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Humble Bundle For Android 3 Gains Four More Bonus Games [Deal Alert]

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Remember that great Humble Bundle For Android 3 we told you about last week? Well, it just got better! Four new games have been added to the list of bonus games customers will get for paying over the average (which is currently $6.33). That’s a total of 9 games for just over $6! Plus you get to feel good about helping out the Child’s Play Charity (no affiliation with Chucky) along with great developers who make these games. A win-win situation for everyone!

Facebook Finally Allowed To Actually Buy Instagram, Deal Now Worth $747 Million

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Back in April, Facebook decided to acquire Instagram for a staggering $1 billion. After the acquisition was announced initially, The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched an antitrust investigation that barred the deal from going through. In essence, Instagram hasn’t actually been touched by Facebook yet.

Today the FTC approved Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram, but the deal is worth $747 million instead of the original $1 billion.

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney Fight To The Death Infinity Blade-Style In This iOS Game

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Who would win?
Who would win?

The 2012 U.S. presidential election is only months away. Leading up to election day, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will continue debating one another and fervently addressing the “issues’ in passionate speeches and ad spots.

Obama and Romney go head-to-head in a new iOS game developed by the makers of Infinity Blade, and well, you get the idea.

Did PayPal Just Win The Mobile Payments War Before Apple Even Entered The Fight?

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PayPal take a significant lead in mobile payments race by partnering with Discover.
PayPal takes a significant lead in mobile payments race by partnering with Discover.

If you thought the heat of the mobile payments industry might cool a bit after weeks of major announcements like the Square/Starbucks partnership, the launch of a new mobile payment company dubbed MCX by several national retail chains, and PayPal’s trial of in-restaurant payments at McDonald’s locations in France, think again.

PayPal announced the biggest partnership yet in the U.S. mobile payments market today – a deal with Discover that will bring PayPal in-store payment to seven million locations next spring.

Seven Surprisingly Helpful iOS App Development Tips From Federal Agencies

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What lessons can businesses and app developers learn from the federal government?
What lessons can businesses and app developers learn from the federal government?

The U.S. federal government may not be where you’d expect to see mobile innovation or find good app development suggestions. While there’s still a public sector bureaucracy in government, a number of government agencies are beginning to develop new ways to connect with citizens and invest in mobile technologies for internal use.

Granted, most agencies are doing so because of requirements under the Obama administration’s 21st Century Digital Government Strategy. One of which is that every federal agency  must make two high-value, customer-facing services available via mobile devices over the next year.  Still, the innovation is happening and the agencies that have already taken up the challenge are good models for agencies that have yet to do so.

They’re also good sources of advice for any organization that is beginning to develop an iOS or mobile app strategy.

Google Chrome For iOS One-Ups Safari With Sharing To Google+, Facebook, Twitter

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Today Google updated its Chrome browser in the iOS App Store with the ability to share webpages to Twitter, Google+, and Facebook. By updating now, Google has beaten Apple’s own Safari browser to the punch. Safari in iOS can share directly to Twitter, and Facebook integration is coming in the fall with iOS 6. Google+ integration is not offered, and given Apple and Google’s rocky relationship, don’t expect to see it ever.

What’s In Our Gadget Bags: Buster Heine, Social Media Editor

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We’re nosey as anyone here at Cult of Mac and right now we’re having a big contest where readers can win a free bag from Waterfield Designs. All you gotta do is pour out the contents of your bag, snap a pic, upload it, and maybe you’ll win.

It’s probably not fair of us to demand you reveal all the goodies in your bags without showing you some of our own toys, so today we’re jumping inside the bag of Cult of Mac Social Media Editor, Buster Heine, to see everything he carries with him to have a good time.

Watch Out, Flipboard, Trapit for iPad Raises The Stakes For Newsreader Apps [iOS Tips]

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This might well be the future of news content consumption.
This might well be the future of news content consumption.

Finding stuff on the web is pretty easy. Finding stuff you don’t already know about, surprising stuff, is hard. That’s what the developers behind Trapit are trying to fix.

Trapit for iPad allows you to discover things you’re already interested in as well as stuff you may not even know you’re looking for using algorithms that run in the app behind the scenes. What that means is that once you start using Trapit, it will learn what you’re into, and start finding stuff that might be of interest to you, based on what you’re already checking out as well as new stuff that might be cool for you to see.

The app also curates its own content into a Featured Traps section, which will help you discover even more content for that surprise factor.

This Is What The Next iPhone Charging Cable Might Look Like [Image]

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You’re looking at what might possibly be the next iPhone charger cable you use for the new iPhone. It might be a fake, but it does appear similar to leaked 8-pin connector parts we saw earlier this month.

The photo of the charge/sync cable was floating around Twitter earlier today, coming from a representative of Veister.com. The Shenzhen, China-based company manufactures iPhone accessories and chargers, but the cable hasn’t appeared on the company’s site yet, and it’s unclear whether the part show is a replacement cable, or a geniune pre-production Apple part.

Source: iLounge

 

 

The Speck MagFolio Lounge Is An iPad Case That’s Ideal In An Armchair [Review]

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Works wonderfully on your lap.
Works wonderfully on your lap.

The Speck MagFolio Lounge is a slim-fitting iPad case that’s designed for use outside of the office. Its “lap-perfect” design promises to nestle perfectly on your thighs while you reply to your emails or catch up with your favorite shows from the comfort of your living room chair.

