If the 2010 Worldwide Developers Conference was centered on the iPhone and iPad, could next year’s gathering by Apple focus on the Mac? That’s the implication made Friday by one report. Apple is now seeking help to build “a revolutionary new feature” within the core of Mac OS X, the Cupertino, Calif. company writes in a job posting.

While the Mac OS X was mostly overlooked at this year’s WWDC in San Francisco, that could change next year as Apple continues to battle Google for the consumer tech spotlight.

The iPad can be a handy to have on your next vacation, whether you need to research flights for a quick escape from your cousin’s wedding, keep the kids entertained on the plane or figure out which road is the least congested in a strange city.

Here are five free iPad apps we wouldn’t leave home without.

Kayak Explore + Flight Search
Kayak is the Ferrari of cheap flight search info — and a lot of users (including me) think the search engine works better in the iPad version than it does online. One thing is certain: the roomy iPad screen makes it easy to search for your flight, drilling down results by airline, number of connections, airport, times and price.
And, in the latest version, if you’re trying to figure out just how many miles you can put between you and your ex with the cash wadded up in your pocket, there’s a handy budget/distance calculator that will tell you just that. The caveats: hotels and car rental info is provided through Safari and you can’t book flights directly from the app.

In the wake of the flood of Apple toys launched earlier this week, we missed the launch yesterday of the The $500 HDC-SDX1 by Panasonic, which they’re calling the world’s lightest 1080i HD camcorder.

Besides a dry weight of 185 grams — about the same weight as the first iPod — the camcorder can be attached to a Mac and used as a webcam (albeit an expensive one). And like the much-less expensive HM-TA1 we mentioned yesterday, the SDX1 supports Apple’s iFrame format introduced last October.

Other stuff worth noting includes a 35.8mm wide-angle lens, 23x zoom and a new optical-electrical hybrid image-stabilization system.

iPhone and iPod owners have been jailbreaking — or unlocking the operating system to run applications not approved by Apple — since at least 2007.

Why bother?

There are a number of reasons to consider jailbreaking your iDevice, whether it’s to create Wi-Fi hotspots with MyWi, get tweaks and added functionalities, many that weren’t previously available (multi-tasking, Bluetooth access, tethering), and the freedom to use third-party apps that haven’t been approved by Apple, whose family-friendly content restrictions have occasionally bordered on absurd.

Apple doesn’t like jailbreakers because of the loss of revenue and control over the devices, but the US Copyright office recently ruled that jailbreaking your Apple device does not violate the DMCA and is legal. Keep in mind that Apple still voids your warranty if you jailbreak, but now they can’t threaten to slap you with a $2,500 fine.

Cult of Mac has put together a Jailbreak Superguide to get you busted out and moving on.

Apple’s iMovie is an app designed to run exclusively on the iPhone 4, but it will actually run on an iPhone 3GS by applying a hack. The app puts a mobile video studio in your pocket and gives you another creative way to use your iPhone by offering you some nice video editing and enhancement features. You can turn otherwise boring videos into something more exciting with it. It won’t replace iMovie or Final Cut on your Mac, but as a portable alternative to those apps it can be pretty handy.

We start the day off with deals on two of Apple recently refreshed hardware. First up is the iMac Core i7 Quad. The 2.93GHz machine with a 27-inch screen is bundled with 8GB of RAM for $2,329. Next is an iMac Core 2 Duo running at 3.06GHz with a 27-inch display. We wrap up the top deals with Apple’s just-unveiled 24-inch Cinema LED widescreen LED display for $780.

Along the way, we check out the latest batch of iPad app freebies and iPhone app price drops. As always, details on these and many other items for your iPhone, iPad, iPod and Mac are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Is your voice mail password now the property of some Chinese hacker? Millions of Android users who downloaded an innocuous wallpaper app from Google’s Android Market may be nodding their heads ‘yes.’ Turns out, that wallpaper app was sending voice mail passwords and many other bits of personal data to someone in Shenzhen, China, according to one report.

The exploit was downloaded “anywhere from 1.1 million to 4.6 million times,” reports Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat. The application grabs your browsing history, text messages, phone’s SIM card number and subscriber ID and sends it all to the www.imnet.us website, according to the report.

Our favorite Mac vivisectors over at iFixit have torn down the Magic Trackpad, cutting it apart for access to its hidden hardware secrets.

Unfortunately, there really weren’t many, short of the news that the Magic Trackpad uses the same touchscreen controller trip as the iPhone and the same Bluetooth chip found in the Magic Mouse. It’s something of a Frankenstein device, but that’s a good thing: it’s just more proof about how good Apple has become in making its products from the same parts.

We start the day with two deals on iPods. First up is the 2GB fourth-generation iPod shuffle for $35. Next is the 8Gb current iPod nano for $99 from the Apple Store. We wrap up our top deals with the latest batch of App Store freebies, including “QuickRemind” for the iPhone and iPod touch. Along the way, we’ll check out other deals, including the PowerBug, a new stand for the iPad and new software bargains for the Mac.

As always, details on these and many other items are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.

Despite all the headaches over a rash of worker suicides, Foxconn should be resting easier today. Instead of headlines about overworked iPod assemblers jumping to their death, the electronics factory is being hailed as manufacturing half of the world’s electronics. The company, officially known as Hon Hai Precision Industries, seems to have caught a ride on a rocket – Apple.

“Foxconn’s customers are some of the hottest companies in the electronics business today, most notably Apple,” iSuppli associate Thomas Dinges said Wednesday. Foxconn, with a little help from the Cupertino, Calif. iPhone maker, posted nearly triple the revenue of it’s closest rival for first place. Foxconn, based in Taiwan, earned $17.1 billion in the second quarter, massively overshadowing No. 2 Flextronics International, which reported $5.9 billion.