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Everyone is hoping that the next generation iPhone will be unveiled with significant design changes. Maybe an aluminum backing, a bigger screen, or even a haptic home button will make an appearance on a redesigned iPhone. Details are scant on what the “iPhone 5” will look like, but if these newest leaks are to be believed it looks like the next iPhone will still have a home button.

New part leaks were spotted today on TVC Mall that show black and white home buttons for the iPhone 5. At first glance the buttons look like those found on the newest iPhone 4S, but closer inspection shows a few differences.

AT&T is finally unlocking iPhones at the end of a completed contract, but if you bought the new iPhone 4S you’re going to be waiting another 18 months or so until your phone is eligible for an official carrier unlock. What if you want to use your iPhone on T-Mobile, or maybe go overseas and use a local carrier rather than pay for some crazy out of coverage fees? Fortunately, hacker Loktar_Sun has discovered an incredibly easy way to unlock your iPhone 4S or any other iPhone. The process is super easy – all you need is a jailbroken iPhone, and these 13 easy-to-follow steps.

Just as expected, Intel launched its first crop of quad-core Ivy Bridge processors today. This is the chip that will replace the company’s Sandy Bridge CPUs in Apple’s next-generation of Macs. They’re the world’s first processors to use a 22-nanometer manufacturing process and feature Intel’s “Tri-Gate” 3D transistor technology.

The iPhone 4S is hardly a fatty, but it is thicker than many of its Android-powered rivals. However, thanks to in-cell touch technology and other improvements Apple is expected to make to the sixth-generation iPhone, the handset could measure in at just 7.9mm thick — 1.4mm thinner than the iPhone 4S.

We’ve heard plenty of speculation surrounding the future of Apple’s 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros in recent months, which are soon expected to adopt a new form factor and Intel’s latest Ivy Bridge processors. However, according to one analyst, there may no longer be a MacBook Pro… or a MacBook Air.

Instead, Apple will release an all-new MacBook that combines the qualities of both, while the 17-inch MacBook Pro will be discontinued completely.

It’s a big day for Adobe, with the announcement of two new products: Creative Suite 6, and a new subscription service called Creative Cloud, which it describes as “a hub for making, sharing, and delivering creative work, and a radical new way of providing tools and services that will change the game for creatives worldwide.”

Update: It appears that the app’s developer has started replacing the channels with ads for “Futubox.” A classic scam. The app did work at one point, but we no longer recommended buying it now.

Update 2: It looks like Apple has yanked it from the App Store.

A $0.99 iOS app has surfaced over the weekend in the App Store called “TV English Premium.” The universal app allows anyone to stream 55 premium TV channels live without paying for a subscription. An iPhone or iPad also does not need to be jailbroken to stream for free. For only $0.99, you can have access to many BBC and premium U.S. TV channels in HD on your iOS device.

If you’ve ever wanted to know the pros and cons of jailbreaking your iPhone or iPad, episode 9 of The CultCast just hit iTunes, and you’re not going to want to miss our breakdown of everything jailbreak. Interestingly, Apple seems to have covered up the word “Jailbreak” in the show title on iTunes, but you should see the full word when you actually download the show. (Apple can’t have the big bad j*******k word in its iTunes Store, now can it?)

And speaking of iPads, is your new retina-beauty plagued with the same yellow-tinted screen others on the web are experiencing? We’ll tell you what the problem is and what to do about.

All that, iPad mini rumors, and a whole lot more on this week’s CultCast — subscribe now on iTunes!

Apple, Google, Intel and four other tech giants failed to convince a judge to dismiss an antitrust suit brought against them. The suit alleges that the companies conspired against hiring each other’s employees and District Judge Lucy Koh in her decision said:

“The fact that all six identical bilateral agreements were reached in secrecy among seven defendants in a span of two years suggests that these agreements resulted from collusion, and not from coincidence,”

While Apple, Google, and Intel are the three largest firms in the suit, other major companies, including Adobe, Lucasfilm, Pixar and Intuit are included.

The iPad is hands-down, one of the best platforms to play video games on. Games just seem to envelop you in a wave of child-like wonder once you start playing. One of our favorite types of iPad apps are Tower Defense games that force users to employ strategy combined with realtime action. There are hundreds of games out there, but one of the coolest and unique games we’ve played is Tesla Wars by Synaptic Wave.

Your iPhone’s touchscreen might look just like a single pane of living glass, but there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye. Every iPhone is comprised of multiple layers: an LCD that actually blasts the pixels out of the Retina Display, a glass substrate laye separating the LCD from the touch layer that translates your finger swipes and prods into input the system can read, and a layer of protective Gorilla Glass on top.

Obviously, Apple’s existing touchscreen tech works well, but having so many different layers has its drawbacks. A big one is that it adds to the iPhone’s thickness. But Apple may already be on the cusp of inking a deal with Sharp and Toshiba to adopt in-cell touch panel displays, which should lead to a slimmer, lighter iPhone 5.

Many have speculated that Apple’s next iPhone will have lightning fast LTE ‘4G’ networking speeds. Chipset maker Qualcomm has been experiencing incredible demand for its next generation  28-nanometer LTE chips, and industry watchers are saying that device markers are having to adjust their LTE product roadmaps accordingly for 2012.

This news could be a factor in why Apple’s sixth-gen iPhone probably won’t hit the shelves this summer if it does indeed come with LTE. Instead, analysts are predicting an October rollout, mimicking the iPhone 4S launch just last year.

Holy crap. Check out this amazing custom iPad cover Redditor 44 Oz. had made for him by Australian-based leatherworking firm High On Glue, made with premium leather, suede lining, a kangaroo leather spine and embossed with the original Apple logo designed by Ron Wayne back in 1976, featuring Sir Isaac Newton resting under an Apple tree.

