Game Stew launches another RPG mash-up with Devil Shard

The team at Game Stew Studios is best known for their charming retro role-playing game (RPG) Tower of Fortune. In that mix between adventure and chance, players would battle against the forces of evil to try to reach the top of the terrifying tower. The sequel proved to be just as adorable and twice as hard.

Devil Shard is the most recent release from the mash-up loving team. This time, instead of mixing RPG with slot machines, players fight enemies using a match-three mechanic. Talk about identity crisis…

Microsoft’s Nokia Lumia 630 ad shows how to do a smartphone switch with a football

Microsoft-owned Nokia earlier this week announced its first Windows Phone 8.1 handset, the Lumia 630, with sales starting in Asia this week, followed by Europe and the United States.

In promoting the low-to-mid-range smartphone, Microsoft and Nokia put together a commercial sporting Finnish goalkeeper and Trick Shot master Lassi Hurskainen who shows how to do a smartphone switch with a football.

And some of the handsets flying out of people's hands seemingly resemble a certain iconic smartphone from a certain California company. Have a look at the video included after the break and meet us in comments...

Fleksy keyboard breaks Guinness World Record for fastest texting

Fleksy, the popular Android keyboard and alternative to Apple's stock iOS keyboard, has broken the Guinness World Record for fastest texting. A longtime user named Marcel used Fleksy's Android keyboard app to break Microsoft's Guinness World Record for fastest texting with a final time of 18.19 seconds.

He bested Microsoft's previous Windows Phone WordFlow keyboard record by 0.25 seconds, Fleksy said. Celebrating the award, Fleksy has updated its keyboard software for iOS and Android with core engine improvements focused on accuracy...

LA Lakers’ Kobe Bryant spotted on Apple’s campus, reportedly meeting with Jony Ive

LA Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant has been photographed today along with his wife Vanessa on Apple’s 1 Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino, California. The two were reportedly meeting Apple's design guru Jony Ive to talk upcoming new products. An image a tipster sent in clearly shows Bryant and Vanessa waiting for food.

Apple's familiar corporate campus can be see in the background and image metadata confirms that the photo has indeed been taken with an iPhone on Apple’s campus...

EFF report praises Apple for efforts to protect consumer data

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (or EFF) issued a new report this week entitled 'Who Has Your Back.' The document discusses major tech companies and their user privacy policies, and ranks them on transparency and other categories.

Interestingly enough, Apple was one of nine tech firms awarded a perfect score by the EFF. The Cupertino company received a star in each of the 6 categories, for a total of 6 stars—a remarkable improvement over its 1-star rating just last year...

Instagram update removes option to share likes and activity to Facebook

Instagram updated its iOS client last night, bringing the app to version 5.0.11. The update is small—the change log only mentions one alteration—but significant, as it takes away the auto-sharing of activity to Facebook.

More specifically, users will now only be able to share images deliberately to Facebook using the in-app share button. So the change should go a long way in decluttering News Feeds, a common complaint amongst users...

Kayak Pro goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

Apple has named the popular hotel and flight-booking app Kayak Pro its App of the Week this week. This means that through next Thursday, you’ll be able to pick up the application for both your iPhone and iPad, for free—a modest savings of $1.

For those unfamiliar with Kayak, it's considered by many to be the top mobile travel app. It essentially works as a search engine for hundreds of travel sites, allowing you to compare prices for things like flights, cars and hotels, as well as book them...

Flappy Bird creator teases his next iOS game

We haven't heard much from Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen since he removed his smash-hit game Flappy Bird from the App Store just over three months ago. After tweeting that the popularity of the game was ruining his life, the Vietnamese developer went quiet for over a month. Since that time, the App Store has been bombarded with dozens of copycat games such as Flappy Bird: New Season.

Then, just yesterday, Nguyen confirmed that Flappy Bird will be returning to the App Store in August with less addictive gameplay and a new multiplayer mode. Building upon that news, the indie game maker has now announced that he is also working on a brand new game that will involve a character jumping from building to building. He gave a sneak peek of what the game looks like in a recent tweet… 

Apple now permits devs to issue promo codes for In-App Purchases?

It seems Apple's relaxed its policy concerning promotional codes for iOS and Mac applications. Promo codes are a popular tool among developers who use them for giveaways like ones iDownloadBlog runs on its Twitter channel from time to time.

They're also a useful PR tool as developers usually send the codes to journalists who then download paid apps free of charge for review purposes.

Even though promo codes have never been available for paid in-app content sold through the iOS In-App Purchase mechanism (there are some workarounds to that, by the way), there are indications now that Apple is willing to change its stance...

Bentley films and edits Mulsanne promo entirely on iPhone 5s and iPad Air

Luxury car maker Bentley has commissioned a short documentary film to promote its $300,000 Mulsanne.

The black and white footage was captured entirely on an iPhone 5s and edited in the back of a Mulsanne on an iPad Air outfitted with a thin keyboard attachment.

Entitled 'Intelligent Details' and filmed in the Bentley Mulsanne in New York, the video shows various design aspects of the car before revealing a behind-the-scenes of the entire process of capturing the footage. The team used specialized iPhone lenses and mounts to capture raw material, which was then editer on Apple's tablet in iMovie....

Enter Leo’s Fortune Hardcore Challenge for a chance to win an iPad mini

By now, some of you will have already completed the fantastic new platform game Leo’s Fortune, which also means that some of you are probably on the path to beating the game in Hardcore mode. So far, no one has managed to beat the game this way yet. If you manage to make it all the way to the end of the game without dying, you might win an iPad mini.

The game’s creators are offering fans of Leo’s Fortune the chance to win big by beating the game in Hardcore mode. So, you’d better take a week off of work, get your MFi game controller charged up and get going. Someone is going to win this contest, and it might as well be you…

iTunes Connect app updated with new design for iOS 7

Continuing with its wave of updates today, Apple has posted a new build of iTunes Connect for iOS. The update brings the app to version 3.0, and includes a long-awaited UI redesign in-line with the new look of iOS 7.

For those unfamiliar with iTunes Connect, it's what allows developers to access sales data for their apps and e-books. And with today's update, artists can now use the app to access data for moves and other media as well...