With both Mothers Day and a birthday in the family this weekend, I didn't have time to compile my usual weekly column. But there are a few things I'd like to comment on and draw your attention to. So let's dive right in.

Podcasts

We've changed up the format of iPhone & iPad Live so that we're talking about less, but talking about it more in-depth. We'd gotten a bunch of feedback about this over the last few months, with many viewers and listeners saying there was just too much news and not enough analysis, too many app mentions and not enough opinion or discussion about how we use them, too many accessories and not enough comparisons. Well, we listened. Now we have one, more in-depth spotlight topic each week and a couple of discussion points. We're still tweaking things, so please keep the feedback coming. (Due to popular demand, we're going to start featuring your feedback on the show as well -- so if you haven't left a comment on last week's episode yet, get to it!)

Speaking of podcasts, the feedback on ZEN and TECH lately has been off the charts (special thanks to the blogging community who've told us how much they like it). The world we live in is more stressful than ever, and Georgia is by far the best in the business at helping people center their inner geek and deal with their connected lives. If you haven't watched or listened lately, do yourself a favor and watch or listen now. It can literally change your life for the better.

Last but certainly not least, we had Loren Brichter on Iterate this week. He created Tweetie which became the original Twitter for iPhone, and is still Twitter for iPad and Twitter for Mac. He also invented pull-to-refresh. Yeah. Genius. Give him a listen.

Rumors

iMore is really careful about rumors because we really value your attention. We're not a rumor site -- we're an enthusiast site. 9 out of 10 times we'll just link to rumors posted on rumor sites. A few times a year, however, we're fortunate to get some really good information about upcoming Apple products, and we're able to check into it and determine it's really good information. Like the iPhone 4S and the new iPad. It's never all the details, so sometimes we misunderstand pieces (i.e. we heard quad-core for the new iPad, and it turned out to be specifically quad-core graphics, not CPU), but overall the info we've gotten has been rock solid. Here's hoping last week was no different.

• 7-inch iPad on track for October 2012 release, $200 to $250 price: Apple doesn't want to leave any room for Amazon in the lower-end tablet space.
• iPhone 5 to be another Google killer -- but with a twist: A new Apple-powered Maps app in iOS 6 might just be the tip of the iceberg.
• iPhone 5 design still not finalized, still no big screen, still no metal back, still on track for October release: Despite some recent rumors to the contrary, we've heard Apple hasn't settled on a widescreen display or metal back yet.

Features

Some great stuff this week:

• Jailbreak concepts Apple should implement in iOS 6 by Ally Kazmucha. Last year Apple took Notification Center, Wi-Fi sync, and more from jailbreak. What should they take this year?
• Is there a future for jailbreak? by Ally Kazmucha. On the flip side, if Apple keeps Sherlocking jailbreak, is there a future left for it?
• Weekly Photo Contest: Black and White! by Leanna Lofte. She's been showing you how to build your iPhone photography skills, and here's your chance to wins some prizes.
• iOS 6: The opposite of widgets by yours truly. Rather than having widgets that take information from apps and splay it on the Home screen, we want that info inside other apps.
• SkyDrive vs. Dropbox vs. Google Drive: best cloud storage option for iPhone and iPad users by Ally Kazmucha. Whether you're new to cloud storage or simply want to check out other options, here's your breakdown.

And the stylus showdown begins:

• SGP Kuel H12 stylus for iPad review by Georgia. Your best bet for long-form note-taking.
• Adonit Jot Pro stylus for iPad review by Georgia. What you want if you're a technical artist.
• Wacom Bamboo Stylus review by Georgia. An okay stylus but not as good or as cheap as the pro-level competition.

Keep an eye out for a pro-stylus battle royal on iMore TV this week!

Watching iPad Live, iPhone Live, or any of the other Mobile Nations Podcasts on your iPhone or iPad is kinda cool, but what's really cool is watching them on your big screen TV. Luckily, with just an Apple TV, an app, and a few taps, it's easy to do. Here's how:

1. Grab the Ustream app for your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad
2. Wait for one of our shows to begin and search for MobileNations in the Ustream app
3. Hit the AirPlay button and beam it straight to your AppleTV

That's it! Crack open a spicy drink, grab a tasty snack, and enjoy! We'll see you on the big shows!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com.

