Just when you thought the weekend couldn’t get any better, along comes a selection of the freshest picks from the App Store.

This week I’ve selected four playful picks for you to toy with over the weekend. It’s not all fun and games, though, as before we get to the apps, I’ve got a roundup of the week’s news.

Another week closer to the release of the iPhone 3.0 update means another leaked addition to the new OS. This time, Apple is bringing video purchasing to the iPhone. All well and good, but I can’t imagine how downloading a 2GB movie is going to work over 3G.

Our own Nick Santilli procured a selection of apps that raise the potential for photos taken with the iPhone’s camera. It’s essential reading for iPhone owners who are disappointed with the device’s awful camera. My pick of the bunch is QuadCamera — it makes shooting with the iPhone fun again.

The iPhone made the front cover of The New Yorker this week, though not in the way you might expect. Using Brushes, a cute little painting app for iPhone, artist Jorge Colombo created the cover illustration for the latest issue. Brushes isn’t exactly a pro-level art package, but it can generate stunning results — budding artists can grab the app for four bucks (it’s currently on offer) and start practicing now.

Tweetie for Mac, the excellent older sibling to the iPhone Twitter client Tweetie, received a fun little upgrade this week. The app now allows video tweeting, via the iSight camera or a quick .mov file drag ‘n’ drop. This article is particularly worth checking out because you get to watch a Twitter video of me, playing Sigur Rs, on the glockenspiel — blog-based musical interludes do not get better than that.

And finally, there could be an Apple game console on the incredibly distant horizon. This is according to the CEO of gaming giant Ubisoft. Frankly, I don’t see it happening, but then who am I to argue with the CEO of the company that brought us Splinter Cell and a refreshed Prince of Persia franchise?

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at Space Ace, Light Wars, BeatRider Touch and Drum Tracker.

Space Ace ($4.99)
A quick refresher for readers who may not have come across Space Ace — the game is a gorgeously illustrated animated adventure from the folks behind Dragons Lair. Those who remember the original will be pleased to note that, visually, it’s still as vibrant as ever; however, it’s also just as frustrating in terms of gameplay. The game is essentially one long animation in which you just perform the correct actions at the correct time to keep the story moving forward. Frequently silly, regularly annoying, but it’ll have you coming back time and time again.

Light Wars (99 cents)
One glance at this game and any seasoned gamer will tell you that it’s a direct rip of Geometry Wars — an excellent console mini-game that brings classic messy shoot-em-up Robotron to mind. Light Wars is incredibly fast-paced and frenetic, throwing tron-style nasties at you from all angles as you speed across the vector map, dodging enemy ballistics and racking up insanely high scores. Currently on sale at 99 cents and definitely worth checking out for fans of arcade-style shoot-em-ups.

Beatrider Touch Lite (FREE)
Tap Tap Revenge may be the current king of rhythm-action games on the iPhone, but that shouldn’t stop other titles from trying to topple the game from its well-earned throne. Beatrider Touch incorporates more sliding than tapping, plus it brings something entirely new to the genre — song uploading. Upload your favorite tune and you’re able to play it as a level in Beatrider. The free Lite version supports one song upload, the premium version — retailing at five bucks — lets you upload up to 20.

Drum Tracker ($1.99)
If you’re not in the mood for gaming, but beats are your thing, then Drum Tracker may be the app for you. The developers, a team calling themselves Simple is Beautiful, have squeezed a fully-featured drum machine down into one gorgeous-looking iPhone app. This is a tool that, while it could be tons of fun for anyone looking to toy around with a few beats, could prove useful for electronic music producers on the go. Worth checking out for the more musical readers of TheAppleBlog, especially as it’s priced so competitively for a sound app.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

There’s a lot to love about the iPhone, but its ability to manage email is, well, lacking — especially when it comes to search. All My Mail is a new app from Attassa that lets you search across your web-based email accounts, including attachments and contact lists, to quickly find what you need.

