While Apple managed to ship the iPhone 5 to dozens of countries within the span of a couple weeks, it's taken almost a month to get the 30-pin Dock to Lightning connector adapters shipped and into stores. So, now that they're here, how are they?

Okay. Pretty much exactly what you'd expect.

The dongle isn't really small enough to avoid being annoying, but that's what you get when you need something to translate the new, all-digital Lightning signal into the old, partly analog Dock signal and vice versa. If all you have is an old legacy cable, either stand-alone or as part of an in-car system, it works fine. Anything that's cramped, however, or relies on wrapping around the base or back of the iPhone for stability, probably won't work.

That brings us to the cable. It's the same as the dongle but includes a short length -- 20 cm or 7.8-inches -- of USB cable as well. So, for example, you could attach it inside a battery case or even some types of media docks and still, awkwardly, use them with your iPhone 5, iPod touch 5, or iPod touch 7.

Both are expensive, neither is ideal, neither supports video, and they took far too long to get into stores. That said, if you have a legacy accessory that absolutely needs a 30-pin Dock port to work, it's something you're going to have to pick up.

I tested both out with the iPod connector kit in my car and they both worked fine, exactly how the iPhone 4S worked with the traditional, direct Dock connector. My music played out through the car, and the car controls were recognized by my iPhone 5.

$39.95 - Lightning to 30-pin Adapter (0.2 m) - Buy now

$29.95 - Lightning to 30-pin Adapter - Buy now

I've argued for a while that iTunes was the tip of Apple's sword. Being able to take payments and sell content in more countries than anyone else let them push the App Store farther, faster than any of their competition. Now, years later, no one else is even coming close, and when viewed as an ecosystem play, there still isn't any viable competition. To make matters worse, Apple's model allows them to sell the iPad (and soon, the iPad mini in 90+ countries. And, because they make their money off hardware, they can even sell it where there's still no or limited iTunes support. That lets them seed the market so hardware is in hand when iTunes eventually, and inevitably follows.

By contrast, Amazon's content appliance strategy with its heavily discounted hardware doesn't allow them to sell the Kindle Fire line in any country without an Amazon content store to subsidize it. They literally can't afford to. That means no seeding, and since Amazon has been nowhere nearly as successful as Apple in pushing their content store internationally, very limited distribution.

Talking about it is one thing though. To really appreciate the difference, you have to see it. That's where Graham Spence of MacStories comes in. He's taken the time to map the media ecosystems of Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, and as they say -- a picture is worth a thousand words. (Or in this case, really shows the cost vs. value prop for an iPad over everything else in the market right now.)

Whichever company is the "winner" depends on your circumstances (location, device, etc), but if you were to generally draw a conclusion I think it is clear that Apple would lead, Microsoft would be second, Google third and Amazon fourth. Again, that is a gross generalisation of all the above data but ignoring the exceptions (such as Amazon's eBook dominance), I think it's fairly evident which companies have put the most emphasis on international availability.

I'd even argue Amazon's eBook "dominance", because like Serenity Caldwell pointed out at Cingleton deux, all of Amazon's early ebook efforts were little more than black and white scans of black and white books. They were and are the volume leader, but until recently they didn't even compete in the quality game. For a certain segment of the market, better is better.

Check out Graham's magnificent graphics and thorough breakdown of media by geography via the link below, and factor that into any tablet or tablet-like-device purchase in your future. Absent content, they're little more than paper weights.

Source: MacStories

Cue up the sad trombones - Infinity Blade: Dungeons, the hack-and-slash fantasy action game that wowwed crowds at the announcement of the new iPad, won't see the light of day this year according to Epic Games. PR manager Wes Phillips explains the situation. 

"Ever since the talented team at Impossible Studios got their hands on Infinity Blade: Dungeons, they've been busy adding their great ideas to the game. There was also the matter of getting the Impossible Studios team up and running with desks, chairs, staplers and computers. The logistics of a new studio and implementing all these great ideas required a little extra time, so Infinity Blade: Dungeons will hit iOS in 2013."

Honestly, this game should have been ready for the launch of the new iPad. The fact that we're going to see another iPad launch before it's ready may leave Apple thinking twice about whether to let Epic share the stage with them at another keynote. Infinity Blade was apparently more profitable than Gears of War, but that's hardly a guarantee that this new studio will be as successful, even with the established and successful brand behind it. The trailer still looks nice, but will it live up to the wait and the now-rising expectations?

