Apple is planning to eliminate traditional retail box software in their stores in favor of digital distribution through the Mac App Store, according to a report from MacRumors. Apparently they heard the rumor from someone, and then cite Apple’s new “Personal Setup for Mac” walkthrough service as further evidence of the move.

Installing software through the Mac App Store is certainly more convenient than using a physical installation DVD, but there are some issues with this method. As MacGasm points out, several major software companies have yet to board the Mac App Store train, some may never jump ship, most notably Adobe and Microsoft with their high priced productivity suites. The solution to this might be in the form of USB based software installers, like the reinstallation drive that comes with the 2010 MacBook Air, which would be a welcome change.

Perhaps we’ll see this change in place by the launch of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion?

The first Verizon iPhone 4 jailbreak has been made available to download as an update to GreenPois0n RC5. The update comes as RC5.4 with the major change being support for jailbreaking the Verizon iPhone 4 running iOS 4.2.6.

Download GreenPois0n RC5.4 to Jailbreak Verizon iPhone 4

Currently RC5.4 is available for Mac and Windows users:

• Download Now (Mirror 2) (Mac)
• Download Now (Mirror 2) (Windows)

As pod2g notes, GreenPois0n RC5.4 should be considered as ‘early adopter’ software, so there may be some bugs to work out still. Our guide on how to jailbreak with GreenPois0n RC5 works the same for RC5.4 and will jailbreak any iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and AppleTV2.

You can follow our GreenPois0n updates as they become available.

Angry Birds for Mac is a ton of fun, but you probably already know that. Here are some keyboard shortcuts for the Mac OS X version of the game:

Keyboard Shortcuts for Angry Birds on Mac OS X

Some of these you can use anytime and others must require you to be in a current game:

• Command+F – Windowed mode, or toggle between full screen and windowed mode
• Scrollwheel / Two-fingered swipe – Zoom in with a swipe forward and zoom out with a swipe back, same affect with a scroll wheel
• R – Restart the current level and zoom into the target pigs structures
• S – Mute and unmute the game sounds
• P – Pause
• Escape – Toggle the sidebar menu
• Type “open” on levels with a locked treasure chest to open them

These are what I have for now but I’ll update the list if more are available. Apparently there is a cheat mode involved with the “C” key, but I wasn’t able to get it working myself.

If you haven’t played Angry Birds yet you are missing out on some highly addictive gameplay. You can get it from the Mac App Store (Direct Link) or from the iTunes App Store for iOS hardware.

Thanks to Josef for sending in the shortcut list!

GreenPois0n RC5 allows you to easily jailbreak an iPad running iOS 4.2.1, the main advantage to GreenPois0n is that it provides a completely untethered jailbreak solution that can be initiated from both Mac OS X and Windows.

This guide will walk you through the process of jailbreaking an iPad with iOS 4.2.1 software.
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If you purchase an app from the iTunes App Store, as long as you use the same iTunes account again, all subsequent downloads of that app are free. This means that if you bought an iOS app for an iPod touch, but you just got a new iPhone, iPad, or Mac you do not need to buy the same app again.

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Did you know that your Mac has a built-in FTP & FTPS client? You don’t need to download any additional software or apps to connect to FTP sites from Mac OS X, instead you can connect to remote servers directly from your desktop by using an excellent and little known feature. If you’ve never used the Mac FTP tools before, you will find them incredibly simple and quite familiar, because the connection utilities and server browsing are much like navigating through the normal Mac desktop. Let’s get started.

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Late last year Apple said the white iPhone 4 was coming in “Spring 2011” but it looks like the launch of the White iPhone 4 is just around the corner.
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If you’re trying to remember an exact command you executed via the Terminal but can’t quite come up with it, you can query your command line history to discover old commands that have been run or executed in the past.

This trick to find and retrieve prior commands executed in the command line works on Mac OS, Mac OS X, as well as linux and other unix operating systems too. Anything with a standard history command can use this trick to retrieve prior commands, making it an invaluable tool for systems administrators and command line users.

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Need to silence an iPhone phone call and hush the ringing quickly? If you’re getting an incoming call and you want to quickly silence the iPhone, just hit either of the volume buttons to instantly silence the ringer.

Pressing a volume button during an incoming phone call will immediately mute the iPhone and stop the ringer from sounding any alert or vibration, but it does not send the call to voicemail so the caller won’t have any idea that you aren’t listening to the phone ring.

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GreenPois0n RC5 3 has been released for Mac OS X, this is the third update to RC5 for Mac that provides an untethered jailbreak for iOS 4.2.1. RC5 3 includes several significant bug fixes in addition to native Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.5 support.

Download GreenPois0n RC5 3 for Mac

These are direct download links:

• Download Now

Windows users can download GreenPois0n RC5 from here.

GreenPois0n RC5 works with all iPhone models, in addition to iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV2. If interested, you can learn how to jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 untethered using GreenPois0n RC5 with our walkthrough.

GreenPois0n RC5 for Windows has been released which allows users to perform an untethered jailbreak on iOS 4.2.1 devices. This release works to jailbreak all iPhone, iPod touch, iPad models, as well as Apple TV2.

Download GreenPois0n RC5 for Windows

These are direct download links:

• Download Now (Mirror 2)

If you need assistance, you can follow our guide on how to jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 untethered with GreenPois0n RC5.

An updated version of GreenPois0n RC5 3 for Mac users has also been released.

Update: GreenPois0n RC5 3 for Mac includes built-in 10.6 and 10.5 support. This release eliminates the need for the hack below.

GreenPois0n RC5 2 is out for Mac but it requires Mac OS X 10.6 in order to run, right? Wrong! Thanks to this hack from cmdshift we can get GreenPois0n RC5 running in Mac OS X 10.5.8, so those on older Mac OS X versions will be able to jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 using GreenPois0n RC5 too.
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If you like older Apple equipment, you’ll love this picture sent in via Flickr. From Apple II’s to Bondi Blue iMacs, this collection of retro Mac hardware definitely has some bragging rights.

If you don’t have the hardware, you can still get a blast from the past by doing things like running Mac OS System 7 under Mac OS X or even running Newton OS on an iPad.

AT&T has released a new iPhone commercial that jabs at the Verizon network. The commercial features a guy making last minute dinner reservations on his iPhone while chatting on the phone to his partner. The point of the commercial is to brag about AT&T’s ability to use voice and data concurrently, ending with “only AT&T’s network lets your iPhone talk and surf at the same time.”

It’s kind of funny watching the two major US iPhone carriers fight it out over commercials, and Apple is happily caught in the middle here since the product being sold is always the iPhone, the competition is between service.

Recently, Verizon’s “I can hear you now” iPhone commercial started airing, which pokes fun at AT&T’s voice and reception quality.

GreenPois0n RC5 2 has been released, the update to 1.0 RC5 aims to fix an initialization error that some users reported. The “initialized” error seemed to be somewhat random, but it prevented the GreenPois0n jailbreak from continuing on the effected devices.

Download GreenPois0n RC5 2

GreenPois0n RC5 is available for Mac and Windows:

• Download Now (Mac)
• Download Now (Mirror 2) (Windows)

GreenPois0n RC5 works to jailbreak iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Apple TV 2.

You can follow our how to jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 with GreenPois0n untethered guide if you aren not sure how to use the app. Remember that GreenPois0n is not an unlock, you can read the difference between a jailbreak and unlock.

If you click and hold on any open applications Dock icon, you will launch Expose for just that app and it’s corresponding windows.

You can also access this app-specific Expose with the F10 key (Function+F10 on newer Mac models and keyboards), I’ve used this trick for a long time to quickly switch between windows in a given app and once you get in the habit of doing so it’s hard to go back.

Expose is a great feature of Mac OS X, although I tend to use the Command+Tab application switcher for switching between apps.

There’s a new commercial for the Verizon iPhone that jabs indirectly at AT&T: “It’s beautiful, it’s intelligent, even genius. But does your network, work?” that question is of course answered by the ubiquitous Verizon Guy; “Yes, I can hear you now.”

The takeaway from all this Verizon vs AT&T stuff is this: you can make clearer phone calls with Verizon, but AT&T’s 3G speed is faster.

The GreenPois0n untethered jailbreak for iOS 4.2.1 has been released and it allows you to jailbreak any iOS 4.2.1 device completely untethered. This will work on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

How to Jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 Untethered with GreenPois0n 1.0 RC5

Backup your iPhone or iOS device before proceeding. Do not use this jailbreak if you rely on a carrier unlock!

• Download GreenPois0n untethered jailbreak
• Connect the iOS device to the computer with GreenPois0n 1.0 RC5
• Launch GreenPois0n and click on “Jailbreak”
• Follow the onscreen instructions and counter carefully, this lets you know how long to hold buttons
• Press and hold the sleep button for 2 seconds
• Continue holding sleep, press and hold home for 10 seconds
• Release sleep button, continue holding home button
• Your iOS device should now be in DFU mode and it is ready for the jailbreak
• Click on “Jailbreak” and let the exploit install
• After your device has been jailbroken, go to your iPhone and look for the green “Loader” icon and launch this to install Cydia

GreenPois0n 1.0 RC5 includes the ability to have custom animated boot logos. This version of GreenPois0n is superior to the latest Redsn0w release because it does not require developer saved SHSH blobs of 4.2b3.

Troubleshooting: If you are having problems getting Loader to download and install Cydia after using GreenPois0n RC5 jailbreak, the servers may be overloaded. In this case try again, or you can do the following:

• Turn off your device
• Download and open Redsn0w 0.9.7b6
• Make sure the only option checked is “Install Cydia”
• Follow the instructions in Redsn0w app and Cydia will install

Thank you to Rock_Bege and our other commenters for the solutions.