Whatever changes Apple has been making to the iTunes Store back end lately seems to have caused iTunes app on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad to stream some podcasts as music samples, rather than handing them off to the built-in media player like they're supposed to.

We've tested and everything seems fine and working properly for all of our TiPb podcasts like iPhone Live or iPad Live, or ZENandTECH, Superfunctional, or Iterate, or any of the Mobile Nations podcasts for that matter.

However, shows on other networks like 5by5 and TWiT do seem to be experiencing the problem, and it's annoying to say the least. So what can be done?

First, huge props to Rene -- whatever he's doing to edit and upload our podcasts seems to be immune to this annoying iTunes bug. Second, iTunes on iPhone and iPad is an app wrapper around online content, so Apple can change things any time, without having to give you a new version of iOS to update to, or giving you a choice to update (yeah, pretty much my nightmare scenario). Fortunately, this also means they can fix bugs any time as well. So here's where we stand:

Bug symptoms

• You click on a podcast in the iTunes app on the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad
• Instead of the media player coming up and your podcast playing, the little square music sample player pops up
• This means you don't get full play/pause and other controls, you don't get the timeline, and you can't resume where you left off later

Bug fixes

• Download your podcasts instead of streaming them (you'll need to be on Wi-Fi if they're over 20 MB)
• Sync your podcasts over from iTunes desktop
• Get a podcatcher app from the App Store and use that to stream
• Wait for Apple to update

Seth and Rene have mentioned Instacast App Store link and Pocket Casts App Store link on past shows, but if you have a favorite podcatcher app you could recommend, please do so in the comments. Also, if you've found any other workaround, please let us know!

[Thanks Len!]

around with it -- like they have been recently for downloads and category pages -- y

We haven't been able to prove this ourselves yet, but we recently received several tips from regular podcast listeners, all on iOS 5 beta 3, who say they began listening to one of our shows using the Music (formerly iPod) app on iPhone and then went to continue listening later on their iPad, only to find it automagically began playing right where they left it.

We're going to run a bunch of tests as soon as we can. iCloud already does this for iBooks, so if Apple is rolling it out across all media, we'll finally be able to scratch another of our outstanding wants off the list.

(If you've experimented with this at all, let us know the results.)

iCatcher! is a podcast application for iPhone and iPad that downloads your podcasts in the background. It was recently updated so that downloaded podcast episodes are now available through the iTunes File Sharing option.

• Keep track of all of your podcast subscriptions
• Set schedules for when each one typically comes out
• Download over WiFi, 3G or Edge and in the background (on supported devices)
• Search in all views to find that podcast or episode you are looking for.
• Play audio in the background on supported iOS devices
• Custom playlists that allow you to select podcasts and/or keywords to view your downloaded episodes.
• Custom playlists now allow you to exclude podcasts.
• All device orientations supported with configurable option in the settings.
• Universal App, works on all of your iOS 4.0+ devices
• Full retina display support
• While in a playlist you can see the total time remaining and watch it count down while a podcast is playing.
• You can unsubscribe to podcasts and still have them on your device. Use that for those less than stellar podcasts!
• Now with full VoiceOver support
• Support for Password Protected feeds
• Support for continuous playback within custom playlists (on by default).

iCatcher! is available as a universal app for iPhone and iPad and is priced at $1.99. Screenshots after the break.

[iTunes link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Audiopress for iPhone is an amazing little app that will let you aggregate all of your podcasts, live radio, and pretty much any news audio into one easy to use app.  It also allows for background audio so you can start playing a podcast within the app, close it out, and continue browsing or doing whatever you'd like while it streams in the background.  Podcasts can quickly start taking up a lot of space on your device if you're bad about deleting them (which I am), so streaming them may be a much better option for those of you who'd like to save space on your device.  Hit the jump for more info and a promo video!

