Little Fox Music Box is a sing-along children’s app that contains over 100 interactive elements in the three included songs and music studio. It’s filled with great (although not yet Retina) artwork that’s bound to make any small child smile.

The three songs included with Little Fox Music Box are London Bridge, Evening Song, and Old Mac Donald. Each song has a fun, interactive scene that goes with the theme of the song. I was impressed to discover that nearly everything in the scenes are responsive to touch. The scenes also scroll a little to the left and right making them a little better than the screen of the iPad.

With karaoke mode enabled, there is no singing heard, but the words of the song are still displayed and highlight when it’s time to sing them. This is great for kids who are starting to learn to read.

In addition to the three songs, Little Fox Music Box invites you to play with Little Fox in his tree house where everything makes a musical sound. Your child will have a lot of fun creating his/her own music by tapping on bottles, kitchenware, frogs, birds, and more.

I downloaded Little Fox Music Box last night and my very active 18-month year old daughter (who doesn’t typically stay still for longer than 15 seconds) sat on my lap laughing, clapping, and interacting with the scenes for at least 30 minutes and wasn’t ready to stop.

The Good

• Very engaging
• Kids are bound to love it
• Nearly everything on the page reactions to touch

The Bad

• Only 3 songs

The Conclusion

Little Fox Music Box is a fantastic sing-along app for kids, but with only 3 songs, $4.99 is a bit steep. I really hope the folks at Shape Minds and Moving Images GmbH release an update that includes more songs. On the other hand, 5 dollar toys are hard to come by these days.

$4.99 – Download Now

Apple has announced that sales of their third-generation iOS tablet have reached three million since Friday, making this Apple’s best iPad launch to date. It was also Apple’s biggest launch ever, encompassing 12 countries/regions. While that’s insane and awesome — and it’s impressive they could meet the demand given past constraints — there’s still a lot of the world that has yet to get in on the action; this Friday, the new iPad goes on sale in Spain, Belgium, Mexico, Italy, Norway, Sweden and another 18 countries.

"The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold―the strongest iPad launch yet," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Customers are loving the incredible new features of iPad, including the stunning Retina display, and we can’t wait to get it into the hands of even more customers around the world this Friday."

In the US, this morning’s announcement from AT&T previously reported that they had busted sales records of the new iPad on launch day as well. It’ll be interesting to see Verizon’s numbers.

For better or worse, I can’t even imagine other tablet manufacturers coming close to this kind of success in the near or distant future. Here’s the press release.

New iPad Tops Three Million

CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Apple® today announced it has sold three million of its incredible new iPad®, since its launch on Friday, March 16. The new iPad features a stunning new Retina™ display, Apple's new A5X chip with quad-core graphics, a 5 megapixel iSight® camera with advanced optics for capturing amazing photos and 1080p HD video, and still delivers the same all-day 10 hour battery life* while remaining amazingly thin and light. iPad Wi-Fi + 4G supports ultrafast 4G LTE networks in the US and Canada, and fast networks around the world including those based on HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA.**

"Customers are loving the incredible new features of iPad, including the stunning Retina display, and we can’t wait to get it into the hands of even more customers around the world this Friday."

"The new iPad is a blockbuster with three million sold―the strongest iPad launch yet," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "Customers are loving the incredible new features of iPad, including the stunning Retina display, and we can’t wait to get it into the hands of even more customers around the world this Friday."

The new iPad is already available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and the US Virgin Islands and will be available in 24 more countries starting at 8:00 a.m. local time on Friday, March 23 through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macau, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

The new iPad Wi-Fi models are available in black or white for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for the 16GB model, $599 (US) for the 32GB model, $699 (US) for the 64GB model. iPad Wi-Fi + 4G for either AT&T or Verizon is available for a suggested retail price of $629 (US) for the 16GB model, $729 (US) for the 32GB model and $829 (US) for the 64GB model. iPad is sold in the US through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. Additionally, the incredible iPad 2 is now offered at a more affordable price of $399 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and just $529 (US) for the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G model.

One of the greatest features of the new iPad and all iOS devices is FaceTime.

FaceTime is free over Wi-Fi video calling that allows you to see the caller on the other end of the conversation through the iPad’s front-facing camera. You can also "swap" cameras and show the caller what is around you using the rear facing camera.

Setting up FaceTime

FaceTime needs to be set up the first time you use it on your iPad. The process is usually pretty painless. Because the iPad is not a phone, FaceTime needs to be associated with an email address to work. Follow these steps to associate FaceTime with an email address:

1. Touch the FaceTime icon (it's usually located on the first Home screen of the iPad).
2. Sign in  using your Apple ID or your iCloud user name and password. If you don't have an account just touch the Create New Account button
3. Once the account is set up, you can choose the email address you want to use for placing FaceTime calls. You can also add other email addresses to use with your FaceTime account.

Enabling FaceTime Calling on your iPad

When you first use your iPad, FaceTime may not be enabled yet. To enable the iPad to receive and make FaceTime calls, follow these steps:

1. Go to your Settings icon.
2. Look for the  FaceTime option tab along the left-hand column.
3. Toggle the FaceTime switch to the ON position.

Once FaceTime is enabled, you can place a FaceTime call from the FaceTime app or from the FaceTime button at the bottom of a contact entry.

FaceTime will only work, however, if the other caller is on an iPad 2, new iPad, iPod touch (with front facing camera), iPhone 4, or iPhone 4S.

To initiate a FaceTime call, follow these steps:

1. Touch the FaceTime icon (initially on the first Home screen) on your new iPad.
2. Choose a Favorite, a Recent, or a Contact who is capable of a FaceTime call. The app will ask the caller on the other end to Accept the FaceTime call.
3. Remember that you can call iPhone phone numbers using the FaceTime app.

Accepting a call from someone else is also easy; simply Accept the FaceTime call from the other caller by touching Accept button or by Sliding to Answer if the iPad is locked.

When you are on a  FaceTime call, the following options are available to you:

1. Touch the Switch Camera button to show the FaceTime caller you are looking at. The Switch Camera button will now use the standard camera on the back of the new iPad.
2. You can move the small image of yourself around the screen to a convenient spot.
3. Touch the End button to end the FaceTime call.
4. Touch the Mute button to temporarily mute the call.

Setting Favorites in FaceTime

Just as when using an iPhone, you can set Favorites for FaceTime calling on your iPad. The favorites that you set need to be users who have an iPad 2, iPod touch or an iPhone 4. Follow these steps to add people to your Favorites:

1. Start the FaceTime app as you did previously.
2. Touch the Favorites key at the bottom.
3. Touch the "+" sign and then add a contact to your Favorites.

Facetime is a great way to stay in touch – for free – with friends and family. Remember that you need to be on WiFi.  Even if you have a 4G LTE edition of the iPad, you still need to be on WiFi for Facetime! (You could tether your iPhone to your iPad Personal Hotspot, or vice versa, to get around this, but how silly is that?)

Additional resources:

• How to use FaceTime on your big screen HDTV via AirPlay Mirroring
• How to deal with FaceTime activation problems

How is FaceTime working for you? Let us know if this forum thread:

Surprise! Everyone loves their iPhones. J.D. Power and Associates have just announced the results of their annual smartphone customer satisfaction survey, and like usual, Apple’s iPhone has topped the list. On a 1,000-point scale, spanning criteria of performance, ease of operation, physical design, and features, Apple scored 839. Second place was claimed by HTC with a score of 798, while the industry average was 774.  This is the seventh consecutive win for Apple in this particular survey.

ChangeWave recently published a survey which backs up the sentiment, but I don’t think we really need a lot of stats to prove the point that people love their iPhones. The J.D. Power and Associates survey does a good job highlighting what’s important to people, though. Battery life is the least satisfying part of a smartphone, according to their research. Software stability is also really high on the list; devices which experienced a crash at least once a week averaged a score of 691.

On that note, what’s the very worst thing you could say about your iPhone? The screen size?

Source: J.D. Power and Associates

Cases may let us mix up what our iPads look like on the outside, but to keep things fresh and fun on the inside, we need awesome iPad wallpapers for the Lock screen and Home screen. And we need them in Retina display resolution (that’s 2048×2048 in this case — needs to be rotatable). Sure, Apple provides a lot of really high quality, really beautiful looking wallpapers built right in, but for some of us, there are never enough.

Apple’s also tend to focus on nature and texture, which is great (the new ones released in iOS 5 are all water-themed). But some people prefer more tech-styled, electronic wallpapers. Some prefer photos of family or friends, or favorite movies, TV shows, or musicians. Some even like their iPad wallpapers a little more naughty than nice (hey, we’re not here to judge!)

Whatever your tastes may be, we’ve updated our official iMore wallpapers for the new iPad retina display, and created a new thread in the forums where you can share and find great new iPad retina wallpapers every day.

To grab the wallpaper above, and the more subdued gray version — I prefer color on my Lock screen, gray on my Home screen so it doesn’t clash with icons — just hit the link below. (You have to be logged into the forums to download images, but membership is fast and free and also lets you post your own wallpapers — please do! — and engage with the best damn iOS community on the planet!)

• Awesome iPad Retina wallpaper of the day!

You just spent a good deal of cash to purchase the new iPad. Have you given thought as to what you would do if it were lost or stolen?

Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to "track" your iPad and know exactly where it was at all times? Well, fortunately, there is. If you signed up for Apple’s free iCloud service (and we all should) you have an easy way of always locating your iPad –- Find my iPhone.

Yes, it the app is called Find My iPhone, but it finds any iOS device or Mac that is registered with iCloud.

How to sign up for Find my iPad

First, either create or login to your iCloud account when you set up your iPad.  If you chose not to create or sign into an iCloud account, you can always:

1. Go to Settings.
2. Touch the iCloud icon along the left hand column.
3. Touch Account and sign into iCloud.
4.  Make sure that the Find My iPad switch is set to the ON position.

Now that you are logged in to iCloud and have the switch turned ON- the fun begins.

How to use Find my iPad via the web

On your Mac, Windows, or Linux PC, go to the iCloud website – www.icloud.com – and log into your iCloud account.

You will see the iCloud icons on the screen – click on Find my iPhone.

The next screen will show you all your iOS devices. Those that are discoverable have a small green dot next to the name of the device. If you see a green dot next to your iPad – you are in luck.  If you have a WiFi only version and it is "offline" – you are out of luck (at least for the moment.)

Click on the device you wish to locate – in our case, it is your iPad – and an the map will show the location of your iPad and when it was last located.

Touch the "I" icon next to the name of your iPad and you will have three options listed:

1. Play Sound or Send Message.
2. Remote Lock.
3. Remote Wipe.

If you think you just misplaced  your iPad or that someone borrowed it without asking, click on Play Sound or Send Message.

You will then see a dialogue box for you to type in a message. When you are done, just click the Send button.

What happens next is that the message is displayed on the iPad – wherever it is and a sound is played. The message is visible when the iPad is locked and is displayed again when the iPad is unlocked.

The message can be as detailed as you like – in this example, I assumed someone just borrowed my iPad.  If I thought it misplaced or I didn't remember who I lent it to I might give my contact information. If it were lost – I might even offer a reward for returning it.

What if you know or think your iPad was stolen? This is where the Remote Lock and Remote Wipe feature comes in. You may not get your iPad back, but you can take steps to make sure that your information is not stolen along with your iPad.

Click Remote Lock and the dastardly appropriator of your iPad will find the iPad useless – the won't be able to unlock it.

Click Remote Wipe and all the information will be deleted from the iPad – a great security feature.

If your iPad is "offline" you still have the options to:

1. Play Sound or Send Message.
2. Remote Lock
3. Remote Wipe
4. Email you when iPad is found

I would recommend that you enable either Remote Lock or Remote Wipe and as soon as someone tries to take your iPad online, it will become useless to them. (Assuming it was stolen.)

