It’s been 40 years since Atari released the first Pong game, and to celebrate the milestone, the company just released the first official Pong game for iOS. Called Pong World, the title delivers a new way to play the classic arcade game, in addition to a colorful new look and a whole host of new features.

iTunes 11 might just be the best version yet, with a beautiful new user interface and a plethora of great new features that we love. But with everyone these days streaming all-you-can-eat music from excellent apps like Spotify and Rdio, we had to ask—is it too little too late? On our all-new CultCast, we’ll tell you which iTunes 11 features we love most, but which one feature it really needs to stay relevant in the world of music.

Then, we ponder a new gold-plated iPhone accessory so ridiculous, it might just be genius.

All that and a brand new Faves & Raves on our newest CultCast! Subscribe now on iTunes or easily stream new and previous episodes via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

Read on for the show notes and to learn how you could promote your product or service on one of our future episodes.

So here it is: iTunes 11. A lot has changed, but not so much that you’ll feel lost. Here’s what we’ve found after our first poke around inside.

Apple’s App Store has been the undisputed revenue king since its inception, however, its once enormous lead is now quickly shrinking. That leading edge over Android is an argument that’s becoming moot as the Play’s revenue continues to grow at a ravenous rate. According to App Annie, an industry leader in app store analytics and marketing, Google Play’s revenues have skyrocketed 311% in the last year, compared to the App Store’s more conservative 12.9%.

iTunes 11 has a really neat new feature that lets users redeem a giftcard without typing in a single character. Users can simply hold their giftcard up to the FaceTime camera on their Mac and iTunes will read the code and redeem the value for it.

This is the greatest feature Apple has ever invented. No longer shall consumers be subjected to really long funky alpha-numerical gift codes as we hunt-and-peck our way through entering the code into our computer in exchange for some free iTunes bucks. 

Microsoft Surface is supposed to be Remond’s answer to the iPad. It’s beautiful and has a cool keyboard. But the reviews for the Surface RT were pretty underwhelming. We played with it too and though it was cool, but definitely no iPad killer.

The common consensus in the tech world is that we’ll have to wait till Microsoft releases the Surface Pro with full Windows 8 before making a judgement on Microsoft’s dreams of squashing the iPad. Well, things aren’t looking too promising because Microsoft just announced that the Surface Pro will be available in January 2013 except it’s going to be expensive, like holy-crap-I-just-blew-$900 expensive.

In case you hadn’t guessed from the frequency of my posts about them, I’m still looking for a dock for my iPhone 5. The latest candidate for a spot on my nightstand is the “Charging & Sync Dock Cradle for Apple iPhone 5 with audio out” from USB Fever, and it is mentioned here primarily for its weird design.

Apple launched the fourth-generation iPad back in October, introducing a new A6X processor, a FaceTime HD camera, and its new Lightning connector. But despite those improvements, it appears the device isn’t selling as well as its predecessors. The reason? Another tablet is “cannibalizing” its sales.

But that tablet isn’t from Microsoft, or Google, or Amazon — or any other manufacturer for that matter. That tablet is the iPad mini.

Earlier this month, we told you the awesome calendar app Fantastical is making the leap from Mac OS X to iOS. It’s now available to download for your iPhone — priced at just $1.99 — and like its desktop counterpart, it’ll change the way you use your calendar forever.

Our Macs are pretty amazing machines on their own. The handle almost anything we throw at them with grace, elegance, and power. But there are some things it just can’t do out of the box. (Like run Windows, for example.)

The Mac Utility Bundle is one of our recent Cult of Mac Deals offers that adds a whole new layer – and level – of utility to your Mac…and at a fraction of what it would usually cost. We’re talking only $59.99 for 5 tremendously useful applications – which is a whopping 75% off the regular price!