Yogi Land

While you don’t have to worry about how to hold your iPad, there will be times when you want to go hands-free.

We’ve scoured the Internet for the best iPad stands known to man, and have pulled together a top 10 list of products we’d be happy to see holding our devices in place.

So, if you’re in the market for an iPad stand or holder, have a look at our choices below and let us know your favorites in the comments.

1. Element Case Joule

Perfect for minimalists, the Joule stand will hold your iPad in landscape or portrait modes in what must be one of the most simple and elegant ways available. The Joule comes in aluminum, or anodized silver or black for $10 more.

Cost: From $129

2. LUXA2 H4

Made from solid aluminum with six supporting rubber-covered arms, LUXA2’s H4 iPad stand boasts 360-degree adjustability, can rotate vertically or horizontally, or even flip.

Cost: $59.99

3. Quirky Cradle iPad Lap Desk

Made from “Plyboo” (bamboo plywood) this lightweight “lap desk” offers a stylish way to use your iPad without holding it, while the Lazy Susan approach to the desk’s design means rotating it just takes a twist.

Cost: $52.50 on pre-sale

4. GroovyStand

Get rugged yet sleek with the GroovyStand, an ultra-portable and affordable solution for propping up your iPad. In dark and light wood as well as black, the GroovyStand range offers stands with single slots, wide slots to accommodate cases and dual-angle stands that’ll keep your iPad at 18- or 45-degrees.

Cost: From $7.95

5. Elago Design P2

Another simple, yet effective stand comes from Elago Design. Available in silver or black and made from aluminum, the slightly angled P2 has a hole in the back for cable management, making it a great desktop option.

Cost: $29.99

6. ClamCase

More than just a stand, the soon-to-be-released ClamCase is a three-in-one wonder. In addition to offering protection, it contains a Bluetooth keyboard so you can use your iPad like a netbook, and the clever design means the “screen” will flip back on itself so you can view movies and other media on a desk or table-top.

Not yet available - Due Fall 2010

7. Modgrain Modern iPad Stand

What’s so cool about this Modgrain item isn't that it’s handmade, not that its height is adjustable, not even that you can use it in landscape or portrait mode, but that you can wall-mount it with a metal bracket.

Cost: $69

8. TwelveSouth BookArc

Described as “a beautiful slice of heavy gauge steel,” the BookArc boasts a neat design. It has a cut-out for home button access, keeps the iPad raised so you can have access to the charging port, and the stand will hold your iPad at a slight angle in work mode and upright in storage mode, in both landscape and portrait.

Cost: $39.99

9. Thought Out Company Stabile

Weighing in at nearly four pounds of solid steel, and featuring non-slip feet with a low center of gravity, the good-looking Stabile stand is ideal for the clumsy.

Cost: From $59.99

10. WedgePad

Unlike the other more desktop-like stands on this list, the WedgePad’s unique selling point is that it’s perfect for when you're lounging on the sofa or even in bed. The hand-made, bean-bag style design is finished in microsuede and it has little elastic straps on each corner to keep your iPad in place.

Cost: $27

BONUS: Kitteh iPad Stand!

Veronica Belmont has discovered a great iPad stand -- her little kitty!

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More Apple Resources from Mashable:

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- 10 Awesome Apple-Inspired iPad Wallpapers [PICS]
- 10 Fascinating Facts You Didn’t Know About Apple
- 10 Fun iPod Speakers for Listening in Style
- 5 Fantastic Free iPhone E-book Reader Apps
- 10 Essential Money-Saving iPhone Apps

More About: accessories, apple, Apple iPad, ipad, ipad accessories, Quirky, twelvesouth

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According to an email from Apple, the first beta of the iPhone’s iOS 4.1 mobile operating system is now available from the iPhone Dev Center along with the 4.1 SDK.

Combine that with news that Apple is holding a special press conference this Friday regarding the iPhone 4 and we just might be looking at that expected software fix for the now infamous reception issues plaguing the device.

