Whether you’re a chaotic good wild mage or a neutral evil Drow, there’s good news coming out of the Underdark this morning. Following its launch on Mac last month, Beamdog Entertainment’s updated version of Baldur’s Gate II and its expansion — only the finest CRPG ever made — are coming to iPad, possibly even in time for Christmas!
iTunes Match Comes To Scandinavia
If you’re a Dane, a Swede, a Fin, or a Norse who likes having all his or her music in the clouds of Valhalla, or just wants to legitimize your pirated Lordi collection, good news: iTunes Match has come to Scandinavia.
In Court, Apple Tries To Squeeze More Blood Out Of Samsung’s Stone
Right now, Apple has over $156 billion in its war chest, prompting investors like Carl Icahn to pretty much riot to try to get at some or all of it.
Compared to $156 billion, $16 million is a drop in the ocean of Apple’s money, an amount so small that Tim Cook wouldn’t think twice to even sign the check. But when it comes to Samsung, Apple’s intellectual property arch rival, Cupertino wants to wring out every drop of money it can.
Apple’s Official iOS 7 Adoption Numbers Make Android Look Absolutely Pathetic
Many of the stats we have about iOS marketshare and demographics come from third-party companies, most of whom are tracking ad impressions within their network. As such, their stats have the potential of being inaccurate, and need to be taken with at least a little bit of salt.
Looks like online ad network Chitika can be trusted though. Earlier this week, we reported that Chitika was now tracking 74.1% of all devices as running iOS 7. Now, Apple is backing those numbers up, and it makes Google look pathetic.
Apple’s Elves Will Now Ship Your iPhone Within 72 Hours
Good news, my friends! If you want to get someone in your life an iPhone 5s in time for Christmas, or just splurge on a new iPhone yourself, good news: in the United States, Canada, and several other countries, you can now get an iPhone 5s shipped to you in just 1-3 business days. Even in gold!
Does Touch ID Decay Over Time?
Although not a new technology by any means, fingerprint scanners have historically been hamstrung by issues that have caused their sensors to degrade relatively rapidly, no longer being able to correctly read a fingerprint after only a few months.
When Apple introduced Touch ID with the iPhone 5s, they claimed to have solved that problem. Protected by nigh-indestructible Sapphire Glass, the Touch ID sensor is supposed to be able to read the curves and contours of your fingerprints at a resolution of up to 500 pixels per inch. But could Touch ID be just as susceptible to degradation issues over time as previous biometrics solutions?
Yo Ho Ho! Assassin’s Creed: Pirates Now Available On App Store
One of the most popular series of games for home consoles is Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed, in which a 21st Century cyberpunk is tasked with recovering memories of his ancestors from the past. The plot doesn’t make a lot of sense, frankly, but it doesn’t have to: it’s just the framing mechanism that allows players to take on the role of a number of assassins throughout history, from 15th Century Florence to ancient Jerusalem and Colonial America.
The latest game in the Assassin’s Creed series, Black Flag, brings the backstabbing and throat-slitting to the high seas, but it’s only available on the Xbox and PlayStation. No fear, though, because a companion game called Assassin’s Creed: Pirates has just been released on the App Store for iPhone and iPad users.
Mail Pilot Is Now Available For Mac In Public Beta
One of the more popular app Kickstarter campaigns in recent memory is the one for Mail Pilot, an app that allows you to tame your inbox by treating it like a to-do list. In April, Mail Pilot was released for iOS, and users were told that a public beta was coming soon. And now it’s here!
Obama Is Stuck On BlackBerry, Not Allowed To Have An iPhone
When Barack Obama first made his run at the United States presidency way back in 2008, much fuss was made about how this politician was so cool, he used a BlackBerry.
Seems laughable now, doesn’t it? Yet at the time, Obama was considered so technologically hip for using a BlackBerry that he once laughingly said that if the Secret Service wanted to take it from him, they’d have to pry it from his hands.
Flash forward five years, and President Obama’s BlackBerry doesn’t seem so cool anymore. In fact, it seems ridiculous. So why isn’t he using an iPhone?
The Official iPhone 5s Case Was Almost As Hideous As The iPhone 5c Case
The official iPhone 5c case isn’t exactly Apple’s most widely acclaimed product design ever. Even if you love it, you have to admit it looks a lot like those brightly-colored, foam rubber shoes with the holes in them known as Crocs. And if you’re like me, and think the iPhone 5c case is pure trash, it seems almost insulting that Apple overlooked the iPhone 5c case’s design flaws and released it anyway.
According to a new report, though, Apple wasn’t just about to unleash the so-called ‘Croc’ case on consumers once, but twice. Not only did Cupertino intend for the hole-filled design to be the official case for the iPhone 5c, but they wanted to give the luxury, high-end iPhone 5s the same treatment.
Apple’s 2013 Acquisitions Show A Focus On Maps, Chips & Making Data Useful
When Apple bought Twitter analytics company Topsy for over $200 million earlier this week, many commenters were taking aback. How does Twitter analytics of all things fit into Apple’s general acquisition strategy?
Although they broke the story, it looks like The Wall Street Journal were wondering the same thing themselves. The result is an excellent breakdown of Apple’s major acquisitions in 2013. Unfortunately, it doesn’t shed much light on why Apple bought Topsy, but it does show Cupertino’s areas of interest.
Chart Proves That Android Smartphones Are Bad Deal Compared To iPhones
When people talk about Android’s “fragmentation” problem, what they are referring to is the fact that the majority of Android devices are not running the most current version of Google’s mobile operating system.
The reason this is a big deal is because an ecosystem is only as strong as how many devices are running a current version of the operating system: older versions of Android are not only more vulnerable to malicious exploits that have been patched in more recent versions, but apps running on them can’t make use of newer Android features.
A new chart released by Fidlee shows exactly how bad Google’s fragmentation problem has become. Although iOS 7 runs on almost all Apple iPhones released in the last five years, there are few Android devices that are supported by the most recent version of Android just two years after they are purchased.
PayPal Starts Selling iTunes Gift Cards
PayPal has been making a creep into gift cards lately, announcing just a week ago that it would start accepting prepaid gift cards as a form of payment online. Now it’s going even further, launching a digital gifts store where you can buy iTunes Gift Cards and, for now, only iTunes Gift Cards.
Dragon Quest VIII Coming To iPhone & iPad
When we talk about Japanese games publisher Square-Enix bringing their games to iPhone, we’re usually talking about their popular Final Fantasy series: in the past few years alone, Square-Enix has brought a number of the games in its world famous CRPG series to the App Store.
The next game Square-Enix is bringing to iPhone isn’t a Final Fantasy game, though. Instead, it’s a title in their other popular RPG series (and a personal favorite game of mine): Dragon Quest VIII.
Late 2013 27-Inch iMacs Now Available At Up To $400 Off If You Buy Them Refurbished [Deals]
Some of the best deals you can find on Apple products comes from buying refurbished. Far from second-hand rejects, refurbished Apple units come with a full year’s warranty, steep discounts and a personal once-over from an authorized Apple technician, meaning they are <em>more</em> likely to be technologically sound at a lower price.
If you’ve been interested in picking yourself up a late 2013 27-inch iMac, but were hoping to score a deal, good news: they’re now available refurbished on Apple’s online store.
Apple Patents ‘PowerPort Extreme’ To Wirelessly Charge Your House’s Gadgets
Everything else in our lives has gone wireless, but here we are, still slurping electricity through wires like a bunch of cavemen. When will it end? Soon, soothes Apple. The mad scientists in their lab at Cupertino have just patented a method to supply wireless charging to a number of nearby devices.
And Our First Glimpse At 2014’s 24-Inch iMac With Retina Display Comes From… Dell?
We’ve seen the 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros go Retina. When will the iMac get ultra high resolution screens, though?
It’s unknown, but it looks like we’re edging closer. Dell — the company whose founder once laughingly suggested that Cupertino return all of its money to shareholders — has just posted details for a new 24-inch monitor sporting a 3840 x 2160 4K display.
Amazon: In 4-5 Years, We Will Start Delivering iPhones & iPads Using Robotic Drones
Amazon Prime delivery is pretty fast. As long as you pony up $99 every year, you can have pretty much anything shipped to you overnight — even iPhones and iPads — for just $3.99.
But what’s after Prime? According to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on a 60 Minutes interview last night, it’s PrimeAir, a new service in which Amazon will deliver your goods to you via drones within half-an-hour.
Filemaker Pro 13 Leaked On Apple’s UK Site
Attention, number crunchers and bean counters! Thanks to an inadvertent slip of the webmaster’s finger, Apple may have just unwittingly revealed the semi-imminent release of Filemaker Pro 13, Apple’s in-house database software for Mac, PC, Web and iPad.
This Chart Explains Why Android Devs Are Poor & The Best Apps Are On iOS First
When people talk about Android being bad for developers, this handy chart explains in a nutshell what they’re talking about: across the board, in every metric, Android developers make less money than iOS developers… often by a lot.
Black Friday Starts At 6AM At Most U.S. Apple Stores
Despite some initial rumors that Apple would be opening nearly all of its retail stores on Thanksgiving Day, Apple’s retail outlets will remain open on Turkey Day.
But Apple still wants to get the jump on the holiday shopping season, which is why most Apple Stores this year will open before dawn across the country on the day after Thanksgiving.
Wall Street Is Starting to Screw Its Head On Right About Apple
2013 has been a rocky year for Apple Stock, but it looks like Wall Street might be ending the year bullish on Wall Street, with shares of AAPL closing at an all-time high last night.
Black Friday Comes Early As XCOM Goes On Sale [Deals]
As Black Friday and Cyber Monday come creeping up on us, so do some of the best app deals, as developers slash prices on their software to get us all geared up for the holidays. One of the first great deals of the season is now here: if you love turn-based-strategy and want to help the Earth repel a wave of alien invaders, XCOM: Enemy Unknown has dropped to just $9.99.
Reeder 2.1 Coming With Themes, Safari Reading List Support, And More
Reeder 2– the best RSS reader on iOS — is getting a beefy new update soon, hopefully in time for holidays. The app’s developer has just submitted an update to Apple for approval that adds some big new features — including themes, Safari Reading List support, and more — as well as tweaked features and a load of bug fixes.
Here’s what you can expect when Reeder 2.1 hits the App Store.
Angry Birds Gets Electrifying New Update, Now Has Almost 500 Levels
Few companies are better at keeping their games updated than Rovio, who’ve released more updates for its Angry Birds games than one can count. Add another grain of sand to the beaches of infinity, then, because the bird-vs.-pig physics strategy game has just gotten a new update, adding 30 levels to the core game as well as giving the bomb bird a new electric power.