“Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Friday made a surprise appearance at Stanford’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital to describe how a liver transplant saved his life — and why patients with less wealth and fame should have the same opportunities.”

“Of his current health, Jobs told other transplant survivors who attended the crowded Friday news conference at a Packard auditorium, “I’m feeling fine. I almost died. It’s been a pretty good last few months.””

Source: Mercury News

Fisher-Price is offering a pair of new applications, including a Facebook and an iPhone app.

The ‘Moments to Share’ Facebook app which allows parents to create personalized timelines by adding photos and details for moments such as a child’s first steps or first Christmas, and to control who has access to the photos and information.

comScore claims 35.65 million females with children were unique visitors to Facebook in the US in February.

The iPhone applications include Chatter Telephone, See ’n Say and Little People Farm, aimed at children ages 2 to 5. They are available for download on the iTunes App Store.

Build and test your iPad app using iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 5 available on the iPhone Dev Center. Only iPad apps built with iPhone SDK 3.2 beta 5 will be accepted for this initial review.

• Upload your distribution signed app through iTunes Connect by Saturday, March 27, 5pm PDT.
• The App Review Team will review your app on iPad and email you details about the readiness of your app.
• You will also receive additional information about submitting your app for final review before iPad ships.
• Only apps submitted for the initial review will be considered for the grand opening of the iPad App Store.

Developers, Click here…

This is OK Go, whose latest video for new single ‘This Too Shall Pass’ has been watched over eight million times on YouTube, but hasn’t shifted too many records. The video is inspired, super to watch. What do we think of the song?

“OK Go recently split from EMI when the label refused to allow people to embed the Pass video. It’s clear EMI has no idea how to promote bands in the internet age, but also scary that bands like OK Go might be ill-equipped to survive in places that aren’t the internet. It’s a great promotional tool, but certainly not the only one. Now on their own, OK Go are gunning to get as many clicks as possible. Without a label, they’re free to capture every fraction-of-a-penny per stream that YouTube offers,” The Guardian informs.

If you like it, buy it here. Why not?

This could be a pretty big deal to working DJs who use digital music as part of their set – Pioneer is to make its powerful cross-platform digital music management software, rekordbox, available for free download for the first time after the successful launch of their new club standard CDJs.

Up until now, rekordbox software was only available with a purchase of either the CDJ-900 or CDJ-2000. From 24 May 2010, it will be available as a free download (download link will be communicated on this date on (www.pioneerdj.eu). This means even without the players at home, DJs can use the software to prepare tracks for playback using the CDJ-900s or CDJ-2000s at the club.

Mark Grotefeld, Head of Marketing, Pioneer Europe commented, “rekordbox brings a DJ friendly approach to music management whilst seamlessly integrating with a DJs existing iTunes music library via Bridge, so it’s great news we can now offer this ever advancing software as a free download to all DJs.”

rekordbox allows you to import music from iTunes using the Bridge function or by simply adding them into the software for management. rekordbox will work out the BPM and allow you to set hot cue and loop points into the track, utilizing a full beat grid view in advance, as well as colour coding your music and adding all the ID3 information so it appears automatically later on any CDJ-2000 or 900. Working with rekordbox also means that when tracks are exported to a USB key or SD card, the CDJ-900 or CDJ-2000 will load the waveforms instantly. The database layout within the software can be customized to suit individual DJ style which enables personalized layouts when browsing on your CDJ-900 / CDJ-2000s.

The softwares unique reverse functionality enables the new CDJs to record your cue, loop & set history during your set which can be recalled in rekordbox later. If you enable the Quantize feature within the CDJ-2000 / CDJ-900, then rekordbox makes loop and cue points snap to the beat (1ms accurate), ensuring beat-perfect loops and cues.

rekordbox will also be fully compatible with future Pioneer DJ products across the range. As clubs begin to upgrade to the CDJ-900 and CDJ-2000 from the CDJ-1000MK3, the ability to travel and arrive at the club with your music prepared on a single USB or SD card (such as a USB flash memory key) is now a reality.

Entire industries are in a state of agitation as Apple prepares to ship its (perhaps) delayed iPad, with Apple imposing draconian secrecy demands on partners, Amazon leaning on publishers for lower eBook prices and TV and broadcasting networks attempting to find a sustainable business model for the wired generation.

In other words, that third wave of creative destruction and the reinvention not just of the media but of the wider culture it represents is beginning to break. This is only the start.

We’ve been watching this kind of activity here at Distorted Loop since our beginning. Some may recall this is precisely the watershed event we have always predicted would disrupt mass media.

