Cards is Apple’s iPhone app that allows you to create custom cards to be printed and mailed to friends and family. The recent update includes some cute templates for Mother’s Day. Apple has added new cards in many of the other categories as well.

Creating a card is super easy and only take a few minutes to do. Once you decided on a template, just tap the photo field to insert a photo. You can edit text in a similar manner. Once you make your personal adjustment to the inside and outside of the card, you can add addresses from your address book. Then tap the price of the card ($2.99), enter your password, and your card is on its way!

Well, in theory.

I’ve tried sending a card twice now with no luck. Both times, I’ve added the recipient address from my contacts, but then tapped to edit it. I wanted to change the name of the recipient. After making my changes and tapping done, Cards prompts me to select what country the recipient is from. Then it crashes.

I’m actually pretty sad about this. I’ve sent personalized greeting cards with Cards in the past and the quality is great. I hope Apple fixes this before Mother’s Day, because I was planning to send my mom a Mother’s Day card with this app.

It’s also ironic that Apple claims that this update “improves accuracy of envelope address verification” and “simplifies and improves the checkout process”.

And while I’m griping about Cards, anyway, can I just say — where’s the iPad version, Apple?!

Free – Download Now

We recently ran an iPhone 4S six months later round-table. In it the iMore and Mobile Nations editors sharing our thoughts on Apple’s flagship handset some half-a-year into its product cycle. We also asked you, the iMore Nation, to share your 6-month review on our iPhone 4S forums (and if you haven’t already, add yours now as we’ll be rounding up the best parts for a blog post later this week!)

Right now we just want to get a quick sense of your satisfaction level. Six months later, are you still happy with your iPhone 4S purchase? Is the iPhone 4S still competitive or are you thinking about switching to something else? Would you recommend the iPhone 4S to a friend, family member, or co-worker looking for a new phone today?

Cast your vote in the poll above and then jump into our iPhone 4S forum and leave us your complete iPhone 4S review, six months later!

Mark Hulme, the producer of the upcoming Steve Jobs movie starring Ashton Kutcher, recently sat down to an interview detailing thoughts and plans about the high-profile flick. The biggest question for me is how a small, independent, new filmmaker managed to wrangle such a good match for a young Steve Jobs as Kutcher. Hulme replied:

When Ashton read the script he was immediately attracted to the project. He is a Steve Jobs and Apple fan, and is technologically savvy, as well, so he recognized the historical importance of Steve Jobs and the potential of the project. He is very excited to have the role.

Filming starts next month, and there are still many key roles that have yet to be filled, but Hulme promises that the movie will be “an accurate and inspirational portrayal of [Jobs'] fascinating life and the huge impact he had on the world”. Jobs: Get Inspired (the movie’s working title) won’t be without competition. Besides there already being an early-days biopic about Steve Jobs called Pirates of Silicon Valley released in 1999, Sony intends to turn the official biography by Walter Isaacson into a movie too. Unfortunately for Sony, their version will be coming out after Get Inspired, which should be available before the end of the year.

Do you guys intend on seeing Jobs: Get Inspired in theaters? Do you think Kutcher will do the role justice, or is he still just Kelso from That 70′s Show?

Source: Neowin

Last week Tim Cook visited Valve, one of the biggest influencers in PC gaming, to talk about a work-in-progress TV set Apple is working on, according to anonymous sources. Supposedly the TV will be ready for games, complete with Kinect-style motion recognition, touch input through a custom remote control, and support Siri-esque voice input. Obviously, the gaming opportunities for such a mythical piece of hardware are significant, especially if it’s able to tap into the huge library of iOS games currently available, but it’s unclear how Valve would fit into that picture. Supposedly, this TV set will be available this year, though analysts think that kind of timing is unlikely.

This rumor comes after word that Valve was working on their own console called the Steam Box, after their hugely successful digital distribution platform, but Valve promptly corrected the media by saying they would rather partner with a hardware vendor for that sort of thing. A vendor like Apple? It’s hard to say, and I somehow doubt Apple would allow anything but the App Store to sell games on there, but an Apple TV set with gaming powered by Steam would be really, really awesome.

It’s worth noting that Valve is perpetually experimenting, including in the realm of wearable computing, but the process is more about gathering valuable information than it is about shipping a product. That said, even if Apple was talking to Valve about a TV doesn’t mean they would be directly involved. Steam started supporting Mac about two years ago, and it seems more likely that Cook’s visit was about how that relationship is evolving, rather than some high-profile hardware partnership.

In any case, it’s interesting to hear about the potential capabilities of a game-ready Apple TV. Could you guys replace your Xbox 360 with an Apple TV that plays games originally optimized for the new iPad?

Source: Cult of Mac

P.S.: For a good laugh, check out Team Fortress 2′s Mac update minisite and comic.

iMore’s authoritative guide to the very best, absolutely free apps and games for iPhone and iPod touch

Looking for great free apps and games for your iPhone or iPod touch? The App Store is home to over half a million apps and games, and a surprising number of them are available for free. That’s free as in free of charge to buy, free of subscriptions to use, and free of any crippling or time-bombing to make you pay later. They’re just free. But which free apps are the best? Which are the top free apps you just absolutely have to download right now?