Source: AllThingsD

Apple has acquired Particle, a firm specializing in the design of HTML5 websites and web apps. Particle has previously done some HTML5 work for Apple, along with others such as Google, Amazon, and Motorola and they are also behind video sharing service Robo.to. The deal for the acquisition happened last month, and is mostly a talent, rather than product, acquisition. It is unknown what the team will be working on, though Josh Lowensohn at CNET speculates that it has to do with Apple's heavy HTML5 focus for its web content:

As for the purpose of the buy, Apple has put a big focus on HTML5 on its product pages, iAd advertising, and on iCloud.com, which serves as one of the only places Apple has true Web applications.

Particle is a company that has focused predominantly on user experience in the past, and that background can be put to use almost anywhere in Apple's ecosystem. Reworking the iCloud web apps, making them faster and more responsively, is certainly an option. It is also possible that Particle's experience with iTunes Extras means that they will work on media content. The sky -- or more appropriately, the cloud -- is the limit.

While most of Apple's focus has been on native applications, web content is very important to Apple's interaction with users. Even the iTunes, iBooks, and App Store apps on iOS devices are HTML5 web apps with some native trimming. Given how quickly content needs to change in either store, for the time being, this is neccessary. It's quite possible that the team brought in from Particle will be used to impove the overall store experience, doing their best to make it more responsive, or perhaps even improving search.

What would you like to see the Particle team work on? What areas of their web experience does Apple need to imporve the most? Give us your thoughts below in the comment.

Source: CNET

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Pictures of what are supposed to be the display of the unannounced iPad mini have surfaced recently. The dimensions measure 162 mm x 124 mm, which works out to the same 4:3 aspect ratio of the full-sized iPad. According to the markings on the rear, LG is apparently the manufacturer of this particular part. The source of the pictures, ETrade Supply, also posted shots of the battery, which line up with what we had seen previously. 

Plenty of other rumored parts have shown up over the last few weeks, but there are few meaningful details we can glean about a finished, final product from all of these isolated parts. It's a good thing we won't have to wait long to find out what Apple's been working on. What do you guys think - does this look legit, or is it too early to tell, or even worth trying to guess? What are the odds that we'll see full Retina-grade resolution on the new iPad mini display? 

Source: ETrade Supply via MacRumors

With iOS 6 your Siri virtual personal assistant has also become quite the movie buff, able to tell you not only what films are playing at which theaters, but provide you with their ratings and reviews, and even play you their trailers.

• How to find movies playing in your area with Siri
• How to view movie info with Siri
• How to watch movie trailers with Siri
• How to check movie ratings with Siri
• How to get directions to a movie theater with Siri
• How to view info on multiple movie theaters with Siri

How to find movies and showtimes in your area with Siri

1. Press and hold down your Home button to activate Siri.

2. Tell Siri to "Find movies playing in my area" or ask "What movies are playing near me?"

3. Wait for Siri to pull up a list of movies and their show times for today.
4. Tap a movie to get more information, including cast and crew, rating, synopsis, and the trailer.

You can be even more specific if you want to, and mix in other criteria. For example, you can tell Siri to "find all g-rated movies playing in my area" or "find any movies starring Justin Timberlake playing near me"

How to get information about a movie, director, or actor with Siri

1. Press and hold down your Home button to activate Siri.

2. Tell Siri "Show me info on the movie Taken 2." or "Show me movies directed by George Lucas."
3. Wait for Siri to bring up the movie widget.

The movie widget will contain lots of information and some, like ratings or trailers, can be tapped to see and learn even more about the movie. You can even ask for movies that haven't been released yet, or movies that are no longer in theaters but are available in iTunes or through other services.

If a movie is available through iTunes, an iTunes link will let you buy it right from the Siri widget.

How to watch movie trailers with Siri

1. Press and hold down the Home button to activate Siri.

2. Tell Siri to "Play the trailer for Despicable Me." or "Play the Despicable Me trailer."

3. If Siri finds multiple matches, it'll ask you to choose the specific one you wish to view.

This is a great way to go directly to a movie trailer without having to go to the information widget first.

How to check movie ratings with Siri

1. Press and hold down the Home button to activate Siri.

2. Tell Siri "Show me moving ratings for Despicable Me." or "What kind of ratings did the movie Taken 2 get?"
3. If Siri finds more than one match, she'll ask you to choose the name of the movie.

4. Tap on it and ratings will then be displayed from Rotten Tomatoes.

How to get directions to a movie theater with Siri

1. Press and hold down the Home button in order to activate Siri.

2. Tell Siri to "Find movies playing near me." or "Find a movie theater near me."

3. Siri will show the theater name at the very top with movie listings underneath it. Tap on the theater name and address at the top.

