Build Your Own Newspaper with The Early Edition for iPad. Review and Giveaway!

It is common understanding that the iPad is the perfect reading device. Whether it’s about long reading sessions (iBooks, Kindle app) or news reading (Pulse, Instapaper, the upcoming Reeder for iPad) the iPad is proving itself to be just great when it comes to sit down and read. Books and iBookstore aside, what we’re seeing today is a slow shift away from typical RSS applications, and even if some great software is coming our way in the future weeks, developers are focusing on finding new solutions to let users catch up with the latest news. Pulse, which we reviewed here, is a good example: a customizable visual news reading app that lets you pick up your own sources and browse news in a visual way that no one has ever accomplished before, not on the iPhone OS platform at least.

The idea of enabling readers to choose their own way to stay updated with what’s going on isn’t new, but sure the iPad is helping in implementing this idea and turn it into great software. The Early Edition from Glasshouse Apps has just been updated to 1.1 version, and it’s about time to talk about this app, which allows you to create your personalized daily newspaper within a great looking interface.

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Australian Airline to Offer Rental iPad to Passengers

The idea of renting tablets on an airline isn’t a new prospect; I believe ARCHOS tablets are already offered on some flights as a way for (1st Class?) passengers to watch or listen to their favorite media. But Australian airline Jetstar is interested in conducting a trial where they could rent iPads to passengers in flight. Though I’d hate to be the guy who mixes up his own iPad in the rental cart.

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Create 8-Bit Masterpieces with Sprite Something for iPad

If you’ve ever wanted to create those perfect 8-Bit sprites on your iPad, there’s an app for that. Ars Technica reviewed Sprite Something for the iPad, which allows young pixel lovers such as yourself to square off with your magical handheld. Apple and retro were practically made for each other, and Ars Technica agrees.

Pixel art is a finicky mistress: it’s difficult, time-consuming, and can be highly frustrating. It’s definitely not for everyone, but if it’s your thing, taking work along with you on an iPad is pretty awesome.

You can check out the full review here, but don’t forget to visit the iTunes App Store and grab your own copy of Sprite Something for only $2.99. A bargain for pixel pushers if you ask me.

iPhone OS 4 Beta, iTunes Syncing and the Cloud

Elastic Threads has written an interesting post about the way Apple is slowly changing the way iTunes handles music synchronization between desktop computers and iPhone OS:

“What I’ve noticed with the OS 4 betas is that when I delete a track from my iPod Touch, it merely gets hidden from the Music app. I’m sure that if I changed enough data on my iPod that the actual blocks of memory in my iPod got written over, then the mp3 would be lost and to get the song back on my iPod, then iTunes would have to re-copy the mp3.

Instead, what happens is that if you delete a song, and then later have iTunes add that song back to your iDevice, it checks first to see if that song is actually still on your device’s SSD (just invisible to the Music app), and, if its still there it just un-deletes the track. Much faster. When I upgraded my iPod to OS 4 beta 4 and it deleted the 4,000 tracks that were currently on my iPod, it only took between an hour to two hours to sync all 30 GB of data back to my iPod; in OS 3 it took a whole night.”

We don’t know whether this is just a small change to optimize the sync process or a first step towards a real cloud sync, but sure Apple is thinking about it, now that Google has announced OTA music sync for Android and Lala has been shut down this morning. We just have to wait.

Steve Jobs Email Conversation About Foxconn Suicides

The problems over at Foxconn have been a highly discussed subject in every technology weblog, and if you consider that Apple is somehow involved in this discussion (Foxconn is the manufacturer of many components used by Apple) you realize that the problem is quite big. Apple itself has released a statement last week, in which they say that they’re “saddened and upset” at Foxconn suicides and that they’re “in direct contact with Foxconn senior management”.

But, someone decided to send an email to Steve Jobs about the matter, and he replied. An interesting discussion arose between the two, and we’ve got the exclusive conversation with screenshots after the break.

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Adobe Announces Digital Viewer Technology for Magazines

Even if Steve Jobs doesn’t want Flash on his App Store, he can’t do anything about digital versions of magazines built using InDesign, it seems. Because in case you don’t know, that’s how Adobe together with Condè Naste created the first Wired app for iPad. And today Adobe has made things clear, and introduced their own Digital Technology Viewer software, which enables developers to create digital version of magazines using, indeed, InDesign.

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