Do you love animated GIFs? Hey, who doesn’t? We certainly do, and as it turns out, Flipboard does too. The personally curated magazine for iOS has just introduced a new update that allows you to check out animated GIFs, right within the app.

Dots is a ridiculously fun, simple game that has taken iPhone and iPad owners by storm (and reduced my fingertips down to bleeding little nubs). In fact, the game has been downloaded more than 5 million times and played almost a billion times in less than four months.

Wouldn’t you like to get that on Android and Kindle Fire? Sure you would. Good news! It’s coming to Google Play today. And a new game mode is coming to all devices, including iPhones.

Will the iPad mini have a Retina display this year or won’t it? The rumor cycle back and forth concerning the smaller iPad’s high-res aspirations have become frustrating to follow for anyone who has been hoping Apple will correct the sole point of criticism about its 7.9-inch offering in time for Christmas.

If you’ve had your fingers crossed (or parts beyond), good news. IHS iSuppli, one of the companies that really knows what is going on in Apple’s supply chain, says displays suitable for the Retina iPad mini are “on track” for a fall launch.

A couple months ago, a series of benchmarks for the new Mac Pro popped up on Geekbench, showing off what Apple’s new machine could do. And just what could it do? Not much more than the current top-of-the-line 2012 Mac Pro, disappointing many who thought even the old Mac Pro was a dog at launch.

However, there’s a caveat. The hardware was prototype. The machine was running OS X Mavericks, which had just released its first beta. And the version of Geekbench being run against the new Mac Pro was 32-bit, and therefore not designed to fully exploit the Mac Pro’s 64-bit architecture. Is the real Mac Pro really going to be so disappointing?

No. It’s going to be blazing fast.

Even without taking into account the unique, astonishing way it wirelessly connects with a smartphone, the Vaavud wind meter is pretty neat little gadget.

It will measure wind speeds up to 25 meters/second (the Vaavud is Danish, hence the metric measurements and strange name), can share recorded data with the world through its free app—and it’s been tested for accuracy in a wind tunnel.

But the real stunner about the Vaavud is that it doesn’t use Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or any other power-draining wireless radio to connect. Instead, it uses magnets.

Raise a glass, oenophiles — today there’s a new app that’ll let your fuzzy head easily remember that fantastic last glass of wine you had was actually from a bottle of “Emrich-Schönleber Monzinger Frühlingsplätzchen Riesling trocken.”

You’ve been waiting for months and months, and it’s finally time. Plants vs. Zombies 2 is finally available in the U.S. App Store after a soft launch last month in Australia and New Zealand.

The download is free, but there are in-app purchases for certain upgrades and power-ups. But it’s not the annoying kind of freemium like Real Racing; you can play through the whole game just fine without having to buy anything. We’ll have a full review up soon.

So what are you waiting for? The sequel to one of the best iOS games in history just came out. Get downloading!

Source: App Store

Apple TV manages to grab most of the spotlight for streaming set-top boxes, but when it comes time to actually view content, Americans are using Roku far more frequently than Apple’s little hobby.

A new study from Parks Associates found that while the Apple TV is used by 24% of U.S. consumers with a streaming video device, Roku has managed to best that with a 37% usage rate among households with such devices.

Orbotix’s robotic ball, Sphero, has gotten so popular over the past two years, even Obama has been spotted driving one around, but it’s finally getting an upgrade, as Orbotix has just announced Sphero 2.0 will launch later this month.

Since the original iPhone in 2007, the iPhone Photography Awards have been showcasing incredible work from professional and amateur photographers. This year’s IPAA’s are no different, and the winners are on display. Selections were made for over 15 different categories from thousands of photos submitted from 38 countries.

Notifications in iOS 6 can be annoying, for sure. To dismiss them takes some funky gestures, which we tipped you on a while back.

In iOS 7, however, notifications look different, and — thankfully — are a little easier to dismiss. Here’s how it works.

WordPress has released an update to its iOS app that introduces several improvements. Most notably, the app has a new Reader experience for reading posts from followed blogs, liked posts, favorite topics, etc. Automatiic, the company behind WordPress, has also streamlined how the app handles multiple accounts.

With less a month to go until Apple unveils its new iPhones and the release date of iOS 7, the iCloud beta site just received a redesign to bring it more in-line with iOS 7’s UI.

Apple has replaced the old iCloud app icons for Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, Reminders, and Find My iPhone with their counterparts from iOS 7. Along with the new icons, Apple has redesigned the UI of each app with the updated look of iOS 7 as well.

