Even though colored iPhone parts aren’t available from Apple doesn’t mean you can’t find good ones if you know what you’re looking for.

If you have an iPhone 4 and you want to swap out the standard Apple black or white backplate for something more colorful — like red or blue — it can be a challenge to find the best, high quality parts. Backplate swaps especially are an easy DIY project, but you want to pay careful attention to the supplier, the materials they’re using, the specific model of iPhone 4 you’re ordering for (AT&T/GSM is different than Verizon/Sprint/CDMA), and that you have all the tools you need for the job.

Only order iPhone 4 parts from a reputable supplier

As tempting as it can be to order colored parts on eBay or Amazon because of the low price tag, keep in mind that it’ll cost you more to replace your iPhone 4 if faulty parts cause something to go wrong. Spending a couple extra bucks for parts that are high quality and backed with a warranty is always your best bet.

Not to say there aren’t some reputable sellers on both websites. Just make sure you’re reading comments and customer reviews. If you see negative ones that should be a red flag and you should steer away from that seller altogether.

The best place to get colored or replacement parts is from a supplier that specializes in iPhone or iPad repair. I use eTech Parts for almost all my repair needs. They offer a warranty that I can pass down to my clients and are always willing to answer any question I may have regarding the quality of their merchandise.

Some suppliers only sell colored parts to businesses and repair shops. If you plan on ordering colored parts from a repair center or online supplier like PXLFIX in the form of a DIY kit, don’t be afraid to ask them who they get their parts from and if they back them with a warranty. If they are hesitant to give you that information, I’d probably find somewhere else to order them.

What to look for when buying colored parts

Several websites offer a variety of DIY color kits. There are certain things you’re going to want to look for before ordering so you’re sure you get the best parts you can.

Backplate checklist

If you are DIY replacing a back panel, you’ll want to make sure you pay close attention to the following when buying parts.

• Make sure the back is made of glass and not plastic.
• Order the correct back replacement as GSM and CDMA backs are different. The hinges are placed differently and they are not interchangeable. This goes for both a back and a front assembly.

• Check the screw holes on back replacements and make sure they are assembled from metal. These should ALWAYS be metal, not plastic as shown in the picture above. It’s much higher quality and decreases the chance that they will strip over time. The back I’ve pictured above with plastic screw holes was stripped after removing the screws only 2-3 times.
• Watch out for aluminum or brushed metal backs. They can mess with your reception.

Front assembly checklist

If you’re swapping out or repairing an iPhone 4 screen, you’ll definitely want to make sure your parts are high quality as you’ll be ordering a whole new digitizer and LCD assembly.

• Just as with the back, the brackets “are” different for CDMA and GSM models. Make sure you’re ordering the correct part.
• There are brackets that run along both sides of the assembly. These should be made of metal, not plastic. You have to screw these down with washers and plastic is brittle and normally too thick. You’ll have issues getting the screen to sit flush.

• Check sensors and make sure they look how they’re supposed to. A good guide is that any colored parts should have visible sensors similar to the stock white iPhone 4. If they look different than that, don’t buy them.

What to look for after you have your parts

Once you receive your colored replacement parts you’ll want to check all of the following before attempting a full color swap or any modification.

• Check the sensors and cables on the front digitizer assembly. A good way to gauge the quality of colored parts is to examine the cables and sensors on your stock digitizer assembly to the new parts. Make sure they feel similar in thickness and that the sensors are located in the same spots. It is common that replacement fronts won’t come with the plastic front-facing camera ring or the speaker mesh. That’s okay. You’ll just remove them from your stock assembly and place them on your colored assembly.

• Also check the back panel for blemishes on the lens cover. Run your finger over it and make sure it sits flush with the glass backing. This is a common problem with many knock offs. They are either scratched or don’t sit flush. This will effect image quality greatly. Most quality parts will come with a plastic protector on the inside and outside of the glass panel to protect the lens.

Wrap-up

Even though colored iPhone parts aren’t available from Apple doesn’t mean you can’t find good ones if you know what you’re looking for. The ones I order for my clients are just as good as the OEM parts Apple uses in most regards. I just made sure I chose wisely when selecting a supplier.

