Today Apple’s iPhone 4 added 17 new countries to its have list, which means a bunch of you either just got one or are just about to get one. Unlocked or carrier subsidized, pre- or postpaid, once you’ve got it powered up and ready to do, you might just be wondering –what’s next. Don’t worry, TiPb’s got your back:

• Get up to speed. We have a complete iOS 4 feature walkthrough up and waiting to help you figure out all the new stuff Apple has jam-packed into their latest OS. Save yourself some time and check it out.

• Get apps and games. There are hundreds of thousands of iPhone apps in the iTunes App Store and more and more of them have now been updated to really show off that new Retina Display. We’re keeping track of iOS 4 optimized apps for you, and review iPhone apps on a weekly basis. Check them out.

• Get accessories. Sure Apple is giving away free bumpers and cases. And you can get them in any color you want as long as it’s black, black, or… black. The TiPb Store has just started offering iPhone 4 accessories and not only can you get full, fabulous, colored cases, you can get chargers, Bluetooth, headsets, and much, much, more.

• Get talking. If you just want to talk about your new iPhone 4 and all those apps and accessories, or if you need help getting started (or to trouble-shoot bugs), or advice and recommendations, we have the best dang community on the web waiting for you: iPhone Device and Help Forum and iPhone Apps and Games Forum.

Just get an international iPhone 4? Here’s what you need next! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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You know the drill — iPhone 4 just went on sale in 17 additional countries so hit up your favorite speed test (I used the speedtest.net app) and let us know how the new HSUPA (high speed upload) radio is treating you.

(And if you’re in the US and have just gotten yours fixed, let us know how that’s working as well).

iPhone 4 international speed tests is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, under whose watch Office, Windows, and Server profits have soared while mobile has stumbled and faltered, was bombastically candid when addressing Apple’s 3.3 million strong iPad install base:

“they’ve sold certainly more than I’d like them to have sold.”

In response, Microsoft is hard at work on a Windows-based alternative (which is curious given Bill Gates’ almost singular drive to popularize Tablet PC over much of the last decade):

“They’ll be shipping as soon as they are ready,” Ballmer said, offering few details on the products, which he said will come from partners, not Microsoft itself. “It is job one urgency. No one is sleeping at the switch.”

So Microsoft won’t be making their own tablet the way they made their own Zune music player or Xbox gaming console, nor will they be using the panoramic Windows Phone 7, set for release this fall:

“We have got to make things happen,” he said. “We’re in the process of doing that as we speak. We’re working with our hardware partners. We’re tuning Windows 7.”

Apple of course didn’t try to put Mac OS X on the iPad, they went with iOS. HP has gone out and bought Palm webOS, and Google is readying both Android and Chrome OS, and even RIM is showing signs of life. There were tons of Windows-based tablets being touted at CES 2010 back in January, but none have really appeared on the market yet and while Microsoft’s Courier project was interesting but they KIN’ed it pre-launch. 3 months and as many million sales later and iPad pretty much still has the category it created to itself. It needs competition (from more than just the Kindle).

Hey, maybe if they call it WinPad?

[CNET, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Apple brings full-on multitouch to desktop with Magic Trackpad

Your fingers glide effortlessly along the expansive, glass-but-not-quite-glass-feeling surface. The cursor flies from edge to edge. You pause, press down, feel and hear a satisfying click, and then glide on. A double swipe sends the gallery hurtling down until it stops under the weight of its own virtualized momentum. A double twist rotates a photo. A click in the right corner brings up the contextual menu, a click in the left selects copy. A triple touch grabs the window and moves it aside, a quadruple swipe switches you to email and then another right click, another left, and the photo is pasted into the message. Your fingers pull clear of the Apple Magic Trackpad and you smile. Computing is fun again.

Apple went all-in on multitouch for the iOS-based iPhone, iPod touch, and now iPad, and they’ve been slowly extending that back to their Mac platform as well, first with MacBook trackpads, then the Magic Mouse, and now the Magic Pad.

“Wait, this is an iPhone and iPad blog, why are you talking about a Mac peripheral?” Because. That’s why. iOS comes from Mac OS and if Apple has shown us anything over the years it’s that they’re the best in the business at leveraging advances back and forth between the two. With rumors of Apple TV going iOS and my persistent fantasy that Apple will replace DashBoard and Front Row with an iOS layer, what they do with multitouch for Mac is definitely something I want to keep an eye on. Two actually, as often as I can spare them. So if this isn’t something you’re personally interested in, no worries, hit up the next post. If it is, if you think like I do that nothing Apple releases exists in a vacuum, then hang on to your pinches and swipes; the review starts after the break.

Unboxed. Literally.

Magic Trackpad doesn’t come in a fancy glass container like its magic mouse cousin. It comes in a box akin to what Apple uses for their software packages. The front shows the Magic Trackpad itself, the back describes the multitouch gestures you can do with it. Inside is the same as out, you get the trackpad and a the plain paper pamphlet that tells you about it. Yes, it includes batteries, and they’re already installed.

Hardware

Clearly designed to sit side by side with the Apple Aluminum Keyboard — especially the newer, numeric-keypad-less version — the Magic Trackpad has the same look, the same angulation, the same round battery housing. “Look” being the key word because the surface of the Magic Trackpad isn’t aluminum at all, it’s glass like the MacBook Trackpad. It’s mixed and coated — according to what Apple has previously said about said MacBook Trackpad — to provide just the perfect feel and friction. That’s hyperbole, of course, and I find both to be usable enough if strangely desensitizing over time. Perhaps that’s just the result of to much Stoneloops on the iPhone, however…

What’s interesting is that Magic Trackpad feels cooler than my MacBook Pro trackpad, no doubt because it’s not sitting on top of a furnace-hot Intel chipset.

As with most things Apple, the fit and finish is spectacular. Every edge is clean and crisp, every line straight and every curve precise. The power button on the right clicks perfectly, the battery door on the left screws smoothly and securely.

And yes, the little rubber feet are the buttons. Push down on the Magic Trackpad and just like the MacBook trackpad (and the BlackBerry Storm, of course), you get an audible, tangible, click.

So it looks great, it feels great, but how does it work?

Setup

Setup is simple. You need the latest version of Mac OS X, 10.6.4, and the Magic Trackpad software update if you don’t have it already (MacBook and MacBook Pro users might — so don’t worry if you don’t see it available). Once you have those, just hit “Bluetooth set up device”, detect the Magic Trackpad, and it just works.

Preferences

If you’re familiar with current generation MacBook trackpad preferences, then you’ll feel right at home with the Magic Trackpad. If not, Apple makes it very easy. Go to Settings, chose Trackpad, and you’ll be presented with a series of speed sliders, feature checkboxes, and movie to show you what those features do.

Tracking speed, double-click speed, and scrolling speed can all be adjusted from slow to fast. Between work and home, desktop and laptop, I use enough machines that I’ve just found it simpler to stick with the defaults. They work fine to me. If you like to tweak, though, you have the option.

One finger gestures include tap to click, dragging, drag lock, and secondary click (assignable to either bottom right or bottom left corner). Two fingers let you scroll (with inertia — I heart inertia), rotate, pinch to open and close, screen zoom (with toggle key, move preferences, and image smoothing checkbox), and secondary click. Three fingers let you swipe to navigate (think going from one picture to another in Photos) or dragging (moving windows around). Four fingers let you swipe up/down for Exposé and left/right to tab-switch between apps.

##Usage

I’ve been using an iPhone and Macbook since 2007, I currently use a 2009 Magic Mouse and a 2010 iPad and MacBook Pro. I spend 12 to 18 hours a day using some form of Apple multitouch. So, needless to say, I had zero learning curve with the Magic Trackpad. (I’m using it to write this review, right now). That’s one of the huge advantages you get if you’ve sold your soul to Apple hardware — they’ve brought you along, trained you, and made you accustomed to their technology step-by-step, year after year.

I tried to capture the feeling of using Magic Trackpad at the beginning of the review. If I grant that I’m an anomaly, a freak, or a fanboy, however, then let me break it down into the tangibles.

The Bluetooth connection is good. I’ve experienced no lag, no loss of signal, no interruption in interactivity. The throw is excellent. A swipe from side to side sends the cursor flying from edge to edge. Gestures are quick and precise. I can tell nary a difference between my MacBook Pro’s built-in trackpad and this Bluetooth one.

The gestures, while not intuitive, work well once you get used to them. If you have an iPhone but have never used a MacBook trackpad, it will be mixed bag of hurt. Some things are similar and others different. That creates a level of mental overhead you don’t experience with the very different mouse. One finger will move you around but not select or swipe. Two fingers will scroll (like the iPhone does in frames) but everywhere. Three and four fingers you’ll just have to learn.

In my Magic Mouse review I complained Apple left a lot of gestures out. Obviously, those gestures are all here for Magic Trackpad.