Take a look:

Disney’s upcoming open world sandbox game for gaming consoles, Disney Infinity, will bring all our favorite characters together from a host of Disney franchises, including The Incredibles, The Pirates of the Caribbean, Wreck-It Ralph, and more. It’s an ambitious release, and will include Skylanders-style figures and collectibles into the mix.

Yesterday, then, Disney revealed that there will be two separate iPad apps to support the console release. The Disney Infinity: Toy Box app will connect to players’ Disney ID and allow them to download and play in shared Infinity worlds. The second app, Disney Infinity: Action!, will allow folks to use characters from the Infinity universe in their own videos, blending the real world with the stylized characters from the Infinity game.

There’s been a lot written about Steve Jobs here and elsewhere – but if you want to get even deeper insights into the man and his legacy, then Cult of Mac Deals has assembled a video bundle that will help you do just that.

Apple’s MagSafe power cord is one of the most underrated MacBook features ever, but unfortunately, they’re not very durable. We’ve all seen MagSafe cords become nearly unusable after a years’ worth of bending and wrapping, or if you’re like Toronto-based artist Brian Richer, your dog eats them.

After doing some tinkering, Brian found that his chewed MagSafe cords still passed enough power to light up some LEDs. Rather than tossing them in the trash, Richer has managed to salvage the cords to power his gorgeous, minimalist lamps.

Here are some close ups:

In a clever Facebook status update, the App Store posted a picture of a zombie hand, thrusting upward through the dirt. The caption reads, “It’s about time. Guess what game is coming tomorrow?”

That game can only be PopCap’s Plants vs Zombies 2, the highly anticipated sequel to smash hit Plants vs Zombies, a lane-based castle defense game that’s since appeared on every gaming platform known. PvZ2 was supposed to release last month in July, but was delayed here in the U.S.

Tomorrow, then, is the big day, and we’re excited.

Although we expect the iPhone 5S to look a lot like the iPhone 5, there may be one model that won’t be confused with its predecessor — a white and gold one. It’s been the subject of countless rumors in recent months, and this photo, posted to Chinese social networking site Weibo, could prove it’s real.

I saw this tip over at OS X Daily today, and it reminded me of all the times I did this as a Mac IT guy a couple of jobs back.

See, every so often, the Macs where I worked would start to act weird. Nothing truly game-stopping — just little things, stuff that was easily worked around but always a little bit annoying. The first stop when things are weird, for me, was always Repair Permissions in the Disk Utility app. I’d usually then Verify the disk in that very same app, and see if it returned any errors. If not, I’d usually drop into single-user mode and do a file system check.

Here’s how to do just that.

The low-cost “iPhone 5C” hasn’t been announced yet, but it already feels like we’re pretty familiar with it — mostly because we’ve seen so many pictures of its plastic rear shell. But most of those — the high quality ones, at least — have included the white model.

A new hands-on video that has surfaced today shows off the yellow model in all its glory.

We expect the upcoming iPhone 5S to look a lot like the iPhone 5, so its biggest changes will all be internal. We’re likely to see a faster processor and better graphics, an improved camera, and if we’re really lucky, a fingerprint scanner. This purported iPhone 5S rear shell shows the changes Apple has made to the handset’s design to accommodate the new components.

After Google announced Hangouts at Google I/O back in June, we suspected that Google+ Messenger’s days were numbered — and we were right. In a new Google+ update rolling out now on Android, Google is killing Google+ Messenger for good, while the iOS version will get the chop at a later date.

It had to happen eventually, but now that it has, it feels weird: smartphones are now officially outselling dumb feature phones internationally for the first time ever. And what made it happen? Cheap Android phones.

Cord cutting is something a lot of people threaten to do, but pretty much only ever talk about. People really like the idea of eliminating their cable bills and simply connecting their TV to the web, but the reality is there’s too much on TV you can’t easily get if you cut the cord, like HBO, and for most people, the technology involved is still a difficult hurdle.

But if there’s anything that’s going to get you to cut the cord? According to a new report, it’s an Apple TV.

Remember how just a few months ago, Foxconn profits were slumping because — as the anti-Apple brigade hysterically shrieked — the iPhone 5 was a dud, and the iPhone’s meteoric rise in popularity was finally done?

Yeah, well, Foxconn just posted a 41 percent year-over-year increase in profit, driven by strong iPhone sales.