Chad says we buried the lede: Bloomberg also claims Apple’s annual special music — and this time TV — event will be held September 7. That’s not official, of course. We’ll only know for sure when Apple sends out the invitations.

Remember those rumors of $0.99 iTunes TV show rentals? They’re back. This time with word that FOX-owner Newcorp is in “advanced talks” over the service. CBS and Disney (which has Steve Jobs as their largest share holder) are also rumored to be involved.

Rentals would last 48hrs and would bring even more content to the newly launched iPad and iPhone 4, and upcoming iPod touch 4 and… iOS Apple TV/iTV?

According to Bloomberg Apple originally wanted to offer subscription a la carte TV, which failed due to networks not wanting to put their relationships with cable companies in jeopardy. (Sigh).

While a la cart TV exists outside the US (I pay $20 for 20 a la carte channels on my provider) it hasn’t been adopted by existing American providers. Would $0.99 rentals be a good alternative? Just one show a day would average $30 a month, so even if it’s a step in the right direction, it’s a tiny little hesitant one. And it doesn’t even begin to address live sporting events.

In an ideal world iTunes and iOS would be a complete, non-linear, on-demand TV replacement. Absent that, are individual ABC, Hulu +, and MLB apps are better solution? Or do we really have to wait for the dinosaurs of old media to become extinct simply so that consumers can pay them to watch what we want, when we want, and where we want?

[Bloomberg]

Updated: Apple event September 7, return of the $0.99 iTunes TV show rental rumors? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Highborn is a turn-based strategy game for iPad set in a fantasy environment with paladins, wizards and warriors. What sets Highborn apart for the mix of other worthy turn-based games is it’s humor and asynchronous multiplayer gameplay.

You start the game off with “Archie” your wise-cracking paladin. The game uses humor to its advantage to drive the story and successfully at that. You select your unit whether it’s Archie, soldiers or archers and move them around the board to capture buildings and defeat the bay guys. You can tap on any character (good or bad) to see their movement range and attack range. Next you tap the location you would like your unit to move to. Then you can attack if next to an enemy or launch a distance attack if you are in range. Regretfully, once you have made a move (without ending your turn) you can not undo your move. This is frustrating, but you quickly learn to plan your moves out more carefully.

Capturing buildings and rune stones are a major part of Highborn. Towers typically attack you with catapults, buildings with arrows and so on. Most buildings come with a benefit too, once you capture them (which involves a battle) you earn something to help you in your battles. A monastery gives you a healer, a tower gives you a wizard and a farm building might give you angry farmers with pitchforks!

Each level in Highborn is individual, meaning that as you progress in the game, you don’t necessarily carry your army with you. You sometimes get a bonus character to use during the level too. I was a little disappointed by this as it would be more fun to amass an army as you progress through the levels to some ultimate cataclysmic standoff! Sadly that is not the case here.

Multiplayer is a great addition to Highborn. Log into your OpenFeint account and you can play asynchronously like with Words with Friends or Scrabble. This is a blast, but the challenge is that you can only challenge friends to a game if they use OpenFeint. Granted, if they have the game they likely will, but it would be nice to be able to invite a player based on username or some other identifier.

There a few shortcomings with Highborn, but not don’t let them distract you from the light-hearted fun turn-based strategy game. If you and a friend own it, multiplayer is awesome.

[$2.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Variety of terrain and enemies to fight
• Game gets progressively harder to build your skills
• Saves game if you need to quit
• Animated battles (can turn off in options)

Cons

• Simple graphics
• Can’t undo a turn

Highborn HD for iPad- app review is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Apple today announced that iTunes U, their podcast-like catalog for higher education audio and video, has surpassed 300 million downloads:

Over 800 universities throughout the world have active iTunes U sites, and nearly half of these institutions distribute their content publicly on the iTunes Store®. New content has just been added from universities in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico and Singapore, and iTunes users now have access to over 350,000 audio and video files from educational institutions around the globe.

"iTunes U makes it easy for people to discover and learn with content from many of the world's top institutions," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet Services. "With such a wide selection of educational material, we're providing iTunes users with an incredible way to learn on their computer, iPhone, iPod or iPad."

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement speech [iTunes], and if you’re a developer, the Stanford iPhone development series [iTunes].

What are some of your favorites?

[Apple PR]

iTunes U: over 350,000 files, 300 million downloads is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Yesterday reports were flying in that a “major security hole” in iTunes accounts linked to PayPal was being exploited. The problem turns out not to be a “major security hole” associated with iTunes accounts but rather a phishing scam that’s actually pretty common. The scammers found a way to charge thousands of dollars to iTunes accounts through PayPal. One particular user who contacted TechCrunch reported 50 charges from PayPal of $99.99 each and luckily caught it in time before his bank distributed the funds to PayPal. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to catch the charges before funds were transferred but PayPal is reimbursing users for the fraud. An Apple spokesman did comment that the company is aware of the issue.

“Among other new security measures iTunes now requires more frequent re-entry of a customer’s credit card security code,” the spokesperson said. “But if your credit card or iTunes password is stolen and used on iTunes, we recommend that you contact your financial institution and inquire about canceling the card and issuing a charge-back for any unauthorized transactions. We also recommend that you change your iTunes account password immediately.”

So if you have not already done so, we highly recommend you check to make sure your account is safe and check out Rene’s write up on how to minimize the chance of your iTunes account being hacked.

[TechCrunch]

Scammers steal from PayPal accounts of iTunes users is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

I’ve long dreamt of a world where, instead of launching Front Row’s movie interface or DashBoard’s widget screen on a Mac, I could just launch a version of iPhone/iPad’s iOS and use all my existing apps and games — and a newly discovered Apple Patent for a dual-mode iMac touch shows Apple might one day may that dream come true.

Or not. As with any patent there’s no way of knowing which will ever end up as real shipping products and which will live on only as doodles and descriptions. However, Apple is moving inexorably towards iOS and multitouch so perhaps this one has a shot?

What do you think? Is a world where you can slide away your keyboard and mouse Magic TrackPad, flip down Mac OS X, and start multitouching your way through IOS a world you want to live in?

Apple files patent for dual-mode iMac touch is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

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iPad ads are magically delicious, netbook sales that are hurting, more better Yahoo! and Gmail, more crazier 7-inch iPad rumors, and is the competition finally — finally — coming? Grab your air horns folks, this is iPad live!

Special thanks to Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac for joining us!

Credits

Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You — iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

iPad live podcast #18: Magically delicious is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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