Though T-Mobile remains the only major carrier in the US without an official iPhone in their lineup, now that AT&T is officially unlocking eligible, off-contract iPhones, T-Mobile is welcoming them with open arms — and cheap family plans. T-Mobile already had over 1 million unofficially unlocked iPhones on their network, and now that people can run iPhones without having to worry about jailbreak and software updates, it looks like they expect those numbers to rise. In a statement to 9to5Mac, T-Mobile said:

T-Mobile's Value plans enable customers who bring their own smartphone, such as the iPhone, to save money. For example, T-Mobile's Value family plan with unlimited talk, unlimited text and unlimited data with 2 GB of high-speed data is just $49.99 per line for two lines.

All you need is a T-Mobile micro-SIM. Also, while T-Mobile currently offers their 3G/4G HSPA/HSPA+ service on the AWS bands which aren’t compatible with the iPhone, they plan on moving some of that service over to compatible bands starting this year. That means, in some areas, T-Mobile iPhone users may not be stuck on 2G for much longer. (Reports have floated around for months of T-Mobile iPhones picking up 3G coverage in some areas.)

So is that a sweet enough deal to get you to move your unlocked iPhone over to T-Mobile? Let us know in our T-Mobile Forum!

Source: 9to5Mac

Apple chose not to include clock, voice recording, weather, calculator, and stock apps, but luckily the App Store has great alternatives for each one!

When Steve Jobs introduced the very first iPad, one of his big statements was that the 75 million iPhone users in the world already knew how to use it. Well, many of those users were suprised to discover that four of the built-in apps that they had grown to love on their iPhone were missing on their iPad. Namely, Clock, Voice Memos, Weather, Calculator and Stocks. Rumor has it Apple didn’t think those apps would scale to look good on the bigger iPad screen. Fortunately, many great developers have filled that void and proven that, not only can these apps look good on the iPad. They can look great.

In fact, there are so many great apps in these categories that it can be overwhelming. That’s where we come in. We took all the top Clock, Voice Memos, Weather, Calculator, scrutinized them, and tested them some more and named a single app in each category as the best of its kind. So without further adieu, here they are!

Best clock app — Night Stand for iPad

Night Stand for is a gorgeous clock app for the iPad the supports the new iPad’s Retina Display. In the background of your flip-style clock, you can have a slideshow of included movies/animations or photos, or you can have it play through your own photos.

As for the alarm clock, you can add as many alarms as you need with custom interval times and wake up to your own music or one of the included sounds. There is also a large range of intervals for that precious snooze button.

But that’s not all, Night Stand includes widgets for Twitter, Facebook, RSS, and weather, so that you don’t even need to leave the app after it wakes you up to check up on all the social networks and news — something you normally do before rolling out of bed anyway.

• Night Stand for iPad review

$2.99 – Download Now

Best voice recording app — Audio Memos

If you’re looking for a Voice Recorder for your iPad that offer great quality and professional features, look no further than Audio Memos. It in three different versions: a free one that does only the basics, a $0.99 version that does a little bit more with optional extensions available as in-app purchases, and a Pro version that includes all the extensions available in the $0.99 version. So whether you’re looking for something basic, middle of the road, or full-featured, Audio Memos has got you covered.

• Audio Memos review

Free – Download Now

$1.99 – Download Now

$9.99 – Download Now

Best weather app – Living Earth

Living Earth is a gorgeous way to check the weather. It features an interactive earth in the background that can be rotated and zoomed in and out of with your fingers. You can also tap a button that keep the earth slowly rotated on its axis, and as it spins, you see which part of the earth is currently being hit by the sun.

Regarding weather, Living earth will give you 10 day forecasts that are broken down into 2-hour intervals as well as show you sunrise/sunset times. There is also an option to have the current cloud formations overlaid on the earth, so that you can get an idea of any clouds that might be heading your way.

In addition to weather, Living Earth also include an alarm clock that allows you to wake up to your own music and set custom repeat intervals. It only supports one alarm setting at a time, however.

Living Earth may not be as fully-featured as some other weather apps, but it provides the information that most people want — and does it beautifully.

• Living Earth review

$1.99 – Download Now

Best calculator app – Calcbot

Calcbot is a great scientific calculator for the iPhone and iPad. It features nice, large keys and a SwipePad that switches between the basic operations (including numbers) and scientific functions. It also keep track of all your calculations on a tape where you can copy and paste into a new calculation. Another nice feature is that it keeps a live history of what you type, so that you never get lost with where you are in your calculation.

• Calcbot for iPhone and iPad review

$1.99 – Download Now

Best stock app – Bloomberg for iPad

Whether you need to casually monitor stocks on your iPad or just find the urge to check out financial news, Bloomberg provides the best of both worlds combined with an easy to use interface. I’ve found that some of the applications in the App Store are quite hard to navigate and may be confusing for many users to figure out. Sometimes too many charts and graphs can be overwhelming. Bloomberg gives you what you want to know right up front.

If you’re more interested in world and financial news than you are stocks, Bloomberg doubles up as a great resource for such information. It ties news and the stock market together in a fluid way that users will appreciate.

• Bloomberg for iPad review

Free – Download Now

While some people will no doubt be thrilled that Facebook has bought Instagram, and certainly many couldn’t care less one way or t’other, there will be some folks who don’t like, use, or trust Facebook when it comes to their personal photos. If you’re one of them, and you’re now looking for a way to export your photos out of Instagram and close your account, here’s how to get it done.

How to export your photos from Instagram

One of the fastest ways to export your photos from Instagram, whether it’s to leave the service or simply to create a backup, is with Instaport.me. A free web-based service, it will quickly and painlessly let you download a copy of all your Instagrams right to your Windows, Mac, or Linux PC.

1. On your PC, go to http://www.instaport.me
2. Click on Sign in with Instagram
3. Enter your Instagram username and password
4. Click on Yes to authorize instaport.me’s access to your Instagram photos
5. Click on Start Export.
6. Wait.

Depending on how many Instagram photos you have, it could take a while to finish. When you’re done, a zip file containing all your Instagrams will be safely stores in your default downloads folder.

How to delete your Instagram account

If for some reason merely backing up your Instagram photos isn’t enough and you decide you want to kill it entirely, bury it upside down, and salt the earth before Facebook gets access to your content, here’s how to close your account:

1. Browse to https://instagram.com/accounts/remove/request/
2. Choose a reason
3. Click Continue

Finish up your account removal and you’re done, footloose and Facebook free.

Do you really want to delete your Instagram account just because they were bought by Facebook?

Make sure you carefully, cautiously consider if you really want to delete your Instagram account just because Facebook bought them. It’s easy to get swept up in emotions when something you love is acquired by someone you don’t trust or dislike, but it’s worth taking a moment to think it over.

Once you’ve decided for sure, jump into our photography forum and tell us why you decided the way you did, and what other photo sharing service or services you might be considering switching to?

Via: @SteveStreza

Everyone’s favorite social photo sharing network, Instagram, has just been purchased by Facebook for a reported $1 billion in cash and stock. Instagram has put out the following statement:

When Mike and I started Instagram nearly two years ago, we set out to change and improve the way the world communicates and shares. We've had an amazing time watching Instagram grow into a vibrant community of people from all around the globe. Today, we couldn't be happier to announce that Instagram has agreed to be acquired by Facebook.

Every day that passes, we see more experiences being shared through Instagram in ways that we never thought possible. It's because of our dedicated and talented team that we've gotten this far, and with the support and cross-pollination of ideas and talent at a place like Facebook, we hope to create an even more exciting future for Instagram and Facebook alike.

It's important to be clear that Instagram is not going away. We'll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We'll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience.

The Instagram app will still be the same one you know and love. You'll still have all the same people you follow and that follow you.You'll still be able to share to other social networks. And you'll still have all the other features that make the app so fun and unique.
We're psyched to be joining Facebook and are excited to build a better Instagram for everyone.

Best, Kevin

CEO, Instagram

And Facebook has put out the following:

I’m excited to share the news that we’ve agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook.

For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.

We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.

That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.

