MacRumors

Apple today pushed out an update to its iBooks application for iOS devices [App Store], bringing several improvements including a new "read-aloud" narrator to select children's books.

iBooks 1.3 adds several new features and improvements:

- Help your children learn to read with the new read-aloud feature included in select children's books from the iBookstore.
The read-aloud feature uses a real narrator to read the book to you, and in some books, it will even highlight the words as you read along.
- Enhanced books can now automatically play audio or video included with the book.
- Makes iBooks more responsive when opening very long books.
- Addresses an issue where some books may display the same page twice.

It is possible that the text-to-speech aspect of the new read-aloud functionality is based on technology from Nuance that has been rumored to be making its way into iOS 5, but Apple has not specifically disclosed the basis for the new feature.

We have not been able to track down any books compatible with the new read-aloud feature yet, so it will be interesting to see how quickly and how widely it is adopted by authors and publishers.

Apple's new iTunes 10.3 offers access to the iBookstore from the desktop for the first time, although an iOS device is still required to read the books.

Apple claims over 200 new features coming in iOS 5. One that was listed amongst the slides was a new iPad Music app, and while it was visible and briefly mentioned in during the keynote, some readers may have missed it, so here is a screenshot passed along to us by a reader.

Some iOS developers are making bank. One of the more visible iOS games over the past year has been Epic Games' Infinity Blade. In a press release today, Epic announced that its revenue from the game had exceeded $10 million in just six months of release.

Mark Rein, co-founder of Epic Games:

Infinity Blade’s success proves that triple-A gaming experiences can be hugely successful on iOS and that there is a valuable, pent up demand for premium content like this.

Donald Mustard, creative director of ChAIR Entertainment, the development studio behind Blade noted that "Apple has created an exciting, developer-friendly environment for iOS that has opened up many new doors for us."

I'm sure it helped that Apple gave Epic prime seating at iOS presentations and millions in television ad exposure. Can't get much more "developer friendly" than that! Still, with all the talk yesterday about how Apple was incorporating features that originally came from third-party apps, developing for iOS and the Mac is a win-win proposition for just about everyone -- and, if your app is good enough, Apple might just give it some sweet, sweet lovin'.

Incidentally, if Epic has made more than $10 million, that means Apple has cleared a sweet $4 million off its 30% cut.

Many readers were perplexed by the lack of an iTunes streaming music service at yesterday's WWDC keynote. Apple instead launched iTunes Match -- a service that allows users to get the same "download anywhere" benefits from songs they have ripped from CD's (or, ahem, *acquired* from other sources) as songs they have purchased from the iTunes Music Store.

As All Things Digital's Peter Kafka put it:

Apple will take the songs you've stolen, and turn them into legit files, with big music's blessing.

Awesome. But, users still have to download songs to their iDevices, and if you have a ton of music, that can be a pain. Many observers expected iCloud would include a music streaming service, a la Lala -- but it didn't. Why?

Because it would have killed the carriers. Erica Naone writes in the Technology Review:

A streaming version of iTunes could have hugely increased the amount of data that carriers would be expected to carry. The largest carriers in the U.S., AT&T and Verizon, both cancelled their unlimited plan in June 2010. T-Mobile and Sprint both still offer unlimited plans. Today, T-Mobile says, the average 4G smart-phone user consumes about a gigabyte of data per month. That number could change significantly if a popular service like iTunes truly moved to the cloud.

With Apple selling nearly 20 million iPhones per quarter, launching a major streaming music platform that every iPhone user would instantly start using would quite literally overload the carriers. It would be like Manhattan or San Francisco, only everywhere. And what's the point of a streaming music service if you can't get a signal?

One of the new iOS 5 features quickly touched on by Apple yesterday in its iOS 5 introduction was AirPlay Mirroring for the iPad 2, enabling users to wirelessly transmit the on-screen content of the device to an Apple TV for display on a television. The iPad 2 currently supports display mirroring via a Digital AV Adapter that provides a wired connection to a TV via HDMI.

One of the criticisms of the wired mirroring has been the cumbersome nature of the dongle and cable hanging off of the end of the device, particularly when it comes to games and other apps that require movement of the device for input purposes. Consequently, AirPlay Mirroring should be a significant boon to those looking to display their iPad content on the larger screen, especially if lag is minimal.

While the AirPlay Mirroring is a fairly basic concept in principle, this YouTube video is still an interesting look at the functionality:

And while the video does not directly address how much lag there is, the poster notes that the feature "works beautifully".

Update: And here is another video:

Magellan today released an update to its RoadMate North America and RoadMate USA apps for the iPhone, bringing an overhauled user interface, lifetime traffic and maps, and integration with Yelp and Google Local Search.

