After landing on Android and iOS yesterday, Rovio has confirmed that Amazing Alex will be making its way to Mac and PC. The new physics-based puzzler is Rovio’s first break away from the hugely successful Angry Birds series, and it’s already gotten off to a great start, rocketing up to the number one spot in the App Store’s paid charts in several countries.
NBC just announced that it will be streaming all 302 medal events from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London to U.S. viewers via its new iPhone and iPad app. Not only will NBC be streaming everything live on its Olympics website, but these two new iOS apps will also stream each event as it happens in real time. Over 3,500 hours of event coverage will be streamed to desktop and mobile viewers, making this year’s Olympics coverage the most internet-friendly in history.
The only catch is that viewers will need to verify in-app that they are subscribed to a cable/satellite provider that includes CNBC and MSNBC.
Since its debut back in 2009, the iPad has dominated the tablet market. At the time of writing this piece, the device holds around 55% of the market share in the United States. Rival tablets from the likes of Amazon, Samsung, and HTC have tried to do battle with it, but they’ve had very little impact on its success.
But there is one tablet that Apple will need to keep its eye on: Microsoft’s new Surface. It’s already being dubbed an “iPad killer” by some, and although we’re skeptical the Windows-powered slate will “kill” Apple’s device, there are a number of reasons why the “Pro” variant will have more of an impact than you think.
According to the New York Times, Tim Cook has been the talk of the town in Idaho, making an appearance at the Allen & Co. Media Conference held annually in Sun Valley. Some have even called him “Mr Popular,” since Apple so rarely attends events such as these.
Cook has also lined up meetings with many executives, and is looking to make deals, apparently.
With OS X Mountain Lion, AirPlay Mirroring is finally coming to the Mac, allowing some Macs to stream audio and video directly to their Apple TV.
‘Some’ is the operative word here. Much to the disappointment of the vast majority of Mac owners who will be installing Mountain Lion on their machines in a couple weeks time, AirPlay Mirroring will only work if you have an iMac, MacBook Air or Mac Mini from mid-2011, or a MacBook Pro from early 2011.
There’s been a lot of conspiracy theories floated about this requirement. Some have argued that it’s forced obsolescence on Apple’s part, trying to force older Mac owners to upgrade their machines. Others have suggested that the reason Apple requires a Mac from 2011 or later is because of special DRM technology in Intel’s chips that didn’t debut until last year.
The truth of the matter, however, is far less sensational. The reason you need a 2011 Mac to make use of AirPlay Mirroring in OS X Mountain Lion is because the graphics in older Macs just don’t cut the mustard.
Google has released a major update to its Google+ iOS app that brings full support to the iPad’s Retina display. Borrowing from the Android version, Google+ on the iPad relies heavily on images and sports a very clean, minimal interface. The iPhone version of Google+ was updated weeks ago with a similarly clean UI, probably due to the fact that Google acquired Kevin Rose’s talent at the app development firm Milk.
In today’s update, the location-based Google+ Events feature has been integrated into the universal app. You can attach photos directly from your device’s Camera Roll and add them to your posts. You can also start and join hangouts in-app and stream them to your TV using AirPlay.
Apple has traditionally been opposed to putting a touchscreen on any of its products, leaving touch capabilities to only iOS powered devices. This hasn’t stopped the third party market though, as you can now buy an accessory that supposedly turns your iMac into a full, touch enabled computer.
Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview has made its way to the iTunes Store and is now available to rent more than six months after a sample of the video was teased online. The one-hour, 15-minute video can be rented now for just $3.99, but it’s only available to those in the United States.
Mac and iOS users are strangers to NAND flash storage. After all, Apple has been using flash as a storage medium for years now. iPods, iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs, and some MacBooks all rely on NAND flash as a storage medium of choice. The success of those products has led Apple to be world’s biggest buyer of NAND chips and was no doubt a factor to mention the company’s purchase of Israeli flash memory firm Anobit.
Solid state storage based on NAND flash isn’t Apple-specific. Plenty of other companies offer flash storage in an array of form factors for a huge variety of uses including smartphones and mobile devices. Solid state drives (SSD) drives are available as options for a range of PCs. They’re also becoming common options for servers and network devices. For businesses looking to implement Lion or Mountain Lion, SSDs can be an attractive option. They can also be an expensive prospect, and there may be better ways to spend your business dollars.
The guys at VideoLAN have updated their hugely popular VLC media player app with a host of improvements and Retina graphics for the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display. VLC has been download over 1 billion times across Mac, Windows, and Linux computers, and version 2.0.2 is out now and available for free.
As a formidable QuickTime replacement, the latest VLC media player improves video playback, adds more video output options, includes multiple bug fixes, and more for Mac users.