The recent rumors that Toys R Us would soon start selling the iPad 2 appear to be spot on. A banner has just appeared on its site, showing the iPad 2, along with a store finder which reveals which stores will be stocking it. At the moment, that is the only official information available.

9to5Mac has received a copy of a flyer that shows Toys R Us will be stocking the 16GB and 32GB WiFi only models at the price of $499 and $599 respectively and will also be carrying the iPad 2 smart covers; in polyurethane and leather variations. They also claim to have been told by a Toys R Us employee, that the iPad 2 will be in stock from tomorrow, April 17.

If any of our readers manage to pick up an iPad 2 from Toys R Us tomorrow, be sure to let us know in the comments!

[9to5 Mac]

Toys R Us to sell iPad 2 WiFi models starting April 17 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Every week a few of us from team TiPb will bring you our current favorite, most fun and useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they're iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch related, they're fair game.

To see what we picked, and to tell us your pick, follow on after the break!

Instacast – @reneritchie

I’m always looking for a better way to get the podcasts I want onto my iPhone. I’ve given up on the iPod app and iTunes because I don’t want to have to sync. I used to just stream from iTunes over 3G but there’s no way to subscribe and searching to see if a new episode has been posted is a pain in the apps. I’ve tried Podcaster and now I’m trying Instacast. So far it’s fairly similar, slightly different strengths and weaknesses but overall I like it. I especially like one feature:

I can get a list of All Episodes, sorted by release date. That means I don’t have to go hunting to see what’s been updated and when and think about whether I’ve listened to it or not. I just see what’s new in the order of its newness, and since I know what I just listened to, it’s easy to find something around it to listen to next.

For commutes or long trips, that’s all I want.

[$1.99 - iTunes link]

Eye TV – @chrisoldroyd

Eye TV by Elgato, is an app that requires specific hardware for it to be of any use. I have just bought an Elgato Eye TV Netstream Sat which is a small satellite receiver that plugs into a dish and then your home network. It receives all the free to air satellite television channels and converts them into a stream.

The Eye TV app for iPhone and iPad is a universal binary; so works perfectly on both platforms. Once loaded you are presented with a list of available TV channels. It also tells you what is on now and what is on next. Clicking one of the channels starts the stream and within a couple of seconds you are enjoying your TV show.

What is so special about the app is the quality of the video stream. It is beautiful, crisp, smooth and perfect to enjoy TV on your iOS device. Having previously owned a SlingBox Solo; which I though delivered awful quality TV streams; this app delivers the TV experience as it should be, perfect!

You can use this app with many of Elgato's other TV products, however if it is not a Netstream product, you will have to have your Mac on all the time you watch TV.

[$4.99 – iTunes Link]

WorldMate Gold – @Alli_Flowers

I’ve been using WorldMate since my Palm os days. Although its primary purpose is as a travel aid, I use it all the time for many purposes.

Just the other day I was standing in the library at school when a student came in with a five dollar bill – in Chilean currency. He wanted to know how much it was worth, so I looked it up in WorldMate’s currency converter, and was quickly able to tell him it was worth a penny. (Yes, he was very disappointed.)

WorldMate gives you the weather at home, as well as the weather in your destination city (or whatever city you want to view for any reason). It even gives you a pretty weather graphic on its home screen.

Forward WorldMate your reservation confirmation from an airline or hotel, and the information is immediately entered into WorldMate on your iPhone. My favorite part is that WorldMate tells you what gate you will pull into, and from which gate you will depart. No searching for gate agents or screens.

Book a hotel or limo from within the app, check weather, convert currency, calculate a tip, find alternate flights, book a flight, check flight status, and so much more. If you travel a lot, or even once in a while, WorldMate is a valuable tool.

[$3.99 - iTunes link]

Atari – @GeorgiaTiPb

Some of you might be into Xbox but I’ve always been more Atari, and the way I’m playing this new iPad version of all the classic games really isn’t fair. Now I can drive around town with 100 games that I love and i’m like… well, you get the idea.

The app itself is free but you can buy different packs of games, grouped around hits like Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command, etc. for $0.99 or just do what I did the instant I launched it — buy them all for $14.99.

Adventure is my fav, what’s yours?

[Free, with in-app purchases - iTunes link]

QuickTumblr for iPad – @andrewwray

QuickTumblr is an iPad app that makes it easy post to Tumblr, the fast-growing blogging and social network community that has caught the internet by storm. QuickTumblr isn’t a full-blown Tumblr client like the official iPhone App, but has a number of integrated features that the official app is still lacking. With QuickTumblr you can write posts in HTML or Markdown code and even use snippets from TextExpander, making the writing process more efficient and uncluttered. You can even send your markdown code, HTML or other files straight to QuickTumblr from your favorite apps with iOS file sharing built in!

The app offers additional features to streamline your posts with formatting options for making your articles rich and content-heavy, pulling from the photo-picker built into iOS for pictures and video. In addition, the app can access scheduling features in Tumblr for future posts and includes a nice group publishing option for posting to multiple accounts. It’s a great value if you’re looking for a good iPad Tumblr app — give it a try!

[$2.99 - iTunes Link]

Mail Enhancer (jailbreak tweak) – @iMuggle

E-mail pretty much rules my life. I send and receive tons of e-mails on a daily basis. I heavily depend upon it for not only TiPb, but to run my business and communicate with clients. While the iPhone has a beautiful e-mail application, it isn’t very customizable.

Mail Enhancer has made my life a lot simpler. It allows you to set custom e-mail tones for different accounts, adds push notifications, custom signatures for individual accounts, and much more. Heck, if you want it to, it will also read e-mail notifications to you. It’s an amazing little tweak and something I recommend any jailbreaker with multiple e-mail accounts to check out.

