Wait, what?
There’s a new Plants vs Zombies stage, available only in China (for now) and only on Android (for now, we hope), called The Great Wall edition. Check out the screenshots for yourselves; we’re solidly on the fence between awe and confusion.
MacPaw, makers of CleanMyMac, released a new menubar Mac app today called CleanMyDrive. As a simplified version of CleanMyMac, CleanMyDrive lets you monitor and clean up external hard drives connected to your Mac. The app is super simplistic, and it’s free in the Mac App Store.
Sometimes a good idea doesn’t have to be radical. It doesn’t have to have a $70,000 Kickstarter goal. Sometimes a good idea is just simplicity itself: easy to produce, affordable to own, beautifully designed and genuinely useful.
That’s what makes our eyes pop about The Wrap. Designed by Michiel Cornelissen, the Wrap is a simple plug that fits on the USB end of a European iPhone wall charger. Thread your 30-pin dock connector cable through The Wrap and you can easily wrap the whole cord around it. That’s it. Just EUR 9.95.
I love this. It’s just beautifully useful and wonderfully understated. And while The Wall is Europe-only for now, Cornelissen says that if 100 people email him saying they want a US version, he’ll make one. Get clamoring, people.
Source: Michiel Cornelissen
Ever wanted to check out the ghost of your city past? Interested in experiencing the history of the spaces around you? Well, you just may be able to do that with this free app from Enlighten Ventures, LLC.
A warehouse nestled in the heart of Louisville, Kentucky is home to hundreds of unnamed machines. Each white box gently wields a robotic arm that grips a normal-looking pen. As I walkdown the aisles separating the machines, disjointed sounds of clicks and squeaks fill the air. I’m in the home of Thank You Pen, a new startup that aims to blend technology with good, old-fashioned, dead-tree communication. “And while the service’s creator modestly says he can’t compete with Apple,
Ever wish your MacBook Air came in carbon fiber black? Or maybe you just miss the classic old iPod white Apple used to ship its MacBooks in, and wish your Air was as clean and ivory?
Moshi’s got you covered. They’ve just announced the iGlaze, an ultra-slim case for your MacBook Air that adds maximal protection, minimum thickness and lets you have your Air in any color, as long as it’s black or white.
Tim Cook and Choi Gee-sung sat down for nine hours on Monday and seven hours yesterday in an attempt to come to some sort of solution to the litigation mess between Apple and Samsung. Many were hopeful after Tim Cook admitted he’s not a fan of litigation and prefers to “settle versus battle.” Things showed even more promise after Samsung mentioned the possibility of cross-licensing, but after two days and 16 hours, they still couldn’t come to any “clear agreement.”
Apple has faced some challenges already when it comes to LTE on the new iPad and it looks like there will be more challenges to come as nearly 60% of mobile carriers worldwide expect to launch LTE service over the next 18 months.
To date, the new iPad only works with LTE systems in North America, a fact that has forced Apple to change the name of LTE iPads. While a new study confirms that LTE will become a global standard for high-speed mobile broadband, it also notes that various regions and countries are focusing on deploying LTE with varying bands of radio spectrum. That could mean devices will need to be designed for specific markets and that international data roaming using LTE will be problematic and potentially impossible.
Brains have been dashed out and arteries spilled over the perfect parking space. Finding a good spot in a busy neighborhood and keeping it secret and safe is the kind of thing many commuters approach with Gandalfish intensity. The rule of thumb is: if you find a good parking space, by all means, never, ever give it up willingly.
Here’s a better idea, though. Instead of fighting tooth and claw for that el primo parking spot, why not keep it in the family instead, passing it onto others in exchange for information about other awesome, open parking spots in the same neighborhood? In other words, why not let parking generate you some good karma? That’s the idea behind a new app, Kurb Karma, and it looks awesome.
Seagate has bought French high-quality digital storage company LaCie for a reported $186 million. LaCie CEO Philippe Spruch will become head of Seagate’s consumer storage products division. LaCie makes Mac-friendly peripherals, and Seagate has been a long-time titan in the data storage business.
Apple has gotten a fair amount of flack over Siri – most of it relating to Siri not recognizing words or phrases, misinterpreting requests, or providing incomplete or inaccurate answers. Apple is even facing a class action lawsuit over Siri not working as promised by iPhone 4S ads.
For IBM, however, the concern isn’t that Siri won’t work as advertised. Big blue is worried that Siri will work exactly as advertised and that confidential and sensitive information will leak outside IBM’s network as a result. For those reasons, the company disables Siri on the iPhones of its employees.
There has recently been a lot of concern into the way in which our iOS apps access our personal data, and then what they do with it once it has been collected. Since the whole Path debacle in particular, users seem to be more concerned by the issue than ever before.
BitDefender is one security firm looking to capitalize upon that concern with a new app called Clueful, which promises reveal what each of your apps is doing with your data and identify the “misdemeanant apps on your iPhone.”