[iTunes Link]

Just like you can create categories for your RSS feeds, you can create playlists within Audiopress. If you want your tech streams separate, you can create one for that and another for business or whatever other categories that interest you. One feature I particularly liked is when you go to listen to a podcast, it also shows you a list of previous podcasts from that feed.

You can also choose to search categories within Audiopress and find new podcasts and radio streams to listen to. I found a couple that looked interesting to me that I've become a regular listener. Before Audiopress, I'm not sure I would have ever taken the time to dig through iTunes or online radio streams to find more podcasts. So for those of you looking for something to get you more into podcasting or if you need help finding more content to listen to, this may be a good choice for you.

The app also supports Facebook integration, so if you've got a Facebook account, you can skip the sign-up and just link your Facebook account instead.

Pros

• Facebook integration makes signing up easy

• Search and suggestions have quite a few sources to choose from for an app being so new to the App Store

• Podcasts show all previous episodes as well, making it easy for catching up on episodes you have have missed

• Playlists are extremely easy to make and build

Cons

• An iPad version would be welcome

• AudioArticles not available (yet)

YouTube Link

The new Apple TV is famously streaming-only but with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad you can still choose between downloading certain types of media to your local device or streaming them straight from the internet.

This pertains mostly to audio and video podcasts either in the iTunes Store app or right inside Safari from a direct, iOS-friendly link, but it struck me when reviewing Apple TV (2010) just how little I actually download any more.

A year ago I subscribed to tons of podcasts in iTunes and synced them over to my iPhone and original Apple TV. Today I sync almost nothing. I haven'd downloaded a podcast in months.

When I see in RSS or Twitter a new episode of a podcast I listen to or watch is available, I just hit the link and start streaming, and iOS 4's background music API is solid enough that I seldom have to worry about downloading it. It mostly -- though not always -- remembers my place when I come back to it the next day or even the next week and just keeps right on streaming.

Sure, it uses 3G data and depending on your plan and network reliability that might be a deal-breaker but for me, not having to remember to sync content over and being able to pull something up and just listen on demand is killer.

How about you, do you still download or sync podcasts onto your iPhone or iPad?

iTunes 10 is here, we've been using it for a while, and now we've got a complete walkthrough for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users. If you're new to iTunes 10, especially if you're new to iOS devices, we'll help you get up and running quickly. If you're already an expert, well here's a guide you can send your new user friends and family. Let's get started, after the break.

If you haven't downloaded iTunes 10, you can do so from Apple.com. Once it's installed, plug in your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to get started.

Summary/Info

The Summary section is helpful for checking on updates for your iOS device and restoring it if you run into problems. You can also configure some preferences such as syncing automatically when you plug-in your device. If you use a service like Apple's MobileMe, you won't have to do much on the Info section, but if you don't sync over the air, you can choose/manage what to sync over here such as Contacts, Calendar and Bookmarks.

New Color Bars

When you plug in your iOS device you will notice a colored bar at the very bottom labeled "Capacity". This bar is not a new feature to iTunes 10, but it is a tweaked one. It is divided into colors showing you what you have stored on your device by Audio, Video, Photos, Apps, Books, Other and Free space. If you click in the colored space it will cycle you through few options. Click it once and it will list you how many items you have in each respective category. Next it will break down the data into volume such as days and hours. Last, the display will show you the storage taken up by each category. Depending where you begin clicking this sequence may be in a different order, but it is still quite useful.

Managing Apps

iTunes 10 brings a couple of welcome changes to how iOS devices manage apps- especially if you have an iPhone/iPod Touch and an iPad. On the Apps section of iTunes on your device you have a filter that is probably default sorted by Kind. This places the iPhone and iPod Touch apps at the top and iPad apps at the bottom. You have more filters such as Name and Category, but the really useful choice is "iPad Only". This selection only displays iPad apps for your iPad. Regretfully, iTunes does not save this filtered selection and the next time you plug in your iOS device, it gets reset to Kind.

