Microsoft has rolled out its popular MSN app to the USA and Canada. It was originally launched at the end of January as a UK only release. The MSN app brings you all of the latest news, sports, entertainment and much more form the Microsoft network in a beautiful magazine style layout on your iPad.

MSN is now available on your iPad – easily swipe to find your favorite news, sports entertainment, autos and money articles & videos in one place. Easily share what you find with your friends on Facebook,Twitter or e-mail a link to the article. Of course you can view articles, photos and videos in either portrait or landscape modes with MSN for iPad. Need to dig deeper on something you just read? We’ve built Bing right into the top of the app for easy searching.

Free – Download Now

Hasbro has announced that its next release of Lazer Tag guns will use your iPhone or iPod touch to provide augmented reality and a heads up display. The Lazer Tag guns can accept an iPhone or iPod touch which is slotted into the gun in a purpose made holder. The user can then download an app from the App Store which can keep track of your gear, power levels and also setup multiplayer games with up to 23 other players.

To experience the LAZER TAG game, players download the free LAZER TAG app to their iPhone or iPod touch device, connect their device to their LAZER TAG blaster, and find themselves immersed in a world where video games and real life connect. Using either single or multi-player mode, players can engage in a LAZER TAG match featuring either real life worlds or virtual opponents. Each LAZER TAG blaster equipped with a device has a virtual firing range of over 250 feet and contains a ‘Heads Up Display’, or HUD, which allows players to keep track of their gear and remaining power, while also providing a view of the augmented reality targets and enemies in the area. A virtual leaderboard keeps track of each player’s profile and, with every successful mission, players will gain in-game access to upgradeable attacks, missions and gear. With LAZER TAG blasters, the stakes are high, the game is real. Don’t just play it, live it.

The Lazer Tag blasters will be available in August this year. A single gun will cost around $39.99. The app will be available as a few download.

Source: Engadget

The VooMoteZapper is a small accessory that clips into the dock connector of your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch and turns it into a universal infrared remote control for your TV and home theater components. Figuring out which remote controls which device, where to find batteries when they run dry, how to fix them when something goes wrong, or what to do when you can’t find them are just some of the problems we face. There are a lot of dedicated universal controls, from cheap dollar-store varieties to incredibly expensive, programable Harmony remotes already. All of them offer to make our lives simpler and easier by replacing the complexity of multiple remote controls with a single, simple solution. There are other iPhone remote adapters as well. But the VooMoteZapper looks to be one of the smallest and most elegant so far.

 Say goodbye to the days of switching from app to app or fumbling for the right remote.  The all-in-one VooMote Zapper software and hardware combine all you need for an entire home entertainment experience. With VooMote Zapper App, you don’t have to sacrifice customization for convenience. Consolidate all your remotes, TV Guide functionality (coming 2012), facebook and twitter (coming 2012) and still define custom remote layouts, programming and much more!

The VooMoteZapper can not only control single items of equipment but, like a Harmony remote, it also has the ability to be programmed with macro functions too. This enables you to program a string of commands under one function for example “Watch a movie”, this could then automatically turn on your TV, start your Blu-ray player and turn on your home theater surround sound system too.

Unlike the Harmony and other, dedicated, universal remotes, it harnesses the wonderful multitouch display of the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad for its user interface, making it far more powerful and easier to use.

The downside of course is that you need to have an iOS 5-compatible device available in your living room all the time. If you have an extra iPod touch, it won’t be a problem. If you’re trying desperately to change channels and your spouse is talking on the iPhone or your child is playing on the iPad, it could be quite frustrating.

The VooMoteZapper is available online from the Apple Store for $69.95 and is available in a few different colors like red, green, blue, pink and gray.

$69.95 – Buy now

Via: 9to5 Mac

Kenisngton and Chelsea College in the UK is planning a new course which will be devoted entirely to taking photographs with the iPhone’s camera. The course in “iPhoneography” is thought to be the first ever course of its kind in the United Kingdom.

The college says many iPhone owners struggle to use the camera properly. Students will create images using the iPhone camera and a range of “apps”. Tutor, Richard Gray, said: “all you need is a passion for photography and a creative mind.” Students are required to have their own iPhone to do the course which will begin next month. “With the right apps and skills, the iPhone can be a powerful creative tool,” said Mr Gray. “It is a great levelling force within photography. No longer do you need expensive or complex equipment to produce great images,” he added.

