Project Mag for iPad Issue 2 Now Available

Project, the iPad-only magazine from Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, was off to a good start when it was first released and then, pretty much like any other iPad magazine, it quickly disappeared from the App Store charts. There was a lot of excitement and anticipation around Branson’s Project, mainly because it was the first magazine to be built entirely with the iPad in mind and because, well, anything from Branson is a little bit cool.

While we didn’t exactly go crazy over the first issue of Project (it had a great animated cover, and some fancy graphics here and there inside the magazine), perhaps the second issue, released today, will get us a bit more excited.  Issue 2 of Project Mag has another animated cover and interview featuring the star of Born Survivor/Man vs Wild Bear Grylls. Read more

iPad Simulator Crafted In JS & CSS3 Works - Has Multitasking

Put this on the top of the, “Most impressive things I’ve seen today!” list. Alex Wolkov has taken an iPad, and simulated it virtually with JS & CSS3. Launch apps, surf inside the iPad with a web browser, and even launch the multi-task bar with the home button. Quit apps, delete others, and shuffle icons around just as you would on a real iPad. This is all in web code, and the project is open-sourced on github so you can take a gander. Fair warning, make sure you have a relatively good screen resolution on your monitor so you can view the iPad in full while you play around.

[iPad Simulator via Forrst]

Apple Stores Everywhere: List Of Store Confirmations To Open 2011

With over 150 store openings as of last September, you can expect the 2011 Apple Store season to be huge. Where’s the money? Apple must be a fan of MacStories, because Cupertino will be brining our international audience (Italy in particular) a little slice of home throughout the year. That’s not to say new stores won’t open in the United States (New York’s pretty lucky to be getting yet another store), and we advise you to check past the break for a run down of expected store openings according to ifoAppleStore.com’s latest report.

Read more

Jon Stewart Is Pretty Excited About The Verizon iPhone

You know people have been waiting for the iPhone to lose exclusivity to AT&T when even The Daily Show covers the announcement of the Verizon iPhone. Indeed, Jon Stewart’s segment about the iPhone 4 now available on another – better, according to him – carrier perfectly shows all the excitement that has surrounded this historic announcement over the past years.

Stewart says that to be part of the iPhone community he has sacrificed the ability to make actual phone calls for many years. In the name of carrying around photos, videos, music and a compass, he – and millions of other users like him – stayed on AT&T to have an iPhone. But starting February 10, it will be all over.

So jump after the break, and check out The Daily Show’s take on the Verizon iPhone. [via CrunchGear] Read more

Homebrew Satarii Star iPhone Dock Follows Your Every Move

A couple of pals under the name Satarii have been working out of a garage-office for the past year perfecting the Satarii Star, an iPhone dock that follows your every move. In conjunction with a wearable tracker, the Satarii is a rotary base that follows you around around a scene such as your living-room. FaceTime conversations would be rather awesome when you could grab a cup of coffee without having to worry about the ol’ shaky cam, and imagine the possibilities in self-producing quality video? Imagine the MacStories reviews that could come of this thing! We’re pretty excited about this neat gadget because it’s a novel idea. Support the team and help Satarii reach their goal of $20,000 so we can see this thing get some legs.

[IndieGoGo via Engadget]

Personal Hotspot For All iPhones with iOS 4.3 In March?

Here’s an interesting rumor coming this morning from BGR: according to their source, iOS 4.3 will become available in March and will feature the Personal Hotspot functionality for all iPhones, although there will need to be carrier support. This means that iOS 4.3, according to BGR, will sport Personal Hotspot out of the box, but it’s up to a carrier like AT&T or Vodafone Italy to support it.

BGR also reports 4.3 will have build number 8F5148b, baseband will be 04.08.00 and “technical acceptance is planned for March”. It is unclear when we’ll see a developer beta for the next OS, and if AT&T in the US will support the hotspot feature.

Yesterday, both iPhoneclub.nl and iPhoneHellas reported Personal Hotspot would be available with a forthcoming iOS update for all GSM phones.

Wozniak Is Happy About Verizon iPhone, Says LTE Will Come

Steve Wozniak is glad about the iPhone finally available on Verizon, arguably the “best carrier in the United States”. In the following video posted by VentureBeat, the Woz also goes on to say he’s excited about the mobile hotspot feature which, in the past, saved him a couple of times. Woz, as usual, is a fan of choice, and he thinks that the device available on two carriers will give people the chance to evaluate options and pick the carrier that has the best reception where they live.

About different carriers, Woz explains he was happy when in the early days of unlocked phones you could have a device with two numbers on two carriers at the same time. He says he would be glad to see this coming back in the future, with iPhone capable of easily switching between AT&T and Verizon. Oh, and 4G LTE? Woz says it’ll come, to the iPhone as well. That’s pretty much a given, although we don’t know when.

Check out the video of the Verizon-loving Woz below. Read more

Reeder for iPhone Adds Readability Support, Fullscreen Image Viewing

Reeder for iPhone, our favorite RSS client on iOS, was updated a few minutes ago to include features already seen in the iPad version. Reeder 2.3, available in the App Store at $2.99, now allows you to read full-length articles from any website thanks to Readability integration. Readability, also used by Apple in Safari Reader, can fetch text from articles on the web removing all the clutter such as unnecessary ads and banners. Reeder can now display this “elegant” content with the tap of a button while in reading mode. You can also pinch to open an article through Readability.

Another neat feature of this new version is fullscreen image viewing. Available only on iOS 4 and later, you can pinch on images to reveal them in fullscreen and tap to read an image’s description. Pinch out, and you go back to the standard article mode.

Last, the app can now load up to 5,000 unread items. This should be great news for those who daily skim through a huge list of unread feeds – personally, I never found myself in the situation of having to deal with thousands of articles waiting to be marked as read. Still, the functionality is in there now.

Reeder is a $2.99 purchase in the App Store and it’s an absolute must-have for iPhone owners.

Verizon iPhone, Personal Hotspot and MyWi - Which One?

With the Verizon iPhone, Apple today showcased a new software feature that comes pre-installed with the slightly-redesigned device: Personal Hotspot. Already available for several Android devices running on Verizon’s network and made deeply integrated into iOS with a new software build, Personal Hotspot will allow you to create a mobile WiFi network to share your 3G connection with up to 5 nearby WiFi devices. The feature, put simply, looks great: you can activate wireless tethering with literally two taps and a password, or go with Bluetooth and USB tethering. As suggested by Apple’s Phil Schiller himself, Personal Hotspot makes for a great alternative to popular MiFi hotspots and will allow iPad owners to carry around an iPhone on Verizon’s network and have constant access to the Internet even if the iPad is WiFi-only. Read more