That’s where iMore comes in! Here’s your ultimate, authoritative guide to the top, 100% free iPhone and iPod touch apps for social networking, IM and communications, education, entertainment, finance, fun and games, health and fitness, kids, music, navigation and location, news, photography, productivity, reading, shopping, sports, travel, and general utility.

Whether you’re new to iPhone or iPod touch and looking for a fast, free way to get started with apps, or you’re just bored and looking for a little free fun, check out the apps and games below. And hey, since they’re free, you can download them all!

iMore app

What better way than to keep up-to-date with all the latest free iPhone app and game news than with iMore’s own, absolutely free iPhone app! Not only that, you’ll also get breaking news, helpful how-tos, app and accessory reviews, instant access to our podcasts, and more! This is the very best way to enjoy the best of iMore right on your iPhone!

• Download Now

Best free social networking apps for iPhone

Facebook

Facebook is the most popular social network on the planet, and it’s always been one of the most popular free apps on the iPhone. Inside the free Facebook app, you can update your status, view photos, and check into your location. You can also keep up with your news feed, messages, events, pages, chat, as well as upload your photos and videos, and much, much more. (And if you’re looking for more friends, check out our Facebook name swap thread!)

• Download Now

Twitter

Twitter and the iPhone go together like chocolate and peanut butter, and the free, official Twitter app for iPhone is the best way to get started finding cool celebrities and interesting internet personalities to follow, and trending topics to get involved with. (And be sure to check out our Twitter name swap thread to find other iMore members to tweet with!)

• Download Now

Pinterest

Pinterest is the new, rapidly growing, free social network that let’s you pin photos, articles, recipes, or anything you think is cool, to your virtual pinboard. With the free Pinterest for iPhone app, you can view the pins of your friends, repin, like, and comment on your favorite pins, and pin directly from your camera.

• Download Now

Best free IM and communications apps for iPhone

Skype

The free Skype app for iPhone lets you make free audio and video calls and exchange text chats from your iPhone to other iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users, as well as Android, Mac, Windows, and millions more Skype users around the world. You can also buy Skype credits to call conventional phone numbers at really low prices.

• Download Now

imo instant messenger

imo is a great, free iPhone app for those who love traditional instant messaging (IM). imo supports Facebook Chat, Google Talk, Skype, MSN, ICQ/AIM, Yahoo, Jabber, Hyves, VKontakte, Myspace, and Steam. You can send text, images, and voice as well.

• Download now

GroupMe

GroupMe is an excellent free group messaging app for iPhone that communicates over both data and SMS. GroupMe perfect for coordinating big events with friends that aren’t all using smartphones. GroupMe generates a phone number which collects and forwards free messages to those authorized to be a part of the group. Those that do will be able to take advantage of a few extra features, like location and picture sharing.

• Download Now

Best free educational apps for iPhone

iTunes U

The free iTunes U app for iPhone gives you access to courses from universities and schools. These courses are completely free and even include assignments. iTunes U and the instructors provide course materials, including audio, video, books, documents & presentations, apps, and books. iTunes U includes over 500,000 free lectures, videos, books, and other resources on thousands of subjects from Algebra to Zoology.

• Download Now

SparkNotes

SparkNotes is one of the most popular study guides for literature, Shakespeare, poetry, philosophy, drama and short stories. With the free SparkNotes for iPhone app you can access 50 pre-installed study guides in your library and hundreds of study guides online. You can also check-in at the place you’re studying and indicate what subject your studying which could then result in impromptu study sessions with other SparkNotes users studying the same subject at the same place at the same time.

• Download Now

Flashcards+

With school comes lots of studying. One of the most common studying techniques is to use flashcards. With the free Flashcards+ app for iPhone, you can say goodbye to the stacks and stacks of flashcards that accumulate over the course of a semester and use electronic flashcards on your iPhone instead. The beauty of Flashcards+ is that you have your flash cards with you wherever you go, which means you’ll likely squeeze in more mini study lessons throughout your day and end up with better grades as a result!

• Download Now

Best free entertainment apps for iPhone

Crackle

While apps like Netflix are free, you still have to pay for a subscription to actually use them. Not so with Crackle! The free Crackle app for iPhone lets you watch hours and hours of Hollywood movies, from Resident Evil to A Few Good Men, and TV Shows from I Dream of Jennie to the Tick, absolutely free. And it supports AirPlay so you can watch on your big screen TV.

• Download Now

IMDB

IMDB’s free iPhone app means you’re always only a few taps away from the latest show times, trailers, movie and TV rations, and cast and episode lists. It’s the perfect couch-side companion for any serious entertainment buff, and the perfect mobile app for cinema buffs!

• Download now

TED

The free TED app for iPhone blurs the lines between education and entertainment, showcasing riveting talks from experts in the fields of technology, entertainment, and design. With the TED app, you can browse their complete catalog of talks, bookmark and download your favorites, and share individual talks and playlists with your friends. It’s like holding genius in the palm of your hand. For free.

• Download now

Best free financial apps for iPhone

Paypal

Love it or hate it, Paypal is the internet’s default currency and the free Paypal for iPhone app is the best way to manage your Paypal account on the go. Whether you’re sending or requesting money, checking your balance or reviewing your past transactions, or looking for a local retailer who takes PayPal, it’s right here, right when you want.

