The Mac App Store has been released as part of the Mac OS X 10.6.6 System Update. The release notes are brief, and although the 10.6.6 update includes a few security and bug fixes, the majority of the release is geared to support the Mac App Store.

The Mac OS X 10.6.6 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac. It also includes the Mac App Store, the best way to discover and buy new apps for your Mac. The Mac App Store, a new application you’ll find in the Dock, includes the following features:
Discover Mac apps: Browse featured apps, top charts, and categories, or search for something specific. Read detailed app descriptions and user reviews, and flip through screen shots.
Buy and install: Easily purchase apps with your iTunes account. Apps install in one step and are quickly available from the Dock.
App updates: The Mac App Store keeps track of all your purchased apps and notifies you when free updates are available.

Download Mac App Store & Mac OS X 10.6.6

Because the Mac App Store is part of the 10.6.6 update, you must download that system update to get the Mac App Store, you will not see it as an individual download.

• Go to the Apple menu
• Select “Software Update”
• Be sure that the checkbox next to “Mac OS X Update” is checked
• Click on “Install Items” and let the installation proceed and your Mac reboot

Update: If you have troubles getting the update or would rather have the dmg file stored locally, you can use Mac OS X 10.6.6 direct download links as well.

The Mac App Store is expected to be a big hit for the Mac OS X platform, much like the iTunes App Store has been a huge success for iOS and the iPhone and iPad. Featuring an easy download and installation process, the Mac App Store has launched with an available software library of over 1000 titles from independent developers and industry leaders alike.

Ever wondered what your return on investment would be if you had bought Apple stock instead of Apple hardware at the same cost? Great, because now you can torture yourself with the riches you don’t have!

If you bought a top of the line PowerBook G3 in 1997 for $5700 get ready to pinch yourself… if you had purchased the equivalent in Apple shares instead it would have grown to a whopping $330,563 over the past 13 years.

Here’s a few other fun ones:

• Mac Server G4 266 in 1998: $214,141
• PowerBook G3 Wallstreet model in 1998: $164,320
• Xserve G4 in 2003: $143,298
• PowerBook G4 17″ in 2003: $120,251
• iMac G4 17″ Flat Panel in 2003: $69,231
• iBook G4 first-gen in 2001: $36,041
• MacBook Pro 15″ in 2006: $10,006
• iPod 2G Touch Wheel in 2002: $6,670

So how about my own Mac purchases? What if I had bought Apple stock instead of a white MacBook four years ago? That’d be $3,610. And what about Apple stock instead of that super cool $3000 Titanium PowerBook G4 that I so proudly bought in 2002? Ok now this just hurts… the value would be $94,334! Even that silly $99 iPod shuffle from 2005 would be worth $841 now.

The data is slightly outdated and it doesn’t include the iPad or iPhone 4, but you can find most other Apple hardware here that’s been released from November of 1997 to April of 2010.

I should caution, looking at this list may inspire some regret of past purchases and a desire to invest in Apple stock for the future… if only it wasn’t sitting at an all-time high!

Just for fun, here’s the 10 year chart of Apple’s stock courtesy of Google Finance:

Yes, that’s 4354% growth with a split in late 2004. Apple is sitting comfortably today at $330+ a share, giving them a current market cap second only to oil giant Exxon Mobil. No wonder Steve Jobs has been named CEO of the decade.

Thanks to Dan for sending this in.

Do you need a mirror but you’re nowhere near one? Hey no problem, bust out your Mac and open up Photo Booth, use the computers camera!

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Redsn0w 0.9.6rc8 has been released for download for Mac and Windows. The redsn0w 0.9.6rc series aims to provide a ‘one-click’ tethered boot option to ease the burden of having a tethered jailbreak until the untethered jailbreak of redsn0w 0.9.7 is finalized. This is achieved by passing arguments to the redsn0w application through an editable script file. Once this script is configured with the proper IPSW file and the tethered boot arguments, you can do a one-click launch of that script rather than manually selecting these options in the redsn0w application, making the tethered boot quicker and easier.

The 0.9.6rc8 redsn0w release is relatively minor and offers a few bug fixes from rc7, most significantly that custom tethered boot logo commands will now report if and why an invalid PNG file is attempted.

