The iPad HD Will Go on Sale March 16

This rumor comes from 9to5Mac, which says an Apple Store source tipped them the actual launch date, which is March 16. That makes sense -- most major Apple product launches have taken place on Fridays. It would also be about a week and half after the unveiling, just short enough to keep with Apple's pattern of near-immediate availability and just long enough to ensure a production sample doesn't get spotted in the wild before the event. It's also the same date that two new Apple stores, including one in London's Harrod's department store, are opening.

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Even though Apple hasn’t said anything about what it’s going to talk about today at its event in San Francisco, we are almost 100% certain it’s going to unveil a new iPad called the iPad HD (not the iPad 3) with a high-resolution “retina” display, an improved processor and the option of getting a model equipped with 4G LTE connectivity.

How do we know all this? Rumors, of course. While outlandish Apple rumors on tech blogs and news sites are as common as hipsters at coffee shops, as an Apple event approaches they tend to converge into a consensus, with more reliable sources and outlets reporting similar, if mundane, developments.

So now, with the event mere hours away, what does that leave us to speculate on? Quite a lot, actually. Now that the main points have been settled on, the attention turns to the finer details and last-minute breadcrumbs that Apple and others have left in our path to the Yerba Buena Center, the venue for today’s festivities.

In a similar fashion, when many of the details about the iPhone 4S had been prematurely revealed last fall, it was left for Apple to surprise the world with Siri and the addition of Sprint to its U.S. carrier partners. Sure, many were still holding out hope for a true “iPhone 5,” but the real news was in the details.

Now, as then, more information began to trickle out at the last minute, just a day or so before the event. Here’s a roundup of the last-minute rumors surrounding Apple’s launch of the iPad HD.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, 4FR

More About: apple, Apple TV, AppleCare, haptic feedback, ipad, ipad 3, ipad HD, rumors, trending

The women’s lifestyle glossy first began offering digital subscriptions through Zinio in 2005. Additional versions have been made available on Barnes & Nobles’s Nook, Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iPad devices over the past few years, in addition to a spinoff men’s magazine available exclusively for the iPad.

In a somewhat unusual move, Cosmo‘s digital editions are actually more expensive than its print editions — in the U.S., at least. Print-only subscriptions cost $15 per year, or $12 per year for a three-year committment, through Cosmo‘s website and third-party retailers including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. By contrast, subscriptions are priced at $19.99 per year through Zinio and Apple’s Newsstand, and at $1.99 per month through the Nook and Kindle stores.

In a statement, Hearst added that it has sold more than 500,000 digital subscriptions to its portfolio of magazines to date and is still on track to surpass the 1 million digital subscriber mark by the end of the year.

Subscriptions to Hearst titles are growing a rate of 10% to 15% per month, Hearst Corp President David Carey said in December.

More About: cosmo, Cosmopolitan, hearst, ipad, Kindle, magazines, Media, nook

Invisible Children, a movement seeking to end the conflict in Uganda, has created a film it hopes will accelerate the arrest of Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony, who has been kidnapping and abducting Uganda’s youth for nearly three decades.

Filmmaker Jason Russell says that it’s obvious Kony should be stopped, but the problem is “99% of the world doesn’t know who he is.” To spread knowledge of Kony and his abductions, Invisible Children is targeting 20 culture makers and 12 policymakers who it believes have the influence to spread word of Kony to the rest of the planet.

“I’d like indicted war criminals to enjoy the same level of celebrity as me,” actor and humanitarian George Clooney says in the film.

Of the 20 culture makers Invisible Children is targeting, Rihanna, Oprah, Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift have used Twitter to spread the word about Kony so far.

Since its launch Monday afternoon, the film has been viewed 5.4 million times in 150 countries, with some 9,000 comments left on Vimeo. It has been viewed an additional 1.8 million times on YouTube with over 99,000 comments left. The film will stay online until Dec. 31, 2012.

