AT&T has offered a service for a while now that lets family members track their family using their phones. The service used a map on a computer or software on some of its mobile devices to show where a family member was at the time.

AT&T has announced that the FamilyMap app for the iPhone is now available. The app lets a user track the location of other family members on their talk plan directly from the iPhone. The app lets the user set up areas that kids are allowed to travel in and places where they are allowed to be.

It sucks getting stuck with any broken device. If you’re a Mac fan, being stuck with a broken 27-inch iMac will make you want to cry. Many have been waiting and hoping that Apple sorts out their display issues. Too many people have been affected.

If you are having problems, it looks like there may be a silver lining in your darkened Mac cloud. Apparently Apple is giving customers in the US 15% refund bonuses. Keep in mind that 15% on a $2000 machine is roughly $300. That isn’t bad at all.

We will know soon which rumors are real and which are fake regarding the Apple iSlate. This “iSlate advertisement” is pretty neat and seems professional enough. If this is the real deal, our fingers are going to be very busy indeed.

The ad is very Apple-like and yet not at the same time. Whether this is a real ad for Apple’s tablet or not, it’s fun to watch while we wait for the official word. Let us know what you think below.

If anyone is likely to know about the Apple tablet, it would be Harold McGraw, CEO of McGraw-Hill, since they publish all kinds of books and you want stuff to read on that tablet, right? Makes sense. In an interview with CNBC, the McGrawster mentioned that the tablet will make an appearance at the upcoming event, which isn’t news, but he did also mention that the OS used will be similar to the iPhone. But will it use the iPhone OS, or is it just loosely based on it?

Also, 95% of all the publishers eBooks are going to be available on the tablet, which makes for a great library of diverse content. There you have it. Confirmation from a dude who should know.

I think we can all admit that the Fake Steve Jobs is much more entertaining than the real Jobs. Sure, the fake one is fake and all, but I think most of us can admit that the fakies musings are at times dangerously close to how most of us figure the real Steve Jobs thinks.

A recent post by Fake Jobs is very funny and talks about the long rumored Apple Tablet. It appears that the new tablet is so damn cool that it cures lupus. You have to read it to get the full effect, but fakie writes, “He showed it to his wife. She used it for a while. Next morning they wake up, and her lupus is gone.”

If you are an Apple loving geek who has been patiently saving your pennies to get your hands on one of the 27-inch iMacs, we have some bad news. Well some more bad news anyway, you already know about the screen woes for the big beast right?

Anyway, apparently the shipping delay for the largest of the iMac computers has grown for the week lead time before to three weeks. Exactly why the delay has grown so significantly is unknown, but we can guess.

No one seemed to know exactly what Apple intended to do with Lala after it bought the company, but now it looks like Apple may be looking to use it for an online locker for users’ music. Where users will be able to access collections anywhere, through a web browser, or through the iPhone, Apple tablet etc.

Everything would be stored in the cloud, so users could free up memory on their devices. Since customers already own the music, Apple won’t need to renegotiate with labels to get sharing rights. Microsoft has a similar service, but it’s not the same thing. Microsoft charges a $15 monthly fee for a Zune Pass, which offers you unlimited access to the entire Zune Marketplace music catalog.

According to The Wall Street Journal, publishing company HarperCollins is in talks with Apple about bringing e-books to Apple’s rumored tablet. You know, the one that’s expected to be the focus of its January 27th event. That tablet.

Apparently other publishing companies have been in talks with Apple as well. Sure, e-book readers are what it’s all about at the moment, but soon after it will be all about being integrated into slates. It’s still unconfirmed and just a rumor, but this one makes logical sense and gels with what we’ve been hearing.

That’s right. Apple is holding an event on January 27th to show off what the company is calling their “latest creation.” The event will take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, and will start at 10AM Pacific. Gee, I wonder what they have to show.

The splattered paint might be a giveaway as well as the use of the word “creation”. Both suggest that we will be seeing the long-rumored Tablet, and tips on how you can get creative with it.

I neither hate nor love Apple, but the company tends to have those that are at each extreme of the love hate relationship. I have an iPhone I really like, but I am not a fan of Mac computers. If you are a Mac fan and have wished for more screen sizes in the iMac line, your wish may be coming true.

A rumor floating around has Quanta building a new 22-inch iMac computer for Apple that is set to hit this year. There are no hard details on the rumor, but the screen size would fit in between the two existing models.

Apple files some interesting patents, some go mainstream, some don’t, but they are worth paying attention to. The latest patent involves proximity-based ads. The idea is that it would allow users to add contacts as icons on the home screen.

But it goes a step further allowing a business to contact people based on their proximity. So if you’re near say a burger joint, you could receive contact information, their address and special offers when you’re near. It could be established via wired or wireless communications, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS.

For most computer makers a simple processor update isn’t a big deal to consumers. If Dell tosses a recently announced CPU in a notebook, most people don’t think much about it. When Apple changes something though, the hoards of fans get very excited.

Some Apple fans are probably giddy right now after an email from Intel sent to members of the Intel Retail Edge program was sent out showing a MacBook Pro with an Intel Core i5 CPU up for grabs. The email invited the members to enter to win one of two new MacBook Pro notebooks with the Core i5 processor.

Looks like several users on Apple’s Discussion Boards are claiming that their Bluetooth keyboards have been devouring batteries like crazy since they started using a Magic Mouse. Even after switching to rechargeable batteries and running all updates, the problem continues. Most of these users claim that they need new keyboard batteries weekly. That ain’t good.

The theory is that the Magic Mouse is preventing the keyboard from going into sleep mode, which makes sense. After one user swapped his Magic Mouse with a Logitech model, the problem was solved. Another user claims that Apple Tech Support says that this is a known Bluetooth driver issue and that a fix is on the way.

I am sure there are many people out there who found a new iPhone under the tree this Christmas. Those folks are sure to be downloading tons of apps over the coming week with many people off work and out of school.

PlayHaven, an iPhone game community, and MobClix, a targeted mobile ad exchange, have announced that they expect record game downloads for the next week. The two companies expect game downloads for the week from Christmas Day to New Year’s Day to be 28 times higher than the same period last year.

Previously it was looking as if the Apple Tablet could be launched in March 2010, but now word on the street is that the device could be officially announced in January 2010.

An article from the Financial Times states “Apple is preparing an announcement next month that many anticipate will be the official unveiling of its tablet, but the company has so far declined to confirm the existence of the device,”.