Online news overtaking paper, and nearly half of it is mobile

Wait, this is just now happening? The Pew Project's 2011 report on mobile devices' effect on media was published this week; it's a fascinating read from end to end that reveals a wild swing in the way we've gathered news and information as human beings over the past decade, but a couple stats really stand out. First off, the internet has finally overtaken newspapers as a news source, putting it behind just television -- and we already know the writing's on the wall there since the young ones are already preferring the web. And of those web-savvy, voracious consumers of information, some 47 percent are getting at least some of it on the go, either through their phone or tablet (like, say, Engadget's lovely selection of mobile apps). Mass transit commuters have always been a haven for newspaper-toting businessfolk -- but with iPads continuing to sell like hotcakes, not even the subway is safe from the tablet onslaught.

OC Register Planing iPad-Only Content For Tablet Relaunch

While News Corp.‘s The Daily hasn’t set the world on fire with as the first major “iPad newspaper,” the influence is clearly having its affect on other outlets. But more than that, newspapers, after sensing that Apple’s dominance isn’t going away, are also looking for ways to capitalize on the device’s popularity. Freedom Communications’ Orange County Registeris preparing to reboot its existing iPad app in the next few weeks with an emphasis on “iPad-first” and “iPad-only content.”

The OC Register did not release a specific date for the relaunched app.

The California paper’s new iPad app will be available on a free-trial basis for a “limited time.” After that, assuming it hits some unspecified audience targets, the app will shift to a weekly or yearly subscription model.

There was no word on what the price would be yet either. The company’s e-paper pay options include a prepaid 4-week subscription for $5.25 or yearly subscription for $65.00. Both subscriptions are prepaid and are automatically re-billed at the appropriate interval. Kindle OC Register subs are charged $5.99 a month for daily access on the Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) device.

Lifelapse app promising to turn your iPhone into a life-logger

We've seen a few dedicated "life-logging" devices that let you record your every waking moment, but why spend a couple of hundred bucks on something when you're already carrying around a perfectly capable smartphone? That's the thinking of the folks behind the Lifelapse iPhone app which, like the Vicon Revue we've tested, promises to simply record a time-lapse video of your entire day -- they've even developed a "LifePouch" so you can conveniently wear your iPhone around your neck (no iPad version just yet). Unfortunately, the developers aren't offering a peek at the app itself just yet, but they are now accepting applications for those that wish to participate in the beta.

GarageBand and iMovie coming to iPad, iPhone gets iMovie refresh

If you occupy the planet Earth, you're probably aware that last week saw the unveiling of the iPad2. During said reveal, Steve Jobs made a couple of other, perhaps not as monumental, but no doubt notable announcements: specifically that the new slate will offer iMovie and GarageBand. Well, it looks like they've decided to let the cats, or apps, as it were, out of the bag a day early. That's right, Mac movie makers and rock star hopefuls can download them now for $5 a pop -- and, this just in, it looks like iMovie for iPhone's getting a simultaneous upgrade. If you've already started rockin' or docin', let us know what you think in the comments.

The Mobile Lowdown: Nokia, Apple iPad Pricing, Square, Disney

Our rundown of mobile news to start your day. Nokia’s MeeGo payoff; what the ASP of today’s iPad tells us about what’s next; Square hits $1 million, and Disney (NYSE: DIS) hedges its bets between apps and HTML5 with a new acquisition. Read on for the details.

—Disney: Here’s one win for the open mobile web, or at least an example of how one big media company is clearly hedging its bets. Disney has bought Rocketpack, a Helsinki, Finland-based company that runs a platform to develop HTML5 games. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Techcrunch estimates the value to be between $10 million and $20 million. The company will become a subsidiary of Disney Interactive Media Group. What’s interesting is that while Rocketpack does develop its own games (such as Warimals, pictured), its main business is in offering its platform to other developers. Owning an asset like this puts Disney in the position of producer and aggregator rather than straight mobile content owner.