4. You will be routed to the built-in Maps app and the theater will be shown on a map.

From here you can route directions to the theater of your choice.

How to view info on multiple movie theaters with Siri

By default Siri will only show you showtimes for your current location. If you're planning a trip or going out of town and want to pre-plan, this probably isn't much help. You can, however, override the defaults to find out about theaters and showtimes outside of your area.

1. Press and hold down the Home button to activate Siri.

2. Ask Siri something like "Find theaters in Chicago, IL." or "Find movies playing at the Metreon in San Francisco."

This will make Siri override your current location and look for movies and theaters in the area you are asking for. From here you can view showtimes and theater information just like you would locally.

Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, graciously allow me to sit in on MacBreak Weekly #321. We talk everything from the finally-shipping Lightning adapters to space jumps to Thunderbolt Displays to, oh yeah, the upcoming Apple event on October 23.

More download and viewing options below.

Source: MacBreak Weekly #321: Hollow it out Like a Tauntaun

iPhone supply shortages happen almost every year, but with the iPhone 5 they've been compounded by quality assurance concerns -- namely chips and scratches occurring at the factory before the devices are as much as opened by customers. A Foxconn/Hon Hai official, who declined to be named, told Lorraine Luk of the Wall Street Journal that it's hard to satisfy both aesthetic and practical needs:

The iPhone 5 is the most difficult device that Foxconn has ever assembled. To make it light and thin, the design is very complicated. It takes time to learn how to make this new device. Practice makes perfect. Our productivity has been improving day by day.

This is nothing that anyone looking at working conditions in China and the complexity of the new iPhone assembly and finishing process couldn't reasonably deduce all on their lonesome (add your own cliche about good, fast, and cheap here).

As to rumors of a labour dispute compounded by the iPhone 5 production difficulties, the same executive waved the "stay clam, carry on" banner.

The Zhengzhou site, which was set up in 2011, is still pretty new to us. We are still learning how to manage the work force there.

Apple pushes the bleeding edge when it comes to manufacturing, inventing a lot of their own processes along the way. Quality will no doubt improve over time, whether or not it eases worker strife.

Source: Wall Street Journal

There's a story about Steve Jobs deciding to switch the original iPhone's plastic screen for a Gorilla Glass screen just scant weeks before launch because he believed it was better. If you've ever put a plastic screen protector or film on your iPhone, you know there really is a difference in the way it looks and feels. That won't bother some of us, but it will others. If it bothers you, SGP offers the GLAS.t premium tempered glass screen protector for iPhone 5. It's the closest you can get to putting a second glass screen on your iPhone.

Included in the SGP GLAS.t box is the protector itself, an applicator squeegee, alcohol swap for cleaning, pink, green, white, and black epoxy Home button stickers, and a micro-fiber cloth.

The SGP GLAS.t is made with real glass, which they say is ultra-hard coated and rated just over 8H, enough to prevent scratches from knives and keys. It also has an oleophobic coating just like an iPhone screen so it resists finger prints and other oily residue. Combine the hardness of the glass with the smudge protection of the coating, and it's really like you have a second screen on your iPhone that you can remove and replace far less expensively if any damage occurs.

Like previous versions of the SGP GLAS.t, the iPhone 5 version is thicker than plastic and does rise above the surface more than plastic screen protectors. That can make hitting the Home button more awkward, so SGP provides a few different Home button stickers to raise it back up to flush, including some fun colored options. Because the SGP GLAS.t is made of glass, however, the raised edges along the side can get dinged and chipped and lead to cracks. That's why SGP recommends using a case along with the GLAS.t, to prevent any side impact that could break the screen protector prematurely. (And if any chips or breaks do occur, an anti-shatter film makes sure to minimize any sharp pieces that could result, increasing safety and making clean up much easier.)

The SGP GLAS.t adheres to your iPhone 5 screen via a strong silicon adhesive that makes it easier than most screen protectors to apply and makes air bubbles easy to press out. (See the video above.) Because of the excellent adhesion, it also transfers capacitive multitouch taps and gestures extremely well, so there's little if any loss of sensitivity.

The good

• Feels just like iPhone glass -- spectacular!
• Oleophobic for easier cleaning
• Scratch resistant

The bad

• Not as thin or chip-resistant as plastic.

The bottom line

My opinion on the SGP GLAS.t hasn't changed. It's still the best screen protector I've ever used on an iPhone, and now I can use it on the iPhone 5 as well. Once you try it, it really is hard to go back.

