The myLIFTER is a Kickstarter project for a small-yet-powerful, Bluetooth-enabled winch controlled by an iOS app — and it’s loaded with all kinds of other ingenious features, like programmable distances and the ability to link a chain of myLIFTERS together to lift heavier stuff.
Here’s something you don’t see often: It’s an Android phone sporting a 30-pin connector. Blasphemy! Heretical! Nonsense. PhotoFast’s i-FlashDrive, which allows fast transfer of files between Android and iOS, is here to promote peace and understanding between all — even the heathenish Windows.
Pinning, posting or tweeting one’s way through a wilderness adventure always seemed a little antithetical to me; isn’t one of the reasons for going out into nature to get away from all this artificial electronic junk anyway? Yes, of course, I too am guilty of the odd flirt with Facebook from the bush — but I always feel so dirty afterward.
Yonder, a free app that creates a social circle for outdoor enthusiasts, won’t change how I feel about Tweeting from the trail — but at least it might push me closer to an equilibrium by turning the tables by inspiring me to get out there (boy, are those pictures gorgeous), and putting the outdoors in my social media instead of the other way around.
Facebook Messenger, the standalone app for the social network’s chat system, was updated Tuesday night. The new version of the chat app, which also includes the now-standard bug fixes, adds two new features that can be accessed with a tap to a friend’s chat icon.
All you need to do is tap on a profile picture in any conversation in Messenger to view their Timeline on Facebook. The other option is to call them using Facebook’s voice chat for free.
Today Twitter released version 6.0 of its official iOS app, a pretty substantial update that adds the ability to send photos in DMs. The design of the app has also been “refreshed” with a swipeable timeline interface, making it smoother to switch between Home, Discover, and Activity.
When sending a DM, there’s a new photo icon that allows you to take a picture or choose one from your Camera Roll. Placing such prominence on DMs makes it clear that Twitter is just as serious, if not more so, about messaging as it is discovery.
The Oculus Rift has quickly grabbed the hearts of gamers with it’s amazing 3D tech, but it looks like Apple has been thinking along similar lines as the company has dreamed up a variant of a wearable 3D display that would be perfect for gaming.
Apple was awarded a knockout patent today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a head mounted display that would allow users to view media and play games on a bigger screen than their mobile device’s built-in display. The Apple goggles are much more sophisticated than just a display strapped to your face, as each screen can be lined up with your eye and adjusted for corrected vision if you wear glasses.
I’ve played digital card games on my iPad before, including some heavy hitters like Might And Magic: Duel Of Champions and Magic 2014.
I’ve played some real-time battle arena games, like Raid Leader or Skulls of the Shogun, and enjoyed them as well.
The Gate by Spicy Horse Games Category: iOS Games Works With: iPhone, iPad Price: Free
But I’ve never, until now, played such an engaging mashup of the two gaming genres. What Singapore-based Spicy Horse has done here is create nothing less than a sublime, well-balanced, purely addictive combination of collectible card game, arena-based real-time strategy, and a training/leveling up system that just begs for exploration and mastery.
iTunes Radio competes with other non-on-demand internet radio services, like Pandora. It allows you to pick a seed artist or set of artists and then let its magical algorithms decide what other songs and artists best fit your seed. It then feeds you a stream of music that you can like or dislike along the way, theoretically building a “station” of your favorite music, based on your own tastes.
To access iTunes Radio, all you need to do is launch your Music app with a tap, and then tap on the Radio icon in the lower left. Once there, you can create stations on your own, edit stations you’ve already created, or even listen to iTunes featured stations.
It’s also trivially easy to share your own stations with other folks.
Automatic Link by Automatic Category: Auto Accessories Works With: iPhone & Android Price: $99.99
I’m a horrible driver. Each time a passenger gets behind the wheel with me they’re assaulted by a swirling barrage of sudden lane changes, quick breaking, faster acceleration and more near misses than I care to admit.
I’ve been driving since I was 13 which means I’ve probably picked up a slew of bad driving habits, but a new iPhone accessory, the Automatic Link, promises to help drivers make small changes to their driving habits by providing real-time feedback that can help you increase your fuel efficiency and make you a better driver. Bad habits die hard, so I put the Automatic Link to the test for 3-months to see if it would help improve my driving skills, here’s what I found:
Whale Trail and Blip Blup developer Ustwo released a new trailer for its upcoming game Monument Valley, a stunningly beautiful game that looks to be influenced by the art of MC Escher, with gameplay that seems similar to hit indie game, Fez.
Aside from those obvious comparisons, what the trailer and accompanying screenshots show is a mind- and perspective-bending gameplay trip through various and brightly-colored worlds, guiding the silent princess protagonist through crazy architectural geometries.
Designer Ken Wong calls it “a beautiful, exploratory experience, somewhere between exploring a toy shop and reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.”
Michael Pallad, Apple’s new iTunes Radio AdmanApple is looking to beef up its ads on iTunes Radio and has poached a top radio ad exec in the process as it prepares to open its service to a wider array of advertisers in 2014.
Michael Pallad, former VP of sales at Cumulus Media, has left the radio giant to oversee Apple’s ad sales for iTunes Radio internationally according to a report from AdAge.
