Digg founder Kevin Rose thinks the upcoming $99, iOS-powered iTV/AppleTV will change everything when it launches this September:

• iOS TV Applications: Expect to see an iPhone/Pad like marketplace for television applications. Video sharing/streaming/recording apps, interactive news apps, and of course games.
• a la carte (app) stations: With Apple’s iAds, content producers (eg. ABC/NBC/etc.) can directly monetize and distribute their content. This will eventually destroy the television side of the cable and satellite industry, as your only requirement to access these on-demand stations will be an internet connection. Say goodbye to your monthly cable bill.
• .Me Picture/Video sharing: At $99 your parents, grandparents, and friends will have an iTV. Sharing pictures/videos from your iPhone will happen with the push of a button. Imagine getting a notification of new family videos the next time you turn on your TV. My mom will love this feature.
• The iPad will turn into one big badass remote control: The iPad will be the preferred input device for the iTV. You’ll be able to editing videos, control games, and extend the interactive television experience. Imagine watching monday night football on the TV while viewing/exploring other camera angles on the iPad.

Using a cellphone as a credit card has been in practice for years in Japan and South Korea. Now it’s finally gonna hit the US, with Bank of America’s pilot program launching next month.

Bank of America is partnering with Visa for the pilot program, which will run from September until the beginning of January in New York. Visa will supply small chips, that users can install into their phones. The users can then complete transactions by simply waving their phones near the point-of-sale devices that Visa will supply to select stores.

MEGA popular download game Angry Birds has been hailed a “phenomenon” after making an astonishing $5 MILLION in just six months.

The highly addictive mobile app continues to ride high in the iTunes charts as it sweeps the globe.

The app which costs 99c for an iPhone  has a wildlife conservation theme which involves catapulting angry looking birds at green pigs. The birds’ existence is under threat because the pigs are taking their eggs, although the endangered species storyline was accidental said Angry Birds’ makers Rovio, who are based in Finland.

CEO Mikael Hed, 34, who runs the company with his cousin and founder Niklas Hed, 30, said: “It is our most successful app. Our designer Jaako Iisalo came up with the idea of feisty birds for a game but we needed an enemy for them and chose pigs.

“People asked why do you have to kill the pigs? So the whole wildlife protection aspect grew out of that.

“I think everyone likes the characters, they are likeable, cute and have an attitude.”

Gamers are tasked with hurling their birds by drawing their fingers across iPhone and iPad touch screens at the pigs’ homes. The super-simple title is as addictive as it is tricky to master

Apple’s App Store is right now carrying the Apple Store app. If that statement doesn’t twist reality up in a Doctor Who style for you, then read on to find out about its iPhone-buying powers (from an iPhone!) and Genius session booking.

Starting today, Square aims to make credit card sales as easy for retailers with an iPhone as it is for some guy selling a couch on Craigslist. With Square, anyone can accept credit or debit card payments by downloading the app and plugging a little plastic cube into the headphone jack of an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, or Android phone.

After a quick swipe of the card through the reader, the merchant turns the device over to the customer to sign his or her name on the touchscreen using a finger instead of a pen. The customer can add a tip, either by percentage or a particular amount, and then enters their phone number or email address. In the best case, the receipt message will buzz in the customer’s pocket as an email or SMS text message while walking away with their purchase.

Customers are charged as usual by their banks or credit card companies, and Square settles up the net funds with merchants each night instead of at the end of the month. The swiper & app are both free.

Now Sobhany, an application brand marketer and author of Mobilize! Selling Mobile Content in an iPhone and iPad Era, has released Destroy the Silence: Volume One, a 13-minute set of music made using iPad apps.

“Lots of great bands and artists have come from the ‘GarageBand generation’ of production, as I like to call it,” she said. “With iPad, I think that a lot of people will start downloading music apps and learning to play instruments from them.”

“The iPad will quickly evolve into the ideal device for music creation and DJing,” she said. “Loop libraries will get better. Hardware will get better. More hardware and software companies will build mobile apps and the users will become more savvy about what they want from the iPad. There will be peripherals that support inputs like USB and FireWire. Video remixing will be possible.”

Yahoo’s got its eye firmly fixed on the tablet revolution, plus potential profits. Yahoo has been working on a new advertising system. With Apple’s rumored iAd system, this seems like good timing. Mobile advertising is a massive growth industry. Both Apple and Google are both currently making purchases of hundred-million-dollar mobile ad businesses. Yahoo’s interest in expanding adverts in this new direction.

In The New York Times piece, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar is more forthright about the possibility of a paid Hulu subscription on the iPad.

A great idea here. Imagine your phone buzzing and lighting up with an text message if you were walking down a street or through a neighborhood with a history of sexual assault. That’s the idea behind Light Alert, an app created by two student finalists in Imagine Cup, Microsoft’s annual student tech competition. Malisa Vongskul, a junior IT major at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and Ashley Myers, a senior computer science major at DePauw University, make up team MangoBunnies, the brains behind the app.

For Apple, that’s not a lot of money. For me that is a lot of money. If Apple wanted more money or options, there’s always Microsoft’s Bing and a big checkbook.

According to Adobe 7 million iPhone + iPod touch users attempted to download Flash in December, including myself.

Steve Jobs had a town hall meeting and answered questions from Apple employees brave enough to ask tough questions. Concerning Flash there was nothing new. Jobs doubled down by basically saying HTML5 will kill Flash:About Adobe:

They are lazy, Jobs says. They have all this potential to do interesting things but they just refuse to do it. They don’t do anything with the approaches that Apple is taking, like Carbon. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy, he says. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.