Apple seems to have taken advantage of the iTunes Connect maintenance window to altered prices in some countries due to exchange rate changes with the US dollar. The countries effected seem to be the countries listed in Apple’s scheduled maintenance email, Mexico, UK, Australia, Switzerland, Japan and Norway.

Three of the countries have seen price increases, while the other three have actually seen price cuts.

The lowest priced apps/games (US: $0.99) are now priced at

• Mexico: $10 $12
• UK: £0.59 £0.69

• Norway: 6.00Kr 7.00Kr

• Japan: 115 Yen 85 Yen

• Australia: AU$1.19 AU$0.99
• Switzerland 1.10Fr 1.00Fr

Have you been effected by any of these price adjustments? Will the price differences change your buying habits at all?

VoyagerApps have updated their iPad web browser, Apollo, with optimization for Google Reader.

Before Apollo, you could only browse the single-column iPhone layout of Google Reader on the iPad. So we tweaked the Google Reader web app in Apollo and changed it to a two-pane layout, just like the Email app. You can browse folders and titles on the left pane, and when you tap on it, content shows on the right pane – perfect for iPad.

• Elegant and powerful Facebook integration – FB chat is at the right bottom corner of Apollo, just like FB on computer browser. Tap on it and you see contact list, tap on a friend to start chatting, it’s that easy.
• Video Popout – Apollo is the only app that lets you enjoy web and video at the same time. Tap on the Video button on bottom toolbar to try it out.
• Best Google Reader for iPad – Apollo optimizes Google Reader for iPad in a beautiful two pane layout. Tap Reader in home screen to give it a try.
• Tabs – The top tool bar only has 4 buttons to leave max room for web tabs. Tip: swipe left/right on web tabs to navigate your tabs.
• Gesture rules – Put two fingers on web page and swipe left to go back previous page. Two fingers swipe to right to go forward. Try it and you will fall in love with it.

Apollo: Browser+Facebook chat is available for free. Screenshots after the break.

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

The Wall Street Journal claims Amazon is going ahead with a 9-inch Android-based tablet to compete with the iPad.

Amazon.com Inc. plans to introduce a tablet computer before October, said people familiar with the matter, in a move that will heighten the online retailer’s rivalry with Apple Inc.

The Seattle-based company will also release two updated versions of its popular Kindle electronic reader in the third quarter of the year, the people said. One will be a touch-screen device. The other won’t have a touch screen, but will be an improved and cheaper adaptation of the current Kindle, said people who have seen the device.

On the surface, that sounds great. A lot of other competitors, including RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook and HP’s webOS TouchPad have struggled to ship feature-complete, and previous Android Honeycomb tablets had a similar beta feel about them. All in all, they seemed to be bringing specs to an experience fight.

At first blush the idea of an Amazon-filled Android tablet sounds better than a non-Amazon filled Android tablet (though Samsung and other companies are putting together better and better content offerings of their own every day.) But that’s all it really is at this point. Until we see it, it will be impossible to know for sure, but the Kindle inspires absolutely no confidence in their industrial design chops, much less their user interface skills. If the next version of Android, Ice scream sandwich is ready by then, and if Matias Duarte has been able to work his web OS wonders on it, maybe Amazon will be able to stick with stock. But that’s a big maybe. Apple has made it very, very hard to compete on software polish, and their huge bank account has made it ever harder to compete on hardware pricing.

Amazon has content though. While they’re working on it, currently neither RIM nor HP nor Google have TV, movie, music and other content deals in place to match iTunes, nor do they have the 90-country strong check out system, with hundreds of millions of credit cards ready and willing to buy. Amazon does. Sort of.

While Amazon has an incredible array of content deals in place in the US, probably the most competitive to iTunes on the market, the international story is quite different. Sure, even Apple struggles with the archaic, fragmented media licensing model that assigns different publishers different rights in different geographies, but Apple’s App Store is in the aforementioned 90 countries, iTunes music is around the globe, and they’ve slowly and surely rolled out movies and TV shows to an increasing number of countries. Canada may not have TV rentals yet, but they have HD movie rentals and TV show purchases. They have something.

