Alex Heath - page 33

I’ve tried plenty of popular translation apps in the App Store, and my favorite by far is SonicoMobile’s iTranslate. Until a couple days ago, the app was only optimized for iPhone, but on Turkey Day an iPad version was released as a free update to the existing app.

iTranslate recently underwent a big overhaul for iOS 7, and the new design is clean and efficient. There’s support for over 70 languages and a pretty capable text-to-speech translation tool. Intuitive gestures are peppered throughout the app, like swiping in from the outside of the right or left to initiate voice recognition.

The app is a free download, and a small in-app purchase removes ads, unlocks Siri voice recognition, and the ability to translate long amounts of text at once. Check it out. SonicoMobile also makes other great apps, like iTranslate Voice, Files App, and Languages.

Source: App Store

It’s a widely established fact that Android dominates the mobile landscape’s market share globally. IDC’s most recent numbers say Android accounted for 80% of the market in the third quarter of 2013, while iOS only accounted for 13%.

But there’s much more to consider than just market share when determining who’s winning the mobile wars. For instance, Apple brings in the lion’s share of mobile profits. We told you just earlier today why developers pick iOS to make apps on before Android: apps on Android generally make only a fraction of the money that can be mined from App Store users.

Adfonic tracked third-quarter mobile ad impressions and found that iOS received twice the number of ad impressions of Android. That means there’s a much higher level of user engagement on iOS.

Microsoft loves to make ads for the Surface that pit it against the iPad. Two new ads for the Surface 2 are perfect examples of how Microsoft can’t effectively market the Surface on its own merits, but must instead compare it to things the iPad can’t do. It’s an incredibly predictable, miserable marketing tactic that Microsoft just can’t seem to let go.

In its two latest ads, Microsoft tries to convince us that the Surface 2 is better because it supports hand gestures and multiple user accounts.

The latest Steve Jobs movie starring Ashton Kutcher that everyone loves to hate is now available in the iTunes Store. You can purchase the movie for $20 in HD or $15 in SD, or rent it for $5 in HD or $3 in SD.

The digital release is accompanying the Blu-ray for $18 and DVD for $23 with deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes commentary. So the digital HD movie costs more than the Blue-ray and less than the regular DVD, which doesn’t make sense at all.

Jobs originally received pretty polarizing reviews, but the public ended up receiving the film pretty poorly—it tanked at the box office. It currently has a 26% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Source: iTunes Store

Apple has tweaked the App Store’s search engine to help users find the right apps even when they’re misspelled, according to a TechCrunch report. This means that developers with apps that either have tricky spellings or spacings should see a boost in traffic. Previously, misspelled searches were hardly ever leading to users discovering the right apps.

As the holidays draw near, supplies of the iPhone 5s are finally starting to meet demand. When the smartphone first launched in September, it was nearly impossible to find any model in Apple stores and third-party retailers. As the weeks progressed, more and more models starting becoming available, while gold remained the most allusive.

Apple stores in the U.S. now have 90% of iPhone 5s models in stock, according to research from Piper Jaffray analyst and iTV rumormonger Gene Munster.

Today Honda announced that it is offering Siri Eyes Free integration with certain 2013-2014 Honda Accord and 2013 Acura vehicles. Honda said that it would be implementing Eyes Free as a dealer installed accessory back in January, and now customers can visit a dealership and have the technology installed.

Tom Gerhardt and Dan Provost formed Studio Neat after a successful Kickstarter campaign funded a simplistic iPhone tripod mount that conveniently doubled as a stand. That was back when the iPhone 4 was Apple’s latest. The smartphone landscape has changed quite a bit since then, and now the Glif has too.

Rival tech companies have no problem promoting their products by ridiculing Apple’s, as evidenced by Microsoft’s recent anti-iPhone ads it had to end up pulling off the internet out of embarrassment.

In a new commercial for Nokia’s 2520 tablet running Windows RT, we are privileged to hear the inner dialogue of a man with an indistinguishable accent in a coffee shop wrestle over whether he truly loves his iPad. He finds it impossible to meaningfully connect with members of the opposite sex because of his iPad’s shortcomings, and we are supposed to sympathize with his inner torment. Then he sees the light of day when a girl whips out the Lumia 2520 with a physical keyboard. Microsoft Office! It all makes sense!

The man asks “Did I buy the wrong tablet?” at the end of the ad. No, but if you want a physical keyboard for the iPad, they are pretty easy to come by these days.

Apple has yet to announce a successor to its three-year-old Thunderbolt Display, despite the fact that the company is releasing a new Mac Pro by the end of the year with the ability to power up to three 4K displays at once.

A Redditor did some digging and found that a display supplier overseas with ties to Apple is currently making 4K desktop-sized panels that are designed for Thunderbolt and could very easily be put in future Apple monitors.

Remember the rumblings about Apple acquiring PrimeSense, the Israel-based company behind the 3D motion tracking in the original Xbox Kinect? It turns out that the rumor is true, as Apple has officially confirmed the buyout.

Reports dating back to this summer have said Apple and PrimeSense were in talks, and just last week it was being reported that the deal was close to completion. Israeli business site Globes said the deal is valued at $300-$350 million earlier today, and AllThingsD later said the asking price is “around $360 million.”

PrimeSense certainly has expertise in full-body motion tracking, as evidenced by the Kinect, but lately the company has been focusing more on mobile. Its Capri 3D sensor is the smallest in the world and is designed for implementing natural gestures for smartphones and tablets.

Source: AllThingsD

Apple has erected a new webpage that highlights different ways the iPad is used in various professions, from wind turbine technicians to Broadway dancers. Originally tweeted by Apple Interactive Art Director Davy Rudolph, the new “Life on iPad” webpage also includes a video of the same name that Apple originally showed at its iPad Air/mini event last month.