The standard version to access one email account is free, but for $4.99 users can upgrade to the premium version and access mail and data across multiple accounts, including Gmail, AOL, and Microsoft Outlook (also requires a $19.99 yearly subscription to the Attassa service).

All My Mail won’t suck down a lot of juice or cost you a ton of memory because user search requests are sent to, then processed in, the cloud. Results are kicked back in the form of threaded conversations, which makes narrowing down an elusive email really easy. Attachments are also grouped in a single list ordered by date, along with a preview of the messages to which they are attached.

The iPhone comes with a great Contact Book, but naturally interfaces with the phone’s calling features. All My Mail will comb through everyone in your email address book to find the name you need, display their contact information, then give you the option of adding the person to your iPhone contact list.

All My Mail won’t help manage the deluge of mail that’s weighing down your inbox, but it could come in handy when you need to get your hands on an important email and save the day.

Siliconrumors has posted a news item claiming that its sources have indicated Apple is preparing some new additions to its MacBook Air family of laptops.

In short, the rumors talk of an integrated 3G radio assembly, allowing connectivity to high speed cell networks. Also touted is a solid state drive (SSD) as standard (currently the SSD is an expensive additional option when buying a MacBook Air). Finally, they suggest a price point of between $1,300 and $1,500.

I wouldnt ordinarily have given this much credence except for the recent apparent consensus in tech journalism reporting (Gene Munster has a LOT to answer for!)that agrees Apples much-discussed tablet device wont see the light of day until 2010.

If Munster’s prediction is correct, it means that Apple must fare another year in an uncertain economic climate, and even with the anticipated next-generation iPhone due to be released this summer, a little more product diversification couldnt hurt their bottom-line. Particularly if Apple tips its hat a little more warmly in the direction of the growing netbook market.

Not Playing

Apple doesnt make netbooks, yes yes, we know. Tim Cook made Apples position very clear in April when he said:

When I look at netbooks, I see cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, very small screens. Its just not a good consumer experience and not something we would put the Mac brand on. Its a segment we would not choose to play in.

But sales figures dont lie, and present a very compelling picture. Earlier this year, ABIresearch released a report (summarised on Macblogz.com) forecasting netbook sales in 2009 would rise to 35 million units (compared to last years 10 million). Tellingly, they expect netbook sales to increase to a whopping 140 million by 2013.

ABI Research expects netbook sales to reach an astonishing 140 million units by 2013

So Apple doesnt want to make netbooks. Its happy working away on its not-so-secret tablet alternative to the Netbook. But in the meantime, theres a fast-growing demand for lightweight, ultra-portable laptops. Whether you choose to call it a netbook or not, the MacBook Air is the closest thing Apple currently offers to that category of personal computer.

A 3G-enabled, SSDd MacBook Air wouldnt set the world on fire, but it would offer an Apple-flavored netbook-esque experience for customers with deeper-than-average wallets. And dont forget, theyll offer Apple a lot of valuable lessons about netbook-friendly hardware/software ahead of the launch of their market-changing tablet next year.

I recently wrote about extending your Macbook’s battery life via a firmware update. Today I am going to outline how to extend your battery life by calibrating it so that it holds its charge properly. After all, running out of juice with when you are on the go is the worst possible scenario in the electronic world!

As a general rule, you should calibrate your battery every month or two to keep it running in top form.

To calibrate your laptop’s battery:

1. Plug your laptop in and let it charge completely (your battery icon in the menu bar will be completely full and the charger’s connector light turns green).
2. Keep the laptop plugged in for another two hours (after it is fully charged).
3. Disconnect your laptop from power. Use it until it falls asleep from low battery.
4. Turn off the laptop and let it “rest” for about five hours.
5. Plug your laptop back in and let it fully charge.

It is completely fine to use your laptop during all of these steps (except of course when the computer is asleep).

