Year: 2014

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 launching April 17, gameplay trailer posted

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 11, 2014

We recently told you about Gameloft's upcoming movie tie-in mobile game, The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Building on the original Amazing Spider-Man, the sequel is said to offer flashier and more detailed graphics, improved controls and of course updated movie-based content.

Both the game and the movie are slated to land on the same day and now Gameloft's given us a firm release date: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is coming to iOS, Android and Windows Phone platforms next Thursday, April 17, 2014.

Unlike many triple-As these days, Spider-Man 2 is a premium title, Gameloft has confirmed, so we expect it to cost a few bucks and (hopefully) not include any in-app purchases. Gameloft today posted a new trailer showing in-game action and I've included it right after the break...

Apple bans UK’s iTunes Radio competitor from iAd

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 11, 2014

Bloom.fm, a London-based music streaming service, on Friday made it known on Twitter that Apple's blocked it from advertising on its iAd platform, citing competitive reasons.

"Apple just banned our ads because we're 'a competitive service to iTunes Radio and it is against Apple policy'", reads the tweet.

The service has a catalog of 22 million tracks that can be streamed for as low as £1 a month (about $1.67).

It's easy to see why Apple has taken a stance against the service: its own iTunes Store sells individual song downloads for the price of a month's worth of unlimited streaming on Bloom.fm. The development has prompted Bloom.fm to boast that "We must be big time now", adding the team was surprised to learn that Apple even noticed what such a small company was doing...

Samsung caught lying about tablet sales

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 30, 2017

Samsung, the South Korean chaebol, has an established history of stealing, cheating and lying. It's not just the conviction of stealing patented iPhone technology that dealt it a massive PR blow, Samsung was also publicly shamed over the discovery it had paid people to spam message boards with negative comments about rival products.

And as if that weren't enough, its shady marketing tactics has come to light yet again in an internal document proving Samsung intentionally misled Wall Street investors, analysts and market watchers by flatly lying about sales of its Galaxy tablets, thereby creating a perception that the iPad was losing massive market share to cheaper Android competitors...

Reeder 2 beta for Mac now available for download

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

The long awaited update to the Mac version of Silvio Rizzi's Reeder is finally amongst the living. Indeed, Reeder 2 is now in beta and has been posted for download on its official website.

Rizzi, who is not known for indulging his customers with quick releases and frequent updates, launched Reeder 2 for iOS over six months ago. That release was met with mostly positive reviews, although the general consensus is that it didn't add much in the way of new or envelope-pushing functionality.

On the Mac, things are a bit different. The number of excellent feed reading apps can probably be counted on one hand, and that's being generous. I've only been able to play around with Reeder 2 for a few minutes, but I can tell you right off the bat that this is going to be one of the best feed reading apps available on the Mac. It's fast, responsive, works with a variety of feed reading services, and it looks good to boot.

Apple will no longer invest in patent troll Intellectual Ventures

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 11, 2014

Apple has chosen to pass on the opportunity to pour fresh money into Intellectual Ventures, a patent buying and assertion company founded and led by its chief executive officer Nathan Myhrvold. Following in Apple's footsteps, chip giant Intel has distanced itself too from the controversial patent holding firm and declined further investment

Intellectual Ventures was one of the top-five owners of U.S. patents in 2011. The patent assertion entity, however, has managed to persuade the Japanese consumer electronics maker Sony and the Windows maker Microsoft to invest in its latest acquisition fund, a move that will create a fresh war chest for Intellectual Ventures to buy new patents...

Deluxe Edition of Sim City 4 launches as $19.99 Mac App Store exclusive

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 11, 2014

The Mac edition of Sim City, an open-ended city-building video game which debuted on the PC back in 2003, was released in August of last year.

Previously available as a boxed product, Aspyr Media on Friday announced that SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition has made a triumphant return to the Mac. The game's available in the Mac App Store as a digital download that'll join Steam and other Mac digital outlets in coming weeks.

Deluxe edition of Sim City includes both SimCity 4 and the Rush Hour expansion pack, which gives you more control over your city’s transportation options and challenges you to build out a region of cities. And, you get two bonus disasters: UFO attack and Autosaurus Wrecks.

On top of all the goodies you've come to love about Sim City, Deluxe edition includes a nice Mac-exclusive feature allowing your iTunes library to be played in the game.

The $19.99 game can be found exclusively in the Mac App Store...

Minimalist iPad weather app, Morning, now available for iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 11, 2014

Morning by Tamper, the beautiful weather app for the iPad and one of Apple's App Store Best of 2013 apps, has been updated with native support for the iPhone. Now available in the App Store free to those who've purchased it, Morning version 1.5 brings its sleek, minimalist interface to the iPhone and iPod touch.

On the iPhone, Morning includes all the features of the iPad version, including more than two dozen UI themes.

On the iPad, this new version of Morning has also introduced a few new nice-to-haves, detailed after the jump...

1Password for Mac and iOS 50% off in wake of Heartbleed bug

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

If you've been holding out on purchasing Agile Bits' popular 1Password app due to price tag, you may want to pay attention. In wake of the nasty Heartbleed bug that has compromised millions and millions of usernames and passwords this week, the developers have decided to discount both Mac and iOS versions of the app by 50%...

Apple looking to beef up its iTunes team amid ‘overhaul’ rumors

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

According to recent reports, Apple is looking at various ways to remedy declining music sales, and better combat the competition. Billboard says the company is considering everything from launching an on-demand streaming music service, to giving its iTunes Store a dramatic overhaul.

And it certainly appears Apple is working on something big in regards to the media manager. A number of iTunes team-job listings have popped up on its website this week calling for iTunes Software Engineers, Senior Software Engineers, and an iTunes Recommendation Platform engineer...

Marvel for iPhone turns your sketches into interactive app prototypes

Cody Lee ∙ April 11, 2014

Let's say you're an aspiring entrepreneur, and you just got this wonderful idea for an app that's going to make you a millionaire, what do you do? Chances are, your first move would be to draw out the app on paper so you could get a better visual of it. But something's missing, and that's where the Marvel app comes in.

Marvel is an iPhone app capable of capturing sketches of your app ideas and turning them into interactive prototypes. Simply take a photo of your drawing and apply ‘touch’ hotspots to the image using Marvel, and then link other photos to those hotspots. And in no time at all, you'll be tapping your way through your app...

Apple said to be considering adding high-resolution music to iTunes soon

Cody Lee ∙ April 11, 2014

Rumor has it that Apple is considering taking drastic measures to reverse declining music sales. Billboard says the company is looking into several options, including giving its iTunes store a 'drastic' overhaul, opening up iTunes to Android users, and launching an on-demand streaming music service.

Apple may also be planning to add high-resolution audio to its digital library soon as part of its turnaround efforts, according to music blogger Robert Hutton. Citing sources familiar with the company's plans, Hutton says the iPhone-maker could launch new hi-res music downloads as early as WWDC...

Theme Thursday: Gleam, Axle and Simplump

Joe Rossignol ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

Theme Thursday is back for the eleventh consecutive week, continuing to promote some of the best Winterboard theme releases for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. This week, we are proud to present you with Gleam, Axle and Simplump.

Each theme is quite different from the next, which should provide everyone with something to choose from. If there is nothing you see here that you like, consider checking out previous editions of this roundup. We've covered almost 50 themes to date. Here are three more…