—Nokia: Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is putting the bulk of its effort now into making Windows Phone-based smartphones, but it is also trying to forge ahead with MeeGo…That is, if it can keep its developers on-side and away from the clutches of Intel (NSDQ: INTC) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG). A report from the Finnish newspaper Taloussanomat (via YLE) says that apparently Nokia is now offering bonuses of 50 percent of a MeeGo programmer’s salary if that employee stays on until the launch of the first MeeGo smartphone. The programmers have to hit three deadlines to get the payoff: end of July, end of September and end of December. Nokia has yet to give an official launch date for the device, which some are speculating will be called the N950, and it is unclear really what it plans to do with the OS in the longer term.

—iPad: Lots of numbers coming out of yesterday’s unveiling of the iPad from Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), including some on pricing. Up to now, Apple has sold 15 million units and generated $9.5 billion in revenue. That works out to an average selling price of $633. 3G devices have proven especially popular. The iPad 2 will cost the same as the first model, but it may not be unrealistic for Apple to see more people buying the iPad 2 at higher price points: the next-closest competitor on the market, the Xoom, is priced nearly at the same level as Apple’s most expensive device ($799 for the Xoom vs $829 for the 64GB/3G iPad), and there is growing consumer interest in the device. More importantly, prices for older iPads are now dropping fast. And all this is setting the stage for an iPad 3 that will most likely be somewhat more expensive.

—Square: The retail mobile payments company is now processing $1 million in transactions per day. The news came via a tweet from Jack Dorsey, the company’s CEO who is also the co-founder of Twitter. That’s just a small dent in the billions of dollars per day done in retail transactions worldwide, but it is a huge leap for a service that only went live last year and originally projected to process $40 million in 2011. Square is not breaking out yet how many transactions are done via its dongle versus manual entry. The company takes a 2.75 percent cut for dongle-based transaction; but if users enter a card number manually (that is, not using Square’s own scanning dongle) then the commission is up to 3.5 percent, plus 15 cents per transaction.

What was the MIA from the big iPad announcements today?

Pretty exciting stuff at the Yerba Buena Center. From where I sit the new iPad is a substantial, but not groundbreaking upgrade. I do think it has created some unpleasant drama for the Android and unshipped Blackberry tablets.

On the other hand, life is not all about fawning over every move Apple makes (despite what it feels like some days). As I step outside the reality distortion field, there were some things I wanted to see Apple include.

More storage: We've seen the iPhone storage increase over time while prices stayed the same. The iPad is sitting at the same configurations at the same price. It would have been nice to see the 16 GB iPad dropped, with the 32 GB at the lower price point.

Screen: I didn't expect the screen resolution to increase. That would have jacked the price up, and Apple surely didn't want to do that... but a non-glare screen option would have been awfully nice. Using the iPad outside or in a room with a lot of windows is no picnic.

On the other hand: The world is moving toward wider aspect ratio screens. Would have been nice to see the iPad get with the program there and drop the 4x3 screen. Hopefully iPad 3, even though that could create substantial hassles for application developers.

VGA camera for FaceTime: OK in a phone, but with the bigger iPad screen something with a better spec would have been nice.

iOS 4.3: Some cool updates there, especially the AirPlay and Safari enhancements. Still, I think notifications on iOS devices are a bag of hurt that interrupt your workflow. This is something Google got right on Android. Oh well, maybe in iOS 5.

Same with mail: I get tired of exiting whatever I'm doing when mail comes in. Lately I've been keeping my iPhone nearby so I don't have to keep changing focus. At times, iOS 4 feels like an app switcher rather than a full-blown OS. Apple.... rescue us.

OK, just a few complaints. The new iPad is going to be a runaway hit. With no pre-orders there will be lines at Apple and other retailers. Apple surely doesn't want to repeat the sparse attendance for the Verizon iPhone launch.

I'll probably see a lot of you in line, but how are our readers feeling today? Was stuff Apple left out a deal breaker for you? What did you want to see that didn't make the cut? Or are you gladly going with the iPad 2?

Recommerce sites now offering cash for current iPads

Sites that offer to buy users' now "previous generation" iPads are still offering good prices for used first-generation iPads, varying by site but offering up to $600 depending on models and condition, the money from which can be used to buy the just announced model. Among other sites, Gazelle.com and NextWorth.com have specifically posted prices for good-condition iPads. Some sites will "lock" offers for up to 30 days to ensure time for the new models to arrive in various places.

NextWorth.com conditions their offer on various questions regarding condition, but as an example we priced a good-condition 32GB Wi-Fi iPad and got an offer of $310. The company also specializes in smartphone buying, particularly the iPhone.

Gazelle come has posted a list for various models and assumes they are in good condition; the same 32GB Wi-Fi fetches $340, however the company has indicated that for a limited time (due to high demand) rates for selling may actually go up. The company offers to "lock-in" offers for up to 30 days. Gazelle said in a statement that they expect five to 10 percent of their consumer sales will involve trade-ins of the first-generation iPad.

Both companies use safe data recycling practices to ensure that all consumer data on traded-in items is thoroughly destroyed.

The Lowdown Of Mobile: Apple iPad, GetJar, IAB/MMA, Sony Ericsson

Our list of mobile news to start your day. Today’s topics: Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPad 2; new mobile ad standards from the IAB and the MMA; GetJar makes the case for taking less of a cut compared to Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Apple; and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson’s U.S. fightback—or should we say “Play"back?

—iPad launch: In the countdown to Apple’s simultaneous events today in Cupertino and London to launch the new iPad, there’s lots of chatter flying around about what else might be on the cards:

One Apple staffer, speaking anonymously, has said that today’s launch, product-wise, will not be all that significant—faster, thinner, better sound and more cameras are the main takeaways. More important will be the launch of the iPad 3 slated for this autumn, in time for holiday shopping and as a followup to all the other new tablets (all the Honeycomb devices, plus RIM’s PlayBook and HP’s TouchPad) that will be launching between now and then.

A possible re-launch of MobileMe, to include cloud-based storage and streaming of music and other media, could be a bigger deal. The question is whether Apple will tie that media storage to content purchased via iTunes, or whether it will include content purchased elsewhere too—LaLa, the cloud-based music company that Apple bought last year, allowed for items purchased from multiple places. Such a cloud service will be a big development for Apple, as a new kind of business line, and will give cloud-based, digital lockers a profile they have yet to achieve, despite launches from big names like Sony and an enormous amount of cloud-based media companies on the market already (think Thumbplay, MOG, Spotify, etc.).

The source did not mention iOS 5, although the latest version is “almost guaranteed” to make an appearance today.

Some are speculating that today Apple will also unveil a new partnership with its Geniuses, reportedly to be called “Joint Venture.” This is part of Apple’s ongoing strategy to build up its small business user base—a lucrative area that has been dominated by Microsoft-based resellers for years now. Under the new plan, a $500 annual fee will get you services like training sessions, data transfer assistance, and replacement machines for when your devices to pack up and need repair. The plan is sold when users buy Macs but if it gets unveiled today, it may also be applicable to iPhones and iPads, too.

—With all the Apple-talk, it’s easy to overlook other significant news. Included in this, the Internet Advertising Bureau and the Mobile Marketing Association have released a “standard methodology” for how to measure the effectiveness of mobile advertising and marketing campaigns. Such standards have been a long time in the planning, and while a number of third parties (and mobile operators) already provide tools to measure certain metrics like click-through rates, having a comprehensive policy should encourage more ad spend from brands overall.

