Webout Enables AirPlay Video Streaming From The Browser

We don’t know what’s the secret behind webout, a universal app for iPhone and iPad, and we don’t know if Apple is going to remove this soon from the App Store – but it works. As you may know, you can’t stream video using AirPlay to the Apple TV with Mobile Safari. Only native Apple apps have the video functionality enabled, and if you try to open Youtube.com in the browser you’ll notice that the AirPlay icon doesn’t show up. Read more

Apple Releases iBooks 1.2

iBooks 1.2 just showed up in iTunes. The new version features a new Collection functionality to organize books and PDFs, AirPrint support, possibility to experience fully illustrated books available in the iBookstore.

iBooks can now also fit more words per page using automatic hyphenation, although this feature is only available for iOS 4.2 users. Read more

Lots Of Great iOS Games Coming Out Tonight

Today’s a great day for iOS games, just like last week when Infinity Blade and a bunch of other big names came out in the App Store. And it’s no surprise that right ahead of Christmas iOS users get to download the best gems of the year – who doesn’t want to spend the holiday season relaxing and playing games on a possibly new, shiny iPad?

Most of all, tomorrow will be the last Thursday before the iTunes Connect holiday shut down, when developers (from Dec. 23 to Dec. 28) won’t be able to submit apps and updates or change the price of their existing apps in the Store. Basically, everyone is rushing to get games approved and available before the 23rd.

Already available in the New Zealand store (time zone differences, you know) and coming out in about 14 hours in the U.S. App Store, the following games will be ready to be installed on your devices tomorrow morning. The links you’ll find in this post point to the New Zealand, but you’ll be able to find these games in the U.S. store later today. Read more

The ICONICSTAND Will Make You Reconsider Wooden Stands

Ever thought about placing your iPhone 4 in a wooden stand? You should. It’s classy, retro and adds a natural feeling to that cold glass and aluminum made in Cupertino. Or maybe you simply haven’t managed to find a decent stand made of wood until today. Well, this one’s good.

The ICONICSTAND, realized by Korean designer Kenny Cho and made with “eco-friendly birch wood”, features an ingenious shape that allows it to hold the iPhone both in portrait and landscape mode. You can adjust the position to fit your viewing angle and there’s even room for the charging cable. There are various models and shapes available on the official website.

Added to my Christmas list. [via FSM]

Lynx Joining European iAds Next Week

Even though I still haven’t managed to see the popular Renault iAd in any app (yet I grabbed some screenshots of the Tron one yesterday), it looks like Apple keeps on signing advertisers for its European iAd service.

According to MarketingWeek, Unilever’s Lynx Excite (a body spray) will go live with a “fresh” new campaign on Apple’s iAd next week. We assume it’ll be an iPhone campaign, as the one Disney launched for Tron on the iPad was a “demo” of interactive advertisements to come on the tablet in 2011. You may remember Unilever was one of the partners Apple mentioned when they announced iAds were coming to Europe. Read more

Latest Apple TV Update Addresses Download, Resolution Issues

Apple released iOS 4.2.1 for Apple TV 2nd gen last night, which is labelled as “4.1.1” in the device’s built-in software update checker tool. The OS was a 267MB download on Apple’s servers, and that lead us to think that it was mainly aimed at fixing a few bugs found in the previous build.

According to a support document on Apple’s website, the 4.1.1 update fixes issues related to resolution and download of movies and TV shows.

TV resolution fix: Addresses an issue that causes some high-definition TVs to incorrectly display at 480p.

Download fix: Addresses an issue that may cause a movie or TV show to be re-downloaded.

As we reported last night, the 4.1.1 update doesn’t seem to provide a fix for the “color issues” with certain Sony and Philips televisions.

Toshiba Denies Rumors Of Apple’s Interest In Toshiba Mobile Display

Yesterday we reported that, according to the Nikkei business daily, Toshiba was building a $1.19 billion factory “mainly to supply to Apple Inc’s iPhones”. That’s quite a statement, as it would imply that Cupertino is somehow interested in expanding its mobile display supply chain.

Digitimes has posted a follow-up to the story:

Toshiba has denied rumors that Apple will invest in the new production plant of its small- to medium-size panel subsidiary, Toshiba Mobile Display (TMD).

Panel makers indicated that the rumors could make sense because of limited capacity for LTPS in the market, as well as the possibility to develop AMOLED solutions by leveraging the LTPS production line.

Expect more to come up in the next weeks.

Lastify Brings Additional Last.fm Features to Spotify

Another week, another SIMBL plugin that brings additional features to a Mac app. This time, instead of adding new functionalities to Tweetie for Mac, we’re going to add some spicy Last.fm integration to Spotify for Mac which, by default, only scrobbles tracks to the popular music service.

Lastify, developed by George Brocklehurst, injects a Last.fm in Spotify for Mac that allows you to “love” and “ban” tracks, tag them and add them to a playlist. Once you’ve downloaded the Lastify bundle, extract it and place the file in /Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins or ~/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins if you want to install it for all user or just your account, respectively. Restart Spotify after that. To reveal the sidebar, resize the main Spotify window.

The integration with Last.fm is pretty sweet and works as you’d expect. Perhaps SIMBL isn’t the most elegant solution, but it works. Go download the latest Lastify build here.