There are a couple of things you should know about us. First of all, we love seeing how people have all of their Apple gear set up, because some people go to some serious effort to make their home or office look amazing, and secondly we have a cupboard full of prizes that we really need to get rid of.

After a few weeks of pondering these points, we came up with a brilliant solution – combine them for a fantastic giveaway! Here’s the deal: All you need to do is take a snap of your desk with your Mac, iPad, iPod, iPhone etc (or any combination of those items) sitting proudly in place, and then post it below in the comments section of this post. We don’t care whether your desk is a complete mess or the epitome of cleanliness, as long as your Apple set up is incredibly cool and fantastically functional you’re in with a chance of winning. We also don’t mind if you’re running a little MacBook all on it’s own; you have just as much chance of winning a prize as those with three Thunderbolt Displays, two MacBooks, an iMac, a Mac Mini, four iPads, six iPods and an iPhone 1G (we’re sure there’s someone out there…).

To post your picture you’ll need to upload it to a hosting site, such as Flickr, Instagram or ImageShack, then copy the link of your picture and post it below. We’ll check all of them out and update this post as regularly as possible when new set-ups are posted. The competition closes on the 14th of February at 10am GMT, and by that point we should hopefully have a Set-up Gallery, from which we will be picking our three favourite set-ups. These three lucky people will win a prize or two from our cupboard – we have all kinds of things in there, for iPads, Macs, iPhone and iPods, so there’s sure to be something you will use!

If you prefer, you can also email us a photo of your set-up to iCreate@imagine-publishing.co.uk, or tweet it to us @iCreateMagazine. So there you have it! You have everything you need to enter, you know that the closing date is a week from today, and you know that we have some incredibly cool prizes to give away. What are you waiting for?!

Imagine Publishing has launched a new digital-only, Multi-Touch ebook, iCloud For Beginners, specifically designed for Apple’s iBooks 2. Featuring slideshows, interactive images and more, it is one of the first ebooks of its type in the world. And it’s awesome.

Using iBooks Author’s fantastic tools, iCloud For Beginners teaches everything users need to know about iCloud, the free new back-up and sync service, with a Multi-Touch twist. From how to set-up your free iCloud account to sharing your information across your Apple devices, the ebook uses cutting-edge technology to deliver enhanced, easy-to-use tutorials that not only contain some incredible information, but also look great.

“At Imagine, we’re always excited by cool new ways to deliver our world-leading content,” said Editor In Chief Aaron Asadi. “iBooks Author is another great opportunity for us to create more products we love for a whole new type of audience. It’s this sort of game-changing innovation that makes us do what we do. ”

“With the speed that the publishing industry is changing, there’s nothing more exhilarating than grabbing hold of new technologies and seeing how we can get the most out of them to serve-up the content we’re so passionate about,” added Ross Andrews, Head of Design. “What could be better than going from saying ‘we should try that’ to a fully published product in just a few days? It’s hard to think of a more exciting time for the industry.”

iCloud For Beginners is available now on iTunes and iBookstore worldwide for just £0.99 in the UK and $1.99 in the US.

If you own an iPad, it’s likely that you know just how difficult it is to type long articles or other pieces using iOS’s software keyboard. While the layout of the keyboard is great, for prolonged periods of typing, a Bluetooth keyboard, or often just a Mac, is much easier to use. For those who can touch-type especially, the software keyboard presents a problem. Not any more, however.

The iKeyboard started life as a Kickstarter project which earned more than 6 times it’s target by raking in more than $26,000 after just a few weeks. Now, though, just over six months later, the project is finished and ready to ship to consumers around the world. And we really want to try one.

The keyboard uses strips of gentle adhesive to attach to the front of the iPad, and when you’re not using it you can either remove it completely or stick it to the top of your device. If you want to store your iPad, the iKeyboard is thin enough that a Smart cover will fit neatly over it (although we’re still not sure whether the screen lock would work – we will test it). It should also play nice with a number of cases, and those it can’t cooperate with will just mean you need to remove it before storage of your iPad.

There are instructions over on the company’s website on how to use the keyboard which neatly demonstrate the simplicity of the idea. There are no actual keys here, and nothing that needs powering, so really all you have to do is stick it to the front of your iPad in line with the Virtual keyboard and you’re ready to work. The raised bumps will provide feedback to enable quick typing, and while we don’t see this being so revolutionary that we throw out our Wireless Keyboards, it is so much more portable that it’s well worth the $35 it’s currently selling for on Amazon. It’s available there in black and white, but at the moment it seems both are out of stock, so we’ll be checking back regularly in the hope that the next shipment has arrived.

