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Welcome to MacRx, a new category dedicated to some common setups, problems and headaches of All Things Mac. As we all know, how things should work isn’t always how they do work.  Sometimes a little assistance can be in order.

This week an issue I’ve seen many users struggling with, Managing Bookmarks in Safari. As a Mac consultant I frequently run into clients who can’t find the bookmarks they’ve added to their systems, or have so many bookmarks saved that the list is virtually endless and unuseable.

Getting to know the ways in which Safari stores bookmarks, and coming up with a simple organizing scheme you can follow, will go a long way in preserving your sanity – or at least help save some time occasionally.

Most (if not all) of the cases we’ve reviewed here at the Cult during the past three weeks of iPhone Case Week just lay around lazily like some muscle-bound Miami Beach sunbather, looking good and maybe keeping the pretty iPhone from getting beat up. But the Mophie Juice Pack Air is different; It doesn’t just sit around, man. It’s charging up and down the beach — and it wants to take the iPhone with it.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvplGbCBaLA

Virtuoso pianist Lang Lang gave concert goers something special by playing “The Flight of the Bumblebee” on an iPad.

This unprecedented encore happened — where else?– in San Francisco. Lang Lang played the song, part of it one-handed, thanks to Smule’s Magic Piano iPad app.

The $0.99 app, from the makers of Ocarina and I Am T-Pain,  lets users easily play music by touching light beams that stream down from the top of the screen. Full disclosure: Smule sent Lang Lang an iPad pre-loaded with the app in the hopes he’d take it for a spin.

Wonder if Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who penned the interlude over 100 years ago, would forgive Lang Lang’s occasional flub as he struggles to get it right on the unfamiliar device.

Via WSJ Digits

Oooooh, take a look at this. Above you see a screenshot of MidiPad, a software controller for software sequencer Ableton that’s “coming soon” for iPad.

Scott Beale of Laughing Squid snapped this spiffy wooden stand cradling an iPad cash register at soon-to-be opened San Francisco coffee house Sightglass.

The iPad will ring up those double-ristretti with Square, an app with a peripheral credit card swiper (see the built-in one on the bottom of this wooden stand) that turns the iPhone and iPad into cash registers, accepting cash or credit card payments. Square can calculate sales tax, accept touchscreen finger signatures and then generate email or SMS receipts.

No word on who crafted the fab stand, yet, though.

Via Laughing Squid

While there was, up until recently, at least one next-generation iPhone outside of Apple’s possession and in the wild, could there be another one still lurking out there… a golden ticket for one would-be “source” to sell to the highest bidding practitioner of checkbook journalism?

Some of our previous tips have guided you around the Dock, but you might not always want to use that.

Sometimes, you just want to quickly flit between applications, and constantly taking your hands off the keyboard to use the mouse or trackpad can be annoying.

This tip shows you a quick way to switch from one app to another, without taking your hands off the keyboard at all.

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.

This is the first installment of “My Close Encounters with Steve Jobs,” a fantastic series of stories about the early days of the Mac written by the founder of Macworld magazine, David Bunnell.

Bunnell meets Jobs for the first time. He’s nervous because Jobs is in “an extremely foul mood” says the receptionist, maybe because he had an unsuccessful date with Joan Baez the night before.

Also, Bill Gates tells Bunnell he’s going to buy a Mac for his mother. Gates and his cohorts are so excited about the Mac, they’re all buying up Apple stock (possibly in violation of SEC insider-trading rules).

The “sorry Apple engineer” who lost a 4G iPhone at a Bay Area bar has been identified as Grey Powell, Gizmodo reports. Powell is a 27-year-old software engineer with a taste for the sauce (judging by his pictures, like this one above with a PBR). He left the test unit at the Gourmet Haus Staudt in Redwood City several weeks ago.

“I underestimated how good German beer is,” he typed into the next-generation iPhone he was testing on the field, cleverly disguised as an iPhone 3GS. It was his last Facebook update from the secret iPhone. It was the last time he ever saw the iPhone, right before he abandoned it on bar stool, leaving to go home.”

Left on a stool, the iPhone was handed to a guy sitting next to Powell. The guy asked around to see if anyone had lost it, but when no one claimed it, he took it home.

