As the fifth and penultimate game in the indie-darling Bit.Trip series, Bit.Trip Fate has a lot to live up to. Originally released on Nintendo’s WiiWare platform and still part of Bit.Trip collections on the Wii and the 3DS, Bit.Trip Fate has finally, err, tripped its way over to the Mac App Store to join the other four games in the series already there on our favorite platform.
And we’re pretty darn happy about that.
Ogio’s new Gambit backpack is the kind of pack I’d want to haul my gear in while wandering the radioactive desert wasteland of Fallout: New Vegas with. Heck, it’s even equipped with a padded, crushproof pocket called a “Tech Vault.”
Apple and some of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies have been under heavy fire ever since info on the National Security Administration’s PRISM program leaked to the public last month.
In response to the public’s outcry that tech companies are working with the NSA to pilfer personal info on targets of interest, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and others have formed a broad alliance with civil liberties groups that will tomorrow demand for increased transparency regarding the U.S. government’s spy programs on citizens.
All Things D reports that the alliance will publish a letter Thursday, demanding President Obama and Congress allow tech companies to provide reports on information requests related to national security.
Social weather iPhone app Weathermob has just seen a big, fat update, which Weathermob‘s PR people describe as “a deeper, more delightful and safer understanding of weather.”
With new activity-based (surfing, hiking, golfing, gardening) channels and additional detail added to the realtime weather trends aggregated from its users, this is social weather, and unlike anything else available at the app store.
An extreme departure from the look and feel of its first iOS game, Lili, BitMonster’s upcoming Gunner Z is a gritty, scary delight. The developer just released a launch trailer with a stunningly gorgeous bit of the old ultraviolence in this scifi-themed shooter, soon to release on iOS.
The trailer is dark, gritty, and full of awesome night vision battle scenes, showing off the amazing scenery, the scary undead armies, and a host of armored vehicles ready to take on the hordes.
Try misspelling “abortion” in iOS. Does Apple help you spellcheck it like most of your mistakes? Nope.
It turns out that there’s a huge collection of controversial lingo and not-so-controversial-lingo that Apple takes a hands-off approach to with spellcheck.
Apple’s CEO wants to sell more iPhones, but only in his stores. The iPhone is Apple’s cash cow with its high profit margins, and it creates a “halo effect” that causes customers to buy other Apple products.
Less than 20% of iPhones are currently sold in Apple Stores, and Cook won’t stand for it. Despite the fact that 80% of customers buy their iPhones elsewhere, 50% bring them into the Apple Store to get serviced. If Cook wants the sales/repairs ratio to improve, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.
Potluck, a link-sharing service made by the same people behind Branch, announced today that its bringing its social network to the iPhone today with a brand new iOS app.
Rather than focusing on likes and retweets, Potluck is trying to position itself as a casual social network in hopes of drawing out the “lurkers” who usually sit back and read everyone else’s posts rather than engaging.
The central experience of Potluck is built around sharing and discussing links between a small number of friends, kind of like a more intimate version mix of Twitter and Digg. A desktop version has been available for the past two months, but the company says it sees Potluck as truly mobile experience and plans to release an Android app as well.
Here are the full release notes:
Google has released version 28 (yes, 28) of Chrome for iOS in the App Store. The universal app now has “improved interoperability with many other Google Apps” and a host of other improvements.
Here’s the full list of changes:
This is a review of a camera case. And not just any old multi-user camera case: this one only fits two specific cameras – the Fujifilm X100 and the X100S. However, I’m reviewing it anyway because when I was buying one I couldn’t find any useful information about it. Also, there are builders in my apartment and everything is sealed down behind plastic sheeting, so I couldn’t review anything else even if I wanted to (I promise the Lumopro LP180 review will be ready on Friday).
The case is Fujifilm’s own LC-X100S.
As a response to T-Mobile’s new Jump plan that allows customers to upgrade their smartphone once a year for free, AT&T announced Next two days ago, which offers similar perks as Jump but at a much higher cost.
