Waking up isn’t my favorite part of the day. For the most part, I rely on my iPhone’s built-in alarm. There isn’t much customization to be had, just the sounds that play.

MyWakeUpTunes‘ latest iOS release allows you to wake up with all of the information you need in the morning. Along with your favorite song, the app will display weather and a stream of Instagram photos. Being engaged with information like that makes it likely that you won’t tap the snooze button.

The app is really well designed and easy to use, and costs $.99 cents. Of course you don’t have to only use MyWakeUpTunes to wake you up, the app serves as a great notification for meetings or other reminders.

Setting up an alarm

When you set up your alarm, you can let the app decide what time of the morning you should get up, thanks to its location feature. You can set it for any time, and choose what song you get woken up with.

Not only can you choose a song from your iTunes library, you can use DURVIC (Duration and Volume Increase Control) technology to pick which part of the song will wake you up, and how the song will get increasingly louder after its initial alarm. This is a nice twist that will help you figure out how to wake up without being grumpy.

Viewing Instagram photos

Not only will you be woken up to music, the display on your device will greet you with weather and if you choose them, Instagram photos from your stream.

Simply go into the MyWakeUpTunes settings and log in with your Instagram account. You can choose to show your own photos, popular photos, or photos from your Instagram stream.

If all of that isn’t enough for your wakeup pleasure, you can also share the event with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. I guess nothing is TMI at this point, so why should the time that you wake up and the song you’re listening to be any different?

Of all of the APIs available on the web right now, the Instagram is a hot one. With a community that holds the app dear, other developers are recognizing it and integrating Instagram’s photos quickly.

Apple has been a runaway train since its release of the iPod. People from 10-70 years old are carrying some sort of Apple device in their pockets these days.

Remember when you got your first iPhone? Taking the first generation iPhone of your pocket was magical for some, people would come up to you and ask to touch it. It’s true. Apple has stood for something magical for a long time. Steve Jobs was a big part of that, but its simplistic design and ability to lead the customer with a deep pass has kept the company in the game.

The iPhone 4S is an unfortunate release for the company. Unfortunate not because the device isn’t great, but unfortunate that the passing of its leader and headaches around patents have stalled out the excitement that comes along with its telephony-changing device. The phone has a great camera, a great new voice feature in Siri, yet people aren’t as excited as they used to be.

Why is that?

The reason why the “excitement” doesn’t seem to be what it used to is that the device is now accessible to most Americans. With Sprint and Verizon now carrying the device, it’s no longer a parlor trick to slide and unlock your phone in public. We’re waiting for the “one more thing”, as Apple has trained us to do.

How can Apple remain magical? These three markets will keep the company in the driver’s seat for a long time to come.

Mobile is the hub

Microsoft focused on the home. Bill Gates and company told us that the home was the core of computing, data sharing, and entertainment. This is no longer true, and Apple is in a position to take hold of the idea that one device can control an entire household and lifestyle.

Steve Jobs realized very early on that a happy life isn’t one chained to a computer. A happy life with technology doesn’t rely on a large hard drive attached to a network of devices in your living room.

Mobile is the future, plain and simple. If you aren’t doing it already, all of the important data you collect doesn’t happen in your home. The things you see, touch, and hear all happen while you’re outside of your home. Your friends at work tell you about a new show or ask you if you saw that big pass in the football game the night before.

Your mobile device is your hub. You enter information in, and sit back and watch once you get home. That’s not to say that a TV shouldn’t be the focus for Apple, but it’s not what controls your life.

The iPhone 5 will have to be the most powerful device you’ve ever held in your hand.

Gaming

It’s time for Apple to get serious about gaming at home. The iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad are great gaming devices. But the games you see on the app store are for small appetites and passing moments. Immersive gaming experiences don’t exist on iOS as of yet. What is Apple waiting for?

Playing a game on the train, and then picking it up on my TV is an experience that is needed. Microsoft has done one thing well in the past five years, and it came from the Xbox team. The Xbox platform has grown by leaps and bounds, letting you do more and more in the home. But once I leave my house, I have to think about coming home and playing Xbox. Why should I have to wait?

How can Apple nail gaming? Perhaps it’s that TV we heard that Mr. Jobs “cracked”. Perhaps it’s upping the ante on the existing Apple TV and letting us use apps.

Television

Mobile to home information transfer and gaming needs one more thing. A connected television with the horse power to run the best software in the world. Remember, Apple started out as a hardware company and has morphed into a company nearly perfecting both hardware and software. Microsoft started out as a software company and has embraced hardware with its phones and gaming device. The two companies have gotten to the same point in two very different paths.