Mr Gray is planning on teaching students the basic rules of composition, color and light as well as editing skills using various iOS apps. He sees the iPhone as revolutionising photography by the way it allows you to take a picture, edit it and post it online all within minutes; no matter where you are. Mr Gray will also be holding a free workshop at the Apple Store in Regent Street, London in the near future.

We’ve been saying that here at iMore for years, of course. We even have a dedicated iPhone photography forum available for you to discuss the subject, share tips, and start projects. With more to come!

Source: BBC

Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday, and whether you’re cheering for the New England Patriots or the New York Giants, it’s easy to follow all the action right on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. You can stay up to date while away from home and on the road, or get all sorts of extra information while you’re watching live.

NFL Live for Verizon iPhone

If you have an iPhone on Verizon, you can take advantage of their exclusive NFL Mobile app to stream Super Bowl XLVI straight to your mobile device. It’s a universal app, though it doesn’t specifically say that live video will also be streamed to the iPad version, so if you want to be absolutely certain you see it, keep your iPhone handy. Both versions should give you the latest news, videos, as well as all the information you need to stay in the big game.

• Free – App Store link

NFL.com Super Bowl XLVI site

The NFL also has a full site up for Super Bowl 46, complete with history, events, visitors guides, live feeds, trivia, and much, much more. The mobile experience won’t quite be up to that of the desktop — which is why they made the apps — but if you want to make sure you’ve got everything covered, launch Safari on log onto NFL.com. And if you’re not on Verizon and need to watch live, you can do so from here with your Mac or Windows PC.

• Web site link

Super Bowl XLVI Guide

The official NFL Super Bowl 46 guide app will keep you up to date with maps, local happenings, and more. Whether you’ll be attending the big game in person or watching from the comfort of your home, the Super Bowl XLVI Guide is the best way to navigate through the multitude of Super Bowl events and and keep up with all the social media buzz that’s sure to be generated by millions and millions of fans.

Super Bowl XLVI Guide is compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch and is available in the App Store now.

• Free – App Store Link

Super Bowl XLVI Commemorative App for iPad

By NFL Magazine, the Super Bowl 46 commemorative app for iPad brings you the full story of how the New England Patriots and New York Giants made it to the big game, key stats, and bonus features like video, interviews, stadium shots, and more.

• $2.99 – App Store link

More Football is More

If that’s not still not enough Football for you, you can also check out our Top 5 NFL Football apps for iPhone. Whether you’re interested in play by play commentary or managing your fantasy leagues, we’ve got you covered.

Now here’s the big question — come tomorrow, who’s going to win?

Apple has removed a number of copy-cat apps from the App Store, specifically plagiaristic titles such as Tiny Birds, Temple Jump and Numbers With Friends created replicated by developer Anton Sinelnikov. Apple has made similar moves against shady developers in the past, taking down 1,000 apps in 2008 after they noticed fake 5-star reviews in the App Store.

However, the problem is greater than just a few scam apps from a few shady developer. Most of us know that these titles copy from the real deal, specifically Tiny Wings, Temple Run and Words With Friends, but new users might have a hard time telling them apart, and get a nasty surprise after they’ve drop down money only to discover they’ve been conned into buying a fake app. That creates a bad experience and might make them wary of the App Store in the future.

For legitimate developers, they lose out on the income. It’s difficult and expensive enough, especially for independent developers, to get a hit title on the App Store. When and if they finally do have a hit on their hands, they now have to worry about scammers trying to steal their sales, damage their brand, and turn off their customers. Worse yet, according to developer Kode80, scammers rely on the outrage that follows their copy-cat apps to actually gain attention and drive sales.

Should Apple be doing more to prevent copy-cat titles from hitting the App Store in the first place, and should they be making it easier to report when they do? Apple long ago appointed themselves as gate-keepers and curators, but when it comes to copyright issues, they’ve followed the common practice of waiting for a complaint and then leaving the developers involved to fight it out. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it lets bigger, more established brands bully competitors out of the App Store.