As long as you do the same, you’ll be sporting a colored iPhone that should serve you well for a long time to come. If you’re considering a color swap and need detailed walkthroughs on how to replace your front assembly, rear panel, and home button – be sure to check out our guides below (CDMA guides coming soon).

And if you decide it’s not a repair you’re comfortable performing on your own, you can always contact PXLFIX, or similar online source, about a mail-in color swap.

Additional resources

• How to replace an iPhone 4 rear casing
• How to DIY replace a GSM iPhone 4 front assembly
• How to DIY replace a GSM iPhone 4 home button
• iMore DIY and mod forums

The tablet wars are heating up! Apple is getting set to announce the iPad 3 next month. BlackBerry is going to release a major PlayBook OS update any day. The Kindle Fire is hot as is the Transformer Prime in a sea of Android tablets. And Windows 8 tablets are getting ready to enter the battle.

With so much going on we wanted to take a moment and find out where you weigh in on the tablet wars. We have five quick questions (and one bonus) that will take you less than a minute. Hit the link below.

Take the Survey!

“Dine-O-Matic for iPhone is a gorgeously rendered, single purpose app designed to do one thing, and do it very well — randomly pick where you should go out to eat when can’t make up your own mind.”

Launch Dine-O-Matic, and you’re asked to tell it your favorite restaurants (or let the handy GPS feature help you quickly locate them). When you’re done, or anytime thereafter, tap the plate to get your pick and watch Dine-O-Matic spin up it’s FTL (food type locator) and jumps you right to a random selection. Then you can call to make a reservation, get directions, or just grab your wallet and head out to eat. That’s it. That’s all. You’re good to go.

If you want to constrain your choices, you can choose the dollar range — between $ cheap and $$$ pricy, or any combination of those — right below the spinner.

Once you get your pick you can call or get directions, via the Maps app, with just a tap. If you later want to edit your restaurant list, or add more restaurants, that’s just a tap away as well. If a restaurant closes or falls out of your favor, you can swipe-to-delete it and remove it from the list.

Unfortunately, because Maps pulls its data from Google, you’re constrained by the quality of Google’s results in your areas. That could be great, or it could be less than great. Mine were mixed. You can, however, easily edit restaurant data and even categorize your favorite places. (If only Google were that smart!)

Dine-O-Matic comes from the Icon Factory, the brilliant minds behind apps like Twitterrific, Frenzic, and Ramp Champ to name but a few. Dine-o-Matic exemplifies the style and simplicity that are Icon Factory trademarks, but it takes both to the extreme.

Originally a Mac OS X Dashboard widget, Dine-O-Matic works as an iPhone app but it’s so simple, so single purpose, that it really re-opens the debate for widgets in iOS. Apple has added them to Siri and Notification Center but so far third-party apps can’t hook into them, unless you’re jailbroken.

That’s a pity. Something like Dine-O-Matic would feel right at home there. Just pull down the Notification Center shade, or swipe to a widget screen, and get your pick.

The good

• Gorgeous design, excellent interface
• Location awareness makes it convenient to add your favorite restaurants
• Excellent integration with Phone and Maps
• Can manually edit restaurant data

The bad

• Initial location-based restaurant results and data limited by the accuracy of Google

The conclusion

Dine-O-Matic is a gorgeously rendered, frustration-saving app with a simple goal — to randomly pick for you a place for you to eat from among your favorite restaurants. If you’ve ever had knock-down, drag-out fight — or the opposite, a passive-aggressive, responsibility-abdicating argument — with your friends, family, and loved ones over where to eat — and I have — letting a machine decide can be a welcome alternative. Heck, even if you’re just too tired or indecisive to choose a place to grab some takeout, letting Dine-O-Matic do it is a godsend.

Note: Due to an editorial error an incomplete version of this review was briefly published earlier today. We apologize and regret any inconvenience this may have caused the Icon Factory or the readers.

$0.99 – Download now

We are all familiar with Messages for iPhone and iPad and now Apple has brought Messages to the Mac. Messages for Mac is technically in beta, but it’s a public beta which means if you’re running OS X 10.7 Lion or the developer preview of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, you can download it now and give it a try.