Like the rest of Speck’s new iPad cases, the MagFolio Lounge features sleep/wake magnets inside its front cover, and a handy magnetic tab that keeps the case closed when your iPad’s not in use.

This case combines a hard plastic cradle with a soft, “vegan leather” cover to provide you with strong impact protection and a folding stand that boasts two viewing angles. It also offers access to all of your iPad’s ports, buttons, and switches.

The MagFolio Lounge sounds like the perfect case for a couch potato, but is it worth its $50 price tag?

Get All The Vintage Mac System Sounds On OS X With This Quick Tip

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The new system sounds for OS X just aren’t as cool and quirky as they once were back in 80s. Remember the duck quack, and the monkey screech, and — oh yeah — that moo-ing sound? Genius!

Apple got rid of all those gems in OS X, but there’s actually a way to bring them back to your Mac if you’re feeling nostalgic. Gizmodo’s Jesus Diaz breaks it down real quick and easy on how to get the vintage Mac sounds on your new Mac.

Here’s how to do it:

What Does It Take For Mobile Marketing To Succeed On The iPhone and iPad?

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The iPhone and iPad present unique marketing opportunities and challenges.
The iPhone and iPad present unique marketing opportunities and challenges.

Over the past several months, we’ve seen studies on the reactions that iPad and iPhone users have to mobile marketing initiatives. Often these studies suggest that the iPad is a golden opportunity for marketing professionals. We’ve also seen the ways that companies are shooting themselves in the foot by not taking advantage of the unique capabilities of mobile devices, particularly when it comes to the iPad and other tablets.

So what does it take to develop a successful mobile marketing campaign? It takes a real understanding of the advantages and disadvantages that mobile devices offer, understanding their place in a consumer’s daily life, and recognition that mobile marketing needs to treated as part of a brand strategy.

The Best Document Scanners [Best Of]

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There are two ways to deal with paper documents. Fire, or... scanners.
There are two ways to deal with paper documents. Fire, or... scanners.

Even in 2012, people still insist on giving us paper: bills, receipts, even business cards (!) all come printed on dead treeware, and all remain completely useless, unsearchable and easy to lose. What you need, until these people wake up and just e-mail you the relevant info — is a document scanner. Smaller and faster than all-in-one or flatbed models, these scanners can take a stack of paper and turn it into searchable PDFs faster than you can shred the source material.

Read on for our list of the best document scanners to use with your Mac, iPad or iPhone.

Instacube Lets You Show Off All Your Hipster Instagram Photos In Real Life [Kickstarter]

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instacube

Seems like everyone nowadays is trying to build something off of Instagram. We’ve seen cameras and printers that look like the Instagram icon, but nothing we’d ever really want, except maybe this new idea, called the Instacube.

Instacube is basically just a digital photoframe – you know, the kind that were almost popular back in 2006? Except it connects to Instagram and lets you view pictures from any feed on Instagram, or follow certain hashtags. You could even set it up in your living room and connect it to your own Instagram feed to show all your house guests how you’re a totally badass iPhoneographer, or something.

How Hard Is It To Get iPads Into The Hands Of Thousands Of Students?

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Lexington School District One in South Carolina shows what it takes to to roll out iPads to thousands of students.
Lexington School District One in South Carolina shows what it takes to roll out iPads to thousands of students.

Many school districts around the country are embarking on new territory this back to school season – deploying hundreds or thousands of iPads to students. Most of the deployments will be one-to-one initiatives where every student receives a school-owned iPad to use for this school year or their entire scholastic career. Planning such a roll out isn’t easy, but schools and districts making the shift this year have the advantage of looking what worked and didn’t work from counterparts that pioneered the iPad in the classroom last year.

One school district, Lexington County School District One of South Carolina, has served as a model for many other schools around the country. The district offers a lot of insight into the technical requirements, education policy issues, and roll out processes in such a colossal undertaking.

U.S. Retailers See 27-Inch iMac Shortage Ahead Of September Apple Event

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Will we see a new iMac alongside the iPhone 5 and iPad mini this September?
Will we see a new iMac alongside the iPhone 5 and iPad mini this September?

Several major retailers across the United States are seeing stock shortages of the 27-inch iMac as we approach Apple’s rumored September 12 event, sparking speculation that the popular all-in-one could be in line to receive a refresh alongside the iPhone 5 (and possibly even an iPad mini).

T-Mobile Tries To Shake Things Up By Announcing Truly Unlimited Data Plans

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T-Mobile isn’t exactly the carrier of choice these days. After their failed merger with AT&T, they seem to be lost in carrier limbo. Verizon and AT&T have the largest 4G LTE coverage, Sprint has the only true unlimited data plans, and all three of them offer the iPhone. So where does that leave T-Mobile? T-Mobile knows it has to do something, and it appears that something, is unlimited data for $20 a month.

AT&T: Because FaceTime Is Built Into Your iPhone, We Can Block It And There’s Nothing You Can Do About It

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If you're an AT&T customer, you'll need a certain plan to enjoy this with a data connection.
If you're an AT&T customer, you'll need a certain plan to enjoy this with a data connection.

AT&T upset a lot of customers when it revealed that it would only allow those subscribed to its new Mobile Share data plans to access FaceTime over 3G/4G on their iOS devices. Today it has responded to that upset by explaining that because FaceTime is a feature built into the iPhone — and not one that is downloaded by the user — the company can disable it as it wishes and there’s nothing you can do about it.