Apple is promoting new features of the iPad enabled by the free iOS 4.2 update in a new commercial named "iPad is Amazing."

The 30 second spot (shown below) highlights AirPrint, multitasking features, and shows of the use of AirPlay to wirelessly present video on an HDTV, in a quickly paced presentation follows the same style as previous iPad ads.

Apple is drawing attention to its Game Center mobile gaming initiative by tagging titles in the App Store as being compliant with the new program.

Apps that support Game Center features now sport the logo and a prominent Game Center tag in App Store searches and product detail pages, both in iTunes (shown below) and in the iOS App Store app.

Game Center enables app developers to add multiplayer features, friend invites, matchmaking, achievement tracking, and high score leaderboards to their games in such a way that users can track their performance from the Game Center app using a single account.

Supporting Game Center does not necessarily mean that apps implement every feature. Some Game Center apps do not support multiplayer features, for example.

However, the additional marketing push provided by Apple in iTunes to make the Game Center brand more recognizable is likely to encourage developers to support the new program by creating awareness of the new system among App Store buyers.

Apple added Game Center to iOS 4.2 in September for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 as well as the second, third and fourth generation iPod Touch. It is not supported on the original iPod touch, iPhone, or iPhone 3G. Apple said it will add support to iPad in the upcoming iOS 4.2 release.

Japan's governing body for sumo wrestling is looking to improve communication among clubs by giving out Apple's iPad.

The Financial Times reported Tuesday that the Japan Sumo Association will distribute iPads to Japan's 51 sumo training "stables." The association hopes that sumo wrestlers, who have generally been slow to adopt modern communications technology, will take to the iPad's intuitive interface and larger touch-screen.

With faxes you cant be sure if the message was actually received but with e-mail we can prevent that, the JSA said. Plus, you can carry them around.

Many stablemasters do not use computers, relying instead on fax or telephone to communicate. Wrestlers themselves often have trouble typing messages on keypads with their larger hands.

When they try to send e-mail on mobile phones or PCs they often end up pressing two or three keys at once," according to the daily Nikkan Sports.

The association plans to spend about 3 million yen (over $35,000) on the iPads, which will also be given to several top JSA officials.

In May, the iPad's launch in Japan saw a "frenzy" of buyers, some of whom camped out for days to buy the device. At the Apple Store in central Tokyo, about 1200 people lined up for the release. The iPad's success in Japan comes on the heels of the success of the iPod and the iPhone among the Japanese public, a market that's notoriously difficult for overseas technology companies to penetrate.

Purported e-mails from Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs continue to mount, with the latest alleged note saying that Apple will "someday" allow iPhone syncing to Mac over Wi-Fi. In an e-mail provided to Mashable, the CEO gave a characteristically brief response, suggesting Apple will allow users to pair their iPhone and computer at some point.



Separately, French Mac site Hardmac reported a rumor Friday that Apple is considering rebranding Mac OS X.

"One of our sources told us that Apple might be deciding about a totally new branding for its OS, (similar) to what it has... done with the iPhone," the report said. "They are currently thinking of using iOS as the default naming/branding of Apple OS. We would then have iOS desktop, iOS server and iOS mobile."

Apple rebranded its mobile operating system earlier this month as iOS, with the latest release being iOS 4. The name change dropped the confusing "iPhone OS" moniker, which was given when the mobile operating system was created for the iPhone. Since then, it has become part of the iPod touch and iPad, neither of which are phones.

Reports of a touchscreen desktop Mac arriving this year have lingered for some time.

Apple retail stores overseas will open early on Friday, with the international launch of the iPad set to start when doors open at 8 a.m. local time across the globe.

Apple's regional websites for stores in the U.K, France, Canada, Germany, Australia, Italy, Japan, and Switzerland all indicate that they will open at 8 a.m. this Friday, May 28, for the international launch of the iPad. The device is also set to on sale in Spain, where Apple does not have any retail stores.

A retail purchase is likely the best option for customers who did not buy an iPad when preorders were first made available earlier this month. Since May 12, all new iPad preorders are not scheduled to ship until June.

The iPad will launch in a total of nine countries on May 28, with nine additional locations -- Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore -- receiving their iPads in July. Apple has said it will announce dates for nine additional countries at a later date.

The international launch of the iPad was originally scheduled for late April, but Apple delayed it by a month due to stronger than expected demand of the device in the U.S. The iPad 3G has been largely sold out since it first went on sale in America and the end of April.



The first day of iPad 3G sales, on April 30, was enough to push the device past the 1 million milestone in the U.S. alone, with Apple reaching that many sales just 28 days after the hardware was introduced. Apple officials have admitted that they were caught off guard by the strong sales start of the new device.

Apple on Thursday released updates for its three multitouch iWork applications available for the iPad. The software is available through the App Store for $9.99 each. Updates can be downloaded on the iPad or through iTunes.

