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iBooks 1.2 available now, bring collections, AirPrint, illustrations
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Books, App Updates, iPad Apps, Apple, Free Apps,
iBooks 1.2 has just been released by Apple, and with it comes a bunch of new features. You get support for full illustrations, AirPrint functionality for printing PDFs and notes in books, and more text fits on the page in iOS 4.2 and higher with auto-hyphenation. iBooks 1.2 also brings a new feature called Collections. These allow you to group your books similarly to how you can group apps into folders.
You can download iBooks 1.2 now for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
Read More 
| iBooks
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Mac App Store to launch without Game Center, in-app purchases
Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Apple, Rumors, Software,
Back in October, Steve Jobs explained in length how the iOS successes that Apple is enjoying have convinced them to incorporate it back to the Mac platform, and the first piece of that is the an introduction of an App Store in OS X. Promising that the Mac App Store would be live within 90 days, this puts it at some point in January at the latest. Now, Apple is informing developers that some expected features will not be available for Mac OS apps. Namely, in-app purchases, and Game Center. This means that desktop applications will not have access to these features which have started to be common in iOS devices. Whether this is due to a delay on Apple's part, or they simply do not intend to provide these features on the Mac, is unknown as of yet.
Read More | 9 to 5 Mac
iTunes extends song previews to 90 seconds
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Music,
Is 30 seconds enough time to get a feel for a song? If you said no, Apple agrees with you — today the company is rolling out 90-second previews for some songs on iTunes.
Prior to today, song previews were limited to half a minute, and for many songs they still will be. The 90-second previews are limited to songs that are more than 2 minutes and 30 seconds in length. Songs shorter than that retain their 30-second samples.
For example, looking at iTunes' most recent high-profile addition, the Beatles catalog, "Let It Be" (4:03) and "Hey Jude" (7:11) both get the 90-second treatment while "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (2:26) and "Love Me Do" (2:21) give listeners just 30 seconds to decide if they want to make a purchase.
The extension has been expected for over a month. Reports in early November said that Apple had sent a letter to the music labels informing them of the move, and that it was incumbent on them to opt-out if they didn't support the move. A cursory sampling of music from artists on all four of the major labels indicates none opted out.
For now the 90-second previews appear limited to the U.S. iTunes store. In the letter to the labels, Apple said it was believed that longer previews for some songs would lead to more sales, an assertion supported by research from Robert Morris University.
MacBook Air EFI Firmware Update 2.0 released
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop, Software,
If you picked up one of the new MacBook Air notebooks that Apple released recently, you'll wanna fire up Software Update to pull down the EFI Firmware Update 2.0. It fixes an issue where the Air boots or wakes to a black screen or becomes unresponsive. We're sure it's rare, but we think we speak for everyone when we say that we'd rather something like that not happen at all, so take care of that update, okay?
Appy Entertainment: Trucks & Skulls Wins Again
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Video Games,
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As everyone knows, Trucks are good and Skulls are evil. And when they get together…it's smashing. I'd read a comic book called Trucks & Skulls; I'd watch a movie called Trucks & Skulls; and I'd give my kids a bunch of toys called Trucks & Skulls.
What Trucks & Skulls is right now, though, is a game app for the iPhone and the iPad.
It hasn't been out for much longer than a month and already it's racking up the awards, the great reviews and the downloads.
The reason I pimp for this (again!) is that the game comes from Appy Entertainment and its Secret World Headquarters north of San Diego.
Click to continue reading Appy Entertainment: Trucks & Skulls Wins Again
Read More | Appy Entertainment
2010 Holiday Gift Guide: 11-inch MacBook Air
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Features, PC / Laptop, Women, Men, Techies,
Apple's smallest notebook is the MacBook Air, and all signs are pointing to this being the best-selling Mac this holiday season, so we had to include it in our 2010 Holiday Gift Guide. The 11-inch MacBook Air packs in speedy flash memory that is soldered directly onto the motherboard, resulting is lightning-fast performance. It also means no moving parts, so you get five hours of battery life from the tiny little wonder, and it even sports a full-sized keyboard, which we feel is a must (and is one of our main complaints with other netbooks.) The price starts at $999 from Apple, but hey, if you go with Amazon then its $994 with free shipping, and MacMall has them starting at $969--not bad for the most portable Mac out there.
Orange gives big discounts on iPad with 3G data plan in UK
Posted by John Kilhefner Categories: Apple, Handhelds, Wireless / WiFi,
It’s no secret that Apple’s iPad is a hot-ticket item this holiday season. Though with its price of $499-$699, you better hope your secret Santa has the hots for you this year. No such luck? Well, if you’re in the UK then consider looking to Orange for a contract-tied iPad deal of the decade. That’s right, with a two-year contract of £27 ($42) per month (£25 for existing customers) you can get an iPad Wi-Fi + 3G at prices of £199 ($312) for the 16GB version, £249 ($391) for the 32GB, or £349 ($626) for the 64GB.
This two year monthly plan allows you 1GB of anytime data, 1GB off-peak data (basically between midnight and 4pm), and 3GB of BT Openzone Wi-Fi.
Read More | Orange
Android introduces content rating
Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Smartphones, Google, Software,
The Android marketplace has often been called the wild west, as compared with the more organized Apple App Store. It's hard to always know which apps are available, and if those apps are suitable for everyone. Providing users with more information about the apps they download has apparently been a top request, and now the Android team at Google is introducing a rating system which all apps will have to adopt going forward. Starting next week, developer who want to sell software in the Android marketplace will need to signify if their app is intended for All, Pre-Teens, Teens or Mature people only. For those already in the marketplace, the developers will have to add a rating, or they will be marked as Mature.
Read More | Android Blog
Apple Black Friday one-day sale
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Handhelds, PC / Laptop,
If you're looking for some decent discounts on Apple products straight from the horse's mouth, you should head on over to the Apple Store Black Friday one-day sale event. Some of the products they've got on sale don't offer much of a discount at all, however you can get an iPad for $41 off, or a new 13-inch MacBook Air for $998, which is $1 less than the 11-inch $999 model. There are also discounts on the iPod touch, MacBook Pro, iMac, and a bunch of accessories.
Oh, and you should also be aware that MacMall has their Black Friday sale going on, and they're offering a bunch more discounts and prices lower than Apple on a bunch of items!
Read More | Apple Black Friday 2010 sale
Subscription newspapers finally coming to the iPad starting with The Daily on Dec. 9?
Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Apple, Handhelds, Rumors,
The rumor has been going for a while now, a subscription service which would allow you to subscribe to a magazine or newspaper, and receive each issue automatically on your iPad. It's been one of the big components missing for digital papers to really take off. Right now, most known names either have you download a free app and then offer in-app purchases, like Wired, or others like The Wall Street Journal only provide limited content unless you register and subscribe to the periodical on their web site.
The Guardian is reporting that Rupert Murdoch is in talks with Apple to create the first iPad-only magazine, which would bring the first subscription service directly to the device. The new product would be called The Daily, and would be the first of its kind. It wouldn't be pulling content from a current web or paper entity; it would be something new made specifically for the device, called an iNewspaper. If this happens, it'll be interesting to see what kind of pricing structure will be set, and how much Apple will control, since this is sure to set a precedent for other publications.
We're hearing that Apple may have something to announce in regards to The Daily and iPad subscriptions on December 9, so we should know more soon.
Read More | The Guardian