• Download Now

Bloomberg

Bloomberg for iPhone is a great way for casual traders and investors to interact with their stocks and stay up to date with world news. Whether you need to casually monitor stocks on your iPhone or just find the urge to check out financial news, the free Bloomberg app has you covered — for free!

• Download Now

Mint.com

The free Mint.com for iPhone app gives everything you love about the web site on the go and in the palm of your hand. You can track, manage, and budget your money, connect your bank, credit, and other financial accounts, and safely, securely keep it with you wherever you are. It also syncs with the Mint.com website so you’re always up-to-date.

• Download now

Best free games for iPhone

Angry Birds Free

The free Angry Birds app lets you play one of the most popular games in the world right on your iPhone — for free. Yes, it is supported by adds, but you’ll be too busy catapulting birds and destroying pigs to even notice them!

• Download Now

Draw Something Free

Draw Something is a sensation and you can play it on your iPhone for free with Draw Something Free. In Draw Something, you have a partner and you take turns drawing pictures with the goal of getting each other to guess the correct word. Just like Angry Birds Free, Draw something Free is supported by ads.

• Download Now

Hero Academy

Hero Academy is a great turn-based free iPhone game where you and a friend (or random partner) take turns moving and attacking each other with various army pieces on a checked board. You have a set number of action points with which to move your pieces, bring in fresh ones from your stash, upgrade your pieces, and, of course, attack. The main goal is to either whittle down a few crystals on your opponent’s side of the board, or run them out of troops.

• Download Now

Best free health and fitness apps for iPhone

RunKeeper

The free RunKeeper for iPhone app uses your iPhone’s built in GPS technology to track your running, walking, cycling and other exercise activities. RunKeeper also syncs up to its own web portal where you can view your history and stats in more detail. Integration with Facebook and Twitter means you can even show off your fitness prowess to your friends!

• Download Now

WebMD

WebMD is a reputable and accurate online source for medical facts and advice, and with the free WebMD iPhone app you’ll have complete access to mobile-optimized health information and decision-support tools including WebMD's Symptom Checker, Drugs & Treatments, First Aid Information and Local Health Listings.

• Download Now

Fooducate

The free Fooducate for iPhone app contains a wealth of information and user reviews about many of the foods we consume on a daily basis. Fooducate stresses the importance of eating foods that are good for your body as a whole. Sure, a calorie is a calorie, but if you give your body calories from better quality foods, you get the benefits of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that artificially processed foods with lots of additives, high fructose corn syrup, and other "empty" calories just can't match.

• Download Now

Best free kids apps for iPhone

PBS KIDS Video

The free PBS KIDS Video app brings all your child’s favorite shows right to the iPhone or iPod touch. Curious George, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That, Dinosaur Train, SUPER WHY!, Sesame Street and Wild Kratts and are all here and ready to entertain and educate.

• Download now

Curious George at the Zoo

If your child is interested in animals, then Curious George at the Zoo is a great free iPhone app to educate and entertain them. Explore an interactive 3D zoo, learn about and interact with the animals, watch videos and play games, all on the iPhone or iPod touch.

• Download now

ABC Letter Tracing

The free ABC Letter Tracing app for iPhone is perfect for pre-schoolers just learning to write. It has both upper and lowercase letters, along with helpful voice-overs and illustrations of items that begin with each letter.

• Download now

Best free music apps for iPhone

Shazam

How many times have you been listening to the radio, or attending a party, or watching TV when you hear a song that you like but have no idea what the name of the song is or even who the artist is? With the free Shazam app for iPhone, all have to do is let your mic listen to the song for about 30 seconds, and Shazam will tell you exactly which song it is!

• Download Now

Slacker Radio

Don’t have much music stored on your iPhone? Don’t fret! With the free Slacker Radio iPhone app you can stream radio to your iPhone for free. The Slacker music library features millions of songs from thousands of artists and you can customize your own radio stations with your favorite artists and songs. In addition to music, you can also listen to ESPN Radio, ABC News, comedy and more.

• Download Now

TuneIn Radio

The free TuneIn Radio app for iPhone gives you on-the-go access to over 50,000 radio stations worldwide. From the local station where you may live now to the far away station where you may have grown up or simply visited and always remembered, TuneIn radio has over 120,000 free shows for you to choose from, right on your iPhone.

• Download now

Best free navigation and location apps for iPhone

Waze social GPS & traffic

The free Waze app for iPhone uses Open Street Map data, which means you’re contributing to building a map as you drive, and you also get to view the things added by others. The crowdsourced nature of Waze lets users share information about traffic jams, accidents, speed traps, and other pertinent data. It includes standard turn-by-turn navigation, but the accuracy can vary depending on the quality of the maps in your area.

• Download Now

Foursquare

Foursquare is free app for iPhone that lets you check into the places you go, and see which friends are there now, or may have been there in the past. It’s a great way to keep track of trips and photos of the places you’ve visited, and a fun way to earn badges and share and receive recommendations for where to go next.