What is usually the centerpiece of your living room other than pictures of your family? The television. Big ones, with features. Apple can and will get into the television game. But when? The company has beautiful monitors, so it knows how to create displays. It has a beautiful OS that can sit on any device. Going from mobile to home is the future.

The Apple TV will let you pick up where you left off. While you’re at work, on your mobile device, and on the way home, your Apple TV will be sitting there connected to the internet. The television will watch what you do, read what you read, and think what you think. It’s just a pretty monitor, after all.

You will no longer have to rely on Netflix to suggest movies for you. Your world around you, and the actions you take within that world will tell your entertainment device what you want to watch.

A mobile Apple device will be your remote to the world. Guaranteed.

Mobile is the difference, though. The TV has to compliment what you do when you’re not watching it. Microsoft wanted the TV to run your life, while Apple should build the TV to make your life better.

Can Apple stay magical? Of course it can, because it’s one of the few companies that ever became magical in the first place.

Streaming music services like Spotify, Rdio, and Pandora are all the rage. Amongst some circles, months have gone by since they have purchased and downloaded 99 cent songs from Apple’s iTunes.

More than likely you still have iTunes music from over the years, and the Reprise app for iOS makes it fun to play and share them again. It actually does a better job than iTunes itself, and has more interesting and seamless features than Apple’s attempt at a social network, Ping.

Reprise is simple to use, and gorgeously designed by developer Adam Bell. The app is $1.99 and completely worth it if you’ve invested hundreds of dollars into purchasing tracks from iTunes.

Playback and Playlists

Creating playlists and queues is simple to do with Reprise. All of the music tracks that you’ve purchased and downloaded on your device show up in Reprise with cover art, and with a simple tap of a track you’ve added it to your queue. If your headphones pop out, Reprise will even fade the music out for you.

Playback controls are simple too, and with a well-defined shuffle “swipe button”, you can move between tracks easily. Holding your finger on a track lets you use a jog wheel for scrubbing through a song that a lot of us remember with the older iPods. Shake to shuffle, Remote control and Airplay support are nice additions here, which helps make Reprise a perfect replacement for the boring Apple iPod app.

With a feature Reprise calls “Perfect Shuffling”, the app promises to never play the same track twice, making sure that you hear all fresh songs while you’re out running, or sitting and relaxing with your device.

Sharing Tracks

Swiping down from a playlist will focus in on the track that’s currently playing. All you have to do is hold your finger on the track, and the sharing controls will show up. You can tweet a track to Twitter or scrobble the track to Last.fm with a few taps.

I’m not sure that I’d get this app specifically for sharing the music you’re listening to, as Spotify has an amazing interface to share tracks to Facebook and Twitter, but having the option is nice. Apple doesn’t give you that option in the existing Music app on iOS.

Obviously, iTunes is doing rather well for Apple and for artists, so having options to native Apple apps is always nice to see. After spending just 5 minutes with Reprise, I became more interested in my purchased iTunes library, simply because of the elegance of the app and the simple controls. Apple’s iTunes just feels dry to me.

Some people who have downloaded iOS 5 and set up iCloud successfully are realizing the power of iCloud’s new Photo Stream feature.

The feature lets you take a picture from any device on your account, and it is automatically streamed to all of your other devices. This includes iPhoto on your desktop computer or laptops as well.

What happens if you take a photo that’s embarrassing with your iPhone, and then all of a sudden you remember that your spouse or partner is using your laptop? Nothing, until now. Remember, iCloud and Photo Stream are personal hosting services, but if you lend your iPad to someone – watch out!

Apple has shared a way to clear out your Photo Stream completely, mind you it’s not one photo at a time, but in a pinch this will do the trick:

To Reset your Photo Stream, follow these instructions:

From a computer browser, go to icloud.com and sign in.

• Click on your name on the iCloud home page (this is the page that shows all the app icons). If you do not see your name, click the cloud icon in the top left of the page.
• Click Advanced.
• Here you will see the Reset Photo Stream button. Clicking this button will remove all your Photo Stream photos from iCloud. Once removed, they cannot be recovered, but you can re-upload any photos you’d like to restore to your Photo Stream from a Mac or PC.

If someone using your device has already synced with your latest Photo Stream, there’s not much you can do remotely.

