Mobile app, Twine, is trying to do something new in the dating app space. Unlike other dating or random chatting apps like ChatRoulette, Tinder, or OK Cupid, Twine connects you with new people around you and lets you chat and flirt with them without revealing your identity until you decide to.

That’s kind of a big deal, especially for those who find themselves overwhelmed with overly assertive individuals on many online and app-based dating services. Twine also tries to keep things gender balanced, saying that it only allows in equal numbers of each gender (it only recognizes two), so that’s why some folks may be put on a waiting list when they join.

When I opened the mailing box to find three pairs of EarSkinz, I wasn’t super impressed. Especially as this model, the ES2, so closely matched the shape of the EarPods it’s designed for use with, I figured it was just another throwaway product.

My apologies for even writing the above, but imagine my surprise when EarSkinz turned out to be an essential accessory for my set of EarPods. I’m even thinking about buying a pair of ES1s for my older Apple earbuds.

The EarSkinz marketing material claims that the little ES2 silicone earbud coverings will improve the comfort, fit, and sound of a pair of EarPods. I found that they indeed improved the comfort and fit, but I’m not so sure about improving the sound, though of course your mileage may vary.

One of Apple’s Best Apps of 2012, Pixowl’s The Sandbox is a fantastically inventive mobile game that encourages players to create entire worlds and works of art, right on their iOS or Android devices. The Sandbox has reached five million downloads across app stores, and has over 300,000 unique worlds shared in its Online Gallery. That’s a lot of stuff, folks!

The new update for iOS today brings vehicles to the pixel-based world-building game, letting you carry yourself and crafting materials in a Truck from one place to another much faster. Or, if you’re of a combative turn of mind, grab a Tank or twelve and create a battle world to experiences the horrors of war, digitally.

There are new, more advanced contraptions as well, like Conveyor Belts and Multi Electro contraptions, letting you create and manage even more complicated machines and systems within your world.

Infuse is my favorite third-party media player for the iPhone and iPad. And until VLC for iOS returned to the App Store, there was really no competition. FireCore, the maker of Infuse, isn’t letting other apps get the last word. In today’s big update, Infuse has received a number of great features, including support for AirPlay and file transfers over Wi-Fi.

Adobe may know how to make terrific software, but it also knows how to milk its users for every penny it can get. The latest example of that comes with a new Adobe Reader 11 update for iOS that adds some nifty PDF conversion features—which you’ll have to pay yearly to enjoy.

What’s everyone’s favorite U.S. streaming service? Netflix? Hulu? Amazon? Angry buzzer sound! You’re wrong! It’s iTunes, natch, at least according to a recent consumer satisfaction survey by ForeSee.

https://youtu.be/i3I_7H1mByA

WhatsApp, one of the most popular univeral messaging apps out there, now has a neat new ability for iPhone users: you can exchange voice messages via push-to-talk, and your message can be received and responded to by any WhatsApp user, whether on Android, Blackberry, Nokia or Windows Phone.

If there’s one thing us iPad owners like as much as iPad cases, it’s iPad stands. And no wonder: without such a prop, the iPad can do little more than lay flat on the floor or table like a dead fish. Only unlike the poor fish, it won’t even entertain us by flapping desperately around for a few long seconds as it fruitlessly tries to push a few more drops of nonexistent water through its gills, before slowly expiring and laying eerily still.

The Boomerang case won’t provide the same pizzazz as the last few seconds of a suffocating real-life Big Mouth Billy Bass, but it does bend in the middle, and it does support your iPad.

Bind is one of those ideas that’s so simple that you get the idea you could just go and make it yourself. It’s a wide band of “methacrylate compound” (aka plastic) that has a few slots cut into it to fit the battery chambers of your Apple wireless keyboard and your Magic Trackpad. The idea is that it keeps them next to each other on your desk.

But there’s another trick in there, too.

Here’s a problem: Let’s say you’re a diabolical dictator bent on world domination. You’ve decided to bypass the corporate mass media (which can’t be trusted) and inform the little people of your plans via podcast. You create one—only you don’t have a method of broadcasting the podcast, since you insist on personally playing your message directly onto the iDevices of your soon-to-be thralls.

The answer, of course, is the world-domination tool TuneMob. As long as you can gather everyone in the world into the same room. And by everyone, I mean a maximum of seven people. Who all need to be running TuneMob. And have fairly newish iDevices.