Procreate 2 brings GPU-accelerated filters, 64-bit support, 4K canvas size

Procreate, the Apple Design Award winning illustration app for the iPad, is a seriously addictive and immensely powerful piece of software which turns your iPad into a digital painting canvas, thanks to the incredibly accurate and smooth Silica painting engine.

The team back in August enhanced Procreate by adding support for Wacom’s Intuos Creative Stylus along with the ability to make canvas recordings in full HD (1080p).

In a major iOS 7 focused update today, Procreate version 2.0 introduces full support for iOS 7 and Apple's 64-bit A7 processor, with additional optimizations for the new iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display. More importantly, Procreate 2 now includes new filters and adjustments which take advantage of your tablet's GPU through a hardware-accelerated engine, a first for Procreate...

Court denies Samsung’s motion to stay damages in Apple patent retrial

As you know, in a retrial last week a jury of six women and two men determined that Samsung owes Apple $290 million for lifting patented iPhone technologies, bringing the total amount of damages to $929 million versus the original $1.05 billion ruling. The South Korean Galaxy maker has immediately filed a motion to delay the payout on the grounds of reevaluation of the validity of the Apple patent No. 7,844,915, which covers the famous pinch-to-zoom gesture.

The presiding Judge Lucy Koh denied Samsung motion's last night as she appeared concerned about the potential implications of such ruling, including whether granting a stay would unethically favor Apple...

Strand review: stretch and bend your lines to connect the dots

Around this time of the year, we start to get too busy to spend too much time siting in front of our favorite video game, yet we still find ourselves standing in line doing nothing for extended periods of time. During the holiday season, casual games are a must-have for a gamer’s mobile device.

Strand is a casual puzzle game that is simple enough to not occupy too much of your brain, but complex enough to keep you coming back for more...

Get in gear with Crash Drive 2

Sure, you could bog down your iPad with those high-graphics driving games, Like 2K DRIVE and Real Racing 3, but sometimes, games with awesome graphics are missing that something special in the game play that make them stand out.

Crash Drive 2 is a fun free roaming driving game where players compete with others around the world in stunt-based events. Perform gravity defying stunts while trying to earn the most points to win in this exciting racing adventure…

Apple wins smartphone patent case against California inventor

Earlier this month we told you that California inventor Richard L. Ditzik was suing Apple, claiming its iPhone infringed on one of his patents. Well this week, the Cupertino company won the case against the 70-year-old electrical engineer.

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple was found not guilty of infringing on Ditzik's so-called 'smartphone patent.' A jury in Los Angeles made the call yesterday, completely rejecting the claim by NetAirus Technologies—Ditzik's shell company...

China Mobile to launch its 4G LTE network next month

Rumors have been circulating for the past few weeks that China Mobile is on the verge of launching its LTE network next month. And it looks like the reports were true, as the news has been confirmed this week by state-run news outlet Xinhua.

This is big news for a couple of reasons. For one, this will be the country's first major rollout of 4G. And two, it means Apple will finally be able to start offering its two latest iPhone models on China Mobile, as they support its TD-LTE standard...

Incipio introduces new Touch ID-friendly, waterproof iPhone 5s case

Popular accessory-maker Incipio announced a new version of its Atlas iPhone case yesterday, called the Atlas ID. As the name suggests, the case is Touch ID-friendly and it provides the same protection from water and other elements as the previous Atlas model.

This is fairly significant, as there aren't many waterproof cases available for the iPhone 5s that work with the handset's built-in fingerprint reader. Most element-proof offerings cover the Home button completely, rendering the Touch ID feature effectively unusable...

Considerate iPhone thief mails 1000 handwritten contacts to owner

It's hard to imagine how someone could call a person who stole your iPhone 'considerate,' but that's exactly how some media outlets are referring to a certain Chinese pickpocket. The thief took a man's iPhone during a shared cab ride.

The reason why some are calling the criminal considerate is that shortly after stealing the handset, he mailed the owner a list of his contacts. And this wasn't simply a computer printout, he hand wrote over 1000 contacts–11 pages worth...

Survey finds that Apple Stores now account for 25% of US iPhone sales

During a summit in San Francisco's Fort Mason on June 27 of this year, Tim Cook spoke to Apple Retail Store leaders about upcoming changes to the company's iPhone marketing tactics. He said he was hoping the changes would help their stores start selling more handsets.

Well here we are, nearly 6 months later, and it looks like the changes have done just that. According to a new survey from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, the amount of iPhones purchased from Apple stores has increased from 20% to 25% over the past several months...

Concept teaches Viber how to design for iOS 7

Remember the absolutely eye-candy re-imagining of Apple’s clunky Messages app in Mavericks, so awesomely done by Ramotion, a Palo Alto, California interface design shop? If not, stop what you’re doing (reading this) and give it a quick look, now. Some of the best UI/UX designers in the world, Ramotion's grown just as sick and tired of Viber's out-of-touch looks as us.

Yours truly used to be a heavy Viber user. Now I no longer care. Why? I'll tell you why: the app's proven itself a really frustrating experience. The soft keyboard fails to honor my system-wide international settings. It crashes a lot. It acts up far too often. As if that weren't enough, Viber's aesthetics fails miserably as a victim of a bunch of poor design choices - so much so that I can't stand using it anymore. Viber really, really needs some serious rebooting.

Ramotion's vision for Viber stunned me by being so much more than a fresh coat of paint, like WhatsApp’s upcoming iOS 7 update (screenies, hands-on video) is shaping up to be. Small wonder: these guys know good interface design so I'm not surprised they've actually gone about re-imagining the whole app experience.

Are you ready to see how Viber's iOS 7 overhaul should, but probably never will, look like? Just hit the jump and feast your eyes on gorgeous renders...

Yelp updated with new SeatMe feature for making restaurant reservations

Folks looking to take advantage of the holidays this week by venturing out to their favorite eating spots may want to check out the latest version of Yelp. The iOS client was updated today with a new feature that allows you to make restaurant reservations from within the app.

The new feature is the direct result of Yelp's summer acquisition of SeatMe, a tech start-up that developed a solution for making online reservations at popular food and drink locations, and reduces the friction between discovering a great place on Yelp and experiencing it...

Apple collaborates with device makers on MFi hearing aids

Apple's given its 'Made for iPhone' (MFi) initiative a nice little kick in the pants by introducing all-new support in iOS 7 for physical gaming controllers (examples: Moga's Ace Power and Logitech's PowerShell), but now the company is looking to give another industry vertical a much-needed boost: the market for hearing aids and associated devices.

According to a new report Monday by Reuters, Apple has worked closely with Copenhagen, Denmark-based GN ReSound on the first batch of iPhone-connected devices for hearing-impaired customers.

The new gear is much more compact than before and taps the 2.4-gigahertz band using Bluetooth 4.0's low-energy mode. The hardware works in tandem with special iOS software not only to improve one's hearing, but to also stream music and double as a two-way headset for receiving phone calls...