When he woke up after the hazy night, the phone was dead. Bricked remotely, through MobileMe, the service Apple provides to track and wipe out lost iPhones. It was only then that he realized that there was something strange that iPhone. The exterior didn’t feel right and there was a camera on the front. After tinkering with it, he managed to open the fake 3GS.

However, Gizmodo does not explain how the iPhone came into their possession — which may be the most important part of the story. “Weeks later, Gizmodo got it,” is all that is said. Gizmodo publisher Nick Denton paid just $5,000 for the iPhone, he admitted to the AP. According to California law, the iPhone is stolen even it was accidentally left at a bar. The finder is legally obliged to return it to Apple. Instead, they sold it to Gizmodo, who at the time of purchase knew it was Apple’s property.

Via 9to5Mac.

For the next three weeks we’re going to be publishing a series of posts called “My Close Encounters with Steve Jobs.” Written by David Bunnell, the founder of Macworld magazine, it’s a bunch of great stories about Jobs and the launch of the Mac. It’s a excellent, insightful read with a ton of previously unpublished stories and details. Starting Tuesday — Part 1: Meeting Steve.

My esteemed colleague John Brownlee wrote earlier today about the excellent article at Ars Technica which explains in detail why the new 13″ MacBook Pro doesn’t have a speedy i5 or i7 chip, while its bigger brothers and sisters do.

What interests me more, though, is the discussion that follows the Ars article.

We were pretty confident that the iPad-like, unibody-looking iPhone 4G leaked in grainy pictures last week was utterly bogus. Heck, we still think it was probably bogus, but bogus or not… maybe the renderer of those images was on the right track.

You probably remember the picture above. It was leaked to Engadget a day before Steve Jobs announced the iPad, and it was our first look at Apple’s much-rumored tablet. At the time, no one really paid much attention to the iPhone-like devices to the right of the iPad and captured in the iPad’s reflection: what people really cared about was the tablet itself.

Now, though? Those two pointing arrows seem to provide strong indication that Apple will extend the iPad’s design to the iPad 4G, with further confirmation provided by these MacRumor shots of alleged iPhone 4G components.

At this point, we seem to know what the iPhone 4G will look like and what it’s specs will be. What will Apple surprise us with when it’s officially unveiled in June?

Congratulations, yankees! Apple has just updated its online store, listing the shipping date for the iPad 3G.

When will you be able to hold one in your greedy little hands? If you ordered an iPad 3G, prepare for it to be delivered on May 7th… hopefully hand-delivered by UPS as opposed to being smashed through your mail slot.

For Europeans like me, this is something of a bitter pill: it means you damn cowboys will be browsing the mobile web on the iPad a full three days before Apple even announces the European pricing and release dates. The only solace? This hopefully indicates that the WiFi and 3G models will be available simultaneously in Europe.

Update: Apple is assuring existing pre-order customers that their existing iPad 3G orders are still coming in late April. The May 7th date only applies to new orders.

Thank you for your recent order of the magical and revolutionary iPad 3G.

We would like to confirm that your order will be shipped in late April as communicated at the time you placed your order. You will receive a confirmation notice when your order has shipped.

[via Engadget]

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.

After one of the longest waits in the Intel era, the MacBook Pros were updated Tuesday complete with a migration to the new Intel i5 and i7 architecture. In addition to the CPU update these new top-end notebooks feature better battery life, and the ability to switch from integrated to high performance graphics on the fly. We here at the Cult managed to get our hands on one of the top-dog 17 inch i7 models on Wednesday have have been putting it though it’s paces.

Follow us after the jump for out first impressions and a detailed rundown of the King of the Hill’s real world performance.

Note: This is a guest column by David Yoken, founder of Macuity, a Boston Apple consultancy, who discusses the joys of providing IT and repair services to machines that “just work.”

Just got off a call with an architectural firm for whom we set up a brand new server last week. The typical conversation I have with clients is amusingly formulaic, and this one was much of the same:

Me: How’s everything going with your new server?

Customer: It’s really wonderful. We haven’t had any problems, and the transition has been nearly seamless.

Me: Super! I’m glad things are working out. I suppose now would be a good time to talk about a service and maintenance contract and schedule for your new equipment.

Customer: Well, we probably can handle most everything on our own. Apple makes it so easy, so we’ll be fine!

Me: Oh, umm…, absolutely! How about remote monitoring or help desk services?

Customer: Yeah, sure, but you probably won’t hear from us much on that end either. I think we can take it from here, but thanks!