If you use Messages on the iPhone or iPad, then you already know how to use Messages on the Mac. In fact, messages for the Mac is nearly identical to the iPad version.

Messages on all your devices is a fantastic idea, however it still needs some work. Namely, when someone sends you a message, a notification is sent to all of your devices. This would be fine for the first message, but even if you are actively using Messages on your Mac, your iPhone and iPad will continue to beep and chirp with every new message that comes in. This gets extremely annoying very fast. Apple needs to figure out a way to recognize which device you are actively using and disable notifications to all other devices. I’ll be honest, I won’t be using messages on the Mac very often with its current design. The experience is clunky and maddening.

That’s not to say it isn’t a good start, though. Messages for Mac is technically in beta, so hopefully Apple will make some changes before the final release.

Apple shocked the tech geek community with this morning’s surprise announcement of OS X Mountain Lion where they once again brought iPad and iPhone features “back to the Mac”, including Messages, Reminders, Notification Center and more.

There’s no word on Siri, Apple’s voice controlled assistant, for Mac yet, but then again there’s no word on Siri for iPad 3 yet either.

Apple is taking their time and doing what they do best — seeding interest and creating buzz. They’re excellent at it, just look at all the coverage they’re getting this morning without even holding one of their famous keynotes!

And we want to know how its working.

If you’re a Mac user, is this a no-brainer, instant-update for you when it’s available, or would you rather Apple kept OS X and iOS separate and distinct?

If you’re a Windows user, does anything you’ve seen today tempt you to make the switch to Mac, or does the idea of iOS-style stuff on your desktop make you even less likely to make the change?

If you’re undecided, if you’re waiting to see more, what precisely would Apple have to do to win you over to Mountain Lion?

You know the drill, vote in the poll above and give us your thoughts in the comments below!

Apple CEO Tim Cook and SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller sat down with The Wall Street Journal to discuss some of the reasons Apple chose to bring the iPad experience over to the Mac. During the interview, Cook went over some of the changes we’ll be seeing in Mountain Lion and how they plan to allow the iPad and laptops to coexist while merging the user-experience in many ways.

“We see that people are in love with a lot of apps and functionality here,” said Mr. Cook, 51 years old, pointing at his iPhone. “Anywhere where that makes sense, we are going to move that over to Mac.” [...] Mr. Cook said he already thinks of Apple’s iOS and OS X operating systems “as one with incremental functionality.” He said both laptops and tablets will continue to coexist, but he didn’t rule out that the technologies could converge further.

Cook also touched upon some of the rumors related to Apple using their own integrated SoC (system-on-a-chip) across the the gamut of their products — from mobile to the desktop — although he was rather vague on the subject while leaving it open to possibility.

When asked if Apples iPhones, iPads and Macs might run the same microprocessor chips, he said: “We think about everything. We don’t close things off.”

Phil Schiller also went over some of the reasons Apple is attempting to merge the mobile and desktop experience between iOS 5 and OS X Mountain Lion, indicating they took a “logical pass” at the user-experience in order for everything to make sense to the end user.

When asked if Apple was worried about the iPad taking over Mac sales, Cook tried to calm the concerns by explaining how iPhone and iPad users flock to the Mac after realizing how much better of a user-experience the devices provide, although he did admit Mac sales have been slightly canalization by the iPad in the most recent quarter.

Mr. Cook said the Mac remains an “incredibly important” part of the company and that it is already benefiting from the success of the iPhone, particularly in China, where Mac sales doubled last year. “They know about Apple and what Apple stands for,” he said. “Then they search out and look for the Mac.”

Apple officially announced they’ll be pushing OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion to the public later this summer, further integrating the iPad experience with the desktop, and creating Mac versions of Messages, Reminders, Notification Center and more.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion will be available later this summer, with a developer preview hitting the channel this Thursday.

Source: WSJ

Here’s an unofficial version of the official OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion preview video, showcasing some of the 100 new features Apple plans to include in the upcoming version of their desktop OS.

With Mountain Lion, Apple is moving even further into merging the experience between the iPad and the desktop, integrating features like Messages, Notification Center, Reminders and more.