It was inevitable that big media would at some point engage in an internal debate that inexorably led publishing alongside all other content industries to recognise the spark at the centre of their business.

The spark is nothing other than the central expression and creativity at the heart of the human DNA. The capacity to invent. To create. To make. To transform the mundane into the impossible and the impossible to the mundane. That’s the spirit of invention that led to the first hand-crafted books, the expression at the heart of medieval calligraphy, the energy that led to the first printing press, and, equally, later on the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll, punk and Sniffin Glue fanzine. Even Batman came from someone’s exploration of what some sometimes call their soul.

Sure, today’s business negotiations are all about the Benjamins. But how long will that remain the case when as the world full knows scant months ago the infrastructure at the heart of the global economy almost blew itself apart as the world’s very rich proved themselves morally unfit for purpose.

We’re at a moment of transformation. The uber-zeitgeist transition when the mundane becomes important and the commonplace the prize. A golden age. We’ll look back to what we now call normality and wish we could have it again.

Reflecting the age, Apple’s dealing left right and centre with content providers to offer their material inside the Cupertino iPad garden. Hundreds of thousands of these things have already sold in the US. Apple is reportedly selling more iPads in the first three months than it sold iPhones in the three months after that products debut.

The mad desperate scramble to populate Cupertino’s content garden illustrates the global greed for stimulation, and underlines how Apple’s ecosystems only exist as vessels for other people’s creativity.

That’s ultimately what Apple exists for. Not to boost search engine traffic or to prop up the business of some faded multinational software monopolist. Apple’s inherent reason for existing has been a consistent message: creating creative tools for creative expression, creative communication and consumer consumption of creative’s creations.

There really is no rule that says you can only ever be a consumer. Think Different.

Manufacturing problems are alleged to have delayed Apple’s iPad shipments, according to a Chinese report picked up on by Digitimes.

Taiwan’s touch panel supplier Wintek has been facing a manufacturing bottleneck in touch panel production, the report explains, and “its low yield rate for touch panels has hampered its shipments to Apple”.

Wintek has already moved to counter this claim, telling local stock exchange officials that “all of its operations have been running in line with its plans.” As you’d expect, it refused to comment on any individual clients.

Despite Wintek’s denial, Apple clearly doesn’t want to put all its iPad eggs inside one basked. The company has made a deal with Samsung under which the latter will also manufacture iPad screens.

Somewhat confusingly, this latter report states “The first iPads will feature screens made by LG Display and Chimei Innolux”. LG will remain the main supplier of screens for the iPad, having already signed up to supply 10 million panels.

Samsung Mobile Display also hopes to provide displays for this Summer’s 4G iPhones.  It is ramping up production of IPS LCD screens as part of its attempt. The screen inside the iPad costs five times that of the touchscreen fielded on the iPhone 3GS. Samsung is expected to deliver its own iPad competitor in future.

A related report suggests Taiwan-based passive components makers, including Yageo, Cyntec, Mag.Layers Scientific-Technics and TXC will benefit from the release of the iPad.

That’s because Apple has selected Taiwan-based chip resistor, power choke, inductor and quartz component makers as suppliers for its products.

“iPad adopts 0201 chip resistors and may use 01005 products as well, said the sources.”

VIV Mag Interactive Feature Spread – iPad Demo from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.

These videos show a concept for iPad publishing that’s being put together by online magazine Viv, by Alexx Henry Photography.

The clips are all over the Web this morning with all kinds of commentary surrounding them, so I’d just like to let them speak for themselves and urge readers to comment on your reaction to watching them.

Myself? I think these are very impressive demonstrations which serve to show what the possibilities are, but ultimately will they acquire the kind of mass market traction publishers will need to see in order to justify continued investment in the medium? That remains to be seen.

VIV Mag Featurette: A Digital Magazine Motion Cover and Feature for the iPad from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.

This is a fantastic tip for anybody who has ever dropped their iPhone (or conceivably any other electrical gadget) into some liquid – pop it into a bag of rice to dry it out.

Blogger Erin Thompson reports her random encounter with an ATT person on Seattle Weekly music site Reverb:

“Last night I dropped my phone in the toilet, and it wouldn’t even turn on afterwards,” she writes. “I was at Video Isle whining about how I was going to have to buy a completely new iPhone, and there was a man there who just happened to work for AT&T.

“I asked him if I should try to blow-dry my phone, and he said: ‘Turn it off completely, put it in a bag of rice, and leave it there for a couple hours. The rice will absorb the moisture’.