T-Mobile’s CEO, John Legere has already launched an AT&T Next bashing campaign to go along with the anti-AT&T rant filled keynote he delivered on July 10th. According to an email exchange with CNET, Legere views AT&T Next as just “a poor copycat” of Jump that’s designed to ripoff consumers more than ever:
After refreshing its iPad lineup in the fall last year, rather than summer, Apple set itself up to go through a June quarter without a new iPad launch for the first time since it was introduced in 2010.
With Apple’s Q3 2013 quickly approaching on July 23rd, analysts have already begun to make their iPad sales estimates, and to no one’s surprise, YOY growth has slowed to a crawl in Q3 2013.
I’m on the verge of giving up on using my iPad as my main photo machine, but one brand new app is keeping me from switching back to the Mac. It’s called Photospector, it lets you organize and edit your pictures, and it’s pretty much the iPad photos app Apple should have made all along.
According to Apple, the Apple TV is “just a hobby.” According to a new report, though, it’s way more than a hobby: it’s the dominant force in video streaming.
If Apple wants to have the iPhone 5S in our hands by September or October, they need to already be making them. And according to a new report, they are… and we have some details on the exact specs, as well as some pictures of the iPhone 5S in manufacturing.
Apple has had an exclusive contract to use the next-gen Liquidmetal alloy for almost three years now. Theoretically, Liquidmetal could allow Apple to realize thinner, lighter, more resilient devices… but the Liquidmetal fabrication process is hard to work with, which is why, so far, we’ve only seen one actual Liquidmetal Apple product: the SIM removal tool that ships with every iPhone!
But it looks like Apple might have finally cracked the problem. And they are eyeing Liquid Metal for use in the iWatch.
Here’s a dumb rumor. According to a new report out of the East, the iPhone 5S is being delayed because Apple, at the last minute, decided to phase out the current 4-inch display for a 4.3-inch one.
One of my most-used Mac apps is Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil, a utility which hijacks the audio from any app you like and pipes it to your AirPlay speakers. It synced audio and video over AirPlay before Apple added the feature (back when it was called AirTunes), and is a great way to send the same music to every one of the stack of wireless speakers I’m testing at any one time (it’s like a bad disco in here).
Now, there is Airfoil Remote, which lets you control Airfoil for Mac from your iPhone.
Muku Shuttr is a tiny, keychain-sized (and keychain-mountable) remote shutter release for your iPhone. OR your iPad. Or your giant Android “phablet.” For just $29, you’l never have to see another “selfie arm” disappearing from the side of your self portraits ever again.
Google Maps has been updated to 2.0 for iOS, which means that it finally has a native iPad interface. No longer will iPad users have to deal with stupidly-oversized navigation elements on the 2x pixel-doubled screen.
Some cases bring battery backup with them, others are waterproof. One or two allow you to charge your iPhone with energy from the sun.
The Snow Lizard SLXtreme iPhone 4 case does all three, and now it’s coming to the iPhone 5 and iPad.
David Koechner (Anchorman, The Office) rounded up some pals, including actor friend Harlan Williams (Half Baked, Dumb & Dumber) and released an eight-part short comedy about two beat cops, named Steady and Shakes, in 15 second clips via Instagram video.
Koechner plays the oblivious vocal partner, while Williams plays Shakes, the shaking, quiet one. They spend their time onscreen invading the wrong house, and almost dropping a baby they save from a burning building.
You can check out the full two minute short film on Koechner’s Instagram page, starting with the intro clip, here.
For those of you eager to know whether or not your aging Mac will be able to run Mavericks, the new version of OS X due out in a few months, Aspyr has enlisted the Mac Match feature on its GameAgent site to help you out.
Why does Steppenwolf’s “Born to be Wild” buzz through my head when I look at the Griffin PowerDock 5? Because the five-port docking station reminds me of one of those old roadside gas stations out on the desert highway.
Get all five of your motors running.
Launched today into the App store, A Thug In Time promises dual-stick shooter action on the go across 65 levels, 35 weapon types, 20 unique enemies, and eight mini-bosses to blast through.
You’ll need to survive through various times in history, including the Wild West, 1930s Chicago, and the Viking Age, decapitating, freezing, burning, and riddling with bullets all who get in your way. There are in-game power ups, including the fire bomb, the freeze bomb, and the cutter blades to slice and dice the way to victory.