It’s that wonderful time of year where the gift of giving is in abundance, and whether you’re on the giving or receiving end, we’ve plenty ideas to make the most of your Christmas hauls packed into issue 102. There’s more about all of that below, but needless to say, as ever we’ve packed all manner of reviews, news and tutorials as well as an excellent cover disc featuring some great tutorials and resources into this month’s mag.

Whether you’re taking advantage of the ability to gift apps, or you’ve found yourself flush with iTunes and App Store gift cards this festive season, you’ll undoubtedly want to see what you can apps you can get for your virtual dollar. With that in mind, we’ve put together our definitive guide to the 50 best iOS apps and some of the most amazing Mac apps to ever grace the app store. There’s a wide range of apps on offer in both features, ranging from games to digital gadgets, and we’ve even thrown in a few of our personal favourites for good measure. Consider it the ultimate buyer’s guides to the best digital stores on the planet.

If you wake up on Christmas Day to a new Mac, you know you’ve been good all year, but if you want to be good when it comes to using your Mac, you may want to check out our ’30 Lion Lessons’ feature. We’re going back to school with this one, taking you through some of the most essential pieces of advice we can give you when it comes to getting going with your Mac. Even if you’ve had you machine for years, there’s bound to be a tip or two amongst this feature that you’ve never heard of and, who knows, it could just change the way you work – for the better!

Finally, we’ve got a five-page guide to creating a perfect iPhoto calendar, which could provide you with an ideal last-minute Christmas gift for friends or loved ones. Apple will even deliver it to your door so you can beat that Christmas Eve rush in retain outlets across the country. Personalised calendars are gift that keeps on giving, they last all year and the lucky recipient will conveniently need a new one right around this time in 2012. You’ll never be stuck for present ideas again.

Consider this issue our gift to you this festive season.

With love,

iCreate

P.S. Here’s a Christmas gift guide tip from us: If you want to really treat that Apple-loving, creative in your life, why not grab them an iCreate subscription? For a pinch over £25 you’ll give them the beautiful gift of six issues of the best Magazine for Mac, iPhone and iPads delivered to their door way before it hits the shelves in your local store. It saves a snow-filled trip to the shops and will certainly guarantee you stay on their Christmas card list for at least another year.

P.P.S. Did you know we’re also on Apple’s Newsstand? You can buy subscriptions (and single issues, including back issues) on there too!

Have you wondered what life will be like when iWeb is gone?  Are you backing up your Mac? Do you want to protect your precious movies, music and data? Do you know how to use the cloud for backup? Then iCreate issue 99 is for you! In the run up to our milestone issue 100 we’ve managed to squeeze in yet another bumper issue of iCreate for all your OS X and iOS needs.

If you love your Mac as much as we do, you’ll no doubt be using it to create family photo albums and birthday videos as well as organising all your music, movies and media. So what would you do if you lost it all? We’ve got you covered with our ultimate guide to backing up your mac – we’ll run through alternative to time machine, give you an overview of off-site backup and clear up how the cloud can be used for backing up.

Whilst we’re in the cloud, we look at the now defunct iWeb, which was quietly ushered out of Apple’s back door with the introduction of Lion, and what you can do without it to create your websites. We’ll look at the best online alternatives inlcluding Blogger, WordPress and Flavors.me and show you how to use these great tools to create a new site today.

Top that all off with the latest news and reviews of all the latest and greatest Apple accessories, and you’ve got an issue of iCreate that you can’t afford to miss. So head out and pick one up today!

If you want to make life a little easier for yourself, why not treat yourself to an iCreate subscription?That way your favourite Mac magazine gets delivered to your door and you can get all the goodness before anyone else has even left for the shops and save yourself some money too.

Late last night, Steve Jobs resigned as the CEO of Apple Inc. While this has come as a surprise to some, there have been suggestions for months that Jobs was beginning to take a back seat in the day-to-day running of the company he founded back in 1976. With Apple now in the best position it has ever been in, it seems like Jobs has chosen the perfect time to step back and focus on recovering from the illness from which he is suffering. With the iPhone 5 (and iPod) announcement just a few weeks away, any drop in share price that the company will suffer will undoubtedly be recouped in the hours after that keynote, and with Apple having recently passed Exxon as the most valuable company in history, there has never, and will never, be a better time for the CEO to resign from his position and take some time for himself.