There are 6 stories Apple has chosen to tell about how the iPad is helping wind turbine technicians, a professional speedskater, a vineyard worker, an off-road racer, a Broadway choreographer, and a surgeon. Each story is succinct and obviously full of praise for the iPad. As the holidays approach, marketing tactics like this set Apple apart from the competition.

Source: Apple

Via: Davy Rudolph

Dropbox’s iOS 7 redesign landed today in the App Store, and it brings not only a new look to the app, but AirDrop support and a “streamlined” iPad interface. The colored top and bottom bars have been distilled to better fit the iOS aesthetic, and the white and blue colors in the app’s icon have been inverted.

Apple has rolled out updates for all of its iWork apps on both OS X and iOS. Earlier this month, Apple revealed features from iWork ’09 it would be adding back to the new suite in the coming months, and today’s updates address some of those features. On iOS, Pages, Keynote and Numbers have received bug fixes and stability improvements.

In the late 90s, Tamagotchi pets were all the rage. The plastic, egg-shaped pocket computers came in bright colors and housed a virtual pet you had to take care of. Fast forward to late 2013, and the only pocket computers people carry around are smartphones and tablets.

Yesterday, the makers of apps like Clear and Heads Up! launched Hatch, a modern-day take on Tamagotchi for the iPhone. It’s a beautifully crafted game that utilizes the iPhone’s internals to make the pet, or Fugu, come to life.

Tumblr has redesigned its iOS app with a fresh look for iOS 7. The Dashboard, post compose screen, and post chooser have all been redone, and the finished product is an app with plenty of character that feels very at home in Apple’s latest mobile OS.

The official Tumblr app has never felt aesthetically clunky or old, but this most recent update is a huge step forward in terms of modernizing the interface and animations. On the feature side, tags can now be autocompleted, and faster reblogging for users with multiple accounts. There are plenty of other changes in the app to discover, like an improved photo uploader and trending tags design in the Explore tab.

Tumblr is a free universal download in the App Store.

Source: App Store

Today Tapbots released a big update for Tweetbot for Mac that brings smoother scrolling and the ability to quickly reply to mentions and DMs via Notification Center in OS X Mavericks. The update also brings a number of bug fixes and performance improvements for Apple’s latest desktop OS.

Here’s the full change log:

The Samsung Galaxy Gear, an Android-powered smartwatch that Samsung has been calling “the next big thing” in commercials, is officially a dud. Why? After BusinessKorea reported that Samsung has sold less than 50,000 units to date, Samsung quickly tried to spin the bad news by saying that it had in fact sold 800,000 units, making it the “most sold wearable watch available in the market place.”

Right. The only problem is that Samsung later confirmed that the 800,000 number was actually for units shipped, not sold, which is a big difference.

Today Twitter announced a couple of new features that are coming to its official iOS and Google Play apps. The first is search filters for easily discovering different types of media, like photos or video. You can also toggle the results to only see related tweets from accounts you follow.

One of the last Apple apps to be redesigned for iOS 7 is Find My Friends, the company’s network for sharing your location and viewing the location of friends on a map. Before today’s update, Find My Friends looked incredibly outdated with leather stitching and an old-style map design.

Now the app looks much more at home in iOS 7. No new features have been added, but the design includes a new icon, lightweight interface, and an orange color scheme (orange is apparently the new black, if Apple’s recent iOS 7 app updates are any indication).

Find My Friends was first introduced before the release of iOS 5 in 2011. Version 3.0 of the app is available in the App Store now.

Source: App Store

As the holidays draw near, shipping estimates for the iPhone 5s are starting to be more reasonable. Today the Apple Store’s estimates for all models of the 5s improved to 3-5 business days, which is significantly better than the 1-2 week estimates Apple was giving just last week.

Before that, shipping estimates were 2-3 weeks. Supplies for the 5s have been very tight since its launch, and it’s still hard to find the phone in gold. It looks like Apple planned on the demand for the iPhone 5c to be above and beyond the 5s, but the company reportedly cut orders for the 5c recently. A report from this morning said that an entire Foxconn factory has stopped producing the 5c and is now making the 5s.

Source: Apple

“Siri, what are your political views?” You’d think that Siri would answer that question with a clever quip about how she doesn’t take sides, but no, she has an answer. And it’s not what you would think.

For some odd reason, asking Siri her political views will take you to Ron Paul’s Wikipedia page every time.

Today Sprint announced a limited time deal that gives students a full year of free cellular service with the purchase of a smartphone at any Best Buy location. The offer includes unlimited talk/text and 1GB of data per month, with the option to have unlimited data for $10 per month.

The typical two-year contract isn’t required, but Sprint is charing a “student activated price” that’s actually a little more than the full, unsubsidized cost of most phones.

Apple is close to buying PrimeSense, the company that invented the 3D motion tracking technology used in the original Xbox Kinect. Whispers of the acquisition were first reported by an Israeli publication called Calcalist back in July, and the site is now reporting that Apple has a deal in place with PrimeSense to the tune of around $345 million.

While Apple’s mysterious ‘iTV’ product seems like an obvious reason for the acquisition, PrimeSense has also developed a smaller 3D sensor called Capri that’s more suited for mobile.

Apple has seeded the first developer beta of OS X Mavericks 10.9.1. This will be the first incremental update to Mavericks when it ships to the public. Apple has released a fix for Gmail in the Mail app on Mavericks, but the OS remains at version 10.9.

It’s currently unclear when 10.9.1 will be available for everyone, and there are no known issues with this first beta.

Source: Apple