—GetJar’s in-app USP: GetJar, currently largest non-native app store, has waded into the in-app purchasing debate. It says it gives the best deal of all to developers because it doesn’t take any cut at all when a publisher incorporates purchasing into its apps. On top of that, a publisher can choose whatever billing platform he wants for its app. One billing provider, Billing Revolution, takes only $0.15 per transaction, no matter the value.

—Sony Ericsson: The company’s much-anticipated “PlayStation” phone, the Xperia Play, will be launching with Verizon later this year and in Europe at the end of this month. The Verizon device will, of course, be a CDMA handset; but in the meantime, the company has had the European UMTS version of the device approved by the FCC. The supplementary documents include what appears to be a full user manual.

News : BBC’s International iPad iPlayer Will Cost Under $10 A Month

The BBC’s international iPlayer iPad app will cost less than $10 (£6.13) a month when it launches later this year, according to director general Mark Thompson.

He said the global version of the corporation’s online catch-up service for iPads will launch “definitely this year”, adding that it will cost, “a small number of dollars per month, definitely fewer than 10”. The international iPlayer iPad app will also give subscribers access to BBC archive programming.

Speaking at the FT Digital Media & Broadcasting conference in London on Wednesday, Thompson added: “We’re exploring internationally what the right pricing and models are ... themost important thing is the consumer pricing is right.”

He said that the iPlayer app allows the BBC to “sell directly to consumers” without shows being rebranded or reformated, which often happens when UK shows are bought by international broadcasters.

When asked what effect the iPlayer’s international launch will have on the business model of the BBC’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, Thompson said the corporation is following in Hollywood’s footsteps and “looking at a series of windows” for shows, to “optimise value across that lifecycle”.

International rights windows for films and TV shows typically mean they become available first on DVD and broadcast and online pay-per-view services, followed by subscription and free-to-air TV.

He also said he wants broadcasters, mobile phone companies and the UK government to get together to create a “road map” for mobile television.

“I believe that there’s a strong case for the UK’s broadcasters, mobile phone operators, Ofcom and government to come together to develop a roadmap for the introduction of mobile TV in this country,” Thompson added.

“This would be complementary to the availability of TV content on demand, whether streamed or cached on the device and would enable the public to access time-critical content – news, major sports events and so on – wherever they are.”

Speaking afterwards, he said no meetings are planned but he believes the process should be kickstarted.

Thompson added that confounding convergence predictions made five years ago, TV viewing has actually increasedover the period.

In addition, in January 162m programmes – an average of six per household – were downloaded via the iPlayer in the UK.

“The greatest month-on-month growth now is not on PCs or cable TVs but on iPads, iPhones, other smartphones and games consoles.”

Thompson added: “People have always watched less TV as they move through adolescence and early adulthood with their consumption increasing thereafter with age.”

But he warned that “there’s good evidence that this dip is becoming sharper”.

His figures showed viewers born in the 1960s and 1970s when they were aged 10 watched around 21 hours a week of television for total television, compared with 16 hours a week for those born in 1995.

Thompson said: “The question, which we don’t have an answer to yet, is whether the even younger cohorts – those who are growing up in a completely digital world – will follow this pattern and return to these very high levels of viewing as they grow older. Or, whether there will be a permanent shift downwards in future consumption.”

He reiterated that the “BBC will never retreat from delivering news online”.

Thompson ruled out the corporation launching a social network but said it was in conversations with Facebook and said that YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) has been a great environment for “sampling” and “marketing” of BBC programming.

He warned that simplicity will be key, adding “although lots of televisions are being produced with IPTV”, “virtually no one plugs them in ... no one gets to page 26 or whatever of the instruction manual!”.

Thompson concluded: “The challenge for us now ... is to concentrate on the quality, value and memorability of our content, not just in television but across our services.

“Science on BBC1 with Bang Goes the Theory, last week’s Newsnight special on Libya, the Proms which last year reached 18 million people in the UK on BBC television over the season. That’s our direction of travel.”

iOS 4.3 Now Coming March 11th With Photobooth, Airplay Improvements, And More

At the iPad 2 announcement today, Scott Forstall announced a few updates to iOS that will be rolling out on March 11th, some to do with the iPad 2, some more general improvements.

