News - page 1360

With so much buzz about the possibility of Apple’s expansion into the wearables sector, it’s no surprise that we’re not exactly short of iWatch concept designs.

The folks behind the universal CircleTime app have added another one to the pile, though — and it’s certainly eye-catching.

“Available” in black and silver, and featuring a 2-inch display with curved anti-scratch glass, full version of iOS, and a Li-ion battery that last seven days before needing to be recharged, HedgeHog’s design is more robust and high quality than some of the other variations out there — even if it does somewhat resemble the heavy duty bracelets worn by He-Man in Masters of the Universe.

On a Bags is at it again, launching three new bags for the laydeez and gennelmen out there. Do you like leather and canvas? Do you like style? Do you like protection for your camera gear and iOS devices? Then read on.

You might as well delete all the layer-blending apps on your iPhone or iPad right now, becasue Union is better than all of them. It comes from Pixite apps, the developer behind Unbound, LoryStrips, Flickring, Tangent and more, and it lets you stack images, then blend and manipulate them to stunning effect. How stunning? Take a look:

This combined Bluetooth attack alarm, flashlight and pepper spray is called the Peacekeeper. LOL.

The Peacekeeper keeps the peace by letting its user deliver a does of “military-grade” pepper spray into the face of another human being. Here’s what that means, according to a paper from the European Parliament Scientific and Technological Options Assessment (STOA).

The effects of pepper spray are far more severe, including temporary blindness which lasts from 15–30 minutes, a burning sensation of the skin which lasts from 45 to 60 minutes, upper body spasms which force a person to bend forward and uncontrollable coughing making it difficult to breathe or speak for between 3 to 15 minutes.

Sometimes the simplest things are the best. A pen and paper for writing shopping lists. A broom instead of a Roomba. An Aeropress instead of a crappy K-cup. And now, a Lifta iMac stand instead of, uh, more complicated iMac stands.

Among Jony Ive’s many changes brought to iOS 7 was the tinkering of the keyboard’s Shift key which has inexplicably gotten worse over time.

Streaks of successfully guessing whether the shift key is on or not should be award with showers of iTunes credits, but as designer Geoff Teehan points out, Apple could fix its keyboard woes with one simple change.

Check it out:

I didn’t pay much attention in high school chemistry class, which probably put my grades even lower than Jesse Pinkman’s, but if the study of matter and science gets your curiosity boiling, ChemLabs has a chemistry learning app that would please Mr. White himself.

One of the most popular trends in app store gaming is incorporating birds into gameplay. While developers have created games based off of angry and flappy birds, one of the newest additions Burds keeps it plain and simple. Swipe and remove like colored birds from the board while coming across bombs, coins and so much more. Do you think you can handle this fast-paced race against the clock?

Take a look at the video and see what you think.

The Apple vs Samsung legal battle has been full of low points for both companies as they spare for global domination, but an email from Samsung’s VP of Sales fired off just two days after Steve Jobs’ death shows how heartless the war has gotten.

Shortly after Jobs’ passing in 2011, Michael Pennington, head of national sales for Samsung Telecommunications America, told company leadership in an email acquired by CNET that Steve’s death was the best opportunity Samsung was going to get to attack the iPhone.

Here’s the full email:

Knights of Pen & Paper +1 Edition combines two fantastic things: a brilliantly funny de-construction of a pen and paper role-playing game like Dungeons & Dragons and a mobile game that uses those very same mechanics to create a habit-forming experience.

Best of all? It’s going free on Wednesday at 8 am Pacific, so you should go get yourself a copy of it. Like, right now.

Ever think that the majority of freemium iOS games are basically mindless tap-fests, with demands only for cold hard cash, and none for meaningful strategy?

Take Jurassic Park Builder, for instance: a game I reviewed back in January, and was forced to grudgingly admit was “effectively FarmVille with velociraptors” thanks to in-app purchases (IAPs).

The game looks nice enough but — unless you’re happy to cough up money to get goals done quicker — all it asks of players is to tap the screen every few minutes to check on their dinosaurs or earn in-game currency.

If that sounds the kind of job a dumb robot could do, you’re not wrong — that same idea occurred to senior art director and amateur robot builder, Uli Kilian, who built a Lego robot to carry out the task for him.

From complaints about the use of shuttle buses in San Francisco, to Apple’s own security guards protesting for better pay, the tech industry in San Francisco has come under increased fire in the last few years.

The latest protest took place on Tuesday, with a crowd gathered at Apple’s Union Square store in San Francisco, dressed as Apple Store workers, to call on the company to pay U.S. taxes on the $102 billion it alleges is held overseas.

