographer Jared Souney has been putting his 3GS to good use for just that.

I wanted to find out how he did it, so I asked him. Here’s what he said.

Goggle’s Voice App undermines the one of the iPhone’s core functions — making phone calls, Apple said on Friday in a response to an inquiry by the FCC.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is looking into the rejection of the Google Voice iPhone application from the iTunes App Store. In an unexpected move, Apple has published  its response to the FCC on its website.

Apple says the Google Voice app hasn’t been rejected at all — it’s still under review. Apple is taking its time because Google’s app replaces one of the iPhone’s core functions — making calls — with its own user interface and telephony functions.

“Contrary to published reports, Apple has not rejected the Google Voice application, and continues to study it. The application has not been approved because, as submitted for review, it appears to alter the iPhone’s distinctive user experience by replacing the iPhone’s core mobile telephone functionality and Apple user interface with its own user interface for telephone calls, text messaging and voicemail. Apple spent a lot of time and effort developing this distinct and innovative way to seamlessly deliver core functionality of the iPhone.”

In addition, Apple says the Google Voice app doesn’t make use of Visual Voicemail or the built-in Messaging app. And it may violate users’ privacy by uploading contacts to Google’s servers with no assurances the data will be used in “appropriate ways.”

Many had speculated AT&T was behind the app’s rejection, even though the carrier has denied it. Now Apple says AT&T has nothing to do with it.

Apple’s response also throws some light on the murky approval process, which has drawn fire for being secretive and capricious.

* AT&T has no role whatsoever in approving or rejecting apps. The only restriction is no VOIP over the cell network, which is why Skype and similar apps are WiFi only. Weirdly, Apple says it doesn’t know if the Google Voice App has a VOIP element.

* Apple has 40 full-time trained reviewers. Every app is scrutinized by at least two reviewers.

* There’s an executive review board (*cough* Phil Schiller *cough*) to oversee policy and procedure. The review board meets weekly, and deals with apps that present “new or complex issues.” Apple says 95% of applications are approved within 14 days, and the team is working like dogs.

“Apple generally spends most of the review period making sure that the applications function properly, and working with developers to fix quality issues and software bugs in applications. We receive about 8,500 new applications and updates every week, and roughly 20% of them are not approved as originally submitted. In little more than a year, we have reviewed more than 200,000 applications and updates.”

Apple’s full response to the FCC after the jump.

UPDATE: Both AT&T’s response to the FCC and Google’s have been obtained by Engadget. AT&T’s answers are pretty much in line with Apple’s version of events. AT&T “had no role in any decision by Apple to not accept the Google Voice application,” the company says. AT&T says it sometimes “has discussions” with Apple if an app presents the risk of network congestion.

Oddly, Google’s response to the question about its app’s rejection has been redacted. Very odd, when Apple is openly offering its story to the public. Why would the injured party hide its version of events? Smells fishy.

In his first interview since performing Steve Jobs’s liver transplant earlier this year, surgeon James Eason spreads some interesting light on the case.

Namely, he denies Jobs gamed the transplant system; Tennessee has lots of livers for transplantation; the surgeon is the leading experts in recurrences of Jobs’s rare cancer; he treats far more poor blacks than billionaires; Jobs has a pretty good survival prognosis; and the CEO is a “genuinely nice person.”

* Trained at Harvard, Eason is THE leading expert in treating recurrences in the rare type of cancer Jobs had. This is why Jobs went to Tennessee to get a transplant. Jobs always seeks out the best in the field.

* Jobs did not cheat the system to get a transplant. “It’s not gaming the system,” Eason says. “It’s people choosing where they want their health care.”

* Jobs’s prognosis looks good. Eason only performs a liver transplant if he’s certain he can eliminate all the spreading cancer. About 70 percent of patients have healthy organs five years after surgery.

* Memphis has more livers than patients. Or did, until Eason ramped it up. His Memphis hospital performed 35 transplants in 2005 (before he arrived). In 2008, he jacked it to 120 transplants, and 90 so far this year.

* Jobs is “really a genuinely nice person”  and “a special person,” says the surgeon. Perhaps he also performed a personality transplant? Or more likely, Jobs made sure not to piss off the man who held his life in his hands.

Link to the Bloomberg interview.

The most important thing about getting a new bike is making sure it fits right. It’s all the difference between pleasure and pain — and very possibly a pair of blown knees.

The Test Rides iPhone app is a specialized but handy “virtual bike fitting room” that measures you up for a new bike. It looks handy for figuring out whether that beautiful bike on Craigslist will actually fit you.

First you take a picture of yourself from the side — you’ll probably need help. You then mark your joints on the picture: knees, elbows and ankles. The App calculates your body size.

Then you input the dimensions of the bike you want to buy – the top tube, bottom bracket, crank length, etc — and the App tells you whether the bike is a good fit or not. This part is a bit of work. Many used bike listings do not include all the measurments, and even the amount of info online about new bikes is inconsistent. While a lot of manufacturers have all the data, some do not.

Still, if you’re about to buy a new bike and have most of the measurements, spending $5 on this app seems like a good precaution to make sure it fits right.

Buy TestRides from iTunes.

Via GadgetLab.

Have you heard of Posterous yet? It’s a free hosted blogging service, where the aim is to making the act of posting content as simple as possible.

Which means that posting-by-email is the primary interface. Send Posterous anything in a mail message – text, pictures, video, other files – and it tries to do The Right Thing with whatever it is, to make it work as a post.

And on the whole it works very well. I’ve been playing around with it recently and I’m impressed. I like the simplicity and the immediacy of it.

That might explain why I was excited to see today’s announcement of a Posterous iPhone app.

Apple in Europe may unlock your iPhone if you have pay off your carrier contract, one blogger has discovered.

Olly Farshi of TheAppleBlog.com didn’t have to jailbreak or run ultrasn0w to unlock his iPhone.

He simply asked his carrier to unlock his iPhone 3G after paying off a two year contract. The carrier, Finland’s Sonera, submitted the request to Apple and the next time Farshi synced with iTunes, the software had him install an official carrier update.

Then iTunes displayed something rarely seen: an official message saying his iPhone had been officially unlocked. See the screenshot above.

“Regarding Sonera, think of it as a less-repugnant version of AT&T,” Farshi writes. “As the exclusive distributor of the iPhone over in Finland, Sonera has turned out to be a somewhat benevolent carrier.”

He continues: “Going the legit route was a much more painless process than using a proxy SIM or the Dev Team’s unofficial unlock. Also worth noting is that, unlike some of the illicit approaches, this unlock is permanent: I’ll be able to keep updating the iPhone’s OS without losing the ability to use any carrier SIM in the device.”

No word on whether AT&T will do this. Has anyone tried?

BTW: It is possible to buy factory unlocked iPhones for $1,000+.

Via Modmyi.com.

UPDATE: This now looks like a  Javascript alert buried on a webpage, not a push notification. See below.

The iPhone’s Push notification system may be vulnerable to spam and malware popups.

CoM reader NyxoLyno Cangemi was using NetNewsWire RSS reader on his iPhone when what appears to be a push notification for anti-virus software popped up. See the screenshot above.

The popup message says his computer has “vulnerabilities and threats” and needs an immediate virus scan.

The popup is a notorious “rogue anti-virus” message, designed to trick naive websurfers into surrendering credit card details to fake anti-virus vendors. The unsuspecting websurfer see the message, follows the link and buys fake anti-virus software that steals their credit card number and installs malware.

The website URL in the iPhone popup points to a known rogue site, safeonlinescanv4.com, according to security firm MacAfee’s SiteAdvisor service.

The iPhone 3.0’s push notifications allow messages or alerts to be pushed to the user — incoming IM messages or new e-mails, for example. Apple billed the system as an alternative to battery-draining background processes. NetNewsWire for the iPhone does not offer push notifications. I’ve contacted the developer, NewsGator Technologies, for comment.

