Big day for Apple and the education market today as our favorite fruit-flavored tech company revealed at an event in New York City that it will, as we discussed last week, be getting into the textbook publishing business in a big way. Apple’s VP of marketing Phil Schiller announced several new components of the initiative including iTunes U as a separate iOS app, which gives users of Apple’s new iBooks 2 iOS app access to textbooks from several top publishers to be read on the iPad.

The new textbooks are modern and interactive instead of plain old paper. They support multitouch gestures and also feature dictionary look-up integration and annotation. Students can even highlight text, take notes and create virtual note cards to reference later while studying. Wish this was around when I was in school.

At launch, high school-level textbooks are available in the iBookstore and priced at $14.99 or less. Expect more textbooks to come along in the near future. The first group of publishers with textbooks available for the iPad include Pearson, McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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With the popularity of smartphones like the iPhone and myriad of Android-powered handsets, one of the things users love to do is take and share photos with friends and family. One of the best apps for doing this when using the iPhone is Instagram.

This app allows you to take a photo, manipulate it if you choose and then upload it to your photo stream for all to see. People can then subscribe to your photo stream and view your photos on their devices. Or, you can upload them to Twitter, Facebook or Flickr.

It’s extremely popular on the iPhone (many of us here use it, in fact) but so far, it’s only been available for iOS devices. Apparently, that’s not going to be the case much longer.

Speaking during the LeWeb conference in Paris this week, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom confirmed that an Android version of the company’s popular iOS application is coming soon. ”We have two people working on Android now,” Systrom said.

I know what you’re thinking. Two people doesn’t sound like very many. However, keep in mind that the whole company probably isn’t that much bigger and has been exclusively an iOS app since launch.

No launch date was forthcoming from Systrom but we expect to see the Android version of Instagram sometime early next year.

Let’s face it, there’s a lot of apps out there for the iPad and iPhone. Many of them are even useful and, on occasion, fun to use. You can add Flipboard to that list.

In case you haven’t tried it yet, Flipboard is a very popular magazine-style news application which, up until today, was available only for the iPad. Now, those of you who want the same experience on your iPhone or, for some reason, don’t have an iPad yet, can now enjoy Flipboard on your iPhone because it’s now available.

The app allows users to flip through a single feed of articles and photos that have been shared across various social networks. It can also display stories from a variety of news categories including technology, design, “Flipboard picks,” photography, business, sports, style, travel, food and more.

It’s a great app that really helps you digest a lot of information quickly and easily and does it inside a very user-friendly interface. It’s definitely worth checking out.

Flipboard for iPhone is free and available in the App Store now.

As owners and users of all sorts of Apple gear, we understand that others who don’t “get it” could misunderstand our love for all-things Apple. So, in the interest of presenting some counter-points to our Apple fanboy/girl nature, we’ve got this video from Samsung that sheds some light on those that don’t use Apple’s gear.

The video pokes fun at the Apple faithful and how we buy whatever Apple is selling, regardless of how good (or bad) it is. This video is actually an ad for the Samsung Galaxy S II, which is billed as the free thinker’s alternative to Apple’s iPhone “sheep.”

Of course, the add fails to mention that Apple’s most recent iPhone, the 4S, has pretty much flown off shelves and is the biggest selling smartphone of all time. I guess that point didn’t make it past the ad guys and gals at Samsung. Why mention the truth, right?

It’s always fun when those at the bottom pick on those at the top. Let the fun continue after the break.

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Apple on Thursday (or today if you’re reading this, well, on Thursday) released iOS 5.0.1 for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. This update reportedly fixes a number of issues with the operating system.

According to Apple, the update fixes bugs affecting battery life, adds Multitasking Gestures for the original iPad, resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud and improves voice recognition for Australian users using dictation. Actually, I’m pretty happy about that last one as the Australian Siri really had a hard time understanding me.

iOS 5.0.1 is compatible with iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, iPod touch (4th generation) and iPod touch (3rd generation). To install the update, launch the Settings app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, tap General, and then open Software Update.

You can also update the old fashioned way by syncing your device with iTunes. Let us know how it goes if you do update.

Once the dominant player in the mobile and web content delivery space, Adobe’s Flash has seen quite a backlash against it in recent years. In truth, tt was always kind of a pain, at least for me, made websites look pretty ugly and often hogged system resources on my Macs to the point of crashing the entire system.

But the beginning of the end was probably Apple and then CEO Steve Jobs’ staunch refusal to include Flash on any of its iOS devices, including the iPhone and iPad. At the time some commented that Apple was making a big mistake in not including Flash on its devices. Now it looks like those people may have to reconsider their opinions.

According to reports, Adobe says it will “no longer adapt” the once-dominant program for handling multimedia and animation on computers and mobile devices. In an email to developers Adobe added that it will “continue to support the current Android and PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates.”

Previously, former Apple CEO Steve Jobs led the opposition to the program, which he said in 2010 was “unreliable, vulnerable to hacking, a battery hog, and gave Adobe too much power over the services that could be offered on mobile devices.” Besides, power over mobile devices was his job, not Adobe’s. I kid, I kid. Much love to Steve.

At the time, Apple, Google, and Microsoft said they preferred an open system: the pretty cool and easy to use HTML5. However, in spite of this, Flash survived and was incorporated on Google Android and BlackBerry smartphones — until now. Although, having used a few Android phones with Flash enabled, it was still pretty much a POS.

However, now it looks like even Adobe has seen the proverbial writing on the wall and has decided to end mobile Flash and concentrate on HTML 5. Smart move. A bit late, but smart nonetheless. Now let’s hope they end up killing Flash altogether and we never, ever have to see it again.

Ok music creation fans who don’t have iPads, your time has come. That’s right, Apple has today official dropped the Garage Band app for iPhone and iPod Touch.

As you probably know, prior to today, it was only available for OS X-running Macs and on the iPad. But no more. Now you can compose the next great song while sitting in the waiting room of your doctor’s office or on the toilet. Just be sure to use headphones . . and wash your hands.

“GarageBand on iPad has been a big hit and we think customers will love using it on their iPhone or iPod touch,” Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing Philip Schiller said. “The innovative Multi-Touch interface combined with Smart Instruments makes it easy to create great sounding music, even if you’ve never studied music or played an instrument before.”

GarageBand is available in iTunes for $4.99 to new users or for free to those who already own the app on an iPad. It is supported by the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and the third and fourth-generation iPod touch. Click through for the full press release from Apple.

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Anyone that’s been to a department store in the past two weeks has noticed that Halloween decorations and costumes were only shadowed by the overwhelming Christmas and holiday products taking over the shelves. We here at The Flickcast are taking that as a cue to start our famous Holiday Gift Guide leading up through the holiday shopping season.

One of the main categories for most guys (and gals) this holiday season is something to go along with their nifty iPod or iPhone. That’s where the world of Apple sound and science fiction find a nice home in Speakal’s new iKurve starship-like docking station & speaker station.

The image above gives you the money shot of how cool this space-age looking speaker can really be. It’s not just for looks, however, the device also has some pretty great features that will make this the only docking station and sound system you’ll need moving forward.

You can currently get this bad boy in black at Speakal’s website for $79.99, with a bunch of different colors on the way later down the road. Check out the complete list of features for this guy after the jump, and grab it while its hot this holiday season!

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If you have a shiny new iPhone 4S as some of us do here at The Flickcast and you’ve experienced less-than-stellar battery life, this will be of interest to you. There’s been a few reports around the Internets, and elsewhere, that the iPhone 4S’s battery life leaves something to be desired.