“We’re trying to have a little fun on Tax Day and show how Apple’s unpaid tax revenues could help Bay Area infrastructure,” said spokesperson Alfredo Fletes. “We could have done this in Cupertino, but not as many customers would come by — this is partly an education campaign.”

Apple’s continued Chinese expansion saw App Store revenue in China increase by 70% last quarter. That’s according to figures from a new Q1 2014 report from app analytics firm App Annie.

Key to this increase is the China Mobile deal which was announced at the end of last year, opening up Apple’s potential customer base to the 763 million users currently on the country’s biggest mobile network.

This picture comes via Mac Desks (and Dribbble), a blog showing – that’s right – photos of desks that have Macs on them. And some of them are gorgeous.

Of course, reality often doesn’t match up to such fantasies.

Apple is one of several tech giants to enter a voluntary agreement to add a global anti-theft “kill-switch” to their handsets from July 2015.

Other companies on board include  Google, HTC, Huawei, Motorola, Microsoft, Nokia, and Samsung — while carriers have reportedly agreed to help “facilitate these measures.”

Apple’s support of the need for a kill-switch doesn’t exactly come as a surprise. The company added an Activation Lock with iOS 7, designed to make it tougher for thieves to use stolen iOS devices. The feature allows users to remotely locate, lock and wipe their iPhones if they are stolen.

I have a Libratone Zipp speaker, and it works great – within five line-of-sight meters of my router that is. Any further and it just goes nuts, shows me a red light and refuses to play.

What I need is a way to extend my network throughout my apartment, but without spending a fortune on AirPorts Express. If only there were a $30 box that not only extended my network but came in a package so tiny I could dot them around the house.

Wait, what’s that? The Gramofon?

I must admit, I got pretty excited just now when I got an email from Amazon telling me that my Kindle documents had been integrated with my Cloud Drive. At last, I thought, I can easily upload personal documents and have my reading progress synced between all my Kindle devices and apps.

But guess what? Disappointment.

Ever since Office for iPad launched a few weeks ago, folks have been claiming that it costs $100 just to use it. This isn’t true at all. And as of now, with Microsoft’s new Office 365 Personal plan for $7 per month (or $70 per year), it’s even less true.

Macally’s BTKEYPRO looks like a nice do-everything keyboard, for all your devices. The main selling point is that it can pair with and switch between up to five devices, letting you use it with your iMac, MacBook, iPad, iPad Mini and iPhone, all at the touch of a key.

But it does more than just that.

Grovemade’s neat iPhone bumper cases offer protection to your phone, and although they’re a bit bulky they’re light and they look great. This new MacBook Back, a self-adhesive walnut panel, offers no useful protection, but it only adds 1.8 or 2.5 ounces to the weight of the whole package.

Edovia makes the most polished VNC client for iOS, but its Mac app has been needing some attention for quite some time, especially in the design department. Screens 3 for Mac was released today, and it has been rebuilt from the group up for Mountain Lion. It also looks much cleaner and promises to be faster.

Apple has been releasing its weekly top games charts as of late, and they make interesting reading.

The latest list — published Tuesday afternoon — shows the cumulative iOS game downloads for the week running April 7 to April 13.

In the world of mobile design, Sketch is a household name on the Mac. Apple gave it a design award in 2012, and it has been featured numerous times in the Mac App Store The highly anticipated 3.0 update to Sketch was released yesterday by Bohemian Coding as a separate purchase, and it’s currently the top paid app in the Mac App Store.

Why all the hype? Sketch 3 is being hailed as a better design tool on the Mac than Photoshop. And at $50, it’s a lot cheaper too.

While many apps in the app store claim to have impossible gameplay, only some present true gamers a real challenge. The app Stickman Impossible Run is an endless runner that boasts tons of tough difficulty modes. Tap to help the stickman jump from platform to platform without dying as the speed gradually increases. Do you think you have fast enough reflexes to top the high-score charts?

Take a look at the video and see what you think.

HBO’s new comedy Silicon Valley has been the toast of TV the past two weeks with its irreverent satirization of life inside the exorbitant tech startup scene.

Not everyone in the valley is a fan of the show with its Square-toting strippers, amped-up nerd stereotypes and creepy angel investors, but we’ve been mesmerized each week with the main title sequence, which showcases the rise and fall of some Silicon Valley’s most heralded companies.

Apple’s headquarters actually pops up twice — but don’t blink or you’ll miss it.

Watch the full sequence below and see if you can spot it: