Apple doesn’t just make a handsome phone — the iPhone has plenty of unique features that separate it from the competition. A pair of new iPhone commercials are taking the stage tonight, putting AirPlay and FaceTime in the spotlight. The commercials, both featuring the same catchy background jingle we’ve become familiar in the “If you don’t have an iPhone” series, show off just how easy it is to use the iPhone for sharing photos, videos, and conversations across the Apple TV, Mac, and iPad. While the commercials do come off a bit bumptious as usual in this series, the AirPlay commercial does a great job of showing off just how easy it is to stream media to your television or play music wirelessly through your home stereo system. AirPlay is something I’ve come to love in iOS 4 on my iPad and iPod touch, and I’m glad to see it getting its own air time in Apple’s latest set of commercials. Past the break we’ve posted both videos for your viewing enjoyment.

[via Apple]

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Today marks the third anniversary of the launch of the (iPhone) App Store which launched on July 10, 2008. It launched simultaneously with what was then called the iPhone OS 2.0 software (now dubbed iOS 2.0) and was subsequently followed by the release of the iPhone 3G the next day, which came with iOS 2.0 and thus the App Store pre-installed.

The availability of third-party applications and an ‘App Store’ on the iPhone was certainly one of the most demanded features of the iPhone after it was revealed and launched in 2007. Whilst it hasn’t been revealed when exactly Apple decided to open up the iPhone to third-party apps (or if they had always planned for it), Steve Jobs was quoted in the New York Times shortly after revealing the iPhone in January 2007, as saying:

We define everything that is on the phone. You don’t want your phone to be like a PC. The last thing you want is to have loaded three apps on your phone and then you go to make a call and it doesn’t work anymore. These are more like iPods than they are like computers.

Since the launch of App Store, it has become one of the defining successes for the iPhone and Apple more broadly – becoming a cornerstone feature being used in a number of advertising campaigns. Most notable is the ‘There’s an App for that’ ad campaign which highlighted the wide array of apps available to consumers (jump the break to relive the first of those).

Over the past few months, the App Store has hit a number of milestones that reveals how successful it has been over the past three years. Just in the past week, Apple revealed that there had been 15 billion apps downloaded from the App Store. Recently it was also revealed that there are now over 500,000 apps available in the App Store (100,000 of which are iPad apps) – virtually a hundred-fold increase from the 500 apps that were available at the launch of the App Store in July of 2008. Apple has also been very keen to note at their WWDC conferences that they are paying out significant amounts of money to developers; at last count it was over $2.5 billion. The question is, where will the App Store be in a year from now, let-alone another three years? The pace at which it has grown is truly mind-boggling.

[Sources: New York Times, TechCrunch, Engadget, Wikipedia]

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The iTunes Store and the current generation Apple TV can currently playback 720p video without issue. 1080p video, however, is the apple in every blu-ray owner’s mind. If Apple doesn’t want to provide customers with high-definition video, then why bother streaming video from Apple to the big screen? Movie-goers may want to hold onto the cash in their pocket before they spring for an alternative just a little while longer. AppleInsider was advised that 1080p video could become the norm beginning this fall with the availability of higher definition content and an updated Apple TV.

A higher resolution format for video, dubbed HD+ for 1080p content, is rumored to be an option alongside SD and HD video. 20th Century Fox as well as other large movie studios are said to be submitting films encoded with with an average bitrate of 10,000 kbps at 1920 x 1080p resolution. An updated Apple TV with an A5 processor would have no problems in playing back high definition content — the rumor would also coincide with an updated iPad 2.

If Apple is going to be attacking the media front with 1080p video this fall, a higher resolution iPad to play that 1080p content on makes some sense. While it’s not a confirmation, Apple could roll out an updated Apple TV alongside an iPad 2 HD to play back HD+ video. The iPad 2 HD would be rumored to have a resolution of 2048 x 1536, well beyond the requirement to playback 1080p at full resolution. With the A5 processor already in place, the iPad 2 HD would need nothing more than a display adjustment in coordination with a new content launch.

[via AppleInsider]

Manufacturers may have to recall their line of Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cables as this type of connection is unlicensed. TechRadar has confirmed with HDMI Org that straight through MiniDisplay Port to HDMI male-to-male connectors (which you can find on Monoprice for example) are affected.

“The HDMI specification defines an HDMI cable as having only HDMI connectors on the ends. Anything else is not a licensed use of the specification and therefore, not allowed.”

It also noted: “All HDMI products undergo compliance testing as defined by the Compliance Testing Specification. ”The CTS clearly defines necessary tests for all products defined in the HDMI Specification. Since this new cable product is undefined in the Specification, there are no tests associated with this product. It cannot be tested against the Specification.”

There is an exception, however, in that Mini DisplayPort to HDMI female adapters (such as Moshi’s cable that Apple recommends with the purchase of a MacBook) are acceptable. MacBook Pro and iMac owners who need to connect to the big screen have viable workaround — you’ll have to use two cables instead of one while the current batch of unlicensed cables are yanked off the shelves. Apple sells Moshi’s Mini DP to HDMI adapter for $34.95 and an Apple HDMI cable for $19.99 in their online store.