Likewise, Zynga, one of the biggest gaming companies on the planet, has been accused of copying NimbleBit’s Tiny Tower with their new game, Dream Heights. Dream Heights doesn’t present itself as a copy-cat in the App Store the way Sinelnikov’s did, with similar naming and branding intended to cause confusion, but it does duplicate the look, feel, and gameplay of a popular independent game.

Where should the line be drawn, and should Apple be the ones drawing it?

Source: The Guardian, TechCrunch; image via @tapbot_paul

As expected, Reckless Racing 2 is now available in the App Store. It is the sequel to the hugely popular racing game Reckless Racing which brought thrills and spills from the track as you slide you car around corners on dirt and tarmac.

Strap down and prepare for the ride of your life… Reckless Racing is back with more! Including a selection of 18 highly detailed cars, ranging from small dirt buggies to fast supercars, and 24 routes in a variety of flavors make this a racer for all tastes – both dirt and tarmac.Compete in the Career mode to earn money for new cars and car upgrades. Have a quick race in the Arcade mode with 40 pre-defined challenges. Compete against your friends on the leaderboards in Single Event mode – including Race, Hot Lap and Elimination events.Tune your car in the garage to match your driving style with a vast selection of parts and upgrades. Whether you are a reckless power slider or a slick race driver, make your car the way YOU want it.

• Probably the best power slides in the world
• Tune and tweak the performance, handling, tires, rims and colors of your cars
• Shader based game engine with normal maps, reflections, specularity, shadows, particles and more
• Improved and optimized shaders for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S
• Online leaderboards with downloadable ghost cars
• Online multiplayer over the Internet
• 17 characters, including your favorites from Reckless Racing 1
• 5 control layouts with customizable button positions
• Optional assists, such as race lines, mini map, chase camera and more

• App Store link

Avid Studio is a new app that lets you edit video, audio and photographs right on your iPad. And if you think Apple’s iPad version of iMovie has just gotten some real competition in the video editing space — you’re right.

Avid and Apple have been battling it out for years now in the professional space, with Avid’s high end movie editing kit seeing competition from Apple’s much lower priced Final Cut Studio. Several prominent directors switched from Avid to make high profile movies using Final Cut. Following Apple’s recent re-invention of the digital editing model with Final Cut X, they faced a lot of push back from unhappy editors who missed features or simply didn’t like the new software. Apple did, however, achieve some consistency across their editing software, with everything from iMovie on iPhone and iPad, to iMovie on Mac, to Final Cut Pro embracing similar user interface and design concepts.

Now Avid is bringing the battle back to Apple, and on Apple’s mobile turf for a change. We’ll have a full hands-on, and a side-by-side comparison with iMovie coming your ways soon. In the meantime, here are all the details on Avid Studio for iPad.

Big-screen moviemaking comes to the touchscreen with Avid® Studio for iPad. We’ve distilled the world’s leading film-editing technology into an easy-to-use app that enables you to edit video, audio, and photos at the speed of your creativity. Swiftly arrange your clips in the Storyboard, make precision edits using the Timeline, and add high-quality transitions, effects, and a soundtrack. Then share your movie directly to YouTube, Facebook, and more—or export your project to Avid Studio for the PC and continue editing with even more advanced tools.

Easily Access Your Media

• Work with any media on your device—video, audio, and photos
• Access media from external devices via an iPad Camera Connection Kit (sold separately)
• Capture video and photos from within the app
• See your media organized by Albums, Events, Faces, and more

• Get started quickly with how-to materials
• Easily navigate your project with intuitive gestures
• Swiftly arrange clips in the Storyboard
• Make precise edits and trim individual frames in the Precision Trimmer
• Use the Razor Blade tool to cut on the fly and delete or replace the second half of the clip
• Easily replace one clip with another

• Quickly create multi-layer 3D animations, transitions, and titles with included Montage templates
• Easily composite video tracks to create layered looks
• Add high-quality fades and dissolves to help your story flow
• Generate professional-looking motion titles and graphics with full control over text, font, color, size, position, and rotation
• Create amazing Picture-in-Picture effects with full control over position, size, and rotation
• Pan and zoom on your photos to create high-impact slideshows
• Enjoy full-screen playback

• Use your own audio or choose from the included sound effects
• Trim audio to any length, set levels, and fade audio in or out

• Easily share movies via YouTube, Facebook, email, and more
• Export projects to Avid Studio for the PC

• Created by Avid, the maker of the world’s leading film and music editing technology
• Easy enough for the hobbyist, powerful enough for the pro

• App Store link

Flipboard, the hugely popular iPhone and iPad social magazine app, has announced that it can now deliver customized content guides for four more countries, including UK, Ireland, Canada and Australia.