Invisible Children told Mashable that it has gained 200,000 Facebook fans since the film went up. Action Kit, #stopkony, #kony2012, #makehimfamous, Invisible Children, Uganda and LRA have trended on Twitter due to the film and the surrounding social media campaign.

Russell began his mission to stop Kony a decade ago, when he promised a Ugandan boy Jacob that he would stop the LRA leader.

“It is better that you kill us, because we don’t want to stay on earth,” Jacob tells Russell early in the film.

Russel frames the 30-minute documentary through a conversation with his young son, Gavin. He tells his son he is working to stop “bad guy” Joseph Kony, who gives young boys like Jacob guns and makes them shoot other people. What he could not tell Gavin was that Kony kidnaps and abducts children, turning the girls into sex slaves and turning the boys into LRA child soldiers.

So far, over 30,000 children have been captured by Kony and his army. The LRA leader has stated that he is “not fighting for any cause, but only to maintain his power.”

When Russell first returned from Africa, he met with members of Congress to explain what he’d seen on the ground in Uganda. The problem, he was told, was that the U.S. government would not get involved in a conflict that didn’t threaten U.S. national security.

In October 2011, however, the U.S. Government sent 100 American advisers to central Africa to aid the Ugandan Army in their fight against the LRA. Russel claims that this was the first time in history that the U.S. took a military action that was demanded by the people, rather than self defense. The Ugandan military still needs the technology and training to find Kony, according to Russel.

Watch the video above and let us know why you think this campaign has been so successful. Was it Invisible Children’s decision to target influential figures? Or is it the powerful film itself?

More About: africa, Film, kony 2012, Social Good, South Africa, trending

SimCity is back, but the world has changed.

Since the last video game in the Simsseries was released in 2003, graphics have greatly improved. Climate change issues have also become more top of mind over the past few years. SimCity 5 — set for release in 2013 — will not only feature better graphics, it will also address climate change and environmental issues.

The PC-based title, which is in the process of being created by EA’s Maxis label, was unveiled at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week. As the trailer above demonstrates, it looks to be a quantum leap in terms of detail over SimCity 4.( For comparison’s sake, we’ve included the new trailer for SimCity 5 and the one from SimCity 4 below.)

Davis Guggenheim, director of climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth, told conference attendees that the game will help educate young players about the issue. Players will also be able to compete with others to be the greenest city.

Don’t expect the game to be a dry civics lesson, though. Lucy Bradshaw, senior vice president of gamemaker Maxis, told Reuters, “While it is about managing your resources correctly, a giant lizard may troll around the corner and take out a few buildings and you’ll have to deal with that.”

More About: EA, Gaming, Marketing, Maxis, simcity, videos

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Newt Gingrich launched a new Timeline page called the “Romney Record” Wednesday morning, fresh off the heels of Super Tuesday. The idea? To use Timeline’s chronological layout to highlight Mitt Romney’s decisions that some conservative voters may find off-putting.

Many conservatives, Gingrich included, have accused Romney of failing to be “conservative enough” to win the support of Republican voters. Facebook Timeline has given the Gingrich campaign a unique way to make that argument in an easy-to-consume digital format.

The page’s cover photo labels Romney an “out-of-touch liberal.” The “about” section highlights a Romney quote about not wanting a return to the years President Reagan, who is idolized by many conservative voters.

The Romney Record Timeline specifically calls attention to Romney quotes that make him appear a too-liberal moderate Republican whose wealth prevents him from understanding the lives of average Americans.

Posts about recent Romney gaffes include a quote about his being “unemployed,” as he left the Massachusetts governorship in 2007. Romney intended the line to connect with Americans unable to find work in a tough economy, but many found it insincere because Romney enjoys considerable personal wealth.

As a visitor to the Romney Record scrolls down the page and backwards through time, he or she is presented with news clips and video of Romney speeches, quotes and decisions from his time as governor of Massachusetts that have proved controversial with some Republican voters.

Scrolling further down the page reveals stories about Romney’s life before politics as President and CEO of the Salt Lake City Olympic Games and CEO of Bain Capital, a private investment firm. Prominently highlighted is a now-famous picture of a young Romney and his Bain associates passing proudly displaying money.

