WhenWillApple has found an interesting screen in the just-released(ish) iPhone 3.2 SDK for the iPad — one that once again hints at camera functionality.

We don’t want to set anyone up for anticipointment, so we’re seriously not expecting any last minute camera additions before next months iPad launch, but the regular stream of rumors sure isn’t helping!

[Thanks Justin for the tip!]

iPad Camera Spied Again in iPhone SDK 3.2? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Right on schedule — if they stick to 2 week schedules! — Apple has released iPhone SDK for iPad Beta 3. It’s available now via developer.apple.com and if the past is any indication, we should be seeing the code explored and any new and interesting finds tipped and posted… well, from now until Beta 4 hits!

Go get it!

UPDATE: Or now, Apple seems to have pulled Beta 3 for now. Let us know if you still see it, if it’s gone for you, or if it comes back!

UPDATED: iPhone SDK 3.2 for iPad Beta 3 Now Live! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Star Trek time — today we’re looking at the inductive future of charging via the PowerMat Home or office Mat [$97.95 - TiPb Store link], PowerMat Portable Mat [$97.95 - TiPb Store link], PowerMat Receiver Case for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS [$39.95 - TiPb Store link], and PowerMat Universal Power Cube [$29.95 - TiPb Store link] for all your other gadgets.

Follow on after the break for our review, photos, videos — and did I mention we’re giving away the full review package?!

I first saw PowerMat when I stopped off at their booth at CES with CrackBerry Kevin, and it was immediately apparent why Dieter and our PreCentral.net friends are such fans of their Touchstones. The idea of just putting a device down and it starting to charge is right out of our collective science-fiction consciousness.

We’re not quite Sci-Fi yet, of course, especially since Apple — unlike Palm — hasn’t built an inductive battery into the iPhone (cue 4th gen iPhone speculation!) but PowerMat brings us a very cool step closer.

PowerMat

The system starts off with the PowerMat proper, which is the base. I tested both the Home and Office and the Portable mats, and they both worked very well. They’re almost identical in fact, with three magnetic charging points each, as well as USB, controls for brightness and volume (for the light and sound that indicates a connection for charging — in case you want to mute them in the bedroom), and the AC connection that gets plugged in. The big difference is that the portable mat can be folded neatly in three, creating a smaller if thicker footprint which is easier to store in a bag for traveling (hence the name portable!).

iPhone Case Receiver

To make it work with the iPhone you need a case that plugs into the iPhone’s 30-pin dock connector and has an inductive receiver (big square of metal) on the back. Slide your iPhone, carry it around with you, protected by the hard case, and when you get back to your PowerMat just set it down and it will begin to recharge. It’s really as simple as that (okay, you have to make sure you align the magnets but that’s very easy to feel and is accompanied by a sound to alert you when it’s just right).

Power Cube

You can get cases for a variety of other devices, but if you’re a real gadget-geek and have tons more you want to charge, each PowerMat comes with a Universal Power Cube that sits on the PowerMat and offers a Mini-USB tip for you to plug into. There’re also adapters for Micro-USB, Sony, Samsung, Nintendo, and a bunch of others, including a standard iPhone and iPod (and eventually iPad?) dock connector. I used them to plug in an iPod touch and Motorola H17 BT headset, but you can really use them to plug in almost anything. It even comes with a matching, handy-dandy holder for all the adapters.

You can also get the Power Cube’s separately, and those come with the Mini-USB tip and Micro-USB adapter.

Conclusion

Again, at this point it’s a work-around (thanks Apple!) and more of a cable-management system than real sci-fi solution, but frak if it isn’t cool. Just one plug and the mat, and you can charge virtually any gadget you own and just smile doing it. If you’re a geek, then seriously, this is the geekiest tech around and a must-have just to stick on your coffee table and show off when you drop your iPhone down in front of guests.

Give Away

So, the give-away! I have all this PowerMat gear sitting here, and while the boxes have been opened and the stuff tested for a few weeks, it’s all still in perfect condition. So, TiPb’s decided there’d be nothing better to do with it than give it away to a reader! That’s right, courtesy of the TiPb Store, here’s what’s included:

• PowerMat Home or office Mat [$97.95 - TiPb Store link]
• PowerMat Portable Mat [$97.95 - TiPb Store link]
• PowerMat Receiver Case for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS [$39.95 - TiPb Store link]
• PowerMat Universal Power Cube [$29.95 - TiPb Store link]

That’s $265 worth of review gear, and all you have to do for your chance to get it is head on over to the TiPb iPhone Accessories Forum and let us know what you want to charge with it (in addition to your iPhone, of course!).

Give-away starts now and ends Thursday, Feb. 25 at 12pm PT. US or Canadian shipping address required.

Video and Galleries

TiPb Gear and Give-Away! PowerMat Home and Office, Portable, iPhone Case, and Receiver Cube is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food: Fresh & Easy Recipes [$0.99 - iTunes Link] has a great variety of recipe choices, simple-to-apply shopping, and an ingredient search tool, so you don’t have to make chicken casserole for dinner for the 6th night in a row…

What you get is all of recipes from Martha’s Everyday Food magazine in one app. Daily easy dinner selection’s make the hassle of choosing what to eat each a little easier. The search tool can be organized by ingredients, manner of cooking and holiday. You can also share your favorite recipes with your friends.

You may find ziplist and the advertising a bit out of place for a paid for application but the recipes are of Martha Stewart’s caliber.

Now for the give-away! We have two (2) promo codes for TiPb readers, so if you want to try out this app for FREE just let us know why you’d like Martha’s help in the comments! Give-away starts now and ends Thursday March 25 at 12pm PT. Promo Codes require a US App Store account (Apple’s rule, not ours). They also expire, so if you win, redeem quickly!

TiPb Give-Away: Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food: Fresh & Easy Recipes is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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It seems like “On hold” and “First steps” weren’t the only new, activity-focused commercials Apple had ready for the iPhone as “Family Travel” has now made its Olympic debut as well.

“Family travel” highlights Southwest Airlines [Free - iTunes link] for pre-checkin, Gate Guru [Free - iTunes link] to find the kids a snack, and the built-in iPod app to play them a little Finding Nemo while they wait. Oh, and some Schlage LiNK [Free - iTunes link] to make sure the lights were off at home. End line: “That’s why I don’t go anywhere without my iPhone.”

So the transition from “App for that” and “App for just about anything” to focused, lifestyle-specific “look what you can do with your iPhone” ads is now complete. Interesting to see how they go about step-by-step educational strategies even in their commercials…

Apple Shows Off “Family Travel” iPhone Commercial is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Apple Senior VP of Marketing, Phil Schiller, was quoted by the New York Times in an article on the removal of 5000 sex-based app from the iTunes App Store:

"It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see."

To developers who weren’t afforded any warning or options to pre-emptively make changes where such changes would have been possible:

"We obviously care about developers, but in the end have to put the needs of the kids and parents first."

As to why Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit app, the Playboy app, and a few other publication-associated apps were allowed to remain:

"The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format."

Key take aways:

1. Apple’s App Store ratings system doesn’t work, since Apple classifies anything with unfettered web access as 17+, parents can’t block sex-based apps without blocking Twitter apps, Wikipedia, and countless other non-sex-based apps. Apple needs to redo the ratings system and allow more granular parental control. (Though Safari again shows the ridiculousness of most ratings systems — anyone and everyone can and will find anything and everything in the ratings-free web).
2. This move seems entirely perception-based. Apple likely doesn’t believe people will complain about established corporate content like Sports Illustrated [Free/in-app purchase - iTunes link], FHM [$1.99 - iTunes link], and Playboy [$0.99 - iTunes link] where they will about the indie guy who floods the App Store with 3000 variants of the same underwear and swimsuit pics. (Or if someone does complain about SI, Apple can point to its mainstream profile as an easy out).
3. Since Apple has shown no signs of wanting to get out in front of these issues and give developers warning before taking major action in the App Store, developers have to come to terms with the reality that making any application that comes anywhere near a) areas Apple may consider their own or b) areas where Apple may consider their brand/image at stake, means constant uncertainty and the risk of being removed at any point. Or they have to consider Web Apps, or other platforms and give Apple feedback that way.

Stick to safe, friendly games and helpful utilities and you should be find. Push any boundaries corporate or familial and you could be gone. Which is kind of sad, because Apple seems like the one company who could champion as much creativity, innovation, and boundary-pushing in the App Store as they do in their technology.

NYT: Apple SVP, Phil Schiller on Why Sexy Apps are Out, Sports Illustrated, FHM and Playboy are Still In is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Live from Macworld 2010, Rene and Leanna talk to Buddy Dillenberg about Geodelic [Free - iTunes link], location-based discovery for iPhone.

TiPb Apps 2.3 — Geodelic for iPhone (Macworld 2010) is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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ngmoco, maker of such free-to-play (with in-app purchases) game hits like Touch Pets and Eliminate has just raised a cool $25 million in funding and bought long time Mac and iPhone developer Freeverse of Skee-Ball and Flick Fishing fame. Techcrunch spoke to ngmoco CEO, Neil Young who said it was all about scale and acceleration:

He expects ngmoco to put out about about 20 new games this year, and the newly-acquired Freeverse team to nearly match that.

In addition to rolling out wave after wave of new iPhone games, Young also plans to open up an SDK to ngmoco's Plus+ system so that other developers can more easily tap into it.

We just look forward to Eliminate-ing some Skee-Ball’ers in crossover action! But the question we have for you is this — do you like the free-to-play with in-app purchases model? (i.e. you get the game for free but can buy food or energy or power-ups or whatever inside the game). And how do you feel about all of ngmoco — and now all of Freeverse’s games going that way?

iPhone Gaming Studio ngmoco :) Buys Mac/iPhone Developer Freeverse is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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