According to Apple, the updates include:

Pages

• Support for French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish
  
  
• Toolbar and ruler are now available in wide-screen landscape view
  
  
• Documents automatically fit to page width in landscape view
  
  
• Enhanced Back/Front slider in the Arrange panel
  
  
• Improves reliability when exporting Microsoft Word documents
  
  
• Addresses issues with exporting documents previously imported from Microsoft Word
  
  
• Fixes an issue with text wrapping in Microsoft Word after exporting a document with a frame around an image
  
  
• Addresses a chart font size issue when exporting documents previously imported from Microsoft Word
  
  
• Resolves an issue with scrolling after inserting and playing a movie

Numbers

• Support for French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish
  
  
• Enhanced Back/Front slider in the Arrange panel
  
  
• Improves reliability when importing Numbers '09 spreadsheets
  
  
• Addresses a chart font size issue when exporting spreadsheets previously imported from Microsoft Excel
  
  
• Fixes an issue when formatting a table pasted from Keynote or Pages
  
  
• Addresses an issue where formulas did not properly update when dragging and dropping cells
  
  
• Fixes an issue with applying a new style to a table in a template after an Undo

Keynote

• Support for French, German, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish
  
  
• Enhanced Back/Front slider in the Arrange panel
  
  
• Added the option to show additional alignment guides at smaller intervals
  
  
• Improves reliability when importing Keynote '09 presentations
  
  
• Improves reliability when importing Microsoft PowerPoint presentations
  
  
• Addresses a chart font size issue when exporting presentations previously imported from Microsoft PowerPoint
  
  
• Fixes an issue preventing access to some table cell color fills in landscape mode with an external keyboard

In promotion of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' upcoming appearance at the D: All Things Digital conference on June 1, BoomTown's Kara Swisher has posted video of his past appearances in 2003 and 2004. Jobs has appeared at every D conference, except in 2008 and 2009.

D1:



D2:



At this year's conference, if past interviews are any indication, Jobs is likely to spill details about the inner workings of Apple and where the company is headed. In 2004, Jobs revealed that Apple developed, but did not ship, a PDA.

But perhaps the most memorable appearance was in 2007, when Jobs shared the stage with Microsoft's Bill Gates at the D5 conference. The two praised each others' work and gave insight into their history with one another. Jobs said that Gates and Microsoft were better at forming partnerships, while Gates praised Jobs and Apple for their ability to figure out the next big thing in consumer technology.

A survey of the highly coveted 18- to 34-year-old young adult demographic found that Apple's brand lost some of its "cool" factor in the month of April.

New daily tracking statistics from YouGov's BrandIndex show a steady erosion of Apple's "buzz score" since it hit a high on March 18. The score, which represents positive or negative feedback, dropped from that high of 80.2 to 66.1 this week.

While the erosion is significant in terms of the company's tracking, it does not mean Apple is in trouble with the young demographic. The BrandIndex scale ranges from -100 to 100 and is compiled by subtracting negative feedback from positive. A score of zero would mean equal positive and negative feedback.

"Apple has definitely lost some steam with the adult 18-34 demo," the report noted, "although they are still doing well."

YouGov said the survey was a more scientific answer to the question asked by columnist Nick Bilton in The New York Times earlier this week: "Has Apple lost its cool?" Bilton suggested that Apple's recent actions in slamming Adobe Flash and suing HTC, along with its tight control of the App Store, have made many view the Cupertino, Calif., company as "bullying."

Bilton also noted, however, that "all the litigation and negative press hasn't hurt Apple's sales. People are lining up to buy iPads and iPhones and swooning over announcements of new products."



The BrandIndex score is updated daily, based on interviews with 5,000 people each weekday from a representative U.S. population sample, amounting to 1.2 million interviews per year. The company said its margin of error is +/- 2 percent.

Those interviewed were asked the question, "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, was it positive or negative?" For comparison, Apple's "buzz" score of 66.1 is higher than Motorola's 57.2, but lower than Google's 82.5.

Last year, YouGov's BrandIndex also closely tracked (1, 2) the public relations battle between Verizon and AT&T;, and what effect it had on each wireless carrier.

Apple announced on Friday that movies from some of the biggest studios in Hollywood and abroad are now available on the iTunes Store in both Ireland and France.

Films are available from 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home entertainment, Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. Entertainment. Popular titles including "Avatar, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," Up," "The Hangover," "Iron Man," and "Harry Brown" are now available for purchase.

In addition, European studios also have content available on the stores, including E1 Entertainment, Lionsgate UK and Optimum releasing.

Apple's float-adjusted market cap hit $242 billion Thursday, making it the second-largest company on the S&P; 500 and pushing it ahead of Microsoft, which finished the day with a $239 billion open market cap as calculated by the Standard & Poor's.

According to MarketWatch, Apple surpassed Microsoft with a float-adjusted cap of $241.5 billion. Those numbers do not use the full market basis, but apply only to shares on the open market.

Apple's total was larger than Microsoft's index market value of $239.5 billion on the Standard & Poor's. However, in terms of total actual market cap, Apple remains well below Microsoft, with a difference of more than $30 billion. Previously, a number of outlets, including MarketWatch, had incorrectly reported that Apple's total market cap had surpassed Microsoft.

The milestone came after Apple announced on Tuesday that its profits increased nearly 90 percent year over year, thanks to strong Mac and iPhone sales.

Exxon still remains the top company on the S&P; 500., with a market cap of $324 billion. Earlier this year Apple moved past Berkshire Hathaway and Walmart to become the third-largest U.S. company in terms of market cap.

The numbers could change quickly, though, with Microsoft announcing its earnings Thursday afternoon. Apple's stock increased $7.25, or 2.8 percent, in trading on Thursday to propel it past Microsoft. AAPL is also significantly up from its 52-week low of $119.38.

Apple's growth has been largely credited to the company's CEO, Steve Jobs. In December, the Apple co-founder was named the world's best-performing CEO for increasing his company's market cap a whopping $150 billion over a 12-year span.