Anyone who has his or her iPad or iPhone region set to one of those countries automatically receive the local edition of their Content Guide when they tap on the red ribbon in the top right corner of Flipboard. To switch back to the “original” Content Guide, set your device’s country setting to United States.

The four new content areas are in addition to the other areas which are already supported. These are China, France, Taiwan, Hong Kong and of course the United States.

• Free – App Store link

Source: Inside Flipboard

A Police officer in New York used his own iPhone to catch a thief and retrieve a victim’s iPhone after she was robbed in a handbag store on Thursday night. A man walked into the store brandishing a black handgun and took the woman’s iPhone.

After a fruitless canvass of the area, one officer, Robert Garland, tried another tack. Using the 24-year-old victim’s iTunes account information and the iCloud feature on his own phone, Mr. Garland was able to track the victim’s iPhone. Officers then followed the cyber-scent to the area near 49th Street and Eighth Avenue. As they searched the area, the suspect, who the police said had placed the phone in his boot, walked past the officers. The victim’s phone began to beep. And, soon, the suspect was placed under arrest.

Source: The New York Times

Valve has released Steam Mobile for iPhone and iPod touch into the App Store. Sort of. It is available to download and install on your iOS device, but unfortunately you need to be part of a limited beta to actually begin to use it. We are sure this will change fairly soon but it is very frustrating for those gamers that use Steam and want to use the app now.

With the free Steam app for iOS, you can participate in the Steam community wherever you go. Chat with your Steam friends, browse community groups and user profiles, read the latest gaming news and stay up to date on unbeatable Steam sales.

• Connect with friends:  Steam on your mobile phone is the easiest way to keep up with your Steam friends while on the go.
• Steam Chat: Now you can take your Steam chats away from your computer with Steam for iOS and Android.
• Shop Steam: Browse the extensive Steam library of Windows and Mac titles from your phone. Find out about Steam sales wherever you are.

The Steam Mobile app is available for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. It is not a universal binary so you are looking at 2x mode on your iPad. Hopefully Valve will rectify that soon as well.

• App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Microsoft has launched another app for the iPad, this time it is MSN UK. MSN UK is brings all the latest news, sport and entertainment from the UK right to your iPad.

The MSN experience is now enhanced on iPad – easily swipe to find your favourite news, sport and entertainment articles and videos. Excited about something you read on MSN for iPad? Just tap and share with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

• Reading articles on MSN for iPad feels natural, no matter how you hold your iPad – in either portrait or landscape modes. We’ve added popular photo galleries, slideshows and videos to add depth to what you’re browsing. You can even download stories to your iPad for when you’re not connected to a network later. Need to dig deeper on something you just read? We’ve built Bing right into the top of the app for easy searching.
• Popular photo galleries and slideshows
• Quick access to Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger
• View in portrait and landscape modes, whatever is easier for you
• Send feedback to the MSN team – let us know what you think

If the iPad’s Auto-Lock is set to 2 or 5 minutes, the downloading of an issue of MSN for offline viewing may be interrupted when the iPad locks the screen. You may see the dialog box showing that the download is in progress, but the background downloading of the issue may have stopped. Tap Cancel to close the dialog box. You may need to close and restart the app to resume the offline download.

• App Store link

Reckless Racing 2 is expected to have many new features including a full single player campaign, longer and more dangerous tracks, better graphics and new car models. No news on pricing or if this will be a universal app for all platforms. We will let you know as soon as we find out anymore.

Source: Pocket Gamer

McGraw Hill CEO, Terry McGraw has paid a huge amount of credit to Steve Jobs over the launch of iBooks 2, which brought the availability of low price textbooks on the iPad.  Speaking to the press after Apple’s education event yesterday, McGraw was asked a number of questions by All Things D reporter Peter Kafka. He was asked why now for digital textbooks as Apple had been talking to publishers for the last few years.

Sitting and listening to all of this, I wish Steve Jobs was here. I was with him in June this past year, and we were talking about some of the benchmarks, and some of the things that we were trying to do together. He should be here. He probably is [gesturing up and around]. This was his vision, this was his idea, and it all had to do with the iPad.

We’ll do whatever we can to make this the most meaningful space. And the person, or, well, Steve Jobs and Apple, have done more, in terms of creating this personalized learning platform than anyone.

Source: All Things D

Time Warner has just updated its TWC TV app and it is now fully compatible with the iPhone and iPod touch. Since its launch back in March 2011, it has been an iPad only app, but not any longer. If you are a Time Warner Cable subscriber, you can now watch live TV, manage your DVR and change channels on your set-top box on your iPhone and iPod touch.

If you are a Time Warner Cable video subscriber, the FREE TWC TV app turns your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch into another TV screen and lets you watch selected live cable channels while in your home, through your wireless home network. Watch Bravo from your bedroom, take Food Network with you to the kitchen or catch up on CNBC news from the breakfast table.

• Interactive program guide (IPG) – up to 7 days of listings. View detailed show descriptions including box art. Option to display “HD only” or “favorites only” by creating a favorite channel list.
• Search – search for programming by title or episode name and filter results by genre
• Set-top box tuning – tap on a network logo or “watch on TV” button within the program description to tune compatible set-top boxes directly to the channel
• DVR management – schedule one-time and series recordings on compatible DVRs directly from the IPG. Tap on the “DVR” button to see a list of all upcoming recordings and make changes or cancel recordings

Google has officially launched its Orkut app for iPhone, letting users of Brazil and India’s favorite social network access the service on-the-go.

The official Orkut app for iOS connects you to your friends and family. Now you can send scraps, see your friends updates, upload photos and browse your friends albums anywhere you go. Never miss a conversation again because you are not in front of your computer: get the free Orkut app and stay connected.

• Update your status
• Check your scraps and messages
• Reply to your friends birthdays
• Check your friends updates
• Browse your friends profiles, scraps and photos
• Take new photos and upload them directly to your Orkut albums
• Share your life anywhere, anytime with the people you care about

Although Orkut isn’t as popular as Facebook in most parts of the world, the Google-owned social network that’s not Google+ has gained popularity in Brazil and India, where roughly 80 percent of its active user base resides.

Orkut is available now in the App Store and is compatible with the iPhone and iPod touch.

• Free — App Store Link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Woz, a known Android fan, thinks the Android OS is more functional than iOS in many ways. Even though an iPhone is his primary device he still wishes his iPhone would perform some of the tasks his Android devices do.

“if you’re willing to do the work to understand it a little bit, well I hate to say it, but there’s more available in some ways…

I agree with his statement even though I’m strictly an iOS user. I still manage to find a reason to jailbreak when Apple decides to omit the features that I want. Not only is feature set an on-going issue for Apple but the fact that iOS is exclusive to Apple. Android being open source to the end user is arguable as well. It’s open to the manufacturers and carriers, not the user. Android is still available for licensing to all manufacturers while Apple is the only company with rights to distribute iOS.

Woz also said he thinks Apple’s approval process for apps slows developers down compared to Android’s model. He was a long time user of Siri until Apple purchased it. He claims it doesn’t work as well as it did when it was an independent application.

Do you think Apple’s strict curation of the App Store and need for control is what pushes users towards Android?

Source: The Daily Beast

Apple has snuck a couple of new features into their apps pages in iTunes, specifically an information popup with tabbed content remarkably similar to how Google presents Android Market details. We know that in the past Android has been accused of copying Apple, but like Notification Center this time it looks like Apple is the one caught with their fingers in the copy jar.

The iTunes pop-up windows are activated by a new information icon which will appear when hovering over an app icon. The purpose of this is to make things easier — the information appears right in front of you now without having to click through and load a new page. Movies and TV shows are also getting in on the action, although they’ll have a play button to preview a clip of the video instead.