First, they’ve added Photo Booth as a free app, with special tweaks to make it more touchable. For instance, you can adjust the swirl with your finger when you do that effect. Fun for fifth-graders, sure, but I think the rest of us will be happy simply with the ability to save snapshots.

They’ve improved Safari Javascript performance with a new engine they claim is twice as fast. They call it Nitro, since everything has to have a special name. I like “Gecko,” personally.

The switch on the side of the iPad is now, of course, either mute or orientation based on user preferences. Thank god, I think the move to switch an existing interface element to something new was really foolish. They’ve fixed it now, though.

Facetime! If you’ve got any Apple product with a camera basically, you can now Facetime to each other. It works from iPad to iPad, iPad to iPhone, iPad to Mac, etc. And of course you can switch to the rear camera as well.

They’ve improved Airplay and iTunes home sharing, mainly in the ability to run Apps and websites over Airplay. Could be handy for streaming video, though I think games will be a little strange on the big screen. Actually, racing games could be tight.

This will be headed out to all compatible devices on March 11th. If you don’t have cameras you obviously can’t take advantage of the camera features, but hey.

TiVo iPad app to get Series 3 support 'soon'

A notice in the TiVo for iPad app has validated hopes that it might come to Series 3 DVRs. A quiet update to the app on Monday (free, App Store) is now producing a pop-up message that tells users that full support is coming for set-top boxes provided by cable providers RCN and Suddenlink as well as "limited support" for the Series 3 and related TiVo HD. The update is "coming soon," it said.

What limitations were coming wasn't said, but the older software and hardware could rule out interface tricks such as keeping the interface off of the TV when browsing as well as some of the Internet-specific video services. Direct control is probable, and both Facebook as well as Twitter sharing are specific to the app and should be independent.

The company had never promised support for devices earlier than the Series 4 era and had been criticized by longtime TiVo owners who didn't want to upgrade. TiVo hardware has supported control over the local network for some time, but usually only through desktop apps.

EverNote bumping iOS version to 4.0, revamps UI

Popular multi-media note-taking and cloud-storage app EverNote, a staple of the iOS App Store, today went live with the all-new v4 which features a revamped user interface, a new home screen, Snippets View, the ability to simultaneously type notes as well as record audio, and many other features all based on user feedback that pointed back to one significant idea: moving around the app, creating things and finding things should be easier, said the company on its blog announcing the new version.

The area that got the biggest overhaul was the note creation screen, which has been completely retooled. Users can record up to 90 minutes of audio, easily attach images (multiple) to notes, easily add tags and assign notebooks, select multiple camera-roll items at once, and add or delete location information attached to a note.

Browsing notes and notebooks has also gotten a facelift. Users can browse notes by what notebook they are in, by tags or using the new, separate search screen. Images and attachments can also be quickly searched visually through galleries, as well as a map view for finding notes made in specific locations.

The company added that in the process of overhauling EverNote, too many ideas came to fruition to put into the new release without delaying it further, so some features will be forthcoming soon. Shared notebooks, Notebook stacks, in-app rich text editing of notes and significant changes to the iPad interface are among the promised features on the way.

EverNote is offered as a free app, and requires either a free or paid subscription (paid subscribers avoid ads and get extra offline features). Subscriptions cost $5 per month or $45 per year. The iOS version requires iOS v3 or later; a Mac version is also available.

Financial Times may quit iPad without reader details

The Financial Times' publisher Pearson late Monday warned it might leave the iPad and iPhone if it couldn't get reader information. CEO Marjorie Scardino was adamant on an investors' call that Pearson was "still talking" to Apple but was concerned that its iTunes subscription rules wouldn't let her newspaper get demographic information to target ads. If it couldn't get what it wanted, it might jump ship to Android tablets and other platforms where that information was readily available.

"The important thing to remember is there are many, many tablets coming out and multiple devices," Scardino said. "If Apple are not happy to give us customer data then maybe we will get it somewhere else."

Apple has so far allowed a handful of information to go through, such as names and area codes, but is making it a strictly opt-in process that users can decline while still signing up. Publishers have vocally opposed the strategy since it creates a much less complete picture of readers, limited only to eager subscribers who wouldn't necessarily represent the majority of the reader base. Although not mentioned by Pearson's chief during the call, the 30 percent cut has also been contentious for publishers that didn't have the leeway in their business models to cede that much revenue.

The FTC is believed to be investigating Apple's policies for possible anti-competitiveness, mostly over terms that force companies to offer their best deal through iTunes and to prevent them from using any of their existing subscription systems or even acknowledging that they exist in the app.

The FT and other publications, if they refuse to accept Apple terms, are very likely to switch or stick to Android through Google's One Pass system or a method of their own. The approach hands publishers more customer information and also takes a much smaller cut of in-app purchases. They may also get a smaller but equally receptive base through the HP TouchPad. 

iPads and other Connected Devices Now Driving New Subscriber Growth at Carriers

Wireless carriers like AT&T (NYSE: T) are adding more new customers through tablet sales than smartphones, according to a new report.

Chetan Sharma’s report makes clear what was already pretty well known: interest in tablets, e-readers and other so-called “connected devices,” is growing each quarter and is even outpacing growth in smartphones, the darling of the mobile community the last several years. While it’s often easy for a new product to grow faster than a more established one, AT&T added more new customers in the fourth quarter because of tablet sales compared to smartphone sales for the fifth straight quarter, according to Sharma’s report.

And most of that is on the back of a single device: the iPad. Connected devices now make up 10 percent of AT&T’s subscription base, slightly more than the 9 percent connected-device share among Verizon’s subscribers. Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has a distinct advantage over the competition when it comes to distribution, Sharma wrote: it doesn’t have to depend on carriers to sell its tablets, with a huge network of stores and retail partners giving it more control.

Competition is heating up with the release of Google’s Honeycomb Android software, the first version of Android designed specifically for tablets. But devices like Motorola’s Xoom are just now hitting the market, whereas Apple is expected to introduce its second-generation iPad Wednesday in San Francisco. “We expect iPad to dominate the space in 2011 as competitors will find it hard to compete across all dimensions - price, performance, ecosystem, distribution, and brand power,” Sharma wrote.

Lest anyone think the smartphone era is over already, Sharma notes that 48 percent of all phones sold in the U.S. during the fourth quarter were smartphones, as opposed to 25 percent of phones sold internationally. And those smartphones are chewing through a lot more data, up 132 percent in 2010 as compared to the previous year.

Comcast releasing Xfinity TV remote control app for Android devices

After debuting on the iPad and iPhone, Comcast has finally released its Xfinity TV app for Android. Right now it only supports basic features like remote controlling cable boxes, scheduling DVR recordings and searching the VOD library but other features like video streaming to the app and tuning to VOD on the TV will be add later, just like on iOS. Unfortunately right now it's optimized for phones, according to the notes it should work on tablets too but official support isn't ready yet. Features on their way to both platforms include recommendations and better filtering of watchlists and personalized TV listings. Other than having to turn our cable box off and on at first, we got it to work without a hitch, for now it's at least one more option to use a cool new device when you can't find the regular remote -- have you looked on top of the refrigerator?