Amazon said they’d be bringing Amazon MP3 to Canada in 2008. It must be having a hell of a time at the border, however, because it still hasn’t made it across. When you listen to Apple’s earning calls, more and more of their revenue is coming from the international market, a market that now has incredibly popular Apple Stores to provide a retail jab to set up the iTunes Store uppercut.

So Amazon could be bringing content to an experience fight. But it would be mostly in the US, and if they nail the other aspects.

I really want a great iPad competitor. I haven’t seen one yet. Though they’re every bit as ruthless as Apple, if not more so, I really want Amazon to be that competitor. But I haven’t seen anything to date to make me think they will be.

Slapping a tablet on the front page of Amazon.com will get them sales, but they’ll have to make a truly exceptional product to get them into the game.

Especially if Apple is readying to ship an iPad 3 or iPad 2 Pro at the same time…

[Wall Street Journal]

iPhone Live, the live recording of our week podcast on all things iPhone and iPod touch, hits the air again tonight. Join us in the chat room and…

Follow along with our show notes!

Time: 6pm PT, 9pm ET, 2am BST!

Place: http://live.tipb.com/live/

(You can watch from iPhone via Ustream Viewer app (here’s how) and iPad (we recommend Duet Browser.)

If you have any questions or stuff you want us to make sure we cover tweet them to @TiPb, email them to podcast@tipb.com, or leave them in the comments below!

Missed a compelling piece of iPhone news, a great review, or a killer how-to? We’re not collecting absolutely everything in iPhone here — you can hit up TiPb.com/iPhone for that! — but we’re carefully picking what we think is the best of the last 7 days and presenting it here for your review.

And hey! — these double as show notes for our iPhone Live! podcast tonight at 9pm Eastern. So join us at TiPb.com/live and follow along!

Meta

• Superfunctional 1: Standing desks
• ZENandTECH 6: De-cluttering
• Iterate 2: Savage Interactive

iOS 5 beta 3

• Apple releases iOS 5 beta 3 for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Apple TV to developers
• iOS 5 beta 3 gallery
• iOS 5 features: Accessibility AssistiveTouch adds gesture control, replaces hardware buttons
• Bluetooth keyboard support hidden in iOS 5 for Apple TV
• iOS 5 features: AirPlay Mirroring for FaceTime

iPhone 5

• Apple, WiTricity, and wireless charging
• Could 5 new iOS devices make up Apple's fall family?

News

• Apple releases new iPhone commercials for AirPlay, FaceTime
• Final space mission commences, with two iPhone 4s on board
• Netflix splits off streaming, changes pricing
• Poll: How do you feel about Netflix's new pricing?
• AT&T announces new international data roaming packages

Jailbreak

• redsn0w updated for iOS 5 beta 3, Jailbreakme.com updated to fix kernel patches
• Swype keyboard ported to iOS, a new way to enter text [jailbreak]

Apps

• App for That: How to share content from your computer's web browser to your iPhone or iPad

Forums

• Google+, iOS 5 beta 3, 2 versions of the next iPhone, iPad HD – From the Forums

Peel – Personal TV Show Guide is an iPhone app that generates a personal TV guide based on what shows you like.

As you are browsing through TV shows on Peel, pick a handful that you like or dislike and let Peel know about them. Within a couple of days, Peel will start pleasantly surprising you by suggesting TV shows that you will love. We call it magic!

• Have fun browsing through crisp thumbnails of TV Shows
• Touch one of the thumbnails and you will see what channel that show is on as well as a brief description of the episode that is playing
• Swipe across to browse TV shows, Movies and Sports by genres
• Mark the shows you like as favorites and cut the ones you don't like. Your top picks will get precise as you interact more with the app.
• Share what you’re watching on Facebook and Twitter in one easy step
• Use instant search to see what channel a specific show or game is on
• See up to a week ahead of shows right on iPhone or iPod touch. No need of interrupting what you are currently watching by bringing up the onscreen guide.
• Set alarms so you never miss an upcoming show

I’ve been desperately wanting to watch some new shows, so I look forward to seeing what Peel recommends for me. Has Peel given you any good recommendations?