We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.

These and many other features are important parts of the Instagram experience and we understand that. We will try to learn from Instagram’s experience to build similar features into our other products. At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook’s strong engineering team and infrastructure.

This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.

We’re looking forward to working with the Instagram team and to all of the great new experiences we’re going to be able to build together.

Mark Zuckerberg

So. Damn. Yeah. All your photo filters has belong to Zuck.

How do you feel about this one, iMore Nation? Will it change the way you feel about, and use, Instagram? Are you looking forward to have Facebook’s massive resources behind Instagram, or do you dread Facebook style privacy intrusions?

Also: Instabook or Facegram?

Jump into the iMore Forums and let your voice be heard!

More: How to export your photos from Instagram and close your account

Source: Instagram, Facebook

We’ve already heard quite a bit about the next generation iPhone, but now reports are surfacing about its processor and RAM as well. Just as they did last year, when Apple seeded Apple A5 powered iPhone 4 devices for testing prior to releasing the iPhone 4S, Apple is now rumored to be seeding Apple A5X powered devices for testing prior to this fall’s new iPhone release. Since this A5X chip won’t need to power a new iPad-style Retina display, there will be some differences according to 9to5Mac‘s Mark Gurman.

Instead, the iPhone prototypes that we're talking about have a variation of the A5X's S5L8945X architecture. Like the A5X-powered iPad, these new iPhone prototypes are packing 1GB of RAM. This prototype is labeled N96 internally, but we're not sure if this internal codename will carry over to the actual next-generation iPhone. Again, this iPhone that we are describing is an internal-only unit built for testing the performance of a new chip in an iPhone, not an actual phone that Apple will produce.

The new iPhone is rumored to be on a fall release schedule and also include LTE networking, a new micro-dock connector port, and a screen size of 3.5-inches or slightly bigger.

They’ve also gotten word on the next generation iPod touch, Apple went all of 2012 without introducing an upgraded iPod touch, so what have they been up to?

According to a file inside of an internal iOS 5.1 build, Apple is working on a fifth-generation iPod touch that is labeled iPod 5,1 internally. We haven't heard any specifics regarding the new iPod touch hardware, but the jump from 4,1 (the current internal iPod touch label) to 5,1 indicates major internal changes, at the very least.

If I were to guess, the iPod touch 5,1 would be to the upcoming iPhone 5,1 as the iPod touch 4 was to the iPhone 4 in 2010. Apple typically announces new iPod hardware in the fall, just in time for the all-important holiday shopping quarter.

Source: 9to5Mac

Khan Academy is well known in the education world as being a fantastic resource for students to watch videos to learn more about topics covered in class. It’s also great for non-students who are just thirsty for knowledge and want to study a subject on their own time. And for free. The Khan Academy iPad app is the best way to put learning in your own hands.

Khan Academy covers a massive number of topics, including K-12 math, science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and even the humanities with playlists on finance and history.

Each video can be streamed to your iPad or downloaded for offline viewing. If you wish, you can even download all the videos in a topic at once so that you don’t have to click each one individually.

Most, but not all, videos include subtitles with each video. This is extremely helpful for those times that you can’t understand what the instructor was saying, or if you don’t know how to spell some term that the instructor said but didn’t write down. These subtitles are shown underneath the video and can be scrolled through.

If you log into Khan Academy, you can keep track of your progress and earn achievements for watching videos and completing topics.

As of now, there are not any practice exercises available in the Khan Academy app, but they promise to bring them soon.

I’ve always been a fan of Khan Academy and recommend it to all my students as a fabulous resource. The instructors are very qualified for the subjects they are teaching and do a great job at explaining and making the topics interesting to learn about.

The Good

• Over 2700 videos
• Covers a lot of topics
• Most videos include subtitles
• Share to Facebook and Twitter
• Free

The Bad

• Not all videos include subtitles
• Exercises are not yet available

The Conclusion

Khan Academy is a fantastic app for any one who wants to learn. It doesn’t matter if you’re a small child, college student, or a seasoned adult who hasn’t been in a classroom in 30 years, Khan Academy is for everyone. And best of all — it’s free!

Free – Download Now

The Calculator app is one of those iPhone apps that didn’t make it’s way onto the iPad. It’s a shame, because a lot of people, including students, travelers, and home book keepers would get a lot of use out of it. The most popular type of calculator is a scientific calculator — it can do more than the basic operations (adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing), but isn’t as different in approach as an RPN (reverse Polish notation) or as advanced as a graphing calculator or CAS (computer algebra system). So which iPad app is the best scientific calculator? Calcbot by Tapbots.

One of the great features of Calcbot is that it has large buttons, making it very easy to make entries. In portrait mode, the calculator takes up the whole screen. Along the top is the output screen of the calculator. Under that, you’ll find the positive/negative, parentheses, and EE buttons. These are the elements that remain static.

The area of the calculator that contains all the numbers and operations is scrollable. Swiping to the left will reveal all the scientific functions. The up-arrow button on the scientific page will replace the trigonometic functions with their inverses, and the logarithm and exponential functions that are base e change to base 2. Visually, these are all the buttons that are light blue in color.

As you press buttons on the calculator, their symbols will appear in small, light blue letters at the bottom of the calculator’s screen. This is extremely helpful for keeping track of which button you’ve pressed last. The tracking will reset every time you press enter, when it then gets transferred to the tape.

To see the tape, rotate your iPad to landscape. The calculator will become slightly smaller and the tape will slide in from the right. The tape keeps track of all your calculations, including all the buttons that were pressed to get the results. Holding your finger down on an entry pops up a menu to either Use Result, Use Expression, Copy, Send as Email, or Delete. Using the result or expression will automatically add your choice into the calculator. You can also paste into the screen of the calculator or into another app.

The Good

• Large buttons
• Keeps track of buttons pressed
• Beautiful UI
• Landscape orientation reveals the tape
• Every button emits a subtle sound — true to Tapbots style (can be disabled)
• Option to round for currency
• Universal for iPhone and iPad

The Bad

• Must sacrifice having all the buttons on one screen for the larger buttons

The Conclusion

Calcbot by Tapbots has been my favorite calculator on both the iPhone and iPad for quite some time. It does what I need and does it well. Unfortunately for students, Calcbot likely will not be able to replace a physical calculator because most teachers will not allow the use of iPads during exams.

$1.99 – Download Now

Easter might be over but there are still a few goodies left in the basket! Simply hop on over to the iMore iPhone and iPad Accessory Store and save on iPhone and iPad accessories. Use the coupon code “hop15″ during checkout.

• This offer is not valid with any other coupon and expires at Midnight PST Monday 4/9/2012.
• Don’t forget about our Fast Free Shipping on US orders of $50.00 and higher.
• Share this hopping great coupon code with your friends and family.

This is your last chance to enjoy this special sale, so get cracking!

• Hop on over to the iMore iPhone and iPad Accessory Store and let the savings begin!

Members of the iMore nation started hitting AT&T yesterday, the moment the previously announced official unlocks for iPhone became available, and so far the results have been successful but mixed. Forum member Irish Rose reports a successful iPhone 4 unlock, tested and working on T-Mobile EDGE. Reader Juan Tarrio, however, was told his iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G unlocks would require approval and that he’d hear back by April 16.

Once AT&T has entered your iPhone IMEI number into Apple’s database, you’ll receive the following email confirmation:

Thank you for contacting AT&T Customer Care about your unlocking your iPhone.

We have reviewed your request and determined you are eligible to have the requested iPhone unlocked.

To complete the unlock simply:

1. Open iTunes on your Mac or PC and verify that you have internet connectivity

2. Connect your iPhone using the dock connector to USB cable that came with your iPhone

3. Backup and restore your iPhone using iTunes

Note: Since the unlock process requires your iPhone be restored via iTunes, that means it will remove any jailbreak you might currently have on the device. If you were only jailbroken in order to be unlocked, that won’t matter and you can go ahead and restore to your heart’s content. If you have an iPhone 4S and have been holding back on iOS 5.1 until a nicely packaged, untethered jailbreak is released, you may want to hold off on restoring, or do without your jailbreak for a while.

