Apple’s iTunes News has posted up a helpful tip on how to use the new automatic 128 kpps downsampling function in iTunes to squeeze double the music (if lower quality) onto your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

Audiophiles will no doubt rather scratch their ears out than listen to anything that highly compressed, but if your ears are more greedy than golden, the 128 kbps downsampling might just be for you.

You can find it when you plug your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad into iTunes over USB, on the general screen that comes up. (See screenshot, above). Here are the extra-geeky details:

The bit rate for iTunes Plus (which is the format used for all music from the iTunes Store) is 256kbps (kilobits per second), and that’s also the default for the Import Settings used when you rip CDs. It provides excellent sound quality through most any playback system. However, for many people 128 kbps provides very, very good quality itself and may be acceptable for most situations. Your ear, taste, and how and where you listen to the music matter at least as much as the bit rate. If you’re feeling squeezed for space on one of your devices, select this option to fit in twice as many iTunes Plus songs. The music on your computer won’t be altered in any way and you can always switch back to 256kbps (or higher if you’ve ripped music at a custom bit rate) by unchecking the option the next time you sync.

I tried it but ultimately switched back to the regular mode. I couldn’t really tell the difference, but I didn’t sync enough music for it to matter so decided just to leave it off. Let me know if you’re liking, and using it.

[Apple iTunes News]

How to cram twice as much music onto your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Iron Man 2 for iPhone — based on the upcoming Marvel movie about the Golden Avenger — is now widely available in the iTunes App Store [$6.99 - iTunes link].

You can play as either Iron Man (fast and agile) proper or as War Machine (powerful), and there’s a variety of other armor to try out as well, including the Mark IV, Mark VI, Stealth, and underwater.

Gameloft Live is supported for achievements. Check out more screenshots after the break, and if you try it out let us know what you think!

Iron Man 2 for iPhone now in App Store is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Apple has now fully released the iPad, both iPad Wi-Fi and iPad 3G + Wi-Fi in the US, and have announced 1 million sold, and I’d like to know — which iPad did you get?

Tell me in the poll below then drop a comment and tell me why you chose the iPad model you did, and whether you’re happy with your choice or wish you’d gone for something else. (If you bought the iPad Wi-Fi only and are now selling it on eBay to get the 3G, tell us that too).

Poll after the break.

So which iPad did you get and why? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Apple has just announced sales of 1 million iPads since the US debut on April 3, along with 12 million app downloads from the iTunes App Store and 1.5 million ebook downloads from the iBookstore. Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs, is happy:

"One million iPads in 28 days—that's less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone. Demand continues to exceed supply and we're working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers."

Apple’s iPad Wi-Fi + 3G debuted on April 30 and unofficial tallies have its sales of those SKUs at 300,000.

An amazing debut by any standards, but will growth match that of the iPhone?

[Apple]

Apple announces 1 million iPads sold is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Having a virtually full-fledged word processor like Apple’s Pages iWork app [$9.99- iTunes Link] on the iPad is a big deal. There has been a lot of discussion, however, about how Pages would work on the iPad. How do I transfer/ sync documents? How will my formatting be effected?

I had to use Pages to do some document editing for a house flyer for our home (we are in the process of selling). I figured what a great opportunity to give Pages a spin. First, I had to get the document on the iPad. Email or iTunes? The Pages file was 12MB so I opted to transfer it via iTunes. The process was simple; I selected the Pages app from the bottom of the Apps tab with my iPad attached to my iMac. I clicked the add files button and chose my Pages file. I synced the iPad and my house flyer appeared in the document list in pages.

After importing the house flyer into Pages, I was not greeted with any formatting warnings (to be fair I have imported Microsoft Word documents and did receive warnings. It was hit and miss; some documents looked identical, others, not so much) and I began editing immediately. But, there was one problem…

I did not know where anything was or how it worked! So, I had to start to play. Where do I change my fonts besides a style? How to I change a graphic to wrap through text and not around it? These were all challenges that with time, I was able to figure out. I would estimate it took a good 30 minutes to fully comprehend how things worked and use the app. Tabs, columns, watermarks, images and graphics can all be added to a document with relative ease.

Using Pages to create and edit my document was… pure joy. Touching your document was fun, and after the initial learning curve, it was easy. Your created documents not only look good, but you have complete control over their flow which is more than ANY other mobile app of this type can offer.

With my editing done, it was time to get my document back to my iMac desktop. So, I had couple of options. I could email, but the file is still to big. I could send as a PDF, but I want to continue to edit the file. I could send it to iWork.com. But, I don’t want the hassle. What do I do? Well, there is an export option as well. You can export the file as a Pages, PDF or Word Document. Once this is done, the document is available to be saved from iTunes on the same tab I used to uploaded it from my iMac. Now it gives me a choice to save to my iMac when I dock my iPad.

Now I have to admit that iWork.com may ultimately be a better solution for accessing edited documents in larger quantities. If I had to transfer several documents it would be tedious doing it through iTunes, but still doable. However, accessing iWork.com on the iPad allows you to download the pages file right there and begin editing. When done, sending to iWork.com is just as easy.

This app is not entirely made from unicorn tears however. I did encounter issues with Pages crashing and being sluggish at times, regardless of the document size. I can easily cut Apple slack on this since it is a 1.0 product. I have confidence Apple will release updates for stability and functionality just like its desktop big brother. Still, don’t let these little nuances dissuade you; make no mistake that this is an unparalleled best-in-class app from the user interface to it’s core functionality.

If you have an iPad and need to create or edit documents, this is a must buy.

Quick Review: Pages for iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Citing the usual “people familiar with the matter”, the New York Post claims the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commissions are negotiating over which one of their organizations will inquire into Apple’s new iPhone OS 4 SDK section 3.3.1 — the restriction against cross-compilers in general and Adobe’s Flash CS5 Packager for iPhone in specific.

It will focus on whether the policy, which took effect last month, kills competition by forcing programmers to choose between developing apps that can run only on Apple gizmos or come up with apps that are platform neutral, and can be used on a variety of operating systems, such as those from rivals Google, Microsoft and Research In Motion.

Which, while I’m not a lawyer or headline-seeking politico, doesn’t sound like anything remotely approaching actionable behavior. Inquiry doesn’t mean investigation, however, much less charges are pending. Apple could just as easily be absolved since they’re not a monopoly in smartphones and competition in the app space is thriving.

Neither the DOJ, FTC, or Apple is commenting yet, so this could also just be one of those test-baloons-via-media-attention. Steve Jobs has recently written on the issue of cross-compilers in general in his Thoughts on Flash open letter.

Apple believes cross-compilers aren’t in the best interests of their platform, and in the United States of America, absent monopolistic or other forms of illegal abuse, doesn’t Apple get to decide how they want to run their own platform? And aren’t developers equally free to vote with their apps and, if they don’t like Apple’s choices, develop for other platforms and take their user-bases with them?

[NY Post via 9to5Mac]

Rumor: Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission jostling over inquiry into Apple restriction on cross-compilers is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Best of Smartphone Experts, 2 May 2010 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Spirit, an untethered jailbreak for iPad 3.2, and iPod touch and iPhone under 3.1.2 and 3.1.3 is now live. If you want it, go grab it via the link below.

A word of warning for iPad users:

On iPad, all this is still sort of beta. Some packages in Cydia, not designed for iPad, might screw up your system and require you to restore. Be careful. (And no, Cydia’s appearance is not final.)

Also, not an unlock solution. This is a jailbreak.

As always, if you don’t know what any of these means, stay away.

[SpiritJB, thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Spirit untethered Jailbreak for iPad 3.2, iPod touch, iPhone 3.1.2, 3.1.3 now live is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog