It's been a long summer, and students everywhere are starting to head back to universities and colleges around the country. It's not easy to get back into a daily grind of classes, assignments and activities but a new application called iStudiez Pro [iTunes Link] is here to help!

Created by Andriy Kachalo and Michael Balashoff, iStudiez Pro is designed to help you take charge of your own schedule by always keeping you on top of where you need to be and what needs to get done. With an intuitive interface, the application promises to make sure "you never miss another course, lecture, and lab, track tasks and deadlines, plan homework, arrange assignments and much more."

Some notable features include:

• Smart day view that automatically displays summary of currently classes and tasks
• Detailed schedule planner to break down classes and assignments
• A view to suit everyone including expanded month and week views, with colored labels for each course
  
• Specific icons for different types of classes
• Supports iPhone features like touch gestures and device rotation
• Integrated address book keeps your contacts and professor's information close at hand
  

The application, available for both iPhone and iPod touch, is selling for $2.99 on the App Store. If you're looking to snag a copy of this app for free, the developers are currently offering a deal that if you see the demo version of iStudiez Pro being used in an Apple store and take a picture, they'll send you a free promo code!

Here's a couple images of iStudiez Pro in action:

Whether you're moving to another country or just visiting, chances are pretty good you're going to be bringing a lot of electronics with you. Chances are also pretty good that whatever country you're going to is going to have an electrical system with a different voltage or frequency than your home country, and probably differently-shaped outlets, too.

When traveling abroad, this vast array of voltages, frequencies, and plug types can be confusing, and whether you're packing a $200 iPod nano or a $2000 MacBook Pro, it can lead to a great deal of trepidation as well. The traveling geek's worst nightmare goes like this: you plug your very expensive, potentially irreplaceable electronics into some weird Romanian outlet, and suddenly sparks start flying. You try to unplug your precious device as quickly as you can, but the damage is done -- with a whiff of ozone, hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of equipment has just become a glorified brick.

Happily, most modern electronics shouldn't experience this issue, and that includes all recent Macs and iPod/iPhone power adapters. Here are a few dos and don'ts when it comes to international electricity.

The iPhone seems like it should be the perfect companion for the international traveler. Not only can it make phone calls in pretty much any country, it can also help keep you entertained on long flights. You can even use it to hold your flight itinerary and other important info like hotel and car reservations. But if you're an international iPhone owner and you were planning on using the device to its fullest potential during your trip to the United States, such as keeping track of e-mail, surfing the Internet, checking weather, getting driving directions, or even making cheap phone calls, then I have some very shocking news for you, delivered courtesy of everyone's favorite telecommunications conglomerate, AT&T.

Before a recent vacation to visit with family in the US, I decided that instead of paying for international roaming rates that are tantamount to armed robbery (US$2.42 a minute for phone calls and up to US$19 per megabyte of data -- totally not kidding), I'd instead perform a trick that savvy international travelers have pulled for years: upon arriving in the States, I'd visit an AT&T store, purchase a SIM and pre-paid plan from them, and reap the benefits of far lower charges for voice calls. Though I'd still suffer exorbitant data rates, I was aware beforehand that the lovely folks at AT&T had already discontinued pre-paid data plans for the iPhone. Still, at least I'd be able to make cheaper calls to my family if necessary; or so I thought.

You know if the App Store has been out for a month and we're posting about a web app, it has to be a good one. Google announced late last week that they've brought the terrific Google Translate service over to the iPhone. Of course, whenever you travel internationally, roaming charges (sometimes huge ones) can come into play, but if you find yourself tooling around Spain and need more phrases than ¿Dónde está el baño? or Tú eres mi chica, Google's web app will do the trick fast and easy.

And there's some nice coding in there, too -- the phrases translated get stored on the client side of the phone, so if you've already translated something, you don't have to reload the page to see it again. To use the service, just point your MobileSafari to translate.google.com. Folks in other countries probably still won't care too much what you have to say, but at least they'll know what you're saying.

I'm not the world's most patriotic Englishman, and I'm also not keen on allowing icons to fill up my Mac's menu bar unless strictly necessary.

That's why I don't let the Input Menu flag hog space up there; one of the first things I do on a fresh Mac system is remove it (by unchecking the "Show input menu in menu bar" box in the Input Menu tab of the International preferences pane).

That said, there are occasions when I wish I had quick access to the Character Palette - which can normally only be reached via the Input Menu. Grrr.

Which is why I dug around online to find a script that would call up the Character Palette for me, and saved it as an application, and Bob's your uncle. Now I can get to the Character Palette, via Spotlight, by typing "Command+Space CHAR return". Excellent.

You can get the script from this page on Mac OS X Hints. Click the "Get this script" thingy and it will open in Script Editor. Click Compile, then Run, just to check it does what you want - then Save As... an app, or a script if you prefer.

Apple opened its first Chinese store last Friday, just in time for the opening of the Olympic Games on August 8th. Unlike their counterparts in London, the queuers didn't appear to need chairs for comfort, but umbrellas were useful for keeping the heat at bay.

According to our tipster in Beijing, the store sells all Apple products except iPhones, which have not yet been officially launched there yet.