However, once you’re back to your device, you can follow these steps to remove the photos from each device:

After resetting your Photo Stream, you can also remove any photos that have been downloaded to your device or computers. To do this, follow the directions below:

• On your iOS device, you can remove photos from the Photo Stream view by turning off Photo Stream and then optionally turning it back on. You can do this at Settings > iCloud > Photo Stream. If you added any Photo Stream photos to other albums or the Camera Roll on your iOS device, you can locate and delete these photos manually, if desired.
• On your Mac, you can clear cached photos from the Photo Stream view in iPhoto or Aperture by turning off Photo Stream and then optionally turning it back on. You can do this in each application by visiting Preferences > Photo Stream. If you had Automatic Import enabled in your Photo Stream settings, your Photo Stream photos were also imported to your iPhoto or Aperture Library, and will remain after you disable Photo Stream. If you would like to delete any of these photos from your library, you can to do so manually any time you like.
• On your PC, you can remove Photo Stream photos by deleting them from your designated Photo Stream Download Folder. By default, this folder is located at C:\Users\Apple\Pictures\Photo Stream\My Photo Stream.

Remember folks, if you’ve set up your iCloud on every device you own, your photos will be sent to each of them, even if they’re not in your possession at the time.

Don’t miss our Complete Guide to iOS 5.

Instacast has updated its podcast viewing and listening app for iOS, and it is getting a huge boost from the iOS 5 updates that came along with the new iCloud backup solution.

The company behind Instacast, Vemedio, announced the update on its blog today.

The company had this to say about the new iCloud syncing capabilities with Instacast version 1.4:

I am pleased to announce that now with version 1.4 Instacast is fully integrated with iCloud. This means, you can now finally synchronize your podcasts and playback information with multiple devices or have a backup in case your iPhone destroys itself suddenly. All you have to do is have an iCloud account and turn on “iCloud Sync” in the Instacast settings.

If you listen to podcasts often, this type of syncing is exactly what you’ve been waiting for. Your podcast subscriptions, markers of the episode you’ve seen or listened to, and starred items are synchronized automatically with Instacast, no matter what iOS device you’re on. You could start watching “This Week in Tech” on your iPhone, and then continue later on your iPad, at exactly the point where you left off.

Before this update, Instacast didn’t feel like a native app to the iOS. Apple has changed all of that with allowing playback information on lock screens, better notifications, and of course iCloud. Improved video playback is also a big update for Instacast.

Here’s a video from Vemedio, showcasing Instacast:

Introduction to Instacast from Vemedio on Vimeo.

Instacast is available on the App Store for $1.99, and if you listen to or watch podcasts, this is the best app we’ve seen for it.

According to a TUAW report, there is a source sharing information that Apple may no longer be manufacturing the iPod classic and shuffle as early as this year. This could make way for a full on push of the iPod touch, iPad, and iPhone as the core Apple mobile products.

The iPod classic was the last hard-drive based iPod, and seeing it go is a final transition to flash-based memory. The shuffle was really popular with runners and cyclists because of its smaller form factor and screen-less design, as well as younger consumers because of the price-point.

The shuffle also has been applauded for bringing a whole new generation into the Apple stable of products. Because of their rainbow of colors, they were attractive to teens as an accessory and not just a music device. Now we’re just left with the nano.

This is also the last of the iPod devices to not have a screen, so clearly Apple wants anyone and everyone using an Apple device to have access to the app store, which is a huge moneymaker for them and for developers.

We’re told that the iPhone 5 is hitting stores on October 14th, but we’ll learn more at the official Apple event on October 4th.

It all hinges on having a US iTunes account. Once you have the account, you will have the full content privileges of someone who lives in the US. That means you can then snag The Daily without Apple knowing what country you live in. Let’s get to it.

1. Fire up iTunes and log out of your current account.
2. Open up the iTunes store, and scroll all the way to the bottom. Click on the little round flag symbol at the bottom and then when a menu appears, select the US option.
3. Now, don’t just go and open an account. That won’t work. Instead, browse the app store and try to download any free app.
4. When prompted to log in or make an account, click to open a new account.
5. While filling out your application, on the payment screen select ‘none,’ Apple will sniff you out if you try to use international payment with a US account.
6. Complete the application.
7. Boom, you can now download free apps.

Run a search for The Daily and enjoy the free two weeks of content!

Be sure and read all of TNW’s coverage of the launch of The Daily from earlier today. If there is something that you want to know about the newspaper, you can learn it from us.

As the shopping days before Christmas quickly run out, here are some last minute gift ideas for the blogger in your life.

The iPhone Glove by Dots- $20

I feel warmer just looking at these gorgeous geek gloves. Knitted from one-hundred percent merino lambswool sourced from the United Kingdom the gloves undergo a rigorous softening process, working every fiber to its utmost comfort. They are then finished with a straight stretch cuff so that the thumb, index, and middle fingertips can operate an iPhone with skin-like responsiveness.

