Apple billed 3D Flyover as one of the headlining features of its Maps app, when it replaced Google Maps in iOS last fall with its own in-house software. Unfortunately, at the time, the feature was only available for a handful of cities.
But the Maps team has been awfully busy in recent months, adding Flyover support to a number of new areas. Earlier this month, it expanded Flyover coverage in Paris, France, and this week it’s bolstered support in greater California… Read More
Whatever the folks over at Waze are doing, they must be doing it right. Earlier this month, we heard that Facebook was looking to acquire the Palo Alto-based startup and its popular crowd-sourced navigation app for a cool $1 billion.
But as it turns out, they’re not the only ones interested. According to a new report, a number of tech companies have approached the Waze team over a possible buyout deal, including Google, meaning a bidding war could be afoot… Read More
Apple has started airing a new TV commercial for its iPhone this evening. The ad, which it has also posted on its YouTube channel, is called ‘Music Every Day,’ and it focuses on the handset’s ability to play music.
The spot looks strikingly similar to the ‘Photos Every Day‘ ad that started airing last month. There’s a subtle piano backtrack, ambient noise, and people from different walks of life using the popular smartphone… Read More
Last week we brought you a tutorial showing how the upcoming SemiRestore package will work once released. SemiRestore is a tool that you can use to restore your iOS device to an almost stock configuration.
A few of you in the comments brought up iLEX RAT, another tool — one that’s been around much longer than SemiRestore — that allows you to do something similar. I had tried iLEX RAT once before, and I experienced some issues with the early versions of the tool and gave up on it. At your urging, I decided to take the latest version of iLEX RAT for a spin. Here’s what I found. Read More
Electronic Arts’ mobile gaming arm today released a new (and free) game for iOS and Android devices, Tetris Blitz. Announced in mid-February, it’s a twist on the block-dropping Tetris puzzler rather than a remake of the original game. The game actually landed on the Canada App Store a week ago in a soft-launch manner, but today rolled out across App Stores globally. Trust me, this one’s worth a download. Besides, you can’t really go wrong with a high-profile release costing zero bucks, now can you? Read More
I’ve been keeping an eye on the gMusic Twitter account all week. Last year the app was first to iOS with support for Google’s cloud-based Music storage, and I knew it’d be the same way this year with support for Google’s new All Access subscription service.
That support arrived today in the form of gMusic 6.0. And in addition to ‘All Access’ access, the update brings a number of useful playback and management features like the ability to create and play radio stations, and to search for/ add music to your library… Read More
Remember Rhapsody, the jukebox app and music subscription service that once pitted itself as a chief rival to Apple’s iTunes, only to fail miserably? It’s been lingering out there ever since, watching its user base erode to not only iTunes, but to streaming music services Pandora and Rdio, which both received nice little updates yesterday. But don’t write Rhapsody off yet. Today, they’ve revamped their iOS app which they likened to “the Ferrari of iPhone apps”… Read More
Good news Verizon customers. Just in case the dozens of cloud storage options currently available aren’t enough for you, Big Red has just released an iOS version of its mobile Verizon Cloud client, finally bringing its backup services to Apple’s mobile platform.
Like the other offerings, Verizon’s Cloud allows you to sync up your documents, photos and other media between your devices. But unlike the others, it has the ability to save things like contacts and text messages, as well as the ability to restore them to a device… Read More
This year’s Cannes Film Festival takes place from May 15 – 26. Every year, France’s epic movie party brings celebrities from all over the world to preview unreleased films. If you make it at Cannes, you’ll make it in theaters. Of course, this prestigious affair is by invite only, so regular folks like us have to find out about it in the news.
Festival de Cannes – Official is the sanctioned app of the entire event. You can read news about attendees, see photos of the daily events, watch trailers of films that will be presented at the festival, and much more. If you aren’t elite enough to make it to Cannes, you can pretend like you are thanks to this comprehensive app… Read More
What started out as a simple note-taking solution is quickly becoming the Internet’s favorite information management platform.
We’re talking about Evernote, of course, the Jack of all trades, at least when it comes to note-taking, and I’m using the term loosely here. But if there’s one feature that’s been notably absent from Evernote it’s the concept of time – but no more.
Thanks to a major update issued earlier today, Evernote users on iOS and OS X can now take advantage of reminders, right in their notes. With this helpful new feature, Evernote just leveled up in a major way.
Reminders sync across devices seamlessly, facilitate to-do lists, deliver in-app and email alarms, can be notebook-specific and allow for a range of interesting capabilities not possible before. Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty, shall we? Read More
Say what you want about the idea of a ‘budget’ iPhone, but industry insiders seem to be extremely confident that the handset is coming. We’ve heard a number of reports over the past few months regarding Apple’s efforts to create a sub-$300 smartphone.