Pallad joined Apple on December 2nd and has spent the last week getting oriented at the Cupertino Headquarters, but he’ll be pressed to get up to speed ASAP as Apple’s initial iTunes Radio ad deals are set to expire at the end of the year.
If you need to know how how many inches are in a meter or talk to your non-American friends about the weather, Verticon can help you out. It’s a quick conversion tool that you can use to easily calculate equivalent values for weight, speed, length, time, temperature, and pressure, and it all happens inside a super clean and uncluttered interface. You just pick your units and enter a number for the starting figure, and it spits out the converted number at the bottom. You can also switch between the two with a single tap.
Plus, its name sounds like a Bond villain’s evil supercomputer or a new kind of Transformer, and that’s just straight awesome.
I’m old, so I remember playing the original Double Dragon on a decrepit arcade cabinet at Showbiz Pizza while the Rock-afire Explosion played and lurched in its creeepy, mechanical way in the next room and I just paid attention to the game because I knew that if I thought about the musical robots coming to life and murdering everyone, they would. And that’s how I predicted The Secret.
Double Dragon Trilogy by Hyperspace Yard Category: iOS Games Works With: iPhone, iPad Price: $2.99
Anyway, I was never good at Double Dragon. The enemies punched too fast or too hard, or I couldn’t line up my hits correctly, and I swear that stupid machine was broken because it was impossible. Now, we have Double Dragon Trilogy, an iOS port of the brawler series that includes remixed music and some new modes.
And I know this is a good port because I’m still really bad at it.
Google has today announced that an additional ten applications for Android and iOS now support Chromecast streaming. VEVO, Red Bull.TV, Songza, and more have been updated to allow users to enjoy news, sports, and music on their $35 dongle.
Be honest…the first time you saw a cassette or Nintendo-style retro case, you wanted it. But quality-wise, these style of cases just hasn’t been up to snuff. Until now. Rocketcases did the right thing, and made the cases we all wanted the way they should have been made the first time.
Now you can choose two cases from a variety of options. Whether you pick the classic black or white GameBoy, multi-colored cassette tapes, or the black or grey “Ghetto Blaster” boombox, you’ll get them for an incredible deal – just $25 – during this limited time Cult of Mac Deals offer.
To get to my Mac’s System Report, the one with all the info on my RAM, Hard Drive, CPU specs, and the like, I’ve usually gone up to click the Apple menu, clicked on About This Mac, then clicked on the More Info button. Once there, I’ve clicked on the System Report… button. That’s what, four separate clicks?
In the interest of saving time, there’s a much faster way to get to the System Report.
Viber, the hugely popular cross-platform messaging service, now offers low-cost calls to mobile phones and landlines worldwide as part of a new service called Viber Out. It’s available on Android, iOS, and though the Viber desktop client, and it boasts call fees substantially cheaper than Skype’s.
Whether you’re mourning the decline of BlackBerry, or feel a burning desire to carry around condoms in your phone (you should probably get that last one checked out by a doctor), there’s most likely a custom iPhone case to suit you.
Well, now Christmas enthusiasts can get in on the act too — courtesy of the new VanD flashing case.
There’s no shortage of cloud storage providers, but Amazon’s one of the best around. If you make use of the e-retailer’s Cloud Drive app, then, good news: it just got a little better, with the addition of video uploads and iPad support.
Whether you’re a chaotic good wild mage or a neutral evil Drow, there’s good news coming out of the Underdark this morning. Following its launch on Mac last month, Beamdog Entertainment’s updated version of Baldur’s Gate II and its expansion — only the finest CRPG ever made — are coming to iPad, possibly even in time for Christmas!
Developers are making some pretty awesome apps for the Pebble smartwatch, but Chrono could be one of the most significant to date — at least for its creator, Rick Ucker.
Ucker built the simple app to propose to his now fiancée, who bought him the $150 smartwatch for his birthday.
Initial responses to Apple’s iBeacon technology have been decidedly mixed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. After all, exactly the same was true of the iPod, iPhone and iPad in certain quarters upon their release.
Regardless, with Apple keen to push the tech and a number of venues enthusiastic about embracing it, it was only ever going to be a short amount of time before the marketplace rivals started popping up.
iTunes Match is getting a big upgrade. Photo: Apple
If you’re a Dane, a Swede, a Fin, or a Norse who likes having all his or her music in the clouds of Valhalla, or just wants to legitimize your pirated Lordi collection, good news: iTunes Match has come to Scandinavia.
Back in September in the aftermath of the iPhone 5s’s debut boasting the world’s first 64-bit smartphone chip, Qualcomm representative Anand Chandrasekher called a 64-bit ARM chip a “gimmick.” Just three months later, Qualcomm’s announcing one, the Snapdragon 410, opening the door for 64-bit Android devices.
‘Tis the season for speculative fiction, fa la la la la, la la la la.
In an interview with with Fox Business’ Stuart Varney, Money Map Press analyst Keith Fitz-Gerald predicted that not only might Apple and Microsoft want to work together in the near future, but that a merger in the next 5-10 years is entirely possible.