Chris Evers also took some pictures of the opening, which you can see on a MobileMe gallery here.

UPDATE: That MobileMe photo gallery appears to be unavailable right now. We'll leave the link in place in the hope that it comes back up soon. Thanks to the commenters who alerted us to the breakage.

Thanks to Zach Honig for the tip and the main photo.

With the introduction of the App Store, iTunes has taken an international leap. It's more internationaler than ever before with new, exciting internationality that ranges from Mexico to Qatar to Israel to Russia. It's internationalpalooza!

If you've been waiting for iTunes to come to your country, if you've been saying "Hmmmm. Could iTunes be even more international?", then it's time to celebrate. Because if Apple has gone through the trouble of setting up marketing in Peru, Poland and Pakistan, likely as not there will be even more store avenues heading down the road to follow the initial App Store launch.

Did App Store make it to your country? Let us know in the comments.

On July 11, 2008, the iPhone 3G will be launching all over the world. As the release date draws near, we have been inundated with tips from readers about international 3G launch dates and prices.

In an attempt to try to keep the information organized in one place, I (stupidly, perhaps) volunteered to create a table containing the data from every country that is releasing the iPhone 3G on July 11 (plus France, which is launching on July 17). I did my best to provide the most accurate information, although some carriers have yet to release official information.

If you see any errors, please let me know -- I can update the table and the results will correct themselves immediately on this page.

Update: Thank you for all the helpful feedback! I will be out of town for the 4th of July, but will try to get information updated/corrected later today. I am also considering putting together a different chart comparing the final price at the end of contract, to determine who gets the "best" and "worst" deals respectively on the iPhone 3G.

Thanks to everyone who sent in links that helped contribute to this information!

View Larger Map During this afternoon's WWDC madness, international Apple fans were treated to some great news on the iPhone front: the iPhone 3G will be available in more than 70 countries.

While 22 countries will see the phone launch on July 11, 2008, the phone will be hitting other parts of the world as well. Apple wasn't kidding about making the international presence of the iPhone known, from Madagascar to Mali, Chile to Croatia, the iPhone 3G is coming.

You can see the complete list of countries here, but I went ahead and put together a little Google map representing as many of the countries as I could find/fit.

Big UK iTunes news today as UK video content debuts. The new TV Programmes section brings such classic American programming as SpongeBob Squarepants, South Park and Kim Possible and possibly British shows inluding Bam's Unholy Union and Jongleurs Unleashed. It's hard to tell because the only British shows I watch are things like Jekyll, Doctor Who, that Location show with Phil and Kirstie, and X Factor.

Shows cost �1.89 each--that's a steep $3.81 in today's weak US dollar, compared to the $1.99 US episode costs. Studios/Channels include ABC (not the Australian variety, pity), Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, MTV, Paramount Comedy and Playhouse Disney.

Thanks to bumspinach

You know what they say: let the good times class action lawsuits roll! Or something like that. The latest in what I'm sure is to be a long list of iPhone-related class action lawsuits was filed in New York today over the iPhone's SIM card lock-in, as well as what the plaintiff alleges is Apple withholding of information on roaming data charges. The plaintiff, Herbert H. Kliegerman, wants the iPhone unlock code, and he also wants to restrain Apple from selling iPhones without disclosing both that the included SIM cards are locked to AT&T, and that users could incur roaming data charges when traveling internationally. We have a PDF of the lawsuit (sent to us directly by the plaintiff), but considering the facts that:

• Kliegerman's complaints seem to have much more to do with AT&T's practices than Apple's
• US SIM cards, to my knowledge, are always locked to their particular provider, meaning travelers have always had to purchase some kind of other phone service or an international SIM
• There's plenty of information available at AT&T's site about their international roaming practices, as well as extra plan options to provide for international calls and data usage

I don't think Kliegerman has much of a leg to stand on. Plus, he sent this to us himself, which reeks of digging for 15 seconds in the spotlight - but who am I to shoot down his hopes? Anyone, particularly those who travel and know more about US mobile phone company practices, care to place some bets as to how far he'll get with this?

You've seen the US ones. You've seen the Japanese ones. Now, behold, Deutsches GetAMac. "Ein iPod. Klassik!" Ja zum Mac.

Of course, it's not just German. Apple hosts a surprising number of internationalized "I'm a Mac." "I'm a PC" ads. There's the badly dubbed French one, the strangely familiar Spanish one and a host of Scandahoovian ones, which they did't even bother to translate. I guess everyone in Northern Europe really does speak English.

Danke Magno Urbano

Griffin has beefed up their PowerBlock USB charging accessory with international adapters, allowing your iPod and any other device that juices up through USB to roam the world and keep on kickin'. The three included adapters cover Continental Europe, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and Japan. I think this pictured travel bag is also new; at least, I don't remember it from their previous press release. Either way, the PowerBlock Travel is priced at $34.99 and is available now from Griffin's site.

Are you curious about the top album on iTunes in Japan? The most popular single in the UK? Switzerland? Then check out this page on Apple's site, which tracks the top tunes in the US, the UK, France, Germany, Japan and fifteen other countries. It could be a fun way to discover some new music.

[Via The Digital Music Weblog]