I don’t usually like folio-style cases, but I’m sliming myself with thick ropes of drool here. Covetous ropes of drool. This is a thing of beauty. Beat the rush and go give High On Glue your business, they’re going to be backed-up for months after this case goes viral.

More images below.

When people ask why Apple doesn’t make its iPads in America, the usual explanation is that labor costs are so high, there’s no way an iPad could be made in the country for less than $1000. That answer has always lacked weight, as the manual labor of constructing an iPad is actually a very small portion of its overall build cost: building an iPad in America would cut down margins, but not double the price.

No, there’s a better reason why every iPad gets made in China, and you can find it on your local periodic table. Every iPad is made with a sizable number of rare earth metals… all of which can only be mined in China.

The iPhone and iPad are great mobile work solutions for many professions and IT is no exception. With the right collection of apps, virtually every IT job role can become mobile. Systems administrators, user interface designers, and even help desk agents can use their iOS devices to keep tabs on the technologies that they manage and resolve problem at any time from almost anyplace.

IT tools for iOS cover a wide range of ground from basic remote access to network diagramming. Here are a set of tools that no IT department should be without.

Apple’s operating systems and its software are generally believed to be the best available in terms of security and stability, but a new report from Trend Micro reveals that’s a huge misconception… at least in recent months. In fact, the Cupertino company suffered more vulnerabilities during the last quarter than rivals like Oracle, Google, Adobe, and even Microsoft.

Even though I’m on a computer like 10 hours a day, I still suck at a lot of computer things. Like making a resume that looks worthy of distribution. Apple’s Pages app is one of the best word-processing tools available, but people like me need some extra help to make high quality documents without the fuss of complicated interfaces. The guys at Emendo Media saw that problem and have come out with an awesome new app to help iOS users create gorgeous, well designed documents through Pages using their iOS app Templates For Pages Pro.

Templates for Pages Pro is the best way to create professional looking, high quality and polished documents with Apple’s Pages application on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. With more than 222 different templates divided into 20 different categories, the app significantly expands the possibilities of Pages creating all kinds of trendy, functional, and time-saving documents. The app makes it super easy to create letterheads, invoices, resumes, coupons, newsletters, flyers, and so much more that look like they were touched by a professional designer.

Today, we’ve partnered up with Emendo Media to give 10 free copies of their amazing app to our readers. Even if you don’t use Pages a ton, you’ll want to keep this app in your back pocket for those times that you do. Entering the contest is easy, but you have to play to win.

Here’s How To Enter:

During its quarterly earnings call today, Verizon CFO Andrew Davies revealed to investors that the carrier will be introducing data sharing plans this summer, allowing your whole family to share one data plan for all of the devices in your home.

A Steve Jobs tribute image that rapidly went viral shortly after Jobs passed away last October has earned one 20-year-old student a job with Coca-Cola. Jonathan Mak, who lives in Hong Kong, was recruited by the beverage giant to design posters for its latest advertising campaign.

Rush Limbaugh’s iPhone 4S has been hacked. Maybe it’s Obama, maybe it’s those pesky Anonymous guys, or even that teenager down the street who just wants the lulz, but one thing for certain is that Rush Limbaugh, one of America’s most polarizing political figures, had some crazy stuff happen to him while using Siri on his drive to work this week, and he thinks the main culprit is Obama’s minions trying to give him the spooks.

I wish we were creative enough to make this up, but it’s a “true” story…. if by true, you mean that Rush Limbaugh actually said something this wacky. On his show earlier this week Rush told his listeners how he was using Siri on his way to work, per usual, when he started getting some crazy replies from Apple’s virtual assistant, including this winner: “Obama’s minions are taking over and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

The entire story is pretty hilarious well worth the read, and we got the full transcript after the break.

Apple’s retail division is like none other in the world. Ron Johnson and Steve Jobs created the most profitable, and arguably best overall, consumer retail experience together way back in 2001. Fast forward to today and Apple Stores are outperforming all other retailers by a wide margin.

Specifically, new research shows that Apple Stores are performing 17 times better than the average retailer. Two luxury brands, Tiffany and Coach, trail behind in a distance second and third.

Rumors have been saying for many, many months that Apple is working on a standalone TV set (dubbed ‘iTV’) that will revolutionize the way we consume media from traditional content providers and the internet. Steve Jobs himself added more fuel to the fire when he told biographer Walter Isaacson that he had “finally cracked it,” referring to an integrated TV set. He wasn’t talking about the black set-top box Apple currently sells for $99.

Questions have been raised regarding the plausibility of Apple releasing its own TV set. Is this an example of the rumor mill spiraling out of control, or is Apple actually planning a full-on assault to take over the living room?

Just about every major carrier seems to boast the “fastest network speeds,” while bombarding us with acronyms like LTE and buzzwords such as “lightning fast.” When it’s all said and done, we’re left confused and none the closer to the truth of which network actually has the fastest speeds. So how do we find out the truth? Well, it’s not as simple as we’d like it to be and there are near infinite variables to the equation, but one way to get a general idea of how fast a network’s speeds will be in a real-world environment is to test them out.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and author Walter Isaacson, famous among Apple fans for his authorized Steve Jobs biography, have made TIME Magazine’s list of The World’s 100 Most Influential People. Cook’s complimentary “report card” was written by former Vice President of the United States and Apple board member Al Gore.

While it may look pretty, Apple’s decision to build the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S almost entirely out of glass means that the handset isn’t really cut out for the dings and drops that our smartphones often have to endure. But the new iPhone could be a whole lot different. Built from liquidmetal, it could be one of the strongest smartphones money can buy.