Find My iPad is guaranteed piece of mind that in the event your iPad is lost or stolen you can both locate it (for possible recovery) and lock or wipe it (for security.)

How to use Find my iPad on your iOS devices

If you have another iOS device, like an iPhone or iPod touch, or secondary iPad, you can even use Find my iPad when you’re mobile. Apples makes an app for that:

Free – Download now

Just download it, login, and you have access to all the same features and can track and secure any devices on the the same Apple ID.

Do you use Find my iPad? Have you ever located a misplaced device this way? Share your experience in this forum thread.

Additional resources:

• The new iPad – everything you need to know
• Even more iPad tips
• New iPad help and discussion forums

AT&T has issued a quick statement saying that on Friday, the launch day of the new iPad, they reached a significant sales milestone.

On Friday, March 16, AT&T set a new single-day record for its iPad sales and activations, demonstrating robust demand for the new iPad on the nation’s largest 4G network, covering nearly 250 million people.

Surprised? Not really. Will Verizon be saying the same thing? Probably. We had a bunch of our own folks waiting patiently in line at various stores to get their own new iPads, and they certainly weren’t alone. It’s a testament to Apple’s staying power that even now, when there’s plenty of competition in the tablet world, the iPad is still able to break records. While I doubt any single Android device will ever be able to similarly smash records, they are starting to slowly erode Apple’s tablet market share. Whether or not other manufacturers will be as profitable as Apple is another question altogether.

Those of you who ended up getting an LTE-enabled iPad – did you go for the AT&T or Verizon version? The speed tests have been impressive, make sure you share your results.

Source: PR Newswire

Saturday was March 17th, and while St. Patrick’s day has passed and leprechaun hunting season has closed, there’s still time to finish your last few pints of good green beer and nip into store.imore.com for some last minute shopping and savings for your iPhone and iPad accessories. That’s right, the sale ends tonight, so make sure you get in on it before it’s gone!

How To Get Your GREEN Savings: Be sure to use coupon code PATTY12 at checkout to save on all your accessory purchases. The sale ends Monday night at Midnight PST, so hurry now and take advantage of the savings while you can!

Let the St. Patty’s Day Savings Begin!

Now that folks have had some time to play with their new Apple TVs, it’s inevitable that a few are going to crack theirs open to see what’s inside. The new Apple TV sports a single-core A5 processor, which is a step up from the A4 used in the previous generation, but it’s not dual-core, like the iPhone 4S. There’s also extra RAM in there to help with the playback of high-definition 1080p video; the memory has been bumped up from 256 MB to 512 MB. The 8 GB of local storage is unchanged unfortunately, but seeing as it’s primarily a streaming box, that’s no surprise.

This might not be as exciting as the iPad 2 teardown, but it’s great to see Apple has been able to offer some decent upgrades to the set-top box without cranking up the price. Aside from being decent option for accessing Netflix, iTunes, and other web content, the Apple TV also enables AirPlay, so you can wirelessly beam iPad content to the big screen. Besides enabling 1080p video, the new Apple TV is also introducing updated software with a fresh user interface.

As nice as the Apple TV may be, I think anybody who’s serious about having a digital home media center will want a whole lot of local storage so they don’t have to deal with buffering times or otherwise worry about connectivity to get their shows and music. I’m all for a service-centric streaming model of the Apple TV, but higher-end counterpoint with lots of local storage would be an awesome option to have.

Source: XBMC via MacRumors

Apple lays out $45 billion, 3 year strategy to attract new investors and neutralize dilution

As expected, and hinted at by Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple announced the start of a regular quarterly dividend this morning. They also announced intentions to buy back stock, although the dividend is the bigger news, and drew more questions from analysts on the call.

Apple held a conference call at 6am in their home time zone. That's 9am for us East Coast people, and more importantly, it's about the latest you can start a call while still getting all the news out before the stock market opens at 9:30am. So for those of you wondering why Apple held the call so early, its' all about getting news out into the public's hands before the market opens.

So what did they say? Here's a summary of the main points:

• Apple has declared a divided of $2.65 per share starting around July. This, alone, will consume almost $10 billion of cash per year, based on Apple's current shares outstanding of just over 932 million.
• Apple will also buy back about $10 billion of stock over the next three years. The focus of the buyback is to offset share growth from stock the company issues to employees, and stock that employees buy as part of the employee stock purchase plan.
• Although Apple has almost $100 billion in cash, only about $34 billion is domestic (held in the US). The rest is in foreign markets, and Apple would have to pay heavy taxes on this cash if they were to repatriate it right now. They are trying to convince congress that these US tax policies on repatriated cash are hurting local investments. It seems like a no-brainer to me. Apple doesn't need to bring the money back home, and won't if it is heavily taxed.
• Unrelated to the use of cash announcement, Tim Cook did reveal that Apple had a "record weekend", in vaguely answering a question about the launch of the new iPad.

Dividends opens the door to new investors

In the world of investing, different types of funds have different mandates. Some funds are mandated to only buy dividend-paying stocks. Obviously these funds would not have been allowed to buy Apple stock in the past.

Now that this has changed, it opens the door to new buyers. This is one of the reasons that dividends often result in short term spikes in a stock's trading price.

On top of this, we can expect demand among these new investors will be hot. After all, Apple is trading at an attractive P/E (price to earnings ratio) of only 14x based on this year's expected earnings. Given the super strong growth rate of the company, this puts Apple stock in both the "value" and the "growth" camps at the same time. Dividend investment funds love this.

Plenty of room to grow

The $2.65 per quarter dividend means that investors are getting about 1.8% per year. Some analysts suggested that Apple could go up to 2.5%. And I agree with them. But we have to remember that companies who initiate dividends always want to position themselves to look good in the future. So they start slowly. They pay what they know can be easily paid. Then, over time, they increase the dividend.

