iPod Touch

Poll: how do you feel about Sparrow now?

Sparrow for iPhone debuted in February of 2011 and remains to date known as a kick-ass email client for both desktop and mobile. Those that love Sparrow appreciate its best-in-class Gmail support, clean and minimalistic interface and just the right set of features.

But Sparrow got snapped up by the Internet giant Google today (looks like this is becoming somewhat of a pattern for Google). From what we know so far, the Sparrow development team will be “working on new things at Google” and they "do not plan to release new features for the Sparrow apps".

This likely means 'no' to the promised iPad version and another 'no' to push alerts for incoming messages. It's assumably a sad day for Sparrow die-hards, so I just put together a little poll to gauge your feelings on the subject of today's unexpected acquisition...

The Dark Knight Rises game lands on App Store

The Dark Knight Rises, the third installment in Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to the 2005 Batman Begins and 2008 The Dark Knight, has hit the silver screen with a 87 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, a testament to film director Christopher Nolan's skills. The movie's box office success is bound to help Gameloft's officially licensed title sell well.

If you've been tingling with anticipation, you'll be delighted to know that The Dark Knight Rises the game has just landed on the App Store and can be downloaded now for your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad...

Fieldrunners 2 lands in the App Store

Nearly four years ago, a tower defense game by the name of Fieldrunners landed on iOS. The game was an instant hit, and has since been ported to a number of other platforms and consoles.

Last night, Subatomic Studios returned to its roots, and released Fieldrunners 2 in the App Store. The long-awaited sequel includes upgraded graphics, and several new gameplay elements...

AT&T announces shared data plans, available in late August

The nation's #2 carrier, AT&T Mobility, today announced shared data plans, in response to Verizon's shared data option which became available June 28. And just like the Big Red carrier's Share Everything plans, new plans from AT&T allow new and existing subscribers to share cellular data across smartphones, tablets and other devices, plus get unlimited talk and text.

According to a media release, current customers, including business users, won't be required to switch to the new plans. Should they decide to switch, they can do so without a contract extension. More importantly, AT&T says there will be no changes to its device upgrade policy...

Checkmark hits the iPhone, is what Reminders should have been

We told you about Checkmark, Snowman's upcoming location-aware organizer app for the iPhone, earlier in the month. Today, the program has finally landed on the App Store and can be yours in exchange for 99 cents. Checkmark bests Apple's stock Reminders app on many levels while ticking all the important boxes.

It one-ups Apple with triggers based on both location and time so you can, say, be alerted to pick up your laundry half an hour before you get to the mall or have that reminder about calling your wife pop up 15 minutes after you leave work. And if Reminders' illogical and inefficient user interface isn't your cup of tea, you'll definitely fall in love with Checkmark...

Apple seeds iOS 6 Beta 3 to registered developers

Apple has just issued a third beta build of iOS 6 to developers. The new software has not yet appeared on Apple’s iOS Developer Center though devices running iOS 6 Beta 2 can update over-the-air (go to Settings > General > Software Update). The update prompt mentions only "bug fixes and improvements" so we're doing some digging as we speak and will update when we find out more...

BioLite CampStove lets you charge your iOS device by burning stuff

Say what you will, but all day long performance is a pipe dream with today's power-hungry iOS devices. Because these are mini computers, iOS devices require lots of juice to run. Unfortunately, space constraints and today's battery technology just can't keep up with the realities of mobile computing (yet).

Folks tackle the problem with battery packs, but that's just another item to lug around while out and about. And guess what, a battery pack is one item that routinely gets forgotten in my camping preparations. But I never forget a camp stove.

Enter BioLite's CampStove, an awesome new 'accessory', basically a special camp stove which lets you burn stuff -  be it wood and pine or twigs and leaves or other bio mass - to convert heat to energy via its built-in thermoelectric generator, so you can charge your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. The campfire will never be the same. A cool promo video follows right below...

Add Bluetooth audio to any speaker dock with Pear

Doesn't it bother you there's no easy way to send text messages or give someone a buzz while your phone is docked to a music station? Enter Pear, a Kickstarter project by Brendan Kelso which seeks to tackle this unpleasantry with a nice dongle that attaches to your speaker so now you can take your iPhone and browse the web, check email, message people and what not, all the while being able to stream your music via Bluetooth. Unless you have an AirPlay-enabled audio gear or Bluetooth speakers, Pear could be just the gizmo you need...

Metroon theme brings Windows 8 to the iPhone

A certain theme entitled Metroon has garnered all types of publicity from outlets that normally don't cover jailbreak apps, tweaks, or themes. Perhaps that has a little to do with the fact that it's one of the first Windows 8 styled themes to appear on the iPhone?

At any rate, we've decided to take Metroon for a spin. What we found was a solid DreamBoard theme that will set you back $1.50 on Cydia's ModMyi repo. But is it deserving of the hype?

Amazing Alex now available in the App Store

It's been a big night for game releases. Hot on the heels of Tiny Wings 2, Rovio's Amazing Alex has just hit the App Store. The game marks Rovio's first title outside of the Angry Birds franchise.

Based on the once-popular iOS game Casey's Contraptions, Amazing Alex features more than 100 levels of physics puzzles. Players can even create their own levels, using 35 interactive objects...

An easier way to mute your iPod touch or other iOS device

The fact that the iPod touch lacks a physical mute button, shouldn't prevent one from muting their device in style. A new jailbreak tweak, entitled TapVolumeToMute, allows you to do just that.

Even if you have an iOS device with a physical mute button, this is a tweak that you still might want to give a go. That's because it allows you to easily mute your device with a quick tap on the volume heads up display. More details inside...

Tiny Wings HD lands with three new game modes, iPad Retina graphics, more

Tomorrow's a big day for us gamers as two exciting releases are due to hit the iOS platform: Rovio's new puzzler called Amazing Alex and Tiny Wings 2, a sequel to Andreas Illiger's little gem that charmed us with the cutesy bird character, cartoonish graphics and its simple yet addictive gameplay that has you jumping up and down the hills.

Turns out Tiny Wings 2 isn't really a sequel per se, but rather a free update to the original game, Tiny Wings 2.0 really. There's no reason to get disappointed as there's so much to look forward to, especially with a brand new iPad version coming. UPDATE: Tiny Wings HD is now live on the New Zealand App Store, your download link is right below...