Have spammers and spyware frauds found a way to spam iPhones using push notifications? Anyone else seen this?

UPDATE: I asked CoM reader Cangemi what he was doing when the message popped up. Cangemi says he was browsing a folder of links, not any particular site, which was showing a list of headlines from his Sirius radio RSS folder. “I was scrolling through the list at the time it happened, which leads me to believe it was a push notification and could have occurred no matter what I was doing,” he says. In the comments, reader Matt J. reports he got a similar popup while using Safari, which again suggests push.

NewsGator Technologies forwarded an email from NetNewsWire’s lead developer, who also says it looks like a push notification.

He says: “I haven’t seen this before. NetNewsWire doesn’t use the push notification system. But other apps do, and a notification can appear in front of any other app. So I have no way of knowing where this notification came from. Another possibility is that he’d gone to a web page in NetNewsWire that has a JavaScript alert that put up that popup. It would be great to know exactly what pages he’d visited, but I realize it’s hard to find out after-the-fact.”

As Cangemi says, he wasn’t visiting a particular page, but browsing a folder of links. So it looks like push notification is the culprit.

UPDATE 2: In the comments readers Michael Weisman and DerekS say it’s more likely a Javascript alert dialog. “The default buttons on a push notification are ‘Cancel’ and ‘View’ where ‘View’ would launch the pushed-app,” notes DerekS.

“NetNewsWire has an integrated browser for reading stories,” notes Weisman. “This probably was designed to come up when the user navigates away from a page, so it popped up after the user went back to the story list. Also, the push notification system has a ton of security. The whole thing is encrypted, and the user needs to approve an app before it will even send them. There is no way for an app to send malicious notifications without your approval.”

As Microsoft begins hiring for its first retail stores, the giant is showing it’s usual flair for naming. What Apple calls a “Genius,” Microsoft is calling a “Retail Technical Advisor.”

Microsoft is hiring for its first two stores in Scottsdale, AZ and Mission Viejo, CA., which are due to open in September. While Apple is at pains to emphasize that its retail jobs are “More than a retail job,” Microsoft puts the word “retail” in its job titles.

According to the job listings, here’s how Microsoft breaks down other jobs in the store compared to Apple.

Concierge = Retail Customer Service Associate-Full Time

Personal Shopping Specialist = Retail Sales Associate

One to One Trainer = Retail Trainer

And here’s how Microsoft pitches its store to employees, compared to Apple. Where Apple says, “Be the face of Apple,” Microsoft says “You have unique experiences, skills and passions—and we believe you can bring them all to Microsoft for a rich, rewarding career…” in retail. Which is more compelling and less BS?

Microsoft:

You have unique experiences, skills and passions—and we believe you can bring them all to Microsoft for a rich, rewarding career and lifestyle that will surprise you with its breadth and potential. Just imagine the excitement and satisfaction of what you can do, where you can go, and the difference you can make with the resources of Microsoft behind you.

Apple:

Be the face of Apple—help people learn about, shop for, and get the most out of their Apple products. That means we’re not just looking for people with retail experience. Creative pros, technical experts, and business consultants have a place here, too.

Via Techcrunch.

Today’s deals include Power Stacks for your iPhone or iPod touch free from the Apps Store, the PowerBug AC adapter for free and iPhone cases almost free – 85 percent off.

For details on these and many other bargains, check out the CoM Daily Deals page.

It’s Friday and it’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews, courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac.

