While all of us aren’t destined to get our heads buried deep in lines of programming languages, chances are that most of us, and especially our children, will benefit from knowing the basics of how the most ubiquitous devices in our world operate.

Despite the current backlash against the “coding for all rhetoric,” teaching kids the basics of programming can’t be a bad thing. Heck, teaching ourselves to code may be a fantastic lead in to a rewarding hobby, a new career path, or both.

That’s the idea behind the “Hour Of Code,” a national initiative set to run December 9 – 15, 2013 that’s designed to take kids through the basics of programming in their schools. This new app from Codeacademy is specifically tailored to the process, so even if your kids (or you!) don’t have a school that’s participating in the Hour of Code, they can still get the benefit.

Apple has just seeded the second beta for iOS 7.1 after it released the 7.1 beta 1 nearly a month ago. Registered developers can grab the update by logging into the Developer Center.

Apple TV is also getting a new beta build for developers today as Apple has made the Apple TV Software beta 2 available to devs today, alongside the newly released Xcode 5.1 Developer Preview 2.

We’re still waiting for more info on the new goodies, but we’ll update you on new features once we’ve got them installed.

In the meantime, here are the direct download links:

Hand Wash — Health & Fitness — Free

Cold and flu season is upon us, and you might not know this, but that thing where you just hold your hands under the water for a second before wiping them off on your pants? That’s not doing a darn thing.

If you’d like to know a better way to wash your hands, Hand Wash is here for you. It trains you in the World Health Organization’s Five Moments method, and it even contains a little game that will grade your mastery of washing technique and duration.

Now, stop using your hand as a tissue and go clean up. I want to sneeze just looking at you.

Hand Wash

In my review of The Room a few months ago, I said it was the best mobile game I’ve ever played, and I meant it. The Room 2, the iPad-only sequel to the puzzle-box escape title, is out now, and it’s more of the same.

And I have absolutely no problem with that.

It’s really good. It’s really, really good. If you played the first one, you should play this one immediately. And if you didn’t play the first one, you should play it, and then you should play this one, and then you’ll be all set.

So, yes. You could say I am a fan.

Looking to capitalize on the surge of Bitcoin’s popularity, some mischievous pranksters from 4chan’s random image board are trying to convince Mac users to trash their computers.

The hoax claims that Apple has included Bitcoin mining software on all Macs since 2009, but you just need to enter a simple terminal command to unlock it. Of course, there is no secret Bitcoin mining app hidden in OS X, so what does the terminal command sudo rm -rf/* in the picture actually do? Oh, it just basically reformats your hard drive.

This is one of the best resource deals we offer all year, and at a 90% discount this bundle is at a price you can’t say no to.

The Annual Adobe Holiday Season Bundle offers 147 lectures and over 6 hours of valuable content, you’ll earn a Certificate of Completion at the end of the course. We’re throwing in some holiday-specific walk-throughs so you can get those newsletters and holiday cards done. And you’ll get all of this for only $49.

Foxconn Electronics is to begin producing high-resolution OLED smartphone displays starting in 2015, according supply chain sources in Taiwan. The company has reportedly reached a deal with Taiwanese panel maker Innolux, which will undertake the production of the 4- and 5-inch screens.

Tony Fadell, father of the original iPod and creator of the Nest home thermostat, sparked all kinds of speculation earlier this week after appearing in photos posted to Twitter alongside Jony Ive’s (RED) Mac Pro and rose gold Earpods, which were recently sold at a Sotheby’s charity auction for just under $1.5 million.

It seemed as though Fadell has snapped up both items himself, but he has today confirmed that he is the owner of neither.

The BBC has updated its official BBC Sport app, introducing support for the iPad and Android-powered tablets. The new release also makes usability and stability improvements, and allows those on Android to listen to live radio — including Premier League commentaries.

Samsung has merged its digital imaging and mobile communications businesses in a bid to create better smartphones. The South Korean company hopes that the reshuffle will lead to better collaboration between the two teams as consumers become increasingly concerned about camera performance when buying a new handset.

As you can see, it’s snowing in the Terminal.

This bit of fun is seriously easy to make happen, and it looks super cool when you maximize the Terminal window to full screen. Here’s how to make it snow on your own Mac.

It’s not just the incredible graphics and great gameplay that keeps people coming back to Chair Entertainment’s Infinity Blade games, it’s the constant updates, and hot on the heels of the announcement of a weird Keanu Reeves-centric game event comes word of a big new update.

Coming on December 19th, the ‘Ausar Rising’ update will explore the origins of the Infinity Blade protagonist, as well as allow you to revisit the original Infinity Blade castle.

Pebble has rolled out a new update to its hugely popular smartwatch, finally adding a Do Not Disturb mode, multiple alarms, better performance on iOS, and numerous new features and improvements. 

