This Week's Sponsor:

Hello Weather

Half Off for WWDC Week, Just in Time for Summer.

Posts in iPad

Microsoft Office For iPad Coming Within Weeks? [Updated]

Microsoft’s Office Suite could be launching on the iPad App Store within weeks according to a new report in The Daily. Originally rumoured in November of last year by The Daily, Matt Hickey today says that the design team has “wrapped up the project” but an exact launch date was not known.

Hickey claims to have had a brief hands-on with a working prototype of the Office Suite app and notes that whilst the UI is similar to OneNote for iPad, it has hints of Metro. He notes that Word, Excel and PowerPoint files can be created and edited either locally on the iPad or online (presumably using Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud service).

According to his sources, OneNote will also receive an update soon to reflect the Metro design. Those same sources also noted that no Android version was in the works.

[The Daily via The Next Web]

Jump the break to view all updates to this story.

Read more

Apple Counting Down to 25 Billion App Downloads

Thanks to over 315 million cumulative iOS devices sold and the breadth of applications available, Apple’s preparing to celebrate their 25 billionth download by awarding the lucky downloader a $10,000 App Store gift card. In only four months, iOS users will have downloaded an additional 7 billion apps from the App Store since last October where Apple reached 18 billion App Store downloads. (15 billion apps were downloaded as of last July). With over 550,000 apps available (175,000 iPad-specific apps) to download, there’s plenty of great applications to choose from that fill a variety of needs on user’s devices. The App Store’s great download spike can also be contributed to the number of iOS devices purchased in 2011 alone: 156 million iOS devices were sold last year compared to a total of 122 million Macs ever sold.

As of today, nearly 25 billion apps have been downloaded worldwide. Which is almost as amazing as the apps themselves. So we want to say thanks. Download the 25 billionth app, and you could win a US$10,000 App Store Gift Card.* Just visit the App Store and download your best app yet.

To participate in the competition, you simply have to purchase or download a free app from the App Store and be the lucky winner randomly chosen by Apple. You can also enter to win without purchasing anything from the App Store by simply visiting the contest page and filling out the linked contest form. One the 25th billion download has been reached, the contest ends! (Each applicable contestant is allowed only 25 entries.)

[via 9to5 Mac]

Edit (02/19/2012): Updated final paragraph to clarify contest rules.

Apple Adds Screenshots And Promo Codes To The iBookstore For Publishers

The iBookstore now has support for screenshots and promo codes, according to an iTunes Connect letter that was sent to content publishers today and that TUAW obtained. Content publishers are now able to giveaway 50 free codes that redeem a copy of a book they are selling on the iBookstore — something developers on the App Store have long been able to do. No doubt it will be helpful for publishers trying to get their books reviewed and for when they want to run promotional give-aways.

The other big change is that publishers can now also submit screenshots of the book. This new feature will be most useful for multi-touch books that are created with the iBooks Author app. Like the App Store, Apple is specific about the dimensions and formats it will accept for this: 1024 x 768 or 768 x 1024 in RGB, formatted as either .jpeg, .jpg or .png.

Apple has also made a minor change to how pre-orders are handled on the iBookstore. From now on, publishers need not upload a cover or any other assets until two weeks prior to publication, but can still offer the product for pre-order.

[Via TUAW]