Luke Dormehl - page 345

The NBA Game Time app for iPhone and NBA Game Time for iPad have just been updated, adding support for classic games.

As its name suggests, Endless Surf is pretty much an endless runner with a whole lot more water involved. If you’re looking for a true to life surfing sim, complete with realistic board dynamics and the like, you’re going to be disappointed. But if you can look past that, Endless Surf is a giant wave of fun.

In the ephemeral world of Internet memes, gamers have already moved on from Flappy Bird and on to the next thing. But that doesn’t mean that developer Dong Nguyen was wrong when he claimed that the game was proving “addictive” to players.

In a new YouTube Sci Show episode, host Hank Green explains why a game that even its staunchest defenders would admit is pretty stupid proved so crazily addictive.

Popular numerical puzzle game Threes! has received its first ever update, adding several player-requested features.

For those who haven’t played Threes!, it’s a game which challengers players to come up with multiples of 3 by sliding and matching pairs of cards. The object is to gain the highest score possible by combining numbers to first make 3s, then 6s, then putting those together to get 12s, and so on.

It’s surprisingly fun and addictive, and has been met with a number of positive reviews since its release earlier this month.

Apple has filed an appeal related to last year’s verdict stating that the company violated U.S. antitrust laws by conspiring with publishers to fix e-book prices.

The appeal — which was filed Tuesday with the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York — calls U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote’s ruling “a radical departure from modern antitrust law and policy,” and argues that it will “stifle innovation, chill competition, and harm consumers” if it is followed.

The company behind Candy Crush Saga has withdrawn its controversial trademark application for the word “Candy” in the United States, according to documents filed with the U.S. Trademark Office early on Monday morning.

With the tech world still buzzing over Facebook’s $19 billion WhatsApp acquisition, business insurance provider Simply Business has put together a fascinating infographic.

Showing 15 years of acquisitions by Apple, Amazon, Google, Yahoo, and Facebook, the chart lays out in visual terms when tech giants were at their purchasing busiest, as well as how much they typically spend on deals — with the size of individual dots representing the price paid for each startup.

What connects Apple to crack-smoking Toronto mayor Rob Ford?

The answer is that the company has reportedly been called in to help Toronto police access Ford’s cell phone data for an ongoing investigation (nicknamed “Project Brazen 2”) into the controversial politician’s secret life.

In a new blogpost, New Zealand security consultant Aldo Cortesi notes that it took him less than one day to develop a proof of concept for the critical OS X SSL/TLS bug, known as “goto fail”.

By doing this Cortesi has confirmed in practice what people were already worried about in theory: that thanks to the bug — thought to be the result of a line of erroneous code — almost all encrypted traffic, including usernames, passwords, and even Apple app updates can potentially be captured.

With yesterday being Steve Jobs’ birthday, Apple fans chose to mark the occasion in different ways. Marketing agency Easy Explain Video celebrated the life of Apple’s late CEO by creating an animated version of Jobs’ iconic iPhone introduction at the 2007 Macworld San Francisco.

Speaking with Cult of Mac, Easy Explain Video emphasized the enormous impact Apple has had on creatives.

Apple has updated the retail section of its website with a new look more closely resembling the design aesthetic of iOS 7.

As can be seen from the comparison above, where previously the page featured content boxes, borders, and gradients, the new version of the page employs plenty of whitespace and a thinner typeface.

Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal has just been updated with universal support.

The easy-to-use calorie counter features rapid fast food and exercise entry, in addition to the largest food database (over 3 million foods) of any iOS calorie counter.

Apple confirmed to CNBC late on Monday that it has asked Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to veto the controversial religious freedom bill SB1062.

Apple is the latest company to urge Brewers to veto the bill, which critics have suggested will allow companies to use religious belief as a basis for discriminating against the gay and lesbian community.

2014 isn’t only the thirtieth anniversary of the Macintosh. It’s also the thirtieth anniversary of Infocom’s classic game The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — a title that will likely be fondly remembered by anyone who was gaming in the mid-80s.

To mark the game’s thirtieth birthday, and to coincide with the 36th anniversary of the series’ first radio broadcast, the BBC has announced that on March 8 it will publish a new online version of the game, featuring new high definition graphics, social media support, and smartphone/tablet optimization.

Released early in 2014, Bloodstroke marks Face/Off director John Woo’s first venture into the world of mobile gaming. A Flappy Bird clone ultraviolent actioner from developers Chillingo, Tiger Hill Entertainment, Moonshark, and Chimera Entertainment (enough names for you?), this has the potential to be the most stylishly bloody iOS game of the year.

On Sunday, HBO debuted the first trailer for its upcoming Mike Judge comedy series Silicon Valley.

Hoping to be viewed as Entourage for the startup scene, the series promises to take viewers inside a fictionalized Silicon Valley, complete with cameos from real-life high tech players.

Today marks the 59th birthday of Steve Jobs, who was born February 24, 1955.

To mark the occasion, here’s a video tribute created by several Apple employees for Jobs to mark his thirtieth birthday in 1985:

For iOS users it seems that 2014 is something of a golden age for classic Nintendo gaming.

That’s because over the past few weeks we’ve seen not one, not two, but three separate emulators bringing classic NES and Game Boy action to iOS.

Yahoo has released the first update to its new summarization iOS app, Yahoo News Digest.

Arriving in the App Store last month, Yahoo News Digest is based on the Summly app acquired by Yahoo for $30 million in 2013. It provides a summary of all the important, need-to-know news each day — with digests of news stories (called “atoms”) delivered once in the morning and again in the evening.

Apple began rolling out its two-step verification system for your Apple ID last year, adding an extra layer of protection for users. Now it is making the security feature available in more countries — including Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Spain.

The concept of the two-step verification system, for those unfamiliar with it, is to make you enter a code (sent to a single trusted device) each time you make changes to your account, or make a new iTunes or App Store purchase using a new device.

The world’s leading online survey platform SurveyMonkey finally has an app available in the App Store — letting iOS users on the move create surveys and polls, send them to out, and then monitor the result as they come back in.

Apple is reportedly planning to open a new Apple Store in Eastwood Towne Center, in Lansing Township, Michigan, according to new documents.

A contractor working for Apple recently filed an application with town officials to begin work on an almost 6,000-square-foot retail store at a shopping center at 3025 Preyde Boulevard.

Apple’s already “big-ass” North Carolina data center is about to get even bigger.

Based on an erosion permit filed with Catawba County on Wednesday, Apple is looking to build an additional structure onto the side of its existing already enormous complex. Made of precast concrete wall panels, along with steel columns, this add-on is set to add 14,246 square feet, and be around 25 ft tall.

Ever wonder how your iMac stays so silent, despite being equipped with three separate fans?

A new patent application, published Thursday, details the innovative computer fan used in present generation Macs and MacBooks.

The story of WhatsApp — the messaging app just purchased by Facebook for an insane $19 billion — is pretty fascinating.

Seems that the app’s founders did everything right by doing everything wrong. They flouted Silicon Valley rules like getting press and adding features, and instead focused on making the app do one thing well: send messages. It all sounds very Apple-like, and it’s been well covered in fascinating features from Forbes and Wired that are currently doing the rounds.

One detail in the Forbes piece flew out at me in particular — detailing how Apple accidentally created the core element of WhatsApp by adding a new iOS feature.