If you were gifted the present of Apple this holiday season, specifically via an Apple Gift Card, there are a wide variety of different things that you can purchase, depending on which gift card you have. Apple has a few different types of gift cards that they offer, so what you can buy is somewhat dependent on which type of gift card you received. In today’s post, we will review the major forms of gift cards that Apple offers.

The Standard Apple Gift Card

Most standard Apple gift cards are designed with a grey background and white Apple logo in the center. These gift cards are among the most popular, as they can be used to purchase anything from an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. However, they cannot be used at destinations and shopping outlets such as Best Buy, Walmart, and most “Authorized Apple Resellers” will not accept them either.

The standard Apple Gift Card is mainly used to purchase Mac computers, iDevices, and Apple and 3rd party accessories that are offered at the Apple Store. If you have a standard Apple Gift Card, you may of course use it to purchase items from your local Apple Store, but if you want more selection, it is recommended to redeem the card through Apple.com, as Apple’s online store offers more items, that you won’t find in stores.

The iTunes Gift Card

The Apple iTunes gift card is distinguishable via it’s classic design of a silhouette dancing and holding an iPod. Although one may assume that songs and music are the only things that can be purchased with these gift cards, you also have the option of choosing other items that are offered in the iTunes Store. This means that, in addition to music, you can also purchase television shows, movies, podcasts, and even some apps.

The iTunes gift card is specific to the iTunes store, so you can purchase basically anything that is offered in the iTunes store, but these cards will not work if you try to purchase a Mac computer or iDevice from the Apple Online Store, as they are strictly iTunes only.

The iPhone Gift Card

The iPhone gift card doesn’t need much explaining, as it’s name refers to it’s purpose. If you receive an iPhone gift card, you can use it to purchase, or help purchase, an Apple iPhone. However, there are some limits. The iPhone gift card is Apple exclusive, so it cannot be redeemed at AT&T or other wireless carriers.

Rather, the card must be used to purchase an iPhone via Apple’s online iPhone store, or through an actual Apple Store. Apple’s online interface for selling iPhones gives you plenty of options, though. You can simply select a carrier, and choose whether to create a new iPhone plan, add-on to an existing plan, etc…

Those are the three main types of gift cards that Apple distributes, each with a specific purpose. If you were gifted an Apple gift card this holiday season, you can use this guide to help decide what to use the gift card for. Apple of course, sometimes offers other, specialty gift cards such as their Back to School gift cards. However, the three cards mentioned above are the most distributed and sold forms of Apple gift certificates.

Thank you for stopping by the site for today’s post. If anyone has any questions regarding an Apple gift card, feel free to leave a comment and I will try to help.

Apple’s iTunes Store which offers music, television shows, movies, and other media has always had a quite diverse pricing scheme. Of course, this all deals with Apple’s contracts with music companies, television companies, etc… If you’re a person who purchases a lot of your media from iTunes, a new “Complete My Season” feature might be something that interests you…

Basically, Complete My Season is a new pricing structure in the iTunes Store that allows iTunes shoppers to purchase the rest of a TV series, or season, at a discounted price. For example, if you have previously purchased a few of your favorite episodes of a particular TV show, and later on down the line decided that you would like to have the whole season, you may purchase the rest of the episodes for that specific season at a discounted price.

Although this seems like a simple concept, it could actually save you quite a bit of money, particularly if you purchase a lot of television shows. Pricing discounts vary from season to season and show to show, so there is not a “set in stone” discount amount for each Complete My Season. To be eligible for and use Complete My Season, however, you must have previously purchased one or two episodes from the specific season that you want to complete.

The above screenshot shows a significant discount for using the Complete My Season feature.

Apple has offered a similar deal for iTunes music shoppers for a few years now, simply dubbed by Apple as “Album-Completion.” The concept of Album-Completion is of course similar to Complete My Season. With A-C, if you have purchased a few songs from a particular album, and at a later time decide that you would like to have the entire album, you can simply use the Album-Completion feature to get a slightly discounted price, from buying the rest of the songs individually or purchasing the entire album.

I would guess that Apple may eventually extend this trend to movies also, maybe with a program that would allow you to purchase the remainder of movies from a trilogy at a discounted price. For example, if you purchased Batman Begins from the App Store, you could purchase The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises at a discounted price in order to “complete the trilogy.”

