Apple iPad, Applications and Accessories

AirView is a free iOS app that lets you send video wirelessly between iOS devices, and from iTunes to iPhones and iPads. The app does this by tapping into Apple’s AirPlay, the technology introduced in iOS 4.2 that lets you send music and movies from your iPhone to compatible devices. Up until now, “compatible devices” has meant either the AirPort Express router, the AppleTV v2 and a handful of third-party stereos. Run the AirView app on any iOS device and it will then show up on your Wi-Fi network as a new destination for video, just like any other, and you’ll be able to choose it in the pop up list in iTunes or another iOS device.

The iPad’s screen-lock switch, previously removed in a software update, will be back soon by popular demand. Apple moments ago released a beta version of iOS 4.3, the next version of its mobile operating system. Some beta testers have noticed that a menu option allows iPad customers to set the physical switch to lock the screen to stay in landscape or portrait mode. The iPad already used to do this in older versions of iOS. However, in iOS 4.2 Apple turned the switch into a mute button . Several iPad customers polled by Wired.com found that modification to be extremely annoying: Many use Apple’s tablet for reading and watching video (rather than listening to music), so a screen-lock switch was far more useful than a mute switch.

I have been skeptical of iPad and iPhone styluses in the past, but the Alupen, a chunky, pencil-shaped, rubber-tipped pen arrived in the mail today, and it has changed my mind. The whole point of the iOS user interface is that you can control it with a fat finger.

> LAS VEGAS — Every year at CES, there’s a theme or expectation that quickly becomes codified the moment you step inside the cavernous and often soulless Las Vegas Convention Center. This year, it was clear that everyone and their grandmother was coming out with a tablet PC. Pre-show estimates put the number around 50. Scuttlebutt inside Central Hall here put that figure closer to 80, although an exact count would be a near-Herculean and mind-numbing task.

> When this year began, we were feverishly speculating about an Apple tablet, looking forward to 3-D TV sets, and optimistically waiting for the end of the cable companies’ cruel grip on our wallets. We had to settle for one out of three. While manufacturers did release a handful of 3-D TVs, there’s just not enough content (either on cable or Blu-ray) to justify purchasing one yet. The heavy, expensive glasses you need to buy don’t make the proposition any more attractive, either. And as for getting all our video from the sweet, ever-flowing bounty of the internet? Sure, we still do that — when we’re at work

Apple can’t stick to its own rules with the gigantic iOS App Store. The company recently approved an iPhone camera app that carries a special feature: the ability to snap a photo with the physical volume button rather than tapping the touchscreen. Oddly enough, about four months ago Apple banned a top-selling iPhone app for including the same “volume-snap” functionality. Apple in August rejected the photo app Camera+ when it included a volume-snap feature, because changing the behavior of the iPhone’s external hardware buttons was strictly prohibited. “Your application cannot be added to the App Store because it uses iPhone volume buttons in a non-standard way, potentially resulting in user confusion,” Apple told Camera+ developer Tap Tap Tap in its August rejection letter

Apple’s AirPlay streaming feature enables the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad to stream video and audio to the Apple TV 2. But why stop there? Wired.com’s friend Erica Sadun has been hard at work hacking away at AirPlay to expand its powers. About a week ago she released AirPlayer , a Mac app to stream video from the the Apple TV to the Mac.

Skyfire, a web browser that I recently concluded was primarily a porn browser for iPhone , is heading to the iPad soon. Demonstrated in the video above, the Skyfire iPad app will carry some new features in addition to its core functionality. Like the iPhone version, Skyfire automatically transcodes Flash video into HTML5 so it’s playable on Apple’s iOS, which doesn’t normally support Flash . The iPad version of Skyfire adds the ability to view your Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader feeds — though I’m not sure why you’d want to. As I’ve argued before, most people are going to download this app to watch naked people do naughty things to each other, because otherwise there isn’t much other compelling video out there that’s still encoded in Flash

Samsung’s 7-inch tablet isn’t “dead on arrival” after all. In fact, Samsung has sold more than a million of them in less than two months. Released in mid-October, the Galaxy Tab is the first serious contender to Apple’s iPad . It sports a 7-inch touchscreen and runs a modified version of Google’s Android operating system.

Apple has put in the request for its Asian partner Foxconn to produce and ship the second-generation iPad within 100 days with plans for a spring 2011 release, according to a Taiwanese publication. Foxconn was notified of plans to ship the iPad by February 2011, with initial shipments of 400,000 to 600,000 units, according to DigiTimes . Sources expect the product to launch April 2011