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The Catholic Church has formally blessed a new iOS app called Confession, which lets followers keep track of their sins. No, I’m not making this up!

The $1.99 app was created by an outfit called Little iApps and has been approved by Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne in Indiana. It guides Catholics through an examination of their sins, so when they visit a real priest for the Rite of Penance in a real church they’re ready for the ordeal.

The app guides users through each of the 10 commandments, where they can tap a check box if they’ve, say, coveted their neighbor’s ox or murdered someone.

The app also serves as a cheat-sheet for what sinners are supposed to say in the confessional. For example, when the priest says “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,” the app cues the user to say: “For his mercy endures forever.”

It even has a database listing acts of contrition and prayers.

Confession works on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Developers of an iPhone game called “Smuggle Truck” are already drawing fire – and free publicity – for a game that has not yet been approved by Apple.

The full title of the game from Boston company Owlchemy Labs is “Smuggle Truck: Operation Immigration.”

In it, players navigate through what looks like the U.S.-Mexican border. As the truck drives over cliffs, mountains and dead animals, immigrants fall off the truck bed. Scores are calculated by the number of immigrants helped into the U.S.

It’s a rough world when it comes to couples who mix computer choices: one partner spends a lot of time trying to “convert” the other, most of the time unsuccessfully.

Mostly Mac users, who just can’t let this PC-using habit alone: a micro-survey found that 80% of Mac fans tried to convince their significant other to switch, but only 60% successfully “converted” them.

These are the water-cooler takeaways from a poll about Macs and PC couples, timed of course for that most noxious of holidays, St. Valentine’s Day. Poll organizers Parallels, who ran the survey to promote their solution for running Windows applications on Macs, said they had some 30 respondents.

The reactions poll respondents had when discovering their potential partners were PCs are pretty funny – you could almost insert owning a PC with some other undesirable habit (smoking?)

“I knew he could be changed.”

“I feared there may be more ‘tech support’ than ‘love support’ desired.”

We had a couple of questions for each other having met on-line on our first brunch date. She said she was currently a Windows users, but she had used a Mac in college for Desktop Publishing, there was hope…”

What do you think – does this bear out your PC/Mac relationship experience? “

Or perhaps this digital divide is a valid reason to sign up for Apple-dating service Cupidtino, which only matches up people who love Macs with other Mac lovers.

Via Parallels

Apple’s latest iPhone 4 launched especially for use on Verizon’s CDMA network has already been given the teardown treatment by our friends over at iFixit, and their findings have revealed that the revised device packs a redesigned vibrator, and changes to the location and design of RF components. However, the most surprising discovery is the Qualcomm MDM6600 chip, which is dual-mode GSM and CDMA compatible.

The use of this particular chip, which also features in the Motorola Droid Pro, signifies that the iPhone 5 will surely be dual-mode, allowing Apple to ship one handset for both Verizon and AT&T, as well as every other carrier in every other country.

The full iFixit teardown of the Verizon iPhone 4 is certainly worth a read, buy you can check out our highlights from the teardown after the break!

There’s a flurry of conflicting reports today on when the next iPad will debut – we have heard that the next iteration of the magical device will be unveiled in March or June at the WWDC.

Make your guess in the comments, along with the reason you think why Apple would choose that date.

Five correct answers, randomly chosen (though we admit some bias for the funny ones), will win promo codes for cool iPhone or iPad apps.

Mark your calendars: the next iPhone will be revealed sometime between June 5th and June 9th, 2011, as Apple has already booked those dates at the Moscone Center in San Francisco for this year’s WWDC.

Although the Moscone Center’s website officially lists the early June event name as a “Corporate Meeting,” this anonymous description is usually deployed by Moscone Center management to refer to Apple events.

Apple’s next iPhone is traditionally announced at each year’s WWDC event held at the Moscone Center sometime in June.

Note: Jonathan Zschau is a Boston-based attorney and a specialist in consumer rights.

UPDATE: SquareTrade has objected to some of the statements and characterizations in this article. The company has some good points, which are published in full here.

As well as a good case or bumper, should you buy an extended service plan to protect your iPhone?

These service contracts are commonly referred to as “extended warranty plans,” “protection plans,” or “insurance plans” and promise to insure your iPhone from defect, accidental damage, and sometimes loss or theft.

The problem with extended service contracts is that they don’t offer you much more than you are already entitled to through your iPhone’s warranty, AppleCare, or existing consumer protection laws.

Although these service contracts do offer additional protection from accidental damage, theft, or loss they are also fraught hidden conditions, exclusions, and deductibles, which ultimately detract from their utility. Except for a very small minority of unusually accident-prone iPhone owners, these extended service contracts are a waste of money.

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FaceTime is now available on most of Apple’s iOS devices, and through its OS X operating system for Mac, however, there is one device that’s still sat out in the cold. The incredibly popular iPad is still patiently awaiting FaceTime compatibility, but now, thanks to a hack, it’s possible to enjoy the feature on Apple’s first-generation tablet.

Courtesy of “Intell,” the hack uses a version of the FaceTime application created for the iPod touch, which has been optimized for the larger device and boasts a full-screen user interface.

Of course, you won’t currently get the full FaceTime experience on your iPad because of its lack of front-facing camera, but it’s certainly a start and a nice little taste of things to come. You will be able to see your FaceTime partner on your iPad, and they will be able to hear you.

You’ll need to be connected to Wi-Fi to enjoy FaceTime on your iPad, just like you currently do for other iOS devices.

If you’d like to try the hack yourself, check out the lengthy step-by-step guide copied, from Intell’s post on the iFans forum, after the break. Be warned, however, this process is noted to be risky.

If you try the hack out for yourself, let us know how it went.

Chronic Dev has released its Mac version of greenpois0n, a 1-click jailbreak solution (see why you should jailbreak here). However, it will NOT unlock the device, enabling it to be used with different GSM carriers worldwide.

It is pretty easy to use and worked perfectly with my iPhone 4. Besides the tool, there’s a ‘Loader’ application that gets automatically installed on the iPhone after jailbreak, which gives you option to install Cydia.

Here’s how it works.

Jonathan Kopp is the lead digital and social media strategist for PR mega-firm Ketchum worldwide.

Kopp is also a Mac devotee – never far from his iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro and Apple TV – so we thought he’d be the perfect person to ask where paid iPad content is headed.

Apple’s new subscription model, unveiled with The Daily and expected to reach other iPad magazines soon, has a price point of $0.99 per week, $40 a year, with much the same mechanisms (automatic renewal, no refunds) of analog subscriptions. Apple, which gets a 30% cut from the subs, will also enforce its rule of apps in iTunes selling content via in-app purchase.

Kopp, who came to Ketchum after working on the Obama 2008 National Media Team and the Clinton White House, doesn’t think most people want to pay for those subscriptions. (Judging from the results in our reader poll, you think so, too. )

His take: Apple’s iPad subscription model is basically another Newton and bound to flop.

The post-mortem of Verizon Wireless’ iPhone pre-sales has begun. The carrier sold as many as 100,000 iPhone 4 handsets in the first 17 hours, one analyst projects. The early ‘sold-out’ sign “affirms the strong pent-up demand for hte Verizon iPhone, and bodes well for initial sell-through,” RBC Capital analyst Mike Abramsky told clients Friday.

The carrier could sell 2.9 million iPhones by March and 11.6 million Apple handsets for all of 2011, according to Susquehanna analyst Jeff Fidicaro.

Web developer Chris Galzerano has been digging through the latest beta of iOS 4.3, and his digital archeology has uncovered some interesting hints about what the iPad 2 will look like and what hardware it will boast.

First, iOS 4.3 seems to strongly imply that the Verizon will have its own iPad. The firmware describes iPad 2,1, iPad 2,2 and iPad 2,3, which suggests three models in WiFi, 3G GSM/UMTS and 3G CDMA flavors.

If you’re looking to play a game on your Mac about a homicidal, anthropomorphic rabbit on a quest for vengeance (and hey, who doesn’t), Lugaru HD by Wolfire Games has been the only option around since 2005. That changed a couple of weeks ago, though, when another developer started offering an identical game called Lugaru on the Mac App Store for $1.99… only a fifth of the price of the original game.

What’s happened? Well, some months back, Wolfire Games sweetened the pot of the Humble Indie Bundle (which they are also behind) by making Lugaru HD open source. They released the source under a GPL license, but as is common in these sorts of situations, they retained the rights to the game’s assets: graphics, sounds, levels, etc.

Unfortunately, it appears some less-than-scrupulous devs decided to take the source code and the assets and fling them up on the recently launched Mac App Store. Infuriatingly, they say they’re in the right.

Simplenote is my go-to note taking software on both the Mac and iOS, thanks to its titular simplicity and the nicety with which it plays with external apps like JiustNotes. Now it’s got a beefy update that adds even more functionality to the mix, including Dropbox syncing and lists.

While its only for premium customers, Simplenote’s Dropbox option allows notes to sync with your Mac’s Dropbox folder as simple text files, editable in any program that can handle a plain .txt.

Another premium option is support for lists, which allows any note to be turned into a task list that will allow you to edit the list items inline and even drag-and-drop to rearrange them. This is actually a great feature, as I tended to use my Simplenotes folder as a task list anyway: this just makes it all the easier to manage.

Unfortunately, for both of these functions, you’ll need to be a premium subscriber, which means paying the Simplenote guys $20 a year… but honestly, they deserve it.

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With the launch of The Daily yesterday, Apple revealed a new subscription model for iPad publications.

You can currently check out The Daily for free for two weeks, then subscriptions run $0.99 per week or $40 a year. This model is currently only available for that publication, but is expected to be expanded soon.

The next time you download on iTunes, you’ll be asked to agree with the updated terms of service about in-app subscriptions.

The 347-word TOS specifies that subs are non-refundable, automatically renew and may hand over your personal details to publishers – which, to me at least, sounds like the same kind of hassle faced with analog magazine subscriptions.

Are you pleased that Apple has created a new, uniform model for subscriptions or are you going to stick to paper?

Let us know in the comments.

We suspect many of you were up in the wee hours of the morn, smearing blood across the F5 key as you rubbed your index finger raw refreshing Apple’s website… but in case you forgot what day it is, since 3am EST, it’s been Verizon iPhone Pre-Ordering Day! Hooray!

Of course, you can’t just be one of the AT&T hoi polloi if you want to pre-order an iPhone from VZW: if you’re not an existing Verizon customer, you have to wait until February 9th with the rest of us suckers.

Care to get with the pre-ordering? You can do so either directly through Apple or through Verizon. Predictably, ordering from Apple is the smoother and more pleasant experience.

Who’s signed up? Let’s all have a congratulatory back-patting session in the comments!

The Daily, the made-for-iPad product from Rupert Murdoch and News Corp., made a much-anticipated world debut Wednesday at the Guggenheim in New York. News Corp marketing promised “a package that’s smart, attractive and entertaining.”

Too bad it delivers an experience that’s pedestrian, plain and vaguely creepy. Not to mention prone to crashing.

After months of being an open secret, News Corp’s iPad-only Newspaper, The Daily, is finally here… along with iTunes’ new in-app subscription API that will allow the Daily and other e-publications to finally begin to prosper. We’ve got the full details.

And you thought getting busted for checking out porn at work was bad: an Italian member of parliament was snapped checking out prostitutes on his iPad during a session.

Except that in the Viagra-fueled Italian government that’s pretty much business as usual. Simeone Di Cagno Abbrescia, 67, is a member of Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi’s PDL party, who perhaps thought checking out what to do after work on the iPad’s glossy 9.7-inch screen was no big deal.

The tablet computer – if he’d had a laptop he could’ve adjusted the screen down – was probably what got him busted by a fellow politician with a phone cam.

Well, this is a heck of a scoop to wake up to on Wednesday morning: 9to5Mac has got its grubby little hands upon what they claim to be the display of the iPad 2’s LCD, fresh off of the assembly lines of China.

Computer speakers requiring serious plunking down of dough (we’re going to peg “serious” at over $100 in this particular instance; the Z520s weigh in at an MSRP of $130, well over the threshold) ought to pack really good sound, some sort of neat tech trick or come with a year’s worth of free pizza. The 2-way Z520s try the middle route by offering some design wizardry that almost, but doesn’t quite, account for the price — or make up for an acute case of bass-gone-missing.

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Everyone seemed excited when the iPhone 4 launched with video chat app FaceTime. But aside from the burgeoning iPhone porn chat industry, is anyone actually using it?

Jamey Heary over at Network World wonders. And so do I.
While I love the idea of Jetson-like communications devices, video chatting never seemed that useful to me, even as an expat, to make it something I used regularly – as per a piece I did for Wired back in 2005 writing about my video-call enabled Nokia smartphone.

Once you have waved at your relatives and someone asks you to flash them, the novelty wears off.

Do you use Facetime? How often?

Let us know what you find it useful for or why you haven’t bothered in the comments.

Wondering just how you went through your 2GB allowance of data this month when all you did was do some browsing and email? A new lawsuit filed in California federal court says you’re not the only one.

The lawsuit filed by Patrick Hendricks alleges that AT&T has been systematically overcharging iPhone and iPad owners with capped data plans by falsely reporting the amount of data. According to Hendricks’ lawyers, this so-called “phantom data” can inflate the actual amount of incoming data by as much as three hundred percent.

“AT&T’s billing system for iPhone and iPad data transactions is like a rigged gas pump that charges for a full gallon when it pumps only nine-tenths of a gallon into your car’s tank,” the complaint reads.

San Franciscans like to share – heck, there are three startups here that will let you borrow your neighbor’s car for a small fee – so it seems like a great place to launch an app that lets you rent someone’s parking space.

Also, finding parking in San Francisco sucks. Enter iPhone app Park Circa, which lets you rent out your parking space to fellow drivers for a low rate or snag a spot on the fly without having to worry about having change for parking meters.

The app, in beta for iPhone and soon to come to Android and Blackberry phones, is free to download on iTunes.

Yesterday, Intel announced a massive hardware recall that surely stopped the hearts of a few investors: the Cougar Point chipset used for their cutting-edge Sandy Bridge CPU had a hardware bug that caused the SATA 3GB/s port to degrade over time, potentially harming hard drives and other devices connected to it.

All things considered, it’s not actually a huge issue. Intel expects that over 3 years of use it would see a failure rate of approximately 5 – 15% depending on usage model. Still, at the end of the day, Intel expects to spend a billion dollars recalling and replacing the chipset. Oof.

The good news, of course, is that a Mac owner, this won’t affect your current system a whit: there aren’t any Macs available with Sandy Bridge just yet. Here’s the bad news, though. That imminent imminent Sandy Bridge MacBook Pro refresh? That might get delayed.