Jobs’ health has been in question since the middle of 2004, when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, for which he underwent a pancreaticoduodenectomy that seemingly resolved the issue. While the prognosis for most sufferers of this kind of cancer, it turned out that Jobs had a far less aggressive form of the disease.

After this procedure, Jobs returned to his position at Apple, but there were constant questions about his health, particularly after he delivered Keynotes at WWDC in 2006 and 2008. While there were assertions from many sources claiming that Jobs was medically fine, in 2009 he took a six-month medical leave of absence, which culminated in a liver transplant in April of that year. Naturally, rumours were rife about his health, but once again he returned to the head of Apple, running operations until the beginning of this year, when he announced that he would again take a medical leave of absence. He remained on this leave until the announcement last night, which will see Tim Cook take over as CEO and Jobs take on the position of Chair of the Board of Directors.

It’s hard to explain quite how big an impact Steve Jobs has had on the world of computing in the last 35 years. After starting Apple with Steve Wozniak in a garage in 1976, it has gone on to become not only the most valuable company in the world, but one of the most recognisable. You can say iPhone to anyone and they will undoubtedly of heard of the device, even if they’ve never used one. Jobs is the one who discovered the true talent Jony Ive and put it to use. Jobs is the one who pushed for the creation of the first iPod. Jobs is the one who took Apple from a failing company in 1996 to most valuable in the world in 2011. Jobs changed everything.

So what do the rest of the team think about this resignation? What will it mean in the long-term for Apple? How will it affect their future? Read on to find out exactly what we’re thinking…

Jimmy:

I really don’t think it will disturb anything other than a temporary flux in Apple’s share price. There’s no doubt that Steve has been plotting his retirement for some time. He’s not the sort of character that will ever not be involved with elements of Apple – but he needs to begin getting that distance so he can eventually move away from the fold without investors and commenters spelling doom for his company. The Apple product road map probably stretches quite far into the future as well so there will be no let up in innovation – the timing of this announcement has been carefully planned too, I feel. We’re just weeks away from a new iPhone, new iPods and what will no doubt be another record breaking holiday season for Apple products sales. A slight dip in share price now will probably only strengthen its position going into the new year. Shrewd, careful and perfectly planned as always.

Stephen:

One thing we’ve been saying a lot around iCreate Towers recently is that we’re sure the Apple has planned ahead for many more products than are rumoured at the moment. Somewhere in Apple HQ the iPhone 6 is well into its development, and iPad 4 and 5 have undoubtedly been planned since the launch of the first iPad last year. While, in the coming days, many may shout about how Apple will fail now that Steve isn’t in charge, it’s worth noting that he will have had a huge part in the development of these products already. And of course we can’t forget that he’s not leaving Apple entirely; he’ll still have a hand in the Apple’s development as a company as he takes the position of Chair of the Board. I’m confident that we’re still going to be experiencing the influence of Steve in Apple’s products for years.

Freddie:

When you devote your life to building up a company as successful as Apple, it can’t be an easy decision to make when it comes to stepping down as CEO. That said, it’s undoubtedly the right decision, everyone needs a break after all, particularly in poor health. Naturally there’s a knee-jerk reaction from shareholders and the markets and with all the commentary going on you’d think the poor guy is dead already, but this will all die down. More importantly, with someone as prolific as Tim Cook at the helm, it wont be long before the hysteria subsides and Apple can be left to go on making great products and changing the face of technology for the better.

________________________________________

As a team, we would all like to wish Steve Jobs the very best in his new position, and thank him for helping to make Apple what it is today. Get well soon, Steve, and we look forward to hearing more from you as Chairman in the coming months and years.