Apple could even hold its payout ratio constant, and just grow its dividend based upon organic company growth. But if growth slows, and the need for such a huge cash war chest lessens, Apple can continue to grow its dividend by increasing the payout ratio.

The fine folks at Chipworks have taken a closer look at the new iPad, particularly at the upgraded A5X processor. The die size was apparently increased by 35% to accommodate the quad-core graphics processing unit. They were also able to confirm that the new processor was made by Samsung using a 45 nanometer CMOS process. Chipworks also looked at the parts iFixit pulled out from their Austrlian iPad, and identified particular RAM, Wi-Fi, LTE, audio, and power management chips; much like the 5 megapixel camera unit, a lot of these were recycled from the iPhone 4S.

It seems like although the screen is killer, there aren’t a lot of dramatic changes under the hood of the new iPad. That said, I would love to see some up-close pictures of the Retina display’s structure. We can see the difference in pixels for ourselves, but during their announcement, Apple had explained how the wiring was put on a separate plane in order to avoid signal confusion and cram pixels in together as closely as possible; seeing a cutaway or other close-up of what’s going on behind the pixel layer would really showcase the biggest change in the new iPad.

Source: Chipworks

As part of their cash-balance conference call this morning, Apple CEO Tim Cook responded to a question about the new iPad by saying Apple had a “record weekend”. Cook didn’t elaborate further, and didn’t specify if that meant sales volumes or some other metric. Apple hasn’t been shy about issuing post-launch press releases to tout big numbers in the past, so it’s possible we’ll see that this year as well.

Cook also once again highlighted the growth potential of the iPhone, which currently only accounts for 9% of the handset market. Apple, like many others, believes that one day soon all phones will be smartphones and they think the iPhone has a huge opportunity there, as it does in other markets.

Likewise, they see sales growing for the iPad and believe the iPad market will eventually surpass the PC market as a whole. Apple owns far more of the tablet market than they do the smartphone market, which creates the potential for remarkable growth.

The App Store, iTunes, iCloud, and Siri were also singled out to highlight the pace of Apple’s innovation and the breadth of their ecosystem.

The most recent quarterly results included:

• 37.04 million iPhones sold – 128% growth
• 15.43 million iPads sold – 111% increase
• 7.7 million iPod touch's sold

That combined for 315 cumulative iOS device sales to date — 62 million in the last quarter alone. And that was before the new iPad was released.

From the Apple II to the Mac to the iPhone and iPad, Apple has relentlessly strived to mainstream computing technology, and that positions them well for that not-so-distant future where all phones are smart and most computers are appliance-like cars rather than workstation trucks.

We’re pitting two iPhone and iPad games against one another that are all about settling a brave new world. On the one side, we have the digital adaptation of the classic board game, Catan. In the other, we have a veteran PC title that’s made the leap to mobile, called The Settlers.

For some people, the word “Catan” will conjure up memories of hours spent haggling for sheep and building roads. Trust me, it’s more fun than it sounds – that nostalgia is what will pull most iPhone and iPad owners to give the digital game a try. The game board is broken up into hexagonal tiles, each with their own resource type. Players build settlements at the intersections of these tiles to gather surrounding resources, and construct roads to connect their towns. Every turn, dice are rolled to determine which tiles produce resources, which the players can then trade with one another as needed. There are a variety of win criteria, none of which involve going to war and razing your opponents’ cities to the ground, which is a nice change of pace. Instead, you earn victory points for having the longest road, the most (or biggest) cities, and amassing the largest army. The first one to a certain number of victory points (usually 10) wins.

The charm of the board game was playing with friends – wheeling and dealing in resources, cutting each other off in road construction, and planting robbers in their territory to plunder their resources. Despite the wide variety of turn-based online multiplayer titles available for iPhone, Catan only offers local hand-off multiplayer, which significantly stunts the fun factor. Catan also takes another knock for requiring you to buy “The Seafarers” expansion pack for $5 in order to access the single-player campaign mode, although it nearly doubles the number of scenarios you can play in the one-off custom games. Without the add-on, you’re limited to the generic skirmish mode with AI opponents and a smaller handful of game variants. Given, the computer opponents have a wide variety of strengths and weaknesses, providing for some decent replayability, it’s still not an ideal single-player experience with a level-by-level narrative. At least dealing with robots means you don’t feel bad for taking a long time on turns or screwing them over in trades. I found the user interface and graphics for Catan to be pretty nice, and even when you’re just playing with the AI, the fundamental gameplay retains its classic appeal.

Fans of the settling-themed games will likely be familiar with The Settlers series on PC. At its core, The Settlers is a production chain game. The line of production is sensible, but extensive. Make a woodcutter to chop wood. Make a sawmill to make boards from that wood. Use the boards to make a farm. Make a mill to turn the grain into flour. This goes on all the way through feeding miners to smelting iron to training troops to expanding your territory. Though aggressive military expansion is the inevitable outcome of all of that micromanaging, you spend the vast majority of your time making sure everyone is fed and properly supplied. The game stretches across four separate single-player campaigns, traveling through a wide variety of landscapes and pitting you against many different civilizations – both indigenous and competing colonies.

The problem with The Settlers is that the sheer complexity of the chain of production creates a very cluttered user interface on the iPhone. There are tons of sub-menus to pinpoint specific units. Terrain is graded on how quick it is to build structures, creating this jarring blur of red and green dots. Though some of the nitpickier parts of the PC game have been axed for simplicity, such as creating the network of roads to connect buildings, and upgrading building levels to increase productivity, I would say they could have cut even more while keeping the same core, appealing gameplay. For example, we could skip the coal requirement to smelt iron and gold, get rid of stone mines since there are already quarries, and reduce the number of unit types to avoid confusion. There are 33 different types of settlers that you have to manage, each with their own tool, material, and building requirements, not to mention the second- and third-level military units you can train – that’s a lot to juggle. They’ve even introduced a lot of extra elements that I don’t recognize since playing Settlers 7 on PC, like sulfur mines, eyecatcher buildings, and priests.