[via TechRadar]

Image via Cables.com

Instead of connecting to your iPhone or iPod touch from your Mac, what if you had the convenience of setting it up as a receiver right from your pocket? That’s the quick summary of Airfoil Touch 2, which is now available on the App Store for free. If you happen to have a setup consisting of multiple Airfoil enabled machines, or you don’t want to bounce between multiple rooms to make music streaming happen, Airfoil Touch 2 has a convenient setup where you can now “reverse connect” by selecting the appropriate input node on your Wi-Fi network.

Artwork and metadata are now transferred to your iOS device when streaming music, and an improved equalizer can be customized to fit your mood. Most importantly, however, is the built in remote controls for changing tracks and pausing music right from your pocket. You can’t browse your library, but you can skip over a poor playlist choice when streaming on the network. If you’re listening to music from your pocket, the music controls on your dangling white earbuds can also control playback. When you want to browse the web or play a game, Airfoil Touch 2 works in the background and in conjunction with the multitasking tray for easy media control.

Rogue Amoeba have been making steady improvements to their Airfoil apps, and if you haven’t check it out, there’s been some recent updates to the parent app for the Mac (that’s just reached version 4.5) that’s worth checking out.

[via Under the Microscope: Rogue Amoeba Blog]

Here are today’s @MacStoriesDeals on iOS, Mac, and Mac App Store apps that are on sale for a limited time, so get them before they end!

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Spotify, the European music streaming service that has attracted millions of paying subscribers in the past two years, is finally launching in the United States, with some saying the big opening could happen as early as next week. For those not familiar with Spotify, the concept is very simple: instead of owning music, you stream it from the company’s servers that host a huge catalogue of songs from both major and less-known labels. You can build playlists, mark items as favorite, and pay to get unlimited access, higher quality bitrates, mobile apps and caching options for offline access. Whereas Apple’s upcoming iTunes Match service will scan songs you already own to mirror them online, Spotify lets you create your own online library of songs you don’t own (though a “buy” option has been recently introduced), but that you can stream at any time. It’s similar to other services like Rdio and MOG, but the company never managed to close a deal with US music labels and get the green light for launching its service until last week.

I’ve been a Spotify user for two years, and it’s completely revolutionized the way I listen to music. I still enjoy buying some music from iTunes, but Spotify’s biggest advantage over traditional marketplaces is that I can pay a monthly fee (or buy yearly access altogether with a gift card) to listen to just about anything I want, from any device. Spotify has a beautiful Mac client and an iPhone app that’s continually updated with new features; however, the company still hasn’t revealed its plans about an iPad app that would be much welcome one year after the iPad came out. (more…)

Fantastical is a calendar utility by Flexibits which we’ve reviewed back in May and have been using since then as a companion to Apple’s built-in calendar application for the Mac. Fantastical, in fact, isn’t a full-featured calendar app — rather, it’s a “calendar assistant” that enables users to quickly add a new entry to all kinds of supported calendar protocols (including Google Calendar and Entourage) with a natural language input system. Instead of interacting with menus and checkboxes to set up a new meeting at a specific location, Fantastical lets you write down things like “Lunch with Cody tomorrow at Cafeteria from 1 PM to 3 PM” and have a new event created in your default calendar. And because Fantastical has direct access to these calendars, you can forget about leaving iCal open and just use Fantastical’s (beautiful) window from the menubar.

A new version of Fantastical was released today and, alongside improvements to event creation, parsing engine and date handling, it sports brand new BusyCal integration to create events directly into the popular third-party calendar for OS X. BusyCal is a calendar and to-do list manager for Mac geared towards power users with features such as Bonjour and LAN sync, multi-user editing, list view and various security features. With Fantastical 1.0.2, events can do directly into BusyCal without going through iCal first (though the devs note calendars still must be added to iCal). Version 1.0.2 also brings a new shortcut to bring an invitee pop-up for contacts recognized in your Address Book, and arrow keys integration to switch between calendar weeks.

Fantastical is simple and powerful at the same time, with a gorgeous user interface design that makes it very intuitive to add events to your calendars (and calendar apps) with a few keystrokes. You can download Fantastical at $19.99 on the App Store.

Swype, a popular alternative typing system that comes pre-installed on a variety of Android devices, was unofficially ported to the iPhone and released yesterday as a tweak for the iOS keyboard on Cydia. The peculiarity of Swype is that it allows users to write sentences by simply sliding their fingers on the keyboard, without ever lifting them, and manages to compose words thanks to a mix of predictive auto-correction, and proprietary technology that has allowed Swype to become a cult among Android users. The creators of Swype have been saying for years that they have a working version for iOS devices, which could be released on the App Store if only Apple let developers submit apps that enhance system functions like the default keyboard.