Mojang’s Minecraft is one of the best games on the Mac, but the iPhone and iPad version has always been slightly behind when it comes to features. But with its latest update, the biggest yet, Minecraft – Pocket Edition is catching up, adding some of Minecraft’s best features, including the ability to make roller coasters with minecars and rails!

Next year, Apple will release the eighth-generation iPhone, the iPhone 6 (yes, it’s weird), and if Appke has shown us anything in the past, we can expect it to be even thinner than the iPhone 5-series of devices, especially now that Apple has finally mastered IGZO display technology with the new iPad mini and iPad Air.

So what will the iPhone 6 look like? The designers at SET Solution wanted to know, so they imagined an iPhone Air that is just 1.5mm thin and 70 grams in weight, with an edge-to-edge display and a slightly larger screen size. It’s an improbable design, but interesting to see what people are expecting.

At the same time, they imagined an iPhone 6c where the ‘C’ stands for curve, not color. It looks a bit silly, but we know Apple is working on curved displays for future iPhones.

Check out those videos after the jump.

A 1978 legal agreement between Steve Jobs and future mining tycoon billionaire Robert Friedland has fetched $40,000 at auction. The eight-page legal document set up an investment business, and carries the signatures of both men.

“In 30 years of business we have only offered one other Jobs item — a signature,” RR Auction Vice President Bobby Livingston noted in a statement. “[T]his document, incredibly substantial and significant in its connection to a major figure in his life, is of the utmost rarity.”

With not a word of warning, at a time of year known for its poverty of new releases, hipshaking R&B super-princess Beyoncé released her fifth studio albuma as a “Mastered for iTunes” joint. And even though no one knew it was coming, it still managed to crash iTunes for a spell. Thanks, Beyoncé.

With the news of the 15-year-old worker dying at the Pegatron factory which makes the iPhone 5c, attention is once again turning to worker treatment at Apple’s suppliers/contract manufacturers.

The news in this case is that Foxconn Technology Group — while making progress improving factory working conditions — is still failing to limit the number of overtime hours its Chinese workers carry out.

“Glue of the Internet” service IFTTT (If This Then That) is one of the most useful services around. Now a new app from developer Visual Candy is giving users the ability to add “location” to their IFTTT recipes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5bzDQMUG00

Kids manufacturer Fisher-Price has been delving into the world of tech peripherals for some time now (they even came out with an e-Reader a couple of years ago). Their latest venture, however — a baby bouncy seat with iPad attachment — has stirred up controversy like nothing else the company has done.

Would Carl Icahn’s memoirs be titled How To Lose Friends And Influence People?

Activist investor Icahn has been proving divisive in recent months by spearheading a campaign to get Apple to carry out a $150 billion stock buyback (which he later dropped to “just” $50 billion).

Well, it’s difficult to be as outspoken as Icahn without certain other investors speaking out about you — and that’s exactly what Anne Simpson, head of corporate governance at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, has done.

Here’s a funny idea with a high potential to go wrong: bake a batch of cookies in the shape of iPhones, drive around pretending to talk on them, and then when you inevitably get pulled over, take a bite, look the law enforcement official straight in the eye, and say, “Are cookies against the law, officer?”

This bold (although possibly ill-advised) plan was the recent brainchild of Los Angeles comedian Randy Liedtke. Thanks to Twitter, followers were able to see how the dicey scenario played out in more-or-less real time. Here’s what happened:

Instapaper, the first service of its kind for saving articles to read later, has gone free in the App Store for the first time ever. It has been discounted before, but this is the first time it has gone completely free.

Why? Apple has named it “App of the Week,” an honor bestowed upon popular apps—you guessed it—once a week. It normally costs $4.

Today Apple updated its Remote app with the ability to control iTunes Radio on a Mac or PC. Previously, you could only control music in an iTunes Library. A new “Radio” window has been added in the app like the official Music app.

Remote was just recently updated with a big iOS 7 redesign, and it’s available for free in the App Store.

Source: App Store

Everything Thing Is A Remix Filmmaker Kirby Ferguson just released a new case study for his popular series that tackles whether the iPhone is a truly original idea, or just a hodgepodge of copying and improvements like pretty much everything else.  The case study starts by contesting Steve Jobs’ claim that Apple invented Multi-Touch – when really the technology was being developed for years by many companies – before strolling through some of Apple’s other inspirations.

The video does give Apple credit for creating a device that the entire mobile industry copied, while also providing a great survey of the real world objects Apple used as inspiration in Apple’s UI designs  that helped make the iPhone and iOS so revolutionary. Ultimately the film turns to iOS 7 and the ideas Apple borrowed copied remixed from Windows Phone and Android.

Watch the video below and tell us in the comments whether you think the iPhone got a fair treatment: