News - page 1575

Update: And it looks like Ran Avni, the guy taking credit for this video, might have stolen it from Isaac Royo over at Device Station. We’ve replaced the video.

This lovely burble of a concept video isn’t just as soothing as a new-age noise machine, it shows off a new concept for a new multitasking system in iOS 7.

It looks pretty, and no doubt many of you would like to see this on your iPhone, but just to tamp expectations down into a low-burning dottle, Apple’s never going to release something like this.

Do you wish you could get in on this whole one-keyboard-switching-between-multiple-devices game, only you’re wedded to some crazy old clackety keyboard that only connects via cable? Then I have good news! IOGear has a new widget that’ll hook everything up.

Sometimes all you want to do is flip through a folder full of photos, maybe cropping a few of them and deleting the worst ones. That’s exactly what Arcsoft’s new Photo+ for OS X is for. You just drag a single photo onto the app and you’re off – able to use the arrow keys to navigate every other image in the folder, cropping and deleting as you go.

Denon’s new range of audio receivers, called InCommand, has support for Apple’s AirPlay built right in alongside the great sound and embarrassment of cable hookups usually found in this kind of gadget. And that’s in addition to being able to control the unit itself from a dedicated Denon app.

Cobook, the non-sucky contacts app for iOS and Mac, has today added Livecards. Livecards are a way to share your contact info with other people. Instead of relying on those lazy idiots to update your details, you take care of it. The resulting changes are pushed to everyone who has your Livecard in their Cobook.

Yes, this is exactly how address books should have worked ever since the internet was invented.

Today is a beautiful but limited weather app. Dark Skies is that clever wether app which tells you exactly where and when it’s going to rain, so you can decide whether to grab your umbrella as you dash tot he store. The problem? U.S-only.

Now Today has incorporated Dark Skies alerts to bring this kind of accuracy to the rest of the world.

In yet another projection, DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim told CNET today that the second version of the amazing iPad Mini will indeed have a retina display, and that LG will be the main supplier of the pixel-packed screen, instead of Samsung.

“Samsung is currently not in the iPad Mini and they won’t be in the next generation. LGD is becoming a much bigger supplier than before,” said Shim, continuing that other manufacturers are slated to make the new screens, but they won’t have as prominent role.

While the production timeline Shim is predicting flies directly in the face of earlier predictions, Shim could be accurate, as a summer 2013 production run would make better sense for getting supplies ready for a holiday demand.

What if magic truly did exist? What if there were beings that could travel the infinite worlds via portals of magic, and you were to apprentice to one of them, in the form of the Marquis de Hoto, a rabbit magician. An evil spell is cast across the portal worlds, of course, as you begin to learn your new trade. It will be up to you, and you alone, to stop the progress of evil.

Developed and published by Hamburg-based Daedalic Entertainment, The Night Of The Rabbit promises to be an adventurous, beautifully hand-drawn game for Mac and PC, coming May 29, 2013.

Velox is a highly anticipated jailbreak tweak that arrived in Cydia over the weekend. It has been a long time coming, and it’s finally here. This is one of the most original and well done jailbreak tweaks I’ve seen in quite awhile. Your iOS app icons will never be the same, and it has the potential to change the way you use your jailbroken iPhone.

Facebook has updated its Messenger iOS app with the ability to send and receive stickers, which are basically large emojis that are proprietary to the Facebook platform. Stickers were added to the main Facebook app last month.

Another feature has been added back to Facebook Messenger by popular request: swiping back to remove a conversation.

Source: App Store

App Store apps that recommend other apps are getting pulled left and right. Following the removal of popular titles like AppShopper and AppGratis, it was reported last month that Apple was beginning a widespread crackdown on apps that work similarly to the App Store itself.

Now another instance of Apple targeting app sharing services has been reported. 

Adobe made a slew of announcements at its MAX conference today, most notably the plans to make its Creative Suite (now Creative Cloud) entirely subscription based. Alongside all of the restructuring and price changes, Adobe also unveiled a new Bluetooth stylus designed to work with its iPad apps.

It’s sill in the development stage, but “Project Mighty” looks pretty cool for designers. The pressure-sensitive pen tightly integrates with Adobe software, and it stores user preferences in the Creative Cloud.

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.