Is your Lion having some teething problems? Is auto-save baffling at best? Do you need a guide to upgrading from an older Mac? Then look no further, because in this month’s issue of iCreate Magazine we’ve got a six-page special genius bar guide to Apple’s latest operating system. There’s plenty of tips, tricks, hacks and how-tos to sink your teeth into and really make the most of the new big cat on the block.

Talking of upgrading, issue 98 also features a pretty nifty guide to picking your perfect Mac. We’ve pored over the details of every one of Apple’s amazing machines so you don’t have to. Simply pick up a copy of the magazine from any good newsagent or shop and take a read before you head out to make your next big purchase and you’ll go knowing exactly which Mac you really want.

As well as our hand-crafted guides to all things Lion and Mac, we’ll show you how to make the most of iTunes with our ‘power up iTunes’ feature, by letting you in on some amazing tricks and killer add-ons to really make your Mac your one-stop media shop. We’ve also got a bunch of creative tutorials from making amazing photobooks to mastering typography in Pages.

Top that all off with the latest news and reviews of all the latest and greatest Apple accessories, and you’ve got an issue of iCreate that you can’t afford to miss. So head out and pick one up today!

If you want to make life a little easier for yourself, why not treat yourself to an iCreate subscription? That way your favourite Mac magazine gets delivered to your door and you can get all the goodness before anyone else has even left for the shops and save yourself some money too.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Image with thanks from macrumors.com

Verizon have announced that they will be carrying the iPhone 4 in the US this year at a press conference in New York. The Verizon iPhone will launch on 10th February. They will be charging $199 for the 16GB and $299 for the 32GB model. Verizon are including the ability to host a mobile hotspot, enabling you to add up to 5 other devices to the iPhone’s wireless.

The iPhone casing from last week is the Verizon iPhone – you can see the two black bands on the left hand side (Images courtesy of Engadget.com)

There were reports last week from The Wall Street Journal suggesting that Verizon would be offering unlimited data plans as part of their deal, something that AT&T have recently removed from their plans. Verizon refused to comment on what data plans they will be offering, but they said they would have a ‘strong offer’ to draw people to their network.

The news will come as a great relief to thousands of American users who have bemoaned the fact that the iPhone was previously locked into AT&T. There have been calls for Verizon to take the phone onto their network for many years as complaints about the service and quality of the AT&T network rolled in. In fact even Verizon pointed out how poor AT&T’s service was in an advertising campaign last year.

UPDATE:

Engadget have posted some photos on their live stream of the event:

Apple’s Tim Cook is on stage. “We’re incredibly pleased to give Verizon’s customers the choice we’ve been waiting for. We’ve designed an iPhone 4 which connects to the CDMA network — and it has all the features that you’d expect. Like FaceTime. Features like Apple’s stunning Retina Display.”

UPDATE: $199 for the 16GB, $299 for the 32GB model. Includes a mobile hotspot ability, enabling you to add up to 5 other devices. Nice. Available for pre-ordering on 3rd February, to buy on the 10th.

Looks like it’s CDMA rather than LTE 4G, which will disappoint some.

UPDATE: So, it looks like they have ‘optimised’ the antennae for CDMA. If you look at the picture above you can see the changed location of the black band above the volume buttons. Looks like this is the casing that we saw last week. I wonder if they’ll have solved the problems from the early iPhone 4 days?

Apparently Verizon will announce a ‘strong offer to draw customers’ to Verizon in the near future.

More to follow…

As you may or may not know Imagine Publishing, the company that makes iCreate, also makes a whole range of other magazines as well as bookazines and DVD’s that cover all kinds of cool topics. This Christmas the Imagine grotto is brimming over with iCreate goodies as well as other brilliant products like a range of iconic retro gaming mugs and bumper-sized bookazines including the games™ Top 100 Games and the Videogaming Hardware Handbooks Vol 1 and 2, plus lots more. For artistic types there’s a wide variety of beautiful photography tips and techniques bookazines, Photoshop masterclass books and digital artistry products for those friends and family who love to get creative. Other fantastic bookazine topics include Macs, web design, motoring, scicence fiction, and of course the epic How It Works Annual containing all the finest features from the last year. You can also catch up with your favourite magazines on DVD with the ridiculously handy range of Imagine eMags, packed with thousands of pages’ worth of quality content. There really is something for everyone at the Imagine eShop, so check it out now. ‘Yule’ be glad you did!

