Thanks to the continued growth of Apple’s iOS devices, the iTunes platform that includes the App Store and the iBookstore is set to grow at a rate of 39% over the next three years and rake in a whopping $13 billion in revenue during 2013.
Our roundup of must-have iOS games this week includes 1-bit Ninja — a unique new platformer that boasts retro gameplay in a stylised 2D side-scrolling world, which you can drag into 3D at any time to reveal hidden paths — like no other platform game you’ve ever played.
Also on our list is Pocket Academy, the latest release from Kairosoft, the developers behind Game Dev Story; and the official Transformers game from Electronic Arts.
If you, like me, have lusted after the Tenori-on electronic musical instrument for years since it was first announced in 2005, then here’s some good news: an official iOS port of the device is now on sale in the App Store.
The New York Times has issued an update to its iOS apps today that now allows users to subscribe to paid content through in-app purchases. The change comes a day later than the June 30 deadline Apple imposed on subscription apps that must now provide a way for users to sign up without being redirected to a website.
Apple’s developer betas of future versions of iOS are just that, betas, which means that there’s all sorts of problems that can come up when you install one. Total device meltdown, though? That’s the sort of thing that ought to be ironed out in alpha, yet that’s just what at least one iOS 5 Beta user is reporting after installing the dev preview on his iPad: massive, device crippling overheating issues. And Apple says it’s a known issue.
Should tablets be classified alongside notebooks as Mobile PCs? HP has its fingers crossed and hopes no as the rising popularity of the iPad could see a new mobile PC king crowned in 2012.
City commissioners in a Florida town approved iPads for themselves to save money on paper costs despite budget problems.
The expense of $2,916 was approved for four iPads despite a cash crunch. Last year, Coral Springs dipped into reserves for $4.8 million plus raised fees and property taxes to carry on.
Following rumors that Facebook was planning its first iPad app, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has told everyone to stay tuned for the world’s largest social network to ‘launch something awesome next week.”
HP will be releasing its own would-be iPad killer on Friday. Called the HP Touchpad, it’s the first tablet running webOS 3, the tablet-sized operating system HP picked up from Palm last year. But what is the critical consensus? Is the HP Touchpad a viable competitor to the iPad?
Across the board, the answer is no, but most critics agree that six months from now, webOS 3 — if not the Touchpad itself — could be a viable threat to iPad. Right now, though, the HP Touchpad is unpolished and messy.
Here’s the only review of the HP Touchpad you need, glommed together from the Internet’s gadget blogging hivemind.
Apps, those tiny games and other bits of code on your iPhone or iPad, are adding up to serious money. After doubling to $14.1 billion this year, revenue from apps will generate more than $36.7 billion by 2015. But can web apps cash-in on this goldmine?
One of Windows 8’s key tablet features is the ability to run two apps on the same screen side-by-side. It’s a feature that iOS 5 has yet to adopt, but that hasn’t stopped one jailbreak dev from swiping the idea and creating a hack that can allow two or more iPhone apps to run side-by-side on any iPad. Sick.
Are iPad component makers too busy fulfilling Apple orders to build any competitors? That’s appears to be the case for Amazon, where at least one parts maker may already be too busy churning out iPad displays to build a tablet version of the Kindle.
It’s not official until Apple makes it so, but expect this blip to pop up Apple’s July 19th financial results call: the iPad now has more than 100,000 native apps available for it.
A 9-year-old girl with sight problems has swapped out magnifying glasses and other clunky equipment for an iPad.
Holly Bligh, of Melbourne Australia, has albinism, which affects her vision. To read, teachers had to make photocopies with enlarged text for her or she had to use a magnifying glass or other devices to read.
Apple has just added three new pages to its website which highlight why its Macs and iOS devices are the perfect companions for those heading off to college. Well, actually, the Mac gets a bit of a soft sell… but Apple’s really banging the drum when it comes to their iOS devices, and as usual, it all comes down to apps.
Google’s just helped put another nail in Adobe Flash’s coffin. Their new tool is called Swiffy, and it allows you to easily convert simple SWF Flash animations and games into HTML5 compliant code, viewable and interactable on any iPhone or iPad.
Remember that Lulzsec hack the other day that showed that AT&T was already testing iPads on their next generation 4G network?
Well, there’s even more interesting information in the leak than that. Complete details about AT&T’s proposed LTE data plans make it clear that when Apple does release an iPhone or iPad 4G, prohibitive data caps, massive overage charges and automatically throttled bandwidth will be the rule of the day.
Short of Sprint’s WiMax, Verizon LTE has no actual competition to speak of in the 4G market. AT&T and T-Mobile’s “4G” is really just supercharged HSPA+ 3G technology, after all. So the results of PC Mag’s nationwide mobile bandwidth test shouldn’t be much of a surprise: Verizon LTE just mops the floor with the competition.
That’s not going to last though. Here’s why.
The only real rival Apple has in tablet sales is itself, one analyst said Tuesday. Despite the claims, competitors “have made an imperceptible dent in the trajectory of iPad sales.”
There’re absolutely zero reasons not to get this incredibly slick, fly-by-the-seat-of-you-pants remake of the 90’s classic racing shooter Death Rally iOS game unless you hate fun or you’re dead.
Beating Skype to the iPad by just one day, VoIP app Fring is now available as a universal app on the iOS App Store, and it has one big advantage over Skype: not only can it work as an IM client, playing nice with Facebook, MSN Messenger, GTalk and more, but it’s also the first iPad app to support group video-calling over WiFi and 3G.
A fantastic update to a fantastic app. You can download it here.
Notorious hacker group Lulzsec finished off their string of fifty high-profile server hacks yesterday with a bang: they released some AT&T internal documents that reveals that AT&T have already tested the iPad running on their next-gen 4G LTE network.
It’s been a great week for iOS gamers, with fantastic new releases from Gameloft, Chillingo, Sega and Telltale Games. Picking our favorites has been some task.
Here’s this week’s roundup — featuring the return of Sonic in a brand new arcade kart racer, an iPad platformer that uses your iPhone as a controller, and the final episode of Monkey Island.
Sick of juggling multiple data plans across your iPhone and iPad? That could soon be coming to an end, as US carriers stroke their chins and openly muse about shared data plans.
While the most war many of us will see on our iPads is a spot of Angry Birds, Singapore’s got bigger plans for Apple’s tablet: they’re issuing an iPad to each new recruit to use in action on the battlefield.