Thank you for stopping by the site for today’s post. Good news for television series collectors. If you are gifted an iTunes gift card this holiday season, you may want to consider “Completing The Season.” Tis the season to be Jolly.

Flipboard is a magazine style app that pulls in news from some of the nation’s top publications and websites, and presents it in a creative, awesome, and very unique way; so much so, that Flipboard was actually awarded Apple’s highly coveted App of The Year award in 2010. Previously though, Flipboard has been exclusive to just the iPad and the iPad only. No Android, BlackBerry Playbook, or even Kindle Fire Apps. More recently, however, Flipboard has released an iPhone version of their award winning iPad app.

The overall experience in using the Flipboard app on the iPhone is not the same as on an iPad, obviously, as the iPad is simply a much better reading device than the iPhone. Our partner site, Online-Tech-Tips, actually has a review of the Flipboard app, which you can check out here. In today’s post, we will review how to get Flipboard’s latest app on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

To get started, launch the App Store on your iPhone by tapping the App Store from the home screen.

With the App Store app open and active on screen, simply perform a search for the app by clicking the Search button located on the App Store navigation bar. Enter the search term flipboard and tap the Search button to initiate the search.

Next, click the Install button, sign in to your Apple account, and click the OK button. From there, Flipboard should instantly begin downloading and installing to your iPhone.

That’s pretty much all there is to it. One major difference between the Flipboard iPhone app and the Flipboard iPad app is that with the iPhone app, you use upward gestures, rather than side to side gestures to navigate through the pages. Just like the Flipboard iPad app, the ratings in the App Store for the iPhone version are near perfect. Thank you for stopping by the site for today’s post.

Has anyone downloaded the iPhone Flipboard app as of yet? Now that Flipboard is available for the iPhone, are you going to junk all of the other news apps you have on your iPhone?

It’s not often that someone from the technology industry, or at least the computer manufacturing industry, wins a Grammy award; but if you’re someone like Steve Jobs, who didn’t only contribute to the music industry, but also help to define it, a Grammy Award is a good fit.

The 54th Annual Grammy Awards have not yet taken place, as they are slated for Feb 12, 2012 8/7c time on CBS. However, Jobs was always considered to be a bit ahead of his time, and even months after his death on October 5, 2011, even his legend is a bit ahead of it’s time.

The Grammy that is being awarded to Jobs, more specifically, is a Special Merit Award for his contributions to music, from The Recording Academy. The traditional way of winning a Grammy Award is to be nominated, then from which you are put in a pool with other, similar nominees and the “Grammy Award Winner” is chosen at the awards ceremony. Jobs, however, is being given special recognition as he becomes one of the first confirmed winners of the 2012 Grammys.

Mac computers have always been somewhat focused on being a platform for “creative individuals.” Apple of course, distributes applications such as Garage Band and iMovie with all new Mac purchases, but they also manufacture similar, but more advanced applications such as Final Cut and Logic which are aimed more towards professionals.

The most significant contribution that Steve Jobs had made towards the music industry, however, is through the Apple iPod lineup, iTunes, and above all, the iTunes Store combined with all of the contracts and deals that Apple has with some of the nation’s best record companies.

Aside from his contributions to the technology industry, Jobs was once involved with the entertainment industry too. Steve Jobs acquired Pixar, the popular animation studio and movie development studio in 1986. In 2006, Disney purchased Pixar for $7.4 billion. Pixar of course, is the company behind such films as the Toy Story franchise, Finding Nemo, and Cars. Although, they also have additional, reputable films to their credit as well.

The academy had this to say about Jobs:

“Steve Jobs helped create products and technology that transformed the way we consume music, TV, movies, and books.” said the academy. “A creative visionary, Jobs’ innovations such as the iPod and its counterpart, the online iTunes store, revolutionized the industry and how music was distributed and purchased.”

Thank you for stopping by the site for today’s post. Occasionally, we will post news if it’s notable, and this monumental feat by one of Apple’s original co-founders is just that.

At some point, everyone has probably forgot where they parked their car. Usually when this happens, you either go on an unexpected walk and maze through the parking lot until you find your vehicle, or if you have a remote keyless entry, you consistently push the lock/unlock button to sound the horn, and follow the sound trail to your car. If you have an iPhone, you can download some apps that are specifically designed to keep track of where you park your vehicle.

