Defense Technica review: a game where careful strategy works best

The tower defense genre is a tried and true gaming category in the App Store that has had some gems and flops. What makes a TD game stand out in the sea of others like it is unique design and interesting gameplay.

Defense Technica is a TD game that offers players the ability to get a glimpse at the enemy’s plans in order to use resources most effectively and offers a level of challenge that is uncommon in the genre…

Guy who sold iPhone 4 prototype to Gizmodo tells all in Reddit AMA

Gizmodo's iPhone 4 scoop of 2010 will likely go down as one of the biggest product leaks in history. Anyone who's been following Apple, or tech news in general, in recent years remembers the story of the Apple employee that left his iPhone 4 prototype in a bar.

The name of the guy who found the handset is Brian Hogan. And wouldn't you know it, he turned up on Reddit last night to do an AMA about the whole ordeal. It's quite interesting, as he talks about the night he found it, how much money he made and more...

AT&T rolls out and expands LTE in several markets

In a recent study by PC Mag, AT&T's LTE network was found to be the fastest among the top 4 carriers. But Verizon was found to be the most reliable. That's because Big Red has 4G coverage in nearly 200 more markets than AT&T does.

But it's working hard to change that. This morning, the nation's second largest wireless provider posted a number of press releases announcing that it has rolled out LTE to new markets, and expanded coverage in several existing markets...

Apple launches online retail store in Russia

It's been nearly a year since we heard of Apple's plans to begin direct sales in Russia, and this week it's finally putting that plan into action. The company has opened a web store in the country, allowing consumers to order iPhones, iPads and more.

Believe it or not, this is actually the first time that folks in Russia will be able to order products directly from Apple. Previously, the company's devices were only available via third-party retailers, as it doesn't have any physical stores in the country...

Dropbox for iOS updated with new swipe actions and enhanced sharing

Since Dropbox gave its iOS app a huge makeover in December, the team has seeded a number of updates for the cloud-based client that enhances its abilities to manage and share user photos, videos and other content.

And today it builds on that with version 2.3. The update, which started rolling out last night, features several useful enhancements, including new swipe-based actions and the ability to select and share multiple photos...

Apple enables direct Google Contacts sync in iOS 7

Google last September killed native sync for Contacts and Calendars on iOS devices. The announcement was part of Google's phasing out of Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync protocol in favor of CardDAV and CalDAV, which represent HTTP-based WebDAV client/server protocols for contact and calendar items, respectively.

Now, Apple actually adopted CalDAV and CardDAV with the release of iOS 4 nearly three years ago, but setting up Google Contacts sync on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices via CardDAV was anything but hassle-free.

With iOS 7, Apple appears to have implemented native Google Contacts sync. I'm guessing the feature works behind-the-scenes via CardDAV because it requires no setup and acts as a true two-way sync. It works like a charm, really, let me show you how...

iOS 7 allows developers to detect blinking and smiling in photos

As the tech community continues to dig through the iOS 7 betas, a new feature has been discovered. Apple's next-generation mobile operating system contains new APIs that allow developers to detect blinking and smiling in photos.

Now, iOS has had basic facial recognition for a couple of years now (since version 5). But according to a new report, Apple has added new image detectors in iOS 7 that are capable of identifying certain facial expressions in photographs...

HipChat iOS app revamped as Mac client exits beta

Atlassian's cross-platform group messaging HipChat app launched in January 2010 following a one-month beta period. The Mac app, originally developed using Adobe AIR and in beta since Valentine's Day, is now finally ready for prime time.

If you hate AIR as much as I do, you'll be delighted that the team has now dropped Adobe's sluggish technology (good riddance) in favor of the native OS X experience.

And in addition to the rebuilt HipChat 2.0 for Mac, the company has also given its iOS client some much-needed love, pushing a major 2.0 update that's leaner, faster and includes many new features. Here's what's new in both HipChat for Mac and iOS...

Let’s Talk Jailbreak 16: The show must go on

Welcome to the sixteenth episode of Let's Talk Jailbreak. This week, Sebastien discusses his conversation with pod2g regarding iOS 7, the latest iOS 7 beta 2 running on the iPad, OS X Mavericks beta 2, and a whole host of new jailbreak tweaks. The tweaks for the week include NCEnough, Vox, The Quick Brown Fox, NativeQR, and more. We also discuss Sebastien's upcoming trip to France, and the possibility of a special guest host.

Foursquare app updated with the ability to check friends in and more

Good news this afternoon for all of you Foursquare users out there. The iOS app was updated today with a handful of new features and improvements. Users can now check in their friends (only with their permission of course) and there have been some handy adjustments made to the Explore tab, making it easier to discover new places...

P0sixninja hints at upcoming release: ‘think bigger than jailbreak’

This is kind of interesting. Joshua Hill, better known as the iOS hacker p0sixninja, sent out a bit of a cryptic message from his Twitter account last night saying that he has a lot of amazing things coming to 'us all' soon.

Hill, who has helped build a number of jailbreaks including Greenpois0n and Absinthe, has been fairly quiet lately. But he did say back in March that he had independently discovered enough exploits to build a new hack...