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Dutch Newspaper Gifting iPads with New Subscriptions

The Dutch newspaper ‘nrc•next’ is giving free iPads to people who sign up to receive their printed subscription for two years and it also includes their daily digital iPad App version.

This is a great idea to grow your readership but they underestimated the response to their subscription promotion. Now they have posted a page on their blog “Zeg, waar blijft die iPad?” which translates to “Say, where is my iPad?” It’s basically a Q & A for people who signed up for their promotion and have yet to receive their new iPads.

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Steve Jobs Confirms AirPlay Video Streaming For 3rd Party Apps Coming in 2011

Finally, our questions have been answered by Steve Jobs himself. We love AirPlay, but we can’t stand the fact that the current version that ships with iOS 4.2 comes with many limitations, especially when it’s about video streaming to the Apple TV.

You can’t stream video through AirPlay from Safari or any 3rd party app. This lead me to think that the AirPlay we’re playing around with now is just a teaser of better things to come in the future.

Now, a Steve Jobs email posted by MacRumors confirms that Apple is planning to add the feature in 2011:

Hi, I recently updated both my iPhone 4 and iPad to 4.2. I think my favourite feature is airplay. This is seriously amazing and makes sharing content seamless. I just purchased Apple TV and was wondering are you ever going to make airplay video work for videos in safari and 3rd party apps? I hope to get a response.

SJ: Yep, hope to add these features to Airplay in 2011.

A number of hacks and tweaks to enable AirPlay for video have surfaced recently, including packages jailbreak users can download from Cydia and install on their devices. We also detailed that it’s possible to turn any iOS device into an AirPlay speaker.

Here’s to hoping 2011 will bring the AirPlay we’ve always wanted.

Found Footage: Steve Jobs Demoes The Daddy Of OS X

This one’s an awesome finding via Reddit: while many of you may have already seen the following video (it should come straight from 1991), for all those who haven’t – well, it’s about Steve Jobs demoing the father of OS X, the NeXT computer.

In the video you can see Jobs talking about many features that eventually made their way to OS X, such as Interface Builder or the Dock. It’s also interesting to notice how, almost 20 years ago, Jobs and the team at NeXT were focused on making an operating system suitable for business users.

Fast forward today, and we’re waiting for 10.7 Lion that should bring more consumer-friendly features such as the Launchpad or fullscreen apps.

Mozilla Evangelist Asks Google and Apple To Stop Being Evil

Asa Dotzler isn’t happy about the behavior of software giants like Google, Apple and Microsoft. In fact, Mozilla evangelist and co-founder of the Spread Firefox project in 2004 thinks they all should stop being evil. How so? He’s tired of finding unwanted plug-ins installed in Firefox by software such as iTunes, Windows Live and Google Earth.

Why do Microsoft, Google, Apple, and others think that it is an OK practice to add plug-ins to Firefox when I’m installing their software packages. When I installed iTunes, in order to manage my music collection and sync to my iPod, why did Apple think it was OK to add the iTunes Application Detector plug-in to my Firefox web browser without asking me? Why did Microsoft think it was OK to sneak their Windows Live Photo Gallery or Office Live Plug-in for Firefox into my browser (presumably) when I installed Microsoft Office? What makes Google think it’s reasonable behavior for them to slip a Google Update plug-in into Firefox when I installed Google Earth or Google Chrome (not sure which one caused this) without asking me first?

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“There’s A Nap For That”

Some people have just the right idea at the right time. We have seen iPhone-based weddings, cakes, pillows, pins, iPad cakes and Steve Jobs actions figures. Could one be more creative? Meet the iPhone quilt, knitted by Grandma Harriet for her grandson Gabriel Augusto Stein, a six day old baby. It’s even got an Evernote icon.

Isn’t this insanely awesome? We think it is. The father even says “there’s a nap for that”. I want one. [TUAW via The Daily What via Benjamin Stein]

Apple Updates Game Center Terms To Show Full Names In Friend Requests

A few minutes ago Apple sent out an email notification to inform users that they have updated Game Center terms & conditions to show full names associated with Apple IDs in friend requests.

We have changed the Game Center terms and conditions to provide you notice that if you send a friend invitation, the full name associated with your Apple ID will be shared with the recipient. If you accept a friend invitation, the full name associated with your Apple ID will be shared with the sender.

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“Random” FaceTime Calls A Bug in Apple’s System?

According to several reports surfaced on iSpazio, fscklog and Apple’s discussion boards, hundreds of iPhone, iPod Touch and Mac users received random FaceTime calls from themselves or one of their contacts in Address Book on Saturday. Most specifically, it appears that a bug triggered these FaceTime calls to go out at 6:30 PM PST, 9:30 PM EST, 2:30 AM GMT and 3:30 AM GMT +1 on Saturday, November 27th (United States) and Sunday, November 28th (Europe).

Basing on the reports from iSpazio and Apple’s forums, it seems like these random and “fake” calls (not initiated by users, coming randomly from iPhone numbers and email addresses associated to FaceTime on iPod Touches and Macs) happened on devices running iOS 4.2.1 and iOS 4.1 (both regular and jailbroken devices). FaceTime for Mac, on the other hand, is currently in beta and available for download on Apple’s website.  Read more

Hacked Apple TV Plays HTML5 Video via Web Browser

Of all the cool mods and hacks for Apple TV 2nd gen and AirPlay we’ve been covering in the past weeks, this one’s for Cupertino’s little black box has to be the most promising one.

Two weeks ago a video of aTV Flash, developed by Fire Core, made the rounds as it appeared like full-featured web browsing with Last.fm integration was coming to jailbroken Apple TVs. Development on the suite has been proceeding steadily, and a few days ago a new video of the tweak in action surfaced showing support for HTML5 video inside Fire Core’s browser – all played smoothly by the Apple TV.

As wrote by the developers, some parts of the app like Last.fm integration and the installer are ready for beta, but the release of iOS 4.1 for Apple TV and support for additional video codecs are turning out to be more difficult tasks to accomplish. In the meantime, check out the demo video below, and get ready for aTV Flash to make your Apple TV a lot more useful in the upcoming weeks. [via 9to5Mac] Read more