Bentley Collection iPad, iPhone, and BlackBerry casing are made of rich, non-Corinthian leather

If you'd like to give your iPad the same cosseting your posterior receives when you slot into the sport buckets in your Continental GT then you, good chap, are in luck. Bentley's "luxury leather partner" Ettinger, which ensures no surface of the vehicles is bereft of animal hide, is releasing a line of gadget cases to cover your iPad, iPhone, or BlackBerry -- though it's unclear exactly which model for the latter. Prices? You're looking at £45 for either of the phone holsters or £89 for the iPad-sized model. That's about $73 and $145, respectively, and a lot of cash for a little hide. If you're still not dissuaded there's another image of the tablet-sized version and a press release below. Those, at least, are free. 

The Daily trialing to extend for 'several more weeks'

News Corp in a talk on Wednesday confirmed some expectations that it would extend trial periods for The Daily. Publisher Greg Clayman said that users would get extensions for 'several more weeks' to help accommodate the problems with the iPad app, including "stability issues" and other unusual behavior. He argued to paidContent that some of the problems would have been difficult to address without a wide-scale test.

He also mildly critized Apple's process for handling pre-release software. Testers have to have their devices individually registered and thus can't be checked in a large enough scale. Apple also explicitly forbids marking apps as betas or otherwise unfinished in the App Store. "There are no beta apps," Clayman summarized.

Another News Corp-backed service, Hulu, had the luxury of a web-based beta test that allowed widening the scale as much as was necessary. Clayman confirmed a delay from January 19 but said it was valuable time to get the app and service polished for the release.

"We were the first subscription service and that took a minute to get right with Apple," he said.

Apple Sending Out Invites For Their March 2nd iPad Event — We’ll Be There Live!

Boom! One way or another, word of a March 2nd Apple event trickled out yesterday morning — and sure enough, the invite just hit my inbox.

Apple’s straying from their generally coy approach with this invite. There are no mysterious curtains or cryptic guitars for people to spend hours poring over in Photoshop here — they straight up put a picture of an iPad right on the invite, right behind a big ol’ number “2″.

The event will take place in San Francisco on March 2nd at 10 A.M. Pacific. We will, of course, be there live, bringing back every juicy detail at a breakneck pace.

So What Will They Announce?

As with any Apple announcement, this one is (mostly) shrouded in secrecy. With that said, when the entire world is watching and analyzing your every move, it’s more or less impossible to keep things entirely under wraps. A few leaks have sprung up here and there that give us some idea of what to expect.

iPad 2

This one’s pretty much a given, as they put an iPad right on the invite. With the rumor mill churning over the idea of an iPad 2 since just a day or two after the launch of the first, all sorts of crazy possibilities have been whispered at one point or another — but here’s what we’re expecting:

• A tapered, slimmer form factor
• A faster processor (possibly the first device to use Apple’s A5 Processor)
• The addition of both front and rear cameras
• SD Card Slot
• Improved speakers, with a new speaker grille design

The New Final Cut Pro:

Just when many were beginning to think Apple’s Final Cut Pro video editing software had been put out to pasture, we found out that Apple was actually hosting top-secret meetings with select video editors to offer them a preview of the software.

Will Apple choose to share the iPad 2′s spotlight with Final Cut Pro? Perhaps not — but with this next build of Final Cut Pro reportedly looking polished up and better than ever, there’s really no better time.

OS X 10.7 Lion Dates:

It’s been just over four months since Apple gave the world a sneak-peek at Lion, the latest in their series of big-cat-named overhauls for OS X. Over the last month or so, we’ve seen a dramatic spike in the number of folks visiting TechCrunch while running Lion. When we start to see those numbers climb, it generally means the OS X engineers a pretty far along in their testing process.

Though Apple almost undoubtedly has a trick or two hiding in Lion’s mane, we already know a solid number of its features:

• Apple’s New OS X App Store, which has been available for a few months now through Software Update, will be included out of the box
• Lots of multi-touch gestures, all built around OS X’s new Mission Control system
• Full Screen Applications
• Application home screens, much like the home screens found on the iPhone and iPad
• Apps that auto-save/auto-resume

Again, it seems unlikely that Apple would spend much time at their iPad event talking up Lion. It’s quite possible, however, that they’ll take the opportunity to announce when Lion will be available for developers to preview.

SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone & iPad been updated with video out support

If you have an iPod, iPhone or iPad with the SlingPlayer Mobile app, you now have a Slingbox to go since the app was just updated with support for video out over component cables in high quality mode. Version 2.1 also includes a few unspecified bugfixes, but we're figuring the opportunity to watch TV, on a TV in high bitrate streams is more than enough to get users mashing that update button and digging out their unused connectors.

Clayman: The Daily’s Free Trial Run Will Go On Continuing

News Corp.‘s The Daily launched Feb. 2 with a two-week free trial sponsored by Verizon, ostensibly enough time to give potential subscribers a full taste. But launch glitches that stretched out for a week kept a lot of those potential subscribers from getting a good picture of the News Corp (NSDQ: NWS) iPad app. The first update came with extensions—and now Publisher Greg Clayman tells paidContent the free trial extensions will continue for several more weeks, at least.

The endpoint for the extended free trial has yet to be determined but a decision may come this week. (Given that users are still reporting frequent crashes and glitches after the Feb.9 update, they may want to wait for another iteration.) Verizon continues as the trial sponsor.

Once the shakedown period is over, new downloads will come with 14 days free before a subscription is required. The Daily runs 99 cents a week or $39.99 a year. The trial is particularly useful because the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) subscription process allows for cancellation of automatic renewals but not early cancellations with refunds.

Even with the free trial and glitches including crashed and molasses-slow load times, subscriptions started to sell as soon as The Daily went live. In an interview at The Daily‘s offices in News Corp.‘s mid-Manhattan headquarters, Clayman wouldn’t say how many subscriptions sold the first day or since. He also won’t say how many times the app has been downloaded.

Why didn’t The Daily go public in beta like Hulu, the video JV that News Corp co-founded? Hulu was browser-based and launched as a free video portal distributing content from its equity stakeholders and other sources. The beta-launch cycle was reprised with Hulu+ last year.The Daily literally produces and publishes daily, sometimes with 100-page editions. But the biggest difference is browser versus iPad app. “There are no beta apps” in the iTunes store, says Clayman.  Once an app is published in the iTunes App Store, it’s available to everyone. Before that, it requires getting a UDID code for each beta tester’s iPad, then installing it manually.

Again, Clayman was a little coy about the numbers but said the way it had to be handled kept the sampling very small. With an online beta, a publisher can scale like Hulu did—collecting emails and scaling up in increasing waves. The small private beta also lessened the possibility that test runs would make it into the public.“We’re very much under the press microscope and anything that went online, anything that came out ... was immediately online.” (He referred to Damon Kiesow’s spotting of some examples in the code for The Daily‘s site.)

What caused the initial problems? “Stability issues,” says Clayman. “Basically a lot of usage that we hadn’t seen, a lot of people that were using it. We want to continue buffing it. I think everyone should. The best part of the interaction with our readers is going back and forth, getting a lot of feedback. We want to keep making it better.” As we talked, he took notes about various issues I raised—the way the Game Center icon pops up for Sudoku or the crossword puzzle without explanation (it’s only need to take part in a leaderboard), the lack of warning about what doesn’t work when a user is offline.

The Daily originally was slated to launch Jan.19 in San Francisco with Steve Jobs standing by Rupert Murdoch. Instead, a last-minute delay pushed it back to Feb.2; Jobs was already on medical leave so Eddy Cue did the launch honors in New York. Clayman was vague about the specific reason for the delay—my understanding at the time was a tech issue with the subscriptions in iTune—but said the delay helped. “The extra time that we had to build it was very important. We were the first subscription service and that took a minute to get right with Apple.”

Still, plans are already underway for an Android launch late next quarter; that could stretch to the second half of the year. It makes sense to develop simultaneously—but it would make little sense to go live before the iPad issues are ironed out.