APP OF THE WEEK

Pinball Fantasies: First-rate update of 4-table Amiga pinball. More intricate than Dreams, but a bit less fun. 4/5 $5.99 https://is.gd/2rNSH

KRYZER: Stylish, great-looking, great-sounding, but terminally dull basic shooter with Head On overtones. 2/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/2kYfK

Solitaire (Fat Head Apps): Bare-bones Solitaire. Iffy graphics & feature-light. Sol Free much better. 2/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/2mIKj

Mixed: Anagram game with ongoing/timed modes. Has problems with mixes that have multiple solutions. 2/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/2mITf

Tase-A-Hippie: One-joke app, which lacks a joke. Just prod to ‘tase’ a static cartoon beatnik. 1/5 Free https://is.gd/2mJ1U

Ask Happy Buddha: Rub fat guy’s tummy, ask ?, shake, get answer, wonder why didn’t get free Magic 8-Ball app. 1/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/2mJaz

Eurosport: Sports news app. Lots of content, mostly looks good, and works well, but a bit crashy. 4/5 Free https://is.gd/2oonU

Ten Pin Championship Bowling: Good-looking, fun bowling. Let down by ball sometimes having a mind of its own. 3/5 $0.99 https://is.gd/2qha6

Lots of junk and mediocre stuff this week—one-‘joke’ apps in particular are really wearing thin—but three apps stand out from the crowd. Eurosport offers a pretty good means to get at regularly updated European sports news and standings; Ten Pin Championship Bowling, while having a ball that sometimes seems to do its own thing, is a fun game and made by industry legend David Crane (Pitfall!, Little Computer People); and Pinball Fantasies proves that you don’t need gloss to create a great game. A loving and careful update of the 1992 Amiga classic, Pinball Fantasies eschews modern cartoon-like or 3D pinball for tables instead packed with features and missions. It might not look terribly modern, but it plays brilliantly, and its four tables offer plenty do to. If I’m honest, I prefer the simpler tables from prequel Pinball Dreams, but Fantasies is still a must-have iPod game for pinball aficionados, and I await Pinball Illusions with bated breath.

Follow iPhoneTiny on Twitter, or visit iPhoneTiny.com

Lovely DIY iPhone stand from Geeky Gadgets reader Frederick Weller. I’d gladly put on on my bedside table if I weren’t too lazy to make my own.

UPDATE: Apple’s US and Canadian stores also briefly said August 28th will be the release date. The stores have now been changed back to “September.”

Though it might lack the wow factor of Leopard or revolutionary features like Tiger brought to bear, Mac OS X Snow Leopard is still going to be completely amazing. Some times tuning up everything under the hood is a lot more important than changing the icons in the Dock.

And, from what we can tell, we’ll all (well, some of us) finally get to enjoy a fully 64-bit OS, advanced multicore support via Grand Central, OpenCL, and the rest very soon. The Apple Store UK yesterday listed an August 28 release date for the little upgrade that could (it’s since changed to “September,” but I think that’s just trying to shove the cat back in the bag), so get ready to spend next weekend benchmarking your machines.

Via MacRumors

Today’s deals include used classic iMacs starting at $40, a 75%-Off Blowout of Apple products, iPhone 3G or iPhone 3Gs holsters for just a buck and many more items.

Details on these bargains and more can be found on the CoM Daily Deals page.

Boy Genius Report published Wednesday what the blog reports as screenshots of iTunes 9 sent in by a “tipster”. The screenshots, whose “authenticity cannot be confirmed”, purport to show Facebook integration as well as sync capability extended to a Samsumg mp3 player.

For what it’s worth, a source intimately knowledgeable with the production of Apple help and support documentation told Cult of Mac during a recent conversation not to expect social media integration with the release of iTunes 9, which our source described only as “coming soon”. The most interesting and useful upgrade confirmed for the next version of iTunes is going to be the ability to order and organize iPhone and iPod Touch app screens from the iTunes desktop.

With nearly three weeks until the still-rumored, not-yet-officially-announced Apple Media Event thought to be taking place in San Francisco on September 9, the Apple rumor mill will in all likelihood continue to spit and pop all kinds of interesting ideas. And in all likelihood no one will really know what’s coming until the John Mayer music (or whoever…) fades…

Hit the jump for more screeenshots