Stephen Hawking’s Snapshots of the Universe released for iPad

Ebook and mobile app publisher Random House Digital has released an interesting iPad education app in the App Store. Stephen Hawking’s Snapshots of the Universe, suitable for children aged 9+, uses the work and writings of Stephen Hawking, the famous English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge, to teach students the basic theories of the movement of the stars and planets.

The astrophysicist apparently had a say in the app's design as he envisioned an app that would help explain the fundamentals of space to both adults and children through fun mini-games. The interactive experience is optimized for iOS 7 with clean and streamlined graphic elements.

Available sections cover the basics of our solar system and let you spin planets in orbit, drop objects with Galileo to learn about gravity, search for black holes in the constellation of Leo, discover Einstein’s warped worldview and G-force in outer space and lots more...

Pebble firmware update brings Do Not Disturb mode, faster notifications and more

The Pebble Smartwatch has gotten smarter than ever as the company pushed a new version 1.4 firmware which enhances notifications while bringing a new Do Not Disturb mode along with other new features, improvements and fixes.

Like on your iPhone, Pebble's new Do Not Disturb mode lets you specify a time frame during which notifications won't be displayed. You can also specify what notifications are displayed, create a new Snooze Alarm, create multiple alarms, toggle alarms on and off, edit existing alarms and enjoy improved iOS performance...

Evernote gains business card scanning, Presentation mode and other goodies

Evernote for iPhone and iPad has been updated with a new Presentation mode and another feature allowing users to scan business cards using an iDevice camera and import contact data as Evernote notes, with the ability to connect contact data to LinkedIn, Facebook and your Address Book for richer results, among other enhancements. Both business card scanning and Presentation mode capabilities are however available only to paid Evernote Premium customers.

The Presentation mode supports AirPlay or HDMI video out to present your Evernote notes to an audience and comes with a 14-day complementary preview for Free users...

Cut the Rope 2 debuts next Thursday, here’s you gameplay vid and launch info

Developer ZeptoLab, based out in Russia, has seen wild success following the release of its charming puzzler, Cut the Rope, [$0.99 for iPhone, $3.99 for iPad] in the App Store three years ago.

Originally an iPhone exclusive, the game has been ported to virtually every computing platform under the Sun since its October 2010 debut.

Thus far, these games have managed to racket up nearly half a billion downloads, passing 60 million active monthly users in the first half of 2013.

After posting a teaser trailer a month ago - and having subsequently announced that a Cut the Rope sequel will be ready in time for the holidays - ZeptoLab has now made known the official release date for Cut the Rope 2: next Thursday, December 19.

And in a repeat of 2010, the game is slated to debut as an iOS exclusive, featuring 120 levels, new characters and tweaked gameplay.

Want to hear the best bit?

We have all the details, videos and screenshots to wet your appetite, just a click away...

Remotely control your computer from your iOS device with Screens 3.0

Ever away from your desk, but need to access something on your desktop? What about copying something on your Mac and pasting it to your iPad? Thanks to a new updated version of Screens, Edovia dev team is making remote view a simple and easy task for any user.

Previously, remote viewing was a complicated task reserved for the super nerds and IT geeks. However, with the spawn of tablets, the common man is now capable of logging into remote desktop through simplified app clients. As I am frequently away from my desk traveling, I decided to take a closer look at Screens...

Everything is a Remix: the iPhone edition

The Everything is a Remix video series by New York-based filmmaker Kirby Ferguson plays on the remix culture and its key mantra that everything around us is a remix of previously made stuff and that all original material builds off of and remixes previously existing material.

The four-part video series and the companion website covers songs that remain the same, explores the remix techniques involved in producing films, details how innovations truly happen and criticizes the laws that fail to recognize the derivative nature of creativity.

The fifth one (not part of the series, it's a standalone video) is about the iPhone. Go ahead and hit the More link to watch it now, you know you want to...

Instapaper goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

Apple has named the popular read-it-later app Instapaper its App of the Week for 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 savings of $4.

For those unfamiliar with the app, Instapaper bills itself as the simplest way to save and store articles for reading. You can save content on virtually any device, like a bookmark, and return to it later for reading at your convenience...

You can now control iTunes Radio via Remote app

After refreshing its free Remote app for the iPhone and iPad with some radical redesign to match the overall iOS 7 aesthetics, Apple has just put out a minor update adding a nicely done ability to control iTunes Radio from your iOS device.

But rather than stream iTunes Radio songs directly (and what would the point be in doing so knowing iTunes Radio is available within the stock iOS 7 Music app), the application simply controls the feature running in iTunes for Mac or Windows.

Previously, you could only control playback of music and other media kept locally in your iTunes library. If anything, this update will go down in history as a handy little enhancement that makes it ridiculously easy to control your iTunes Radio stations, skip songs and more, right across the room...

iPhone 5s is best-selling smartphone at US carriers, 5c is third best

According to research by Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley, the iPhone 5s has been the top-selling smartphone at the four major US carriers for the past 3 months. That's not too surprising, considering new iPhones usually fair well right after launch.

But what did surprise me was the fact that the iPhone 5c has also been in the top 3 selling smartphones at AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile since September. You know, the same handset that Apple has reportedly been cutting production for due to poor sales...

Google takes on spammers by caching all Gmail images on its servers

Doesn't it bother you that Gmail on the web and mobile puts up the Show Images link at the top of your email messages that contain images, like HTML newsletters? That message will be no more real soon as Google changes how Gmail handles images in emails.

According to the official Gmail blog, both Gmail on the web and Gmail for the iPhone and iPad (and Android) will now let you see all Gmail images automatically.

Moreover, the linked images will no longer load from their original external host servers and will instead be served through Google’s own secure proxy servers. And because the images will be checked for known viruses or malware, the change will make Gmail safer and more secure, the search monster argued...

The Room Two is finally available in the App Store

In 2012, Fireproof Games made a puzzle game that wowed iPad users. The Room’s interactive Pandora’s Box style artwork and multi-level intricate puzzles were impressive, to say the least. Apple awarded it the Game of the Year in 2012. Fireproof Games promised more to the story.

Today, the game company came through with its promise and The Room Two is now available for the iPad in the App Store. It is just as impressive as its predecessor…

Twitter for Mac 3.0 is here with redesigned profiles, inline photo previews and more

The micro-blogging platform Twitter on Tuesday refreshed its free iPhone and iPad client with the simplified menu bar, improved search, tweaked design and the ability to send images in Direct Messages, the latter currently off limits to third-party clients such as Tweetbot or the completely redesigned Osfoora 2.

Today, Twitter's Mac counterpart has undergone a similarly substantial revision which includes a significant facelift and a few great new features, like image previews in timelines, detailed tweet view, revamped profiles and more.

Jump past the fold for the full reveal...