The arguments for this version are the same as before:

• -j tells redsn0w to “Just boot now tethered for now”
• -i to specify the reference IPSW
• -o for old-bootrom iPod touch 2G and iPhone 3GS only
• -b to specify a custom boot logo png

An example of the Mac OS X command with an iPhone 4 running iOS 4.2.1 to perform a tethered boot would be the following:

open ~/Desktop/redsn0w.app --args -j -i ~/Desktop/iPhone4,1_4.2.1_8C148_Restore.ipsw

This assumes that redsn0w and your IPSW file are located on your Mac desktop. Check the boot-ipt4g.command file that is included with the redsn0w download for more examples.

Download Redsn0w 0.9.6rc8

Unlike the current untethered beta, this version of redsn0w is available to Mac and Windows users:

• Download now (Mac OS X)
• Download now (Windows)

Everyone should be using iTunes 10.1 or newer, and Windows users need to run the application through ‘XP Compatibility’ mode to prevent any troubles.

We will keep you updated on redsn0w releases as they are made available.

The alleged iPhone 5 video has been removed from YouTube, if you try and watch the video now you’ll get the pleasant message “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Apple, Inc…” as you can see in the screenshot above.

If Apple had the video removed, what does that tell us? Was that an iPhone 5? Verizon iPhone 4? A random hardware test model? Something from the Chinese black market? Whatever it is, clearly Apple doesn’t like the video floating around on the web.

Let the questions begin…

Android 3.0 Honeycomb is Google’s upcoming version of Android for tablet devices, aimed to compete directly with Apple’s iOS and iPad.

This trailer video shows off the Android 3.0 lockscreen, parts of the main ‘desktop’ interface, a virtual desktop-like GUI, gestures, books, gmail, YouTube, Google Talk and video chat, 3D Google Maps, and more. I think the UI actually looks pretty nice, although it’s obviously a huge departure from Android on a smartphone let alone iOS on an iPad.

Here’s the video below:
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If you’re looking for some additional hard drive space or a Time Machine backup drive, here’s a good deal on a Lacie 1TB USB 2.0 External Drive. The drive spins at 7200RPM and has a sleek finish with a nifty glowing blue light.

Grab the Lacie 1TB USB 2.0 External Hard drive for $64.95 from MacConnection

The price of shipping varies but should be around $8, or if you order two of them they ship for free since the order is over $99. Even with shipping the drive is cheaper through MacConnection than other sources we found.

Is this the iPhone 5? This is pretty big news if it ends up true, a PDA and smartphone parts supplier is selling parts to what they call an iPhone 5, not only are they selling pieces but they have a 5 minute long video and high res pictures of what they claim to be the next generation iPhone (in the video they call it iPhone 5).

The video and pictures show off various internal parts and design changes of the alleged iPhone 5 and they are clearly different from the existing iPhone 4 model with notable changes to the antenna design, frame, camera assembly, and placement of internal parts. Here’s a picture with the differences highlighted (supposed iPhone 5 is on the left in all images):

This is what the images/videos producer, GlobalDirectParts.com, has to say about the hardware:

We have carefully examined and scrutinized these components and have confirmed 100% that these are born from an Apple iPhone not yet released. Could it be parts for the CDMA Apple iPhone 5 for Verizon Wireless or simply a reworked Next Generation Apple iPhone 5 or Apple iPhone 4 for AT&T that will be released ahead of Apple’s Traditional June Launch? Perhaps these parts belong to an Apple iPhone 4 CDMA Version that will be released on Verizon Wireless Only? One thing is for certain, these parts are new and internals for a yet unreleased Apple iPhone Handset

I’ll go ahead and say it’s unlikely the device in the video is a CDMA iPhone because the side view clearly shows a SIM card slot. However, it is possible that these images could just be of a dissected counterfeit iPhone 4 or even one of the mystery Chinese iPhone’s that are for sale all over the Chinese black markets, but regardless it’s clearly a real device that is well crafted.

Here’s the alleged iPhone 5 on the left showing changes to the camera assembly:
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This snazzing looking retro Apple logo is made entirely out of a fruit salad, recreating the rainbow Apple logo from the companies early days. How cool is this? It’s probably the healthiest logo you’ve ever seen, and now I want to eat some fruit and find an Mac Classic to tinker around with, don’t you?

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Now this is interesting. Remember those iPad 2 case design leaks that appeared last month? They gave rise to a slew of rumors about the next iPad, ranging from micro-USB inclusion, to revised speakers, SD card slots, cameras, and fire breathing dragon support (OK maybe not that).