You also have a check box at the bottom of the screen that allows you to automatically install new apps. This option works great for me, but not my wife. With this checkbox checked, she gets every app I have downloaded installed on her device. An easy way around this is to go to the preview screen to the right in iTunes and select the last screen. This is typically where new apps will go (unless you have a lot of gapping spaces on your home screen). You can delete the app by hovering over it and clicking the X in the top left corner of the app. You can also remove any other app while you are at it. Be careful though, most apps don't store their info in the cloud yet, so if you delete it, the data might go with it too.

If you have an .ipa file (Apple's app format) you can drag and drop those files to the Apps section in iTunes located in the upper left.

File Sharing

Do you have an app such as Apple iWork Pages that you would like to get some documents installed? Piece of cake. Scroll to the bottom of the Apps section in iTunes for your app device and you will see the Apps and Document area. Click on the app you want and you will see an available list of documents currently synced to that app. If you want to add more documents, click the Add... button, browse to the document(s) and click Choose. If you want to save a document from the selected application, select it and click Save to... to place it on a folder on your computer. Here is an easy tip; of you want to save multiple files from an app or all of them, click the first document then hold the Shift key and click the last document. This selects all of them. Now you can save all of the documents to your computer. You can also Ctrl (PC) and the Apple Key (Mac) to select just the apps you want when clicking on them.

Music

Getting music on your iPhone/iPod Touch or iPad has never been easier. You can choose to sync your entire music library (it won't fit on my device... my library is too big). Or pick your favorite Artists, Genres, Playlists an Albums.

Do you have a lot of music videos? I do, but I don't want to sync all of my videos; that can take up precious space. To still get music videos on your  iOS device but not all of them, create a playlist in iTunes and drag the music videos you want onto it. Make sure the Include Music Videos checkbox is checked and you are ready to Rock and Roll, so to speak.

Movies/TV Shows/Podcasts/iTunes U

These sections all work relatively the same way. Select played or unplayed content to sync or a playlist. You can even choose more robust choices like the most recent episode that has been downloaded but not played. Yikes, but it is useful so you don't get redundant content on your device.

Books

Photos

If you use iPhoto or Aperture you can sync those events and projects to your iOS device. On the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch with Retina Displays pictures looks very good. They are also fun to view on the iPad with its huge display. If you really like someone, you can even use the Faces feature and sync over just specific people; that is just too cool. If you own a PC you can sync directly from a folder.

Ping

Ah, the only really "new" feature in iTunes 10 for iOS devices (except for iPad running 3.2, gotta wait till 4.2 folks) is Ping, Apple's new social network for music. You can access Ping directly from iTunes via the Ping button from the desktop and iPhone/iPod Touch.

I really enjoy Ping. You can follow other artists, like and post songs and albums. Strangely you can only do this with music, not Audiobooks or Podcasts. I am betting in the future you will be able to.

Conclusion

Apple today announced that iTunes U, their podcast-like catalog for higher education audio and video, has surpassed 300 million downloads:

Over 800 universities throughout the world have active iTunes U sites, and nearly half of these institutions distribute their content publicly on the iTunes Store®. New content has just been added from universities in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico and Singapore, and iTunes users now have access to over 350,000 audio and video files from educational institutions around the globe.

“iTunes U makes it easy for people to discover and learn with content from many of the world’s top institutions,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “With such a wide selection of educational material, we’re providing iTunes users with an incredible way to learn on their computer, iPhone, iPod or iPad.”

If you haven't already, be sure to check out Steve Jobs' 2005 commencement speech [iTunes], and if you're a developer, the Stanford iPhone development series [iTunes].

What are some of your favorites?

[Apple PR]

I mentioned this during the iPhone live! #100 podcast, but iPhone OS 4 has taken a huge leap forward when it comes to streaming audio via the iTunes app. Since iPhone OS 2.2 you've been able to tap the title of a podcast to begin streaming (rather than downloading) the audio, even in the background while using other apps, but it was sometimes hit or miss. It would drop out, it would time out, you couldn't really scrub through it, and if you left it for a while it would lose its place and start over.