Sure, great real-time strategy games benefit from extensive tech trees, but for an iPhone game, it feels cramped, and I imagine even on an iPad The Settlers would be hectic. The graphics are decent, but zooming in on gameplay just shows a pixelated blown-up view, rather than higher-res textures.

Picking between the two is a tough call because they both have pretty specific flaws; Catan is missing vital online multiplayer support, and Settlers has a cramped user interface. Despite having similar themes, both have fairly different game mechanics, too. Besides having a more streamlined user interface, I found the pace of Catan’s gameplay more sensible for mobile; even with a fast-forward button, The Settlers is built for long-haul single-player missions. Meanwhile, you could have a rewarding turn in Catan in a split second, and quickly put it away if something else demanded your attention.  I’m sure The Settlers would be less cluttered on the iPad, and if you’re a hardcore fan of the franchise, I’d suggest checking it out, but for casual players looking for a fresh colonization game on iPhone, go with Catan.

$4.99 – Buy The Settlers

$4.99 – Buy The Settlers HD

$4.99 – Buy Catan

$4.99 – Buy Catan HD

 

 

Apple has announced dividend and share repurchase program expected to cost them $45 billion over the next 3 years. The conference call is about to start, so more as this develops.

Here’s the press release:

Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend and Share Repurchase Program

Expects to Spend $45 Billion Over Three Years

CUPERTINO, California—March 19, 2012—Apple® today announced plans to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program commencing later this year.

Subject to declaration by the Board of Directors, the Company plans to initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012.

Additionally, the Company's Board of Directors has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program commencing in the Company's fiscal 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012. The repurchase program is expected to be executed over three years, with the primary objective of neutralizing the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs.

"We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure. You'll see more of all of these in the future," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. So we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program."

"Combining dividends, share repurchases, and cash used to net-share-settle vesting RSUs, we anticipate utilizing approximately $45 billion of domestic cash in the first three years of our programs," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "We are extremely confident in our future and see tremendous opportunities ahead."

Apple will provide live streaming of a conference call to discuss its plans beginning at 6:00 a.m. PDT on Monday, March 19, 2012 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/call31912. The Company will not be providing an update on the current quarter nor will any topics be discussed other than cash. This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.

This press release contains forward-looking statements including without limitation those regarding future business outlook and plans for dividends and share repurchases. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ. Risks and uncertainties include without limitation the effect of competitive and economic factors, and the Company's reaction to those factors, on consumer and business buying decisions with respect to the Company's products; continued competitive pressures in the marketplace; the ability of the Company to deliver to the marketplace and stimulate customer demand for new programs, products, and technological innovations on a timely basis; the effect that product introductions and transitions, changes in product pricing or mix, and/or increases in component costs could have on the Company's gross margin; the inventory risk associated with the Company's need to order or commit to order product components in advance of customer orders; the continued availability on acceptable terms, or at all, of certain components and services essential to the Company's business currently obtained by the Company from sole or limited sources; the effect that the Company's dependency on manufacturing and logistics services provided by third parties may have on the quality, quantity or cost of products manufactured or services rendered; risks associated with the Company's international operations; the Company's reliance on third-party intellectual property and digital content; the potential impact of a finding that the Company has infringed on the intellectual property rights of others; the Company's dependency on the performance of distributors, carriers and other resellers of the Company's products; the effect that product and service quality problems could have on the Company's sales and operating profits; the continued service and availability of key executives and employees; war, terrorism, public health issues, natural disasters, and other circumstances that could disrupt supply, delivery, or demand of products; and unfavorable results of other legal proceedings. More information on potential factors that could affect the Company's financial results is included from time to time in the "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of the Company's public reports filed with the SEC, including the Company's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 24, 2011 and its Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2011. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak as of their respective dates.

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.

We’re only minutes away from Apple’s cash-balance conference call, where Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer will discuss what Apple is going to do with their almost $100 billion bank account. Like buy Europe? If you’re listening, listen along with us and add your comments to the live chat above.

We’re often said you can’t predict Apple but you can glean clues from their past. Well, this one is unprecedented, so buckle up and enjoy the ride.

Here are the details again, from Apple:

WHAT: Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, and Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO, will host a conference call to announce the outcome of the Company's discussions concerning its cash balance. Apple® will not be providing an update on the current quarter nor will any topics be discussed other than cash.

WHERE: Via conference call. The dial-in number for press is (877) 616-0063 (toll-free) or (719) 219-0041. Please enter confirmation code 592016.

WHEN: Monday, March 19, 2012 at 6:00 a.m. PDT/9:00 a.m. EDT

REBROADCAST: The conference call will be available as a continuous rebroadcast beginning Monday, March 19 at 9:00 a.m. PDT/12:00 p.m. EDT through Monday, April 2 at 9:00 a.m. PDT/12:00 p.m. EDT. The dial-in number for the rebroadcast is (888) 203-1112 (toll-free) or (719) 457-0820. Please enter confirmation code 6274937.

WEBCAST: Apple will provide live audio streaming of its conference call using Apple's industry-leading QuickTime® multimedia software. The live webcast will begin at 6:00 a.m. PDT on March 19, 2012 at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/call31912

The new iPad brings with it the option for a new, dual radio that brings with it 72Mbps LTE on AT&T and Verizon in the US and Rogers, Telus, and Bell in Canada. Sadly, there’s no international LTE support for Australia, Asia, or Europe yet, perhaps due to the differences in LTE segments around the world. However, the new iPad also brings a new 42Mbps HSPA+ radio for AT&T, Canadian, and international carriers that support it. (Technically dual 21Mbps HSPA+ radios.) Those are theoretical speeds though — what you get in a lab when alone, sitting on top of a tower. In the real world we’re often lucky to see half the theoretical speeds, and often considerably less. That’s why we put them to the test.

