You know the drill. Come time, we’ll be talking about everything iPad. We’d love to talk with you, so come by, chat, and share you views.

• 6pm PT/9pm ET/2am BST

We’ll take over the front page 15 minutes before the show — chat with you soon!

iPad live tonight! 6pm PT/9pm ET/2am BST is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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We’ll be running some amazing new, weekly contests in the iPhone Forum and iPad Forum and what better way to start than a contest to help us think of amazing new contests?

Let us know your ideas for cool, weird, funny, and all around fun contests and if we like your idea and use it, we’ll give you a prize. Have multiple ideas? Don’t worry, we will be giving away multiple prizes!

So head on over to our official TiPb contest ideas contest post and add your ideas in a reply.

(Hurry up, I’ve got some great iPad and iPhone stuff to give away!)

TiPb contest idea contest! Enter now! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Want to buy from iTunes but don’t want to use your credit card? No problem. Just head on over to a pharmacy, supermarket, big box, or any of the myriad of places that sell iTunes gift cards, buy one for yourself, and use it to top off your account.

Bonus tip: Costco sometimes has packages for a few dollars off, like $50 worth of cards for $45.

The tip comes by way Ian Ross and Shelby Lee Engels, who shared it with Apple’s iTunes team.

[iTunes News]

Don’t want to use your credit card in iTunes? Use a gift card instead! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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A lot of people have been waiting for Flash on an iPhone (unofficially of course), and if you’re jailbroken, you can have it now, via Frash.  Frash is basically a port of Flash 10.1 for mobile.  We also have to keep in mind, it’s in a severe Alpha stage.  And it shows.  But if you just can’t wait to get your hands on a way to run Flash on an iPhone, click on through for some more thoughts as well as a walkthrough complete with video of how to install.

First for my thoughts on Frash. Honestly, a year ago I would have been more excited to have Flash on an iPhone. Maybe it’s just me, but ever since El Jobso essentially put the ban hammer down when it comes to Flash on iPhone, a lot of companies and web designers have been more wary when coding websites. It seems like more and more sites everyday are embedding code in order to make their sites more iPhone friendly. A huge example is Vimeo. I hated it when I’d be browing news sites or blogs and videos would be embedded with services like Vimeo. You just couldn’t watch them. Now, they load nicely in a Quicktime mobile player and you’re good to go. Facebook also supports iPhone mobile video viewing from within their native app. This solved most of my Flash woes overnight.

I can also see why some people still want Flash. Some websites still use splashscreens written in Flash. It’s especially irritating to not be able to get to a website’s main page just because the intro is written in Flash. Most of the time, you can type index.html or something of the like into the address bar after the web address to bypass Flash, but not always. (Not to mention it’s a pretty annoying workaround.) If you’re someone who tends to deal with a lot of Flash content, Frash is probably your best solution as of now.

I wouldn’t recommend installing Frash on any iPhone model below a 3GS. Safari will most likely do nothing but crash on you. And again, keep in mind Frash is still in it’s very infant stages. But if you’re still interested in giving Frash a go, follow these instructions to install or watch the video below which also provides a walkthrough and demonstration of some of the bugs I’ve experienced with Frash so far.

• Jailbreak Your iDevice via JailbreakMe.com, you can find directions here.

• Next, you’ll need to add a repo to Cydia. Tap Sources along the bottom, then go to manage, tap edit at the top, then add the following repo: http://repo.benm.at/

• Once you’re done adding the repo, search “Frash” in Cydia and install. That’s it, you’re done. You should now be able to access flash data via Safari on your iDevice.

Let us know how it works for you. As you can see from my video below, I experience a lot of crashes with it. I’m also using a 3GS for jailbreaking purposes as I have the prox sensor issue with my iPhone 4 and don’t want to jailbreak that one as I’ll install 4.1 the minute it’s released so I can quit FaceTiming people with my cheek already. But if you’ve had a better experience than mine (or worse), leave it in the comments below, along with any tips or tricks you may have!

YouTube Link

Installing Frash on a Jailbroken iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Ars Technica’s Chris Foresman has a terrific interview up with Star Trek production artists Michael Okuda, Denise Okuda, and Doug Drexler about how they conceptualized iPad-like devices for TV and movies… some 23 years ago. Their device was known as the PADD (Personal Access Display Devices):

Drexler said that to him, the iPad is “eerily similar” to the PADDs used in Star Trek. “We always felt that the classic Okuda T-bar graphic was malleable, and that you could stretch and rearrange it to suit your task, just like the iPad,” he said. “The PADD never had a keyboard as part of its casing, just like the iPad. Its geometry is almost exactly the same—the corner radius, the thickness, and overall rectangular shape.”

“It’s uncanny to have a PADD that really works,” Drexler said, unlike the non-functional props made for the TV series and later films. “The iPad is the true Star Trek dream,” Drexler told Ars.

[Ars Technica]

Star Trek production artists talk iPad is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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