$27.99 - Buy now

Love them or hate them, every year Blendtec tests out its latest power blender against the latest tech toys. Normally we don't have to wait very long for the latest iPhone to get the treatment; last year it was on launch day and the blending managed to upset quite a few folks who couldn't get their hands on one for whatever reason. This year we have had to wait a few weeks since launch and it's done a bit differently to normal. Blendtec has pitted the iPhone 5 against the Samsung Galaxy S3.

It's time for Tom to get a new phone. So which one should he get? The new iPhone 5, or the Samsung Galaxy S3? You know how he will decide. Which blends best.

As you would expect, both phones end up as a pile of dust; such a waste of expensive electronics. Having said that, it is a great marketing initiative by Blendtec, at the time of writing, the video has already received over 106,000 views and was only released yesterday. Not a bad way to create interest in your blenders for just the cost of a couple of phones.

Source: YouTube

We've gotten a ton of requests for an iPad Retina wallpaper version of the October 23 iPad mini event invitation, so I whipped this one together quickly. It's not great, more Photoshop trickery, less painstaking re-building of the original like I did for the iPhone 5 event wallpaper, but it's a little more complex and I need to get the iPod reviews done, so it's all I have time for at the moment.

I'm putting it up in the iMore wallpaper forum as well, so if anyone has any others/betters, please add them in.

Meantime, tap for the full size version, save to your Camera Roll, open Settings > Brightness and Wallpaper, choose Camera Roll, tap the saved image, set and enjoy!

Curious George's Dictionary is an educational iPad app for kids that teaches the meanings of nearly 600 words through illustrations, sentences, stories, and more. It features charming illustrations for each word as well as an example of a sentence that uses the word. In addition to swiping through letters and learning new words, Curious George's Dictionary also includes stories about Curious George using is dictionary and sections dedicated opposites, numbers, quantities, and colors & shapes.

On the main page, you'll find four sections Alphabet, Shop, Stories, and More. In More, there are sections for Numbers, Quantities, Opposites, and Colors & Shapes.

The Alphabet section is much more than simply the alphabet. For each letter of the alphabet, there is a cute illustration that includes the letter, something that starts with the letter, and George. Each letter also has many words associated with it. Some letters, like J, only have a few words, but other letters, like B, have as many as 40 words. Words with multiple definitions, like "wave", are included twice to illustrated both definitions.

Just like the letters, each word also includes a cute photo, but many (not all) of the words also include a sentence that uses the word. Curious George's Dictionary has a narrator that says the letters and words out load, but unfortunately, he does not read the sentences.

The Stories section of Curious George's Dictionary includes four stories: George's Birthday, George's Friends, George at the Beach, and More Words. Each story is narrated and in each one, George uses his picture dictionary to help understand the meaning of words. The words and pictures in George's dictionary are exactly the same as the ones in the Alphabet section the app.

The numbers, Opposites, and Color & Shapes sections of Curious George's Dictionary are similar to the Alphabet sections with words and illustrations that teach their respective topics. The Store includes descriptions of all the the other Curious George apps available on the iPad with links to the App Store.

The good

• Lots of words for each letter
• Multiple definitions for many words. For example, the word "can" is used as both noun and verb.
• Cute illustrations
• Nearly 600 words
• Also includes numbers, quantities, opposites, and colors & shapes

The bad

• Narrator does not read the sentences included with each word
• It would be more appropriate for the Shop to be on the secondary page, especially since this is an app for children

The bottom line

Curious George's Dictionary for iPad is a great learning tool for young readers. It provides a fun, interactive environment for learning the alphabet, the definitions of nearly 600 common words, sentences, numbers, and more. If you have a young learner in your home who also loves this adorable little monkey, Curious George's Dictionary is great to add to your educational apps collection.

Curious George's Dictionary is currently on sale for $1.99.

$1.99 - Download Now

Apple calls the iPod nano 7 "renanoed", and if you look at the longer, thinner shape, and the wider screen, it's harder to argue the logic than it is the ad copy. It still isn't running iOS, and Apple has rounded the icons to better visually differentiate it from it's bigger, more computer-like cousins, but it does include apps. And buttons. There's a Home button now, also similar to iOS, and a volume rocker with a pause/play control in between. It also has the new Lightning connector, which is why it can be so thin.

Here's a look at the white and (Product) RED versions, and how it compares to the new iPod touch 5, and the iPhone 5.

All shots taken with a Canon 5D Mark III and a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM and an EF 100mm f/2.8 L IS USM Macro lens, embedded at HiDPI for iPhones, iPad 3, and Retina MacBook Pro.