Source: MacRumors; @sdw

Namco Bandai has announced that it will be bringing its weapons based fighting game Soul Calibur to the App Store this week. Soul Calibur was originally launched in arcades back in 1998 and has also been available for the Sega Dreamcast and more recently the Xbox 360.

The iOS port of the classic arcade and Dreamcast fighting game features all 19 fighters and a mode list that includes arcade battle, time attack, survival, extra survival, practice and museum modes. Of these, time attack, survival and extra survival are compatible with Game Center’s Leader Boards.

Source: Andriasang

OnLive Desktop has now gone live in the App Store. OnLive Desktop is an app which will provide a cloud based Windows 7 experience for iPad users. The OnLive Desktop app will give users access to a Windows desktop experience without the need for any VNC or remote desktop connections. It is all stored in the cloud and accessible from your iPad or a desktop machine.

OnLive Desktop is a service that provides a seamless, no-compromise, instant-response cloud-based PC desktop, wherever and whenever you want it. OnLive brings to your iPad a high-performance PC experience, regardless of the content, even when interacting with fast-action media. Based on groundbreaking video compression technology, OnLive harnesses the power of cloud computing to deliver a seamless, no-compromise remote PC desktop solution.

• Instantly view, edit and create documents using actual Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Easily transfer files between OnLive Desktop and other devices
• Experience high-performance, instant-response PC applications
• Interact with lag-free animation and video

• App Store link

Mole Kart has arrived in the App Store and if you are looking for a game that resembles the original Nintendo Mario Kart, you need look no further. After Nintendo sees how this game looks and plays, we are sure it will be talking with its legal team.

Your favorite Mole characters come together to battle it out in an adrenaline-fueled race to the finish line. They are zooming on to your iPhone and iPad for party racing showdown.Test your skills across different landscapes and unique tracks, ranging from freezing glaciers, cliffhanging mountains, waterfalls and even Mole’s World. Experience new challenges, all kinds of monsters, extraordinary gameplay and much more! Challenge up to four friends over WiFi or Bluetooth.

• Choose from 7 unique tracks, set in Mole Pasture,X.Mushroom,Sky Remnant, Mole’s Garden and other fantasy environments.
• Go through completing challenges and watch out for outrageous monsters that may await you at any turn!
• 6 iconic Mole characters, each has a custom built vehicle with special abilities to match against tough terrains and all racing conditions.
• Whether racing around an obstacle-filled track or battling in an arena, drifting and tossing items are the keys to Mole Kart success. You can toss a prop to temporarily boost their speed or create an explosion to block competitors. 19 super cool power-ups to outwit your opponents and enhance your racing experience!
• Manual or automatic modes! Experience the ultimate drifting by tilting the device or controlling the virtual stick.
• Local Multiplayer Mode: Battle up to four friends online either on WiFi or Bluetooth.
• Excellent graphic and 3D experience, feel the thrill of racing like never before!

• App Store link

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Sony is bringing its Music Unlimited service to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch later this year. Music Unlimited is Sony’s subscription based streaming music service and will be available as an app for all iOS devices.

Sony’s decision to offer the service, touted as the Japanese company’s answer to Apple’s iTunes, on iOS devices speaks to Apple’s presence in the all-important smartphone and tablet markets as well as Sony’s willingness to do whatever it takes to expand the reach of its content services.The Music Unlimited service, along with Sony’s video and videogame offerings, functions as the glue holding together the links between the Japanese conglomerate’s entertainment businesses and electronics products.

Source: WSJ

The TomTom App for iPhone and iPad will be the first to use social networks as a source for turn-by-turn navigation. It can automatically plan routes based on information from Facebook events, places and friends. Drivers can also use the App to share their destination and arrival time on Twitter, Facebook, by email and SMS text.

Source: TomTom PR

Shazam has launched a new app called Shazam Player which can be used as an alternative to the inbuilt Music app on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Shazam Player lets you stream lyrics for supported tunes as well as view a huge store of information on the band or artist you are currently listening to.

Switch to a music player with a difference – Shazam Player™ the NEW app from Shazam! Why just listen to your music when you can now see streaming lyrics, watch YouTube videos and read reviews of your favorite tracks and artists! Get to know your music with Shazam Player. It’s your music. Shazam Player lets you do more with it.