“So, I went home, got out a bag of rice, and stuck my phone in there. I took it out about an hour later, tried to turn it on, and the screen kind of lamely flickered at me. But at least it was turning on, so I stuck it back in there. A couple hours later, before I was about to go to sleep, I took it out and turned it on… AND IT TOTALLY WORKED.”

We suspect this could also be the cure for a damp iPod, and we’re kind of curious if it could help an en-dampened digital camera. Take a look at some different rice products here (Hint: We suspect rice and cheese mixtures won’t be appropriate).

Apple Board member Jerome B (Jerry) York has passed away, following his brain aneurysm (stroke) last night.

Apple confirmed the death of the long-standing board member in a release distributed in the UK afternoon. The company’s comments follow:

“Apple is sad to announce the death of Apple Board member Jerome B. (Jerry) York. York, the chairman, president and CEO of Harwinton Capital, joined Apple’s Board of Directors in 1997. He was the former CFO of IBM and Chrysler, and former vice chairman of Tracinda. He is widely acknowledged for his contributions at Chrysler and IBM during their turnarounds.

“Jerry joined Apple’s Board in 1997 when most doubted the company’s future. He has been a pillar of financial and business expertise and insight on our Board for over a dozen years,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “It’s been a privilege to know and work with Jerry, and I’m going to miss him a lot.”

“Jerry York was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1938. He graduated from the United States Military Academy, and received an MS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the University of Michigan. Trained as an engineer, York worked his way up through Chrysler to become CFO.”

Sometimes all the dots begin to join all at once, now new news in claims Apple’s putting together a new social location app called iGroups.

Patently Apple tells us all about the new patent application from Apple for the service, which sounds p.r.e.t.t.y. likely to tie in with your iPhone/iPad/iPhone-software powered device and MobileMe.

As described it will let you share information about events, such as concerts, meetings and so on. The app will be able to detect users location and group them according to their GPS co-ordinates.

We’re fascintated this particular gem has emerged on the same day Apple has begun pushing location aware apps from other vendors, and as a result we’re more convinced than we were before that the company harbours some big plans for location aware ads and more.

“The technology behind the new iGroup social networking applications works with a very sophisticated cryptographic key generation system to ensure security and privacy of your communications. Interestingly, the patent states that if one of the devices in your group happens to be without true positioning technology, it appears that Apple’s MobileMe service will provide some sort of “virtual GPS” capability to that user so that they could be aware of the locations of others in the group. Apple’s patent provides us with example scenarios of both a concert and WWDC event to clarify the service. This marks Apple’s fourth social networking application made public since the start of 2010 - which clearly indicates that Apple now has this hot new sector in its crosshairs.”

The BBC is embracing the social Web, confirming that Facebook, Twitter and Bebo integration will be part of the future of iPlayer.

BBC future media chief, Erik Huggers, confirmed these plans when speaking with The Telegraph. As he explains it, the plan begins with integration of these services into iPlayer, with such integration then spread across the BBC site.

These features are expected to debut when iPlayer 3.0 arrives. The new iPlayer will require users to register with the BBC, including logging into your favorite social media service. When logged in you’ll be able to see what your friends are watching.

(We’re interested too to note that this means the Beeb will theoretically also then have access to IP addresses and other information to help its license evasion teams get the license money. We’re not saying that’s a great thing, as it is just a little ‘Big Brother’).

“We are close to launching the third version of the iPlayer in beta which will have many more social functions embedded within it,” said Huggers.

“People will be able to bring their Facebook friends onto the iPlayer so they can share what they are listening to or watching with each other more easily.”

Some say it isn’t where you’re going nor where you’ve been that counts, it’s just precisely where you’re at as you join your life’s internal dots. So let us now speculate on the meaning of the latest location-focused iTunes promo, as spotted by TechCrunch.

iTunes right now is featuring the top five location-based services via its iTunes Store, both on the Web and the iPhone. And we think the promo is a table-setting deal for future Apple ads-serving solutions.

This is important because being featured in this way puts the existence of the services, Foursquare, Gowalla, Loopt, Whrrl 3 and MyTown right in front of millions of potential users.

“Foursquare announced earlier that it had gained 100,000 new users in just the past 10 days — that type of growth may actually continue as long as Apple keeps featuring the app,” TechCrunch informs.

Now, we’re no experts on this, but given Apple’s January acquisition of Quattro Wireless for $275 million (having been bounced out the AdMob purchase by former ally, Google) it would be no surprise to see Apple attempt to create advertising opportunities focused on surpassing all other offerings on its mobile platforms.