Apple’s version isn’t embeddable at the moment so we’re including one from YouTube. We’ll update with an official version if/when Apple releases it.

Source: YouTube

Among many other new features announced today for OS X Mountain Lion was Twitter integration, built right into many of the core Mac apps.

“Tweet right from your apps. OS X Mountain Lion keeps you on top of all things Twitter. Sign in once and you're all set to start tweeting — and you don't have to leave the app you're in. Tweet links and photos directly from Safari, iPhoto, or Photo Booth with the new Tweet Sheet. Tweet comments and add locations. And when someone mentions you in a tweet or sends you a direct message, you'll get a Twitter notification right then and there.”

Twitter was borne of mobile, so it’s a big step for the social network to be integrated deeply and natively in a desktop operating system. Apple first started getting cozy with Twitter in iOS 5, and it’s clear that from here on in, they’ll keep supporting the ubiquitous social network. That being said, after years of lukewarm social networking initiatives inside Apple, including Ping, is it smart for Apple to just let Twitter handle their social networking?

Given how comfortable the two companies are getting with each other, I’m curious if down the line Apple would consider an acquisition… After all, they’ve got more money than most countries at this point. Apple doesn’t traditionally like to be beholden too, or dependent on, outside companies for their services or user experience.

Combined with the new OS X Notification Center, you’ll never have to deal with redundant notifications of @ replies or direct messages again, which is pretty sweet.

Apple released a developer preview for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion today, and it finally makes the Mac an equal iCloud citizen, alongside the iPhone and iPad. Previously, iCloud could be enabled as a sync tool for OS X, and a way to re-download iTunes content, but versions of apps like iWork for Mac weren’t updated to take advantage of Documents in the Cloud.

Now Documents in the Cloud is a core part of OS X, a secondary, simplified file system that aims to make keeping copies of your important files as easy on the Mac as it is on iOS.

“It just works. In more ways than ever. In OS X Mountain Lion, sign in once with your Apple ID and iCloud is automatically set up across your Mac.¹ That means right away iCloud keeps your mail, calendars, contacts, documents, and more up to date on every device you use. So when you add, delete, or edit something on your Mac, it happens on your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. And vice versa.”

iCloud was previously described by Tim Cook as more than just a service, but Apple’s strategy for the next decade. That seems to be very true, judging how many of today’s preview announcements at least have hooks in iCloud, if not being full integrated already.

Since they’ve got hardware more or less on lock, now Apple is smartly following up by competing in the services realm. Of course, there are product-side implications, too.  All of these changes inch Macs and iPads closer together, and in so doing, setting the stage for the day when Apple tablets are more like really small computers rather than really big iPhones.

More: Mountain Lion on Apple.com.

Take a note on your Mac at home, update it on your iPad at a meeting, read it on your iPhone on the go. Built in.

A proper, iOS-style Notes app is one of the 100 features included in today’s announcement of OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion developer preview. That means iOS users who also use the Mac finally have a good way to sync notes between all your devices with ease. Previously, iOS Notes would sync with Mac Mail, which was an odd if Outlook-style choice. Apple has continued to make the Mac more like iOS, however, and dedicated, single task apps is a big part of that.

Think it up. Jot it down. Make it even more noteworthy with photos, images, and attachments. You can add, delete, and flip through your notes or do a quick search. Use the Share button to send your notes to friends or colleagues with Mail or Messages. Pin important notes to your desktop so they're easy to get to. And take them with you everywhere.

Notes for OS X Mountain Lion will allow you to quickly and easily take your notes on your Mac and have them sync via iCloud, and have access to them on your iPad at the coffee shop or meeting, or your iPhone while on the go.

In addition to syncing to your mobile device, you are also able to pin important notes to your desktop, and they have made sharing your notes extremely easy by allowing you to share via messages or mail right from your Mac.

More: Mountain Lion on Apple.com.

Keep track of all your mail, message, twitter, and other alerts on your Mac as easily as you do on your iPhone or iPad

Notification Center will be making its way from your iPhone and iPad to your Mac with the release of OS X Mountain Lion. It was one of the most eagerly awaited features of iOS 5 and aims to do the same now for Mac — bring all your alerts to you in one place, including mail, reminders, calendar, messages, Twitter, and more.