The App Store has several find my car apps that are produced by various different software companies and developers. The apps range in price from free to 5.00, but like most iPhone Apps, the paid apps are usually a bit better. Here are 3 of the top rated find my car apps for the iPhone:

Honk – Find Car/Parking Meter

Honk – Find Car Parking Meter is one of the highest rated remember where you parked apps in the App Store, and it only costs a buck. Aside from basic GPS marking of your parked vehicle, the Honked app also includes several unique features, one of them being a parking meter timer that reproduces a digital version of a parking meter on your iPhone. Essentially though, this feature is just a timer with a  nicely designed outer wrapping. Still, it’s a great feature to have for those who work in downtown areas, or those who get frequent parking tickets.

GEOflare – The Ultimate GPS App for Finding Your Car…

GEOflare is self described as The Ultimate GPS App for finding your car, tracking routes for outdoor activities and exercises, saving and sharing locations with great map features. Basically, the same GPS technology that allows your iPhone to remember where you parked your car, could obviously be used to keep track of other positions and locations too.

GEOflare has not only marketed their $0.99 parking app cleverly, but also implemented a nice UI, all of which combines to make an app that simply works. The GEOflare app is another of the parking apps that has received outstanding App Store reviews, in a category where not every app is of good quality.

Find my car -5 in 1

Find my car -5 in 1 is essentially just another parking app, but as it’s name implies, it has some other features also. The 5 features are: Alarm Clock, Location, Notes, Agenda, and even a Flash Light. Now, that mixed combination of different function apps is a bit, well, different. However, Find my car -5 in 1 is marketed as of course a car finder, but also an app for business men and women.

Aside from the standard find my car function that one would mainly purchase this app for, the other features are good implementations too. The ratings serve their own justice with this app, which has received over 150 positive App Store reviews. The $0.99 price tag doesn’t hurt either.

There are of course, several more car finder apps available in the App Store. However, the three mentioned in this article are the highest rated, and overall best deals out there. Now, iPhone users can remember where they parked, monitor outdoor activities, and even keep track of the time left on parking meters. Does anyone know of any better apps than the ones mentioned in today’s post? If so, feel free to leave a comment.

Here at Switching To Mac, we try to focus on providing tips for new Mac, iPhone, iPod, and iPad owners. Occasionally, we also post more advanced tips and notable news about Apple. Some blogs, however, focus primarily on Apple news and rumors. In today’s post, we will review 5 of the best Apple news websites and blogs.

There is an ever growing list of Apple news and rumor blogs on the internet, but the following blogs have been around for a while, and have gained quite the following in the Apple community:

1. MacRumors

MacRumors is an Apple news blog that specializes on exactly what it’s name implies, Mac Rumors. Aside from that, MacRumors is probably the most heavily followed Apple blog on the internet. Aside from their Mac Blog and iOS Blog, they also have a unique Buyer’s Guide, which serves as a good reference for anyone trying to decide if now is a good time to buy an Apple product.

2. TUAW

TUAW, in my opinion, is a very underrated Apple news and rumors blog. TUAW is an AOL Networked publication, so much of it’s traffic comes from existing AOL email users and AIM users. TUAW’s website design is very good, and they also have very good journalists and writers. TUAW often times posts very unique and original content.

3. Apple Insider

Apple Insider’s website/blog is a bit different than most of the other Apple focused blogs on the internet, in that it is very minimal in design. Instead of focusing on extreme detail in their blog posts, Apple Insider is more of a mass/bulk Apple blog that posts short stories about anything Apple. This is an effective approach in that Apple Insider usually has the most posts, and usually the latest Apple news, quickly after it is released.

4. Cult of Mac

If you are a die hard Apple fan, Cult of Mac is a good blog to follow. They are kind of like us (SwitchingToMac) in that they post reviews, news, tutorials, and tips. Cult of Mac also has a partnership with a 3rd party apps website, which allows you to browse a wide variety of different apps, directly from their blog. In many ways, their app partnership is more efficient for browsing than the Apple AppStore itself.

5. 9to5 Mac

9To5 Mac is mainly an Apple news and rumors blog, with a similar intent as MacRumors. The blog employs good writers that have a passion for Apple products, and with some of their “insider sources,” 9to5 sometimes posts some real gems regarding upcoming Apple product releases, Apple rumors, and more.

#. TiPb

TiPb isn’t an all Apple blog, but as far as iPhone/iPad news, TiPb is the best niche blog. Specializing mainly on Apple’s portable devices, TiPb is a blog that you should follow, even if you just own an iPhone.

Those are the best of the best for Apple news blogs. Thank you for stopping by Switching To Mac for today’s post. Do you run a quality Apple news website? If so, post a link to your website in the comments section below, to help people find your blog!

The same Keynote address that introduced the iPhone 4 also introduced some other new concepts that were to be introduced by Apple, one of them being an advertising platform dubbed “iAds.” However, the iPhone 4 quickly took most of the attention away from all of the other, more minor technologies that were introduced. There has been some recent buzz around Apple’s iAds, so in today’s post, we will review how the iAds platform is developing.

iAds is essentially a relatively new advertising platform that Apple introduced a bit over a year ago. iAds, of course, is a targeted advertising platform that will allow publishers to advertise and promote their businesses to Apple product owners, mainly through iOS devices such as the iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone.

The idea behind iAds, is somewhat “Apple innovative” in that iAds are supposed to be much more interactive than traditional advertisements and banners that other advertising platforms offer. iAds are also deployed within apps, in an attempt to keep iDevice users in the app and spend more time using the app. Even so, other advertising companies such as Google’s AdSense program now offer mobile ad solutions, which have been much more popular than Apple’s iAds campaign. Here is a chart that describes Apple’s slice of the pie:

Google is dominant, but Apple is still managing to hold its own, despite the iAds program not taking off the way Apple probably would have liked. Recently, Apple has made some changes to iAds in an attempt to spark more advertisers and publishers.

The most significant change to iAds is in the pricing structure. Apple is lowering prices on advertising, hoping to attract more customers and gain momentum. There are no exact numbers, but one source reported to the Wall Street Journal that Apple is lowering the entry price to $400,000. $400,000 seems like a lot of money, but it should be considered to be a more aggressive and significant price drop, considering that prices were $100,000,000 when iAds initially launched, and $500,000 in February.

Apple is also rumored to be changing its per-tap advertising limits. Previously, per-tap limits were unlimited, but the $2.00 per-tap fee ($10 per 1000 page views) was depleting advertising budgets a bit too quickly. Apple is expected to release more information regarding the changes to the iAds program in the near distant future.

Overall, Apple’s iAds program is just doing okay. With some more aggressive pricing, however, Apple may be able to attract more publishers and advertisers and develop iAds to be a great platform for iOS. Thank you for stopping by the site for today’s post. If anyone has any experience with advertising or publishing iAds, feel free to leave a comment if there is anything we missed.

In an earlier post, we provided a few tips for deleting individual Photo Stream pics in iOS. In that post, we described an alternative method, which revolved around using the reset Photo Stream option to delete individual pics. While Photo Stream is an excellent service, the lack of small options like being able to delete individual photos can be quite annoying. With the release of iOS 5.1, the first major update to iOS 5, some of these bugs or lack of options will be resolved…

iOS 5.1 Beta 2, a testing release of the next iOS 5 update, incorporates some better options for deleting photos from Photo Stream. Here is a quick example of how Photo Stream will be updated with the release of 5.1:

Instead of having to use the Reset Photo Stream option that we described in our other post, the new Photo Stream will be a bit easier to operate. Many iOS beta testers are now reporting on some improvements to iOS 5, but more specifically, improvements to Photo Stream. With the new Photo Stream update, whenever you delete a photo from your iPhone or other iDevice, the photo will automatically be deleted from your Photo Stream (iCloud) as well.

Currently with iOS 5, whenever a photo is taken with an iOS device that is iCloud synced, the photo is automatically added to Photo Stream. The problem is, when you delete that photo from your iDevice, it gets removed from the device but stays in the cloud (iCloud Photo Stream). In order to remove the photo from the cloud, an iOS 5 user must unsync their entire photo library on the iOS device, and use the reset Photo Stream option.

A few other bug fixes that are expected to be released in the next iOS update include the resolving of some freezing issues in setup assistant, and an improved shake to shuffle feature in the iDevice (iTunes) music player function.

iOS 5.1 Beta 2 is available to those who are enrolled in the Apple Developer program, so if you are a developer and wanting to try out the new Photo Stream update, you can get the 801MB download directly from Apple. Overall, this is a welcoming and much needed fix for many iCloud + iDevice users. For those who are frustrated with the current Photo Stream service, iOS 5.1 is currently in Beta and should arrive very soon with some much needed bug fixes.

Mac OS X, by default, doesn’t come with any advanced image editors or apps, with the exception of iPhoto. iPhoto is more of a photo organizer and basic editor, however. If you’re looking for a high quality, flexible image editor, you might want to check out the Skitch app. Due to the tremendous success of the app, it was actually acquired by Evernote a few months ago. Skitch is one of the highest rated apps in the app store. Here’s how you can get started with Skitch…

It’s difficult to describe exactly what Skitch is, as it’s a very unique image editor. So, let’s jump right in to the tutorial. To get started, launch the Mac App Store on your computer by clicking the Apple logo in the upper left corner of the desktop and selecting App Store… from the context menu. With the App Store open and active on screen, search for the Skitch app by typing the term skitch into the search box and hitting the enter button. The App Store should return the Skitch App:

Click the Free > Install buttons to download Skitch to your Mac. You may need to sign in to the App Store using your Apple ID. Skitch is a fairly lightweight app, so it should install in just a few seconds.

Once the app completes installation, launch it using the path Finder > Applications > Skitch, or directly from Launchpad.

Above, we mentioned that Skitch is a very flexible image editor. Not only can it be used as a screen capture tool, but also a basic drawing app, image editor, or photo editor. Skitch also has built-in image sharing functions, which you can use by logging in with your Skitch account or Evernote account. Next, we will cover some basic functions of the app.

You can use Skitch to take screen captures at anytime by clicking the Snap button. Here, we have used the Snap function to take a screenshot of the Switching To Mac website:

From here, you can simply add effects, text, or other edits to the screen capture.

Skitch can be used as a quick way to resize images also, as it features a built-in resizing utility that is accessible in the lower, left corner of the Skitch app.

Overall, Skitch is a very simple and minimal image editor that has gained a lot of popularity due to it’s user interface and multiple effects and options. If you have ever seen photos on Facebook or any other sites, where there are text effects added and other decorations, there is a good possibility that the photos were edited using the Skitch app. In this article, we have only covered a few of the features that Skitch offers, but it’s simple enough to use that most people will have no problem navigating the user interface and rest of the features.

The main pro of Skitch is that it’s very flexible and is simply a good app to have. It’s Microsoft Paint like in simplicity, yet somewhat Apple like in features. Thanks for stopping by for today’s post. Does anyone use Skitch frequently? Are there any other cool features that we missed?

Apple’s iBooks app that is available on the iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone serves as an app, but also as the main source for allowing devices like the iPad to be eBook readers as well as all in one devices. With iBooks, many of the quality materials must be purchased or subscribed to, although there are some decent and free offerings in the iBooks store. In today’s post we will review how to use the iBooks store, and also introduce a free book that Apple has recently made available in the iBooks store.

Using the iBooks store is a very simple process. To get started, simply tap to open the iBooks app on your iDevice. For this demo, we will be using an iPhone.

Upon initially launching the iBooks app, there probably won’t be any literature on the bookshelf as of yet. So, let’s add some. Start by clicking the Store button in the upper right side of the iBooks app. From here, you will automatically be redirected to the iBooks Store.

You can browse the iBooks Store for any particular books or literature that you’d like to download, but for this demo, we will be downloading a free Beatles Yellow Submarine iBook which also happens to be animated. Once you have selected a book, tap to click the book, which should bring you to the info and details page for that book.

This particular iBook happens to be Free, so we will simply click the Free > Get Book button to begin the book download. The book should now appear on the iBookshelf and begin downloading.

Once the download has completed, simply tap to select the book to begin reading it. That’s all there is to it. The iBook app, of course, is much clearer and defined on an iPad, vs. an iPod Touch or iPhone. However, obtaining and downloading books on all three devices is a very similar process. Do you use the iBooks app on your Apple devices as an eBook reader? or do you still prefer traditional books, and to use your iDevice as a “fun device?”