[$2.99 via Cydia]

Tweetbot – @llofte

Tweetbot is by far the best Twitter client I have ever used. The animations and sounds that are associated with every tap really enhance the experience. Even though I wish for native push notifications and in-line photo previews, Tweetbot is my new favorite Twitter client and I can’t wait to see what Tapbots brings in future updates. For more info check out my video and review.

[$1.99 - iTunes link]

Camera+ @elfminion

Camera+ app will let you take, edit, share, and save photos all in one simple to use application. Multiple Points of focus allows you to focus on an object to get the clarity you desire while at the same time adjusting the light in the picture to snap the perfect photo that you want. The stabilizer option gives you all the power you need to take pictures without having to worry about holding perfectly still to snap that perfect photo. The timer on this is nice. If you have your iPhone mounted on a tripod or some other device, the time gives you the option to set a countdown to get the ground or picture you desire perfect every time!

Another cool thing about this application is it not only takes awesome photos in almost any way you would like, but it also lets you edit and share photos right from the application! After you have snapped the perfect photo, you have the option to now share it on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or Email right from the application.

All around this was a great app, it was definitely worth the purchase! I will be choosing this app for all of my Photo shooting I do from my iPhone.

[$0.99 - iTunes link]

Zite – @ryguylawson (Reader’s Choice)

I found this App this week after a story on our local news. It’s called Zite and it’s free on the App Store. It’s back end was developed by a local Vancouver software company. It’s a great iPad app, designed to be a personalized magazine. It’s somewhat like Instapaper, except that it uses a magazine format versus a newspaper format. You can customize your content and have as much or as little to read through as you want. It can also link to your Twitter account and learn the topics that are of interest to you so it can customize your content automatically.

I love using my iPad for news and magazines and for the last few days this app has been awesome! For some background, I am the manager of the 911 centre for the region, and time is very very precious for me. My iPad is by my side all day, and when I get a few spare minutes to catch up on what is happening in the world, or in cyberspace, I go to my news and information apps. Zite gives me a pleasurable UI and great content (that I have self-selected and that it has learned I would likely want to see.)

[Free - iTunes link]

Your pick?

You're part of the team as well, so we will be choosing one reader to make a submission each week! Just look for the announcement on [twitter](http://www.twitter.com/llofte] or our Facebook page each weekend for a chance to be picked! In the meantime, jump into the comments and let us know your pick of the week!

TiPb Picks of the Week is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Adobe is adding support for Apple’s HTTP Live Streaming technology to Adobe Flash Media Server, which means live web video using that platform will soon be compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Currently this type of live video is only available via Flash plugin, which is still inching its way towards mobile, and which Apple is still not interested in for their devices.

By offering HTTP Live Streaming on the server side, no Flash plugin (or any other type of plugin) is required for iOS — it just detects Safari or the embedded web view and serves the supported H.264 format. (Which sounds similar to what Microsoft did for SilverLight video almost a year and a half ago.)

Video demo of HTTP Live Streaming to iPad, after the break…

[Adobe, thanks Anthony!]

Adobe to adopt HTTP Live Streaming for Flash Media Server is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Time Warner has announced that it is slowly adding content back into its TW Cable app after it had to remove channels by request of some networks. The cable TV streaming app now has access again to Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, National Geographic Channel, FX and the Fox News Channel.

Some additional content has also been added including Sundance Channel, Wedding Channel, Lifetime Real Women and the Military History Channel.

The dispute is still not fully resolved, as Viacom is still refusing to allow TW Cable access to its content on the TW Cable app. Hopefully this will also be resolved in the near future; these restrictions only hurt the user in the long run.

[TW Cable Untangled]

Time Warner starting to add channels back into the TW Cable app is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

If a leaked image on Engadget is accurate, Best Buy really was stocking up on iPad 2 for a big promotion this weekend — Sunday to be precise. Apparently iPad 2 will be featured on the front cover of their ad, they expect it to bring a lot of traffic into their stores, and they want to have at least a few iPad 2s on hand. Reservations will be honored first, and there’s probably nowhere near stock enough to meet demand. In fact, they go so far as to give employees tips on how to “minimize customer disappointment”, so get their early if you want one and let us know if you get it!

[Engadget]

Best Buy promoting iPad 2 this Sunday is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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

Forgot to download the latest episode of one of your favorite podcasts before leaving the big bandwidth of Wi-Fi and curious how to get your fix over 3G? Well, TiPb makes sure our iPhone Live! and iPad Live! podcasts are under 20MB so you can download them over 3G anyway, but for longer podcasts you don’t have worry either — you can stream them. We’ll show you how after the break!

Don’t ask us why — we chalk it up to carrier craziness — but even though you can’t download over 20MB on 3G you can stream as much data as your cap (or lack of cap!) allows. Here’s how to stream on iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad:

1. Launch iTunes app
2. Tap Search
3. Type in some keywords for the podcast you want
4. Tap the one you want
5. Find the episode you want and tap the title (not the Free button!)

That’s it, the QuickTime X player will launch and it will start streaming your podcast. It will even work in the background if you change apps, and you can access the controls as well:

1. Double click the Home button to bring up the Fast App Switcher
2. Swipe from left to right to get to the music control widgets
3. Tap the control you want, adjust volume, or tap the iTunes icon to jump back to the app

So there you have it, podcasts on the go for free. When/if you’re ready to graduate you can try out a podcatcher app. But if you just need something in case of a commute or road-trip emergency, iTunes has got you covered.

Have any other podcast tips, let us know in the comments!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Daily Tip: How to stream a podcast over 3G via iTunes is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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