Rechargeable-ish

Apple is also selling a re-charger along with a pack of 6 NiCad batteries that you can use with Magic Trackpad, Magic Mouse, Apple Aluminum Keyboard, or pretty much anything else that takes AAs.

That’s great. I’d still like a real, rechargeable peripheral from Apple. Shove a LiOn battery inside and have the door open into a micro USB port and let me plug it in when I need and want to. That way if the battery goes dead in the middle of podcast, I’m not scrambling, I’m just plugging it in like an old fashioned peripheral.

Magic Pad vs. iOS apps, Magic Mouse, and Wacom

Does it invalidate iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad trackpad apps? Not at $69. If you already have one of those devices, and one of the trackpad simulating apps, as long as you don’t find it too cumbersome or battery draining to keep launching and using the app, you’d be trading functionality and flexibility, convergence and coolness for the convenience and independence of a dedicated device.

Does is supersede the Magic Mouse? For anyone but die-hard mousers, for anyone who doesn’t need to grip and move a physical object around, yes it does. It requires less desk space and offers more gesture support. While I was initially worried, trained perhaps by iPhone fingers, that there was no way the Magic Trackpad could be as precise, as pixel perfect, I haven’t had the slightest problem so far. (And I live in Photoshop).

Should Wacom be afraid? Yes and no. While newer Wacom devices offer multitouch support their history and tradition is in pen-based, sensitivity-based, angle-based input. If you need that pen, if you need to produce that kind of art or design, you need to stay with Wacom, much as if you need the feel of that mouse you need to stay with the mouse. If iPhone and iPad have made your fingers do the working, however, then you can safely say goodbye to Wacom and hello to Magic Trackpad. (Bamboo touch users, you have a choice — Apple matches look and feel, Wacom offers a stylistic alternative).

Conclusion

Magic Trackpad has just launched. I’m really, truly loving it so far but like any launch-timed review I’ve only used it for a short time. For now, it’s replacing my Magic Mouse and it’s replacing my iOS apps for controlling my Mac from the couch. I think it’s going to stay that way but I’ll come back after a week, and again after a month and update to let you know.

For now Apple has done with Magic Trackpad what Apple does best — pushed technology further and faster by wrapping it up in gorgeous form and simple-enough function.

Apple Magic Trackpad review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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We’re getting email and tweets from New Zealanders about ready to sharpen their pitchforks and light their torches as the iPhone 4, supposed to launch today, is nowhere to be found.

Apple’s saying nothing. Vodafone is saying nothing. And no one is getting anything.

[Thanks @psychorn for the pic!]

New Zealand fails to launch iPhone 4? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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TechCrunch went through the fine print and noticed that, with iOS 3.2 (iPhone 3.2 for iPad) Apple switched from using Skyhook and Google’s location database to using their own, home spun, solution.

When reached for comment, Skyhook wouldn't specifically talk about their relationship with Apple, but they did say that "everyone who has a platform wants to own as much of the location stack as possible. Location data is going the be huge and owning it is going to be the next big war in mobile."

Indeed. Now roll Apple-acquired PlaceBase and Poly9 Map layer brain-trusts into the equation, and what will we get?

[TechCrunch]

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What you’ll pay for an iPhone 4 on Rogers/Fido, more to come!

International carriers are finally starting to release their iPhone 4 plans and rates, and as more countries now have multiple providers and unlocked iPhones, does that mean things will be more competitive than ever?

Nope. You say monopoly, I say oligopoly, they’ll still take every penny they can.

We’ll post them as we find them, and if you’ve come across the plans and rates in your area, drop them in the comments and we’ll add them here.

Canada, Bell

Bell has announced similar promotions, including the $30/6GB and the iPhone/iPad sharing, though for only $10.

Canada, Rogers/Fido

Rogers/Fido has just put up a post detailing upgrade costs, along with a tool to find out what you’re eligible for. In addition, they’re once again offering a special $30/6GB data plan for a limited time, and are also adding a $20 option to share your iPhone 4 data with your iPad.

Now I’m no math wiz but I do know $20 for sharing data compared to $30 for doubling it doesn’t sound like a great deal… yet. Let’s hope Rogers improves on that asap.

[Rogers]

International iPhone 4 carrier plans and rates is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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As you all know by now, we’re still watching for iOS4 updates that crop up in the app store, and as always, if you guys see interesting ones, feel free to let us know.  Here’s the ones we found in the last week or so, and if you haven’t checked for updates, go check that update tab and let us know if you caught something we didn’t!