Among the many other things Mac OS X Mountain Lion brings over from the iPad and iPhone, Notification Center comes complete with the features you already know, including a pull out notification list you can access by swiping to the left and banners that disappear quickly so your regular workflow isn’t interrupted.

You can access Notification Center from anywhere on your Mac at anytime. Swiping left from anywhere will bring up a new Notification Center section on the right hand side of your display. If you’d like to respond to an iMessage or an e-mail just tap it and you’ll be taken straight to it.

iOS users should feel right at home. Apple is tightening the integration between all their devices and starting to heavily rely on services like iCloud to help make all your information available on all devices.

OS X Mountain Lion just seems like another step towards making the user experience even more alike across all Apple devices and computers. It also increases like likelihood that users shopping for a new computer may be more likely to consider a Mac if they’re already familiar with and enjoy the experience they get from their iPhone or iPad.

More: Mountain Lion on Apple.com.

For today only the iMore iPhone case store has the BodyGuardz mykase for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 on sale for only $16.95 — that’s a whopping 52% off! Get it before it’s gone!

• Shop BodyGuardz mykase for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 now!

The BodyGuardz mykase is a stylish protection solution for your iPhone 4S, AT&T iPhone 4, or Verizon iPhone 4 that allows you to change the look of your device quickly and efficiently.

Using mykase's system of interchangeable plates, you can mix and match styles on the fly, or even print your own image on the back plate for a true one-of-a-kind creation. Whatever your style, mykase lets you express it without sacrificing functionality or protection.

Features:

• Interchangeable plates
• Cut-outs for all device features
• Custom fit for iPhone 4S, AT&T iPhone 4, or Verizon iPhone 4
• Slim, low-profile case
• Easy to install and remove plates

Apple has released a developer preview of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and, among the many other clearly iPad- and iPhone-inspired features will be a new Reminders app that synchronizes across your Mac and iOS X.

Now nothing slips your mind. When you have so much to do, Reminders helps you get it done. It's all in a list. More than one, in fact. Make as many lists as you need and easily add to them. Set due dates and you'll get alerts as deadlines approach. Check items off your lists as you go and keep track of what you've completed. And to be sure you don't forget anything, iCloud keeps your reminders up to date on your Mac, iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

Apple previously allowed Reminders to be synced to the Mac using iCal on OS X 10.7 Lion, but that proved to be somewhat finicky and didn’t reflect the user-experience or interface of its iPad or iPhone counterparts. With the update to Lion and the official Reminders app, the experience will be completely fluid and sync via iCloud using your Apple ID.

I’m personally going to love this added feature in OS X Mountain Lion, as I made the decision not to use Reminders on iOS due to the stark differences in how it worked on the desktop. Now that the experience will be the same across all of my Apple devices, this should be much better for Apple users.

More: Mountain Lion on Apple.com.

Avoid carrier SMS and MMS charges and keep all your IMs in one place with iOS iMessage right on your Mac

If you have been waiting for Apple to release a version of iMessage for Mac then that day has just become a lot closer. After the release of the beta of OS X Mountain Lion earlier today, Apple has followed it up with the release of a beta version of its new Mac Messages app. Messages, which will replace the current iChat app, brings all of the great features of iMessage to your Mac while keeping many that made iChat great as well.

Messages for Mac works just like it does on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, running iOS 5. You can send and receive unlimited messages across all of your supported Apple devices. All of your devices will receive the same messages, and copies of messages that you have sent from other devices, so all of your chat messages are in the same place and in-sync, no matter which device you have in your hand at the time. You can start an iMessage conversation on your Mac, continue it on your iPad then finish it on your iPhone or iPod touch while on the go.

Just like the iOS 5 version of iMessage, Messages also lets you send photos, videos, file attachments, contacts, locations and even start a FaceTime call right from the app. Messages also supports a host of other chat services like AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk and Jabber. The Messages app is available today as a public beta so anyone with a Mac running Lion 10.7.3 can give it a whirl.

Messages Beta – Download Now

More: Mountain Lion on Apple.com.

