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Steve Jobs had a stage presence like no one else. He was just pedaling tech products, but the man captivated his audiences like he was Jimi Hendrix or Elvis or John Lenon. Steve didn’t just introduce a new computer or new iPod, he was selling a philosophy and way of life, and once he activated his reality distortion field on stage you were spellbound by his performance.

There are tons of amazing Steve Jobs videos on the internet, but we’ve gone out and collected the ones that we think are the best. Not just the videos where he introduces products, but also his candid interviews where Steve reveals his thoughts on life. We hope you enjoy them just as much as we do.

Hey, you know what’s getting a bad rap these days? Apple Maps! Sure, the app’s got issues, but it’s not all bee stings and bug bites, and on this episode of The CultCast, we’ll tell you exactly why some of us actually love the new Google usurper.

And then, with the anniversary of his death on Oct. 5th, we remember the life and works of Steve Jobs; ponder why the things he touched all turned to gold; and examine the price he paid for conquering the world of tech.

All that and so much more on our newest CultCast! Subscribe now on iTunes or easily stream it via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

Show notes ahead!

Steve Jobs was irreplaceable, but he does have his analogs. Driven, charismatic men who created their own companies based upon their ability to imagine a complete product that had never existed — “a perfect new product, whole, already manufactured sitting before him” — and spend tireless years to bring it to the world.

One of those analogues was Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid. And the number of parallels between his life and Steve Jobs’s life were incredible.

The new 4-inch, fifth-generation iPod touches aren’t out yet, and Apple will only stubbornly insist that they are shipping sometime this month, but Sam Adams at Today’s iPhone noticed yesterday that the Australian Apple website listed ship dates for the new iPod touch as being between two-three weeks.

Not a long time to wait, certainly, but still disappointing considering they were announced three weeks ago and still won’t be shipping out until the end of October.

Source: Today’s iPhone

In a timed announcement made exactly on the one year anniversary of Steve Jobs’s death, Chrisann Brennan — Steve Jobs’s highschool sweetheart and the mother of American journalist and writer Lisa Brennan-Jobs, for whom the Apple Lisa was named — has said that she will be publishing a memoir next year.

The iPad mini’s rumored announcement is drawing near, with many speculating that Apple will unveil the mythical device by mid-October. We’ve seen a few part leaks of the smaller tablet, and The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Apple is starting to ramp up mass production for the expected launch. Hopefully low yield rates overseas can pick up to meet what will undoubtedly be crazy consumer demand.

Martin Hajek made some strikingly accurate concept designs for the iPhone 5 before it was announced, and now he’s back with Gizmodo for the iPad mini:

Apple’s much-anticipated iPad mini is expected to make its debut in mid-October, but it may be a little more difficult to get hold of than other iOS devices. According to sources in the Cupertino company’s Taiwanese supply chain, iPad mini shipments are already stumbling due to the low yield rates of the tablet’s aluminum chassis.

Apple is widely considered the most secretive company on earth, so any chance to get even a tiny peek behind its walls is a rare one. When you visit Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, you can’t get past the gift shop without a special friend. If you’re lucky, you’ll get treated to a delicious lunch at the company’s Caffe Macs. That leaves the rest of Infinite Loop up to your imagination.

A neat service called Worldcam uses Instagram’s GPS data to gather all of the photos shared from a specific location. We’ve collected some rare shots from inside and around Apple’s top secret HQ:

Yes, we know, Apple Maps sucks. You hate it. It’s the biggest screw up the company’s seen since MobileMe. Maybe even worse. But it’s totally fixable, and Apple might not need to do anything more than just open up their wallet and buy one of the most intriguing tech companies right now that is struggling big time – Nokia.

Right now there are three major players in the mobile maps business: Google, Apple, and Nokia. Everyone applauds Google Maps for having the best data and interface, but Nokia has been doing maps for a long time now, and they have access to even more data than Google. They’re also in a financial deathspiral which makes them the perfect company for Apple to acquire to fix their mapping problem.

While iOS 6 may be “the world’s most advanced mobile operating system,” its new Maps app is, quite frankly, a heap of trash. It boasts some terrific features, such as 3D Flyover and voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation, but they’re only terrific when the Maps that power them actually work. And Apple’s don’t in a lot of places.

The Cupertino company’s CEO, Tim Cook, has apologized to customers for the frustration the new app has caused, and it’s led us to wonder why Apple even released it. It still had a year left on its contract with Google, so why did it rush into releasing its own, half-baked service so quickly?

Well, one reason behind the move is that Steve Jobs had grown to hate Google. So much so that he set up a new Maps team just to kick Google Maps off the iOS devices.

The iPhone 5 might be the thinnest, sleekest iPhone yet, but it’s not the most environmentally friendly. It’s close, though.

The Wall Street journal reports that Apple’s upcoming iPad mini has now entered mass production with component suppliers in Asia. According to two people familiar with the matter, the device will have a 7.85-inch LCD display — as previous rumors have suggested — and it will be priced to compete with cheaper tablets like the Google Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD.

The rumor mill is churning out iPad Mini like a savage beast now. Yesterday we got word on the date of the iPad Mini announcement along with some new mockup pictures, but today we’re finally getting to see some leaked iPad Mini parts that we haven’t seen before.

