Nicholas Levin

If you couldn't get enough minor update goodness on Monday afternoon, here comes a brand new version of iBooks, Apple's very own e-book and PDF reader.

iBooks 1.1.1 now lets you zoom in on any image and see it in all its high-resolution splendor. If you've been envying Kindle books with sound and video, iBooks 1.1.1 now offers support for both of those elements in future e-books. And for folks hoping to view PDFs in iBooks with less lag and drag, this update also promises substantial improvements when reading PDFs, though it still isn't as full-featured as devoted PDF readers such as GoodReader.

To kick off the start of the new work week, Apple has released a minor update to iTunes 9.2 to fix some bugs and keep iTunes trucking.

The most interesting change made to iTunes 9.2.1 is that it will disable "older versions of some incompatible third-party plug-ins." Apple hasn't provided any details as to which plug-ins are incompatible with iTunes 9.2.1, however.

Only minutes after the Q&A session for their press conference on iPhone 4 antenna issues wrapped up, Apple has uploaded a streaming video of that press conference for all to see on its Website. This video lacks the Q&A session, but does contain the entire presentation as delivered by Steve Jobs, including the tongue-in-cheek YouTube video that kicked it off.

In addition to the streaming video, Apple has also posted an antenna performance page that demonstrates the loss of signal when various phones, including Apple's, are held in specific ways. For these comparison videos, the iPhone 4 and 3GS shown on the page are running the latest 4.0.1 version of the iOS software, released Thursday.

Having invented the scroll wheel goodness of Convertbot and the simple, yet powerful clipboard management of Pastebot, the team at Tapbots now have their eyes set on taking on the common calculator with Calcbot, the company's first hybrid iPad and iPhone app.

Calcbot is a basic calculator with all the clinks, whistles, beeps, and polish that make every Tapbots app stand out from the crowd. Turn the iPad sideways or swipe down on the iPhone, and you'll reveal a history tape that allows you to easily track progress, copy results and expressions to the calculator, or send computations to friends and foes alike via e-mail. Swipe the panel of buttons to the left to reveal a more advanced set of functions like sine and cosine, converting between degrees and radians, factorial goodness, and more.

Future App's line of iSpeak offerings already helped turn even the most tongue-tied user into a foreign language whiz. Thanks to a 2.0 update, iSpeak can help you navigate a foreign tongue even when you're running other applications on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

Future Apps' iSpeak titles tap into Google's translation service to convert English words and phrases into other languages. To spare you the embarrassment of losing something in the pronunciation, the app can say the phrase out loud from your mobile device's speaker, with a voice that Future App boasts has "a perfect accent"--all the better for giving you a clue as to how the phrase should really sound.

Today's iPhones and Macs come with a very elaborate set of parental controls to help keep your children out of harm's way, but when it comes to browsing the Web itself, it's still all or nothing. Either you have to depend on a software package that slowly runs through every single thing that your child sees online, or keep your children restricted to a fixed list of Websites that you have to manage on your own.

Fortunately, the folks that brought you OpenDNS have made another option. OpenDNS FamilyShield privacy controls leave the porn and scam site blocking to the folks at OpenDNS, and it's as just easy to set up as the company's flagship services. All you have to do is add two IP addresses to your DNS settings and you're done. If you need more help, OpenDNS will walk you through the process every step of the way as you follow the instructions on its Website.

Starbucks has just announced that they'll be offering free Wi-Fi at all stores nationwide on July 1, no matter what brand of laptop, tablet, smartphone, or computer you may have. Access will be provided through a one-click logon portal that brings Starbucks customers unrestricted access to the Web at large, just like many other coffee bars.

Less than two years ago, Starbucks rolled out a program to offer free Wi-Fi for AT&T mobile devices (such as the iPhone) and customers of AT&T DSL. It was a nice perk, but customers who wanted to use Starbucks Wi-Fi with a laptop or a tablet have had little recourse but to log on through an AT&T Wi-Fi account that offers two hours of free Wi-Fi access per day and costs $4 for every additional two hours after that.