• Download Now

Poynt

Poynt is a free location-based search app for iPhone with dedicated channels to a variety of different kinds of content. What makes it better than just a Google Maps search is that each experience is very closely tailored, so searching for a movie will immediately bring up options to buy tickets from your phone or view a trailer, while restaurant listings will include reviews and the option to reserve a table.

• Download Now

Best free news apps for iPhone

Flipboard

The free Flipboard for iPhone app shows you the news that matters to you, along with recommendations from your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram friends. That makes it a dynamic, up-to-date, but highly personalized magazine, right in the palm of your hand! It’s also makes it easy to share the stuff you like most back with your friends and social circles.

• Download Now

Pulse News

Pulse News, from Alphonso Labs is an awesome free newsreader for iPhone that brings all your news together into one place. With Pulse News, you choose the categories you want to display and the specific content for each section. For example, you might want to add a Gaming, Sports, News, Tech, Science, Art and Design any number of additional categories.

• Download Now

AP Mobile

The free AP Mobile app brings the Associated Press right to your iPhone. With comprehensive, timely coverage of local and global news it’s not like having a newspaper or TV station in the palm of your hands — it’s like having their news sources. Plus, if you find yourself in the middle of the news, you can even send the AP your tip!

• Download Now

Best free photo apps for iPhone

Instagram

Instagram isn’t just a free iPhone app, it’s one of the most popular social photo sharing networks on the planet. It features a large selection of vintage, hip, and fun filters as well as the ability to add the tilt-shift effect to your photos. You can also follow friends and photographers, “like” photos, and leave comments on them. (If you’re looking for more great iPhoneographers to share with, check out our Instragram name swap thread!)

• Download Now

Pic Stitch

There are a lot of collage apps in the App Store, but what’s great about Pic Stitch is that it’s free! With Pic Stitch for iPhone, you can create beautiful collages that tell a story in just a few taps. It features 32 different layouts and after you’ve finished your masterpiece, you can share it to your favorite social network or another photography app.

• Download Now

Camera Awesome

If you’re looking for a free app that offers more than the built-in iOS Camera app, look no further than Camera Awesome. This fantastic free iPhone app not only gives you a lot of powerful editing tools and filters, but it also gives more control while taking photos as well by allowing you to select separate points for focus and exposure.

• Download Now

Best free productivity apps for iPhone

Adobe Reader

With the free Adobe Reader app for iPhone, you can have all your PDFs in your pocket. What’s more, you aren’t limited to just viewing PDFs, but you can annotated them with text, handwriting, strikethroughs, highlights, and more. You can also fill out forms and add your signature.

• Download Now

Evernote

Evernote isn’t just a great free note-taking app for iPhone. It’s a great free note-taking app on almost every platform. That means no matter where you are, or what device you have access to, your notes are always there for you. You can also add pictures and search for text in the images, add voice notes, and easily share what you’ve collected.

• Download Now

Dropbox

The free Dropbox for iPhone app gives you access to all your files stored in your Dropbox account (free up to 2GB). You can mark items as favorites to store them locally on your iPhone for offline viewing, save photos and videos to your Dropbox account, and easily share them with family, friends and colleagues.

• Download Now

Best free reading apps for iPhone

iBooks (stress Guttenberg project)

iBooks is Apple’s free ebook and PDF reading app for iPhone. It’s a stylish way to read not only books purchased from the iBookstore, but all the free books from the massive Project Gutenberg library as well as any of your own ePub or PDF files.

• Download Now

Readability

Readability offers a gorgeous way to read articles from your favorite website without the distraction of ads and other fluff — for free! You simply set up your free account and add articles with a bookmarklet . A lot of other apps, like Twitter, off Readability support so that you can add articles directly from those apps.

• Download Now

Kindle

The free Kindle App for iPhone is Amazon’s ebook reader. Unlike Apple’s iBooks, Kindle is cross-platform. If you already have a large Kindle book collection, free or otherwise, or you just want to keep your options open for the future, Kindle is a great choice.

Best free shopping apps for iPhone

Apple Store

The free Apple Store app not only lets you shop Apple’s online store from the comfort of your iPhone, but it actually lets you purchase accessories via your iPhone, iTunes account, and EasyPay at the Apple retail store. You can also make an appointment at the Genius Bar an automatically check in when you arrive.

• Download now

Etsy

Etsy for iPhone is a free app that gives you access to 11 million items from some of the internets most eclectic, most astonishing artisans and craftspeople. You can browse, you can buy, and if you’re a seller, you can manage your Etsy account right from your iPhone.

• Download now

RedLaser

With the free RedLaser app your iPhone transforms into a powerful barcode and QR code scanner. If you see an item at the store, simply scan it and get instant results from Google, TheFind, eBay, Milo, American Express, and many more. It’s one of the easiest ways to compare real-world prices online — and it’s free!

• Download now

Best free sports apps for iPhone

ESPN ScoreCenter

ESPN ScoreCenter is a free iPhone app that brings you the latest scores, standings, and news for dozens of sports and hundreds of teams around the world. If you have a free myESPN account, you get automatic access to all your favorites. If you don’t, you can choose baseball, basketball, cricket, football, hockey, rugby and soccer teams to follow right on your iPhone.

