An iPad Rear Camera: Practical or Impractical?

Earlier today we learned some Chinese accessory makers are already producing cases for an alleged “iPad 2”. Those cases clearly show a hole in the upper left corner for a rear-facing camera in the next iteration of Apple’s tablet.

“A rear-facing camera? On the iPad? How are you supposed to take pictures holding the iPad like a camera?” These are the questions going around today, the same we heard when the iPad was first unveiled and, well, lacked a camera.

iLounge posted a follow-up to their iPad 2 case story, with some predictions / hope about a possible rear camera in the iPad 2:

One thing that Apple really enjoys doing, particularly when adding a new feature to an established product, is rethinking things that competitors have attempted and gotten wrong.
[…]
Picture the iPad in an advertisement looking out at a landscape, snapping a picture, and having the landscape appear on the iPad’s screen looking just like what your eyes were seeing. Or taking a picture of a group of people, then becoming the picture frame for the family photo. It sounds so simple, but with the lens on the back of the Galaxy Tab (or, say, the iPod touch) right now, that’s not happening.

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Apple and Costco: It’s (Officially) Over

You may remember there was a time when retail chain Costco was selling iPods. Everything was fine and cool back then, until the day Apple got bigger and started giving iPads away to other retail chains such as Target, WalMart and Sam’s Club – cutting out the old partner Costco. The iPad started appearing everywhere, but not at Costco.

Soon after that, and we’re talking October 2010, Costco started dropping the iPods they had because they were left out of the iPad distribution game. Several reports pointed out that Apple products had gone missing at Costco. Today, the end of the relationship between Apple and Costco is official. Read more

A Beautiful TV Guide For Your iPhone and iPad

I’m thankful for the possibilities offered by today’s technologies, which allow me to ditch the old ways of doing…stuff for more pleasant, rich, interactive and beautiful experiences. Apple’s devices and apps in the App Store surely played a great role in this digital revolution: we don’t buy specific items anymore because there’s an app for that. The last time you bought a radio player? An actual map? A point & shoot camera? Exactly.

Still, there was no “last time” for me when it comes to TV guides. I never bought those magazines that offered monthly and weekly views and summaries of what would be in television – I  just checked TV programming on the internet. Or on my local newspaper. But now I’m ready to step my game up, with an app simply called “TV” and available at .99 cents in the App Store for iPhone and iPad. It’s uncluttered, beautiful, elegant and, finally, it’s something that deeply integrates a TV guide with the information coming from the internet. Read more

Here’s A Way To Keep The App Store App From Closing When Downloading Apps

On the iPhone and iPad, every time you search for an app inside the on-device App Store and click the buy button to download it, the App Store app closes and you’re brought back to the homescreen. For most iOS users, that’s simply wrong: many would like a way to keep pressing the Buy button and “queue” downloads without having to re-open the App Store app every single time.

StayOpened is a new tweak available for free in Cydia that, when activated, modifies the App Store’s default behavior to stay opened even after pressing the Buy button. Simple as that, the download goes in the background and the app will be saved on your homescreen.

Next up, a proper App Store download manager?

Apple Patents A Way To Easily Share iOS Apps & Demos

What’s great about the App Store is that it allows for a one-click purchase experience that makes it easy to download apps. Users can browse the App Store on their Macs, PCs, iPhones and iPads, check on new releases and apps they’ve been keeping an eye on, tap a button and download an app. For free apps and those sold at $.99 , it can become quite an addiction.

The App Store, though, doesn’t allow you to share apps with your friends as easily as it lets you buy them. Sure, there’s the possibility to share apps on Twitter and Facebook from iTunes – but that’s not really the best way to let your friends know about a specific app sold in the App Store, nor does it enable you to provide one of your friends an actual copy of the app.

Apps can’t be shared, and a new patent Apple has been granted, published by Patently Apple, is aimed at fixing that. Read more

Cydia Tweak Shows The Size Of App Store Updates On Your iPhone

AppStore Update Size is a new tweak available for free in Cydia which can turn out to be very useful for when you’re out and about, check on your iPhone’s App Store app and find out that there are some updates available. This tweak, as the name suggests, shows the size in MBs of the updates right below the download button.

Very useful as Apple limits the download of large updates while on 3G connection, and this tweak allows you to instantly see if you can update or not.

Recommended.

AirPlay: Here To There→

Airplay: Here To There

But what made Netflix an instant success was that element of touch in the browsing experience. People need to keep their fingertips on those VHS boxes in the countless white wireframe shelves at the Video Depot. The tactile experience of picking out a cassette by its cover, transporting it back home, sticking it in the VCR box and hearing the clunk when you hit Play, and then finally stepping back, separating yourself from the object that has earned your trust, and transforming yourself into a spectator,that’s actually a great representation of the appeal of AirPlay.

Because what AirPlay promises is that I can touch media here, and then weightlessly move it there.

Adam Lisagor nails it.

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Apple Also Confirms What The App Store Has Become

Did you check out the iTunes Rewind 2010 section Apple posted this morning in the iTunes Store homepage? It features the best music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks and podcasts of 2010. It also features the best & top selling iPhone and iPad apps of this year.

I’d like to take a second look at the top apps charts, because something interesting lies in there. Something that confirms an idea that has been floating around in our minds for months. Read more