We non-US Apple fans have a bad of a hard deal – all of the best media and many of the top apps just do not show up in the SA iTunes store. So if you are really desperate to get Angry Birds, the only way to get hold of an iTunes voucher is to make Apple believe you live in the US. Luckily that is not too hard, and I will explain to you how to do that here.

Before you get started, you have to know that in order to buy content from the US iTunes store, you will need to buy iTunes vouchers. Your non-US credit card will not work with the US store, but luckily it is easy enough to buy vouchers through sites like WildTwig. But first you need a US iTunes store account:

How to Open Your US iTunes Account:

1) First off, you obviously need iTunes, and an internet connection.

2) Open iTunes, then go to iTunes Store on the left.

3) Make sure you are signed out of any iTunes account. Make sure the top right of the iTunes store states “Sign In”. If it is signed into another account, click on the account name, and click Sign Out.

4) Scroll to the bottom of the iTunes Store page, and click on the country icon. This can be any country’s flag.

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On Thursday Apple will hold a small event to show off its latest efforts in the education market. Most sources seem to agree that the event will focus on ways in which textbooks can be brought into the digital age of tablets – but Apple might have a few other tricks up its sleeve. The event might also focus on the announcement of new tools that can be used to create these digital textbooks.

The case for digital textbook has been around for a while. Textbooks are expensive to buy, expensive to print and also heavy to carry around. Imagine a student a few years from now just carrying around a tablet, which has his/her textbooks stored. But the aim is not purely to replace existing textbooks – the value will lie in what type of interactivity can be built into a digital textbook. Instead of static images you find in normal textbooks, textbook publishers can now build in interactive features that enable the reader to better understand a particular issue – think videos, 3D models, sound clips etc.

Traditional textbook publishers will probably show off what textbook experiences they are planning for the iPad, while Apple might show some new content creation tools that will make it easier than ever to publish for the iPad. Right now the digital publishing market is also ripe for revolution with publishers being forced to code apps from scratch, or to use tools like Adobe’s Folio Builder. If Apple can build an easy to use, but powerful tool to build interactive textbooks, it will create another market in which Apple can dominate. The iPad is already doing very well, but if Apple can convince publishers to publish exclusively to the iPad, we can expect to see many students to switch to iPads.

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Yesterday the Apple iPhone 4S was supposed to launch in China, after it was finally approved by the Chinese government. But the number of people who showed up at the Apple retail stores proved to much to handle. Customers was waiting outside in -9 degrees celsius temperatures, and the stores did not open at the normal 7:00 AM time. At 7:15 AM people started chanting “Open the Door!” after an Apple representative announced to the crowd that the phone would not go on sale. The delay sales was not in all stores however, with Shangai getting their allotment on time.

Soon afterward the police had to be called in to calm down the crowd, who started pelting the stores with eggs. Customers were instead told to order their iPhones online, and Apple has decided to not continue sales of the iPhone in stores, in order to prevent unruly crowds forming again.

“The demand for iPhone 4S has been incredible, and our stores in China have already sold out,” an Apple spokesperson told AllThingsD. “Unfortunately we were unable to open our store at Sanlitun due to the large crowd, and to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, iPhone will not available in our retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai for the time being. Customers can still order iPhone through the Apple Online Store, or buy at China Unicom and other authorized resellers.”

See our review of the iPhone 4S here.

Source: AllThingsD

I decided against doing a full iPhone 4S review – the simple fact is that the iPhone 4S is not a massive jump from the iPhone 4, and you will be quite familiar with the 4S if you have ever used an iPhone 4. But the thing about Apple fans is that they always want the latest and greatest. Luckily I was up for an upgrade from Vodacom, so here we are.

I am doing this review from the viewpoint of a long time iPhone user – I am comparing it to previous iPhones, of which I have owned every version since launch. While I use different phones with different operating systems almost every week, my primary phone is still an iPhone. I am not comparing it to the latest Galaxy Optimus Black Nexus LTE Droid RAZR Defy Plus. I have great respect for some of the latest Android superphones, but right now I am simply going to address the iPhone 4S from the viewpoint of an iPhone user. So here goes.

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As 2011 draws to a close we thought it might be a good time to look back and see what products we really enjoyed using in 2011. Some of our choices might be controversial, but hey, horses for courses. Let us know what you think in the comments?

Best Phone: Samsung Galaxy S2

Even the most ardent fans of iPhone have to agree – the Galaxy S2 is a truly great phone. It is very fast, is built well (despite being made of plastic), the screen is beautiful, the camera is excellent – the list goes on. Pricing is also pretty good, and the phone is still great several months later, which you cannot typically say of the Android phone marketplace. You cannot go wrong. Not even Samsung’s bigger and faster Galaxy Note could change our name. Now we just have to get our hands on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Close second: Apple iPhone 4S. Expect our review in the new year.