Peel is available for free on the iPhone. Screenshots after the break.

[iTunes link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

If you’re in the US and you subscribe to Netflix, we’d like to know how you feel about the new pricing they announced yesterday? If you’re only into streaming, not much has changed. If you want unlimited DVDs as well, however, you need to cough up an extra $6 a month.

Maybe DVDs are a relic to you, or a bag of hurt, and you haven’t watched optical media in years. Hey, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and Apple TV don’t support them anyway! Maybe, however, since Hollywood still can’t get their digital release act together, they’re a beloved part of your home theater experience.

Or maybe it’s not about whether or not you watch or want DVDs, but about how Netflix is treating you as a customer that matters? No doubt shipping all those envelopes around the country is getting more and more expensive, but are you perceiving increased value for the increased costs on your end? Or do you feel like you’re being weened off the old era before the new one is really ready to replace it?

Are you peeved enough to take your streaming elsewhere? To get your DVDs from a competitor? Or are you going off DVDs altogether?

Vote up top, and let us know how you really feel — and what you think Netflix should do about it — in the comments.

Despite the recent rumor that Apple was looking to add a second manufacturer to its iPad supply chain, DigiTimes‘s magic 8-ball now says it won't happen… this year at least. Foxconn has convinced Apple that it can manage the whole iPad operation on its own.

Foxconn has exerted its efforts to protect its orders and apparently has persuaded Apple to not shift some of its iPad orders to other contractors for the moment.

Pegatron Technology were the likely manufacturer that Apple had ready to step into the fray; should it be needed. It now appears that Pegatron will have to make do with its rumored order for  iPhone 5s instead. Pegatron are still looking to secure orders for future versions of the iPad as well as notebook and desktop Macs according to the same sources. Pegatron Technology currently manufactures the Verizon CDMA iPhone 4 for Apple.

[DigiTimes]

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• MoneyWiz: It’s the one app that has it all: budgets, accounts, bills & incomes, scheduled and recurring transactions, reports, sync, multi-currency and 100+ more features. [$4.99 for iPad - iTunes link]

• junct!on: A revolutionary synergy between a high quality content multimedia magazine and realtime information from the best sources on the web. [Free for iPad - iTunes link]

• Puzzle Land: A wonderful, and magical collection of puzzles in 5 different lands which will entertain and stimulate children of all ages. [Free for iPad, with in-app purchases - iTunes link]

• Running Sheet: Can be used to help plan and run just about any type of event. Enter the details for the event such as where, when, dress code, what time to arrive, directions and notes. Then enter the running sheet for the event, organised into “sets” and “items” (traiditinoal music terms for gigs) and the timing for each item. [$0.99 for iPhone - iTunes link]

• SquareUpMax: Challenge yourself to balance and stack the pieces while racing against the clock in this simple, yet fun game. [$0.99 for iPhone - iTunes link]

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Apple has sent out a note to developers advising them that iTunes Connect, the back end interface for managing App Store apps, will be down for maintenance on Wednesday, July 13 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. PDT. They also warn that some countries will lose App Store access, and price changes might cause apps to temporarily become unavailable.

During this time, iTunes Connect will still be available. However, pricing changes made between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. PDT will cause the app to become unavailable for purchase until maintenance is complete, at which point the app will become available at the new price. To avoid interruptions to the availability of your apps, do not make price changes during this time.

Lastly, customers may not be able to purchase apps in the Mexico, U.K., Australia, Switzerland, Japan or Norway storefronts during the scheduled maintenance.

Everything should be back to normal following the maintenance, and it’s not difficult to imagine Apple’s new OS X Lion launch for the Mac might be nicely set up soon thereafter.