During the latest Apple earnings call, CEO Tim Cook commented that his team has known for a while that the iPod is a declining business. Sales for the nearly 15-year-old product line have essentially been on the decline since 2008.
As you can imagine, this coupled with the fact that the iPod line hasn't received any major updates since 2012, has led to speculation that the mp3 player is on its way out. But a few recently-discovered Apple job listings suggest otherwise...
A fresh update to Foursquare’s free iPhone and iPad application has enabled an interesting new feature: from now on, whenever you fancy a bite - be it breakfast, lunch or dinner - you can use either the mobile app or the web interface at foursquare.com to find nearby restaurants that accept orders from Grubhub Seamless, the popular U.S. based online food ordering company.
You'll notice a new GrubHub or Seamless icon when browsing a place in Foursquare. Just tap it to place your order through GrubHub Seamless. To retrieve a list of nearby restaurants that will bring food to you and your hungry friends, simply search for 'delivery' (example: 'taco delivery')...
With the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia peeking at us from around the corner - opening ceremony is on February 7 - Yahoo has updated its Sports iOS app with related 2014 Games content and a couple other improvements.
Among other changes: Yahoo Sports 5.0.2, now available free in the App Store, adds a new settings option to hide Top Loop on game details and features an improved news feed and article navigation. People with disabilities will appreciate accessibility improvements and everyone should dig snappier loading and just all-around smoother navigation.
In keeping with its promise of rebooting the 1997 cult classic Dungeon Keeper on iOS, super-publisher Electronic Arts on Thursday brought the game out of soft-launch. Created in partnership with Mythic Entertainment, Dungeon Keeper for the iPhone and iPad is now available worldwide as a free-to-play download from the App Store. The original game was the final project of the famous game designer, Peter Molyneux, before he left Bullfrog to form Lionhead Studios in 1997.
Dungeon Keeper challenges you to build up the baddest dungeon on the block and protect it from a bunch of invading heroes who are after your treasure. On top of that, Horned Reaper - the game's protagonist and star of the Dungeon Keeper games (created by Mark Healey) - is an uncontrollable, powerful demon who must be kept busy at all times. Otherwise, he'll become angry and start attacking your creatures...
Yahoo's shopping spree continues as the company announced Thursday its newest acqui-hire: San Francisco based Incredible Labs, the team behind a rather compelling virtual assistant app named Donna.
Incredible launched Donna on iOS last summer. Named after Donna Moss, the popular assistant from the TV show The West Wing, the software is basically a cross between Google Now and Siri.
The application strives to manage your day with features like smart notifications, an anticipatory calendar and in-app directions, to mention but a few. Donna would proactively tell you about upcoming appointments, dial into conference calls for you, let others know when to expect you by analyzing traffic conditions and your frequent locations - even taking into account the little things like the current parking situation.
In November, Donna got updated with Lock screen calling, smarter meeting scheduling and other features. Nothing indicated at the time that Incredible would slow the pace of Donna development, let alone sell out to Yahoo.
Unfortunately, there is some bad news for Donna fans out there: the Internet giant will be shutting down the application following the acquisition...
Evernote has updated its free iPhone and iPad application with the much-welcomed ability to customize the user interface, skin it with themes, use more colorful notes and more. There are other changes and bug fixes, such as a new quality setting for audio notes for either sound or file size, or the ability to automatically save business card scans to your contacts. The company has transitioned to a new server infrastructure so you should be seeing up to four times faster sync between Evernote devices...
It's no secret that PayPal and Apple partner on iTunes billing, making the payment giant one of the few billing methods available in iTunes.
Matter of fact, PayPal has existed in Apple’s payment system for years now. It would now seem that PayPal wants to run the iTunes billing backend with other retailers as the company is "willing to white label parts of its payment service," according to a new report Thursday.
PayPal has a strong, established online presence and they've been partnering with a growing number of in-store payment companies so the firm could theoretically help build a rumored Apple-branded mobile payment solution...
Launch Center Pro is a handy iPhone tool that can speed up common tasks and improve your productivity by allowing you to create complex actions and even chain them together to support advanced workflows by way of URL schemes.
Responding to customer feedback, Contrast, the team behind the app, on Thursday released a long-awaited iPad edition. Launch Center Pro for iPad, $4.99 in the App Store, offers more real estate to edit your actions and shortcuts.
The app makes it easy to carry over the actions you've built in the iPhone edition, integrates with Dropbox, supports the Fleksy keyboard input method and more...
TouchType, the company behind the popular SwiftKey software keyboard for Android phones, has released a brand new note-taking application for the iPhone and iPad. It leaked earlier in the month and is now finally available free in the App Store.
The note-taking software is interesting because it enhances the traditional iOS virtual keyboard with TouchType's own auto-correction and prediction algorithms.
It also features Evernote synchronization and more. Jump past the fold for the full reveal...
The rumors were true: the social networking giant Facebook on Thursday officially announced its brand new social newsreader application for the iPhone. Called Paper (not to be confused with this), the app is scheduled to hit the App Store next Monday, February 3, 2014. The company has released a nice video walkthrough, embedded below the fold, which shows off really nicely done - gorgeously, dare I say - layout, fluidly animated interface and some familiar Flipboard-like gestures...
By now, most of you have probably heard that Apple has teamed up with manufacturing partner GT Advanced Technologies to open up a plant in Mesa, Arizona for producing sapphire. The plant is nearly ready to open, and Apple has already begun hiring engineers.
Up until now, though, little has been known about what kind of parts this sapphire factory would be producing. But some new documents just surfaced that may help fill in the blanks. Apparently, Apple is going to use the plant to produce a new 'critical' component...
Apple's indoor positioning technology, iBeacons, is cropping up in some unlikely places. No, I don't mean grocery stores, trade shows, Apple Stores, stadiums and bars. According to a Dutch blog, one of the country's theme park will be deploying iBeacons in March to provide visitors with useful information right on their iOS devices.
It's also interesting that Apple's finance boss felt the urge to mention during yesterday's earnings call that the company is now using iBeacons in a number of its retail outlets to beam relevant product information and promotions as customers get near an iBeacon...