For this reason the official Swype for iOS may never see the light of day, but that hasn’t stopped Cydia developers from building their own version, which was released yesterday for free. Unlike what initial reports claimed, the Swype available on Cydia is an unofficial port, which doesn’t use Swype’s technology but uses Swype’s brand. According to Swype CEO Mike McSherry, interviewed by GeekWire, the port that’s been released on Cydia is more or less a “hack”, a re-imagination of the original Swype by developer Andrew Liu. The port, as also seen in the demo videos, is buggy and doesn’t come with Swype’s popular “blue tracer line” for the keyboard; moreover, Swype’s CEO is unsure whether Liu re-used some of Swype’s code, or simply rewrote his own version basing on the Swype experience for Android.

McSherry said that he saw Liu’s unofficial release of Swype, and he’s still trying to make sense of it.

“I don’t know but it appears he wrote some of his own code to emulate a Swype-like experience and is using our brand,” he said. ”I don’t know if this is a ‘hacked’ version of Swype or not….I’m thinking not.”

Nonetheless, McSherry notes that I am not the only one interested in learning about Swype for the iPhone. And perhaps Liu’s unofficial release simply indicates the desire to bring it to the iPhone and iPad.

You can find the instructions to install the unofficial Swype for iPhone here. Check out the demo video after the break.
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According to click data analyzed by URL shortening and analytics service bit.ly, the iPad ultimately differs from other platforms in the way it’s used throughout the day. The discovery is unsurprising as Apple has been heavily touting the iPad as a new category of device aimed at doing things better than regular smartphones and computers (which Apple also happens to sell), but it’s interesting to see these usage patterns confirmed and visualized by a service that’s undoubtedly the most used when it comes to shortening and sharing links on the web.

Bit.ly analyzed links clicked from Linux, Windows and OS X machines, as well as BlackBerry, iOS and Android phones, and the iPad. Then, they compared the click data against the time of the day, the day of the week and the country to build a graph that summarizes usage patterns for the most common devices that access bit.ly links every day. The results for computers and smartphones don’t surprise: people start using PCs and smartphones as they wake up, usage slightly increases through the workday, and slows down as the evening approaches and users are far more likely to consume other content. That kind of content consumed in the late hours of the day happens to be represented by the iPad which, unlike other platforms, sees a slower approach throughout the day but a higher peak in the evening as people come back from work. In weekend days, iPad usage in the morning and afternoon is slightly higher than the rest of the week.

The iPad’s usage pattern is drastically different. Usage dips after breakfast, remains low during traditional working hours and does not peak until much later in the evening. During the weekends iPad usage between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. is higher than it is during the week at those same hours. No other device sees a heavy increase of use during the weekends, showing that the iPad is used as an entertainment device and differs from both smartphones and browsers.

Bit.ly also notes how Facebook and YouTube are still the most accessed websites from users, and that in spite of “official” availability in 39 countries, they registered iPad data from 203 countries. The iPad is different from other devices, and it’s being used by consumers in new different ways that are causing these unprecedented usage patterns. For instance, people are more likely to come back from work and relax on the couch with an iPad reading news or a book, rather than sitting at their desk using a PC again. Or, they might want to enjoy a game with their kids, or read a book to them before they go to sleep. Check out the full report at ReadWriteWeb for the complete stats.

According to two separate reports coming today from 9to5mac and AppleInsider, some Apple retail employees and store managers have been notified to hold “overnights” in the next week to prepare for the launch of OS X Lion, set to become available sometime in July at $29.99 as a digital download from the Mac App Store. First off, 9to5mac says retail stores are planning overnights on July 13th, which would support their earlier claims of Lion launching on July 14th. Apple retail employees would need to be trained for the new software to showcase to customers and, according to the website, new MacBook Airs are also expected to launch in the same week. A previous rumor suggested that Apple had put new Mac models on hold until Lion’s launch so that new units could come with the new OS pre-installed.

AppleInsider also reports other stores have asked staff to upgrade RAM on certain Macs, presumably to make sure Lion can run smoothly in demo sessions to customers. AppleInsider, however, says new MacBook Airs could become available the following week, and not immediately alongside the launch of Lion.

This same person also mentioned hearing rumors from colleagues that Apple may formally invite some customers to its retail locations to download the new OS from within the store so that they can receive assistance in becoming familiar with some of Lion’s more prominent enhancements.

Meanwhile, people with ties to Apple’s other operating segments are supporting claims that Apple will make Mac OS X Lion available to the general public sometime next week. They add that long-awaited refreshes to the MacBook Air line will follow the launch closely, possibly the following week.

Last week, we separately confirmed with our sources that all Apple employees will be given a free redemption code for Lion, with the retail Information Systems & Technology department getting ready for an “imminent” launch, already installing a final build of the OS on some company machines. As for the new MacBook Airs, the new models have been long in the rumors, allegedly sporting new Thunderbolt and Sandy Bridge specifications and with most recent rumors claiming they could also get faster SSDs, a 3G component and a black version to go alongside the standard aluminum one.