Well, Engadget discovered a nice treat at the CES 2011 expo, it’s a physical iPad 2 hardware mockup based on iPad 2 case designs, and it gives us the best idea yet of what iPad 2 might look like. Notice the design is slimmer when compared to the current iPad (existing iPad model is on the top in the above picture), there’s room for dual cameras, the back panel is flatter with tapered edges much like the iPod touch or top lid to a MacBook Pro, and there’s indeed places for a front and rear camera as well as a larger speaker. Even if it’s just a slab of aluminum that works as a placeholder, it looks pretty sleek doesn’t it?

Apparently Engadget came across this iPad 2 hardware mockup when they scoped out a cool bluetooth keyboard case for the iPad… when they asked the exhibitor to try it out they discovered the mockup “It was so intriguing that we asked to put our own iPad inside, which is when we were told it wouldn’t fit, since the case was designed for the next iPad.”

Here’s a few of the more interesting pictures they took:
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Handbrake is famously known to allow you to rip DVD’s but the new version also works wonders as a video conversion tool to get your favorite videos and movies onto your iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. If you’re new to video conversion, don’t worry, Handbrake is extremely easy to use and it’s free to download. So let’s find out how to convert a video to the iOS compatible format and optimize it for your hardware.

Convert Video to iPod, iPod touch, iPhone, iPad, AppleTV Compatible Format

The preferred video format for iOS is m4v, using Handbrake you can convert just about any file into this m4v, here’s how:

• Download the latest version of Handbrake from here. Handbrake is free and works for Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, these instructions apply to all platforms.
• Launch Handbrake
• Select the source video file you want to convert to iPod, iPhone, Apple TV compatible formats. DVD, AVI, MOV, MKV, etc all work fine.
• In the output settings tray on the right side, select the device you want to optimize the video for (you can select Universal if you plan on using it for multiple iOS devices)
• Click on “Start” and wait, Handbrake will convert the video to the format you chose

Note: Conversion settings are different from the iPod (classic) and the iPod touch, so be sure to specifically select iPod touch if you plan on watching video on that rather than a classic iPod. Also, if you have a new iPod touch with retina display, be sure to select ‘iPhone 4’ instead. The videos will still play fine if you don’t do this, they just won’t look as good since they won’t be optimized for the hardwares native resolution.

When Handbrake is done converting the video, you’ll get a message and you can find the video in the destination source you set. The default is your desktop, so if all else fails just look there.

Converting and Optimizing Video for Different iOS Hardware

You can tweak a bunch of settings within Handbrake to further optimize and compress conversions, but for quickly converting videos it’s not really necessary since the default settings are spot-on. If you’re new to converting video, the only setting I would recommend adjusting is the output format from the side tray, just choose the iOS hardware that you are most likely to watch the video on and it will optimize it for that.

You’ll notice that the video settings adjust based on the iOS hardware selected, this is because the iPad and iPhone has a different video resolution than an iPod, which supports different resolutions than a new Apple TV or an iPod touch, and so on. Selecting “Universal” aims to go for universal compatibility, with a 720×448 resolution.

Remember, video always scales down to lower resolutions fine, but video scaling up is where you’ll notice the compression artifacts and screen pixelation, so if in doubt select a higher resolution to convert to and you’ll be able to enjoy it on a wider spectrum of hardware.

I tend to use my iPhone Favorites list for speed dial purposes, but what if you could just tap on a springboard icon to speed dial someone? Great idea huh? That’s exactly what LifeHacker John P thought too, so he created a nifty webapp that allows you to input some a name, phone number, and icon image to create a speed dial icon directly onto your iOS springboard. The result looks like the image to the right.
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Suddenly I want a fish. Is this the best looking aquarium an Apple lover could find or what? It’s an aquarium made out of an old hollowed out Power Mac Cube, and I think it looks pretty cool. Now you have a reason to get that ridiculous iPad game for your cat, keep them away from your Mac Cube fish!

More pictures and info below:
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If you want to customize your Mac OS X login screen but don’t feel like getting your hands dirty mucking around in system files the old fashioned way, check out a free app called Ravissant.

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One of my complaints with the default Mac OS X Terminal app is that you can’t split the Terminal screen, instead you have to open two windows. Well, this must have annoyed some other developers too because iTerm2 aims to address this problem.

iTerm2 is a fork of the original iTerm project for Mac OS X that has some cool features that the default Mac Terminal doesn’t, but the ability to split Terminal windows both horizontally or vertically is the main reason I use the app.

