Apple® today announced that its magical and revolutionary iPad will be available in the US on Saturday, April 3, for Wi-Fi models and in late April for Wi-Fi + 3G models. In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April.

Beginning a week from today, on March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store (www.apple.com) or reserve a Wi-Fi model to pick up on Saturday, April 3, at an Apple retail store.

“iPad is something completely new,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re excited for customers to get their hands on this magical and revolutionary product and connect with their apps and content in a more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

Starting at just $499, iPad lets users browse the web, read and send email, enjoy and share photos, watch videos, listen to music, play games, read ebooks and much more. iPad is just 0.5 inches thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds—thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook—and delivers battery life of up to 10 hours.*

iPad’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ interface makes surfing the web an entirely new experience, dramatically more interactive and intimate than on a computer. You can read and send email on iPad’s large screen and almost full-size “soft” keyboard or import photos from a Mac®, PC or digital camera, see them organized as albums, and enjoy and share them using iPad’s elegant slideshows. iPad makes it easy to watch movies, TV shows and YouTube, all in HD, or flip through the pages of an ebook you downloaded from Apple’s new iBookstore while listening to your music collection.

The App Store on iPad lets you wirelessly browse, buy and download new apps from the world’s largest app store. iPad includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for iPad and will run almost all of the more than 150,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®. Developers are already creating exciting new apps designed for iPad that take advantage of its Multi-Touch interface, large screen and high-quality graphics.

The new iBooks app for iPad includes Apple’s new iBookstore, the best way to browse, buy and read books on a mobile product. The iBookstore will feature books from the New York Times Best Seller list from both major and independent publishers, including Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster.

The iTunes® Store gives iPad users access to the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 12 million songs, over 55,000 TV episodes and over 8,500 films including over 2,500 in stunning high definition. All the apps and content you download on iPad from the App Store, iTunes Store and iBookstore will be automatically synced to your iTunes library the next time you connect with your computer.

Pricing & Availability

iPad will be available in Wi-Fi models on April 3 in the US for a suggested retail price of $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB,$699 for 64GB. The Wi-Fi + 3G models will be available in late April for a suggested retail price of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for 64GB.  iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

iPad will be available in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models in late April in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,Spain, Switzerland and the UK. International pricing will be announced in April. iPad will ship in additional countries later this year.

The iBooks app for iPad including Apple’s iBookstore will be available as a free download from the App Store in the US onApril 3, with additional countries added later this year.

*Battery life depends on device settings, usage and other factors. Actual results vary.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

Paris, France – Announcing that Interactive Studio, the developers of Let’s Discover Animals, today released an application specifically for very young children. This app is new, offering a fun way for toddlers twelve months and older to learn what twenty different animals look and sound like, as well as how to name them in one or all three available languages – English, French or Spanish. Let’s Discover Animals is also good to use for some extra cuddle time with little ones.

Let’s Discover Animals is the perfect educational tool for children twelve months old and up. The app features twenty popular animals, complete with high quality, original drawings and photos that appeal to very young kids. Inspired by the developer’s own child, the application draws a little one’s attention with its original music and holds it with the app’s visual and audio treats. Kids can hear the sounds each animal makes, as well as how to pronounce their name in English, French and Spanish. The child’s memory will be stimulated, right along with their curiosity.

Features:
* For young children 12 months of age and over
* 22 animals with high quality and original drawings
* Three language audio translation of animal names – English, French, Spanish spoken in a different voice for each
* Original music
* Helps develop memory and motricity in very young children
* Children learn in a really fun way
* Provides a bonding opportunity between parent and child
* Easy to use interface

Let’s Discover Animals is easy to use. Parents need only to open the app and go to the animal list to select one for their toddler to learn about. The functionality of the app allows for scrolling to the next or previous animal. Perhaps the biggest benefit of Let’s Discover Animals is the increase of quality cuddling and bonding between parent and child. Little ones don’t realize that they’re being taught, they just think they’re having fun and spending time with mom or dad.

Pricing and Availability:
Let’s Discover Animals 1.0 is only $0.99 (USD) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Education category.

Toulouse, France – Independent software developer David Palmerio today is pleased to announce E-Blues 1.1, his new blues music learning tool for iPhone and iPod touch devices. Discover and learn the Blues guitar in (almost) 5 minutes. This method presents 8 pieces of progressive levels, and each lesson is explained and the difficulties analyzed. The musical notation and theory is accompanied by audio and movie recordings.

Acoustic Blues:
Lesson 1: Just takle your guitar and begin with a traditional acoustic shuffle in the key of E.
Lesson 2: Play a funky blues with more advanced rhythm pattern.
Lesson 3: You can now improve your technic with a new slow shuffle, including open chords and multi-fingering turnaround ending.