In fact, another report has surfaced this afternoon claiming that the cheaper iPhone is on the way. This one comes from the folks over at Macotakara, a Japanese blog with a fair track record in Apple intel, who allege to have new details about the device… Read More
AT&T fanboys, beware – as of May 1, your favorite carrier has instituted a new Mobility Administrative Fee which adds an extra $0.61 per line, per month to your wireless bill.
Yes, you’ll hardly notice the additional charge, but it does work out to an extra $7.32 per phone line per year, or nearly thirty bucks annually for a family account with four lines.
But multiply the figure by AT&T’s nearly 70 million postpaid customers and that paltry $0.61 per-line charge quickly adds up to an additional hundreds of millions of extra dollars for the telco, each year. Wait, what’s a Mobility Administrative Fee, you ask… Read More
It’s pretty mind-boggling to think about what the folks at Rovio have done with the Angry Birds franchise. What started out as just a simple game has turned into a multimedia empire complete with its own clothing line, TV show, and feature film.
And for those of you who’ve yet to see what all of the fuss is about, I have some good news for you. Apple has just named Angry Birds Space as its ‘App of the Week’, meaning you can download the game (iPhone and iPad) for free for a limited time… Read More
With Apple’s annual World Wide Developer Conference now just a few weeks away, it’s hard not to get at least a little excited. After all, the Cupertino company is expected to show off new versions of OS X and iOS during its WWDC keynote.
And it looks like we’ll be seeing that keynote on Monday, June 10. In an unsurprising move this morning, Apple has confirmed that it will be making all of its big announcements on the first day of WWDC at the Moscone Center in San Francisco… Read More
Earlier this week, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook came to Washington and escaped unscathed. The focus of media coverage has now seemingly moved away from Apple to the greater tactics some of the well-known corporations use to funnel their money using the world’s tax havens – and perfectly legally, too.
But the hot topic isn’t going away as the nearly bankrupt government seeks ways to tax hundreds of billions of dollars kept overseas. And per usual, the American political satirist and the Daily Show host Jon Stewart has jumped on the opportunity to exploit the controversy.
I don’t want to spoil the fun for you, but he’s asserting U.S. senators are Apple fanboys. The clip is right after the break… Read More
Smule is among early iOS developers that have been continuously raising the bar on what’s possible on Apple’s iPhone. They make a bunch of social music-making applications and their latest offering is a free iPhone game called Guitar!.
Like many other Smule apps, Guitar! challenges you to play a virtual guitar on your iPhone or iPod touch and earn points based on your performance.
You can then compare your standings to your friends in global leaderboards. And as you progress, the app unlocks a range of Electric and Rock guitars that let you try out new guitar sounds. And no, you don’t have to be a musician as the whole point of the game is social music making. A promo video and other highlights are right after the break… Read More
Wow, that was quick. Following on yesterday’s Windows 8 commercial which uses Apple’s Siri to highlight the iPad’s perceived flaws – such as its $499 price point versus an Asus VivoTab Smart and lack of Office (go figure), the Redmond-based software giant today release another ad along the same lines.
Suggestively titled ‘Comparison: iPad vs. Windows 8 Tablet’, the commercial pits an iPad 4 against an Asus Vivo Tab RT, which is based on the same ARM CPU technology like Apple’s tablet. However, the software maker has been caught cheating… Read More
After great wailing and gnashing of teeth about its banishment from Apple’s App Store earlier this year, AppGratis is back – for Android users. The app recommendation engine was yanked after Apple outlawed iOS apps which promoted other apps.
Now in the Google’s Play store Android repository, developers claim AppGratis “is designed from the ground up” for the iOS rival. Yet, the service appears much like the AppGratis ejected from the app’s first choice, the App Store… Read More
Eight months into its September 2012 launch, Apple’s iPhone 5 is still a pricey gadget to service.
Be it a smashed screen, an earpiece that needs replacing or its most unreliable iPhone component – the Home button - some replacement components for the handset remain pricey compared against prior iPhones.
In an in-depth piece, MarketWatch looks at the iPhone aftermarket to conclude that the iPhone 5 repair costs remain high due to Apple’s tight control of Asian supply chain for components and replacement parts… Read More
I love my Mac but sometimes it does some strange things, such as showing me duplicate entries in the “Open With” contextual menu you get when you right click on a document. While I’m not sure why it happens, I hear it’s due to the Launch Services database.
Of course, there probably is a valid explanation as to why and how it happens. Some people might even be able to convince me it’s more of a feature rather than a bug, but the fact of the matter is that it drives me absolutely insane.
If like me, you are annoyed by this, I’ll show you how to delete duplicate entries from the “Open With” menu on your Mac… Read More
