iPad 2

I'm not sure if there is a demand for iPad family bands, but if you were looking to form one, Rockmate is the app you'll need! The new app transforms your iPad into a music studio allowing you to compose, record and play songs with up to 4 people.

Rockmate features everything you need to record and share music with your family and friends. You just have to choose what instrument you want to play, guitar, drum kit or keyboards, and use the smart metronome and a real-time looper to kick start your iPad music career. The app is being offered at the introductory price of $0.99 for one week. Hurry and download it now because it will jump to $3.99 on December 21.

It only took about a month, but Netflix finally released its updated interface for the iPad. Originally launched on Android tablets and the Amazon Kindle Fire, Netflix version 2.0 offers a better experience while browsing and selecting movies.

The new interface displays twice as many movies than the old interface did, and addresses stability issues. Version 2.0 is available for devices running iOS 5.0 in Latin America, the U.S. and Canada. The app is free to download, but requires a monthly fee to access Netflix's streaming services.

Apple announced the best iPhone and iPad apps of 2011 on iTunes on Thursday. Dead Space won Best iPad Game of the Year, Snapspeed won Best iPad App of the Year, and Tiny Tower won the Best Game of the Year for the iPhone. The top five selling iPad apps of 2011 were; Angry Birds, Pages, Angry Birds Seasons HD, GarageBand and Angry Birds Rio HD.

One of my favorite holiday traditions as a kid was using various store catalogues to create my Christmas wish list. I would neatly fold the pages and circle the toys I had to have creating an easy shopping guide for my mother. Every year she would turn into a living gift registry remembering what items my family and Santa bought to avoid duplicate gifts on Christmas morning. Amazon has decided to make things a little easier for parents this year with the new Santa App for the Kindle Fire and iPad.

The app allows children to search through five-hundred thousand of the "hottest kid-friendly gifts" helping them create the ultimate holiday wish list. The choices are broken down into six categories: Music, Everything, Books, Video Games, Toys and Games and Movies and TV. The app also works as a gift registry, keeping track and removing items after they have been purchased. Parents can edit and approve the list before sending the Wish List link to family members and friends. I'm assuming grandma and grandpa will need their own iPad to participate.

Code in iOS 5.1 beta firmware has revealed a new iPad device that could be headed to the Sprint network. iPad 3 devices referred to by the codes iPad3,1 and iPad3,2 were revealed some time ago by 9to5Mac. The latest discovery is an iPad2,4 which would add a device to the iPad 2 lineup.

Existing devices include the Wi-Fi only iPad 2 (iPad2,1) and AT&T and Verizon models (iPad2,2 and iPad2,3 respectively). Sprint recently introduced the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 on its network, surprising some observers who expected T-Mobile to be the next major carrier to carry Apple products.

Apple is one of the few retailers holding an actual Black Friday sale on Black Friday. I think Walmart's sale started the day Halloween ended, or maybe that's when they started playing Christmas music in the stores... I can't remember.

9to5Mac published an early look at Apple's Black Friday sales circular. There are plenty of discounts on MacBooks, various Apple accessories and the iPad. The image is kind of blurry, but it looks like you can save $40 to $60 on an iPad depending on the capacity. (16GB, 32GB, 64GB).

The Korea Times claims LG Display is going to meet with Apple in the next few days to talk about producing a 7.35-inch display for the rumored iPad mini. This latest rumor corroborates an earlier story from UMD, who reported LG and AU Optronic sent samples of a 7.85-inch display to Apple for approval back in October.

The smaller display will reportedly feature the same resolution as the iPad 2, and will be Apple's answer to the smaller more affordable tablets like the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble nook. A recent survey revealed 44 percent of tablet shoppers are considering buying the Kindle Fire over the iPad 2 this year. And 46 percent of UK iPad owners said they didn't believe they were getting their money's worth, because they hardly use the device at all.

A recent report by Retrevo already has some tech bloggers crowning the Amazon Kindle Fire as the new king of tablets. The survey showed that 44 percent of new tablet buyers would consider the Kindle Fire over the iPad 2.

The Kindle Fire's $200 price tag and 16,000 apps is what sets it apart from other so-called "iPad killers" of the past. Retrevo points to the iPad's age, and size as another reason some consumers are considering going with Android this holiday season. The Kindle Fire will be available just in time for the holidays, and right when the iPad 2 is starting to seem old. But Apple doesn't seem to be worried and they probably shouldn't be.

Time to stock up on your grains of salt, and strap yourself in for a long ride of iPad 3 and iPad 2S rumors. According to the DigiTimes, Apple is planning on launching a new thinner iPad 2 in March, not the iPad 3. The next generation iPad is currently rumored to be suffering from manufacturing problems that will push its release to Q3 of 2012. The iPad 3's rumored 2048 x 1536 Retina display is reportedly proving difficult for Samsung and LG Display to produce, and is the cause for the delay.

Analysts are also predicting Apple will release an "iPad mini" in 2012. The lower entry-level iPad could feature a 7-inch display with the same resolution as the iPad 2.

These are basically the same iPhone 5 and 4S rumors we heard in back August. Analysts and tech bloggers claimed there would be a newly designed iPhone 5 and a low priced iPhone 4S on the market in October. However, they were supposed to be released at the same time, not months apart.

The jailbreak community lost an important player in August when the hacker known as Comex accepted an internship with Apple. When asked if he was the company's final solution to their jailbreaking problems, Comex replied that he didn't think it was possible to stop people from finding exploits. It looks like he was right.

This weekend, iPhone developer MuscleNerd announced the iPhone Dev Team had successfully jailbroken the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. MuscleNerd released a screen shot of a jailbroken iPhone 4S running iOS 5, but tweeted, there are "huge missing pieces" to be dealt with before it can be released to the public.