New iPad LTE and HSPA+ speed tests

I took the new iPad out to a local coffee shop to see what type of real-world results I could get. The first thing I did was load up the SpeedTest.net app [free - Download now] app and run it 3 times on LTE to make sure I was getting consistent results. I’ve gotten close to 50Mbps before, both with an LTE stick and with the new iPad on launch day, but these tests had me hitting almost 30Mbps down and over 10Mbps up consistently. (On 2 bars of LTE, for whatever that’s worth.)

You can quickly turn off LTE with a flip of a toggle switch in Settings, and the handoff is extremely smooth and quick — the LTE indicator goes off and the 3G (or 4G on AT&T… sigh) comes on. I repeated the same test 3 times, and averaged around 15Mbps down and 0.75Mbps up. I’ve only ever gotten between 5 and 8Mbps down on the iPad 2 or iPhone 4S, so that new HSPA+ down (HSPDA) really is much faster. The upload speed really wasn’t great though. (On 4 bars of HSPA+.)

Now switching back from HSPA+ to LTE has proven to be a problem for me. I don’t know if it’s because I have really strong 3G and really weak LTE, so once the radio gets a taste of that stronger signal it won’t let go, but even if I cycle LTE on and off, cellular data on and off, or Airplane Mode off or on, LTE just won’t come back. All I can do is wait for a while (several minutes) for it to “find” LTE again, or power cycle and get it back after reboot.

(If you’ve tested the LTE to HSPA+ handoff, share your experience, so we can better figure it out.)

New iPad LTE and HSPA+ HD video test

After the reboot, I put the LTE radio to a more real-world test — streaming the Avengers movie trailer in HD. (I could have gone with Prometheus but Avengers had a Hulk…) It worked flawlessly. The trailer began to play almost immediately and never once stopped or stuttered. The download indicator stayed well ahead of the play indicator the whole time. It was as good as being on Wi-Fi. Fast Wi-Fi.

HSPA+ didn’t do nearly as well. The trailer started playing almost immediately but also came to a screeching halt almost immediately as well. The download indicator limped ahead, but at no time did it race the way LTE did.

Apple might send lower resolution or lower bit-rate video to slower connections, so I’m not sure HSPA+ was even taking the same load, but either way, it wasn’t up to the task.

Like the previous tests, I repeated each 3 times for consistency, and also drove around and tried them in several other locations, though I haven’t gotten more than 2 bars of LTE, and in some places I haven’t been able to connect to LTE at all.

Conclusion

Overall, however, both the new LTE and the new HSPA+ antennas in the new iPad are impressive, the LTE most of all. If always connected, on-the-go internet is important to you, and you live, work, and travel to places with LTE coverage, you want this.

Addenda for Verizon LTE

Something to keep in mind for those considering the new iPad on Verizon LTE — while the AT&T and Canadian LTE models fall back on the impressive (for downloads at least) HSPA+, the Verizon model falls back on the anemic EVDO Rev. A, which averages 2 or 3Mbps. I wouldn’t even attempt to play an HD trailer over that. I’d wait to get back to Wi-Fi. It would probably take less time.

Every week the editors at iMore carefully select some of our favorite, most useful, most extraordinary apps, accessories, gadgets, and websites. This week’s selections include a Dropbox-based plain text editor, a camera app that’s bound to capture any action, a strategy game, a photo editing app, and a couple new Apple devices.

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

PlainText – @sethclifford

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about one directly, so yes, it’s time for another Dropbox-based plain text editor. This one, appropriately enough, is called PlainText. Currently, this is my go-to text editor on iOS for a very simple reason.

Apple has shown us the value in unifying its multiple platforms visually with the preview release of Mountain Lion, incorporating both aesthetic influences and applications from iOS into OS X. Something I’ve tried to do for a while, well in advance of the official declaration of this agenda has been to unify my computing experience as seamlessly as possible in all places. On the desktop, I use NValt for writing notes and long form text. In fact I’m using it to write this pick right now (“You’re soaking in it”). NValt is a fork of the excellent note program Notational Velocity, and is provided by Brett Terpstra of TUAW fame as well as other cool projects. The reason I like Notational Velocity is because it provides a super-clean and ultra-fast note taking interface. NValt adds some nice tweaks like Markdown support baked right in. It’s quick, simple, and highly effective.

I realized I was looking for a similar experience on iOS, and although I’ve tried many editors, I came back to PlainText because of one major feature that accurately mimicked the most excellent part of NValt and Notational Velocity – a search field that drills through your notes like a bullet. I realized that after all my searching, what I need most on my phone is speedy access to the information I’m looking through, above all else. PlainText has a really cool search UI that works in almost exactly the same fashion, providing an experience that matches the one I like so much on my MBP.

Ultimately, PlainText doesn’t have most of the bells and whistles of some of the other text editors we’ve discussed in the past, but it has the most important one: pure, blistering speed. And a nice, clean UI. Okay, two important ones. It’s a great free app, and for two bucks, you can drop the ads and support great development.

Free – Download Now

Fast Camera – @Alli_Flowers

If you ever missed a great action shot because your iPhone camera lens didn’t refresh fast enough – this app’s for you. According to the iTunes description, you can take up to 800 pictures per minute! I’ve only taken 178 at a pop, so I can’t prove it, but 178 is impressive in a few seconds.

Once you take your series of photos, you can review them and save the ones you want – delete the rest. No need to take up space with what you’re not keeping. But what you’re keeping are full resolution (can you say 8 megapixels?) photos. This is not like taking a video and then doing a screen capture of the good part.

You can adjust the settings so that your photos are not full resolution, but why would you do that? Settings include starting your series when you open the app for instant picture taking, or letting you press the start button.

This app is worth way more than the $.99 price tag, and should be a must for active people.

$0.99 – Download Now

Hero Academy – @simonsage

I’ve spent a lot of time playing Hero Academy this week. It’s a free turn-based strategy game with a high fantasy theme. Either side is trying to destroy the other’s other’s crystal placed on a square grid. Each turn consists of five actions, which can involve playing various units, powers and upgrades held in your hand, or moving and attacking with the pieces on the board. The only army available in the free version are the humans, but if you want to give the dark elves or dwarves a shot, they’re $1.99 each, and they wipe out the inter-turn ads.

I do have a few niggles. For one, you can only get the new armies through microtransactions – there’s no way to unlock them through standard gameplay. Secondly, it feels like the premium armies are a little overpowered; a fully-upgraded dwarven Annihilator doesn’t feel remotely equivalent to a tweaked-out Council Ninja. Pay-to-win is never a great policy.

Free – Download Now

iPhoto for iPhone and iPad – @iMuggle

Ever since I have started to take a liking to photography (mostly thanks to our own Leanna and her iPhoneography series), I’ve been filling up my iPhone and iPad with tons of pictures from both my iPhone 4S and my DSLR.

iPhoto has a lot of really nice editing tools that allows me to make quick edits to photos on the go without having to load them to my computer first. Of course it’ll never be a replacement for tools like Photoshop but it’s definitely good enough for basic editing.

Paired with a camera kit, I’ve been bringing both my camera and iPad with me when taking photos and loading them straight into iPhoto to view them with friends, family, and clients.

Let’s also not forget the new iPad. I am blown away with how good high quality images look on the retina display. Absolutely amazing. I still wish Apple would sync albums and events back and forth. That is my biggest complaint at this point. If I create an event on my iPad I want it on my iMac too. Hopefully we will see this functionality added in an update. If you’re debating picking iPhoto up you can check out our review first.

$4.99 – Download Now

NCAA March Madness Live – @gmazo1

If you are a sports fan like me, March means one thing – March Madness. For those non-sports fans among us, that is the NCAA college basketball tournament.

The Tournament is known for the "Bracket" – the seeding and schedule of the 64-team road to the final four.

This year, there is a great app called NCAA March Madness Live, which lets me follow all the action. I can see the scores and plays in real time, follow tweets about the games, listen to game day audio and watch video highlights.

If that's not enough, I can pay a once time fee of $3.99 and watch every single second of every game right on my iPad or iPhone. This app is just amazing for the college basketball lover.

The feature I like the best is that when you first set up the app (provided you did it before the tournament started) you can "fill in your bracket" and it keeps track of your winning percentage. So far, I'm doing OK – the four teams I picked for the Final Four are still in the tournament.

I'd be curious to know if you are using this app and how your bracket is doing, so please head to our forums and join in on the discussion!

Free – Download Now

Apple TV 1080p (2012) – Rene Ritchie

Last week I picked the new iPad. This week I’m rounding that pick out with something that combines with it, like Devastator or Voltron, to be more than the sum of its parts. The new Apple TV.

Apple didn’t make many changes to the new Apple TV. Design-wise it’s the same black, rounded rectangle they released in the fall of 2010. Inside, however, they’ve made some great changes. RAM is increased, if you follow the tear-downs, but more importantly it now supports 1080p content. While that doesn’t sound impressive in a 1080p HDTV and BluRay soaked society, Apple is streaming 1080p content to it, both via AirPlay from the iPhone 4S, iPad 2, and the new iPad, and from iTunes in the cloud.

They’ve improved the look of the video without excessive file size increases by supporting higher quality H.264 encoding, but that’s just a technical detail. They’ve made a peripheral that lets you take the absolutely stunning looking video the new iPad can play natively and beam it right to your 1080p TV to share with friends, families, or colleagues.

Apple also released an updated interface for both the new and the previous Apple TV, which I like in concept if not in individual icon-level rendering or organization. There’s a lot of content there now though, and you can subscribe to Netflix or MLB right on the Apple TV, right with your iTunes account.

We’re not there yet, not to where Apple TV can replace cable television for most people, most of the time, but we’re getting closer.

iPad – @llofte

Turning on my new iPad for the first time was just like turning on my iPhone 4 for the first time. A-mazing. Those claiming that the new iPad is only a incremental upgrade from the iPad 2 clearly haven’t actually looked at the screen on the new iPad. I literally can’t stop staring at it.

I can rant and rave all night about the new iPad, but I’m sure you’ll just roll your eyes at me and scream “fangirl”, so instead, I’m just going to answer the question that I’m repeatedly being asked on Twitter — yes, the new iPad is worth it.

Tell us your pick!

Those were our picks, iMore Nation, so now it’s your turn! Tell us your pick of the week below. Give us the name of your favorite app, site, or accessory, and tell us why it made your life more productive, more informed, more entertaining, or just plain more fun. Jump into the comments and let us know your pick of the week!

The new iPad and the iPad 2 are very simliar in form factor. They’re actually almost impossible to tell apart from a the outside with the exception of a slight difference in thickness. That’s disappointing, because I was really hoping Apple would change the way the new iPad was constructed and make it more user-serviceable.

While the new iPad and iPad 2 are beautiful devices to look at and hold in your hand, the overall design is terrible from a service perspective. iFixIt recently tore the new iPad down and went on to share a lot of the same sentiments I do about the overall design.

As our video guide guru MJ points out in her video below, not only can we hold Apple to a higher standard than other manufacturers, we must. If Apple ships one million iPads today, at 1.44 pounds each, that means 650 metric tons of unrepairable toxic iPad going out just today. And Apple's the most valuable company in the world. Their stock hit $600/share yesterday. They're recognized as leaders in the design and business worlds.

If Apple is going to be at the head of the pack, we must ask them to lead responsibly. And in electronics, leading responsibly means that your devices must be sustainably made and designed to last. Designed for use. Designed for repair. Designed for a more sustainable future.

When it was suspected that the new iPad would be a bit thicker than its predecessor, I was secretly hoping that Apple would be going back to using clips to hold in the screen like the original iPad instead of adhesive. Alas, that was not the case and Apple decided to stick with the same horrid adhesive they used on the iPad 2.