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The New Years iPhone alarm bug is still affecting some people despite it being January 3rd, which is the date when things were supposed to start working smoothly…

Fix your iPhone Alarm Clock for 2011

Until a software update is issued, you can fix your broken iOS alarm very quickly by setting a new recurring alarm. Here’s how to do this if you aren’t sure:

• Tap on the Clock app
• Tap on Alarm
• Create a new alarm by hitting the + button
• Tap on “Repeat” and select every day
• Set your alarm time
• Save the alarm

This will cause your iPhone (or iPod touch) alarm to activate as intended and recur every morning in iOS 4.2.1. After you create a new alarm, you might want to reboot your iPhone, this seems to help in some cases as well.

It looks like the New Years iPhone alarm bug is still causing a ruckus, as users from around the world complain their phone alarm failed to activate on Monday the 3rd of January. This date is significant because the 3rd is when the iOS alarm was supposed to start behaving as normal.

Well, not so much, as Reuters is reporting that some iPhone owners in Asia discovered their alarms continued to malfunction on Monday morning. This is in addition to a sizable number of vocal Twitter users from Asia, Australia, and Europe who report that despite the date, the iPhone alarm clock is continuing to malfunction:

If these reports are in fact true, this may suggest that all users who depend on the alarm app may need to delete and re-add a new alarm in order for it to function properly. A software fix from Apple would also remedy the glitch, but this may be too little too late for users who have already overslept.

In our past report on the bug, reader ‘tzs’ offered the following explanation as to why the bug is occurring, warning the problem may occur again next year if Apple does not issue an iOS fix:

The reason it resolves on the 3rd, I suspect, is that January 3rd this year is the first day of week 1 of 2011 on the ISO week-based calendar. January 1st and 2nd are in week 52 of 2010.

Weeks in the week calendar start on Mondays, and week 1 is the week that contains the first Thursday of the year.

Next year, January 1 is part of the last week of 2011. Week 1 of 2012 starts on Monday, January 2nd. Thus, if Apple doesn’t issue an update, I’d expect alarms will fail on January 1 next year, and the problem will resolve on January 2nd.

That may contribute to the cause, and I would venture a guess that many users who are reporting problems with their iOS alarms today are likely not using the recurring alarms. So while one-time alarms may still be causing problems, there is an easy solution of sorts…

Easy Fix for the New Years iPhone Alarm Clock Bug

If you are concerned about the alarm clock bug effecting you, the fix is remarkably simple:

Set up a new daily recurring alarm.

This should cause the alarm to activate as intended, and the fix works for all iOS hardware with iOS 4.2.1.

Redsn0w 0.9.6rc7 is now available to download for Mac and Windows, it offers an easier “one-click” boot option for those using the tethered jailbreak for iOS 4.2.1. By utilizing the command line, Redsn0w 0.9.6rc7 lets you pass arguments directly to the app including the location of the reference IPSW file, this can then be saved as a bash script which prevents you from having to manually select the IPSW via the redsn0w GUI.

These are the flags and their corresponding arguments that can be passed to Redsn0w 0.9.6rc7:

• -j tells redsn0w to “Just boot now tethered for now”
• -i to specify the reference IPSW
• -o for old-bootrom iPod touch 2G and iPhone 3GS only
• -b to specify a custom boot logo png

The example that the Dev Team provides is for the Mac OS X redsn0w app, using the command line to boot an iPod touch 4G with the tethered iOS 4.2.1 jailbreak:

open ~/Desktop/redsn0w.app —args -j -i ~/Desktop/iPod4,1_4.2.1_8C148_Restore.ipsw

Included in the download you will find a sample bash script that you can customize and execute directly (thus, the one-click tethered boot) which passes the arguments to redsn0w directly. This is what the Dev Team says about the above example and that bash script:

This assumes both redsn0w and the IPSW are on your OS X desktop, so modify as necessary! Included in the zip is an example script file that you can double click on to launch redsn0w like this (the Windows example assumes everything is in C:\). (Mac users: please remember to change the permissions of your custom *.command files to allow execution.)

This release is intended to ease the tethered jailbreak and boot annoyance until the final release of the redsn0w iOS 4.2.1 untethered jailbreak is made available. Redsn0w 0.9.7b4 is currently the most recent version of the untethered beta, however it does not include Bluetooth support, and is Mac only for now. We will update redsn0w releases when they are made available.

Download Redsn0w 0.9.6rc7

This easier tethered boot redsn0w release is available for Mac OS X and Windows:

• Download Now (Mac)
• Download Now (Windows)

As before, everyone should use iTunes 10.1 and a USB 2.0 port. Windows users should run the redsn0w exe in “XP Compatibility Mode” to ensure a trouble free tethered boot.

Update: Redsn0w 0.9.6rc8 is now available and includes a few minor bug fixes.