We also note recent changes to the IPhone developer SDKs which forbade use of location-based data for serving up ads.

But with the next model iPhone and next version software scurrying through development, could Apple’s move to champion third-party location-based services eventually transpire to be a hint of part of its ads strategy?

We’ll see soon enough. Let the speculation begin.

Square Enix – publishers of Final Fantasy I and II for iPhone – has announced its latest all-new title for the Apple platform, the completely iPhone-focused Chaos Rings RPG.

Already attracting a lot of interest (and why wouldn’t it, Square Enix is a known cutting-edge games development house and any titles it throws out will be looked at with huge interest). In the last few hours the company pushed out this trailer video (Japanese, sorry) which shows just how lush and action-packed the title promises to be.

There will be five scenarios in the game, a turn-based battle system, boss fights, and “five 2-person teams that enter into a battle tournament to the death”.

Via: CrunchGear

Amazon has kept its promise with the introduction of “Kindle for Mac”, a free application which lets you read Kindle titles on your Mac.

Available in over 100 countries, the application is the twin of Amazon’s existing iPhone (iPad) App which also supports Kindle titles. Amazon has made its new Mac application available to over 100 countries. US readers should click here.

Jay Marine, director, Amazon Kindle, said: “For those customers around the world who don’t yet have a Kindle, Kindle for Mac is a great way to instantly access and read the most popular new releases as well as their old favorites.”

The software boasts Amazon’s Whispersync technology that automatically saves and synchronizes bookmarks and last page read across devices.

Product features include:

• Purchase, download, and read hundreds of thousands of books available in the Kindle Store
• Access their library of previously purchased Kindle books stored on Amazon’s servers for free
• Choose from 10 different font sizes and adjust words per line
• Add and automatically synchronize bookmarks and last page read
• View notes and highlights marked on Kindle, Kindle DX, and Kindle for iPhone
• Read books in full colour including children’s books, cookbooks, travel books and textbooks

Several additional features will be added to the Kindle for Mac app in the near future, including full text search and the ability to create and edit notes and highlights.

Apple board member Jerry York has died after collapsing with a brain aneurysm last night. York is hospitalised in Pontiac, Michigan. Apple’s statements on his loss are available here.

Known as a key aide to billionaire investor Kirk Kekorian York is also former CFO of IBM and Chrysler, York was also formerly CEO of Micro Warehouse. He joined Apple’s board in 1997.

Jerry is a very dear friend and a trusted business associate and our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family,” Kerkorian said in a statement given to Reuters.

He was born in Oakland Township, Michigan in 1938. He holds degrees from West Point, MIT, and the University of Michigan. He is married to Eilene York. Together they have four children and six grandchildren.

Here’s an iPhone/iPad developer who doesn’t care about his NDA showing us what he claims to be an iPad settings hack, to a slice of Springsteen (wonder if he got clearance for the track)?

Looks like Apple’s cosied up nicely to one of the world’s most powerful media moguls, News Corp. chief, Rupert Murdoch, who appears to be an all-in iPad fan. “All media is going to go on to the iPad”, he declares in this interview with his own Fox Business Channel.

“All media is going to go on to the iPad, whether it be music or books or newspapers or movies, you’ll be able to get on your iPad… they’ll get better and better and you’ll be able to do more tricks with it.”

“It’ll be pretty small to start with but you know there’ll be more iPads. There’s competition coming from people like Samsung and LG coming very quickly, [and] Hewlett Packard in a matter of three or four months,” he explains.

Murdoch also slammed search engines for supposedly cannibalizing News Corp’s content.

Here’s another hint of media’s move to Apple’s iPad as shown to SWSX attendees by Wired and previously-reported by 9to5Mac.

Wired rocks audience at SXSW with iPad demo from Mangrove on Vimeo.

Via: Electric Pig

These amazing steampunk-designed and fully functional computers seem utterly fabulous to us. We love the unique, retro-Victorian look of these beautiful machines. We also love that they come from “The Apple Company”. And they’re “gearless”. Outstanding.

They use lots of wood and a good measure of brass to get in the right effects. As the designers put it “These custom-made keyboards, framed monitors and computers are completely functional, but with a 19th century/ steampunk aesthetic.”

Yanko Design

Self-explanatory really:

This cannibalistic item is a menu item over at The Cooks Den where self-confessed Mac Fanboy, ‘Ken’, offers you all the instructions you’ll need to cook up some nachos, iPad Thai and a rather tasty Jobs head. There’s several other recipes too.

We thought this was highly amusing, so big up to Mark at Boing Boing who let us know about this.