UkrainianiPhone has some leaked photos of the iPad Mini that show what the black casing will look like. Most mock ups have shown the iPad Mini to have the same grey aluminum back casing as the new iPad, but these new images make the iPad Mini look a lot more like the Nexus 7 because the back panel uses the same iPhone 5 anodized aluminum material.

Take a look:

If someone told you that iOS 6 Maps had one advantage over Google Maps, and that it was 80% more efficient in using data, you’d probably quip, “That’s because it’s 80% less accurate” then do an air drum roll and punctuate the whole thing with the sound of a cymbal crashing that you made with your mouth.

Joking aside, though, it’s true. iOS 6 Maps uses way less data than Google Maps, and it has nothing to do with accuracy, but with its beautiful new vector graphics.

We had a sneaking suspicion Samsung would add the iPhone 5 to its patent infringement complaint against Apple shortly after the device made its debut. And the Korean electronics giant has now done exactly that, asking Judge Paul Grewal for permission to include the device in its latest countersuit against Apple.

We learned this morning that the iPad Mini might be announced on October 17th after invites get sent to the press on October 10th. Everyone has a fairly good idea of what the iPad Mini will look like, but it can never hurt to see a few physical mock-ups for the sake of comparisson.

The latest mock-up photos to hit the Internet show what the iPad Mini will look like in comparison to the new Kindle Fire HD, Nexus 7, and the new iPad. The iPad’s design is noticeably more blocky as it’s missing the tapered edges of the iPad. Check out the photos after the jump.

Apple is bound to make an iPad Mini someday soon, and for the last few months the rumors have been saying  they’ll be announcing it in October. According to Fortune, Apple is set to mail out iPad Mini invitations on October 10th, which might suggest the actual keynote will be held on October 17th.

SAN FRANCISCO, JailbreakCon 2012 — JailbreakCon, the convention dedicated solely to jailbreaking and all that it entails, took place this past Saturday, September 29th. Hackers and developers from around the world gathered together at the South San Francisco Center to network and share ideas.

New projects were announced, and the future of jailbreaking iOS 6, the iPhone 5, and Apple TV was discussed. Don’t worry if you weren’t able to attend the event or watch the live stream—Cult of Mac has you covered. Here’s everything you missed at JailbreakCon in a nutshell:

Apple has a cash hoard that is worth more than one hundred and ten billion dollars, but that money doesn’t just sit in a bank collecting interest. Apple invests it, using a Nevada-based asset management corporation called Braeburn Capital. And it might just be the world’s largest hedge fund.

In a post by Jeff Atwood over at the excellent Coding Horror, there’s this brilliant chart showing the “hyperbolic performance improvement” of the iPhone since it first debuted in 2008. As Jeff points out, in just five years, the iPhone has seen a factor of 20 performance improvement in Browsermark and a factor of four improvement in GeekBench, at least doubling performance every year.

Apple has issued its first software update to the iPhone 5 just over a week after the handset was released — but you’ll only see it if you’re on Verizon. No, the update doesn’t make Maps work. Instead, it “resolves an issue in which, under certain circumstances, iPhone 5 may use Verizon cellular data while the phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network.”

SAN FRANCISCO, JailbreakCon 2012 — To the world, he’s known only by his online pseudonym, “pod2g.” On Twitter, he has amassed over 340,000 followers. As one of the most respect iOS security researchers today, he frequently fields job interview requests from the biggest technology companies in the world. To the millions who jailbreak, he’s a living legend.

At JailbreakCon, pod2g gave a fascinating talk on his past experiences as a hacker and mastermind jailbreaker. He’s been immortalized by jailbreakers and the security research community, but in his own words he’s just a “lucky guy.”

My iTunes collection is a mess. Ripped CDs, music transferred through home sharing, obscure collections, and then there is the classical and opera that I enjoy. Gee I wish there was a way to fix all the “Track 1 by Unknown Artist” music that I have. And duplicates. Yeah I have some when I pulled in whole albums but already had a few singles. I’m not a huge cover art fan, but gray boxes are boring. I wish I could fix them…

Oh wait—Cleanup Your iTunes With TuneUp: Clean & Organize Your iTunes Music Collection in Just a Few Clicks

P.S. My iTunes is still a mess…maybe I need to get my stuff together…

The iOS App Store has seen unprecedented success since its launch in 2008. Apple undoubtedly boasts the largest and most vibrant app ecosystem in existence, but the App Store’s success has come at a cost.

Apple’s ‘walled garden’ approach gives the company complete control over which apps are published in the App Store. If an app doesn’t follow Apple’s playbook, it doesn’t get in. You may work for months and months on an app only to get it rejected. Publishing in the App Store can be a huge gamble. But if you get lucky, the payoff can be huge.

Aaron Ash kicked off JailbreakCon with a talk on developing for the App Store vs. Cydia, the alternative storefront for jailbreakers. Ash has an unusual perspective because he has seen incredibly success has a developer in Cydia, and he is also a developer in the App Store.

You’ve heard the collective judgement by the tech echo chamber: The new iPhone was just like the old iPhone, only taller.

The iPhone 5 is boring. Apple is too conservative. They didn’t really change the phone, but only made minor tweaks.

And that’s what’s wrong with the iPhone 5: It’s just not radical enough.

Here’s the problem: The echo chamber not only got this wrong, they got it backward.

The trouble with the iPhone 5 is that it’s too much, too soon.

Let me explain.