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So you were so eager to jump on the iOS5 update when it arrived, and now your phone wont last the day? It looks like Apple’s fancy new mobile operating system has been giving a few people very poor battery life. Well luckily Apple has fixed iOS5 with a simple Over The Air update. In the past it was a big mission to update your iPhone, requiring you to plug in your device to iTunes and then downloading a massive ipsw file.

This time it is a lot easier, provided you have iOS5 installed already. First off, make sure you have a battery above 50%, or plug your device into power:

• Go to Settings – General – Software Update
• Click Download and Install.

You can then keep using the phone for other things. The download will happen in the background, and the phone will inform you once it needs to restart.

First off, you have to be connected to a wifi network, as the update is still 40+ megabytes to download. The whole update took us about 5 minutes on a decent internet connection. iOS5 is available on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S (on which it is preinstalled). Any iPod Touch 3rd generation and newer, and any iPad can install iOS5 as well. As a bonus, this update also enables multi touch gestures on older iPad 1′s. Which might be reason enough to get it…

If you have not updated to iOS5, here are some reasons you need it right now.

I’ll always stay connected with Apple. I hope that throughout my life I’ll sort of have the thread of my life and the thread of Apple weave in and out of each other, like a tapestry. There may be a few years when I’m not there, but I’ll always come back.

– Steve Jobs in 1985

What a sad, sad day folks. One of the great technology visionaries of our time have passed away. Steve Jobs was one of the co-founders of Apple, who started the business out of a garage in Silicon Valley. In his early 30′s he was already one running one of the most powerful computer companies, and after a few turbulent years, Apple has grown to become the most valuable company on earth.

This is the man who was responsible to bring everyday things we take for granted into our lives – his company was first to ship with a mouse and the first mass produced personal computer running a graphical user interface. And recently he basically shifted the entire smartphone industry through the launch of the iPhone and the follow up tablet, the iPad.

The statement on Apple.com says it best:

As one of the posters at his already forming vigil in New York put it:

Keep Thinking Different.

Update - Tim Cook’s email to all Apple staff:

Team,

I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

We are planning a celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com.

No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.

Tim

Apple iPhone users know that traditionally July is the month to expect the latest iPhone to be announced. We South Africans then typically get it a few months later. So it is pretty sad that so far this year there was no iPhone announced at WWDC, which has always been the case. But luckily in a few hours (19:00 SA time), we will know what Apple has been working on.

There is of course a few things that also needs to be in place before iPhone. First of which is iCloud – Apple’s great new syncing service which will keep all your iOS and Mac devices in sync. Announced in September, the service is a tremendous undertaking by Apple, who has always charged for its cloud based storage. This time round they are rolling it out to everyone, and the the service will be integrated right into the iOS operating system. Users have been testing the iOS5 beta for a while now, and the iCloud services are slowly being enabled. There has not been a lot a of iOS5 Beta updates recently, so expect the software to roll out as Golden Master within the next few days.

What is perhaps more interesting is rumours of Apple releasing a cheaper version of the iPhone. If this is true, huge sales can be expected. For the last two releases of iPhone, Apple kept the older model on the market with a slightly decreased storage capacity at a slightly lower cost. Typically the cost difference was negligible, so most users just opted for the latest model. But in recent times other smartphone manufacturers have started bringing out cheaper and cheaper phones, which was still fairly capable, particularly in the Android camp. Now this might indeed just be the iPhone 4 that is kept on the market.

Sure, people can argue that Apple has always been more expensive than their competitors, but in the mobile market this strategy might not work for them. And the low price of the iPad compared to other tablets already show that Apple can make a high quality product at a lower price. (See our review of the iPad 2 here) So the time might be ripe for Apple to start shipping lower end versions of the iPhone…

This image was taken a while back of a strange looking iPhone - could this be the iPhone 5 or it's new little brother?

So what new can we expect from the iPhone 5? Rumours are pretty scarce right now, but most seem to point towards a larger screen. The current 3.5 inch “Retina” display of the iPhone is incredibly detailed, but it is quite a bit smaller compared to other new phones on the market (just one look at the Samsung Galaxy S2 screen in person to see how great a large screen on a phone can look). A larger screen which still fits in the same size iPhone body will mean that the bezel around the screen would need to be much smaller.

Another point where the iPhone can be improved on is the use of glass on the rear of the phone. Yes, it really looks great, and feels great in your hand. But it is also fragile, so we will have to see if Apple will change its choice of material. Case designers are speculating a return to a curved edges around the rear panel, which means that the phone will feel smaller in hand.

The new iPhone 5 (or iPhone 4s) will almost certainly ship with the dual core Apple A5 processor, and potentially more memory. Other potential features to look out for is adoption of the NFC standard, implementation of “personal assistant” functionality (from Apple’s acquisition of Siri), and improved camera…

So, what features are you hoping for in the next iPhone?