Apple’s drive to bring iOS back to the Mac continues with Messages, Notification Center, AirPlay mirroring, and more for OS X

Apple has just announced a preview of the next major version of their Mac operating system, OS X 10.8. It’s called Mountain Lion. The preview is available now and the full version, with over 100 new features, will ship this summer.

"The Mac is on a roll, growing faster than the PC for 23 straight quarters, and with Mountain Lion things get even better," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "The developer preview of Mountain Lion comes just seven months after the incredibly successful release of Lion and sets a rapid pace of development for the world's most advanced personal computer operating system."

The current OS X 10.7 Lion system was announced as a way to take iOS ideas back to the Mac, and Mountain Lion looks to accelerate this process dramatically. It’s not a port of iOS to the Mac, far from it. It’s the continued implementation of the best of iOS ideas on the Mac OS X system. Like Lion, some of the ideas will no doubt work better than others, but the path seems absolutely clear and Apple seems incredibly focused on getting there. Fast.

Especially noteworthy:

• iCloud is coming to the Mac in a big way. It will be available on signup, like iOS, and will offer not only push/store “sync” features but Documents in the Cloud as an alternative, highly abstracted way to handle files without the traditional, complex management.

• iOS apps like Reminders, Notes, and Messages are coming to the Mac, and traditional Mac apps are transforming to better mirror their iOS counterparts, like Calendar (iCal) and Contacts (Address Book)

• Game Center is coming to the Mac, as is Twitter integration.

• Notification Center will handle alerts, just like iOS, and Share Sheets will make it easier to share information on the Mac.

• AirPlay Mirroring will let your Mac screen appear on your big screen HDTV, via the Apple TV.

• Gatekeeper provides a middle ground between standard apps and App Store apps, signed by a developer but not approved by Apple.

No word on Siri, Apple’s personal voice assistant yet, but it’s early days. Apple’s Mountain Lion page is live, so check it out. Full press release below.

More: Mountain Lion on Apple.com.

Apple Releases OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview with Over 100 New Features

CUPERTINO, California—February 16, 2012—Apple® today released a developer preview of OS X® Mountain Lion, the ninth major release of the world's most advanced operating system, which brings popular apps and features from iPad® to the Mac® and accelerates the pace of OS X innovation. Mountain Lion introduces Messages, Notes, Reminders and Game Center to the Mac, as well as Notification Center, Share Sheets, Twitter integration and AirPlay® Mirroring. Mountain Lion is the first OS X release built with iCloud® in mind for easy setup and integration with apps. The developer preview of Mountain Lion also introduces Gatekeeper, a revolutionary security feature that helps keep you safe from malicious software by giving you complete control over what apps are installed on your Mac. The preview release of Mountain Lion is available to Mac Developer Program members starting today. Mac users will be able to upgrade to Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store™ in late summer 2012.

"The Mac is on a roll, growing faster than the PC for 23 straight quarters, and with Mountain Lion things get even better," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "The developer preview of Mountain Lion comes just seven months after the incredibly successful release of Lion and sets a rapid pace of development for the world's most advanced personal computer operating system."

The developer preview of Mountain Lion features the all new Messages app which replaces iChat® and allows you to send unlimited messages, high-quality photos and videos directly from your Mac to another Mac or iOS device. Messages will continue to support AIM, Jabber, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk. Starting today Lion users can download a beta of Messages from www.apple.com, and the final version will be available with Mountain Lion. Reminders and Notes help you create and track your to-dos across all your devices. Game Center lets you personalize your Mac gaming experience, find new games and challenge friends to play live multiplayer games, whether they're on a Mac, iPhone®, iPad or iPod touch®.

Mountain Lion presents notifications in an elegant new way, and Notification Center provides easy access to alerts from Mail, Calendar, Messages, Reminders, system updates and third party apps. System-wide Share Sheets make it easy to share links, photos and videos directly from Apple and third party apps. Twitter is integrated throughout Mountain Lion so you can sign on once and tweet directly from Safari®, Quick Look, Photo Booth®, Preview and third party apps. Mountain Lion also introduces AirPlay Mirroring, an easy way to wirelessly send a secure 720p video stream of what’s on your Mac to an HDTV using Apple TV®.

