2009 was a good year for Apple with a bevy of new products including new MacBooks, iPods and a new iPhone. It also saw the return of CEO Steve Jobs

Filed under: Odds and ends , iPhone , iPod touch , App Review If you’re like me, you find it impossible to keep up with the constant stream of apps being written for the iPhone and iPod touch. As a result, you wind up missing some useful or fun apps that you would buy if you just knew that they were in the App Store

Filed under: Deals ‘Tis the season to shop until your brains melt (or skip it all entirely, depending on your interpretation of the term holiday). In that spirit, for the next few weeks we’ll be rounding up a dozen daily deals courtesy our friends at DealNews.com .

Filed under: How-tos , Mac 101 Text replacement: it’s one of Snow Leopard’s really cool features. With it, you can type abbreviations and they’ll automatically expand into full text. You can convert your most common phrases into just a few keystrokes, and let Snow Leopard take care of the rest

Virtually every geek has spent, at one time or another in their lives, a lot of time playing with Lego bricks. They’re basically the single greatest creativity toy ever developed. And it’s been fun to see the world of Lego make a variety of appearances on the iPhone.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion , App Store It’s being reported by PC World that Apple has begun censoring iPhone applications that contain any reference to the Dalai Lama in the Chinese App Store. At least five applications that contain references to the Dalai Lama have been banned: three of the apps – Dalai Quotes [$.99, iTunes ], Dalai Lama Quotes [$.99, iTunes ], and Dalai Lama Prayerwheel [$.99, iTunes ] – contain quotes by His Holiness, while a fourth, Paging Dalai Lama [free, iTunes ] tells users where he is currently teaching.

This could be your last chance to buy a Mac for another year. Sure, it’s just one day, but can you wait that long when there are deals awaitin’? If you are one of the few souls left on the planet without an iPod touch, Apple has a 16GB version for $199

Voltron doesn’t wow with impressive visuals, but the retro graphics and gameplay suit the ’80s cartoon series very well. Fans nostalgic for Voltron should definitely give this game a try.

Apple has updated its patent for Wii-like “Wand” remote control, providing a magnetic compass and accelerometer for better control and precision. Apple TV is one potential beneficiary, reports suggested Thursday. The Cupertino, Calif.

Filed under: Developer , iPhone , App Store Gizmondo has an interesting story from David Quinlan , a coder who decided sit down over a weekend with a few friends to crank out an iPhone app. It’s an excellent read, not only for the little quirks and tips about organizing a collaborative project very quickly (they sketch out features and then prioritize them, and use Dropbox to keep all the files in the right places), but for the sheer push of how you actually go from idea to concept to code and finally to released iPhone app

Not all boats float on a rising tide. That seems to be the lesson Apple is learning with its Apple TV, a device analysts say has not benefited from increased sales of the company’s other products, including iMacs and iPods and even the lowly Magic Mouse.

A federal appeals court affirmed a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit claiming that Apple’s iPods could lead to hearing loss, ruling that the plaintiffs offered no evidence the music players are defective.

Consumers were happier with their online shopping experience at Apple’s site this holiday season than at any other computer or electronics maker, according to ForeSee Results.