iPod Touch

Winston for iPhone wants to be the Siri for news

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPH2PK5WZys

I know your news reader choices on iOS are rich. There's Flipboard, Instapaper, Readability, News360, News.me and a whole lot of other lesser known apps. Winston, a new software by a Colorado-based startup, is unlike your regular news client. Instead of overwhelming you with an endless stream of updates, Winston presents you with a personable British butler which compiles a daily brief from your selected news sources and social network feeds.

It detects what's important and then reads the summaries out aloud, so you can catch up on the latest while doing something else. It's a novel approach that saves time and as such is likely to strike a chord with busy mobile users. I'm already liking Winston a lot. More tidbits right past the fold...

Smarter Stand for iPhone keeps your device upright and earbuds tangle-free

What you see in the photo above is the new Smarter Stand for the iPhone and iPod touch. Created by Dotan Saguy, it's a dual-purpose accessory that acts as both a kickstand for your iOS device and a spool for your earbuds, so they don't get tangled.

It may not look like much, but don't underestimate Saguy's knack for turning simple ideas into hit products. He's already done it once with the Smarter Stand for iPad, raising over $150,000 via Kickstarter. And now he's looking to do it again...

Real Racing 3 will be free, coming February 28

Electronic Arts has a release date for Real Racing 3, the latest installment in its popular racing franchise. The game is scheduled for release on February 28 and will be offered for the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android smartphones and tablets for free, a major shift in strategy for the super publisher which in 2011 alone raked in $1 billion in digital revenue.

In fact, developers say that Real Racing 3 was designed from the ground up to be a free to play experience. That right there is your undeniable proof that the freemium model is slowly but surely taking over from paid downloads...

iOS 6.1 battery problems may be related to Exchange bug

Yesterday, we reported that Vodafone UK has been sending out text messages to its iPhone 4S subscribers, warning them not to upgrade to iOS 6.1. The update is said to contain a bug that affects the handset's 3G performance, and subsequently its battery life.

But the issue appears to be more widespread than that. We've received a number of comments from readers, that aren't in the UK and don't have a 4S, that are seeing similar battery life problems. And it's been discovered that Exchange might just be the culprit...

Evasi0n 1.2 is out, disables OTA updates and fixes timezone bug

The evad3rs have sure been busy this week. On Monday they released version 1.0 of their jailbreak utility, and on Wednesday they rolled out version 1.1 with fixes for the Weather app and long reboot bugs.

Today, they've posted a second update to evasi0n, bringing it to version 1.2. The new update features built-in code to disable future OTA updates on your jailbroken device, and a fix for the timezone issue...

Four days later, evasi0n jailbreak has set free seven million iDevices

If you have used the new evasi0n tool to jailbreak your iPhone or iPad, you're among the millions of people that have done just that thus far. In fact, an unbelievable seven million devices have been set free in just four days following the release of the evasi0n jailbreak for iOS 6.1, making the free tool the most successful jailbreak ever, on any device, period...

Sega takes After Burner Climax to the skies on iOS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXPDoFoauQ8

Originally released as an arcade machine way back in 1987, Sega's high-adrenaline jet fighter action, After Burner Climax, has made a jump to the iPhone and iPad (it's also coming soon to Android). The game puts you in the cockpit of the F-14D Super Tomcat, F-15E Strike Eagle or F/A-18E Super Hornet, each customizable with four paint jobs (standard paint, camouflage, special paint and low visibility).

Load your aircraft with a bunch of high-tech weapons, take off into the skies and barrel through twenty different landscapes - like volcanoes, jungles, ice caps and more. Of course, the game's really just an excuse for a bunch of orange explosions and total mayhem.

Nevertheless, fans of some heart-pounding action (gee, I sound like a PR bunny) should consider giving After Burner Climax a try...

Cut the Rope ‘Lantern’ box arrives in time for Chinese New Year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwziSZJ7gpk

Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year, is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. Ahead of the upcoming festivities which come with a seemingly endless stream of colorful lanterns being released in the sky, Cut the Rope maker Zeptolab and UK publisher Chillingo have issued a content update which brings a brand new Lantern box full of - you guessed right - floating paper lanterns. With the 25 new levels, Cut the Rope now has a total of 350 levels spread across fourteen different boxes. Not bad for a 99-cent game...

Skype for iPhone gains emergency call redirection, automatic call recovery

Following a Skype for iPad update earlier this week that has enabled automatic dropped call recovery, in-app purchase of Skype credits and a minor UI tweak, the Microsoft-owned VoIP provider has pushed out an update to its iPhone and iPod touch client this morning. Borrowing from the latest iPad build, the iPhone version will now automatically reconnect any dropped call.

More importantly emergency calls now get routed through the native dialer, which is interesting knowing most other VoIP apps don't support this feature. A few more tidbits and the full changelog follow after the jump...

Evasi0n 1.1 released with fixes for Weather and long reboot bugs

Earlier today, the evad3rs uploaded two new packages to Cydia that were built to fix a few bugs found in the latest jailbreak: one that caused the Weather app to crash, and another that caused longer reboot times.

This afternoon, the team has released an update to evasi0n, bringing the utility to version 1.1. And as expected, it includes these bug fixes, so users should no longer encounter them when jailbreaking their devices...

Apple seeds iOS 6.1.1 beta to developers

It's only been a week since Apple released iOS 6.1 to the public, and it's already hard at work on the software's next update. The iPhone-maker has seeded the first beta of iOS 6.1.1 to developers this morning, bringing the build to version 10B311.

It's also worth noting that today's beta arrives just 48 hours after the iOS 6.x evasi0n jailbreak was released. So obviously, those of you who are jailbroken that have access to today's software update will want to avoid it until it's investigated...

Twitter’s Vine app gets 17+ age rating

Vine, Twitter's new app for sharing short 6-second clips, has had somewhat of a rocky start. Immediately following its launch two weeks ago, Twitter got inundated with complaints that the Editor’s Pick section was populating users' video feed with adult content. Twitter blamed the problem on "a human error" and promised to fix it in the next update. And just like clockwork, Vine version 1.0.5  landed today on the App Store, bringing with better sharing and the 17+ age rating (was 12+)...