Calibrating your laptop every few months is a great way to ensure you get the longest life out of your battery. If you have had your laptop for a little while and want to know the current maximum capacity of your battery, you can use the free coconutBattery utility.

coconutBattery isn’t just a tool which shows you only the current charge of your battery – it also shows you the current maximum capacity of it in relation to the original capacity your battery had as it left the factory. You also get information about the battery-loadcycles (how often did you fully load your battery), the current charger (coconutBattery even warns you if you plugged in a wrong charger for your Notebook) and last but not least information about the age of your Mac.

How quickly we forget the way things used to be. It was only in early April when Apple introduced variable pricing in the iTunes store, and already weve learned to accept that nearly every “popular” song costs $1.29.

If youre not familiar with the subject, heres the issue in a single sentence: The Big Four record labels put the screws on Apple and forced them to hike up their prices. (The Big Four, by the way, is industry parlance for Warner Music Group, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group.)

Now, it depends on your level of cynicism as to how you interpret the details, but those who feel generous suggest that variable pricing is necessary in order to cover the cost of making iTunes music available to customers DRM-free. Critics feeling less generous argue that Apple bowed to pressure and now customers are getting screwed.

How so? Well, before April, every track on iTunes cost the same amount: 99 cents. In retail, thats a sweet spot. Customers dont think of it as particularly expensive, and it means old products that have depreciated in value can be sold at a higher price.

99 cents, it seems, suited everyone but the record labels, which — lets face it — are dying. Theyve always been horribly short-sighted and slow at reacting to the digital age. First they tried to block digital downloads. Then they insisted on locking up digital media in what ultimately became poorly thought-out and unfairly implemented DRM protocols. (Remember Sonys rootkit fiasco?) Finally, they grudgingly joined forces with online distributors but it took them years to make all their popular music available for download, and they were never happy with the one-price-for-all model favored by the likes of Apple, Amazon and Wal-mart.

So committed to variable pricing were they that back in 2007, Universal Music Group refused to renew its long-term agreement with Apple, opting instead for an at will agreement that provided greater flexibility and influence in the label’s dealings with other distributors. This was basically a pay-as-you-go agreement that allowed them to change their mind and bail at any time. Not good news for Apple, nor any other online music retailer treated similarly.

Now that the few remaining record labels are faced with their lowest profits in decades, theyve finally agreed to take digital distribution seriously by removing DRM — but at the same time insisting distributors set very specific, varied prices. The labels loosely describe their prices as geared to the popularity of individual artists.

Former EMI executive Ted Cohen said of variable pricing, This will be a PR nightmare. It is for the music industry what the AIG bonuses are for the insurance industry.” Nine Inch Nails outspoken Trent Reznor, meanwhile, said, “Wouldn’t it make sense to try to price it cheaper instead of squeezing the handful of people who are still willing to pay for music?”

So what? So some of the music costs about 20 cents more than before, but most of iTunes 10 million songs are still only a dollar. Why the outcry?

The Myth of Supple and Demand

Well, much of the furor is focused around the misconception that the prices are set by the record labels according to the economics of supply and demand.

In a report by Dawn C. Chmielewski in the LA Times, Russ Crupnick, a senior analyst for NPD Group says the variable pricing is the mark of a mature market that saw digital music sales top $1 billion in 2008. “If you’re not drawing new people and your spending isn’t growing, it’s a natural part of the product life cycle.”

While Chmielewski suggests the change in pricing reflects the natural condition of supply and demand in the market, critics have argued the iTunes store has an unlimited supply of music. As long as the Big Four keep renewing their contracts with Apple, any perceived lack of supply is entirely artificial and completely fabricated by those labels. So if the supply and demand reason is a misdirection, whats really going on?

Valuable Junk

Another, far more duplicitous idea is floating around the Internet. It suggests that the Big Four strategically price tracks not, as you might expect, according to artist popularity (thereby maximizing revenue on the most-downloaded tracks at any given time) but instead use variable pricing as a means for influencing customers perception of value.

This means that a label can promote whomever they wish, irrespective of whether or not that artist is currently trending well in the charts. A contractually inexpensive artist could be promoted at the full $1.29, creating a perception of quality and value in the minds of customers. Conversely, an older, contractually expensive rocker whos pushing for a bigger share of royalties or music publishing rights can be stopped in their tracks (no pun intended) with the death threat of economy pricing in online stores. Certainly the notion many customers have of 69-cent music is that its pretty rubbish. Particularly if the latest tracks from some unknown newcomer are appearing at full whack.

If this is true, variable pricing appears to be less about raw profit and more about maintaining control and influence over content producers in the music industry.

A Little from Column A, a Little from Column B

So which is more likely? Bare-faced price-fixing to squeeze every remaining penny out of customers? Or political wrangling in order to maintain control over artists? I suspect its a combination of both that makes variable pricing so appealing to the record labels.

Whats so sad is that the Big Four still dont appear to have figured out that their customers arent the same people who, once upon a time, parted with hard cash to pick up a vinyl record. Customers know there’s a compelling alternative to unbalanced pricing — its called zero-cost pricing, or, more commonly, piracy. Its immoral, unethical, illegal…and fast and easy. Random (and often ridiculous) prosecutions from the RIAA haven’t dissuaded a great many people from getting their music by less-than-legal means. As long as the labels insist on finding ways to manipulate and disrespect their artists and customers, illegal music downloads will continue to thrive.

We can only hope that the success of super-distributors like Apple will endow them with the financial and political might to force the labels to rethink their strategies. Steve Jobs open letter to the record labels certainly helped push them into DRM-free distribution far sooner than they might otherwise have managed under their own steam.

Variable pricing is still reasonably new, but already common at the iTunes Store, Amazon MP3, Lala, Rhapsody and Wal-mart (to name a few). It will take something significant to change it now — be that a mass slowdown in customer spending, coordinated pressure from online distributors or just the collapse of the few remaining major record labels. I suspect all of these things will happen, sooner or later.

Apple has made significant steps towards cornering the mobile gaming market (though that “premium” games section so far hasn’t come to pass), and both Sony and Nintendo have likely been forced to re-examine their portable offerings in order to try to regain ground. I doubt either of those companies or Microsoft would appreciate competition from Cupertino in the home console arena, but more and more industry insiders are coming forward with predictions that that’s exactly where Apple is headed.

According to Kotaku, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has predicted that Apple will not be satisfied with the small taste of the gaming market they’ve had with the iPhone and iPod touch. During Ubisoft’s fiscal year-end conference call early this week, Guillemot commented that “[T]here’s also a new entrant in the business. Apple, with the iPhone. And we don’t think they will stop there.” The CEO made the statement after discussing the gaming potential of set-top boxes, OnLive’s remote gaming system being the most highly publicized such device in recent memory.

It should be noted that Guillemot’s older brother Michel runs GameLoft, which is one of Apple’s most successful and prolific gaming partners. Ubisoft partnered with GameLoft to bring Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles to the iPhone. Really, the two companies are in as good a position as any (with the possible exception of EA) to be aware of any gaming moves made by Apple.

The problem with Apple developing a gaming console to take on the PS3, Xbox, and Wii, is that traditionally, profit margins have been slim to nonexistent on the hardware itself until late in the product’s life, with most of the revenue coming from game sales. With the iPhone and iPod touch, at least, Apple seems to be depending on the reverse formula, in that they don’t make much money from software, and instead use it as incentive for selling hardware.

A much more reasonable prediction is that Apple won’t take on the core gaming market that provides the bulk of Sony and Microsoft’s fan base, but will instead appeal more to casual gamers that would be attracted to the Wii, or to PSN/XBLA titles. While there have been calls from fans and Apple watchers to open up the Apple TV platform to app development like the iPhone, nothing so far has come of it. The platform isn’t faring as well as Microsoft’s Xbox is, in terms of living room media center devices, but adding app capabilities to it could blow that competition wide open. Apple must’ve considered it, and could just be waiting to see if it will be worth the time and money to open up the platform to developers vs. focusing on the mobile market if the risk appears too great.