We start off another week with a trio of deals for Apple fans. First up is the latest batch of free applications from the App for your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, including “Catch the Egg”, an accelerometer-based game. Next we have Montage for the Mac, software enabling you to potentially write the next killer screenplay. Finally, no one can have enough storage. One option might be the Fantom G-Force 1TB eSATA/USB 2.0 hard drive.

Details on these and many other bargains are available on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

In Part 5 of My Close Encounters With Steve Jobs, Macworld founder David Bunnell describes seeing the 1984 Macintosh ad for the first time.

Even with a little boost to 20MB over a 3g connection, and VoIP recently being allowed thanks to an SDK update, the iPhone’s potential continues to be impaired by data restrictions set by AT&T. If you’ve taken the plunge and jailbreaked your device, there’s a $2 app that will let you stick it to the man with unlimited data access over 3G. Incidentally, 3G Unrestrictor was one of my reasons to jailbreak way back in 2009.

A variety of circumstances, all of them terribly uninteresting, have prevented me from commenting on the recent introduction of iPhone OS 4 hot on the heels of the iPad launch. Since I’ve missed the window, I’ll keep the big picture thinking short: I think Apple has done exactly what it needs to maintain its lead in mobile operating systems. I wish I had it now. I will be annoyed if paid apps get over-run with iAds, but I don’t think such paid apps will sell well enough to survive.

But there’s a lot more to discuss in the details, and here, I have one big quibble with iPhone OS 4 – and it’s also a strength of WebOS and Android. Why haven’t notifications been fixed yet? If you own an iPhone, you know exactly what I mean. As you browse the web, or play a game, or even compose an e-mail, a blue box with white text pops up in the middle of the screen, letting you know about an imminent appointment, an incoming text message, a bill due through Mint.com, or even a Facebook friend request from your high school nemesis.

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There’s no shortage of ways to kill zombies on the iPhone. Blast them in the head with a shotgun, gobble them up with a venus flytrap, or hit them with a car. Even so, Meridian Digital Entertainment’s Smash TV like, Alive 4-Ever, was one of the more satisfying ways to blow apart fetid corpse flesh around… and the upcoming sequel, Alive 4-Ever Returns, while out-stupiding the naming paradigm of its predecessor, looks even better with its new graphics engine, zombies, skills, power-ups, weapons and environmental effects. It should be available later this month.

We reach midweek with another round of Mac-related deals. First up is a number of bargains on Apple iPods, starting with a fourth-gen 8GB iPod nano for $99. We also check into a new batch of App Store freebies, including “BaseBrawl,” touted as a violent baseball game. The iTunes store has released another freebie: Juliet Venegas’ “Bien o Mal.”

Along the way, we check out some new apps for the iPad and iPhone, as well as some interesting hardware. Details on these and many other items are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

We kick off the first week of the iPad with a number of free iPad apps, including “Dictionary! for iPad.” We also check out a new batch of freebies from the App Store, including “Arcade Hoops Basketball.” We wrap up the top trio of deals with a number of iPod touch devices, starting at $169 for an 8GB model.

Along the way, we check out other Apple software and gear for the Mac fan. As always, details on these and many other bargains are available at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page which starts right after the jump.

The first thing I notice about the iPad is that it’s wicked fast. Everything happens in a snap. Apps fly open. They close even faster. Web surfing is lickety-split, especially on a fast Wi-Fi connection. Netflix movies load almost immediately, and scrubbing through them is quick and painless.

I marvel at how seamless it is. Turning the pages of Winnie The Pooh is so gorgeous, I spend five minutes just turning and returning the pages.

Some new email comes in. Everything’s synced: email, address book, calendars, music and movies — all thanks to a two-minute setup in iTunes. I dash off a quick reply, and am pleased how easy it is to type on this thing. Woah — this is one slick gadget!

I know what you’re thinking. Should I get one for the kids instead of a nasty netbook? Can we replace our old PowerBook with it? Should I take it to a confernece next month instead of my heavy MacBook?

Read on…

If you missed Stephen Colbert on the telly last night, here he is showing off his iPad. He opens the show holding the iPad as he sits at his desk. “Thank you for joining US,” he says, as he winks at his new iPad and then puts it away. Then he says: “Of course, the big story for tonight is — I have an iPad.”

Big smug smile.

And yeah, Comedy Central isn’t iPad-friendly. It’s conspicuously absent from Apple’s list of ‘iPad ready” websites.

As the U.S. enjoys some above-normal temps after a deluge of rain, we take a look at a variety of Mac-related deals. First up is some Mac Pro Xeon workstations, including a 2.66GHz quad-core model model starting at $2,149. Next is a new batch of App Store price drops, including the venerable “Boggle.” We wrap up our top spot with Mac Bluray Ripper Pro.

Along the way we’ll also check out a deal on the WolframAlpha “computational knowledge engine” for the iPhone and iPod touch. As always, details on these and many other bargains can be found on CoM’s “Daily Deals” page, which starts right after the jump.