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iPad 2 Launch in Czech Republic Delayed By One Month, Could Apple Be Delaying International Launch?

As 9to5 Mac learned from a Czech reader, the Czech Republic Apple wesbsite is now displaying the launch date of the iPad 2 as “V prodeji od 25 dubna” which translates to “Available from April 25” as opposed to the previously publicized launch date of March 25 for the Czech Republic.

At this point no other country that was on the keynote list of first international countries to receive the iPad 2 has had the launch delayed (apart from Japan). At this point the one month delay for the Czech Republic could be as simple as some delay in regulatory approval in that country for the iPad 2 or perhaps the first sign that Apple is delaying the international launch or scaling back the number of countries recieving the first round of iPad 2’s.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

iPad 2 and iMovie Enable “Citizen Journalism” For Breaking News

Geek Squad founder Robert Stephens was driving to work yesterday when he witnessed a large gas explosion a couple of blocks away. To see if someone had called 911 yet, he drove with his car near to the explosion site and started recording a video with his iPhone 4. A couple of minutes later, the video was edited and uploaded to the Internet to become the first semi-professional footage used by media organizations to break the news of the Minneapolis explosion.

How did the video end up on TV if it was simply shot with an iPhone? People shoot videos with their smartphones every day, but they’re not chosen to be broadcasted. It turns out, Stephens quickly transferred the video file over to his iPad 2 through the Apple Camera Connection Kit, and started editing it. He added a map, subtitles, and cleaner voice over. All of this using iMovie for iPad in a parking lot while he could still feel the heat of the explosion on his face. Once done editing, he sent the video to Youtube and CNN iReport over 3G and was one of the first eye-witnesses to tweet about the explosion and post footage. He also tweeted permission to use the video, which ended up on MSNBC and CNN coverage in a matter of minutes.

The story here is a great example of “citizen journalism”, with an Apple twist. Everyday devices like an iPhone and an iPad become indispensable tools when it comes to quickly capturing a particular scene, and uploading the results on to the Internet so everyone can see it. Furthermore, semi-professional videos edited in software like iMovie can be used by major news organizations without looking like “yet another amateur Youtube video”.

Something is also very clear: Apple needs a better way to transfer files between iOS devices without the need of hardware. Perhaps AirDrop for iOS. Check out the video below. [TwinCities via TUAW] Read more

Here Come The Angry Birds iPad 2 Cases

In a trip to the Apple Store back in December I noticed something really curious (and colored) on the shelves: official Angry Birds cases for the iPhone were heavily featured by Apple inside the retail space like no other case. The accessory section in the Apple Store is trafficked all day by customers willing to enhance their iOS or Mac experience, and especially with the iPhone 4 third-party cases of all kinds saw an explosion in demand and popularity. But the promotion reserved to these Angry Birds cases was unprecedented.

Now the same is about to happen all over again with the iPad 2, which doesn’t need a case according to Apple but still it’s going to experience the invasion of third-party accessories like the iPhone 4 did. Whilst most manufacturers are ramping up production for their cases, folios and stands now that the iPad 2 is available, Gear4 has once again signed Rovio over to release official Angry Birds hard-plastic cases for the iPad 2. Available in three different flavors at $49.99, the cases feature holes to let you access all the buttons and hardware cutouts of the iPad 2: camera, speaker, dock connector, and so forth. You can check them out here. And , of course, they have your beloved pigs and birds.

The iPad 2 is a beautiful piece of hardware and Steve Jobs wants you to use the elegant Smart Cover to carry it around, without actually covering the device’s beauty. But trust me: your wife  kids are going to love the Angry Birds case. [via iPadevice]

Google Launches Google TV Remote for iPhone

Google TV Remote for iOS Preview

Google TV Remote for iOS Preview

For the few of you who may own a Google TV enabled device (or a TV such as the Sony Internet TV), your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad can now power your futuristic format thanks to the new Google TV Remote app. It’s chock full of glorious soft buttons that could take the Logitech Harmony to task, and includes Voice Search so you can quickly search for content using your iPhone’s microphone. Multiple Google TV Remotes can work over the same network as well, meaning anyone who has an iOS (or Android) enabled device can browse the television right from their lap. The app is free to download from the App Store, and we’ve included a quick video of the Android version below: the experiences are very similar (the iPhone can’t push webpages to their Google TV, however).

[via The Official Google TV Blog]

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I Want This Tetris-like Stand For iOS Devices On My Desk

This product will likely never see the light of day on retail stores’ shelves, but it’d be so perfect on my home desk next to my iMac. The Polyply is a multi-device stand designed by Andrew Kim, and it’s made out of acrylic plastic and birch plywood. Realized as a two-week project by Kim to see how such an accessory would fit on an Apple’s fan desk, all parts were cut on a laser cutter. The Polyply could easily keep in place an iPad, an iPhone, and iPod and a stylus. It’s got room to plug in your Apple 30-pin dock connector and it even lowers for a better typing angle.

