Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He's the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like "ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation." He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
One of Instagram’s biggest faults is that it lacks an official iPad app. And it doesn’t look like the Facebook-owned service has any plans for Apple’s tablet in the near future.
Many third-party apps have attempted to offer a viable iPad experience for Instagram, and I’ve tried most of them. I haven’t found one that I actually want to use regularly until I tried Flow, a new iPad app for Instagram that was released today in the App Store.
If you’ve been looking for the best way to use Instagram on the iPad’s larger display, look no further.
Google has re-released its MyGlass companion app for Google Glass in the iOS App Store. The app was briefly available a couple days ago, but Google pulled it and issued a statement saying that it was actually meant to release alongside the XE12 firmware update for Glass. Now that it is out, looks like MyGlass for iPhone has the green light.
Cut the Rope is one of the most popular App Store games of all time, and rightly so. When it launched way back in 2010, it was an original concept. Physics-based puzzlers are all the rage now, but Cut the Rope was one of the first good ones. Since then, ZeptoLab has continually updated the game with new features and levels, including spinoff releases like Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift, Cut the Rope: Experiments, and Cut the Rope: Time Travel.
Cut the Rope 2 by ZeptoLab Category: iOS games Works With: iPhone, iPad Price: $0.99
The original Cut the Rope has been downloaded over 100 million times, which is insane. That’s why the full-blown sequel has been highly anticipated. And after months of teasing, it’s finally here.
In the world of minimalist text editors that do geeky things like support Markdown, iA Writer is one of the best. Made by Information Architects in Tokyo, the app has sold over 1,000,000 copies in the App Store since its release in 2010.
The followup to iA Writer has been released today on Mac and iOS. It’s a jaw-dropper. Talk about the perfect balance of a lightweight interface and awesome feature set.
The Pebble smartwatch started as a project on Kickstarter and has now shipped over 190,000 units. While select partners like Yelp and Foursquare have been working with Pebble to create apps for the platform, Pebble is announcing that it will be introducing an official app store of its own in 2014.
Developers will be able to submit and sell apps in what Pebble is calling a “first-of-its-kind wearable tech application directory.” Like Apple’s App Store, Pebble owners will be able to browse for apps to install from the Pebble iOS and Android companion apps.
Last month Pebble released its 2.0 SDK that gives devs access to the device’s accelerometer and full support for iOS 7’s enhanced Notification Center. You can order a Pebble online for $150.
Spotify has dragged behind Rdio in terms of aesthetic attractiveness for quite some time. It still has a long way to go, but Spotify’s desktop app is getting a facelift in the form of an update that’s slowly rolling out to users on the Mac and Windows.
As you can see, the design is much darker to compliment its mobile counterpart. It doesn’t look like any new features are included, but it should hopefully be easier to navigate.
When your Mac’s iSight camera is running, a tiny green light lets you know that it’s turned on. Or at least it’s supposed to. New research from Johns Hopkins University shows how hackers can remotely control the iSight camera in certain Macs without turning on the accompanying LED indicator light.
Queen B, Apple, and Target do not all see eye to eye.
Beyoncé rocked the internet last weekend when she released her self-titled album in the iTunes Store as a total surprise. In exchange for launch exclusivity, Apple gave her the red carpet treatment in iTunes and iTunes Radio. The move was a smart one, as Beyoncé is the fastest selling album in iTunes history, moving an insane 828,773 units within the first three days of availability.
Target, another big music retailer that prides itself on exclusive deals with artists, isn’t too happy about Beyoncé’s decision to go the iTunes route.
Apple has added the ability to gift iBooks through its iTunes Store. Until now, the iBookstore was the only section of iTunes that did not support gifting. Here’s how it works.
Yesterday the White House announced that President Obama would be meeting with a number of tech executives today about HealthCare.gov, the NSA, and how tech is converging the public and private sectors. Another topic of discussion ended up being Netflix’s popular House of Cards series, and apparently Obama is a fan.
While leaving the panel with the President and 14 other American executives, Tim Cook told a reporter that they had “a great meeting.”
Apple TV owners across the pond have received an early Christmas gift, a dedicated channel for Sky Sports through Now TV. Live sports can be viewed without an existing cable subscription, and Sky Sports is offering day passes that offer unlimited access to six sports channels. Pocket-lint explains:
Today the Dropbox-owned Mailbox app was updated with support for iCloud and Yahoo mail accounts. The popular email client for the iPhone was previously only compabile with Gmail, and it stills lacks support for a number of other services, namely Exchange. Mailbox tells us that Exchange “is a huge priority” for the app’s development.
The update also includes background syncing in iOS 7, the options to disable the “help me get to zero” banner and swipe to open drawer gesture, and bug fixes.
Mailbox is a completely redesigned inbox that makes email light, fast, and mobile-friendly. Quickly swipe messages to your archive or trash. Scan an entire conversation at once with chat-like organization. Snooze emails until later with the tap of a button — they’ll return to your inbox automatically so you can focus on what’s important now.
You can download Mailbox in the App Store for free.
Customers in China aren't lining up for the iPhone like they once were. Photo: Apple
The iPhone has already been named Yahoo’s top ranked search in tech for the year, and now Google has released its top 10 searches for 2013. It’s no surprise that the iPhone was part of the list, coming in at third under Nelson Mandela and Paul Walker. The poor Samsung Galaxy S4 snagged the number 8 spot.
Here’s the full list of Google’s “global trending searches” for the year:
Apple has restructured its growing iAd division to focus heavily on selling spots for iTunes Radio, according to a report from AdAge. To help sell individual ads to more potential buyers, the company is also reportedly building a real-time bidding exchange for in-app iAds.
