Apple has just begun seeding iOS 5.1 beta and XCode 4.3 to developers. It can be downloaded from the developer portal now. XCode 4.3 is available for download but may not be used to submit apps as it is still in developer preview as well.

iOS SDK 5.1 provides support for developing iOS applications and includes the complete set of Xcode tools, compilers, and frameworks for creating applications for iOS and Mac OS X. These tools include the Xcode IDE and the Instruments analysis tool among many others.

With this software you can develop applications that run on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 5.1. You can also test your applications using the included iOS Simulator, which supports iOS 5.1. There are two Xcode iOS SDK 5.1 images, one for installing on a Macintosh computer running Mac OS X 10.6.7 (Snow Leopard) or later, the other for installing on a Macintosh computer running Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion).

Overall the release notes above are pretty uninformative. We’ll update more as we find anything. If you find something, let us know!

… is really hard with flat feet.

Holiday Cards by Sincerely for the iPhone and iPad is a simple solution to Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s cards this year. It comes loaded with over 30 cards that can be personalized with your text and photos. You can quickly send the cards to as many contacts as you wish – all for $1.99 per card (in the US), including shipping. For US, UK, European & Canadian addresses, cards deliver in less than 7 days.

Creating a card is super easy and super fast with Holiday Cards. When comparing with other options on the internet, Holiday Cards is a convenient and affordable option when you consider that you don’t have to ship it to yourself first, print out labels and stick them to each card (or worse yet, handwrite each address), and purchase and attach stamps. In just a few minutes, you can have your cards created and ordered.

My only complaint is that I don’t think there are enough templates to choose from

Send beautiful holiday cards directly to your loved ones from your iPhone or iPad. Sending Christmas cards has never been easier.

• Over 30 photo cards and illustrated designs
• Religious, non-religious, Christmas, Holiday, New Year & Hanukkah themes
• Personalize with your photo, family name & personal message
• Apply photo filters
• Send cards to your whole Christmas list in under 10 minutes
• Stress-free delivery. Backed by the Sincerely Guarantee
• Large 5×7 inch cards for as little as $1.69 each including postage!
• Cards are printed on thick, glossy 5×7 inch photo postcards at 300dpi resolution
• Cards are delivered to US, UK, European & Canadian addresses in under 7 days. Rest of world takes 2-3 weeks.
• Easily add addresses online at sincerely.com/addressbook

Holiday Cards by Sincerely Ink is available on the iPhone and iPad for free. Postcards

[App Store 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.

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Georgia, Rene, and Seth talk Kindle Fire vs. iPad vs. iPod touch, Apple’s new “Love” commercial, gifts for iPad lovers and gifts for geeks, iPad 3 rumors, and setting up Settings shortcuts. This is iPad Live!

Georgia’s iPad gift picks

• Choiix Wave Stand for iPad
• Mystery Case Files: Dire Grove HD
• Logitech Speaker Stand for iPad, Apple TV

Rene’s iPad gift picks

• Pad & Quill Contega Case – (On Cyber-Monday sale! Hurry!)
• Instacast HD
• Jawbone JAMBOX or from Amazon.com

Seth’s iPad gift picks

• Apogee Jam
• GarageBand
• iCade

Hosts

• Georgia (@GeorgiaTiPb)
• Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie)
• Seth Clifford (@sethclifford)

Credits

Thanks to the TiPb iPad Accessory Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Music Hear me Roar by iPad Live theme song contest winner, DieselJesus!

Phil Nickinson from Android Central has put the iPhone 4S vs. Galaxy Nexus head-to-head in an epic comparison, complete with videos, pictures, uncanny insight, and everything else you’d expect from a Mobile Nations showdown.

The bottom line seems to be, if you want a bigger screen (4.65 inches), a removable battery, NFC, an LTE option (if Verizon actually releases the darn thing before iPhone 5 gets announced next year!), and a more customizable, Google-centric system, go with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

If you want a smaller screen (3.5-inches), a better camera (huge 8mp, photon-friendly sensor), the Siri virtual assistant, the still overall better quality App Store apps and more robust iPhone accessory ecosystem, and the more user-friendly, Apple and iTunes-centric system, go with iPhone 4S.

If you’re simply stunned and amazed that we have two such incredible devices on the market these days, with more on the way, then join the club. For more:

• Full Galaxy Nexus review
• Full iPhone 4S review

Source: Android Central

The Choiix Wave Stand for iPad is an aluminum holder that will work for any tablet. It’s beautiful looking — almost Apple-esque — well-made, sturdy, and inexpensive, what’s not to love?

