Apple Inc. unveiled a tablet computer named ‘iPad’ to revolutionized personal computing. Priced at $499, the device features a 10-inch touchscreen, with 3G data and a custom ARM processor instead of the previously considered Intel Atom processor. It will be positioned in that empty spot between smartphone and laptop in Apple’s product line.

Similar to modern netbooks in design and scope, the iPad is projected to enter the same bloated netbook market with Apple’s high end design (it’s expected appearance looks like a large iPhone), functionality (OS X for its operating system).

According to Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs,”The iPad can display full Web pages, books and iPhone applications, and has a touch-screen keyboard that’s almost full size.” A 16-gigabyte version will sell for $499, while a 32-gigabyte model costs $599.

With its “communication enabled” operating system, the data can be faxed, e-mailed, beamed via infrared or sent to a desktop computer or printer. It is also convenient for voice, video and other advanced technologies when they become available.

Its price is 50 percent lower than the other netbooks. “At that price, they’ll sell millions,” said Hakim Kriout, a portfolio manager at New York-based Grigsby & Associates, which owns Apple shares. “It’s very, very affordable for what it does. This is going to add a huge revenue stream for Apple.”

The device, made of aluminum and glass, can display maps from Google Inc., and has calendar and address-book functions. It also lets users display thumbnail views of photos. The iPad has a 1-gigahertz chip that was custom designed by Apple and battery life of 10 hours, Jobs said.

The device supports Wi-Fi communications and runs the more than 140,000 applications already available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It also works with wireless service from AT&T Inc., the U.S. carrier for the iPhone, though no contract is required.

Apple said there will be two iPad wireless data plans from AT&T in the U.S. One will cost $14.99 and give users up to 250 megabytes of data downloads. The other will have unlimited data and cost $29.99. The company is also working on international wireless plans.

Apple is planning to replace Google as it has started competing with the tech giant in several markets “including the mobile market”. The company is in talks with Microsoft for weeks, which clearly reflects the degree of rivalry is elevating Apple and Google, the main provider of Web search on the iPhone.

If one believe on the above rumors on Businessweek, then it means that Google Maps will be obliterated and Apple will create there own Maps.

According to some additional information on CNBC, “iPhone can be a real possibility for Bing, and presented the following arguments in the concern:-

According to the CNBC report, citing “a captivating email from a knowledgeable but anonymous source”:

• When Microsoft released its Bing app for iPhone, it became the company’s best mobile search by volume of queries, better than the traffic Verizon Wireless.
• Acc to this source, “Jobs hates Eric”
• Every time the user carry out a Google search from Apple’s iPhone Safari and clicks an ad, Apple gets a payment. Acc. To this source, Microsoft is ready to pay much more money to Apple to ensure that they displace Google as the default engine.
• Along with this, the discussions between Microsoft and Apple have been ongoing since the October/November time frame.

In addition to the monetary gains, iPhones are widely used for in-depth search on the web and most of them use the built-in search field in MobileSafari. Of course, the quality of results matters a lot, making the default search an important feature. It’s worth tens of millions of dollars per year for desktop Safari and for the iPhone as well. You might understand the picture the way the iPhone platform is growing.

Whatever market analysis and stats reveal about Microsoft’s Bing, but the fact is, Bing is the only chief adversary to Google. Yahoo search has already crumbled and have already inked the deal to power it with Bing. There are hopes that Bing does well and expands its horizons against Google by providing evenly fair and paramount search results.

Apple has released its new MobileMe Gallery application for the iPhone and iPod touch. It follows in the footprints of the previously released MobileMe iDisk utility and Apple’s handy Find My iPhone. The functionality is as superior and dignified as the name suggests, pulling your MobileMe Gallery photos and movies from the cloud and showing them on your device.

This app provides users the expertise to check their gallery of photos and movies from either an iPhone or an iPod Touch. Once the app is installed, you can login with your MobileMe username and password. Whether a gallery is public or private, you have full access to all galleries attached to your account.

You can use multitouch gestures to flick left and right to move through photos, pinch to zoom, or rotate your iPhone or iPod Touch to view them in landscape mode. You can view or watch your friends’ gallery photos and videos and share links to your own albums from an iPhone. MobileMe Gallery app automatically stores photos you’ve viewed so you can quickly access them again, even without a network connection,i.e, in offline mode.

Features of the application, according to Apple, include:

• View your entire gallery including password protected and hidden albums.
• Flick through photos and pinch to zoom in for more detail.
• Rotate iPhone to see photos in landscape.
• View your friends’ gallery photos and movies.
• Access previously viewed photos when offline.
• Easily share a link to an album from iPhone.

MobileMe Gallery, 0.7MB application requires a MobileMe account and iPhone OS 3.1 or later, and is available as a free download from the App Store.

It’s no secret that Apple and Microsoft have one of the stranger relationships in tech. While Microsoft has produced software such as Office for the Macintosh platform, and Apple has opened its doors to Windows with its switch to Intel, they still are highly competitive with each other. But Cupertino’s relationship with Google is souring far faster, which is the perfect opening for Microsoft when it comes to the iPhone.

Apple is apparently in discussions with Microsoft to give the Bing search engine the top spot for search on iPhone, which currently belongs to Google. These talks have been underway for several weeks, BusinessWeek reports, but nothing as of yet has been finalized.

Getting on the iPhone as the default search engine would be a huge win for Bing. I regularly search for things on my iPhone, so just the boost there in search queries would help Microsoft overall in gaining some search share, something it sorely needs. It’s not clear whether any search deal would also extend to the Safari browser, available on both the Macintosh and Windows platforms.

Either way, its pretty likely that Google wouldn’t be completely erased from the iPhone. YouTube is a popular application. Apple would probably also let users switch back to Google in settings just like it already does now if users wish to search using Yahoo. Bing Maps could replace Google Maps, however.

Source: Pcworld.com

The preciousVault app, developed by Garry Runke, is a precious metal manager for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It displays real-time quotes and values of your metals, like gold, silver, platinum, palladium. It can also calculate the gain and loss they achieved since purchased.

preciousVault is a finance app built for the more advanced investor of precious metals. If you’re someone who likes to personally purchase and track your investments then this is a great app for you. In it, various charts show you the trends and values for each metal. The interface is very nice, with a 3-D view that allows the user to easily swipe their finger across to view each metal. The quotes get updated in real-time, so you know you’re always seeing the most recent data available. If your someone who buys and sells allot then you know how imperative and useful this feature alone can be.

preciousVault Features:

• Manage your gold / silver / platinum / palladium.
• Real-time quotes, 30 day chart, 1 year chart, 5 years chart.
• Gain and loss calculator.
• See your vaults or metals value easily.
• Various currencies supported by real-time quotes.
• Shiny 3D interface.
• Coin inspector (closeup of coins with interactive features)

If you are an investor of precious metals then this app is without a doubt built for you. It is well built, intuitive and serves its niche function well. This app will really enable you to track your investments in real-time quickly and efficiently.

Source: Slapapp.com

Soupface is a face morphing application created for iPhone and iPod Touch that allows you to combine 2 faces into one! Use it to instantly morph pictures of yourself with friends, family members, celebrities, and maybe even your pets. Surprise your friends by emailing them morphed images of them with celebrities. You can even see what your baby might look like by morphing a generic baby face with a previously morphed image of you and your significant other or secret crush. Though it’s not scientific, but it can give you a fairly realistic idea and can be lots of fun!

Soupface is good, clean fun for everyone. Use Soupface at family get-togethers, or as an ice breaker at social gatherings. Looking for a way to meet singles at discs and clubs? Use Soupface to strike up a fun conversation! You can e-mail the morphed images or post them directly to your Facebook page from within the app.

Now here’s where Soupface is different than most other morphing apps: You actually can affect the outcome of the morphs directly! We don’t use face detection like any other applications, or randomly send you a “morphed” image that looks like it came from some preloaded database of pictures. You must have noticed, they look nothing like the prototype images you uploaded. While morphing using Soupface, you manually crop the images with your fingers empowering you the full control!The premium version of Soupface comes with 12 preloaded celebrity images and allows you to upload unlimited additional images of your own from your photo library, or you can take photos using the in-app camera from you iPhone. If you want to morph your face with celebrities and public figures that are not preloaded in the database, simply search for them on the web and save them to your library. You will then be able to morph any two combinations of the 12 preloaded images and your own to create endless amounts of fun images!

Another great attribute of Soupface is that you don’t require an Internet connection once you’ve downloaded it. And all the morphing happens swiftly within the app. Enjoy Soupface anytime, anywhere! Soupface is a hands on (or fingers on) experience that will take a little practice at first, but you will become a Soupface pro in no time and impress your friends!

For exciting app information and iphone app development click on:- iphonesoftwareprogramming.com

Glow Hockey isn’t a new title, but it’s success is definitely new. Glow Hockey delivers a new style of hockey game. Easy to play, hard to master.

Glow Hockey developed by Natenai Ariyatrakool is a simple air hockey game which offers a colorful game design by adding the neon glow effect to the surrounding rail of the table, puck and mallets. Glow Hockey certainly creates an interesting gaming environment which makes the game addictive. This particular application brings a unique spin to it by allow people to play the game in the dark. It also helps that the neon looks very psychedelic. It’s probably fun to play if one is high or tripping. Challenge yourself with the computer opponents or play with your friends!

The free version only comes with a 1 player game while the full version comes with a 2 player mode. The free version also only has easy and medium levels while the paid has a difficult level.

The graphics and animation are superb. The sound effects are also interesting as the puck hitting the side sounds a bit like glass breaking. The simplicity of hitting the puck into your opponents goal in an effort to score 7 points can keep one occupied, whether adult or child, for hours on end. Despite the limitations of the free version, it’s still good for keeping a single person occupied on the bus or in the office.

FEATURES:

• Colorful glow graphics.
• Smooth and responsive game play.
• Realistic physics.
• Championship mode with 3 saved games (unlimited AI levels, see how far you can go!).
• Quick play mode (single player & 2 players), practicing with 4 difficulty levels (easy to insane) before challenge yourself with Championship mode.
• Support 2 players on the same device.
• Support iPhone OS 2.2.1 & 3.0