Magellan today announced a new version of its RoadMate North America App for iPhone is now available on the App Store. With major user interface enhancements designed for mobile routing, it is the first navigation app to integrate the popular Yelp! user-reviewed business listings. The new app also features Google local search and maps of the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, comes with free Lifetime map updates, and includes Magellan's Lifetime Traffic service that provides live traffic information and suggests alternate routes.

We had a brief chance to test out the new version and found the user interface revamp to be a pleasant one, offering a fair amount of customizability in terms of the data shown on-screen, while also providing a good perspective view of the route.

As for actual navigation, RoadMate did have some difficulties in our testing, attempting to direct us to a left turn across a raised median and unable to find a prominent local store through its POI database. Even when finding the store through the integrated Google Local Search, the app could only direct us to a point on a freeway in the general vicinity of the store, a route that would likely have left someone unfamiliar with the store's actual location confused and unable to find the store. To be fair, some of our other GPS apps struggled with the same left turn issue and lack of store listing in their POI databases, although several were able to plot correct routes to the store once the address was found via Google Local Search.

We were unable to put the app through a full battery of tests given a tight timeline ahead of the release, so it is unclear whether the issues we experienced were anomalies or symptomatic of broader issues with navigation in the Magellan system. But given some of the similar difficulties seen on other apps, it's fair to say that at least some experience with navigation issues is par for the course on turn-by-turn GPS navigation apps.

But navigation issues aside, we did find the new interface to be pleasing and informative, integrating trip distances and times with travel speed, speed limits, lane guidance, and traffic delays while still being able to display a solid map view, all on the iPhone's 3.5-inch screen that now checks in at smaller than the typical 4-inch or 5-inch display found on today's standalone GPS units.

RoadMate USA is priced at $49.99, while RoadMate North America adds coverage of Canada for an additional $10.

DigiTimes reports that both OmniVision Technologies and Sony have won orders to supply an 8-megapixel camera sensor for the next-generation iPhone, with Apple's existing supplier OmniVision reportedly set to handle 90% of the load.

OmniVision has grabbed a majority of total CMOS image sensor (CIS) orders placed by Apple for the fifth-generation iPhone, market sources have claimed. Meanwhile, power amplifier (PA) supplier Avago Technologies has landed orders for the WCDMA version of the device for its first time, according to the sources.

About 90% of the CIS orders for Apple's new iPhone will be supplied by OmniVision, while Sony takes up the remainder, the sources said. The upcoming device will feature a built-in 8-megapixel camera, the sources added.

Sony's potential role in supplying camera sensors for the fifth-generation iPhone has a rather long history, dating all the way back to an April 2010 analyst report claiming that the company had been selected by Apple to supply an 8-megapixel component, although that report suggested that Sony would be the sole, or at least primary, supplier.

By this February, another analyst had reported that OmniVision would most likely be the exclusive provider of the image sensor for the next iPhone, although Sony could take a small portion of the orders.

And in April of this year, Sony CEO Howard Stringer reportedly made comments strongly suggesting that his company is indeed sending image sensors to Apple, although some follow-up reports suggested that Stringer's comments had been misinterpreted.

When Steve Jobs told the crowd at Moscone that iTunes In The Cloud would be "available today", lots of iPhone and iPad users were very excited to begin using Automatic Downloads, Purchased Content Listings, iTunes in the Cloud and all the rest.

However, one group of users -- those owning a Verizon iPhone, to be precise -- can't participate in the fun, like the losing team at the World Series watching the champagne spray all over the winning pitcher. It's true, CDMA iPhones are stuck at 4.2.8, and iTunes in the Cloud only works on iOS 4.3.3 or later. It's buried in the fine print at the bottom of the iCloud Features page:

Available in beta now in the U.S. only and requires iOS 4.3.3 on iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 (GSM model), iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation), iPad, or iPad 2, or a Mac or PC with iTunes 10.3. Previous purchases may be unavailable if they are no longer in the iTunes Store.

Sorry, Verizon owners. You're still second best.

Apple today announced iMessage, a new messaging service for iOS 5 users called. The service promises unlimited SMS-esque messaging between iOS users on iPod touch devices, iPhones and iPads. iMessages can be text, photos, videos, locations or include contact data.

If it sounds like BBM, RIM's BlackBerry Messaging service, that's because, well, it sounds a lot like BBM actually -- and increases device lock-in as well. Users of iPads and iPod touch devices will get built-in text and picture messaging, unlimited and free, which is nice for parents who don't want to splurge on an iPhone for little Timmy, but still want him to be able to keep in touch with friends.

For iPhone users, iMessage will be built in to the standard text message window, so using it should be pretty seamless. Other features include group messaging, delivery and read receipts, typing notification and secure encryption. Of course, keeping with the sync via iCloud theme, users will be able to start a conversation on one device and finish it on another. No word yet if iMessage will be included in iChat for OS X Lion as well, but I wouldn't be surprised if it makes an appearance there as well.