The Wave Stand has lots of nice touches like rubberized feet to keep it in place even when you’re tapping, typing and prodding at your iPad. The back of the stand is also rubberized and grooved to keep your iPad from slipping down or out. You can easily adjust angles and because it’s strong, it stays right where you want it. You can use it with your iPad in either portrait or landscape mode, though in landscape mode pushing the iPad home button does make it wiggle a bit. (You can use your iOS 5 multitasking gestures to get around that.)

I’ve been using it all the time and I find it absolutely amazing. I use it at the table so I can browse the web while eating, on the counter while cooking, and on the desk while typing.

Best of all, Choiix is going to give one away to a lucky TiPb reader, so if you want in all you have to do is leave a comment below telling me how you would use the Wave Stand.

Source: Choiix

PayCal is an iPhone app to help shift workers, freelancers, and students keep tack of their hours. It supports multiple jobs and multiple shifts per day and calculate gross pay per shift and pay days.

PayCal is a unique new iPhone app that allows you to easily schedule your work shifts using an efficient and beautiful gesture-based tray interface. PayCal also is the only app available that instantly translates your hours scheduled into gross pay per shift, as well as pay days.

• Simple, Easy To Use Interface for Managing Shifts
• Supports Daily and Monthly Views
• Shift Templates for Recurring Shifts via the Shift Tray
• Easily Add One-Time Shifts
• Unpaid Break Time Option for Shifts
• Pay Schedules Unique to Each Job
• Automatic Gross Pay Calculation
• Color-Coordinated Jobs
• Easily Adjustable Shifts in Daily View

PayCal is available on the iPhone and on sale for free until December 2.

[App Store 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.

• Pinball City NY: Crooked cops. Gangsters everywhere. A beautiful dame. A dead body. Welcome to New York. [$1.99 for iPhone - App Store link] [$3.99 for iPad - App Store link]

• AR Pho.to Cartoonizer: Just picture yourself pointing your camera at a friend and getting a cartoonized caricature with an animated broad smile or a cute wink! Wouldn't that be hilarious? [Free for iPhone and iPad - App Store link]

• Media Safe – KYMS – Keep Your Media Safe (and secret): Keep your photos and videos secret by hiding them behind a harmless calculator. Only knowing the password you’ll be able to access the private library. Now with a new panic gesture: cover the screen with your hand to hide your media immediately! [$1.99 for iPhone and iPad - App Store link]

• iMommy: A game for kids to play mommy. They can change baby’s outfit, hair, eye color, and diaper. [$1.99 for iPhone and iPad - App Store link]

• Tapfolio for Stocks: A new breed of stock app, truly optimized for iPad: swipe, pinch and zoom graphs with ease. Compare stocks with a single tap. Build and visualize your portfolio like never before. Easy and addictive – a great way to feel connected to your portfolio. [$2.99 for iPad - App Store 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.

Best Buy has released a new advert for the holidays called "Everything Apple at Best Buy”, and it’s aimed squarely at poaching potential Apple purchasers. Best Buy has Apple Stores within a store idea and is aimed at letting its customers know that they sell all of Apple's products too.

The advert starts off with a sales representative demonstrating a FaceTime call with an iPad 2. The customer says she didn't know that Best Buy had all of the Apple products. See where this is going? It ends with Santa about to leave his presents under her tree however she has already bought the complete Best Buy Apple inventory; and it's under the tree already!

Source: YouTube

System wide voice-to-text dictation, once exclusive to iPhone 4S, has now been replicated on other iOS devices thanks to a Jailbreak hack called Siri0us. In order to use the dictation hack, you will need to have a jailbroken iOS 5 device. A point to note, the hack does not use Apple’s servers, it solely uses the Nuance speech recognition system on device, and it does not provide any of the Siri voice control features.

Currently it has been confirmed to work on an iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 4 generation. As we mentioned, the hack uses Nuance Speech Recognition however it is not officially licensed. The developer is hoping that Nuance will offer him the ability to purchase licenses to make the hack legal.

If you want to give it a try, add http://apt.if0rce.com to your list of Cydia sources, you should then be able to search for and install Siri0us. There appears to be a huge demand for the hack as the repository holding the app is getting hit with a lot of traffic and keeps going down.

Source: iForce via iDB