Late yesterday and without so much as a well timed press release, mega-giant seller of all things on the Internet (aka Amazon.com) released the first Kindle application for the Mac. The free application works on Intel Macs running Mac OS X 10.5 and above, and is version number of 1.0.0 beta 1.

The app allows you to download Kindle books you already own and read them on your Mac. In addition, and this is a nice feature, your progress through a particular book is kept synchronized between the application, your iPhone and your Kindle. This is especially great for people like myself who often take their Kindle somewhere but not a Mac. Although, in truth, I usually take both.

The application is defiantly of the simple variety and doesn’t really offer much in the way of bells and whistles. Although, what do you really need? It allows you to read your books on your Mac, adjust the size of the fonts and it keeps track of where you stopped so you can pick the book up later on another device. Plus, did I mention it costs nothing?

This is a great step in the right direction for Amazon. It is a shame that non-Intel Mac users and those not running Leopard or better can’t enjoy the app. But given the way things are moving, maybe those people are going to go ahead and upgrade themselves with a shiny new iPad instead? Hey, with over 150K pre-orders so far, it’s a real possibility.

Speaking of the iPad. I ordered one and will have a full review once its in my hands. Until then, try out this new app from Amazon right here.

Macs are great, except for when you want to play video games on them. Instead, OSX users rejoice whenever new and exciting titles are announced for the platform, and today is no exception. Kotaku has officially confirmed that along with the Steam software, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series are coming to Mac.

“As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients,” said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. “The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services.”

This announcement has been rumored for awhile, as Mac-specific graphics were discovered in the beta files for the new Steam service last month. Valve dropped some serious hints later, with the release of some images of Valve games integrated with some familiar Mac themes.

Even more exciting is the new feature Steam Play, which will allow anyone who purchases a game on Steam for PC to download and play it for Mac, and vice versa, with no extra charge. Valve also hopes to release titles for Mac on the same day as the PC versions. The first simultaneous release for PC and Mac on Steam will be Portal 2, which was announced earlier this month.

If you’re been waiting for an excuse to use that extra $499.00 you’ve got burning a hole in your wallet, Apple may have just given you one. Today, the company announced, via their website, that it will begin shipping its brand new tablet device, the iPad, on April 3rd and will begin taking pre-orders on March 12th.

This is great news for those of you who want to take your eBook reading to the next level and also for people who never jumped on the Kindle bandwagon. It’s also great news for those of you looking for a super-sized iPhone that will run all those cool apps without having to agree to a lengthy contract with AT&T. Although, if you do want to have such a contract (and 3G wireless), the iPad with 3G will be available later in April, complete with said AT&T contract.

Even though I’ve pointed out a few things I feel the iPad is missing (although some, like the camera, may actually be there after all) I still feel there’s some merit to the device. I would be even more excited if I didn’t already have a Kindle, which I feel, as a “single use” device, is actually better for reading books than the iPad will be.

Still, the iPad definitely has a lot of possibilities and I look forward to exploring those come April 3rd. Expect a full review of the iPad once I get my hands on one. Until then, if this device is truly for you, better start saving those pennies because April 3rd isn’t that far away.

If you’ve never been to Austin, TX during South by Southwest (SXSW), let me assure you AT&T’s network pretty much sucks during the fest. Sure, it has something to do with the sheer number of users concentrated all in one place but still, that doesn’t make it any better. So, to prevent a repeat of last years’s problems (To put it mildly) AT&T is going overboard to ensure a similar wireless network debacle doesn’t happen again this year.

To avoid a second such disaster, AT&T is pulling out all the stops (Well, most of them anyway) and bringing in a lot of additional equipment for the SXSW conference including:

• Bringing in three temporary cell sites that are positioned in areas expected to see high traffic.

• Installing a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) at the Austin Convention Center. The DAS is comprised of 50 antenna nodes that provide the equivalent coverage of eight cell sites.

• Improving the cell sites in the surrounding area by utilizing 30MHz of spectrum for 3G instead of the standard 10MHz and upgrading the system to include the 850MHz band and HSPA.

• Improving the backhaul by beefing up the fiber optic connections that serve the eight cell sites of the DAS and the three temporary sites.

These all seems like great steps in the right direction for the company but still, you have to wonder if it will be enough. Even with AT&T’s recent victory in a PC World survey of network performance, many of us who use the network every day haven’t really seen much of a difference. It still kinda sucks.

When you’ve got thousands of power users with iPhones all in one square mile and all trying to use the network at the same time, will it be able to handle the load or will it fail once again? I guess we’ll find out next week. Any bets?

With the idea of Hulu coming to the iPhone still a distant pipe dream, other services on the device seem to be closer to reality than we thought. Netflix, which is slowly but surely becoming the leading company in online movie and DVD rentals, has put out some feelers on their site to see if fans would be interested in a streaming service for the iPhone. From a survey on Netflix.com:

“Imagine that Netflix offers its subscribers the ability to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on their iPhone. The selection availability to instantly watch includes some new releases, lots of classics and TV episodes. There are no advertisements or trailers, and movies start in as little as 30 seconds. You can fast-forward, rewind, and pause or watch again. The movies & TV episodes you instantly watch are included in your Netflix membership for no additional fee.

Whenever you want to instantly watch content on your iPhone, your iPhone must be connected to a Wi-Fi network (such as one you might have at home or at work, or in public places like coffee shops, book stores, hotels, airports, etc.)

If this functionality were available, how likely would you or someone in your household be to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on your iPhone via a Wi-Fi network?”

So what could this mean? Is it just a ruse? With Netflix allegedly having an exclusive streaming deal with Xbox Live, this could mean that we won’t see anything on the iPhone for another year, but with the Apple iPad hitting stores in the coming months, that may be just enough time for us to be ready.

What are your thoughts on Netflix streaming on the iPhone or iPad? Would you use it? Comment below and let us know!

It’s Tuesday so that must mean it’s a day for lawsuits, at least where Apple, Inc. is concerned. Case in point, our favorite fruit flavored technology company is suing hardware maker HTC for infringement of 20 patents concerning the iPhone user interface and its hardware and architecture. The lawsuit was filed with the U.S. International Trade Comission and in the U.S. District Court of Deleware.

Steve Jobs himself had this to say about the lawsuit: “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Jobs. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.” Yeah, he seems a bit miffed about the whole thing.

Although the Google Nexus One is not mentioned specifically in the lawsuit and HTC does make several other Android handsets, some could argue the touchscreen models interface does look quite a bit like the iPhone’s. Still, “quite a bit” does not necessarily a lawsuit make. Could it just be a bit of posturing to warn others away from trying to steal Apple’s ideas or to slow down the progress Android is making in the marketplace? Maybe.

Apple has the right to defend it’s ideas and the cash to try and punish those it deems responsible for stealing said ideas. However, I was kinda hoping to get my hands on a Nexus One when it is released for Verizon. I hope this lawsuit doesn’t hold that up. Neither HTC nor Google has issued a statement yet concerning the lawsuit.

Even though Apple won’t be attending this year’s Macworld Expo at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, that isn’t stopping organizers IDG from having one. This year, in what they are calling ‘The Start of a new Era” the organizers have assembled a host of great speakers, panels and events for Apple and Mac enthusiasts everywhere.

Some of the highlights of the event include an evening with David Pogue, Q&A with writer/director Kevin Smith, the 20th anniversary of Photoshop event, Macworld Magizine’s “Best of Show” awards and a hands-on demo of Apple’s latest product, the iPad.

The Show Floor opens Thursday: 12:00pm to 6:00pm

Thursday’s Highlights:

Late Night with David Pogue – Join New York Times’ Columnis David Pogue for song parodies, surprise guests, jokes at Apple’s expense, and a lot of geeking out.
9:00am – 10:00am

See the Best New Products First

11:00am – 12:00pm
Q&A with Kevin Smith – filmmaker and director of Clerks, Chasing Amy, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. The conversation, sure to be lively, wry and irreverent, will give Macworld attendees a special opportunity to engage with Smith as he answers audience questions – nothing is off limits!
2:00pm – 3:00pm

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Today, the Apple Store went down, as it often does, and amid speculation that new core i5 and i7 MacBook Pros would be announced, when the store came back Apple instead dropped a comprehensive update of Aperture, its flagship image editing software, on us. The latest version, cleverly dubbed Aperture 3, brings many of the features users love from iPhoto ‘09 and adds them to Aperture’s new, improved software set and tools.

According to Apple, the latest version of Aperture includes over 200 new features such as:

• Organization using Faces and Places
• Brand new Brushes that let you paint effects on images,
• Full 64-bit support for Snow Leopard
• Improved image adjustments with more “fine tuning”
• Facebook and Flickr uploading

Apple has a free 30-day trial or you can buy the latest version for U.S. $199.00, and upgrades are available for any existing Aperture users for U.S. $99.00.

With the Academy Awards just around the corner, it’s always fun to make predictions as to who the winners might be. To help you in this, and promote its Oscar-related content, Vanity Fair magazine is launching a free iPhone app that will allow you to make your picks for all the awards and receive realtime results on the night of the show.

Of course, you can also invite friends to vote for the people you think have the best chance of winning, compare your selections to friends and the Vanity Fair editors, and chat via the app the app in Facebook. On Oscar night, the app will show you who is winning from your picks.

The app also offers access to Vanity Fair’s content including background information on nominees, stories, photos, profiles, trailers of nominated films, and slideshows. Hey, they gotta pay for the app somehow, right? With some much hype surrounding the Oscars, its nice to see an app that caters to the most important aspect of the night: who’s gonna take home the golden statue.

If you check out the app, tell us what you think in the comments. Also, after the break, we’ve included a little video that helps you understand Vanity Fair’s vision for this app and a little more on how to use it. So check that out too.

The Academy Awards take place on Sunday, March 7 at 8/5P on ABC.

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Got an iPhone or an iPod Touch? If so, it’s time to connect them to iTunes to get the latest version of Apple’s operating system for these devices. This latest version, dubbed 3.1.3, addresses a number of issues including the following:

CoreAudio
Playing a maliciously crafted mp4 audio file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

ImageIO
Viewing a maliciously crafted TIFF image may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution

Recovery Mode
A person with physical access to a locked device may be able to access the user’s data

WebKit
Accessing a maliciously crafted FTP server could result in an unexpected application termination, information disclosure, or arbitrary code execution

WebKit
When WebKit encounters an HTML 5 Media Element pointing to an external resource, it does not issue a resource load callback to determine if the resource should be loaded. This may result in
undesired requests to remote servers. As an example, the sender of an HTML-formatted email message could use this to determine that the message was read.

The update also offers the requisite “stability and usability enhancements.” Confused? Don’t worry, just update and things will be fine. Although, if you’re worried, you could wait a couple days to see if this latest update breaks something else, which sometimes happens. For more on this update, visit Apple’s Security Update site.