Sure, it could have to do with the fact that it features a faster processor or that Siri is a bit power hungry. Or, as was postulated by the folks at iDownloadBlog, it could be the iPhone 4S’s Time Zone service that’s causing the problem.

Reportedly, a bug in iOS 5 (which ships on all iPhone 4S units) forces its location tracking feature to remain active much more than necessary which drains the phone’s battery far more quickly. Users can manually turn off the automatic time zone setting by going to Settings > General > Date & Time. Once there, toggling “Set Automatically” to “Off.”

We’ve tried this “fix” on a couple of our own devices and so far it doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. That said, and this is in no way scientific, we tend to get pretty much the advertised battery life on our iPhone 4S units. So, maybe it’s actually a hardware problem on some units and not software after all? Or, perhaps it’s a carrier issue as our iPhone 4S units are all using Verizon and not AT&T?

Whatever the issue, Apple is usually pretty fast to issue a fix for these problems so expect to see one sooner rather than later. In the meantime, let us know if you try this “fix” and what your results are, if any.

Even though most of us who upgrades to Apple’s new iPhone 4S are loving our new devices, according to reports there’s a potential threat to our happiness lurking just under the surface. Now, before you get too worried, this “threat” requires a specific set of circumstances most users will never encounter.

However, if  you happen to leave your iPhone 4S in a cab, for example, the person who finds it can potentially access your address book, appointments and more by using Siri, even if your iPhone 4S is locked with a passcode. That’s right, even if it’s locked.

However, all is not lost and there’s a simple fix for this issue. To prevent someone from accessing Siri and your info while the iPhone 4S is locked, simply go to Settings> General> Passcode Lock. Once there toggle the option for “Allow access to Siri when locked with a passcode” to Off.

The iPhone 4S will now require the the phone to be unlocked before it allows access to Siri. There, problem solved.

Don’t you wish all problems could be solved this easily?

Even with all the hype and attention Apple gets for its product launches (yes, we love the iPhone 4S and iOS 5), we can’t forget the other smartphones out there. In fact, one of the most popular “other” operating systems, besides Apple’s iOS, powering some of the most innovative smartphones is, of course, Google’s Android platform.

Now Google has taken the wraps of of its brand new version of Android, known as Android 4.0 or “Ice Cream Sandwich” during a press event in Hong Kong yesterday. The software was revealed next to the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Nexus, a smartphone we’re looking forward to checking out.

Android 4.0 combines many of the tablet features already available in Android 3.x (Honeycomb) with the smartphone features available in Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). It will power both tablets and smartphones, and it offers several enhancements.

Some of these include the ability to unlock an Ice Cream Sandwich device using face recognition. Android 4.0 also has a new cleaner “Roboto” typeface and an extensive UI makeover.

The lock screen in Android 4.0 can be used to quickly unlock the phone or launch the camera, and users can also access notifications directly. “Back,” “Home” and “Menu” are now part of the Android virtual user interface and hardware buttons are no longer needed.

We could go on about the new OS but instead, we’ve gonna let Google’s own video tell the story. Click through for it after the break.

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For those of your doubting the demand for the new iPhone 4S and decrying it’s inevitable failure, we say it’s now time for you to stop hating Apple and realize that they know precisely what they’re doing. How can we be sure?

Apple has just announced that the company sold over 4 Million iPhone 4S handsets during the first weekend they were on sale. You can count some of us here at The Flickcast in that number too — especially Mr. Ullrich, who seems to get all the cool toys.

That’s more than double the amount when the iPhone 4 was lunched last year. Additionally, Apple says that over 25 million customers are already using iOS 5, and over 20 million have signed up for iCloud.

Apple is planning on launching the iPhone 4S in more than 90 countries by the end of the year, and has launched the device in 7 countries so far. So, you can imagine what its eventual sales figures will be.

Can you say astronomical? We can. And so can Apple.

Click through for the full press release from Apple. Have you picked up your iPhone 4S yet? If so, what’s you favorite feature so far?

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