More than 100 million users have iCloud accounts, and Mountain Lion makes it easier than ever to set up iCloud and access documents across your devices. Mountain Lion uses your Apple ID to automatically set up Contacts, Mail, Calendar, Messages, FaceTime® and Find My Mac. The new iCloud Documents pushes any changes to all your devices so documents are always up to date, and a new API helps developers make document-based apps work with iCloud.

Gatekeeper is a revolutionary new security feature that gives you control over which apps can be downloaded and installed on your Mac. You can choose to install apps from any source, just as you do on a Mac today, or you can use the safer default setting to install apps from the Mac App Store, along with apps from developers that have a unique Developer ID from Apple. For maximum security, you can set Gatekeeper to only allow apps from the Mac App Store to be downloaded and installed.

Mountain Lion also has features specifically designed to support Chinese users, including significant enhancements to the Chinese input method and the option to select Baidu search in Safari. Mountain Lion makes it easy to set up Contacts, Mail and Calendar with top email service providers QQ, 126 and 163. Chinese users can also upload video via Share Sheets directly to leading video websites Youku and Tudou, and system-wide support for Sina weibo makes microblogging easy.

Hundreds of new APIs give developers access to new core technologies and enhanced features within OS X. The Game Kit APIs tap into the same services as Game Center on iOS, making it possible to create multiplayer games that work across Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. A new graphics infrastructure underpins OpenGL and OpenCL and implements GLKit, first introduced in iOS 5, to make it easier to create OpenGL apps. Using Core Animation in Cocoa apps is easier than ever, and new video APIs deliver modern 64-bit replacements for low-level QuickTime APIs. Enhanced Multi-Touch™ APIs give developers double-tap zoom support and access to the system-wide lookup gesture. Kernel ASLR improves security through enhanced mitigation against buffer overflow attacks.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

 

Apple has sent out a letter via its iTunes Connect portal to all of its registered iBookstore content publishers advising them of some much needed improvements. The iBookstore will now allow publishers to submit screenshots of their books but even more importantly, they can now generate and issue promotional codes for any content sold in the iBookstore.

Publishers can now issue up to fifty promo codes which can be given to book reviewers to enable them to receive an iBooks version of a book for free. This works in a very similar way to app developer who already have the ability to give away promo codes for apps.

iBookstore publishers also now have the option of submitting screenshots of their books. This could prove extremely useful for books that include rich multi-media content which can be produced using Apple's iBooks Author tools. Screenshots have to follow some strict guidelines with regard to size of the screen shots as well as the file types used.

The final change is in the way the iBookstore will handle any pre-order books. From now on, publishers can place books up for pre-order without the need to submit any cover artwork or other information. This information must be in place at least two weeks prior to the book actually being made available for sale.

PolyMagic is a fantastic little iPhone and iPad app that lets you create interesting collages of photos. Most other similar apps only allow rectangular frames around each photo, but PolyMagic is filled with frames that are shaped like polygons, making your collages truly unique.

Creating a collage is very a simple and intuitive task. After choosing your photos, just grab a vertex and slide it around to the location you think looks best. PolyMagic has 66 layouts that the creators believe to be aesthetically pleasing, but they also allow you to adjust them how you want.

With apps like Instagram, square cropping has become very popular and many collage apps only offer squared. PolyMagic, however, offers 6 different ratios and will let you drag the borders into any dimensions you wish. The most recent update of PolyMagic also introduced some basic photo editing features into the app. Now you can make edits such as enhance, effects, saturation, brightness, contrast, text, and drawing.

Once your done with your collage, you can easily and quickly export directly into Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumbler.

Selecting good photos that compliment each other for collages is already a challenge, and PolyMagic has made this creative element even more challenging — but if you do it right, you can obtain some wonderfully artistic results.

PolyMagic is free for a very limited time, so make sure you grab it before the sale ends! After you do, head on over to our Photography forum and show off your great collages!

Free – Download Now

Kevin, Phil, Derek, Daniel, and Rene discuss RIM’s new CEO and what it means for BlackBerry in 2012, the unstoppable Android, iPad 3 vs. Windows 8 tablets, Chinese working conditions, and apps and your privacy. This is Mobile Nations!

