For the first time pretty much ever, sales of Microsoft’s Windows OS are about to shrink… and the iPad is to blame.

Say hello to Hound, a new free app from the people at SoundHound. What’s it for? It’s a voice search app for music and musicians. But it aspires to greater things.

The guys over at Alphonso Labs have put a lot of hard work into their iPad app Pulse. Despite the plethora of reader apps out there, Pulse really stands out with its sleek interface that allows users to read vast amounts of content without feeling overwhelmed by the myriad of sources.

As fans of the app, we’re stoked that the Pulse team has decided to include Cult of Mac under their main “Featured” section. If you’re looking for another way to get your Apple and Cult of Mac fix on your iPad or iPhone, then Pulse is definitely an app that you need to check out. And make sure you add our feed while you’re at it.

When Apple debuts iOS 5 at June’s WWDC, it will indeed feature Nuance voice recognition tech… but counter-intuitively, it won’t be baked into iOS’s existing Voice Control feature. If that disappoints you, though, we hope this will be a consolation: iOS 5 will radically re-imagine iOS’s sketchy notifications system, as well as add widgets to the mix.

Yesterday, we reported that Apple had taken the unusual step of both suing and filing-to-dismiss its own lawsuit against the Fei Lam, the teenager who sold Steve Wozniak along with hundreds of others their own white iPhone 4 conversion kits.

That was weird enough. Even weirder? This is the first Fei Lam himself has heard about the case being settled.

We close out another week of wheeling and dealing with three hardware items. First up is a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo iMac with a 24-inch screen for $1,180. Next is a number of Mac minis, starting at $599 for a 2.4Ghz model. Finally, a blast from the past with a 2GHz Core 2 Dup MacBook with 13-inch screen – just $470.

Along the way, we look at several other hardware products, including a Xeon Mac Pro workstation, a G5 PowerMac and an 8Gb iPod touch. Like always, details on these and many other items can be found at CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

Apple’s one-year standard warranty is a pretty good deal for U.S. consumers, but for their European counterparts the glass is half empty.

The standard warranty in the E.U. for consumer goods is two years and that’s what is getting the Cupertino company into trouble with AppleCare, the paid extended warranty program.

Cult of Mac talked to Carlo Piana, a lawyer who worked on the EU anti-trust case against Microsoft, about why Italian regulators are after Apple now. 

Remember the gnashing of teeth from the television industry when the DVR was first introduced – it would kill TV ads. Well, the real threat to TV advertising is your iPhone.

The iPhone and other smartphones account for 60 percent of the distractions from TV ads, according to a behavioral survey. The study participants reported turning away from the TV – and the advertising – whenever they received a text or a call.

With the DVR, even if you hit the ‘fast forward’ button, the advertising message registers with you.

How will Hollywood react to the findings? Will we see campaigns similar to that against distracted driving? Perhaps the industry will create an iPhone app that disables your phone when ads appear?

U.S. record labels are dragging their feet in negotiations to bring music streaming service Spotify to American shores, a move reportedly aimed at give Apple a first crack at a similar subscription plan.

You know the drill. Every year, Apple gives students a special incentive to buy a new Mac in the form of a cheap iPod.

This year, though, the deal might be a lot spicier: students might get a couple bills off a new iPad instead of an entry-level iPod Touch. And Cupertino might just be so excited about this that Back to School will prominently be mentioned at next week’s WWDC.

RIM never did shake its button-down image in attempts to expand into the consumer market dominated by Apple. Realizing its failure, the handset maker is ready to surrender to Apple in the consumer ring, and focus on its business roots… an arena which iPhone is also increasingly dominating.

Remember yesterday’s sketchy report that Apple was looking to get Samsung to supply an AMOLED display for the iPad 3? So that’s not going to be happening, and it’s all because of the same problems that have plagued the tech from the start: the difficulty of ramping up large scale production on AMOLED displays.

That ugly patent troll who has recently been causing a disturbance for indie iOS developers has now turned its attentions to those building apps for Android, right after Apple slapped it on the wrist and sent it packing. Lodsys has photocopied another batch of its intimidating letters and sent them out to a number of Android developers… but will it earn any pocket money this time?

Prepare to get buckets of blood splattered all over your new white iPhone as you exit the Apple Store next week. A group that feels that Apple tries to weasel its way out of too many taxes will be protesting Apple’s retail locations around the country.

Good things come to those who wait. While Google and Amazon rushed to offer simple cloud storage services, Apple apparently was working on something bigger. Much bigger. Get ready for iCloud, a full-featured service streaming your iTunes collection to your iPhone, iPad – eventually even your car.

Speculation that Apple is to introduce ARM processors to the next revision of its MacBook Airs continues, as one source claims the company is internally testing the ultraportable notebooks with its A5 processor… but will we really see an A5 powered MacBook Air? I don’t think so.

Counter to the perception that Android is closing the gap with Apple, a new report shows the iPhone maker’s App Store is miles ahead when it comes to making money for developers.

To celebrate Memorial Day, Electronic Arts and Gameloft have reduced over 30 of their biggest iOS titles. For as little as $0.99, iOS gamers can enjoy one of the most impressive FPS titles in Battlefield Bad Company 2, exhilarating racing action in Need for Speed, and the the biggest soccer franchise available in FIFA 11. Here’s the full list of games on sale:

From the “Not Sure If This Is A Good Idea” Department, automaker Porsche has developed the Porsche G-Force iPhone app as a free download for driving enthusiasts and teenagers of all ages.

Silent Film Director is another app to add to the amusing-video-effects list, but this one’s worth investigating.

For those of you who use Google’s Chrome web browser on your Mac or PC, a new app called iChromy aims to offer an identical browsing experience on your iPad, with a polished user interface and some rather nice features.

While there’s no question that Mac OS X Lion will be one of the main talking points at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June, we weren’t quite expecting it to launch during the event. However, one report believes Apple is currently prepping Lion for a WWDC release.

It looks like some Italian devs are playing a little game with Apple.  They get WPA finder apps approved, then when the Cupertino company realizes what they are, they yank them for violating store guidelines.

Right now, one that lets you guess the default password of common routers so that you can log on to a stranger’s network is available in iTunes for $0.99.

As we’re probably all aware by now, Apple’s Thunderbolt I/O debuted earlier this year with the new generation of MacBook Pros and threatened to make all other interfaces, like USB and FireWire, seem like stone-age relics — and at the same time, make obsolescent all current external HDDs. All, that is, except Seagate’s line of GoFlex drives.

If you’ve ever had your iPhone stolen, you can understand the urge to become an angel of crippling, throat-crushing, eye-gouging vengeance to the no-good perp who stole your precious.

Here’s a cautionary tale reminding you to resist that temptation: that guy you you’re beating down in a parking lot for swiping your iPhone might be as innocent of the crime as a babe on Christmas.