Now this would be fine if there were a way to gain access to the device from the rear. But there isn’t. The only way to access internals on an iPad 2 or new iPad is to physically melt the adhesive around the edges of the screen. Yes, I said melt. This makes it a nightmare for anyone who wants to DIY repair anything other than a broken screen. Actually, replacing a newer iPad screen is a terrible experience in itself and way beyond what most would be willing to take on.

I’ve gotten several emails from readers asking for directions on how to repair their iPads, the same way I’ve shown how to repair iPhones. I’ve been hesitant to even offer advice as the process is so tedious and way beyond what even a skilled user should attempt on their own. The screen is damn near impossible to get off without breaking it. This is why I dread the day when the iPad 2 starts coming out of warranty all at once and I start getting calls for battery replacements, bad home buttons, and anything other than a cracked screen.

For those of you wondering what goes into replacing an iPad 2 front assembly- here’s a quick run down.

First you’ll have to take a heat gun to the edges of the screen and get the adhesive running around the edges soft enough to be able to fit a putty knife underneath an edge. Next you slowly heat small section by small section sliding your putty knife around the edges to free the glass front from the adhesive.

Apple also decided to put a devilish type of foam adhesive on the frame of the LCD which you’ll have to break too. You’ll have to do this without inserting your putty knife too far as you can easily scratch or ruin the LCD completely if your putty knife comes in contact with it.

While working your way around the edges you’ll need to be careful not to damage the Wi-Fi antenna which sits to the right side of the home button and can be ripped right out of its home easily if you pull up even the slightest bit too hard. This is because it will stick to the adhesive and come right out with the screen. This is why I stay away from using large suctions cups on iPads as there are just too many delicate internals that will get stuck to the adhesive.

Just like the wifi antenna, the 3G/4G antennas can easily stick to the screen adhesive as well in the top middle portion of the iPad. You have to take great caution to melt the adhesive completely so it doesn’t come up with the digitizer.

Once you’ve finally gotten all the adhesive broken, you’ll be able to remove the front assembly, hopefully still in once piece. And when putting on a new piece of glass you’ll need to make sure every single shred of glass or old adhesive is completely picked out of the frame before placing in a new one. If you don’t, it won’t sit flush and you’ll have terrible light leak. If the frame was bent, you’ll either need to replace that too or dremel it down. Not. Fun.

The worst part of all this is the tiny shards of glass that you’ll more than likely end up picking out of the frame. I’ve had more than one client attempt a screen replacement on their own. Only one has succeeded and more importantly, another actually hurt themselves pretty badly when a piece of glass broke off in his hand.

This is not taking into account the other small cables and odds and ends you can easily tear or rip if you move too quickly. I’ve been guilty of sticking a putty knife just a bit too far under too quickly and cutting a cable. Then you’ve got that to replace as well.

I understand Apple wants to keep these as sealed appliances, as magical boxes that, if they break, you simply bring them back to Apple and either swap them for, or pay for, a replacement.

But what happens to your old device?

It gets ripped apart and a many of the internals may never be used again. A few components may get re-used but for the most part, it’s garbage. The same thing goes for iPhones and iPods which are actually fairly easy to repair. I can probably swap four to five iPhone 4 or 4S screens in the time it takes me to fix one iPad 2.

The sad part is most of the phones that go into Apple and get swapped for new ones probably could have been fixed and given back to the customer in less than 30 minutes time. To my knowledge the only thing Apple employees are even trained to replace is the back cover, rear-facing camera, and vibrator assembly on the GSM iPhone 4 and the front assembly of an iPhone 3GS. Anything else just gets swapped and that’s a shame. It’s prioritizing packaging over everything else. It’s too much.

Users have been fixing their own gadgets for years — whether it’s a phone, tablet, or a computer. Apple’s recent design practices are making it economically unrealistic for businesses like myself to even bother with devices such as the iPad 2 or new iPad. The process is time consuming and has a very high margin for error. The front assembly isn’t a cheap part and it’s extremely difficult to remove it without breaking it or scratching the paint around the edges.

iFixIt is dead on in asserting that Apple should be responsible for making sure their devices are not only sustainable but repairable.

I fear what the next iteration of iPhone is going to bring with it and surely hope that Apple seriously evaluates their current design process and changes some things.

Not only because it would hurt me but because it hurts my clients. Some of them just don’t have the money to walk into an Apple store and drop another $200 or more on a brand new replacement device. But they can afford to buy a part and swap it themselves or pay me a more reasonable amount to fix a shattered screen, broken home button, or replace a battery. They walk out happy and the odds of them purchasing another Apple device is more likely. They have the security that if an accident does happen, they have a safety net — either their own repair skills or businesses like my own.

Apple offers certified repair for computers, why not mobile and tablet devices? Isn’t that a better option than tossing devices that are perfectly salvageable? Apple retains a happy customer and it’s better for the environment.

iFixit gave the new iPad a 2 out of 10 on their repairability scale. One of their lowest scores ever. They also lowered the iPad 2 repairability score down from a 4 to a 2 as well. I stand behind their scores completely. These devices are extremely hard to repair. I’m convinced that Apple can find a different practice of securing the screen without sacrificing size or thickness and would allow easier access to the internal components.

Sure consumers can buy services like AppleCare+ to avoid unfortunate accidents and save themselves some money but that only lasts for 2 years and after that customers are left with no options but to buy new devices, which they can’t always afford.

Apple, please consider how these practices impact your consumers, other businesses, and the environment. You’re selling millions and millions of iPads yet you continue to make them almost unserviceable even by your own stores. Creating a product made mainly of glass that’s next to unrepairable is not responsible, it’s form over function. You now set the standard in mobile. It’s time for you to re-evaluate those standards and prioritize not only beautiful looking, excellent working devices, but easy to repair and maintainable ones as well.

Response to: iFixit

(Note: This is part of an ongoing point/counterpoint series at iMore, where different writers with different opinions make their arguments. We’ll post and link to an alternate point of view in the near future.)