Twitterrific gains new features, push notifications still being worked on

https://vimeo.com/57871805

As you can see in the clip above, Iconofactory today released an update to its Twitter client on the App Store, Twitterrific. The app has some loyal following - in fact, both TweetBot and Twitterrific are my favorite go-to Twitter clients for iDevices. Twitterrific fans should appreciate half a dozen new features and a bunch of improvements in this release.

Most notably, the new Twitterrific version 5.0.2 now has a simplified in-app web browser and reading mode supporting Instapaper or Readability. It also lets you find tweets in all timelines via History, preview images directly in the timeline and so forth. Push notifications, you say? Read on for the full breakdown...

jOBS star Ashton Kutcher to kick off MacWorld

Actor Ashton Kutcher who stars in jOBS, the upcoming indie biopic about Apple's late co-founder, will kick off MacWorld Expo, now known as iWorld. The conference runs January 31 - February 2 in San Francisco's Moscone West. Kutcher will take the main stage on January 31 at 9am to kick off the three-day conference and talk about the flick, which is scheduled to hit theaters in April after its debut at the legendary Sundance Film Festival later this month...

Temple Run 2 sees 20 million iOS downloads in 4 days

Last week Imangi Studios released a sequel to its widely popular endless-runner game, Temple Run. The game landed here in the US on Thursday night, and within 8 hours it had shot up to the #1 Free App in the App Store.

But apparently its impressive run didn't stop there. Imangi issued a press release this morning announcing that Temple Run 2 was downloaded more than 20 million times, on iOS alone, in its first four days of availability...

Comparison video: BlackBerry Z10 vs iPhone 5

After what seems like years of waiting, we are now just 9 days away from RIM's BlackBerry 10 launch event. Here, the Canadian company is expected to show off its 'finished' next-generation operating system, as well as its new devices that will be running it.

We already know that one of those devices will be the BlackBerry Z10, a high-end handset with a 4.2-inch display, because RIM has already passed out several of them. For those wondering how it will stack up against the iPhone 5, here's a comparison video...

Poll: my next cell phone will be…

These days, it's all but impossible to escape Apple hate speech. You know who to blame: big media. I mean, stock manipulators played even the credulous Wall Street Journal. It's not just WSJ - or NYT or Reuters, for that matter.

Anti-Apple Forbes hit new lows with clickbait headlines like this one or this one. And as crazypants analysts voice their concern regarding "Apple’s lack of a strategy in the lower-end phone”, they at the same time continue to hallucinate about a happiness or time travel machine from Apple.

And all of them get an assistance from traffic-hungry journalists like Dan Lyons whose write-ups sound bitter and idiotic. But in spite of all that FUD talk, Apple is demolishing Android in every metric that matters. None of this frenzy should matter when considering your next cell phone.

But real life can be a bitch and with so much negative publicity mounting ahead of Apple's earnings report, no wonder some of the faint-hearted fans are beginning to question their faith in the California firm. I know where my heart stands, but I want to know one thing: do you know where your heart stands? So, what's your next phone gonna be?

Reality check: despite FUD talk, Apple demolishing Android in all metrics that matter

Now that Apple's stock price appears to have regained some sanity, rising this morning to $500 from last week's low, perhaps its time to introduce some reality into the Apple vs. Android discussions which lately have resembled Chicken Little's adaptation of the Mayan Calendar. Before "The Sky is Falling: Apple orders are down" mania, there was the "Android has the market share and Apple's a has-been" debate.

The core argument and evidence of Android's dominance over Apple was right out of Circular Logic 101: Android has the Market Share. But look behind the curtain and the end of the world does not seem so close - at least for Apple...

Optimus G fuels LG’s return to No. 2 in the U.S., bumps Apple to No. 3

Competition to see who is the No. 2 cellphone maker in the U.S. has become a horse race. After losing it to Apple in 2011, LG for the first time since the iPhone 4S launch reportedly has retaken the spot behind industry-leader Samsung. But how did Apple, which produces only smartphones, for so long hold off the South Korean maker of both smart and feature phones?

According to Hong Kong's Counterpoint Research, LG in December snared thirteen percent of the overall U.S. cell phone market, beating Apple's twelve percent. However, it took LG's family of smart and dumb phones to regain the No. 2 spot, which it lost in 2011 when the iPhone 4S was released...

HypedMusic: listen to millions of tracks for free

Rdio, Pandora and Spotify are all nice options to stream unlimited music rather than buy individual tracks (so last century). But these services cost north of ten bucks per month, which amounts to a $100+ annually. With so many music tracks readily available on the Internet for free, in the form of music videos and what not, Luke Li launched the HypedMusic web site in January 2011 as a legally compliant option to enjoy music on your computer free.

And with an iPhone app launched yesterday, HypedMusic has become a whole lot more useful an alternative to the commercial streaming music services. I've included additional info and a few more screenies right past the fold...

Budget iPhone: the augur of a new era of lower Apple margins

What should the rumored budget iPhone cost and how low could Apple price it without sacrificing its industry-leading profits? Jean-Louis Gassée, a former executive at Apple, where he worked from 1981 to 1990, ran some numbers on his Monday Note blog to try and make sense of the idea. The crux: there's no way Apple could make a compelling, inexpensive device sporting today's hardware encased in a less exquisite (dare I say, plasticky?) body without sacrificing its powerful margins.

Should the Cupertino, California company in fact pursue the low-cost iPhone, the move will be remembered as the augur of a new era of lower Apple margins and as such likely signals a new brutal phase in the Smartphone Wars...

Apple again seen cutting iPhone 5 panel orders

Last week, a couple of reports surfaced claiming that Apple has been trimming component orders for its iPhone 5. While the exact reasons for the cutbacks are still unknown, many market-watchers are citing weaker-than-expected demand as the main factor.

But no matter what the reasoning is, it seems the cuts are happening. Another report popped up this weekend claiming that the Cupertino company has contacted Sharp Corp. and asked them to cut their iPhone 5 LCD panel orders in half for next quarter...

Apple rumored to unveil ‘iPhone Math’ with 4.8-inch display in June

Despite the fact that Apple just launched the iPhone 5 in September of last year, talk of the next iteration of the handset has already started to accumulate. It seems like we hear rumors regarding the next-gen iPhone on a weekly basis.

The latest report claims that Apple is actually planning on unveiling three new handsets this year. It says that the first two, the iPhone 5S and the 'iPhone Math,' will launch in June, and a third, unknown model, just before Christmas...

How to use Newsstand as an app folder without jailbreaking

A new non-jailbreak tweak was recently revealed to us via email, and it involves the ability to place and launch an unlimited amount of apps from the Newsstand folder on iOS 6. Yes, it works perfectly fine with the iPhone 5.

First sent to us by reader, Pim Oomen, the trick involves a little bit of timing and practice. The end result is an infinite scrollable folder that may contain as many apps as you can throw into it.

The nice thing about this trick is that it doesn't rely on any external websites or apps in order to make it work. Take a look at our step-by-step video walkthrough inside to see how easy it is.