News - page 1563

Despite announcing the sequel to its hit game Plants vs Zombies last year, PopCap still hasn’t gotten around to releasing Plants vs Zombies 2. The “late-Spring 2013” release period PopCap originally promised is about to pass by, so they’ve officially announced that the new game is coming out this July.

Four years have passed since the release of the first Plants vs Zombies, which means we should get a treasure trove of new features, weapons, plants, and zombies once the game hits. We haven’t seen any gameplay footage, but we’re sure it’s going to be great. It has to be. And to make up for the long drought, PopCap says it’s also going to release a spinoff game called Plants vs Zombies Adventures that can be played though Facebook.

Here’s a new trailer for Plants vs Zombies 2: It’s About Time –  

Even though Steve Jobs had a solid working relationship with News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, it’s no secret that Steve Jobs hated Fox News. In fact, in Walter Isaacon’s authorized biography, Steve Jobs said that “Fox has become an incredibly destructive force in our society.”

Rather than associate Apple’s brand with Fox News, Steve Jobs decided to personally order all of Apple’s ads to be removed from the conservative TV network.

EA announced this morning that the newest game in The Sims series, The Sims 4, will be released in 2014. To make things even better, the game will be available on both PC and Mac.

EA says the new game will allow for single-player and offline mode. The Sims 4 will give players a deeper connection to the virtual world by offering more personalization of the world and better tools for sharing your creativity. More details on the game will be announced closer to launch.

Source: EA

There’s no doubt that the iPhone is one of the most popular pieces of technology ever invented. The rush of people lining up for hours just to buy one usually causes competing carriers to trip all over themselves for the opportunity to sell the iPhone, except recently the list of carriers clamoring for the iPhone has slowly dwindled to just a few prospects.

Despite its successes, Apple is missing out on the chance to sell the iPhone to as many as 2.8 billion new smartphone customers, and according to some experts, the only thing that’s stopping them is Apple’s own rules.

Adobe announced a lot of changes to their core creativity suite today, CS6, as well as a massively overhauled Photoshop, but forget features, here’s the real thing you need to know. Adobe Creative Suite 6 is the last app suite Adobe is ever going to let you buy. From now on, you’ll have to rent your Adobe apps.

If you’re in the market for an iPhone 5, this is intriguing: Twitter user evleaks, who has good sources on upcoming Android devices and carrier deals, is saying that Verizon will start offering the iPhone 5 for $100 off starting in the middle of this month. That means that instead of paying $199 upfront for a 16GB iPhone 5 on two year contract, it would only cost $99. Not a bad deal at all, if true: we’ll let you know when and if the deal goes live.

Source: Twitter
Via: iClarified

Do you use Google Drive? Here’s a nice little addition to Google’s online file storage and syncing service: you can now share a file just by right clicking on it in your Google Drive folder, selecting Google Drive and then clicking Share….

To download the Google Drive software for Mac, click here.

Source: Google Drive

There was a time when every hotel room had a 30-Pin Dock Connector in it somewhere, but eight or nine months after debut, Lightning — the 30-Pin Dock Connector’s successor — still hasn’t really taken off, outside of a few docks and battery cases. Sure, it’s a new standard, and Apple was famously very slow in issuing MFi deals to accessory makers who wanted to support Lightning… but even so, it seems companies have been slow to pick up the new standard.

Why? Once bitten, twice shy, it appears. In the aftermath of Apple’s Lightning transition, more and more companies are opting to embrace cheap, open wireless standards like Bluetooth instead of Lightning. And that’s probably costing Apple revenue.

Despite being a bitter rival of Apple, Google still makes some of the best iOS apps on the planet. One of my biggest gripes against Google’s apps though has been if you click a link inside Gmail, it opens up a Safari browser version of YouTube or Google Maps rather than opening the app directly.

Google has finally fixed that big annoyance by adding link support to Gmail for YouTube, Google Maps, and Chrome. The free update was just pushed out to the App Store. Now when you click on those links, the corresponding app will open up. You can turn the feature off if you want, but users who live and die by Gmail will certainly appreciate this simple feature.

Here are the release notes on the update:

Want to hear one of the smartest minds in tech opening his mouth and saying something eye-rollingly dumb? Check out Bill Gates telling CNBC that the iPad is being “held back” by its lack of physical keyboard and, of course, Microsoft Office.

Last year, Apple was ranked 17th in Fortune’s annual list of public U.S. corporations as ranked by their gross revenue. This year? Despite Wall Street skepticism that has seen share prices tumble, Apple is now ranked number 6 in the Fortune 500. Boom.

I’ve never been convinced by Martin Hajek’s iWatch concepts. They’re beautifully done, but the stitched leather band is hideous and very un-Apple-like, and I can’t help but feel that whatever the iWatch is going to be, it isn’t going to be an unusably small iPod touch strapped to your wrist.

That said, Hajek’s just unveiled a number of high-quality renders of his iWatch concept that he did for MacUser, and if you’re a fan of his take on Apple’s upcoming smartwatch, there’s a lot here to get you salivating. A lot more shots, after the jump.

