According to the geniuses at Boy Genius Report, Apple is teaming up with the only iPad US carrier, AT&T, to distribute the 3G models of iPad at their retail stores. This seems quite logical because all versions of the iPhone are sold at AT&T stores nation wide, but to date nothing along those lines for the iPad has been confirmed. AT&T selling the 3G model in stores would open up the door for Apple to sell more units of their forthcoming tablet device, and would also open up the door for more potential sales of the 3G model. BGR also states that large display models would be in the stores, similarly to the large iPhone displays currently housed in AT&T stores. These displays may be featured in the store’s netbook section. Apple is said to be launching the non-3g iPad in late march and is planning to launch the 3G models by the end of April. 

We considered this a foregone conclusion, but the LATimes reports that Apple’s iBookStore will encrypt book purchases with Apple’s Fairplay DRM.  Let’s look at the alternatives:

Some book sellers won’t want to protect their content, but obviously most of the content coming out of the big publishing companies needs to be protected, otherwise, those $15 bestsellers will instantly be iChatted everywhere on earth.

So there will be DRM of some sort, obviously.

Next, what kind of DRM will Apple use? Will Apple license Adobe’s ePub DRM format?  Perhaps some other company has some DRM software that will work

After previewing their app almost one year ago in March of 2009 at the Apple iPhone OS 3.0 event, Meebo has finally made it to the App Store. The reason the app took this long to make it to the store is still unclear, but according to Tech Crunch‘s enamored MG Siegler, the app was only officially submitted last week. 

The wait might have been worth it.  The simple app  allows you to connect to almost all of the different services you use such as AIM, Facebook Chat, and MSN messenger (no Skype like Fring). The app also comes with a great design, searchable chat history, and push notifications like many of its competitors. The app is free on the App Store.

Apple released Pro-level photo editing and organizing application Aperture 3 last week, promising the “faces and places” of consumer level iPhoto as well as some additional high end features that professionals could use.

What a lot of those Pro users got, however, was a frozen computer and an “out of disk space” warning.

read more

Fisher-Price has been watching Apple closely and this week will introduce its own iPad-inspired device for children, the iXL.

The iXL offers photo, ebook, music playback, games, an art studio and e-notebook all inside its robust body. Set to cost $79.99, the system launches at this week’s Toy Fair in New York and to the public in July.

The idea is that children will want to mess with this device because it emulates what their parents and older siblings use.

T-Mobile has won 1.2 million new customers in Germany on strength of its introduction of the iPhone, the company confirmed at Barcelona

Japanese regulators are summoning Apple execs to their offices to give the Cupertino company a strict dressing down following complaints that iTunes has billed customers for downloads they never made, officials said Monday.

Officials are angry as in at least 95 cases in Japan involving five major credit card companies, iTunes customers say they have sometimes been charged

Apple has allegedly moved to ban hackers behind iPhone jailbreak solutions from the App Store, a Redmond Pie report claims.

iPhone developer and hacker, Sherif Hashim, claims to receive a warning showing he

Sling today upgraded their Sling Player Mobile App ($29 App Store) to 1.2 with one very big update note: “3G Streaming enabled”.  It has been a long, long road fraught with finger-pointing and poor communication but you can finally watch your TV over 3G wherever AT&T’s service flows.

In case you were wondering, Prices on compatible Slingboxes as follows:

Solo: $158

Pro: $264

Our brief foray into Microsoft Windows phone rumors last September looks to have been pretty spot on.  ZuneBoards today shows the “Turtle” version of the phone we’ve all come to know and love hitting the FCC.  They prognosticate a MWC release on a Zune like Windows Mobile 7 OS.  So where’s the “Pure”, Microsoft?  Surely you can’t keep that under wraps for another week.  

Is there any chance that these phones give the iPhone a run for its money?

Images via WM Experts.

Flurry, an iPhone apps analytics company, released a report today showing that iPhone apps starts increased sharply.  They attribute that to the iPad, whose 1024×768 screen should motivate developers to rebuild their apps for the device.

Just like with the iPhone, developers who have their apps ready at launch should have a substantial advantage of getting attention drawn to their apps.  The iPad tablet, announced at the very end of the month along with the new SDK, should increase app production even further in February.

Some things to consider with this report however:

Apple only launched the iPad on January 27th…4 days before the end of the month and the SDK after.  Also Apple’s “approvers” took the end of December off and started fresh in January.

Developers integrating Flurry analytics into iPhone OS applications in January increased by nearly three times over December. This represents the single largest spike in Flurry history, with over 1,600 new iPhone OS application starts for January. As such, we hypothesize that excitement generated by Apple’s iPad event in January is driving this growth. For developers who get a jump on customizing their applications for the iPad, there may be an opportunity to stand out early on, and earn more downloads.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSzsFAJAKHI&w=560&h=340]

Well, I know I spoke again and again about this happening two years ago, and now it has (and I wish I

One thing that

O RLY?  Microsoft told T3 today that they were considering building Microsoft Office for the iPad.

Microsoft has revealed to T3 that it is looking at the possibility of releasing Office for Mac for the Apple iPad, although any official word is far from confirmed.

That is a pretty big non-statement, especially considering we are a year into Microsoft Exec Stephen Elop’s hint that they’re building Office for the iPhone which is the same as the iPad with a smaller screen –as far as office apps are concerned.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHKMUHvb2iE&w=700&h=400]

I’ve been wavering on whether I think Macworld Expo can continue to be a success without Apple on board. The products on the show floor by and large aren’t anything you haven’t already seen on the Internet. You could probably visit for less than two hours and see everything you’d want.

But that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t absolutely packed. The show floor was fairly full of exhibitors and at noon when the doors opened to the general public, it was so packed that it was hard to walk around. David Pogue’s un-Keynote was also packed and entertaining, if not technology focused.

But some products were surprisingly interesting…

read more

Shazam has added Last.fm integration, geolocation and concert ticket purchasing features to the company

In case you didn’t read the fine print on Apple’s site, Gruber points out that the iBooks app is not going to be bundled with the iPad

Kenneth Li from the Financial Times reports that Apple may have convinced some of the TV networks to lower their price on TV shows from $1.99 to $.99 per episode.

Obvious candidates include Disney’s ABC who has Steve Jobs on their board of directors and is listed as their biggest single stockholder.  Oh, and Disney Chief Bob Eiger had some kind words for the iPad just this week.

The test, expected to coincide with the April consumer debut of the iPad, will offer some shows at the lower price as a way to test whether reducing the cost of video programming will ignite sales, people familiar with the discussions said.  Some television networks agreed to the lower prices after months of negotiations, and having initially resisted Apple