Apple’s iPod-based Point of Sale System Already Deployed

According to 9to5mac, Apple and Gap Inc’s Old Navy stores have started piloting an iPod-based PoS (Point of Sale) system which allows customers to sign receipts with their fingers and print receipts wirelessly to printers in Old Navy’s store.

Apparently, some employees are also wearing mini-printers attached to their belts. This is just so cool. 9to5mac also reports Apple and Gap have been in a close relationship since Gap’s former CEO Millard Drexler has been sitting on Apple’s Board since 1999 and Steve Jobs sat on Gap’s one from 1999 to 2002. Read more

Nice Move, Apple: Michael Jackson’s New Song A Ping Exclusive

In a clear attempt to drive more traffic to its music-based and iTunes Store-oriented social network, Ping, Apple managed to grab an exclusive from Michael Jackson’s upcoming posthumous, a new single called “Much Too Soon”. The song, in fact, can only be streamed on Apple’s Ping through Jackson’s official artist page, and as you can guess you have to sign up for Ping to view the page.

While there’s quite a debate going on whether this new MJ album actually features MJ or not, this is undoubtedly a clever move for Apple which I’m certain will drive lots of extra traffic to the service, especially from people who didn’t think would sign up for Ping at first – e.g. Jackson’s loyal fans.

Michael Jackson’s new album will be released on December 14th. [via MichaelJackson.com]

LastPass Buys Xmarks

Early in November we reported Xmarks, which had been struggling trying to find a business model to keep its password and bookmark synchronization service free, found a “new owner” and that more details would be made available soon.

Today, All Things Digital is reporting that online password management company LastPass acquired Xmarks, although no financial details of the transaction have been provided.

Enter LastPass, based in Vienna, Va., whose CEO Joe Siegrist said in an interview that he wanted to help keep the service operating and provide it with an ongoing business model.

“They had a large dedicated audience, but their free offering and advertising model was not working,” he said. “We really want to figure something out that could keep it going.”

Siegrist said LastPass offered a good free service, but relied on a small group of users who pay to upgrade to a premium offering.

Xmarks also received pledges from almost 30,000 who, through an online form, confirmed they were willing to pay $10 or $20 to keep Xmarks running. It is unclear whether this acquisition will cause a rebranding of the Xmarks product or not.

The Incident 1.3 Goes Live. Finally, An iPhone Game I Can Play On My TV.

We love The Incident for iPhone and iPad. In fact, Big Bucket’s retro-style platform is easily one of my favorite iOS games of all times. It features incredible pixel graphics, an addictive gameplay and a catchy soundtrack. If you read MS, you know we’re totally into The Incident.

A few weeks ago we reported the developers were working on an update to let users play The Incident on their TVs while controlling it with an iPhone. Sounded like magic back then. It turns out, all you need is a VGA Adapter or Composite AV Cable to mirror the game on your TV and start jumping with Frank, the main character. That’s it. No complex pairing process – although we’re already thinking about a future AirPlay feature to beam games from your iOS device to your TV.

This feature of The Incident 1.3 is something we’ll remember in the months to come. It marks the arrival of iOS as a gaming platform on our living rooms, and we’re sure other developers will implement it in several other games. We’re waiting.

In the meantime, The Incident 1.3 is available here and it rocks. Strongly recommended.

Angry Birds Seasons Now Available→

Angry Birds Seasons Goes Now Available

From now on, every season is an Angry Birds season. After the special treats of Halloween, Angry Birds Seasons returns with another gift that keeps on giving: Season’s Greetings for the Holidays!

Seasonal theme, “25 days of Angry Birds” until Christmas, Game Center support, new achievements. 99 cents in the App Store. Looks like a nice update.

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Mossberg: “Apple TV Has A Limited Selection Of Internet Video Sources”→

Mossberg: “Apple TV Has A Limited Selection Of Internet Video Sources”

Walt Mossberg reviews the new Apple TV:

But it has some significant downsides. The most important of these is a very limited selection of Internet video sources. If you want a set-top box that allows you to watch a wide range of video from the Web, Apple TV isn’t it.

Apple TV is now essentially a modestly priced adapter that streams video, audio and photos to your HDTV from three main sources: your own computers, Apple’s iTunes service plus a few other online sources, and content on your portable Apple devices using AirPlay.

He also says AirPlay works great.

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Pulse Starts Moving Out Of RSS, Embraces Facebook

Pulse, one of the most popular news reading apps for iPad, just introduced a new feature that marks an important milestone for Alphonso Labs’ creation: Facebook support. Pulse now lets you log in with your Facebook account through Connect, enabling you to check on links shared in your stream, your friends’ status updates and your own Wall. The update is available now, for free.

Pulse has come a long way since its first release in May: first the developers got into some sort of fight with the New York Times and saw their app pulled from the App Store a few days after Steve Jobs mentioned it in a keynote, then they got back in the Store and added support for Posterous built into the app to let users quickly “like” posts coming from RSS sources through Posterous’ infrastructure. Read more

So, Uhm, Soon You’ll Be Able To Use AirPrint With 6 More Printers

We thought AirPrint would make us print again, thanks to the power of iOS 4.2 and printers shared through OS X or Windows. It turns out achieving stable driverless printing ain’t that easy even for Apple, and the engineers at Cupertino were forced to remove support for AirPrint on OS X 10.6.5. We’ve already heard this story.

Steve Jobs promises more is coming soon and a few alternative solutions to print via OS X have surfaced, but as it stands now AirPrint officially works only with 7 HP printers out of the box. Read more

BBC: Subscription-based iPlayer for iPad Coming Next Year

According to the Financial Times (subscription required), BBC will launch a subscription-based iPlayer service for iPads next year. iPlayer is BBC’s popular streaming service that allows users to stream programs after the original air date, and it gained support for Mac in 2008.

It also gained a lot of traction since then, with downloads exceeding 100 millions in the first months of 2010. Unfortunately, the service isn’t available in many areas – namely outside the UK. For instance, I can’t access iPlayer’s TV streaming in Italy, and I assume the same happens to US users.

It looks like things won’t change with the iPad subscription either, as Dave Caolo at TUAW reports:

BBC Worldwide said that this isn’t going to happen until “the middle of next year,” and even then only in “certain target markets.” Additionally, no word on pricing was available, though there will be ad-supported free sections as well as paid content.

In the meantime, I’m just fine with Hulu through a US-based VPN.