• Our podcast feed: Audio | Video
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Agenda

• BlackBerry CEO interview
• BlackBerry DevCon Europe
• Android is dominant
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Kevin Michaluk (@crackberrykevin) of CrackBerry.com

Derek Kessler (@dkdsgn) of PreCentral.net

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Georgia (@GeorgiaTiPb) of Girls Gone Gadgets

Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) of TiPb.com

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Apple has made a couple of adjustments to its iAd mobile advertising platform for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, including significantly lowering the buy-in price to $100,000 — down from $500,000, which was already down from $1,000,000 — and to increasing developer revenue sharing to 70 percent — up from 60 precent. iAd was supposed to allow developers who made free apps earn some extra revenue through in-app advertising, but Apple has been facing a lot of challenges getting the program off the ground. iAds were supposed to be both lucrative for developers and effective for advertisers, while delighting users with better presented, more engaging content than your average punch-the-monkey web banner.

However, Apple has had some trouble getting it off the ground, and competing with Google’s AdMob. iAd is basically fighting a battle on two fronts. First, trying to get more advertisers on board with iAd. Second, trying to get developers to show the ads they do manage to sell. Higher revenue should sweetens the pot for developer, hopefully creating a bigger target for Apple to sell advertisers.

The iAd mobile advertising network provides a simple and compelling way to generate additional revenue from your apps. Now we're making it even better, raising your revenue share to 70 percent. The new revenue share goes into effect automatically on April 1 for all developers in the iAd Network. Learn how easy it is to get started with iAd.

That’s also where the significant decrease in iAd price comes in. Apple has struggled with adoption among advertisers since Steve Jobs introduced the program back in 2010. When first announced, Apple required participants to fork over $1 million to get started, which they’ve since realized was far too high an amount given the lack of participation after the program launched. Apple has been experimenting with the buy-in amount from the get-go, cutting the price in half to $500,000 a year ago.

These changes should no doubt encourage more advertisers to participate, but whether or not iAd will ultimately become what Apple envisioned is yet to be determined.

Source: Apple, TheLoop

Apple has addressed concerns over the iPad trademark case brought by Proview that has recently had online retailers in China removing iPad’s from their inventory. In a statement issued to China Daily, Apple asserts that Proview is simply not honoring the agreement in place.

"We bought Proview's worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago. Proview refuses to honor their agreement with Apple, and a Hong Kong court has sided with Apple in this matter," according to the statement, which also said the case is still pending on the Chinese mainland."

When Apple purchased the iPad trademark, it was from a UK firm who had purchased it from Proview Taiwan, the sister company of Proview Shenzhen who didn’t have the rights to actually sell the trademark.

Xie Xianghui, a lawyer representing Proview Shenzhen responded to Apple’s statements, claiming that Apple meant to confuse the public. He said that the outcome in Hong Kong would have no bearing on other court cases because of how different the legal systems are.

"Apple is worried the iPad trademark will be resold before the hearing is finished, so it asked the Hong Kong court to forbid Proview Shenzhen from doing that," , adding that the court's decision to prevent the trademark from being transferred cannot be seen as showing that it has ruled in favor of Apple.

As the proceedings move on slowly, many retailers have stated they’ll not stop selling the iPad in China but it’s viewed by some that it might just be easier to settle on a deal with Proview Shenzhen rather then fighting the legal system in China. At least then, Apple would own the trademark fully without question and they could continue on without wondering if they may have to deal with the issue at some other point in time.

Source: People Daily via: 9to5Mac

It has been a busy week thus far for Apple news and we’ve managed to post a lot of stuff up for you all. If you happened to miss out on anything, be sure to get yourself caught up. Once you’re done that, if you’re still looking for more iOS goodness then check out the iMore forums. You can register now to get started today and while you’re at it, check out some of the threads below:

• XBox 360 Kinect giveaway
• Photos to Cloud – How to?
• Settings app – Has it ever crashed on you?
• iCloud, My Family and Devices
• My Apple Story
• Best Jailbreak Tweaks!?

If you’re not already a member of the iMore Forums, register now!

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