The design is simple and clean and, in spite of the times, it’d be just right for my desk that is daily cluttered by iPad, iPhone and, yes, an iPod Classic.

Like I said though, this was just an experiment. But I’d be ready to open my wallet if it was a Kickstarter project. [via Cult Of Mac]

Rumor: New MobileMe Launching Next Month

Two weeks ago we reported a rumor from a German blog that claimed Apple was in the process of organizing a media even in April to demo the upcoming major new version of iOS, and the new MobileMe. The new cloud service from Apple, according to several reports surfaced in the past months, is rumored to become free and include a “locker” functionality for media storage like photos, music and videos. Code strings spotted in the early developer betas of iOS 4.3 pointed to a new feature in the works called “MediaStream” that would allow users to broadcast photos and videos through the cloud.

Today iLounge reports the new MobileMe is launching next month, in April, and it will indeed be free. According to the website the new version will be radically different from the existing one, and Apple will keep providing support for subscribers that recently bought a MobileMe subscription for at least a year to ease the transition.

In addition, the source was told that Apple will be supporting the existing version of MobileMe for the next year, suggesting that the new version will be quite different from the existing service; the extra year of support would likely cover those who recently paid for a full year of MobileMe, prior to Apple removing any method through which a user could pay for the service.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs allegedly said in an email to a customer that MobileMe would get a lot better in 2011. Last month, Apple discontinued retail boxes of MobileMe making the services only available for purchase online, with a 60-day free trial. Also last month it was reported that Apple was on schedule to launch its new iTunes and MobileMe services powered by the data center in Maiden, North Carolina this Spring.

NFC Technology In iPhones Could Also Enable Remote Computing

According to a source of Cult of Mac, Apple is planning to use Near Field Communication (NFC) not just as a method for retail payment services but also to turn an iPhone into a pseudo-ID tag for remote login. According to Cult of Mac:

…when a NFC-equipped iPhone is paired with a guest machine, part of the user’s profile includes the apps they’ve purchased through the Mac App Store. The icons for their apps appear on the remote Mac, but aren’t downloaded, our source said.

Once the guest machine is logged into; users would be able to open any of their apps, which would download on demand, although presumably only those from the Mac App Store. Documents too could be accessed and synced using MobileMe from anywhere using this remote login system and once a user leaves, the Mac would wipe any documents and applications.

As MacRumors points out, it is similar to the once promised feature of ‘Home on iPod’ that would have allowed OS X Panther users to sync their Home directory on to an iPod for easy document storage regardless of where you were. Cult of Mac claims that this new feature is currently being developed in OS X Lion but their source stresses that it isn’t guaranteed to become public.

[Via Cult of Mac]

Market Share Research Reveals That The Swiss Love Their Macs

The Pingdom blog did a little statistical research using Statcounter to figure out which countries had the highest percentage of Macs and found that Switzerland topped that list with 17.61% market share. Meanwhile Luxembourg, USA, and Iceland were also countries with high Mac market share, all above 15%.

The UK was notably missing from the top 10 whilst as a region, Asia only had an average of 1.61% of market share – a very low figure, but one Apple is likely trying to increase with a recent push into that market with its retail stores. As for the region with the lowest Mac market share, Asia comes close but it is in fact South America, which has only 1.08% market share of Macs.

[Via TUAW]

AT&T Cracking Down On Unauthorised Tethering

Update: In the email AT&T do explicitly sate that if users do not contact AT&T or stop tethering, they will “automatically enroll you into DataPro 4GB after March 27, 2011”, if the user stops then no change will occur. It would seem that to be automatically upgrading/changing users contract plans, AT&T should have a fairly fool-proof method of checking which users are tethering compared to those just using large amounts of data.

Numerous AT&T users who use MyWi, a jailbreak tweak that allows you to enable tethering without a subscription, yesterday began receiving text messages and emails from AT&T reminding the users that to use your phone for tethering requires a subscription to an AT&T tethering plan.

The notices for most began with a text message that said:

AT&T Free Msg: Did you know tethering your Smartphone to a computer requires a tethering plan? Pls call 888-860-6789 for details or visit att.com/dataplans.

Following this text message many users also received an email (included after the break) which told the user that to “take advantage of [tethering], we require that in addition to a data plan, you also have a tethering plan.” The email also said if the user wishes to continue tethering to sign up to a tethering plan – but did not specify any consequences for continuing to use MyWi without purchasing such a plan.

At this point it is unclear how AT&T knows which users to issue the notices, the presumption is that the notices are going out to any user that uses a large amount of data (some are saying more than 10GB) and are not subscribed to a tethering plan.

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