In iPhone OS 4 it's rock solid. You can scrub and it re-buffers and keeps playing flawlessly. You can stop it and come back hours or even days later -- even after using the iTunes app to search for other things or the iPod app to play different audio -- and it still knows where you left off and starts playing again instantly without missing a beat.

It's so good you may find you no longer download or sync podcasts but just stream what you want to listen to. (If they let you "subscribe" and receive notifications of when a new podcast appeared in the feed, it would be perfect).

Maybe this is architecturally laying the underpinnings for a grander Apple streaming service, or maybe they just wanted this app to work great for this functionality. Either way, iTunes streaming audio in iPhone OS 4 is a significant improvement.

Instead of the iPhone's built-in iPod app sorting podcasts chronologically up or down (newest to oldest, or oldest to newest), iPhone 3.1 users are seeing... no logical sequence that can be made sense of. Indeed, some of you let us know because the lack of order made you think your podcasts weren't updating at all. Rest assured, it's not you.

To be clear: You're not out of order. Apple's out of order! All these [redacted] podcasts are out of order!

If you're having the same random podcast listings -- or better yet, if you've come up with a solution or work around that's better than just hunting for the blue "new" dot -- let us know in the comments.

[Thanks to everyone who brought this to our attention]

In iPhone OS 2.x, we bemoaned the seemingly useless nature of the repeat and buttons when it came to podcast playback. They just sort of hung around, like guests who were welcome when the music was playing, but just wouldn't leave when the party was over.

Now, in iPhone 3.0, Apple has replaced them with an email icon on the left hand side, and a speed counter on the right hand side. The email icon supposedly allows you to send an iTunes Link for the podcast (similar to how you could previously email YouTube video links).

The speed indicator on the other hand, shows x1 during regular playback, and we presume it might show x2 etc. during fast forward. (Apple has allowed you to "speed up" talk-heavy content like Audio Books for a long time).

Where the Genius button would be on music tracks, we now have a circular backwards arrow with a 30 in the middle, which we figure allows you to jump back in 30 second intervals.

Variable media scrubbing now lets you put your finger on the position indicator at the top, the buttons change to a text message reading "Slide your finger down to adjust the scrubbing rate." Slide your finger down the screen and the speed that you scrub changes. Displayed in place of the track info, options so far include half speed, quarter speed, and a fine grain speed.

Since accurately going to a location on a podcast prior to 3.0 was difficult at best, these look to be excellent enhancements.

Anything else we're looking for from Apple for Podcasts?

Apple has put up a special iTunes page showing off the top free and top paid apps of 2008. In addition to the overall standings, Apps are also broken out according to categories like Games, Entertainment, Music, Utilities, and Social Networks.

Koi Pond leads the paid apps while Facebook owns the free. To see the complete list, head on over to iTunes.

For more, also check out Top Music, Movies, Podcasts, and Audiobooks for iTunes 2008. (And while you're at it, consider adding Phone different and iPhone Live! to your feeds for 2009 )

(via Macworld)

Hot on the heels of all the iPhone 2.2 firmware Beta 2 goodness from Google, which included Street-View, Transit and Walking Directions, and Location Sharing, comes word on a couple more features for us to rumor over. TUAW says:

A tipster shared with us some screenshots of the new firmware, including what appears to be the ability to download podcasts directly to your iPhone (and presumably your iPod touch)

TUAW says this could explain Apple's rejection of PodCaster, but an explanation still does not a justification make. Still, this would be awesome functionality for those who don't always have a chance to tether and sync for their podcasts. We're guessing it will still be limited to WiFi only, however, like the iTunes store, to limit carrier data load for 50MB+ sound files -- and even them will the (typically much larger) video podcasts be enabled?

MacRumors (via iPhoneHellas), meanwhile, shows off a new alert box that asks users deleting an application to rate it prior to deletion. Valuable metrics, or Just Another Annoying Pop-up?