Over the last few weeks there seems to have been a huge increase in the number of rumours about Apple making a TV set of its own. Several sources claim the company plans to create a TV for release in the next year or two, and when this many people seem to have the same information about a product, it seriously increases the likelihood that it’s correct.

This got us thinking. Of course, with the Mac, iPhone, Apple TV and most recently the iPad, Apple has been slowly edging their way further into our day-to-day lives. For some people, it’s now common to step into their home and use Apple devices for a full evening, watching movies, doing work, talking to friends, playing games and even reading.

What if Apple’s TV set (which we will henceforth be referring to as iTV to distinguish it from Apple TV) is just the next step in their plan for your life to be completely locked into their own products? Considering Apple TV runs iOS, the same operating system as iPhone and iPad, it’s fair to assume that the iTV would also use this system. And with many suggesting that Mac’s OS X and iOS will be merging into one system in the future, it’s possible that all your gadgets will be running the same system, communicating wirelessly, and working as one large device.

Of course, if this is the plan, there’s no reason that it couldn’t cover your whole house. Imagine stepping into your home and have Siri welcome you back. An iPhone and iPad app would turn the devices into controls for things like the lighting system or iTV, or you’d have the option to speak to Siri to get things done. Your iTV would not only receive HD content from iTunes, it’s specially-designed interface would enable you to quickly choose between watching live TV channels or playing the shows you’ve previously recorded to your Mac’s hard drive. Of course, if you wish, you can also use iTV to play games; with it’s dedicated graphics card, the iTV would let you play HD titles in full 1080p, controlling it with your iPad or iPhone, or even your mouse if you wanted. The iTV would be the epicentre of your entertainment experience, and everything you needed would be built into the mouth-watering hardware.

Of course, if you’re not in front of the iTV, you still have access to all your media, as well as other services. In the kitchen, for example, your surface would contain a large, tough touchscreen, that would allow you to look up recipes, write shopping lists and check what you have in your cupboards and fridge. In your bedroom the large picture frame on the wall would be a screen that cycles through the latest pictures that you added to your holiday album, and when you want it to, switches to the iTV function to let you catch up on your favourite shows in bed.

All of these features may still be science fiction, but this is surely the direction that technology is moving. Just over ten years ago, Apple really only made one kind of device – the Mac. It sat on a desk in your office and was used for work and, perhaps, getting creative, and the rest of the time it would be left alone. Now, millions of people carry around an Apple device in their pockets all day, get home and play games and read books on the iPad, and use Apple TV to watch the latest movies. Apple is slowly making its way more and more into our lives, and making it even easier to do the things we love. In the next few years, with the advances in technology that will surely be made, just think where we could be, and what we might be able to achieve with our Apple products. It may be a bit of a leap to say that you will be able to control your entire house with your voice, like Tony Stark, but if Siri makes its way into more than just the iPhone 4S in the next few years, just remember – we called it.

Below is just a glimpse at what your home might look like in the future. Click the image for a larger view:

How many times can you remember where you’ve been using your iPad or iPhone and it’s been in desperate need of charging? And how many of those times did you want to carry on using your device, but not been able to because of how short the charging cable is that comes in the box? If you’re anything like us the answer to those two questions will be ‘lots’.

Now, though, it looks like a solution is on the horizon. The Curly Cable is, as you might expect, a cable that is curly. This means that while it is incredibly portable and easy to store, it also has the ability to extend to a length of 240 cm. That is more than twice the length of a standard white 30-pin cable that comes in the box with iOS devices, and it means that you can easily plug it in and carry on using your device while charging.

The Kickstarter project for this idea has not only hit it’s target of $1,500, it’s blown it so far out of the water that the target looks like a tiny speck on the horizon. Currently, with three days left of the project’s funding, the total stands at a staggering  $24,000, which could have funded the project 16 times over. Looks like a lot of people have a problem, then.

This isn’t the first cable of it’s kind, but we’re hoping that it will turn out to be one of the easiest to get hold of. Check back some time next month and hopefully the Curly Cable developers will have started their manufacturing process.

You can currently still back the project; $15 will get you a Curly Cable when they are finished, along with lots of other offers depending on how much you are willing pledge. Head over to the Kickstarter page for more information

One of the best things about the iPod Shuffle is it’s unbelievably portable. Still, if you want to actually listen to music with it, you’ll need to plug in headphones with their long chords. This can be fine in day-to-day life, but this chord can become seriously annoying, especially if you’re exercising. Bluetooth headphones aren’t an option with such a tiny device, so we’ve been waiting a little while for a solution which actually manages to solve the problem.

Thankfully, someone is clearly thinking along the same lines as us, as this rather elegant solution proves. The Oddio1 is a Kickstarter Project that hopes to fund development of a set of headphones that allow you to quickly slot in an iPod Shuffle and listen to your music without any wires at all.

The headphones include a small gap that allow you to access the controls on the side of the iPod, meaning even when they are on your ears, you are in complete control of your tunes. The also come in a range of three colours, so you could match your iPod up if you wish.

Sadly, it doesn’t look like this project is going to reach it’s funding goal (they’re more than $30,000 short with just over two days to go), so don’t expect to see these sitting on shelves any time soon. However, it’s great to know that great ideas like these are still being had; hopefully we can look forward to a lot more like this in the future.

Love it or hate it, Safari is your first port of call for all things internet during that magical moment when you boot up your Mac for the very first time. Luckily, as far as browsers go, it’s not a bad one either. Having your web browser made by Apple has its benefits; it’s fast, beautifully-designed, and integrated with your Mac in a way no other browser ever will be. That said, it’s nice to know about the competition – whether it’s for a quick flirt with Chome, a full-blown affair with Firefox or even to ditch your Apple factory browser altogether for Opera. Whatever reason you have for switching browsers, here’s our guide to shopping around and finding the best browser with the feature-set that works for you.

Google Chrome (Free, google.com/chrome)

When Google first released their much-anticipated web browser for Windows, Mac users waited with baited breath…and waited…and waited…and eventually passed out as they hadn’t exhaled for a good few months. But now Chrome has been successfully ported to OS X for some time now, was it worth the wait? The answer is a resounding “HELL YEAH!”. With an aesthetic quality to rival anything that Jony Ive has ever dreamt up, speeds which could quite easily blow not only your socks but your trousers, shirt and coat off, and bunch of features that a few browsers are still playing catch-up with, Chrome is without a doubt, Safari’s biggest competitor. The only real setbacks here is that it doesn’t play half as nice as Safari does with RSS feeds (so if you’re not using an app or web-based feed reader, you might want to step away now) and that updates can take some time (did anyone else feel like Lion functionality took forever to be pushed out?).

Firefox (Free, mozilla.org)

Firefox has been around for so long now that it’s almost plausible that it was originally built before the internet itself, but don’t let the fact that it might have been built by dinosaurs put you off. This browser is the open-source community’s flagship offering, meaning it’s updated by a whole load of passionate people on a day-by-day basis. In other words, it’s got a heritage but that doesn’t mean it won’t beat any of the others. Firefox’s open-source infrastructure means that improvements and updates are made by the people, for the people and most features like the built-in password manager and the plethora of available add-ons (mini apps that add extra functionality to the browser) are extremely useful. The downside? Well, there’s no easy way of saying this, but Firefox is a bit of a RAM-hog. If processor-intensive browsing is your bag then great, otherwise, you’ll have to keep a close eye on it when you’re running a load of apps and your Mac starts to get sluggish.

Opera (Free, opera.com)

Much like Firefox, Opera seems to have been around for Donkey’s years, but don’t let that put you off. Opera has more features built in to its browser than any other in this round-up, and whilst not every single one may be useful, there are some absolute gems here such as native BitTorrent support (downloading via Torrents just got a lot easier) and a ‘Turbo’ mode, which optimises web pages for times when your bandwidth is limited (think an entire airport departure lounge crowding around one poor, struggling WiFi hotspot). There’s all your Lion support built in, and they’ve even borrowed a feature or two from Safari (see exhibit A, above). Opera isn’t exactly well-known, nor widely used, but it’s certainly the dark horse in this browser battle.

Camino (Free, caminobrowser.org)

With Camino’s original name of bringing all the functionality of Firefox into the native environment of OS X now somewhat redundant (Firefox has come on leaps and bounds as far as Mac support goes since its early days), the whole project seems to have been  put on the back burner of late. That said, there’s still a few good reasons why you’d have Camino as your browser of choice. For starters, passwords are saved into the OS X Keychain as opposed to any proprietary system touted by Chrome, Firefox or Safari and because the whole thing runs on Firefox’s Gecko rendering engine, you know pages are going to load fast, accurately and with the stability you’d expect from Firefox, all with a slightly more Apple-like interface.

Stainless (Free, stainlessapp.com)

As we’ve already mentioned, Mac users had a long and excruciating wait for an OS X-friendly version of Chrome, so long in fact, that a few clever chaps decided to release Stainless – a Mac-only browser that bought Chrome’s multi-processing architecture (that’s the stuff that makes pages fly) to your Machine. Much like Camino, the fact that Chrome is now fully supportive of OS X has made the whole project a little redundant, but there are still a fair few features like the natty little bookmarks sidebar, that make it a great alternative if you’re getting sick of Safari.

So there you have it, five great alternative browsers to Apple’s own, stellar offering. We’re using a mixture of Safari and Firefox here in the office, with Chrome coming a close third where needed, but which is your favourite? Have we missed an absolute gem? Let us know in the comments, via Twitter or on our Facebook Wall. Automatic bans awarded to anyone who mentions Internet Explorer.

CES is a pretty big deal. The electronics show sees more than 150,000 journalists, bloggers and other tech-industry people swarm to a huge Convention Centre in Las Vegas to see the coolest new gadgets, innovations and downright strange ideas.

This year was no different, and now that the week of madness is over, we’re taking a short look back over the highlights of the show, focusing on some of the coolest gadgets and accessories that will be available for your Mac and iOS device in the next few months and years.

Before we start, we also think it’s worth mentioning that while Apple didn’t have a stand of any kind at the show, and officially weren’t present, it was revealed during the week that they actually had around 250 employees circulating the show floor, scouting out everything on show. One keen-eyed journalist managed to spot Greg Joswiak, Head of iOS Product Marketing at Apple, and chat with him briefly about why he was there.

Apple are, of course, very interested in keeping an eye on developments in the tech industry, but Joswiak was specifically observing how companies were representing themselves, from things like booth layout to which products were highlighted. The reporter noted that he didn’t seem all that impressed by Sony’s stand, but didn’t get much more from the Apple man.

Anyway, onto the products that we’ll hopefully be reviewing in the next few months…

LaCie 2Big Thunderbolt RAID array
After jumping into the Thunderbolt market late last year with its high-end Little Big Disk (which features SSD storage alongside the super-fast transfer technology), LaCie are back with more Thunderbolt-powered brilliance. This time they coming in with a RAID array, most likely in an attempt to combat Promise‘s line of Thunderbolt enabled drives that are currently on sale on the Apple Online Store.
Because it’s a RAID system, speeds won’t be quite as high as the norm for Thunderbolt (which is around 700 MB/s), but LaCie have said we can expect around 311 MB/s, which is still three times faster than we are used to with FireWire 800. It will come in flavours up to 8TB, and allow for daisychaining, so you can add more storage if necessary. LaCie also announced a Thunderbolt Hub that includes support for eSATA drives, which will surely please users who have a range of drives that they’d love to connect up to their Mac. We saw a lot of Thunderbolt accessories on display at CES, but LaCie’s are some of the most exciting, closely followed by this…

Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock
Until now, pretty much the only way to use the full potential of your Thunderbolt port was to buy an Apple Thunderbolt display for nigh on £900/$1000. Thankfully, that is set to no longer be the case when Belkin release their Thunderbolt Dock in September of this year. The small dock houses one FireWire 800, one HDMI, one Gigabit Ethernet, one 3.5mm audio, one Thunderbolt and three USB ports. This is set to really change the way people work with Thunderbolt, and when the dock, which will reportedly cost around $299 (around £200), is released in a few months we will finally see people using the full power of their new Macs.

Mobee Magic Feet and Power Bar
We’ve been big fans of Mobee‘s products for a while now, after they released solutions for one of the most consistent annoyances with our Macs – the wireless Magic Mouse and Keyboard using hundreds of batteries. Their solution involved inductive charging technology that allows you to simply place your accessory onto a powered charging station and watch as they filled with extra juice. Not only did this save money in the long-run, it was also an incredibly slick procedure. Now the company have a new way to power up your Magic Trackpad (called the Power Bar), plus an all-in-one solution for your Wireless Keyboard and Magic Mouse – the Magic Feet. The latter does look a little on the large side, but the Power Bar looks both incredibly slick and exceedingly simple to use, without losing the wireless nature of the accessory. We’re really looking forward to trying these out when they’re released in late March; you may find a huge pile of dead batteries outside iCreate Towers if you happen to be passing on the day, too.

Oregon Scientific Time and Wireless Charging Station+
Another one to jump on the brilliant bandwagon that is inductive charging, Oregon Scientific announced the first charging mat that actually functions as something useful when your iPhone isn’t sitting on it. The iPhone case included with the charging-clock also doesn’t look bad at all, meaning it’s something you might, potentially, consider having on your phone at all times. The mat/clock itself is a little on the large side, so you might have to reorganise your bedside table a little to get it on, but it looks great in action and will be available with cases for the 4 (and 4S), the 3G (and 3GS), as well as a few Android and Blackberry handsets, if you fancy mixing things up. This isn’t their first charging mat and clock combo, so we have high hopes for the new design.

Padintosh iPad case
This stunningly simple iPad case from thumbsUp! is not only guaranteed to evoke true feelings of nostalgia in all Apple’s fans, it will also function perfectly with the iPad 2′s Smart Cover. The case will be available in Q2 and clips on to the back of the iPad to perfectly mimic the very first Macintosh computer that debuted in 1984. It looks great, and we can’t wait to see it on the back of our iPad 2s at iCreate Towers in the next few months – we’re suckers for nostalgia.

Blue Spark Digital
Blue have long been known for producing fantastic microphones for all kinds of recordings, and now they are back with the Spark Digital, a microphone that will not only play nice with your iOS device, but will sound great at the same time. The new microphone uses the same technology inside as the (much more analogue) Stark did when it launched last year. The difference here is a MicroUSB port on the bottom that allows you to connect up to an iPad or iPhone using the Camera Connection Kit, or a Mac via a USB cable. As with all Blue’s mics, the Spark Digital has an amazing build-quality, and a few features that make it really stand out, including a condenser capsule that physically contracts to catch a more specific area of sound. It should be available in the Spring for around £130 from what we’re hearing, and we’ll try to record a podcast with it when we get one to review so you guys can also compare the sound quality (we currently use Blue’s brilliant Yeti mics).

iCade Mobile
The iCADE Arcade Cabinet garnered a fair bit of attention last year when it launched for the iPad and added an old-skool arcade stick and buttons to go along with an app that let you play loads of retro games. Now, iCade is back, and this time it’s going portable. The iCade Mobile add-on allows you to slot in an iPhone 4/4S, or an iPod Touch, connecting via Bluetooth to your device. The pad adds buttons, a directional pad, and shoulder triggers to your iOS device, and allows you to rotate your screen into both portrait and landscape modes. It doesn’t look like it’s going to win any design awards, but it’s worth noting that it’s still in the development stage and may look quite different by the time it launches in May for $79.99. It will also only work with around 100 games at launch, which is a bit of a shame, but if you’re one of the many people who don’t like gaming on the iPhone or iPod simply because of the way the touch screen works you may enjoy using this little peripheral.

Parrot AR Drone 2.0
Probably the most exciting announement of CES for the big kids in us all came from Parrot, who announced the second generation of their unbelievably awesome Parrot AR Drone. The inventively named AR Drone 2.0 boasts a new 720p HD camera that sends a live feed back to your device, as well as a pressure sensor for better altitude control and an autopilot mode that lets you set a distance and altitude and watch as the Drone goes there and snaps a photo. We expect fantastic things from this, as the original Drone was so much fun it should probably have had a warning on the box.

Now, onto AirPlay, which really dominated the Apple-based announcements this year…

Band & Olufsen Play: BeoLit12 Speaker
If you miss the old-style speakers of yore, you may also be very excited about the newly announced BeoLit12 speaker, the first product in the B&O Play range. This new product line aims to bring high-quality audio into your home without the need to take out a second mortgage and with a distinctly retro design. The little box of joy boasts a 120-watt amp, an aluminium shell, two 5cm tweeters and a 10cm woofer, which come together to produce one heck of a sound. The BeoLit12 also comes with AirPlay functionality, allowing to play your music through your Wi-Fi connection, as well as USB and 3.5mm stereo-out jacks. And if this is starting to sound just a little unlike the old wireless you used to have in your front room, you’ll be pleased to hear that the battery should provide around four hours of playback while streaming, or eight hours if you connect directly. It will be on sale at the end of January, but beware that this thing still won’t come cheap – it’s expected start at around £520.

Griffin Twenty
If you own a pair of high-quality speakers, but they aren’t enabled with AirPlay, you might feel like you’re missing out on the very best wireless music experience. If so, Griffin’s new Twenty might be just what you’ve been looking for. The small box allows you to clip in an AirPort Express and connect up to your speaker set-up with a single cable, giving you access to all your tunes wirelessly. The box itself looks great in a sleek white that fits perfectly with the AirPort Express, although this design could change before release. The most exciting thing is the giant silver dial on the top, however, as it not only looks and feels great, it simplifies the controls to just one interface, and is ultimately all you really need. No release date or pricing information on this one, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

Klipsch Stadium Speaker
We’re big fans of Klipsch‘s products, after we tired a few of their headphones in a recent issue of iCreate, so we are naturally very excited about the prospect of their new AirPlay speaker – especially because it looks like it might be seriously powerful. With two 1-inch tweeters, two 3-inch mid-range woofers and two 5.25-inch subwoofers this isn’t going to be one for the faint hearted. Plus, as they’re all uncovered, you’re likely to feel these at the same time as you hear them. The AirPlay functionality means there is no ugly dock sticking out anywhere, but there is a USB port for when you’re not in range of your computer, offering a tethered connection that will also charge iPhones and iPods (but probably not the power-hungry iPads). It should be out around September, and there are no announcements on pricing just yet so expect something around £300 (our estimate, based on no facts at all).

ZIK Parrot Headphones by Starck
We recently tried out Parrot’s ZIKMU AirPlay speakers and while they might look a bit like trombones, they also provide some absolutely astounding performance when it comes to sound quality. So naturally we are rather excited about this pair of AirPlay headphones from the same company. We are sure that they are going to be incredibly expensive, and there are still no announcements about their release date, but these Bluetooth-enabled speakers feature four(!) microphones for some serious noise-cancelling action, as well as Parrot’s ‘Digital Music Hall’ effect, which is supposed to give the impression that you’re listening to your music in a much larger room. You’ll be able to connect them to your iPhone etc using a quarter inch cable if you prefer an analogue sound to the digital one they provide wirelessly, and most importantly they look really rather sexy.

Keep an eye out for future issues of iCreate Magazine, as we’re already excited about getting out hands on all these products for review.

If the rumours are anything to go by, the iPad 3 is imminent. That is, if imminent means somewhere towards the end of March (according the pretty reliable John Gruber). But the question that every tech blog worth its salt is trying to answer is, “What on earth is it going to feature?”. There’s plenty of fire to fuel that rumour mill in the form of a possible retina display, LTE chip, thicker form factor, thinner form factor, etc. etc., but what does it all really mean? Well, in the true spirit of being excellent to you all, we at iCreate have rounded-up what we consider to be the most credible reports of what might make up the iPad 3 when it launches (supposedly) this year. As ever though, nothing is certain and we’re just as prime to getting things wrong as the next guy, so feel free to Tweet us, write on our Facebook wall, email us or leave a comment at the bottom of this post if you think we’ve got something wrong or completely missed a trick. We promise we won’t get too upset…

The iPad 3 will feature a retina display

Without doubt, this is the strongest rumour in our round-up, mainly because it’s the one with the most traction and credible sources (we’d certainly count Bloomberg’s report as a credible source). The retina display has been the jewel in the iPhone’s crown for some time now, with a resolution that makes pixels invisible to the human eye, it certainly takes graphics on portable devices above and beyond what’s been achieved before. But with many tablet and phone manufacturers playing catch-up with, and even surpassing, Apple as far as resolutions and display sizes are concerned, it’s time Apple rolled out this ground-breaking technology to the iPad 3.

Our verdict? This one is almost a given. It’s proved challenging for Apple to make a reality (read on to find out more about that), but it’s certainly something they’ll have to add to their tablets sooner or later.

So far, this much-hyped iPad 3 retina display has appeared to be a little problematic. If the rumours are anything to go by, Apple has already dropped Sharp as the manufacturer of the iPad 3′s screens in favour of LG and Samsung because Sharp’s output didn’t hit the necessary quality control requirements. This could be down to a number of factors, but what we know for certain is that the rumoured XQGA display (with a whopping 2048 x 1536 resolution) has presented Apple with a whole host of problems, which leads us neatly on to rumour number two…

The next iPad will sport a thicker/thinner form factor

Okay, this isn’t exactly a rumour, more a debate, but it’s an important one all the same because it’s pretty much up in the air right now. The obvious way to go here would be to assume that the iPad 3′s form factor will be thinner, ‘because Apple always make a thinner model’, right? Well, not exactly.

This rumoured retina display means that there needs to be a lot more backlighting to ensure that a screen with such a heavy pixel density is bright enough all the time. Put simply, it’s like trying to shine a light through a piece of cardboard vs. a piece of paper. You’re going to need a lot more light to do the former. A recent report by iLounge may go some way to confirm this thicker form factor rumour, but it’s worth noting that the prototype that editor Jeremy Horwitz viewed could’ve been anything up to six months old.

Our verdict? We wouldn’t be surprised if the iPad 3 gained a little weight to incorporate all this extra new features and, to be honest, we wouldn’t mind either.

Apple’s next tablet will feature a FaceTime HD/1080p HD video camera

We’re going to go out on a limb here and say that this is fairly probable, despite their not being a huge amount of speculation surrounding this. This speculation, however, could be seen as an indication that this is almost a given. 1080p HD recording is already a reality with the iPhone 4S, and we’ve seen how closely the iPad mimics the iPhone’s camera specs in the past. The only thing that gives us any reason to doubt these predicted specs is the fact that…well…the iPad is pretty huge and a bit impractical for taking photos and shooting video with. That said, where it does excel is with video chat and FaceTime, so we wouldn’t be at all surprised (read as: really really really really really want) to see a FaceTime HD camera on the front of the iPad 3. Why? Because it just makes sense. Need we say any more here?

The iPad 3 will shop with a new version of iOS – iOS 6

Get ready for the unlikely alarm. We’ve seen this rumour crop up once or twice over the last few weeks and we really don’t think it’s worth the pixels its displayed with. iOS 5 was a pretty substantial upgrade that was only released towards the tail-end of 2011. On top of this, we’ve not even a substantial point upgrade to the latest version of iOS yet, so why would Apple kill it off so quickly? The only real logic behind this is if they’ve got some sort of incredibly feature to launch, but in our opinion, 2011 was a year of software for Apple (see: iOS 5, iCloud, iMessage, Lion et. al.) and this year will be Apple’s year of hardware (more on this at a later date).

Our verdict? Don’t hold your breath for iOS 6 this time of the summer.

You’ll be using Siri to control your new tablet

We’re going to sit on the fence with this one, whilst there might already be reports of Siri-like dictation cropping up in iOS 5 betas, we can’t see this extending to full-fledged Siri functionality on the iPad 3. Why? Because of connectivity. When you ask Siri a question, it needs to contact Apple’s servers to decipher what you’ve just said then search around for an answer. All of this requires a stable, solid internet connection and if you’re out and about with your WiFi-only iPad 3, this might not be possible. Siri-like dictation would be lovely, but technically it could be a bit of a nightmare. Plus, it wouldn’t be the first time Apple’s engineers have dropped a false feature into a beta to throw us off the scent, would it?

Odds and ends

There’s a few other rumours that are worth a mention before we sign off and leave you all to discuss it all in the comments. For starters, that Bloomberg report we mentioned earlier spoke of the iPad 3 featuring an LTE chip. This is pretty feasible, but perhaps only in a top-of-the-range model. There’s talk over in our Twitter mentions of pro apps like Aperture coming to the iPad and we wouldn’t be surprised to see them sneak in to the iPad 3 announcement, albeit in a slimmed-down format. What do you think? What would you like to see in the iPad 3? Take a good guess via Twitter, Facebook, email or in our comments section to let us know. We’ll try and keep this blog updated as and when rumours break and change, so yours could up on here too!

In 2007, Valve released Portal as part of its Orange Box, a collection of console games which included Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2. Portal, which was almost an add-on to the main events in the box, turned out to be one of the biggest successes of the year and won a whole array of awards. In May last year, with the launch of Steam for Mac, Portal was offered as a free download, and now the sequel to one of the most original games ever made is hitting the Mac again, this time alongside other consoles.

The premise for Portal 2 is the same as the last game – you have a ‘gun’ that can fire two portals at walls, one orange and one blue. When you step through the first portal, you come out through the second, allowing you to travel around levels at high speed. Momentum is maintained through these portals, so if you shoot a portal in the floor and one in a wall, then fall into the first from a height, you will come flying out of the wall at the same speed as you entered the first portal.

It’s a simple enough idea, executed beautifully. If you haven’t played the first game, you really should try it now; not only is it a fantastic game, it will also lead you perfectly into this one. If you don’t want us to spoil the plot, you may want to skip the next paragraph…

You are in control of a woman named Chell, who in the first game woke up in a facility and was forced through a number of tests by the robot in charge, called GLaDOS. As you played through the game, it became clear that GLaDOS had killed every other test subject before you, and so it was up to you to get out of the facility and destroy the computer. At the end of Portal, GLaDOS lay in pieces, and you managed to get to the surface.

However, when Portal 2 starts, you wake up back in the facility. You’re accompanied by Wheatley, a small robotic sphere who works with you to help you escape again. It is here that you get the first indication of the scale of the game; the room you are in starts to move and wall falls off, showing you an immense factory with hundreds of rooms just like yours. Shards of wreckage fly around you and the impact of rooms clashing is tangible.

The other thing you immediately notice is the quite frankly stunning voice acting. Wheatley is voiced by Ricky Gervais’s writing partner Stephen Merchant, and the comments from both him and GLaDOS (who it turns out wasn’t quite dead) are both incredibly funny and brilliantly acted. It truly makes the game stand out when you feel more for a spherical robot in Portal 2 than you do about many human companions in other games. The graphics are impressive and while we played on a brand new iMac, even with anti-aliasing on maximum there were very few drops in the frame rate. The facility from the first game is here again, but it’s been neglected; the once white walls are now falling apart and plants dangle through ceiling panels. As the game progresses you’ll move through underground passages, vast caverns, clinically white rooms and warehouse-like areas, giving plenty of variety, and the puzzles get progressively harder as you play. The learning curve is smooth, slowly introducing you to new ideas and ways to place portals, and once you’ve mastered this, more elements will be introduced. In the end you’ll be redirecting lasers and bridges made from light, using catapults to fling yourself over gaps and using the newly added gels to help you reach the exits.

This certainly isn’t an out-and-out action game (Chell has no weapons or health bar), and you’ll spend time standing looking around at the levels trying to work out where you need to go. The puzzles really ramp up as you play, and they become really challenging in the end.

Multiplayer has been added for Portal 2, allowing you to connect with friends and play through an entirely new storyline, complete with new levels specifically designed for two players. Communication is key; if you don’t have a headset, there are a series of signals you can send to your friend to organise yourselves. It works surprisingly well; with two people, puzzles are even more challenging but incredibly fun, and dumping your friend into a spike pit by popping a portal underneath them is a great way to get back at them if they killed you in an earlier level.

This game is truly one of the best puzzle/action games we’ve ever seen. It’s brilliantly designed, has some absolutely incredible voice acting, a thoroughly engaging storyline and a great multiplayer mode. We cannot recommend this game more highly.

We’ve pulled out all the stops for our first issue of the New Year – whether you’ve got yourself a shiny new Mac or iOS device or your simply looking to start a fresh with your old one. We’ve got some amazing features, designed to help you get the most out of iLife, give your Mac a makeover and get gaming without a console. That, of course, sits happily alongside 98 pages of tutorials and advice and a cover disc with 50 minutes of amazing video tutorials.

Our cover feature this month sees us rack our brains for the 50 most important tips, tricks and hacks to help you get the most out of iLife. Whether you’re an iPhoto power user or an iMovie novice, there’s plenty of Mac secrets to really push these programs to their limits. Once you’ve mastered this amazing suite of programs, you can get stuck in to the tutorials and master iPhoto’s hugely underrated smart album.

If you’re looking to give your Mac a new look for the new year, our Customise Your Mac feature has everything you need to know. It’s packed with tips, advice, software and tricks to make your Mac almost unrecognisable from the traditional OS X aesthetic. Love it or hate it, you’re bound to find something you want to customise on your Mac, and there’s no better way to learn how to do it than taking a look at this guide.

By popular demand, we’ve delved into the worlds of Aperture and Final Cut Pro X to bring you two, four-page ultimate beginners guides to this pair of amazing pro software. Ideal for those moving up in the ranks from iMovie and iPhoto, these expert guides will have you flying through Apple’s best professional software in no time at all. You asked for it, so we included it.

We’ve rounded this issue with an in-depth look at the exciting world of OnLive – the streaming service that’s taking the gaming world by storm. Without giving too much away, with OnLive, you need never buy a console again. Forget expensive extra kit, you can now play almost any game on your iPad or Mac and we’ve taken six pages to show you just how it all works and why it’s worth doing.

iCreate 103 is available in all good shops and newsagents, on our Newsstand app, and via subscription now. In fact, if you’re a subscriber, chances are you’ll already have the mag sitting on your coffee table, and you’ll have saved a little on the high-street price too. Sound appealing? Check out our subscriptions site now and grab yourself a great deal.