Kind of like eating a peanut butter sandwich with no jelly, the most obvious app missing from the iPad has been Facebook — until today. Finally! The New York Times reports that the site has finally confirmed the app’s availability just in time for eager social networkers to like, subscribe and stalk from their slates.

According to software engineer Leon Dubinsky, the app will highlight the multitouch awesomeness of the iPad, something that’s unavailable from the website alone even from a touchscreen device. The folks at FB also added that some of the newly released features will be integrated into the iPhone app as well, making it a win / win for iOS fanatics. Consider it liked.

SOURCE via Facebook

Mark your calendars, boys and girls. Scott Forstall gave a hard date for iOS 5′s arrival during the iPhone event: expect it to hit next week, on October 12th, with Apple’s iCloud service launching that same day. Though developers have been playing with it for four months now, this will be the first time the general, non-tinkering public gets to taste its 200-plus new features — a list that includes Newsstand, Reminders, iMessage, WiFi sync, Find My Friends, split keyboards, AirPlay mirroring for the iPad 2 (and iPhone 4S!) and the Notification Center. (And, you know, greeting cards, if you’re into that sort of thing.) iOS 5 will be free for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches, while iCloud’s standard 5GB of email / storage will come gratis to folks already using iOS 5 and Lion. Take note that if it’s iTunes Match you’re after (and you live in the states), you’ll have to sit tight a few more weeks yet.

Once upon a time, the AppleCare Protection Plan was a service provided by Cupertino to extend out the life of your iPhone warranty for an extra year and enable Apple reps to help with additional customer service concerns. It still offers all of that, but now a Plus has been added to the title.

The new plan was revealed as the cloak over the Apple Store lifted after today’s keynote, with the boxes shipping out the same day as the iPhone 4S. What’s so “plus” about it, you might ask? It’s plus $30, for one, getting a price bump from $70 to $100. The good news, though, is that it also now offers two instances of protection from accidental damage… for a $49 fee each time.

It’s a fair deal less than shelling out full retail price for a fresh one, of course, but there doesn’t appear to be any other new features beyond what we’re already used to getting. Oh, except for “one more thing”: whereas its predecessor could be obtained and activated anytime within the first twelve months of your purchase, it appears that AppleCare+ has to be bought at the same time as the valuable treasure it’s protecting.

Then again, does the accidental damage handling justify the higher cost?

SOURCE via Apple

Current Sony Ericsson CEO Bert Nordberg wasn’t leading the company back when Apple introduced the first iPhone in 2007, but he still has some opinions about how it should have reacted to the phone’s debut.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal today, Nordberg said, “it’s safe to say that Sony Ericsson should have taken the iPhone more seriously when it arrived in 2007.” He has nothing but praise for the company’s commitment to Android, however, saying that “our Android strategy has been successful and the best choice we could have made,” and that he “wouldn’t feel comfortable investing in a platform that isn’t as good as the one that we currently use.”

That last bit was in response to a question about Windows Phone, and it may sound like a complete slam if not for the fact that he went on to admit he is “quite curious” it. Exactly what that means isn’t clear, but it sounds like the door still at least isn’t completely shut for the OS it once toyed around with. Hit the source link below for the full interview.

SOURCE via Wall Street Journal

Every retailers involved are preparing themselves for the massive sales that will hit them once Apple announce their new iPhone(s), and it seemed that in US, almost all carriers will have the new iPhone in their lineup, unlike last year’s launch where we see only AT&T had the iPhone 4 (followed few months later by Verizon).

If this screenshot, apparently culled from Radio Shack’s inventory system, is any indication, Sprint will indeed be among the carriers offering the iPhone 5. That lines up just right with previous reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, slating the phone to hit the Now Network in mid-October. There’s no indication of actual dates at this point, but if Sprint’s getting Apple’s next-gen iPhone, we’re guessing we’ll hear more about it on Tuesday.

SOURCE via 9to5mac

The truth about Apple’s next generation will be unveiled in less than 48 hours, but that’s not stopping the speculation train from churning out its last steam to its final destination. Here’s a screenshot of Apple’s iPhone 4 placeholder at the website of Cincinnati Bell’s pre-paid service, i-Wireless, accompanied by a $639.99 price tag and a handful of specs: 32GB, 4-inch screen and 4G data speeds. Our friends over at TUAW have also procured a screenshot (after the break) from the same site, displaying a $99.99 16GB iPhone 4S, sporting a 5MP camera, 3.5-inch screen and an A5 processor. Of course, there’s also a chance these are just placeholders, but we’re hoping Tuesday’s announcement will bear dual fruits, nonetheless. Read more…

Some folks get along just dandy with an iPod and a speaker dock, but if you need a rig that’ll handle more sources, Harman Kardon hopes to have you covered with MS 150 — which bears more than a passing resemblance to the Zeppelin Mini. This stereo system comes loaded with an iPhone dock, CD drive and FM tuner, along with a flood of auxiliary connections not limited to its headphone jacks and subwoofer output. It’s even sporting an LCD display so you’ll know what’s pumping out of its 30 watt drivers. The MS 150 is available now from Harman Kardon, but all of its functionality will cost you — it’s priced at a whopping $600. Hey, at least it comes with a remote.

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We know that Apple won’t be unveiling its next superphone for a few more days, but we may have a tasty tidbit about the iPhone 5 ahead of schedule. So the story goes, China Unicom’s Deputy Director Huang Wenlian was making a presentation at Macworld Asia, and stated that the new iPhone would utilize the company’s HSPA+ 21Mbps network. Now, we aren’t saying it’s a sure thing, but it appears that Tim Cook could deliver a handset with thrice the data speeds of its predecessor next week. Then again, remember that AT&T was fitting an Apple Store with some LTE equipment? And yet there was a contradicting report way back earlier in the beginning of the year that Apple’s Tim Cook mentioned that Apple will not be looking into LTE as of yet. Anyway, all will be known this coming Tuesday.

SOURCE via Impress Japan

Skype’s latest app upgrade brings a few substantial features, some good, one not so. Alongside a new anti-shake video call function (limited to the iPhone’s back-facing camera), you can now pair Bluetooth headsets with the VoIP calling service, something apparently “long requested” from Skype fans.

However, users have to fork out for credit to avoid seeing advertising that’s also baked into the new version. The update’s now up for grabs on both the iPhone and iPad, though there are reports of a few teething troubles, including missing credit and account details.

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When last we checked in with Nielsen earlier this month, Google’s mobile OS had a sizable lead, powering just under 42-percent of smartphones sold, while Apple had cornered a more than respectable 28-percent of the market.

In the few short weeks since, Android has seen its share grow to 43-percent. More interestingly, of the over 25,500 surveyed who had purchased a smartphone in the last three months, a whopping 56-percent chose to go with the Google. Apple held a steady 28-percent across the board.

Big G’s gains came at the expense of RIM (only 9-percent of phones sold in the last three months were BlackBerries) and the ambiguous “other” (Symbian, Windows Phone 7, Bada, MeeGo, etc… accounted for 6-percent of sales). More important than choice of platform though, is that smartphone sales in general are climbing — accounting for 58-percent of all handsets sold in August and driving smartphone penetration to 43-percent.

Well, things will surely change beginning next week when Apple unveils their next generation iPhone.

SOURCE via Nielsen