A longer trip down the Timeline shows visitors Romney taking moderate stands on issues like abortion rights and health care during his 1994 Senate race against the late Ted Kennedy.

However, some parts of the Timeline are mislabeled. For example, that 1994 senatorial debate between Romney and Ted Kennedy is called a “gubernatorial debate” in the description.

What do you think of the Romney Record Timeline page? Do you think more of these negative political Timelines will show up in the coming months? Sound off in the comments below.

Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, Gage Skidmore

More About: 2012 presidential campaign, Facebook, facebook timeline, Mitt Romney, newt gingrich, Social Media

Hours before the expected launch of the iPad HD, the Apple Store is sporting a Post-It message reading, “We’ll be back soon.”

The message continues, “We are busy updating the store and will be back shortly.” It featured phone numbers for “telesales” teams in various countries. Aside from the Apple Store section, the rest of Apple.com appears to be functioning smoothly. The iPad section appears unchanged and spotlights the iPad 2 at a price of $499.

Apple’s press event is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET. According to a report, the new iPad may be available for sale in Apple Stores on March 16. When Apple launched the iPad 2 last March, the company did not allow consumers to preorder the device.

Mashable will be providing complete coverage of Wednesday’s announcement. Tune in here for frequent updates.

More About: Apple Store, ipad 3, ipad HD

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The power of Reddit saved one man’s life. Bear Silber developed a mystery ailment in adulthood that debilitated his body for years — his condition was identified after seeing the comments of a humorous post.

“Due to my illness, I could barely get in my car without agonizing pain, I could hardly walk up a flight of stairs without taking a rest,” says Silber in the video.

He was an avid marathon runner, snowboarder and hiker. Several doctors took numerous blood tests to see what was causing Silber so much pain yet there wasn’t a clear answer.

While browsing through Reddit one night, Silber came across this post which was supposed to be a joke. Silber says he was terrified looking at a picture of a man who displayed similar symptoms.

“I knew that if I didn’t get cured, I would end up eventually looking exactly like this man,” says Silber.

One Reddit commenter mentioned Cushing’s Disease, which is caused by a tumor in the pituitary gland that produces large amounts of ACTH (hormone associated that usually responses to biological stress). Silber immediately looked up information on the disease. He had all of the symptoms.

Several skeptical doctors turned down his Internet-based self-diagnosis, so he eventually went to an endocrinologist who immediately recognized it as Cushing’s. The doctors who performed the surgery claim that he was a “one in a billion case,” says Silber.

Silber is currently recovering and has launched a Kickstarter, hoping to write a book that will tell his story.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Eva Blue.

More About: reddit, YouTube

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Currently, that’s a lot of customers. According to recent statistics, close to 90% of today’s computers run some version of Windows. While that guarantees Microsoft a certain level of success no matter what happens, no one wants another Windows Vista, which was plagued with issues ever since it launched in 2006, and never achieved the adoption of its predecessor, Windows XP.

Windows 8 is a bold step forward for Microsoft, since the experience on mobile devices — specifically, tablets — was a key part of its inception. While there currently aren’t any Windows tablets with significant market share, Windows 8 will finally give them an operating system tailored to their touchscreens and low-power needs, potentially breaking that market wide open.

At least that’s Microsoft’s hope. But what exactly is Windows 8 and how is it going to change the experience for Windows users? We’ve been covering its progression over the past several months, and we even had some time to get up close and personal with the latest version of the software last month (see the video at the end of this article for our impressions).

Here’s what you need to know about Windows 8, including a few details you may not have noticed yet.

Why is Windows 8 such a big deal?
Windows 8 is a top-to-bottom rethinking of Windows. It looks and works differently than any version of Windows ever made. The idea was to create a version of Windows that was just as friendly to touchscreen devices like tablets as it was to traditional desktop PCs with mice and keyboards.

The new interface is called Metro, and its overall aesthetic and functionality is very similar to Microsoft’s mobile operating system, Windows Phone. The Metro interface is centered around touch-friendly “tiles,” instead of files, folders and icons. The traditional desktop is still part of Windows 8, however, and users will be able to toggle between it and Metro with a single click.

Why is Microsoft changing its software so drastically?
Microsoft is very aware of the growing importance of mobile devices in “personal computing.” But unlike, say, Apple, Microsoft doesn’t have a strong mobile platform to build on; the original Windows Mobile phones are almost phased out, and the relatively new Windows Phone platform is barely out of the gate.

Although the iPad is dominant in tablets, the market is still growing. At the same time, traditional PCs (laptops and desktops) are relatively stagnant. Windows 8 is a long-term bid by Microsoft to leverage its powerful position in PCs, and to to create an strong ecosystem for tablets while simultaneously re-imagining its core software to be more in line with today’s consumer needs.

So what’s Metro like?
Metro has much more in common with the tile-based Windows Phone interface than the familiar desktop. You launch apps by clicking (or touching) tiles, and those apps take up the full screen. Microsoft apps — like Internet Explorer — are still there, but re-imagined for the interface. Gone are the pull-down menus of yore, replaced with big, clear labels and “charms,” basically function menus that you can call up with a right-click or finger swipe.

When you really need those files and folders, the familiar desktop is still there, accessible with a single click. In fact, you can use a Windows 8 machine entirely in “legacy” mode, never turning on Metro, if you wish.

Here’s a slideshow that will give you a better idea of what Metro looks like.

Start Menu

Here's what greets you every time you log into your Windows 8 machine. Yes, the tiles are customizable, though it's a little unwieldy in practice.

Click here to view this gallery.

Metro sounds like it would be surreal across multiple displays.
It would be, but it doesn’t work that way. Windows 8 will only feed Metro to a single display (the primary one). Your other screens get the traditional desktop.

Fair enough. Is there anything special about Metro apps besides how they look?
A lot, actually. Windows 8 is designed for sharing, and apps can tell the OS that there’s something to share via a “contract.” When Windows 8 sees the contract, it’ll add the app’s icon to the Share menu, which is available in every app (you can see it demonstrated in the video below). It’s a little unpolished in the consumer preview, and there are currently no apps that can share other than Mail, but the potential is great. Think icons for Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn — the works — all ready for you, from every app.

Contracts also work with search. If your app tells the OS that it has searchable content, it’ll show up in your search menu, letting you search solely for content that that particular app touches.

How does the Windows 8 experience change from tablet to PC?
The interface stays the same, but you access specific functions differently. For example, if you want to open up the main functions menu on a tablet, you slide your finger in from the side. If you’re using a mouse and keyboard, you aim for the bottom corner. Microsoft maintains the interface is natural and friendly on both kinds of machines, though we found the mouse-and-keyboard setup somewhat counterintuitive.

On the tablet side, it’s important to note that in the case of a Windows 8 device, your tablet is your PC. Although you’re certainly allowed to own as many devices as you want, there isn’t a need to buy both if you want both experiences. This is one of the main points of departure from the Apple experience, which has different operating systems for both the iPad and Mac computers. On the Windows side, they’ll be one in the same.

Apple keeps my devices synced via iCloud. Does Windows 8 do something similar?
Yes! And it’s arguably better. If you sync your Windows 8 machine with a Windows Live account, then all your preferences and personal info is synced via the cloud. That means when you log into your friend’s PC, it will effectively become your PC — apps, bookmarks and all — until you log out (memory and storage permitting). You can also store up to 25GB of your own files in the cloud via Microsoft’s cloud-storage service, SkyDrive.

Speaking of multiple devices, Microsoft says it will allow simultaneous logins for five different devices so families can share an account. In addition, if you have Windows 8 on a USB key, you can boot straight from that, without installing anything on the machine.

I’ve got an Xbox 360 — how does Windows 8 tie in with that?
Microsoft includes apps for Music, Videos and Xbox Live as part of the default Windows 8 desktop. Through Xbox Live, you can see what your friends are playing and change your avatar, for example. The Xbox Live Companion app even lets you launch Xbox 360 games on the desktop or stream video to an Xbox at home.

What about Office?
Microsoft is working on a version of Office that’s tailored to Windows 8. Although it hasn’t said much about the details, Microsoft says the upcoming version of Office (code-named “Office 15″) will work in both the Metro and desktop environments. A version of Office will also come packaged free on Windows on ARM devices.

Wait, what’s Windows on ARM?
When Microsoft decided to make Windows work on all kinds of devices, it set out to re-code Windows for machines that use chips based on the ARM architecture, which has a near-monopoly on mobile devices (phones and tablets). (Until now, traditional Windows has run exclusively on machines that use the power-hungry x86 chip architecture made by Intel and AMD.)

Windows on ARM (WOA) is a key part of Microsoft’s plan to get Windows on as many machines as possible. The experience will differ a bit, but most features — even the traditional desktop — will be available on both. Microsoft says WOA devices will be “end-to-end” products, meaning you won’t buy Windows separately from the device. Look for special mobile features, like an extreme low-power mode that lets the tablet stay in standby mode for weeks.

That’s starting to sound a bit like a Windows Phone. How does that fit in?
Microsoft hasn’t officially stated its plans for tying Windows Phone to Windows 8, but you can bet plans are afoot. Leaks and rumors say Microsoft is also retooling Windows Phone from the ground up, so big chunks of its software will be directly compatible with Windows 8. (Windows Phone is currently based on Microsoft’s older mobile OS, Windows CE.)

Assuming that happens, it’ll be easier for developers using Windows proper to port their apps to Windows Phone, and vice versa. That functionality is essentially the whole thrust of Windows 8 in a nutshell — making a comprehensive ecosystem that includes desktops, laptops, tablets and phones.

I want to dive deeper — how can I?
If you’d like to experience Windows 8 for yourself, feel free to download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and install it on your Windows machine. Microsoft says any machine that runs Windows 7 can run Windows 8. Be warned, though: It’s still buggy and far from final.

What will I need to run Windows 8?
Here are the official specs from Microsoft.

• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
• Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device or higher

Additional requirements to use certain features:

• To use touch, you need a tablet or a monitor that supports multitouch.
• To access the Windows Store and to download and run apps, you need an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768.
• To snap apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768.

When’s it coming out?
When it’s ready. Going by past history, we’ll likely see a general release of Windows 8 in the fall of 2012. However, Microsoft needs to carefully move a lot of different pieces into place to pull this off, and setbacks in any one of them could push the release back. This is the biggest change in Windows since the release of Windows 95, and it’s just getting started.

More About: features, microsoft, PCs, tablets, trending, Windows, Windows 8

NASA will launch five rockets in five minutes sometime in the next month, and some East Coast residents are in for a treat. The space agency says the rockets, to be launched from Virginia’s Wallops Flight Facility, should be visible from several states along the Eastern Seaboard.

NASA calls the mission “launch madness” — a likely homage to this month’s ever-popular March Madness college basketball tournament. It’s launching the fleet to learn more about the high-altitude jet stream located high above Earth’s surface.

That’s not to be confused with the jet stream frequently referenced by weathermen and women on local TV stations across the country. This jet stream is located some 65 miles above sea level and is home to winds that can reach more than 300 miles per hour.

Here’s why NASA cares: The jet stream is in the same region high above Earth where powerful electrical currents in the ionosphere (an area of the atmosphere) occur. The high winds and currents can combine to create electrical turbulence that interferes with satellite and radio communications. NASA wants to learn more about those winds.

To do so, its rockets will release a chemical tracer. The tracer will form a milky white clouds. The clouds, NASA says, will “allow scientists and the public to ‘see’ the winds in space.”

So basically, not only will you be able to see rockets soaring into the sky — you’ll be able to see the wind, too. Not bad.

The rockets will be launched sometime between March 14 and April 3, dependent on weather conditions. For more on what NASA is up to and the science behind “launch madness,” check out the agency’s mission announcement.

Thumbnail image courtesy of NASA

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The program works like this: Cardholders go to sync.americanexpress.com/twitter to sync their card with their Twitter account. Then, when they tweet various “special offer” hashtags (like “#amexcoffee” for instance), couponless savings are loaded onto their cards.

If you follow those directions, the next time you go to buy one of the featured items at a participating merchant, the savings wil be automatically delivered via a statement credit in a few days. Best Buy, McDonald’s, Whole Foods Market and Zappos are among the participating merchants. (See the video below for a further explanation.)

The idea seems like a fair trade-off: You get discounts in exchange for marketing on behalf of American Express and its merchant partners on Twitter. Some of the deals include: A $20 statement credit when you tweet “#AmexWholeFoods” and use your synced card to make a purchase of $75 or more at Whole Foods and a $10 statement credit when you spend $100 or more at Best Buy and tweet “#AmexBestBuy.”

Twitter is a relatively new arena for AmEx. However, the company has been aggressive on other social media fronts. Last July, the brand launched a program called “Link, Like, Love” that tailored deals to you based on your Facebook “likes.” (For instance, if you “liked” Whole Foods, you might see an offer on your Facebook dashboard.) The brand also linked with Foursquare last June for a national program that rewarded users with a loyalty card-like credit when they checked in.

The new program also comes after AmEx worked with Twitter for an initiative offering $100 in free advertising for the first 10,000 businesses to sign up for Twitter’s new self-serve ad platform. That offer is going live this month.

More About: american express, Twitter

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Meet the video game controller that fights back. Engineers at the University of Utah have designed a console controller with thumb-sticks that lightly pull and push on your fingers to more realistically simulate actions and experiences. They say the technology can enhance common gameplay scenarios such as shooting a gun, casting a fishing line or riding a wave.

“I’m hoping we can get this into production when the next game consoles come out in a couple of years,” William Provancher, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, says in a campus press release.

Provancher’s device features a red “tactor” positioned in the middle of each thumb-stick. The tactors stretch the skin of players’ thumbs to give directional cues and feedback. So if you’re playing a fishing game and get a bite, Provancher says, “as the fish jerks the line, you can feel the tactor jerk under your thumb.” Or, if you’re playing a racing game and run into a wall or pole, the tactor jerks back to register the impact.

Provancher and fellow researchers found in a study that gamers were able to use the tactors effectively while holding the controllers at a variety of angles. The innovative device currently has a patent pending.

But Provancher’s console controller is more than simply fun and games — it can lay the groundwork for more serious applications in future years. “By placing skin-stretch feedback in a game controller, it creates a nice testing environment for understanding human perception and cognition,” he says.

Where do you see this technology leading? Let us know in the comments.

Thumbnail image by Markus Montandon, University of Utah

More About: Gaming, Tech

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Next-Gen iPad to Be Unveiled Today

The biggest story of the day is, of course, Apple’s unveiling of the next-generation iPad, which will happen in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater.

Will it have a high-resolution screen? Will it come with LTE or perhaps even NFC support? All the rumors will be laid to rest – at least for a while – and we will be there live at noon ET, 9 a.m. PT.

Google Launches New Content Market Called Google Play

The Android app store, Google Music and the Google eBookstore have all been merged into a one-stop-shop called Google Play. The Android Market are re-branded as the “Google Play Store,” and movies, books, and music are named Google Play Movies, Google Play Books and Google Play Music.

Netflix in Talks for Cable Partnership

Netflix is in talks with cable companies to bring its content as another on-demand option for cable subscribers, Reuters reports citing sources familiar with the matter. If a deal goes through, cable operators might start offering Netflix as an additional option to subscribers, adding it onto their cable bill, sources say.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59

More About: first to know series, Google Play, ipad, netflix

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That’s because the web’s reach is spreading fast. While it took 30 years to get two billion people online, the Internet is now adding one billion new users every four years.

Smartling, an enterprise translation management company, created this multilingual, interactive HTML5 infographic to show who is using the Internet today around the world. Smartling believes that to create a global web, the platform must speak more languages and businesses must adjust their practices to reach new audiences in non-English speaking markets.

90% of today’s web users live in non-English speaking countries. Only 13% of the world’s web users live in North America. In comparison, Asia is home to 45% of web users, Europe is home to 23%, South America is home to 10%, Africa is home to 6% and the Middle East is home to 3.3%.

The infographic highlights market share growth, ecommerce and mobile trends in South America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The amount of Arabic on the Internet — 3% of all sites in 2011 — has increased by 2500% since 2000. Similarly, Russian’s current 3% share is up 1800% in the last decade. China added more Internet users in three years than there are people in the U.S. And China, India, Iran, Nigeria and Russia have added the most new Internet users in the last five years.

You can view the infographic in nine different languages — Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portugese and Spanish — on Smartling’s website.

What do you make of these statistics? Do you think the rise of non-English speakers presents a challenge or an opportunity? Let us know in the comments.

More About: HTML5, infographics, languages, World

Topping the list of free all-time favorites for the iPhone is Facebook, followed by Pandora Radio, Words With Friends Free, Skype and the Weather Channel.

On the paid iPhone app front, Angry Birds is leading the pack, followed by more of games: Fruit Ninja, Doodle Jump, Cut the Rope and Angry Birds Seasons.

The list of most popular paid iPad apps is once again dominated by disgruntled avians, with various Angry Birds flavors taking second and third place. Pages, Penultimate and Scrabble for iPad have taken first, fourth and fifth place.

The most popular free iPad app is Angry Birds Free, followed by the Weather Channel, Netflix, Skype and Kindle.

A quick analysis of the full top 25 lists reveals that iPad users install a lot of children’s games and entertainment apps, as well as office apps, such as apps from Apple’s iWork suite. Gaming is extremely popular on both platforms, while camera-related apps such as Camera+ or Instagram thrive on the iPhone.

And yes, the iPad paid apps are vastly more expensive than iPhone apps – most iPhone apps on the top list cost $0.99, while iPad apps usually cost $1.99, often more.

You can see the full lists here (iTunes link).

[via Macstories]

More About: app store, apple, downloads, ipad, iphone

The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in South-of-Market San Francisco is a warm, intimate, high-tech venue, which is probably why Apple keeps coming back here for its iPad launches. Far smaller than the neighboring Moscone Center, the YCBA theater boasts a mere 755 seats.

Here’s what we can guarantee about Wednesday morning: every last one of those seats will be filled. Two of them will be occupied by your ever-loving Mashable crew.

Beyond that, very little is certain. As you know by now, Apple’s obsessive secrecy about their product launches makes Fort Knox look like a shopping mall on Christmas Eve. And let’s post this clear caveat one more time: every last rumor about this event could well be wrong.

But there is a pattern to these launch events, and if you’ve been to enough of them — as editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff and I have — you get a sense of how it’s going to go. The process was honed over the years by the maestro, Steve Jobs, so incumbent CEO Tim Cook is standing on the shoulders of a keynote-loving giant. Here’s how we expect it to go:

1) Cook will take the stage. Unassuming as he is, at this point there simply isn’t anyone else at Apple with his stature. Look for assists from old hands, such as marketing chief Phil Schiller, but Cook will be the main attraction. (Design guru Jonny Ive tends to show up on video rather than on stage.)

2) Let’s start with some numbers. As with any good entertainer, Apple knows not to hit the crowd with the performance they’re expecting straight away. No doubt we’ll see some updated stats on iPhone and Mac sales; almost certainly, we’ll be reminded that the App store just hit its 25 billionth download.

In short, the numbers will be dazzling, and it’s all part of the act. Applause will be widespread and frequent in the non-press seats. A salesperson would call this “pumping the buying temperature.”

3) Two words: Mountain Lion. Apple has a captive audience and a new Mac OS in the works — one that isn’t going on sale until this summer. Expect to see its main features (Messages, Reminders, Twitter et al) recounted in loving detail, while the tech press shift uncomfortably in their seats.

4) A short history of the iPad. Talk of Mountain Lion, with all its iOS integration, should naturally pivot to the tablet we’re here to celebrate. This is Cook’s opportunity to take us back to early 2010, when Jobs unveiled the original iPad to an extremely skeptical press corps. It would be a good time for a few jokes — remember how we all thought it just looked like a large iPhone? — as well as more eye-popping stats on sales since then.

If Apple is going to get in a few digs at tablet competitors who have been taking pot-shots of their own — hello, Samsung — now would be the time.

5) iOS6, is that you? Here’s the first big unknown. Will Cook tease us with news of Apple’s next generation mobile operating system (which someone at Apple is apparently already using to read Mashable)? Or will that wait until the iPhone 5 unveiling this fall?

6) What’s next. The windup to the big pitch. Expect Cook to talk about the retina display on the iPhone 4 and 4S; how clean and crisp it looks at that resolution. Now, wouldn’t it be great to see that on a larger screen?

In short, pretty much all the fanboy questions of the last six months will be answered in five minutes or less. The rest is icing.

8. Demos, demos, demos. Time to wheel out the heads of this and that product group, followed by the makers of this and that app, as the main features of the new device get taken for a spin. Undoubtedly we’ll see a lot of what games look like on a tablet with ridiculously high resolution — perhaps a game or two in development that no one has seen yet. Infinity Blade 3, anyone?

9. Let’s watch some videos. Here’s where we’ll see how Apple intends to market the new tablet. Indeed, if Cook’s launch of the iPhone 4S is any indication, videos will be shown throughout.

10. One more thing? A staple of Jobs keynotes, the last-minute surprise was lacking in Cook’s unveiling of the iPhone 4S. Perhaps this is a permanent change, a recognition that no one could carry it off like Steve. But if there is one more thing, it might be the ideal moment to reveal the new Apple TV box — or maybe, just maybe, the fabled iTV — and showcase its ability to connect seamlessly with the new iPad.

In short, another unforgettable morning at YBCA. How close is this to the mark? We’ll find out in a few short hours. Our live blog starts at noon ET, 9 a.m. PT. See you then!

More About: apple, ipad HD, tim cook, trending

NASA‘s storied space shuttle program may be history but ships are still making bold voyages into space — at least, in Lego form.

A Romanian man built a Lego space shuttle and sent it on a mission toward the stars. And the miniature craft nearly made it to space, reaching a reported maximum altitude of 35,000 meters, or about 21 miles. Its journey is documented in an amazing YouTube video.

“My name is Raul Oaida (from Romania) and this is my LEGO tribute to the end of the space shuttle era,” a YouTube user who goes by the handle “vinciverse” wrote in the video’s intro. The video was posted Friday and at time of writing had gained more than 81,000 views.

Oaida affixed the Lego shuttle to a helium-filled balloon with a GPS and video camera attached. After launch, he followed the Lego shuttle by land in a car until the would-be spaceship left GPS range. The shuttle eventually landed about 240 kilometers, or 150 miles, away from its original takeoff point in Germany.

Oaida is Romainian, but said in a blog post that his home country had too much bureaucratic red tape to make conducting the feat from there practical. So he traveled to Germany, where authorities were apparently more receptive, to launch the mission.

“I’ve always been profoundly inspired by spaceflight,” Oaida wrote, “the Lego Shuttle was the only space program I could afford.”

NASA’s space shuttle program ended after 30 years when the shuttle Atlantis concluded its final voyage last July. Luckily, with people like Oaida, its spirit of innovation and exploration lives on. Check out Oaida’s entire video, complete with emotive music, below.

Thumbnail image courtesy of vinciverse

More About: NASA, space, trending, YouTube