• Download Now

MLB.com At Bat

Although it has premium options, the free or "lite" version of MLB at Bat for iPhone still gives you access to lots of great content. You can watch the scoreboard during every game, see news and highlights from recent games, buy tickets to upcoming games and check in around the league for other scores and highlights. While diehard baseball fans will want to buy the full app, the Lite version is great for casual fans on the go.

• Download Now

NBA Game Time

NBA Game Time is sort of like MLB.com At Bat – but for basketball. During games, you can follow along practically play by play, seeing who is on the court at every moment and who is scoring plays. You can also check the scores around the league, watch video highlights, check the standings, look at the schedule for every team and get information on each arena, right from the free iPhone app!

• Download Now

Best free travel apps for iPhone

Yelp

If you’re searching for a place to eat, shop, drink, relax and play, the free Yelp for iPhone app will provide you with a map or list of exactly what you’re looking for. Each location is also filled with reviews by users who have been to that place before. When you decide on a place and have finished your visit, you can leave a review of your own for other users to read when in the same predicament that you were in.

• Download Now

TripIt

The free TripIt app for iPhone, when paired with a free TripIt account, becomes your virtual travel assistant. Simply email any flight or hotel confirmations to TripIt and they’ll automagically get logged and displayed on your iPhone, along with helpful maps and additional information to make your travel safer and easier.

• Download Now

Google Translate

While there are a lot of language courses and travel references available for the iPhone, the free Google Translate app lets you find the right phrase, in the right language, right when you need it. Text translation is available in 64 languages and voice translation in 17. Yup, you can talk instead of type! Fantastique! Hen hao!

• Download now

Best free utilities for iPhone

Find my iPhone

The free Find my iPhone app by Apple will help you locate your iPhone in the unfortunate event that you misplace it or it gets stolen. You can track your iPhone from another iOS device or from the iCloud website. You can also send a message and alert to your iPhone to help you find it or to provide contact information in the even that someone found your iPhone. If you’re concerned about the security of your data, you can remotely lock your iPhone or even wipe it with the free Find my iPhone app.

• Download Now

Remote

Apple’s free Remote app lets you control your iTunes or Apple TV right from your iPhone over your local Wi-Fi network. Browse or search your iTunes library or Apple TV content, choose songs, TV shows, or movies to listen to or watch, and control playback, skipping, and more.

• Download now

The Weather Channel

Apple’s built-in weather app is great and all, but sometimes you’re looking for more information about the weather than this app can provide. The Weather Channel app is a great alternative. It features interactive maps and radar, severe weather alerts, and hourly and 10 day forecasts. You can also watch videos of breaking news and weather coverage and upload and view photos of the weather taken by other users. And you get all of this for free!

• Download Now

Your favorite free iPhone apps?

Did we miss any of your favorite free iPhone and iPod touch apps? If so, head on over to our iPhone apps and games forum and add yours to the favorite free iPhone apps list! We’ll be updating this post often, so your pick could be next!

Babies equal photos. It’s really just that simple. Nothing sells more camera gear or generates more images than a newborn baby. Whether it’s yours, your family’s, or your friend’s, the moment a newborn baby appears our fingers fly to the shutter. Babies are the celebrities of our lives and we all want the best possible photos of them we can get. Now you may seen especially dreamy photos of babies in galleries or on the web and wished you could capture similar images of the baby in your life. Well, you can! All you need is your iPhone, the right tools, and the proper techniques!

Before we jump in, I should mention that the best age to get the types of images you’ll see in this article is between 5 and 14 days old. This is when a newborn baby is most sleepy, flexible, and tolerant of being touched when sleeping.

Note: Every newborn image used in this article was taken with an iPhone and edited with iPhoto for iPhone and iPad. There will be a follow up article on how to edit newborn photos with iPhoto.

Get the right tools: Beanbag, blankets, heat, light, white noise

First things first, let’s talk about what tools you need to get great images. The most important element is light. You could make things work without anything else, but light is a requirement. My favorite source of light is simply a window. Avoid direct sunlight, however. If sunlight is shining through the window, you may want to wait until a different time of day.

Most of the images of newborns taken by professional photographers are of sleeping, naked babies curled up in adorable little poses. So the question on your mind is probably “how?” The first trick is heat.

The general rule of thumb is to dress newborns in 1-2 more layers than yourself, so stripping down your newborn for a photo shoot may make you feel a little uneasy — as it should. If you do want those naked baby photos, you’re going to need to crank up the heat. And when I say crank up the heat, I’m talking 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit. Personally, I typically have parents turn up their heater to 75 degrees and I bring along a space heater that I have pointing towards the baby at all times. (Don’t put the heat too close!).

Ok, now that you have a warm newborn, where do you put him? I recommend a beanbag. Many photographers use huge, expensive beanbags for newborns, but you can get by just fine with a cheap-y from Target. The trick is to make sure the beanbag isn’t too soft. You can either buy extra beanbag filler, or simply tie up the excess material with a hair-tie. You need the beanbag to be nice and firm.

Combine your beanbag with a big blanket, and you’ve got yourself a little studio. Place the blanket on the beanbag and use the excess as your back drop. You can either find some furniture, like chairs, to drape the blanket over, or you can have some hold it up for you.