Stratocaster Blues:
Lesson 1: Discover Texas Blues played on electric guitar and understand the using of pentatonic scale.
Lesson 2: Introduction to the minor Blues in the style of BB King.
Lesson 3: Play a Texas Blues in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan rake on strings. Concluding the piece with a boogie.

Les Paul Blues:
Lesson 1: The use of Wha Pedal for a more modern blues.
Lesson 2: Leaving the pure Blues style for a more Blues Rock lesson.

Feature Highlights:
* Automatic runs of the tabs in landscape display
* Resizables tabs in portrait mode
* How to read tabs for the beginners
* Soundings strings to tune your guitar
E-Blues 1.1 is $1.99 (USD) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Music category.

Take your pick and spend good time with this app. E-Blues is already in the Top 25 French App Store.

Agence France-Presse announced today the launch of its iPhone application “AFP Mobile” on the Apple App Store. The application for iPhone and iPod Touch enables users to read the latest news from all over the world, delivered with accuracy, speed and in-depth by AFP’s worldwide network of journalists. It gives access to the global news agency’s multimedia content in English, Spanish, Portuguese and German, including breaking world news from wars and conflicts to politics, sport and entertainment, as well as the latest major developments in health, science and technology.

he application can also be adapted for AFP’s clients to integrate their own content and distributed under their brand, for example La Dépêche du Midi, an AFP client in France, have already done this and released their iPhone application January 5^th.

This development is part of AFP’s ongoing mobile strategy to cover all mobile news content needs and to enable its clients to reach their audience across multiple devices and platforms. “Mobile is a key development for media companies. We believe that it is our mission to offer our clients mobile-ready content and technological solutions, so they can expand their visibility and reach new audiences”, says Erik Monjalous, AFP Group Sales and Marketing Director.

AFP Mobile for iPhone and iPod Touch offers a unique user-experience, thanks to original features, such as browsing the news by photos, the customization of the navigation bar to access favourite categories anytime and the possibility to change the language of the content inside the application. AFP news is also available on the mobile browser http://afpmobile.com.

The application can be downloaded from Apple’s AppStore on iPhone and iPod Touch.

iPhone Apps Are Latest Gold Rush

The iPhone has minted a gold rush. In just two years, the iPhone has become not just a gold mine for Apple Inc., but also for companies that create the software programs that run on the device. Since Apple launched its iPhone applications storefront via its iTunes software, more than 100,000 applications have been created (148Apps – Nov 2009), with more than 1 billion downloaded onto iPhones and iPod Touches.

iPhone applications are specially designed software programs that work exclusively on the iPhone. They vary from sports updates to video games to utilities that allow people to use their iPhones as flashlights or as locators of the nearest Tim Hortons.

For media companies especially, iPhone applications are about staying ahead of the curve. In industry parlance, it’s called being where the audience is. Optimistic industry observers such as Dale Fallon, director of Score Media Inc.’s mobile division, expect that within two or three years the audience for sports-based mobile Web sites and software will be the same size as the current Web audience.

Meanwhile, the applications act as incremental revenue streams, double as effective marketing tools and allow smaller media companies to extend their brands.

At Pelmorex Media Inc.’s Weather Network (Canada), the iPhone application WeatherEye is just part of the channel’s expanding mobile arsenal. The network’s offerings include a mobile Web site, desktop widgets and an application launched in March for use on the BlackBerry device.

The free WeatherEye has been downloaded almost 750,000 times since the end of October, with just under half of those by people outside of Canada. The French version of the application is the most popular weather application in France.

“From a return on investment perspective, it absolutely makes sense,” said Mark Thompson, director of The Weather Network’s mobile division.

Apple takes a 30% cut of any iPhone applications that are sold at its virtual store, but for applications offered for free, the companies do not have to share their advertising revenue with Apple.

The surge in iPhone applications has also benefited developers. With companies now scrambling to find anyone capable of making these programs, some developers command upwards of $200 per hour and applications cost between $15,000 to $50,000 to create.

Certain developers have found themselves in the spotlight after finding some of their applications – which invairiably retail for less than $5 – have yielded more than $250,000 in sales in thier first couple of months, convincing some to give up their day jobs in the process.

“It’s a market that has appeared out of nowhere, really,” said Ian Maskell, SEO of CA-based application developers site iPhone App Freelancer.

“All of a sudden, anyone who knows how to make an iPhone app are making lots of money off it. It’s one of those things that doesn’t come around very often but when it does, the first people through the gate make a bundle,” he said.

However, with developers being in such high demand, the prices quoted for the development of some applications is proving prohibitive for many, so Maskell came up with a plan.

With what he believed to be a killer application idea, but struggling to find a developer (within his budget) who could help, Maskell set about creating iPhone App Freelancer, to connect “ideas people” to programmers and developers. “Through our website we offer companies and individuals with great ideas the ability to turn them into iPhone apps with little or no programming knowledge”.