Osfoora

Osfoora has taken the place as my favorite Twitter client (for now anyways). They received an iOS4 update we covered a few weeks back, but this one is even better. It adds full retina display support for the iPhone 4 and boy is it pretty. The whole app got somewhat of a facelift as well. The text really pops and the main menus have been revamped. So if you haven’t updated, go for it, or if you are looking for a Twitter client, Osfoora is definitely one of the best around.

[iTunes Link]

Agendus

Agendus is basically an all-in-one app for all the important information on your phone. It basically intertwines your contacts, calendars, and apps into one native app. If you’ve always wanted something that would do this, Agendus is more than decent. The new version adds iOS4 support as well as a new high res icon.

[iTunes Link]

Reeder

Reeder is one of my favorite RSS clients. If you don’t have one and want a full featured one with Google Reader integration, there’s a good chance Reeder will do what you need it to, and then some. This update adds support for the iPhone 4 retina display. The icon just looks so fancy on my homescreen now, as well as all my articles being incredibly sharp. Good job on this one guys, it’s an awesome update.

[iTunes Link]

AT&T MyWireless

AT&T just pushed through an update to their MyWireless app that adds retina support for the iPhone 4. This app basically allows you to view usage, manage features, and even pay your bill via the app. I’ve been using it to pay my bill for quite a while now. Pretty convenient. If you’re an AT&T customer, go ahead and pick it up, it’s free.

[iTunes Link]

Pano

Pano is an awesome app to stitch together pics on the go. It’ll save them directly in your camera roll. The interface is dead easy to use and once you snap a pic it’ll give you guides to line up your next shot with the previous one. This update fixed several bugs and crashes. Mine was continuously crashing under iOS4 but it doesn’t anymore. If you guys noticed anything different than iOS4 compatibility in this one, let us know!

[iTunes Link]

iOS4 Updated Apps: Osfoora, Agendus, Reeder, AT&T MyWireless, Pano, is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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This time we’re looking at the invisibleSHIELD full body for iPad which offers both top-side glass and bottom-side aluminum film protection. If you worry just as much about scratches on the back of your precious iPad as you do the front, full body is something to consider.

This is how I installed it.

1. Clean my iPad screen thoroughly (I use iKlenz)
2. Apply the liquid to my fingers
3. Peel off the screen film and apply liquid to the back
4. Place the skin carefully on my iPad
5. Squeegee out excess liquid, carefully blotting to keep it away from water sensors
6. Press out any remaining bubbles
7. Turn it over
8. Repeat the same procedure but the curved back can be tricky so go slowly and restart if you have to.

I use a big squeegee for the initial pass, the supplied smaller one for the details. I also made sure to put my iPad on a non-slip mat first so I don’t have to chase it around the table. (Basically what I did for the iPhone screen protector how-to, a little more conservative than Dieter’s approach).

We’ll be testing the invisibleSHIELD full body for iPad out for durability in the very near future, as well as comparing it some other films on the market. If you have any tips for applying them, or any questions about them, let me know in comments.

If you want to pick up a invisibleSHIELD full body for iPad, check out the TiPb iPad accessory store.

How to apply invisibleSHIELD full body to your iPad [Sponsored] is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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TiPb international, are you getting ready to stand in line for the iPhone 4? Apple’s set to launch in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland on July 30, which for some readers is only a few hours away…

Here’s what you need to know:

iPhone 4 will be available from Apple Retail Stores, carrier stores, and carrier resellers (from the big boxes to the franchises). We’ve heard some store are opening at the stroke of midnight, others at 7am, others only at regular hours. Be sure to check with the store you’re going to so you aren’t surprised. (If it’s in a mall, check what time the mall opens as well.)

Carrier plans, hardware upgrade pricing, and what-not is, as usual, sparse so be prepared for last minute announcements, customer service reps who haven’t yet been told about them, and carrier computer systems crashing often and hard. In other words, be prepared to be patient and persistent.

iPhone 4 requires a MicroSIM, so you might want to swing by your carrier early, get one, and have it activated on your line — if they’ll let you — now before things get hectic later.

Many countries will also have iPhone 4 available SIM-free and unlocked so if you’re willing to pay the ~$650 to ~$750 unsubsidized price you can just buy one and go. Given previous years where early upgrades were $100 off for a 1 year contract extension, it’s something to think about.

Let us know where you are and what the line’s like, and add your photos to our forum gallery, and if you’re already camping out — good night and good luck!

Pics

Marc Edwards from Bjango in Australia, Doncaster shopping center

Standing in line for iPhone 4 international launch? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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