As usual, in the run up to an Apple release (the big ones anyway) there is a deluge of news concerning the iPad. Not only have we been hearing about potential apps, delivery status reports and where will be selling them, we’ve also been hearing about the future of the web and how the iPad is influencing it. So, rather than re-write the excellent stories we’ve seen around the web – we’ll sum them up for you and give you a handy link so you can read them in full if you like.

Apple starts to ship iPads – from 9to5mac.com

Most of the other blog sites are reporting this too thanks to reader feedback. Those who made the first iPad orders are having their units shipped. There’s no chance of them arriving early though as Apple will hold them back to make sure.

Apple to sell 10 million iPads this year – from MacRumors.com

This story is obviously based on speculation but analyst Katy Huberty at Morgan Stanley is citing that iPad suppliers are now forecasting shipments of 8-10 million iPads for calendar year 2010.  This is twice as much as has been previously been predicted.

Brightcove announce HTML5 uptake – from TUAW.com

This may not seem like massive news but Brightcove provide media for some of the biggest names on the web and their decision to support HTML5 just shows how massive they believe the iPad will be.

The iPad reshaping the internet – from Gizmodo.com

This story follows on from the Brightcove announcement and offers a few more examples of how seriously companies are thinking about having the iPad view their content.

iPad camera kit available for pre-order – from Engadget.com

The ability to load pictures form an SD card directly onto the iPad is very cool but that doesn’t stop Engadget having a pop at the price of the unit.

Best Buy to have limited iPad stocks – from 9to5mac.com

This is a very interesting story if you plan to go to Best Buy to get your iPad. According to a leaked document they are only holding 5 of each model at stores that have Apple products in them.

iBook Store to offer low cost self publishing – from AppleInsider.com

We had a feeling this was coming and we’re really pleased that it is – Apple are said to be offering incredibly cheap ways for authers to submit work to the iBook Store. This means anyone can publish a book. Look out for our original tale about a boy who becomes a magical man-witch. Its called Gareth Smith…

iPad App Store details leaked – from MacNN.com

Pictures and details of how the App Store has been optimized for the App Store. The bigger screen allows for cool features like Cover Flow. There’s also some info on the reappearance of the Explicit category.

The latest issue of iCreate has now hit the shelves!  iPhone subscribers can also now download the latest issue too. This month you’ll find our extensive guide to the iPad  – covering all of its pros and cons, which should help you make a decision before you buy (if you haven’t pre-ordered already). You’ll also find a brand new mini-mag inside called iPlay which ties together all of our iPod, iPhone and iPad content in a convenient section. Other highlights include a packed tutorial section, a brimming reviews section and great feature on going wireless at home. Buyers of the physical magazine also get a free CD packed with over £130 of goodies. Enjoy

Engadget

There have been several supposed shots of the new device – all of which have been routinely shot down  – until now. Follow the link to see some pretty tasty spy shots of what looks like the new tablet secured to a desk. These look like development prototypes and follow the consensus that Apple are building what is essentially a large iPhone.

9to5mac

This is a tiny tidbit of info but very interesting nonetheless. The iPhone developer site went down briefly and, as a result of being brought back up, now contains an interesting note about the event today. The implication is that the tablet will be closely tied to the iPhone OS and as a result we may see a big development on that front.

Derek Powazek

Derek Powazek works for a company called Fray and he outlines some interesting ideas about what he would want from a tablet. While this is an opinion piece, its still very interesting and matches up with what a lot of people are thinking.

Wired

As usual Wired are thinking a little out of the box here. Most of us are concentrating on the device itself but Wired are gunning for the big deal in the announcement to be about content. We totally agree with this idea and are also convinced that it will be the iTunes tie-ins that will make the hardware worth buying.

MacNN

This is an interesting development on the e-book reader side of the tablet. It claims that Apple is allowing publishers to set their own prices for books. If this is true then there could be a huge amount of content readily available for the new device.