“Much like an auction, we bring entrepreneurs and businesses together with experienced iPhone application developers in the most cost effective manner possible” – says Maskell.

“We have approximately 800 members, and a pool of about 300 developers who receive notification whenever someone posts a new project,” he says. “I would estimate we’ve had close to 100 projects completed.”

And just how important will the iPhone become as an effective marketing tool in the coming months and years? “One customer stated that about 60% of the estimated five-million monthly page views they recieve on their site were generated by the iPhone” – Maskell states.

“With those kind of figures, you can see the potential is there for getting your brand exposed to a massive and ever increasing audience” Maskell continues – “from a business perspective, there is a massive captive audience at your disposal with the iPhone and the application market – the advertising potential is massive”.

The mobile advertising market is expected to hit $12-billion (USD) by 2013, compared with about $1.7-billion this year, according to research company Informa Telecoms & Media.

“If you’re not in the mobile space, you’re missing a very big opportunity to communicate with your consumers,” Mr. Maskell concludes.

Renowned Digital Artist and iPhone Developer release iCreated Version 2.0 turning iPhone and iPod Touch screens into mobile Art Galleries. Andrew C. Stone, CEO and Chief Computer Scientist at Stone Design Corp. has been creating enlightening software on the Mac, and NeXt platforms since 1984, offering many best selling Apps, like “Twitterlator Pro”, “Gesture” and “iGraffiti” for the iTunes App Store.

Acclaimed digital artist, David Scott Leibowitz, has been exhibiting his impressionist style art in galleries across the country for over thirty years, using his web site, Leibo.net to promote, and exhibit his work worldwide. Since the App Store opened in 2008, new tools for creating graphics and altering photos began to appear and artists everywhere quickly began to utilize what is essentially a new computing platform. Currently, there are over 30 iPhone artist’s work showcased in iCreated.

“Like the iPod, iphones are quickly spanning the globe, offering a new level of connectivity between artists and audiences and making the possibility of image sharing as easy and ubiquitous as music sharing.”

The first 18 images that appear when the app opens are contributions by some of the world’s most talented iPhone Artists and some of their most memorable Art. They are; Xoan Baltar, (Ourence, Spain), Kevin Barba, (Chicago,USA), Tony Cece, (Virginia, USA), Russ Croop, (Colorado, USA). Miguel Girard, (NYC, USA), Dan Hoffman, (New Jersey, USA), Steve John, (United Kingdom), Julia Kay, (San Francisco,USA), Emmanuel Martinez, (Manila, Philippines), Cedric Philippe (Nut), (Saint Claude ,France), Jose Andres Guijarro Ponce (La legra negra), (Cuenca,Spain), Barbara Ripepi, (Milan, Italy), Sean Sheridan, (NYC,USA), Patricio Villarroel, (Paris, France), and Mike Wallis, (Bedford, United Kingdom).

The next 9 images are new additions by co-creator David Scott Leibowitz, and the original 18 iPhone artworks from version 1.0

The iCreated Gallery button reveals a constantly evolving on-line gallery of iPhone Art, uploaded from around the world, and selected for their beauty, and uniqueness. The Gallery provides a space for this evolving art medium to flourish, as established and aspiring Artist’s use this app as a powerful promotional tool. Currently included in the Gallery are artworks by gifted international iPhone artists, Mauro Ballabeni, (Bologna, Italy),Corliss Blakely, (Vermount, USA), Willie Cole, (Connecticut, USA), Matt Connors, (New Jersey, USA), Robert Dawson, (California, USA), Rita Flores, (New Jersey, USA), Helene Goldberg, (California, USA), Fernando Lopez del Hierro, (Madrid, Spain), Yan Min Lee, (Taichung, Taiwan), Deborah McMillion, (Arizona, USA), Travis Morgan, (Illinois, USA), Susan Murtaugh, (Wisconsin, USA), Amy Nelp, (Colorado, USA), Benjamin Rabe, (Hamburg, Germany), Mia Robinson, (Washington, DC, USA), Matthew Watkins, (Canada and Italy), and miguelb2000 (Villa del Carbon, Mexico).

“You’ve heard the phrase, There’s an app for that,” said Mr. Stone, “Well, now there’s an app to showcase art created exclusively on the iPhone, transforming this already revolutionary device into both an artist’s studio and exhibition space.”

Each piece of art in this virtual gallery is linked to the apps that were used to create it, giving artists and art lovers the tools to create and deliver their own art to iCreated. The exhibited work in the gallery is also linked to the contributing artist’s web site or other personal web space, so that iPhone users can communicate with the artist and discover more of that artist’s creations.

“Since people first started painting on cave walls,” says Mr. Leibowitz, “art has served our basic need to express ourselves and share our experience with others. iCreated brings that impulse into the 21st century.”

iCreated is available for just $0.99 (USD). Get it today at the iTunes AppStore.