At a recent staff meeting, Apple’s Eddy Cue reportedly communicated that iTunes Radio was the “top priority” for selling iAds. “The message that came across was basically if you’re not working on iTunes Radio, you’re irrelevant,” according to an AdAge source. Apple makes 90% of the revenue off its audio ads and only has to give 10% to advertisers. The company recently hired a top-level radio exec from Cumulus Media to help negotiate big deals.
Before iTunes Radio, iAds were only designed for developers to put in iOS apps, but they never really took off. Apple charged a steep premium and was highly selective in selecting ad partners initially, but this recent report suggests that the focus is being shifted to cheaper ads that can be bought individually. The real-time bidding system would work similarly to the stock exchange. In-app iAds could not only become more affordable, but more specifically targeted at users.
The Magazine is a Newsstand periodical that publishes five articles every other week. Created by Marco Arment, it is now owned and run by Glenn Fleishman, a veteran journalist who also writes for The Economist and elsewhere. As the first Newsstand-only publication of its kind, The Magazine is known for quality writing and illustrations on a range of topics.
Although articles are republished online through platforms like Medium, Fleishman wants there to be a physical version of The Magazine to celebrate its one-year anniversary. He has created a Kickstarter campaign for The Magazine: The Book, a hardcover collection of the best published articles from the past year.
The White House has announced that President Obama is scheduled to meet with a number of top-level tech executives in the industry tomorrow, including Apple’s Tim Cook. Topics of discussion will be the recent controversy surrounding the NSA’s phone surveillance, HealthCare.Gov, and ways the government can work with tech companies to grow the economy.
I drive a 10-year-old Nissan Xterra. When I see new vehicles with technology like Ford Sync and Siri Eyes Free, I get jealous of the ability to send texts and answer phone calls without touching my iPhone. The most advanced thing my car can do is play audio from my iPhone through a stereo jack in the radio console.
Combine the lack of cool tech in my whip and my obsession with the latest gadgets and I was immediately intrigued back in March when I heard about Automatic, a hardware/software startup based in San Francisco that’s pitched as a smart driving assistant. Unlike an expensive add-on that has to be installed by a dealer, the Automatic Link is a $100 dongle (Amazon link) that can plug into the car’s data port found somewhere under the steering wheel. It communicates over low-energy Bluetooth to an iPhone app that records your driving, analyzes your mileage, reads your check engine light, helps you find your parked car and more.
The feature that sold me was the ability to see what was causing my engine light to come on—a problem that has ruthlessly followed me with every vehicle I’ve owned so far. I immediately preordered and my Automatic arrived mid-October.
After using Automatic for about a month now, it’s real usefulness is starting to show. There are features about it I love, and it’s shown me how everyday technology, like an iPhone, can enhance the car experience. The Jetsons-like future of transportation isn’t here yet, but Automatic is a precursor of what’s to come. It gets me excited about how our personal computers will interface with cars in 10 years.
Sam’s Club is offering the 16GB iPhone 5s for only $119 through January, which is the lowest price out there we could find right now. The deal requires a two-year carrier contract with either AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, or US Cellular.
You would normally have to be a Sam’s Club member to take advantage of this discount, but outsiders can shop and pay non-member prices as part of the Friends & Family Open House that lasts December 13th through the 15th. So today is the last day for non-members to get the full benefit of the deal. Sam’s Club previously had the 5s marked down at $147.
A lot of retailers are discounting Apple’s latest iPhones for the holidays, so now is a great time to buy. Walmart is selling the iPhone 5c for $27 and the 5s for $127 until December 24th. Best Buy has a great holiday deal running where it will knock $75 off any iPhone 5s regardless of storage capacity on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, which is the best option if you want something larger than 16GB.
MarkDrop is a new Markdown editor for the Mac that displays a minimalistic editor on the left and a preview window on the right that updates in real time. The app prides itself on a clean interface, and you can share via PDF, HTML, or print.
One came out a year ago, and one came out this past week.
iOS 7 has ushered in a new age of design for third-party Twitter apps. Before Jony Ive’s monumental redesign of iOS was introduced over the summer, apps capitalized on making themselves stand out with a distinct design aesthetic—the robotic, chromatic look of the old Tweetbot, for example.
Several of the biggest Twitter clients in the App Store have undergone their iOS 7 redesigns by now, and while they feel more at home in iOS 7, they’ve also become harder to tell apart at first glance. The launch of Osfoora 2 for iPhone this past week reinforces this design trend.
Sprint is planning to buy T-Mobile, according to The Wall Street Journal. The $20+ billion deal would combine the nation’s third and fourth largest carriers. Sprint is reportedly “studying regulatory concerns and could launch a bid in the first half of next year.”
If Sprint and T-Mobile do merge, they would have a combined customer base of nearly 100 million, which is much closer than they are separately to Verizon’s 119 million and AT&T’s 108 million.
AT&T tried to buy T-Mobile two years ago, but the deal was eventually shut down by antitrust concerns from the Justice Department. The same thing could very well happen again this time around, but only time will tell. The last thing the U.S. carrier industry needs is less competition, so maybe going from the “big four” to the “big three” isn’t the best idea.
Today the Chinese site C Technology published a report saying that Apple’s rumored iWatch is coming next October and will have wireless charging. C Technology has gotten stuff wrong about Apple in the past, but it has also leaked parts for future products that ended up panning out.
The point isn’t C Technology’s track record, but what its latest report says about the iWatch: no one has any real clue what Apple is up to.
Instapaper, the first service of its kind for saving articles to read later, has gone free in the App Store for the first time ever. It has been discounted before, but this is the first time it has gone completely free.
Why? Apple has named it “App of the Week,” an honor bestowed upon popular apps—you guessed it—once a week. It normally costs $4.