The iPad mini is the best iPad Apple has ever released, except for one damn thing: the screen. Even if you love your iPad mini, everyone agrees that the inferiority of the screen compared to other tablets like the Nexus 7 — let alone the 9.7-inch iPad — is the only thing that is holding it back. The iPad mini needs a Retina display.

Sadly, hopes of getting a Retina iPad mini this year have recently been dashed by reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who poured water on the rumor of a Retina iPad mini launch by saying that that the Retina Display needed for a higher-res iPad mini won’t even start manufacturing until later this year, ruling out an October launch.

So what’s Apple’s plan? According to a new report, pretty much what you’d expect: they’ll release a spec-bumped iPad mini in the second half of this year, possibly at WWDC, then follow it up with an iPad mini with Retina Display in Q1 of 2014.

Last year, electronics supply company ETrade Supply lucked out and was one of the first companies to obtain parts of the iPhone 5 before release: first the FaceTime cam, then the front panel and then the back panel.

Whatever ETrade Supply’s sources, then, they clearly have a solid connection inside Foxconn. And now that source is telling them that the ‘budget’ iPhone is a very real product.

Bike-On is a turn-by-turn GPS app for cyclists. Unfortunately, like a bike lane that dumps you in the middle of a busy intersection, it is half finished. And to continue the metaphor, you’re probably better off just using a car GPS app.

You know what I find really impressive about the whole TV BitTorrent scene? Subtitles. The folks who manage to get accurate, well synced and almost error-free subtitles up for an hour-long TV show almost as soon as they have aired are not only hard-working but essential. Thanks guys!

You know what’s not impressive? Finding those subtitle files. Most of the sites that maintain listings and downloads force you to click through about a zillion pages to get to a file, and then it might not even be the one you’re looking for.

But there’s help, in the form of apps like the brand new Subtitles.

Adobe might be planning on shipping a shake-correcting tool with the next version of Photoshop, but Piccure is a beta plugin which you can download right now to fix camera blur in the same app – all without paying Adobe like $600 for a new version of the app you already own.

Your next iPad keyboard might come from… Microsoft! That’s right: this minimal, great-looking, tablet-specific keyboard comes from Microsoft. And while is is designed to be used with Windows 8, it "also works with iPad and most Android devices.

Another handy-dandy iPad case for your this lovely Monday morning, this time one which converts into a shoulder bag or even a "backpack." It’s called the Across, and it really does look pretty useful.

Having spent far too long browsing the shelves of the local hardware stores (plural) trying to cobble together my own iPad mini hand strap, I’m glad to see a proper case featuring one. I gave up on my DIY efforts, having decided that even as a weak-armed geek I’m strong enough to hold an iPad mini in one hand.

But if I was going to buy a case, a strap like the one on the Luxa2 MiniCinema sure would tempt me.

Company of Heroes: Campaign Edition is hands-down the best pure real-time tactics game available on the Mac to date; there’s nothing yet ported to the Mac that can even come close to matching the WWII squad-based game’s tactical action and realism.

While you won’t get many arguments about the above statement, gamers have had plenty to say about the fact that the Mac port has lacked a sorely needed skirmish mode since the day it arrived at the Mac App Store.

Not any more though — skirmish mode has just been added to the Mac App Store version. And Aspyr has sweetened the pot further by slashing the title’s price to $10.

iTunes has gone from a basic mp3 player based on SoundJam in 2000 to a full-fledged movie and music media player, digital media distribution center, and repository of all your iOS apps. That’s quite a lot of functionality for a music player.

iTunes is still a pretty decent media player, even if it feels rather bloated at times when your music and movie collection grows out of control. However, like anything else complex, it can be a little tricky to figure out how to use iTunes most effectively.

Here, then, are five simple yet helpful tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your iTunes experience.

With deep strategy titles Civ Rev and Sid Meier’s Pirates in back catalog, just-released Haunted Hollow and the hotly anticipated iOS version of XCOM: Enemy Unknown due out this summer, one could argue that 2K Mobile isn’t the hottest name in iOS strategy games right now — but it’d be a steep uphill battle.

Then add this bombshell to support the argument: Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol, due out next Thursday, may be the best 2K iOS strategy game yet.

Today is Star Wars day (for the less nerdy, here’s the punchline: “May the Fourth be with you.” Now look at the date.)

In celebration, Aspyr has drastically cut prices on all five of their ported Star Wars titles — both at the Mac App Store and at Aspyr’s own GameAgent site (though they’re slightly more expensive at the former). Two of the titles can be had for as little as $3.30 each.

You may remember a post I wrote a while back about the Pentagon’s plan to get mobile devices working on military networks, and how we were able to ascertain that yes, they were working on testing iPhones and iPads and no, they were not planning on jettisoning support for Blackberry devices.

According to Spencer Ackerman at Wired today, iPads will finally have passed the rigorous security review set out by the US Military at the Pentagon in about two weeks, allowing the Apple-powered mobile devices onto the military networks. The Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs) for BlackBerry 10 devices and Playbook tablets, along with those for Samsung’s Knox Android phone, have already been released.