"Bwahaha!" says Adobe. "We Were Behind Wired's iPad Magazine All Along!"

After Wired's June edition became the best selling app in the iPad App Store, Adobe revealed their new software behind it—the previously unannounced Adobe Digital Publishing Technologies.

There's not much to hear about the new publishing software yet, other than it integrates with the CS5 suite—InDesign in particular—to create multimedia-rich digital magazines, books and newspapers. Apple may have kept Adobe's originalAir-based Wired app off the iPad, but no one can keep Adobe, makers of the most popular media creation software in existence, out of the game entirely. [Adobe]

2 million iPads sold in under 60 days

Apple has sold more than 2 million iPads since the device debuted April 3, the company said Monday.

(Credit: Apple)

It's safe to assume that the vast majority of those sales came from the U.S. market, as the iPad went on sale less than four days ago in Australia, Japan, Canada, the U.K., Spain, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. Apple didn't say how many of the 2 million iPads were sold internationally.

Speculation that Apple is having a hard time keeping up with demand for the iPad seems to have been confirmed by Apple CEO Steve Jobs in the sales figure announcement.

"We appreciate [customers'] patience, and are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone," Jobs said in the announcement.

Apple said 5,000 applications built specifically for the iPad are now available in the App Store. In all, Apple has more than 200,000 apps in the store that are compatible with the iPad.

It took Apple 28 days to sell its first million iPads and about the same amount of time to sell its second million.

The company also noted that iPad will be available in nine more countries in July, though it did specify which ones.

The next Apple TV revealed: cloud storage and iPhone OS on tap... and a $99 price tag

If you thought that Apple's foray into the world of home entertainment died with the last iteration of theApple TV, you're quite wrong. A tip we've received -- which has been confirmed by a source very close to Apple -- details the outlook for the next version of the Apple TV, and it's a doozy. According to our sources, this project has been in the works long before Google announced its TV solution, and it ties much more closely into Apple's mobile offerings. The new architecture of the device will be based directly on the iPhone 4, meaning it will get the same internals, down to that A4 CPU and a limited amount of flash storage -- 16GB to be exact -- though it will be capable of full 1080p HD (!). The device is said to be quite small with a scarce amount of ports (only the power socket and video out), and has been described to some as "an iPhone without a screen." Are you ready for the real shocker? According to our sources, the price-point for the device will be $99. One more time -- a hundred bucks.

Not only will this be priced to sell (like hotcakes), it seems that Apple is moving away from the model of local storage, and will be focusing the new ATV on cloud-based storage (not unlike Amazon's streaming scheme, though we're talking instant-on 1080p, a la Microsoft). For those still interested in keeping their content close, there will be an option to utilize a Time Capsule as an external storage component, but the main course will be all about streaming. The new ATV will do away with its current OS X-lite variation as a operating system, and will instead adopt the iPhone OS for the underlying experience. There's no word at this point on whether apps and the App Store will be coming along for the ride, but it makes sense given the shared platform. Of course, scaling iPhone apps to that 52-inch plasma in your living room isn't exactly a no-brainer. Perhaps not surprisingly, Apple won't deliver the ATV news at the upcoming WWDC-- that event will be focused on the capabilities of the new iPhone -- but development on the product is most definitely full steam ahead. Is your TV screen the next battleground in the platform wars? Survey says: hell yes.

Let's Cover The Moon in Solar Panels

Here's an idea so crazy it might work: a solar plant on the Moon. Specifically, a 6,800 mile long solar belt that spans the Moon's equator and sends energy back to Earth with lasers and microwave power.

Japanese firm Shimizu is calling their lunar solar power generation concept the Luna Ring and it's brilliantly ambitious. The way the Luna Ring works is by gathering solar energy with a 6,800 mile long solar belt across the Moon's equator that'll be transmitted to Moon-based energy conversion facilities. The converted power will then be beamed to Earth-based facilities with laser power and microwave power. Once on Earth, we'll be able turn all that power into electric power for our power grids or hydrogen fuel.

Robots will handle the lunar-side construction with most building materials coming from the moon. The benefit of having solar panels on the Moon is that it eliminates inefficiency due to bad weather and allows it to achieve 24/7 continuous power generation. Oh, and the fact that we'll have a freaking power plant on the Moon sending lasers at the Earth isn't anything to sneeze at either.

If this Luna Ring ever gets built it'll join a growing number of robot Moon bases in the works. Which will obviously lead to Robot Revolution with all the robots banding together and hijacking the Moon—stealing all our power in the process. [Shimizu viaInhabitat]

iPhone OS 4 beta 4 Places geotagging feature now works (photos)

Apple listed mobile support for its iPhoto Places geotagging feature in the upcoming iPhone OS 4 release, but it hasn't been working until the latest developer build. Here's what it looks like.

The camera on existing iPhones can already capture GPS or triangulated WiFi location data on the pictures it takes. However, there's no way to view where photos were taken on the phone itself; the pictures have to be synced with a desktop program such as iPhoto that supports geotagging.

In the upcoming iPhone OS 4, just like iPad, there's new support for viewing a map of geotagged photos within the Photos app on the iPhone and iPod touch. A Places tab switches the view from albums of thumbnail views to an integrated map marked with pins (shown below).

Similar to Apple's desktop iPhoto program, the new Places feature within the Photos app can pull up individual pictures or groups of photos from any marked point on the map.

Events, Faces and Places

Previous beta releases of iPhone OS 4 have also included tabs for Events (showing photos by date) and Faces (grouping photos by the people tagged within them), both of which are now missing in the latest build.

Update:Another set of screenshots provided by a second beta tester indicates that the beta 4 build also supports Events. It may be that the Events tab is only displayed when there are photos from multiple days. And because Faces data appears to be synced from iPhoto, that tab may only appear if the mobile device has been synced with a photo album containing tagged identities.

The current beta 4 build is the first one seeded to outside developers with a functional Places user interface, so the change doesn't necessarily mean the Faces features have been dropped or will not appear in the final release.

It is likely that support for Events and Faces will be in the final release, as these features already exist and work fine within the iPad's iPhone OS 3.2 build. At the same time however, the "pinch to preview" album user interface used on the iPad will likely need to be modified or simplified to work within the smaller screen of the iPhone and iPod touch.

As depicted in the Events photos (below), it appears Event albums will be shown as a standard list. It would make sense that Faces would be depicted the same way on smaller mobile devices.

Qualcomm ships first dual-core Snapdragon chipsets clocking 1.2GHz

Oh yeah baby, Qualcomm's finally shipping its first dual-core Snapdragons. To whom, is the big question. Its third-generation Mobile Station Modem MSM8260 and MSM8660 Snapdragon chipsets for high-end smartphones -- originally announced in February 2009 -- are now sampling and capable of running at up to 1.2GHz. The MSM8260 supports HSPA+ while the MSM8660 brings support for multi-mode HSPA+ and 1xEV-DO Rev. B. Both integrate GPS, a GPU with 2D/3D acceleration engines for Open GL ES 2.0 and Open VG 1.1, 1080p video encoding and decoding, a dedicated low-power audio engine, and support for 24-bit WXGA 1,280 x 800 pixel displays. Anybody at Computex care to step forward with a reference design?

What Your Email Address Says About Your Computer Skills

This chart justifies all your fears regarding Yahoo! and AOL users. And then some.

Reprinted with permission from Matthew Inman aka "The Oatmeal," a former web designer turned comic artist. You can see more of his work on The Oatmeal. Matthew is a one man operation, so be sure to check out posters and prints from his shop.

Oh, and Matthew wants you to know that if you enjoyed this comic, you might like the one about how to use semicolons as well:

HTC Aria Looks Set to Be a Small Android, Exclusive to AT&T

They're not blurry, but they sure are low-res. Nonetheless, these photos will pique Android users' interests, as they're pointed at being of the teensy HTC Aria, exclusive to AT&T.

According to rumors from those who've seen/handled the phone, it's a small handset (possibly with a 2.8-inch screen), though supposedly squeezes in a 5MP camera. Running Android 2.1 with HTC's Sense UI slicked over it, it's sounding like a lower-end Android which is bound to be cheaper than the latest crop of Androids due any moment now. [AndroidGuys via Unwired View]

Qualcomm's Dual-Core Snapdragon 1.2GHz Chips—Seen In A Smartphone Near You Soon

It's become de rigeur for manufacturers to whack a Snapdragon processor in smartphones nowadays—even if people don't quite understand what it means (or does), they want nothing less. Now, Qualcomm's offering dual-core 1.2GHz chips to manufacturers.

See the MSM8260 and MSM8660 in an Android phone near you soon, with support for 1080p video encoding and decoding amongst other features. Full release below.

Qualcomm Ships First Dual-CPU Snapdragon Chipset

- Third-generation Snapdragon Solutions Feature Two Application Processor Cores Running up to 1.2 GHz to Enable Advanced Smartphones -

TAIPEI, Taiwan - June 1, 2010 - Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM), a leading developer and innovator of wireless technologies, products and services, today announced the Company has sampled its first dual-CPU Snapdragon™ chipsets. The Mobile Station Modem™ (MSM™) MSM8260™ and MSM8660™ solutions integrate two of the Company's enhanced cores running at up to 1.2GHz. Targeted at enabling high-end smartphones, the MSM8x60 solutions are third-generation chipsets from the Company's expanded Snapdragon platform, which has been powering smartphones, tablets and smartbook devices in markets around the world.

"Qualcomm's first-generation Snapdragon chipsets set a new standard for advanced smartphones and smartbook devices, and our second-generation solutions are already shipping in volume," said Steve Mollenkopf, executive vice president of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. "We are very excited by the innovation our customers are already showing as they begin designing products based on our dual-core MSM8260 and MSM8660 chipsets."

The MSM8260 for HSPA+ and MSM8660 for multi-mode HSPA+/CDMA2000® 1xEV-DO Rev. B feature two enhanced CPU cores running at up to 1.2GHz for high levels of Web application and multimedia performance, including a powerful GPU with 3D/2D acceleration engines for Open GLES 2.0 and Open VG 1.1 acceleration, 1080p video encode/decode, dedicated low power audio engine, integrated low power GPS, and support for 24-bit WXGA 1280 x 800 resolution displays.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon family of chipset solutions includes:
· First-generation products: QSD8x50™ with 1GHz enhanced core
· Second-generation products: MSM8x55™ and QSD8x50A™ with 1GHz enhanced core including multimedia optimizations and 1.3GHz enhanced core, respectively
· Third-generation products: MSM8260, MSM8660 and QSD8672 with dual-CPU architecture featuring enhanced cores running at up to 1.2GHz and 1.5GHz, respectively