In the image above, the blankets are clamped onto a professional backdrop stand. This is by no means a necessary tool. Also notice, that in the image above, there’s a couple blankets layered on top of each other. This makes it quick and easy to switch between your backdrops.

Now, sometimes heat and a comfy beanbag is not enough to keep a newborn asleep. The secret ingredient may be white noise. I use an app called White Noise Lite to produce loud, calming noise. More often than not, this app does the trick and keeps the babies in a nice slumber.

The Lite version of White Noise will not run in the background, so if there isn’t another iPhone around, you may want to look into the full version, as it will let you use your camera while emitting audio from the app.

• White Noise Lite – Download Now
• White Noise, $1.99 – Download Now

Lastly, you need to patient. You are at the mercy of the baby when it comes to newborn photography and you need to embrace that fact and be patient. Do not rush the process. Make sure the baby is completely asleep before attempting to put him or her in any poses. If that means rocking the newborn in your arms and singing lullabies for an hour, then so be it.

(Pro tip: wait until the baby is sound asleep and on the beanbag before taking off the diaper. It lessens your chance of being peed or pooped on. It doesn’t guarantee anything, though. If you want naked baby shots, be prepared for pee and poop.)

Don’t photograph up the baby’s nose

The most common thing to photograph on a baby is, of course, his or her face. This comes as a given, so by all means, snap away at that adorable face, just make sure you’re not shooting up the baby’s nose. The dark (and usually red), unattractive nostrils will end up dominating the shot.

Add some tilt

When we were little kids, our parents taught us to hold the camera strait when taking a photo, but with newborns, tilting the camera adds a great impact. Just make sure the baby’s head is composed higher than his or her body. You don’t want it to look like the baby is falling down hill! The image above demonstrates tilt nicely, as does the photo in the section before this one.

Use props

When a baby is naked, introducing props like beanies and headbands can have an adorable impact on your photos. Wrapping the newborn up nice and tight in a blanket is also commonly done, and if the baby isn’t happy about being naked, this is a great alternative.

If you’re looking for the types of beanies, headbands and wraps that professional photographers use, check out ETSY. You can often times find adorable stuff at a great price.

Objects that emphasize the small size of the newborn are also great. For example, I’ve seen wedding rings around tiny toes or an itty bitty hand grasping Daddy’s finger.

Don’t forget the details

Speaking of the tininess of a newborn, don’t forget to capture those tiny details! The iPhone does a great job at macro photography, so don’t be afraid to get up close and take images of little hands, feet, toes, ears, nose, and lips.

When taking these close up photos, don’t forget about what’s happening in the background. If you’re able to have other parts of the baby out of focus in a different area of the photograph, it gives more of an “aww”-factor to your image. For example, in the photo above, I used the rule of thirds when composing the feet and made sure the baby’s head and face was still in the frame to the left.

Leave the complex poses to the professionals

If you head to Google or Flickr for inspiration on newborn poses, you will discover photos of very complex (and beautiful) poses with babies holding up their head in their hands, hanging from trees, and resting their heads over the edges of baskets. Do not, I repeat, do not attempt these types of photos.

The secret to these images is that advanced software, like Photoshop, is used to compose multiple images into one photograph. The safety of the newborn always comes first. Do not hang your baby from a tree branch. Do not make your baby support his own head. Do not have someone hold your baby up over their head. Do not pose a baby on a guitar. Do not put a newborn in danger.

Now go get some beautiful photos of that precious baby!

Now what are you waiting for? That precious newborn of yours is only going to get older, so go get those beautiful photos! When you’re done, share them with us in the iMore photography forum! (Please do not share images of another person’s child without their permission).

(Huge thanks to Baby Kannon for being such an amazingly adorable model for this post. And thank you to his parents for giving me permission to use his modeling skills).

The latest half-baked rumors from China are suggesting once again that Apple is preparing to kick off an iPad mini this fall, with an initial shipment of 6 million units. The supposed $249 – $299 price point would compete nicely with the lower-end Android tablets that are coming out of the woodwork, and meet upcoming Windows 8 tablets head-on. The source is apparently close to Hon Hai, the parent company of Apple’s primary manufacturing partner, Foxconn.

These rumors are especially entertaining considering how non-reactionary a company Apple has historically been. They didn’t release a budget netbook to meet cheap PCs head on, they released the 11-inch MacBook Air and the iPad. They didn’t release a budget iPhone to meet cheap handsets head on, they kept around previous generation iPhones at increasingly lower prices.

We’re reasonable certain Apple has an iPad mini in the labs, but if and when they choose release it, it will be because they’ve figured out a go-to-market strategy to sell hundreds of millions of them, regardless of what the Android and Windows tablet makers are doing (or not doing).

The iPod nano and iPod shuffle both addressed the lower end of the MP3 market and an iPad mini could address the lower end of the tablet market, or it could just clutter Apple’s product line between iPod touch and iPad.

For now, all of this iPad mini talk is strictly in the realm of speculation; so here’s the part where we ask you what you want. Have you held off on buying an iPad because of cost or size? Would an iPad mini get you to buy and Apple product when you wouldn’t have otherwise?

Source: NetEase via Kotaku

For today only the iMore Accessory Store has the iSuper Helicopter (Large) for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on sale for only $89.95. That’s a whopping 31% off! Get them before they’re gone.

• Shop iSuper Helicopter (Large) for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad now!

(Note: video above features older model helicopters, presented only to show how much fun this stuff is!)

The iSuper Helicopter utilizes the latest wireless technology to communicate with your Apple iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. By downloading the free iSuper Heli app from the App Store, you’ll have complete control over your iSuper Helicopter, even while your listening to your favorite tunes on your Apple iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

Controlled by your Apple iPhone, the iSuper Helicopter features touch or tilt control, safe-landing and emergency buttons, flight record and playback, and the ability to fly alongside other iSuper Helicopters without interference.

This remote Helicopter features a durable metal frame and a built-in gyroscope providing an all-directional precise flight that’s easy to control with its intelligent control system.

iSuper Helicopter for ages 8+

Requires free iSuper Heli App on App Store

Features:

• Works with Apple iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad
• Built-in gyroscope for stable control
• User-friendly interface
• Durable metal frame
• Record and playback functionality of flights and patterns
• Safe landing function
• Emergency landing function
• Play music while flying
• Includes spare tail rotor & screwdriver

Specification:

• Includes wall charger
• AC Charger input: 110-240V
• AC Charger output: 4.6V / 800mA
• Dimensions: 14.2″ x 25.6″ x 5.9″
• Weight: 5.0 oz / 142 g

Some of our copters are designed for both indoor and outdoor play, you can fly them anywhere via Apple iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, the controllable distance currently is about 60 feet, so players can chase and compete with each other in long distances. The most fun thing is the copter can play some specially designed tricks. There are "Record" and "play" buttons on Apple iPhone screen for memorizing the flying route, so later it can be played back.

This Friday, April 20, Apple will be releasing the new iPad in Brunei, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malaysia, Panama, South Korea, St Maarten, Uruguay and Venezuela. Next Friday, April 27, Apple will be adding Colombia, Estonia, India, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, South Africa and Thailand to the list as well. That’s a total of 22 new countries.

The new iPad first launched on March 16 in the U.S., Australia, Canada, the U.K. and 8 other regions, and on March 25 in Italy, Spain, Ireland, Mexico, and 21 other regions

While the original iPad and iPad 2 were US-only for a month and had slow international rollouts, often attributed to constraints in screen supplies, the new iPad’s release schedule has been incredibly aggressive, especially considering it requires Retina display panels.

If you’re in one of the regions getting the new iPad over the next two weeks let us know — are you buying one, did you buy one already in another region, or are you still waiting for now?

Full press release below.

New iPad Arrives in South Korea & 11 Additional Countries This Week

CUPERTINO, California―April 16, 2012―Apple® today announced the new iPad®, the third generation of its category defining mobile device, will arrive in South Korea and 11 additional countries on Friday, April 20. The new iPad features a stunning new Retina™ display, Apple's new A5X chip with quad-core graphics and a 5 megapixel iSight® camera with advanced optics for capturing amazing photos and 1080p HD video. The new iPad still delivers the same all-day 10 hour battery life* while remaining amazingly thin and light.

In addition to South Korea, the new iPad also will be available beginning on Friday, April 20 in Brunei, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malaysia, Panama, St Maarten, Uruguay and Venezuela. Beginning on Friday, April 27, the new iPad will be available in Colombia, Estonia, India, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, South Africa and Thailand.

The new iPad Wi-Fi models will be available in black or white for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for the 16GB model, $599 (US) for the 32GB model and $699 (US) for the 64GB model. The iPad Wi-Fi + 4G models will be 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.** The new iPad will be sold through the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com) and select Apple Authorized Resellers. Additionally, iPad 2 is available at a more affordable price starting at just $399.

 

Sick as a dog. It never fails, a couple times every spring and fall, I get a sinus infection that makes me seriously wishing my head would just explode and get it over with. But no such luck. I still have a site to run. And a column to get done. For the people who are still alive…

iTunes

It also seems to be the time of year for iTunes to hit the news cycle, both with rumors about an iTunes 11 refresh and a lot of media angst about whether or not iTunes as it currently exists is a bloated, hot mess.

Well of course it is. It has to be. iTunes is a way for Apple’s mostly Windows-based iPod, iPhone, and iPad consumers to buy media and manage their devices. It was the only way until iCloud, and it’s probably still the primary way.

Tempting as it might be to think iTunes on Windows is Apple’s way of getting payback for Office on Mac, it’s simply been easer to maintain the port of a single, multi-purpose, monstrous app than to implement an alternative. It’s also been easier to direct customers, mostly Windows customers, to a single, multi-purpose, monstrous app than to implement an alternative.

Want to activate your iPhone, iPod, or iPad? Connect to iTunes. Want to buy stuff to put on it or sync stuff over to it? Connect to iTunes. And because of that, iTunes remains a single, multi-purpose, monstrous app on OS X as well.

When Windows compatibility isn’t necessary, like with Mac Apps, you get a separate Mac App Store app.

It will take a long time for a critical enough mass of Windows users, especially traditionalists, to shift off iTunes and onto iCloud. It will also take a long time for iCloud to become functional enough to make iTunes for Windows unnecessary. Apple will know when that happens by the download and usage numbers.

And when they do, that’s when iTunes will change. On both Windows and the Mac.

Upgrade pricing

Upgrade pricing has also made it’s way back into the news. Almost 4 years post-App Store launch and, a few hints to the contrary not withstanding, Apple still doesn’t provide a way for developers to charge for upgrades. We’re not talking about bug fixes or even minor feature enhancements either. Not 1.0.1 or even 1.1. We’re talking about major new versions of software, like 2.0, 3.0, etc. Software that takes time and incurs costs to develop.

That’s bad for developers and bad for consumers. Sure, the idea of free updates forever sounds nice, but it’s not manageable. It’s like your boss telling you he’s not paying you for work you did today because he already paid you for it yesterday.

Conversely, just because I bought a hamburger at McDonald’s today, doesn’t mean I get free hamburgers every day for the rest of my life. Just because I paid to see Batman Begins doesn’t mean I’ll be let into Dark Knight Rises for free. And just because I bought Tweetie doesn’t mean I was entitled to Tweetie 2 for free (or any other stand-alone version 2.0, 3.0, etc. app for that matter).

No one can run a sustainable business like that. And I want developers to have sustainable businesses because I want more, better, deeper apps.

Cocoaheads

I had the opportunity to speak at Cocoaheads Montreal last Tuesday on the topic of app marketing. It’s something near and dear to my heart for a couple of reasons. First, before I ran iMore I worked in enterprise software marketing. Second, now that I run iMore I see tons of apps with tons of potential fall on the App Store with a whimper instead of an explosion, get very little attention, and disappear.

You absolutely need to make a great app, but you also absolutely need to tell people about it. Just like you wireframe and mock up the design and plan and code the functionality you need to strategize and execute the product marketing.

Be in the App Store day and date with that great new feature Apple really wants to show off, so they and the media show you off along with it. Find the sites that write about the kind of apps you make and engage them directly and passionately. Talk about the problems your app solves (not “my app does XYZ” but “if you need XYZ, that’s what my app does”). Be easy to work with — have assets ready for Apple if they want to feature you immediately, have advanced promo codes ready for key writers if they want to do release day reviews. If there’s a legitimate reason to have web-based accounts that offer additional functionality, don’t abuse them but certainly use them to directly engage your user base.

The App Store might be a gold-rush-come-lottery but that doesn’t mean you can’t stack what odds there are in your favor.

Wide-screen iPhone

Last iMore heard, Apple was sticking with the 3.5 inch screen size, though it wasn’t “set in stone” and could be slightly bigger. A confluence of events led some to speculate that Apple could go wider instead of just bigger. Closer to 16:9 than the current 3:2. Apple has lots of prototypes in the labs, which is why there are so many rumors about different sizes and cases of iPhones and iPads. We haven’t heard anything about a 16:9 iPhone, but we have heard Apple is (perhaps still) discussing or experimenting with alternatives to the current Home button. Could these experiments come together into an almost all-screen iPhone?

It raises the kind of problems for developers and apps that Apple has thus far avoided by retaining the same aspect and pixel ratio in iPhones since they first introduced the original iPhone. Given how long Apple is leaving older devices on the market as well — for example, the 2009 iPhone 3GS is still sold as new — it would be a long-lasting problem as well. Boxing 3:2 apps, like Apple does with iPhone apps on the bigger iPad screen, wouldn’t create the premium phone experience Apple is known for.

Features

• iPhone 4S six months later: A group of us from iMore, Mobile Nations, and the podcasts shared our thoughts on the iPhone 4S a year-and-a-half into the product cycle. How’s it holding up? Is it still competitive? Would we recommend it to a new buyer today?
• Flipboard vs Zite vs Pulse: iPad personalized magazine app shootout!: Ally takes a look at her three favorite iPad note-takers/text-editors and figures out which one is the best and for whom.
• Could carriers rebel against the high costs of Apple's iPhone?: Chris Umiastowski takes a look at the iPhone’s popularity relative to its subsidies and how that may concern the carriers.
• How I use my iPhone 4S as a therapist: Georgia shares how she uses her iPhone at work.
• Solving the case of the missing iPad apps: The best clock, voice recording, weather, calculator, and stock apps alternatives: Leanna goes looking for replacements for the apps Apple intentionally withheld from the iPad.

Recommended reading

• From the Editor’s Desk: The alternative Android dictionary: Phil Nickinson reveals the dirty little secrets of dirty little blogs
• BlackBerry Porsche Design P’9981 Review: Kevin Michaluk pays $2K for a BlackBerry and tells us if it was worth it.
• iCloud's First Six Months: The Developers Weigh In: Federico Viticci interviews prominent developers about the current state of iCloud.
• Nielsen is wrong on mobile: Josh Clark of Global Moxie tackles the concept of mobile as a second-class experience.
• Instagram is the best, Instagram is the worst: Chris Ziegler and Dieter Bohn get into a good old fashioned “duck season/rabbit season” row over the value of Instagram.
• The Mac App Store Needs Paid Upgrades: Wil Shipley explains why upgrade revenue matters under the current software business model.

Still alive

Fever’s still up and so am I. Let’s see if fixing that second part fixes the first.