First came iPhone apps for iMussolini then Che Guevara, now there’s an app for Spanish dictator Francisco Franco.

Just like the other ones, iFranco is a compendium of speeches, messages, videos and audio El Caudillo made during his 36-year reign.

It also appears that, like the others, the $0.99 app was approved from a non-US iTunes store but is available in the US.

Political caricaturist Mark Fiore was awarded the first Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning to ever be awarded to a web-only cartoonist, so obviously he’s got some artistic and editorial merit… but not in Apple’s eyes.

Word from the Nieman Journalism Lab reports that Fiore submitted his iPhone app, NewsToons, back in December, but was rejected for “ridiculing public figures.”

The iPad in Germany will have data plans from at least three carriers on launch, Cult of Mac has learned.

In a surprise move, Apple isn’t partnering with T-Mobile, the official iPhone carrier, but E-Plus, the country’s third largest mobile operator.

However, not to be left out, T-Mobile is also preparing to offer a low-cost data plan for the iPad.

T-Mobile’s move as well as recent announcements by other European providers illustrates the likelihood that multiple carriers in several countries around the world will offer competing data plans for the iPad, which should drive down monthly data costs and also result in heavily subsidized iPads offered by multiple networks to anyone who is willing to sign a traditional contract.

It may also indicate that month-by-month 3G off-contract will widely be available both in Europe and abroad through Apple’s exclusive iPad 3G partners.

Jailbreak software for the iPhone 4.0 Beta is available for download. But be warned: it could brick your precious device.

The Dev Team has released an early beta of the redsn0w 0.9.5 jailbreak software for 3G iPhones. It’s for knowledgeable, developer types only, they warn:

Please note that this beta is not meant for the average end-user. There are many things “broken” with jailbroken apps in the 4.0beta1 environment right now […] This beta redsn0w allows the developers behind those jailbroken apps (like MobileTerminal.app!) to fix their software before the general public gets iphoneOS 4.0.
Because it’s meant for JB app developers, this beta redsn0w does not perform hactivation. You’ll need a properly-registered developer UDID with Apple to get past the activation screen. For similar reasons, there is no Windows version of this beta redsn0w (since apps are developed on MacOSX). Please don’t pirate Apple software.

More info here: iPhwn.

Via Gizmodo.

These fuzzy snaps from IntoMobile are supposedly spy shots of the upcoming 4G Verizon iPhone that Apple is launching in June. Hit the jump and you’ll see it looks like the next-gen iPhone has a unibody aluminum construction — just like the iPad.

The pictures look similar to the fantastic 4G iPhone mockup by our friend Graham Bower of MacPredictions.

We say fake. The pictures look fake grainy, and the tabletop setting screams staged. It just doesn’t look like a pic of a prototype. Plus, IntoMobile says the pix have been passed through Photoshop, according to the metadata. What do you guys think?

Via QuickPwn.

While the iPad can’t print out-of-the-box, there’s a veritable plethora (and I swear to never use that word again) of iPad printing options up at your local App Store, and what follows is an in-exhaustive sampling. We haven’t tried any of these yet, but we’re hoping at least one of them will allow us to print a simple shopping list so we don’t have to whip out the iPad at Safeway.

The 3G version of the iPad will be released internationally in May, according to emails purported to come from Steve Jobs, CEO of the Cupertino, Calif. company.

In response to one developer’s email about whether both U.S. and International 3G iPads would be delayed until the end of April, Jobs succinctly answered “yes.” In another email, Jobs actually apologized to an international user about the delay for shipping both the WiFi and 3G versions of the tablet device.: “Both models will be released at the end of May. Sorry for the delay,” Jobs reportedly replied.

Just a day after Apple approved it,  the Opera Mini Web Browser app is topping free downloads on iTunes stores around the world. At this writing, it is number one of the top ten free iTunes downloads in all 22 iTunes stores — from Japan to Sweden,  Australia to Austria.

In the 20 days it took to get a thumbs up from Apple, expectations were high, and as our reviewer Giles Turnbull discovered, mostly met: it’s a fast workhorse that plows through downloads even with spotty connections. On the downside, Giles found the zoom controls a little stiff and the overview display somewhat basic.

So, users of the Opera mini-browser: does it warrant the first-place spot or are the massive downloads just a fad?