Google today launched the 2.0 version of its popular Search iPhone app in the App Store. Sporting a totally new design and multiple speed improvements, Google Search can be downloaded for free in the App Store.
Joby’s can-do, go-everywhere flexible Gorillapod now comes in a range of hot, hot hues to match your camera. As long as your camera is lime green, fuchsia, sky blue or charcoal in color, that is.
Following an earlier report from The Daily that Microsoft was working on an iPad version of its Office suite, a new report today claims that Microsoft will launch Office for iPad in November of 2012.
You sometimes here people talk about the iPhone 4S as if it’s a minor upgrade, but even if you’re not wooed by Siri, the camera on the iPhone 4S makes it worth a whole new phone in itself if you have even the most cursory interest in photography. The 8MP back-side illuminated sensor provided by Sony is a marvel — arguably the best camera sensor on a mobile phone outside of the crazy new Nokia PureView 808 — and a serious, serious upgrade over the 5MP OmniVision sensor found in the iPhone 4.
But don’t count OmniVision out for Cupertino’s iPhone 5 business. The Californian digital sensor maker have just announced a crazy 16MP back-side illuminated sensor that could theoretically put the iPhone 4S’s image quality to shame. Even better? Since they are capable of shooting video in 4K resolution at 30 frames per second, they’d take perfect images and videos for those rumored new Retina Macs we’ve all been hearing about.
The “Netflix For Games” giant, GameFLy, has decided to test its controllers at mobile gaming. Announced today, GameFLy plans to become a mobile game publisher for both Android and iOS games. GameFLy has set aside a stockpile of cash to help financially burdened mobile developers fund their next great project. GameFLy expects to publish its first game this summer and encourages developers to submit their application to GameDev@GameFly.com.
Digitimes has been one of the main sources of Apple rumors over the last several years, but anyone who follows Apple will tell you that the Taiwanese publication is more often wrong than right. While Digitimes will correctly predict something like Apple making 3 variants of the iPad 2 (WiFi, GSM, CDMA), it will also publish a story saying that Apple is bringing micro-projectors to the iPhone.
After being placed under the microscope and heavily scrutinized by Harry McCracken of TIME, Digitimes has issued a statement explaining where its Apple rumors come from, and how the publication will do its best to provide more accurate information in the future.
While most of us use our iPads for browsing the web, watching YouTube videos, or playing Words With Friends, others actually put Apple’s popular tablet to good use. Cambridge Cognition, a U.K.-based company that delivers the world’s leading cognitive tests, has developed an app called CANTABmobile which helps doctors detect dementia in its earliest stages, when treatment is most beneficial.
This post is brought to you by Chase — a strong supporter of TRANS4M Boyle Heights, a program that provides multiple social services that address Boyle Heights’ particular needs. Learn more here.
Singer will.i.am describes the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights where he grew up as a “wasteland.” He hopes that thanks to science education and tech it can become a place that fosters the next wave of entrepreneurs with the TRANS4M Boyle Heights Initiative.
Backed by $7 million, three-year commitment from Chase, the initiative will help build a center where local teens can learn employable skills in the arts and digital media and explore careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
If you’re the kind of web monkey who finds himself spitting up or slurping down loads of files over good old FTP, this is a fantastic deal: Forklift by Binary Nights — widely hailed as one of the best and most elegant FTP/SFTP clients and file management programs available for the Mac — is usually on sale for $29.99, and depending on how much FTPing you do, a pretty good deal at that. But right now? You can grab it for less than a buck, no strings attached.
Remember that snazzy “fold to unlock” concept for the iPhone that we told you about last week? Just like a lot of software concepts, developers have now turned it into a fully functional tweak for jailbroken devices, and it’s available to download now via Cydia.
Jony Ive, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, swapped sunny Cupertino for London today to receive his knighthood from Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace. The 45-year-old Brit, who is responsible for the iconic designs behind Apple’s computers and iOS devices, said he is “both humbled and sincerely grateful” for the “absolutely thrilling honor.”
While in the capital, Ive also gave what is likely his most revealing interview yet to British broadsheet The Telegraph, in which he talks about Apple’s design and its focus on simplicity, Steve Jobs, and the company’s current projects.
Let’s be honest, at some point we’ve all dreamt about dusting off our funeral suit and fighting aliens with Will Smith as a Men in Black agent. Thanks to Gameloft, that dream is now a reality… on your Android or iOS device.
Men in Black 3, the official game of one of this year’s biggest action blockbusters, is now available from the App Store and Google Play, giving you the opportunity to create and manage your own MiB agency and protect New York from the scum of the universe — for free.
Katy McCaffrey had her iPhone stolen on a cruise ship last month. She had lost hope in recovering her smartphone, but then photos started showing up in her Photo Stream. The handy iCloud service automatically uploads photos taken on an iOS device to a feed that can be viewed on other authenticated devices.
Thanks to Photo Stream, McCaffrey got a look into the world of the man who stole her iPhone.