They are available for both men and women and come in four different colors.

Belkin Laptop Hideaway- £23.46

Let’s face it, gadgets aren’t exactly French Country chic. If you’re trying to keep your house looking nice for relatives, this Laptop Hideaway will be your savior. The hideaway bad is made to sit on the floor next to your couch (or bed, chair, or desk), while keeping your laptop protected and hidden away from view. The hideaway has enough room for your power supply, mouse and paperwork. It fits 15.4-inch laptops-both widescreen and standard.

TikTok and LunaTik iPod Nano Watches- $34.95, $69.95

In November, we featured TikTok’s iPod Nano Watch, which raised close to $1 million on Kickstarter, grabbing the spot for most money raised on the fund crowdsourcing site to date. Based on the idea that the world’s first multi-touch watch should be designed for the Nano, Scott Wilson, the founder of Chicago-based design studio MINIMAL, made two designs, the TikTok and its premier partner the LunaTik, which both transform the iPod Nano into the world’s coolest multi-touch watches. The watches are hardly just Nanos slapped onto cheap plastic. They are well designed; engineered and manufactured from premium materials that complement the quality of Apple products. Buy here.

Kodak Zi8 – $99

Blogging isn’t just about words these days and a video can be a fun way of telling a story in a different way. If the blogger in your life is partial to gadgets, a handheld video camera might be just the ticket.

The Kodak Zi8 is what The Next Web team can often be seen carrying at events and conferences and we highly recommend it. This tiny device is good looking, highly capable and rugged enough to take a few knocks along the way too.

It takes SD cards, has a replaceable battery and charges over USB, meaning that it lasts and lasts. It shoots excellent video for its diminutive size too, recording 720p video that looks great on the web.

Flickr Pro Account – $24.95

Flickr is mainly used for sharing photos, but it’s a really good place for hosting the images you use in blog posts too, especially if you use a lot and don;t want to be stung by bandwidth charges or exceed the storage limit on your blog account.

The free Flickr account is fine to start with, but a Pro account gives unlimited storage, stats about your account and the ability to play back HD videos at full resolution. Flickr also makes Pro accounts really easy to give as gifts, either as a printable card or by email.

Logitech H555 headset – $59.99

If the blogger in your life is the news-gathering or podcasting type, they may well spend a lot of time using Skype or recording audio into their computer. While many computers now have built-in microphones, a decent headset is invaluable for cutting out background noise and capturing voices clearly.

This Logitech H555 does the job well at an appealing price, featuring a noise-cancelling microphone and ‘Super Wideband Audio’ for clearer Internet calls.

Laptop skin – $49.95

Who wants to blog at home all the time? Sometimes it’s good to get out and about. However (and we’re speaking from experience here), dropping your laptop into your bag without protection is asking for trouble. It will be scuffed, cracked or chipped before you know it.

InCase offers a range of practical and stylish skins and cases for 13, 15 and 17-inch notebooks. We’re quite fond of this animal-themed design, but more minimalist looks are available too.

MacBook Air – $999 – $1599

If money’s no object and you’re looking to give the blogger in your life the ultimate gift, we have to recommend the recently released MacBook Air models. Available in both petite 11-inch and more substantial 13-inch models, the MacBook Air is light to carry around (you probably won’t even notice it’s in your bag) and  stunningly thin.

What’s more, despite a relatively slow processor, it’s perfectly  capable of handling all the blogging tasks you can throw at it. Right now, I’ve got 12 tabs open in Chrome, Spotify, iChat, the GIMP image editor, Evernote and three Adobe Air apps running on my 13-incher and it’s not flinching. It really is the perfect blogging machine.

Coconatch $16

Coconatch is a social robot that brings your @replies to life by lighting up and performing a wobbly happy dance when you receive a message from Twitter.

These little robots work via USB and will burst into dance after receiving a new message from its unique email address. This means you’ll need to direct Twitter notifications to Coconatch’s email address, and we’re assuming it also means users aren’t limited to just Twitter notifications–it appears that any new email will cause the robot to get groovy.

If indeed all new emails are supported, users could potentially use Coconatch to work with any social network as long as the network’s updates are being directed to the robot’s email address.

Livescribe $208

If you’re at a conference, event or interview and typing is just inconvenient, the Livescribe is basically a computer in a pen.

Using this clever pen and smart paper, the Livescribe converts handwriting for conversion to text on a PC, but also allows you to hear what was being said at the moment of writing by tapping on the note.