In just a few taps, you can gift iOS apps directly through your iPhone or iPad, and you can send gifted apps instantly or on a specific date in the future.

And while Google’s Play store still doesn’t allow you to gift apps (what’s the holdup?) directly over your Android phone or tablet, you can still wrap up an Android app (or an e-card for an Android app, anyway) with a minimum of fuss.

You can gift iOS apps directly over your iPhone or iPad.

For iOS:

• First, open the App Store app, find an app you’d like to give to a special someone, then tap to open the app’s detail screen (the one with the tap-to-buy button).
• Tap the Share button at the top at the top of the screen (or, on an iPad in the top corner of the pop-up window), then tap the Gift button.
• A new email message with details on your gift will slide into view. Type in the email address of the recipient, add a personal message, then (under the Send Gift heading) choose when you’d like the gift to arrive: either immediately, or at a later date.
• Tap the Next button in the top corner of the screen to pick from seven themes for your virtual gift, then tap Next again to wrap up the process.

Google Play gift cards are available online and from retails such as Walmart, Target, and Sam’s Club.

For Android:

• No, you can’t gift an app through the Google Play app store, but you can give a Google Play gift card to a special someone. Available in denominations of $10, $25, and $50, Google Play gift cards are available online and at brick-and-mortar retailers like Walmart, Target, CVS, Walgreens, and Sam’s Club, and they can be used to gift apps, music, and books sold on the Google Play online marketplace.
• Need to gift an Android app instantly? Amazon has its own Android store stocked with thousands of popular apps, which can be redeemed with a personalized gift card—and unlike Google Play gift cards, you can send Amazon gift cards via e-mail.
• Live someone other than the U.S.? If so, good news: Google Play gift cards are available at international retailers in more than two dozen countries, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.

Click here for more Android tips, or click here for help with your iPhone or iPad!

Note: This updated tip was first published in December 2011.

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Well, now, what could we be talking about here? Maybe that long-rumored Facebook app for iPad that we’ve all been waiting for? Or perhaps the unconfirmed photo sharing app for the iPhone that’s been leaking all over the place?

Zuckerberg coughed up at least one clue on Wednesday: that the mystery feature had been cooked up at Facebook’s satellite Seattle office, which has “made a mark on the company’s mobile efforts” in the past, according to Reuters.

So, what’s your guess? Cast your vote now!

[polldaddy poll=5195452]

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Mark writes: I finally pulled the trigger on a VZW iPhone. I was wondering if you had any thoughts on better camera apps than the stock one on the iPhone 4 and if it makes sense to get anything considering the enhancements in the iOS 5. Thanks.

Hi Mark! It’s true that the upcoming revamp of the iPhone system software will add a series of enhancements to the built-in camera app, including red-eye reduction, an auto photo enhancer, grid lines to help compose your subjects, and an image-cropping tool.

But even the new-and-improved iPhone camera app is still pretty basic—good for those who want to squeeze off snapshots with a minimum of fuss, but not so hot for anyone who’s interested in adding a little polish to their photos.

Now, just to be clear, I’m no Ansel Adams myself—indeed, I’d be hard-pressed to tell you the difference between an f-stop and a bus stop.

But I do like taking photos that look good, and there are a dozens of solid—and cheap—iPhone photography apps that go above and beyond Apple’s bare-bones camera application.

Here are five of the best iPhone photo apps to get you started (and this list is by no means comprehensive, by the way).

Camera+
This $1.99 app should probably be your first stop. Like the new camera app in iOS 5, Camera+ features grid lines in the viewfinder to help you make pleasing compositions, and you can also crop snapshots once you’ve taken them.

But Camera+ adds several other powerful features, including “scene” modes (like “cloudy,” “shade,” “fluorescent,” and “sunset”) that enhance your photos depending on the lighting conditions; a white-balance reticule that lets you manually adjust for darker or lighter areas in the viewfinder, separate from the focus icon; a timer; an image stabilizer; a rapid-fire “burst” mode; a more than a dozen color filters; and 10 custom borders. Once you’re done snapping, you can share your photos on Facebook, Twitter, or Flickr. Good stuff.

ProCamera
Similar to Camera+, but with even more features, including a “ProLab” post-processing area where you can tweak brightness, contrast, and saturation settings individually.

At $2.99, ProCamera is a bit pricier than Camera+, and the two app share many features, so you probably wouldn’t want to get both; instead, investigate each first, then pick the right one for you.

Photoshop Express
This free photo-editing app from Adobe doesn’t include any viewfinder features; instead, it’s focused (no pun intended) on tweaking the snapshots that are already in your camera roll.

You can crop, straighten, rotate, and flip photos, as well tinker with exposure, contrast, and saturation settings; a handful of color filters and borders are also available.

Overall, pretty basic, and not nearly as polished as Camera+ or ProCamera; that said, the price is right.

Pro HDR
The iPhone already has its own, built-in HDR (short for “high dynamic range”) feature, which automatically takes a series of photos in quick succession, analyzes the darkest and brightest spots of each picture, and combines the images into a single shot with a more even exposure.

Pro HDR ($1.99) gives you a more hands-on approach to HDR photography, allowing you to manually pick the darkest and lightest areas of a scene, while slider controls let you adjust brightness, contrast, and other image settings.

Magic Shutter
Need to take photos in low-light situations, or want an arty shot of the city with shimmering skyscrapers and streaking car headlights? Check out Magic Shutter, a $2.99 app that lets you take long-exposure shots, with shutter speeds ranging from a second or two to … well, as long as you want.

Hope this helps, Mark. Good luck!

Have any other questions about taking photos with your iPhone—or do you have other photo app suggestions to share? Let me know!

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Hipmunk, a site that lets travellers search for and compare upcoming flights using a colorful, easy-to-read timeline, now displays a little wireless icon next to flights with on-board Wi-Fi. There doesn’t appear to be a way to filter your travel results for wireless flights only, but the telltale Wi-Fi icons are easy to spot. (The feature will also land on Hipmunk’s iPhone app in a future software update, the company promises.)

Once you’ve ID’d your preferred wireless flights, just click them to start building your trip. All set? With a final click, Hipmunk sends you to Orbitz or the appropriate airline site to complete the booking process. Nice.

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There's still no official Facebook app for the iPad—or at least, not yet.

Want to check your Facebook account on the iPad? Well, there are plenty of solid, third-party Facebook apps available (we’ve got Friendly for Facebook, MyPad, Facely HD, and VideoTime for Facebook, for starters), or you could visit the main Facebook website on the iPad’s web browser (doable, but a little clunky, especially for photos). But the iPad still lacks an official Facebook app—well, for now, anyway.

According to the New York Times, Facebook is in the “final stages of testing” for its first-ever iPad app, which supposedly boasts a “slick” design, the ability to shoot and upload snapshots directly from the iPad, and an “amazing” full-screen photo viewer.

Facebook won’t confirm or deny the New York Times story, which claims that the finished iPad app should hit the App Store “in the coming weeks.”

The news comes more than six months after Facebook wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg testily insisted that the iPad “isn’t mobile, it’s a computer,” adding that “it is not a mobile platform the same way a phone is.” Zuckerberg’s point, at the time, was that the iPad wouldn’t be playing much part in Facebook’s overall (and jaw-droppingly ambitious) mobile plans.

So, did something change his mind? Good question.

Of course, there are already a variety of Facebook apps for iPad built by third-party developers. One of the most popular, Friendly for Facebook (99 cents, or free with ads) offers a handsome, touch-friendly experience, complete with large (although not full-screen) photo albums, the ability to snap and upload photos from the iPad’s camera, and a chat window.

And the Facebook website itself isn’t too terrible on the iPad. although flicking through photos is a relatively clunky, frustrating experience.

Anyway, what do you think: Would you welcome an official Facebook app for the iPad? Or is there an existing Facebook iPad app that you’re happy with? Let us know!

Source: NYT

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The deal kicks off today (Thursday, June 16) and runs through September 20, and any college student, parent, teacher, or school staffer who buys a Mac through Apple’s education store qualifies for a $100 Mac App Store credit. (Parents need to be buying a Mac for their college-bound kids, of course, while educators at any grade level—not just higher ed—can sign up.)

Want some tunes or e-books to go along with your back-to-school apps? No problem: Apple says you can apply the $100 credit toward songs on iTunes and digital volumes in the iBookstore, not to mention iPhone and iPad apps.

Macs available through Apple’s online education store range from $899 for the 13-inch white MacBook to $1,149 and up for a desktop iMac.

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