Did you get your iPhone officially unlocked by AT&T? Was it immediate or were you told to wait? Did you get denied? Jump into our forums and let us know how it went.

Running something like iMore is a little like the first regular season episode of Battle Star Galactica (2004). You jump, and then spend the next 33 minutes scrambling to do everything you have to do before the Cylons find you 33 minutes later and you have to jump again. It. Just. Never. Stops. When you’re not catching news and writing it up, you’re working on features or editing or planning future content and features. It’s a machine with a lot of moving parts, which means there’s a lot to keep track of and a lot to get done. Most of that ends up on the website in one way or another. But once in a while we get to branch out and give you something special…

The iMore app

We shipped it. After several months of hard work and a lot of finger-crossing come review time, the iMore for iPhone app hit the App Store last week. And wow but guys gave it a great reception! From the sheer number of downloads to the incredible feedback we’ve gotten, you’ve absolutely knocked our collective socks off. Everyone from iMore, Nickelfish, and Mobile Nations worked really hard on it, so we’re thrilled that so many of you like it so much.

We’re already hard are work planning out the next version, including iPad support and much, much more. So make sure you get your feature requests in now!

(And if you haven’t downloaded it already, it’s completely FREE, it’s in the App Store, so grab it NOW!)

iPad mini redux

Week before last I wrote a story about the iPad mini, the still-mythical 7.85-inch smaller sized tablet that Apple has in the labs but may or may not choose to release (tl;dr: Apple’s a go-to-market company and they won’t release an iPad mini — or any new product — until there’s a compelling and profitable reason to do so). Last Wednesday John Gruber of Daring Fireball, who has excellent Apple sources, said on his podcast that he’d heard pretty much the same and went over his own list of why and why not we may see an iPad mini (or iPad Jr.) soon. Fredrico Viticci of MacStories and Matthew Panzarino of The Next Web weighed in as smartly as well.

The iPad mini, like the iPhone nano, remains something Apple won’t do because they can, but will do when they feel they should. When could that be?

Gruber speculated that an iPad mini could be a WWDC 2012, though we’re still hearing that, once again, there won’t be any new iOS hardware this summer.

Obviously

Speaking of John Gruber, he had an interesting back and forth with Sebastiaan de With of DoubleTwist over the tension between simplicity and obviousness.

These challenges aren’t anything new of course, even in mobile. Going back to the Newton, Palm Pilot and Handspring/Palm Treo, Windows Pocket PC and Windows Mobile, there have been app launcher Home screens and simple, zen-like user interfaces. (Palm was famous for “counting clicks” to minimize how long it took to do something with Palm OS.) You want interfaces to be simple and obvious for users, but the focus isn’t the simplicity or obviousness, but the users. You match the tool to the job, not the other way around.

When that doesn’t happen, user interface, not matter how audacious, how brilliant, gets in the way. When it does happen, when it relentlessly serves the needs of the user, it disappears. There is no tension. There’s almost no interface. (Not in terms of chrome or elements, but in terms of friction and cognitive load.)

When Apple (or any designer) succeeds, whether it’s with something as utilitarian as Mail for iOS, it’s because the UI is so consistent and clear you barely notice it. It’s when my 2 year old godson can unlock an iPhone or iPad, navigate to his favorite game or app, launch it, and use it. Well. It’s when my mom can discover, download and install, use and recommend apps in a way that encourages and delights her rather than frustrates and shames her.

It’s not about chrome or no chrome, buttons or no buttons, gestures or no gestures, simplicity or complexity, it’s about balance. It’s about usability. It’s about accessibility.

Apple is smart about this. iOS has the basic Home screen and that’s all you ever really need to use. If you want more, you have the gestures, the fast app switcher, Notification Center, etc. Likewise on the Mac, a Unix geek can live in Terminal, a regular user in Aqua, and a new-to-the-Mac iOS user can easily relate to Launchpad.

When the right elements are in the right place, that’s when everything from an OS to an app feels simple and obvious.

Sourcing

Since it’s baseball season, let’s go inside baseball for a moment. Every once and a while bloggers get stressed over how stories are sourced. We all work really hard on original content and exclusive reporting, and when we do a good job it’s rewarding to get recognized by our peers with links back to that work.

iMore clearly and consistently places source links at the bottom of every article, so that readers can quickly and easily find where each and every story comes from (if they come from somewhere else). We also take pains to drive traffic back to the originating source, so they’re encouraged to make more great content, and we have more great content to link to in the future.

Some sites and editors don’t like that and think source links should be in the body of a post. Since the body of a post can contain 2-20 other — mostly internal — links depending on a story, in-body source links can also easily get lost. Often that’s not the intention, but just as often it’s the result. (It’s especially evident to us when sites that repeat our stories get incorrectly attributed as the originator of those stories.)

If the author deserves to be highlighted outside the body, if the date, if the tag, if any number of other meta attributes deserve to be singled out and made noticeable, certainly the source link does as well.

Obviously there are limits and exceptions — articles with multiple sources, like this one, can’t clearly attribute each one in a source field so I’m linking in the body — but that’s where flexibility and editorial judgement are important. It’s really the intent that matters. Good sites with good editors will get it right. They’ll find the correct source and attribute it correctly — and every reader will know where every story comes from, be it the site itself or some place else.

Features

Going from inside baseball out, once again we had some great features on iMore this week.

• Best iPhone and iPad apps for Major League Baseball fans: Gary handed us all a hotdog and tasty beverage, and showed us how to get the most out of opening day.
• Weekly Photo Contest: Flowers!: Leanna kicked off our new series of iPhoneography contests, just in time for spring, and entries so far are outstanding. Make sure you get yours in asap!
• How to fix a cracked or broken screen on the Verizon or Sprint iPhone 4: Ally’s taking her DIY iPhone repair series to a whole new level. If you’re using an older device, she’ll absolutely help you keep it going as long as possible.
• Making the right choices: How we designed and developed the iMore for iPhone app: Seth opens his kimono (figuratively speaking!) and explains the thought process behind the new iMore app.
• How to use your iPad in direct sunlight: Georgia and Steph show how polarized sunglasses can be used to more easily see your iPad display in direct sunlight. They also point out it’s not the orientation, but how different sunglasses require different orientations to work properly.
• I for one welcome our new Android Instagrammers: There was a lot of angst and acrimony surrounding the arrival of Instagram on the Android platform: It was silly, so iMore brought out the welcome mat and invited them on a photo walk.
• Great Artists Steal: Yours truly weighs in on the difference between being inspired by what came before and using it as a springboard to create something new, and simply copying someone else’s implementation as closely as possible.

Recommended reading

If that’s not enough to tide you over, here are some great articles from around the web that I enjoyed this week.

• Anil Dash Calls Foul by Benjamin Brooks is the latest in Brooks’ excellent series of articles on Readability’s business model and the concerns it raises for some publishers.
• Searching for a rational reason to hate a manufacturer’s UI by Phil Nickinson tackles the interesting issue of the love/hate relationship some Android users have with manufacturer specific interfaces from the likes of HTC.
• Welcome to iTextEditors by Brett Terpstra breaks down dozens of iOS text editors by dozens of feature sets in an effort to help compare and contrast them.
• How to check for—and get rid of—a Mac Flashback infection by Jacqui Cheng breaks down the first massive Mac malware attack (that we know of), tells you what it is, how to see if your Mac is infected, and what to do about it if it is.
• From the Editor’s Desk: Last blog standing by Derek Kessler takes the look at the state of webOS blogs, then straps on his Roosevelt pants and vows webOS Nation has only just begun to fight.
• Four and a Half Years On by Stephen Fry takes a look at everything that’s happened in mobile since the introduction of the original iPhone, as only Stephen Fry could look at it.
• Care-taking and The ultimate bucket list are the latest two episodes of ZEN and TECH, which is the most important show Mobile Nations does. There’s a lot we can do to help you improve your smartphone or tablet. This show will help improve your life. I can’t recommend i enough.

Spinning up the FTLs

And… jump.