Even if the two tidbits happen to be unrelated, the rollout of iOS 4 beta indicates a software update to the iPhone’s operating system must be fairly close to public release. With the reception issues deemed serious enough for Consumer Reports to withhold their recommendation, as well as reaching mainstream awareness to the point of making David Letterman’s Top Ten slot last night, it’s hard to imagine the announced fix would be put off for terribly long.

We’ll know more after the hastily-called press event on Friday, but for now there’s good reason for left-handed iPhone 4 owners to keep the dream alive.

More About: iOS 4, iphone, iphone 4, iphone 4 antenna issues

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There’s a new Chatroulette clone on the block. It’s called iChatr, but it’s different from all the others; it’s an app for the iPhone 4’s front-facing FaceTime camera.

The free app is already out in the Apple App Store [iTunes link], and we’ve got to admit that the execution is fairly elegant, and just as minimalistic as the site that inspired it. There’s not even a sign-in process — I was surprised to find that I was face-to-face with a stranger an instant after I tapped the icon in my home screen.

The top half of the screen displays whatever your FaceTime camera is capturing while the bottom half displays that of your current chatting partner. In lieu of a “Next” button, you just swipe the bottom image if you want to skip to someone else.

You must be connected to a Wi-Fi network to use the app, despite the fact that another app called Fring already offers video chat over 3G. You’ll also need to plug in the earbud/microphone combo that came with your phone to converse with the person on the other end, in part because the app doesn’t have a text chat room like Chatroulette does.

I didn’t see any naked exhibitionists when I used the app, but it was similar to Chatroulette in one respect. You need a thick skin because almost everyone you talk to will swipe you away within seconds — unless you’re a pretty girl, I assume!

[via Gizmodo]

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Screenshot

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More About: App, apple, apple app store, camera, chatroulette, facetime, iChatr, iphone, iphone 4, Mobile 2.0, video, video chat

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Mozilla has submitted Firefox Home, its first official iPhone app, to Apple’s App Store. It may be the closest thing we ever see to Firefox on the iPhone.

Firefox Home is not like Fennec, the official mobile version of the Firefox browser, currently in pre-alpha for Android. Instead, it is an app that provides users access to their Firefox bookmarks, browsing history, and open tabs. It also has an “Awesome Bar,” which helps you find the websites you frequent the most on your desktop. The app works by hooking up with the Firefox Sync add-on.

We expect Apple to approve Firefox Home without much trouble. After all, Apple approved Opera Mini, and it essentially competes with Safari Mobile as your iPhone’s browser. Firefox Home looks to be a great addition to any heavy Firefox user’s arsenal.

Will you download Firefox Home if and when it comes out on the App Store? Let us know in the comments.

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Reviews: Android, App Store, Firefox

More About: Fennec, Firefox, Firefox Home, mozilla

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iMovie for iPhone is the official Apple application that lets iPhone users record and edit high-definition video to publish directly to YouTube or send via MMS and e-mail.

The application, available for $4.99 [iTunes link], is simple to use and yet surprisingly feature-rich for something on a mobile device.

Experienced video editors will have no problem picking up iMovie for iPhone 4. In fact, after a little practice and fidgeting around with the settings, even novice video editors like myself can create a polished video of various clips, music and pics in about 10 minutes.

Here’s how to create your own iMovie masterpiece.

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Getting Started

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iMovie for iPhone is a meaty app, which means the download process will take longer than a typical application download. Once installed, simply open the application and do as instructed, “Tap + to start a new project.”

After you start a new project, you’ll be asked to select a theme and be given the option to toggle theme music on or off. Apple gives you five themes to choose from — Modern, Bright, Travel, Playful, News. Don’t worry too much about choosing your theme; you can always change it during the editing process by clicking on the settings icon next to the Timeline.

Each new project you create is autosaved as you work, so you don’t need to worry about constantly saving. Also, while working on a project, you can return to your saved projects by selecting the Projects View button (it looks like a starred folder) to return to the Projects window. Projects are represented by a single thumbnail image.

iMovie for iPhone works in landscape or portrait mode, and there are only four primary buttons that you need to be concerned with. The button in the upper left-hand corner is the Projects View button — clicking this will return you to the Projects window. The button in the upper right-hand corner is the Play/Pause button. Position the bottom slider along the red line as desired, and click Play or Pause to watch or stop your clip from that position.

The bottom half of the display is dedicated to adding content to your video machination. In the lower left-hand corner is the Media Library button; tap this to add existing video, audio or photos from your iPhone 4 library. In the lower right-hand corner is the Camera button; select this to record video from within iMovie and add it to your timeline.

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The Timeline

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Perhaps the trickiest element of the app is the timeline bar at the bottom of the display. Video editors will automatically recognize what to do here, but for users new to video editing it might be a tad daunting at first. Fear not — the Timeline is actually quite simple to use. Simply position the red marker anywhere along the slider to add new content from your media library in that spot.

You can drag-and-drop photos and video clips to rearrange them, or drag them out of the timeline to delete them altogether.

The theme you choose can be accompanied by its companion musical composition or you can add a new track from your own library by selecting the Media Library button. Music selection is visible via the green bar below the photo and video content snippets. Unfortunately, you can only include one audio track per clip, although sound will fade in and out depending on whether or not you have audio toggled “on” for your video clips.

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Editing Photos and Clips

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After adding photos and videos to your timeline, you can edit them to your liking.

To edit a photo, just select one from your project timeline and two yellow lines will appear on either side of the photo in the timeline. Drag these markers to reduce the duration the photo is shown in your movie. You can also drag the photo in the preview screen to reposition it, or pinch it to zoom in and out.

For videos, trimming clips involves exactly the same process, but other editing features function slightly differently. Double tap the clip to pull up the Clip Settings menu (as pictured above). Here you can add a title and adjust when it shows up in the clip, specify clip location, and turn clip audio on or off. You can also delete the clip from this menu as well.

Transitions are automatically included between the media files in your Timeline. The transitions add continuity to the overall piece and you can edit or remove effects by double-tapping on the transitions button sandwiched between each clip or photo.

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Exporting Your Movie

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Once you’re satisfied with your work of video art, the final step is to export your movie to your iPhone’s camera roll. Return to the Projects window using the Projects View button and click the export icon. You’ll then have the option to export a medium, large or HD version of the clip.

Now that your film is in your camera roll, you can upload it to YouTube, or send it to friends and family via SMS or e-mail. That’s it! Now go pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

Just in case you a need a little inspiration, below is an example of what I was able to concoct in about 15 minutes.

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Reviews: YouTube, news, video

More About: apple, imovie, imovie for iphone, iphone 4, iphone app

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Earlier today, we reported that iPhone 4 units were shipping out to customers a day early; well, they’ve already arrived at the addresses of some customers. Twitter and Facebook are abuzz with reports of new iPhone 4 owners unboxing and trying out their precious new toys a whole two days early.

Check out this photo of Sam Altman, CEO and co-founder of Loopt, on the right.

Loyal Moses has also posted some video taken with his iPhone 4, uploaded to YouTube in 720p, which you can check out below.

Have you received your iPhone 4 yet? If so, let us know what you think of the new device in the comments.

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Video

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Close-Up

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[img credit: Loyal Moses]

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Tags: apple, iphone, iphone 4, loopt

Today was clearly iPhone 4 day. Apple CEO Steve Jobs used almost all of his keynote time WWDC to talk up the new iPhone and its many features. And while iOS 4.0, FaceTime video calling, and a completely redesigned iPhone were what we wanted to hear about most, a lot of other rumored announcements were conspicuously absent from the two hour presentation.

There were a lot of rumors as to what else Apple might announce. The list wasn’t small and it didn’t come out of thin air. We were expecting a cloud-based version of iTunes, likely called iTunes Live. We thought there would be announcements regarding a refresh to the Macbook line. There were also credible rumors regarding the potential release of Safari 5 today (which was released later despite not being announced in Jobs’s keynote), not to mention Apple TV and the mythical Verizon iPhone.

As we now know though, with the exception of Safari 5 none of those things became reality today. Why weren’t they announced today?

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The Virtue of Focus

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Apple is notorious for being the center of countless rumors. The secretive company doesn’t spring a lot of information leaks (though it does lose the occasional prototype). That makes for lots of speculation and a lot of incorrect predictions.

If you don’t think Apple’s working on a cloud-based version of iTunes or refreshes to the existing Mac lineup though, then you’re just deluding yourself. Apple’s always working on improving its existing products. The Macbook AIR will be updated… eventually. Apple will bear fruit from its Lala acquisition… eventually. And yes, eventually there will be a U.S. iPhone that is not on AT&T.

However, Steve Jobs understands the necessity of focus. He didn’t want to drown out the iPhone 4’s debut with other major announcements. He wants people talking about the phone, and only the phone. He doesn’t want or need people to be distracted by Safari 5 or Apple TV.

So while we’re as disappointed as you are that we’re not getting our iTunes in the cloud today, it will eventually come. Today was iPhone 4, but tomorrow could be Mac OS. Expect Apple to hold another media event later this summer to talk about the company’s many other products.

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Tags: apple, att, iphone, iphone 4, itunes, iTunes Live, macbook air, safari, Safari 5, Verizon iPhone, wwdc

Call it whatever you like — football, soccer, the game with the black and white checkered ball that you kick around the field. Pick a name and get ready for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Every four years soccer fans go wild and neighborhood bars are packed to the brim in broad daylight with devoted viewers.

While the BBC and ITV apps that promise to stream the games and video highlights have yet to be released, there are still some great, free iPhone apps to satisfy your World Cup appetite.

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1. World Cup Countdown

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We know you’ve been counting the days until the non-stop soccer action. This app counts down the excitement by the days, minutes, hours and seconds until it all begins on June 11th. The app also has an interactive photo slideshow with a series of cool pictures of South Africa. You can click on the photos to learn more about each scene.

There are even interesting video and audio options, like a spectacular overview of the countryside and some local music and dance moves. It’s a great way to learn about the country hosting the games, especially if you are planning to attend in person.

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2. ESPN 2010 FIFA World Cup

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This app has just about everything you need to prepare for the tournament. With a full schedule, you’ll never miss your team in action. The app allows you to select your favorite team or teams so you can easily keep track of all the news surrounding them. It also has full biographies and stats for each player for all 32 teams, so you’ll know exactly who is playing the game.

Super-fans will appreciate the app for its extensive history of the tournament, which dates back to 1930, and includes an overview, trivia and controversies for each year. Sign in with your myESPN account to post comments about your team or participate in the “Fantasy Bracket Predictor,” where you can attempt to forecast the outcome of each World Cup match.

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3. World Football Live!

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This app gives you the latest news about all things football/soccer from BBC Sports, Yahoo! Euro Sports, and ESPN. News is updated in real-time and you can bookmark your favorite articles or e-mail them to your friends. The app also lets users browse offline. Once you’ve updated the latest news, you can read all the downloaded articles without a WiFi or 3G connection.

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4. AP 2010 World Cup Coverage

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The Associated Press has been covering the games since the very beginning and is committed to giving fans full coverage. Once the games start, the app will provide up-to-the-minute news from more than 100 journalists in South Africa who will be covering the action. It has a multi-language platform and users can choose to get their soccer fix in English, Spanish, French or Portuguese.

With customizable skins for each team, you can show everyone (at least everyone you show your phone to anyway) who you are rooting for. There is an easy to follow schedule feature that shows which teams are playing and at what time. Also, a photo and video feature will be updated once the tournament starts. The app also has a “venue” feature and lists a bit of history and interesting facts about all 10 stadiums where the games will be played.

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5. World Cup Factoids and History

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If you really want to know what you’re talking about when you say that Germany is going to kick some butt, this is the app for you. With lists of every winner, host nation, defending champion and number of appearances since 1930, you’ll be able to make some informed predictions as to who will take home this year’s big title.

History buffs will swoon for the detailed chronicles of pre-tournament dates, starting with the world’s first international soccer match between Scotland and England in 1872. The app also connects you to news from BBC, ESPN and the official FIFA site. You can help spread World Cup fever (not that it really needs the help) by pressing the button that lets you tweet about the application.

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6. World Cup Trivia Challenge Lite

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Once you’ve brushed up on your facts and history, you’ll be ready for this game. Set on a soccer field, the lite version of this app has 50 questions that will test your soccer hooligan mettle. It’s a fast-paced game. With 90 seconds on the timer, you must answer questions like “How many nations appeared for the first time in 2006?”

Once you get three questions right, you score a “goal.” For every question you get wrong, your opponent (who isn’t actually answering any questions) scores a point. There are three stages to work through and it includes a penalty shoot-out for a tie game. You can even listen to the sounds of whistles, cheers and music from a real life game, or choose to turn them off.

Once you’ve mastered all 50 questions, you can upgrade to the paid version for $1.99, where 600 more questions are ready to test your fandom.

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For more mobile coverage, follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook

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More iPhone resources from Mashable:

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- Top 10 iPhone Apps for TV Fanatics
- 10 Great iPhone Apps for Growing a Garden
- 5 Fantastic Free iPhone E-book Reader Apps
- 10 Essential Money-Saving iPhone Apps
- 10 Best iPhone Apps for Dog Lovers

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, zentilia

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Reviews: Facebook, Twitter, iPhone, iStockphoto, news

Tags: ESPN, fans, football, iphone, iphone application, iphone applications, iphone apps, Lists, Mobile 2.0, MyESPN, soccer, South Africa, sports, world cup, world cup 2010

The iPad has finally made its international debut, meaning that thousands and thousands of new users will be enjoying Apple’s latest device over the coming weeks.

With the launch of the iPad comes the international launch of the iPad App Store, making it possible for us to play Words With Friends with our friends in Australia. There are already thousands of apps available in the App Store, and with the exception of apps focused on media services like Netflix, ABC or Pandora, most are also available internationally.

We’ve been fortunate enough to have the iPad in our screen-smudging paws for the past two months and in that time we’ve surveyed well over 100 apps and games for the new platform. While this list could easily be four or five times as long as it is, we wracked our brains and decided to pick ten of our favorite iPad apps for the new iPad owner.

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1. Air Video

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The iPad is a great media player. The size of the screen coupled with the quality of the display really makes it a great way to catch up on lots of content. Although you can use iTunes to transfer movie and music files to your iPad, converting and transferring can be a complicated and tedious process. This is why Air Video is so great — it makes it extremely simple to stream video from your Mac or PC to your iPad.

Just install the free Air Video server client on your PC, tell it what folders to watch or include and then fire up the app. Now select your computer and feel free to go through your lists of available content and watch it in great quality on the iPad! Air Video does a really terrific job of “live conversion,” meaning your video is converted as it plays, which saves time and makes it really easy to enjoy your video collection on the couch.

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2. Real Racing HD

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Real Racing for the iPhone was a great racing game. Real Racing HD is even better. The use of the accelerometer for turning and maneuvering might make you look a little weird to your friends, but the graphics, sound, controls and gameplay are all top-notch.

Seriously, this is a great racing game and its a great game to really show off the power of the iPad!

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3. GoodReader for iPad

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We’ve written about our affinity for GoodReader both on the iPhone and the iPad in the past, but it bears a repeated mention. Simply put, GoodReader is one of the best document readers/file managers out there. Period. You can connect to Dropbox, Box.net, Google Docs, FTP servers, and local computers, and download files directly off the web.

More than just a PDF viewer (though it is a great PDF viewer), the app can read a variety of different file types and can even let you open documents inside other apps to make editing a breeze.

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4. Mondo Solitaire

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Mondo Solitaire was one of the apps we highlighted in our early roundup of iPad video previews. In practice, the app is extremely addictive and extremely entertaining.

Mondo Solitaire comes in two varieties, a pack of the most popular games or the whole shebang. If you like card games, we recommend getting the full package and then having a blast playing through tons of variations of Solitaire and Freecell.

I have personally spent many hours playing Mondo Solitaire that otherwise could have been spent sleeping or being productive.

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5. Wired Magazine

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Released earlier this week, Wired for the iPad has already sold over 24,000 copies. For good reason too: Wired for the iPad is a great example of what publishers and content creators can do when they really fire on all cylinders.

While we aren’t sure if we would buy Wired every month without some sort of better subscription plan, the first issue, which includes a look at the making of Toy Story 3, is really worth checking out.

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6. Kindle for iPad

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Apple’s iBooks application is fantastic, but when it comes to content selection, Amazon still has the lead. Kindle for the iPad is a really good e-reader app, and makes it easy to browse through books. It seamlessly launches the web-based book store to make purchasing a snap.

We think Apple has the edge in overall presentation, but you can’t beat Kindle in price or selection. Also, while not as utterly beautiful as iBooks, Kindle for the iPad is still great to look at.

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7. Epicurious

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Even if you’re like me and cooking consists of re-heating take-out and making reservations, there is something to love about the Epicurious app. There are so many recipes and ideas, not to mention gorgeous pictures, that this is a great app to have on hand before hitting the market or just to gaze at while waiting for the pizza delivery guy.

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8. Dropbox

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If you are a Dropbox user, you owe it to yourself to get the Drobox app for the iPad. It brings all of what makes the iPhone app great and makes it even better. You can save content directly to your device, you can upload content off your device and you can view and playback media content all in the app.

Dropbox is a great way to stay connected to the documents on your computer no matter where you are.

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9. The Guardian Eyewitness

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UK publication The Guardian released a really terrific iPad app that features its stunning photography. Visually, this app is one of our favorites. The form factor of the iPad makes it perfect for really enjoying and studying the art that accompanies news stories.

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10. NewsRack

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NewsRack is our current pick as the best newsreader available for the iPad. It syncs with Google Reader seamlessly, so if you add a feed, it is added to Google Reader — if you remove it, it’s removed there too. However, you can selectively sync only certain feeds or categories, which can make news reading on the iPad more manageable.

The iPad is a terrific way to browse the web, and that includes RSS feeds. NewsRack is a top-notch app that also works on the iPhone, if you want to keep everything in sync across devices.

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Your Picks

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You’ve seen our list of ten must-have apps, now tell us your picks! What apps do you love the most on your iPad, let us know!

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For more Apple coverage, follow Mashable Apple on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook

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More iPad resources from Mashable:

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- 10 Awesome Apple iPad Cases
- 10 Great Sites for Watching Video on Your iPad
- iPad Accessories: A Quick Guide to Apple’s Official Add-Ons
- 10 Insanely Great iPad Apps We Can’t Wait to Use

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Reviews: App Store, Australia, Dropbox, Facebook, Google Docs, Google Reader, Pandora, Twitter

Tags: apple, apps, ipad, ipad apps, Mobile 2.0, tech

Facing increasing pressure from Apple’s red-hot iPad, Amazon intends to fight back with a thinner, sharper and more responsive Kindle that will be introduced later this year.

According to Bloomberg, Amazon will introduce a new version of its popular e-reader in August. It will boast a thinner build, sharper contrast, and faster page-turning. However, it will not be a touchscreen device, nor will it boast color.

Apple is gunning directly for Amazon’s e-book business with its iBooks store, which publishers have embraced as an alternative to Amazon’s long-standing dominance in the e-book space.

The iPad’s multitude of uses and starting price point of $499 are a threat to the Kindle, although the iPad’s LED screen isn’t as well suited as the Kindle for extended reading. The Kindle utilizes black-and-white e-ink technology to make reading on the device less strenuous on the eyes.

While the upgrade should help Kindle stay relevant, we’re likely to see color and a touchscreen on Amazon’s e-reader device at some point. In February, the company acquired Touchco, a startup specializing in color touchscreen technology. It’s going to be some time though until Amazon is satisfied with a touchscreen interface that is also easy on the eyes.

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Tags: amazon, apple, ipad, Kindle