• Bring your music to life with LyricPlay. See streaming lyrics in time to the music – you’ll always have the words to your favorite songs with you
• Share the soundtrack of your day on Facebook and Twitter
• Watch YouTube videos and concert clips
• Find tour dates for the bands and artists you’re into
• Manage your music – see your iTunes playlists and create new playlists on the fly
• Select your favorite tracks and hide ones you don’t want to hear
• Add to your music – buy new tracks on iTunes from within the app
• View music by artist/album/title and use the Track Tray to see all the great Shazam features available for each song
• Top tracks – a changing list of LyricPlay tracks – buy them straight from the app if you don’t already own them
• Identify new music you’re hearing by instantly launching the Shazam App

• Text input (yes!)
• Tagging
• Page Search
• Twitter & Facebook Integration
• A number of usability improvements across the app

[$4.99 - App Store link]

Consisting of two initial products, the WeMo Home Control Switch and the WeMo Motion Sensor, WeMo is a customizable, accessible home automation solution designed to simplify home maintenance and bring peace of mind to busy families and individuals on the go. WeMo works with a home’s existing electrical system and requires only a Wi-Fi network and free smartphone app to set up and control. Simply plug the WeMo Home Control Switch into any electrical outlet and then plug in any device, such as a lamp, into the WeMo Home Control Switch. Through the free smartphone app, the item then can be turned on or off remotely or scheduled to turn on and off at set times. The second product in the line is the WeMo Motion Sensor, which works with the WeMo Home Control Switch to make your device react to motion. Used together, WeMo can create a home environment that can turn a light on when someone walks in a room, or off when no one is present.

Source: Belkin PR

OnLive, better known for its online gaming service has just announced that it will be launching a cloud based Windows 7 experience for iPad users. The OnLive Desktop app will give users access to a Windows desktop experience without the need for any VNC or remote desktop connections. It is all stored in the cloud and accessible from your iPad or a desktop machine.

OnLive has just re-imagined what’s possible on iPad with the OnLive Desktop app, available Thursday in the iTunes App Store. Launching a brand-new chapter for OnLive (and everyone), OnLive Desktop gives users instant access to a seamless Windows desktop experience, with full-featured Microsoft Office applications and 2 GB of free cloud storage for secure file access anywhere. Need to edit a Word doc with redlines and comments? No problem. Need to give some oomph to that PowerPoint deck for your meeting? Go for it: present animations and slide transitions, edit diagrams and embed videos. Desperate for a pivot table in Excel? Pivot away … Anything you can do on your office desktop, you will be able to do on your iPad—at home, in your hotel, anywhere.

OnLive also plan on offering some more advanced versions of the app too. OnLive Desktop Pro will offer up to 50GB of storage, priority access to apps, full-featured cloud-accelerated browsing and additional PC applications for a subscription of $9.99 a month. OnLive Enterprise will allow complete customization for business and organizations and OnLive collaborative services will offer thousands of users to simultaneously view, control and discuss a shared desktop via voice chat.

Source: OnLive

Photography app specialists Interealtime has just released an update to its highly acclaimed True NightVison app. The app uses special light capture techniques which allow much darker photographs to be taken using the iPhone camera.

Looking for powerful light amplification tech that fits in your pocket? You came to the right place. True NightVision features advanced image enhancement AND unique light gathering modes. Combined, they make this the most potent night vision app available on the App Store. How does it work? It uses a live camera view and special photo enhancement techniques capable of producing a decent image at high speed (we’re talking fluid 30fps action here!) even where it’s way too dark for the iPhone’s camera app.

• Speed: For full motion, 30fps action use
• High: Balances speed and light enhancement, good for regular use
• Still: High level light enhancement, but requires a steady hand
• Max: Ultimate light enhancement for stationary use
• Improved zoom: Up to 8x zoom on iPhone 4/4S, up to 4x on 3GS
• Enhancement is now set to 50% initially
• Speed fix for iPhone 4s

• App Store link

ChatON is an instant messaging app that supports multi-platform chat across iOS, Android and Samsung Bada platform. Soon the app will also be available for BlackBerry and Windows Phone as well, so it will cover most platforms. What makes it really interesting is… the app was made by Apple largest Android rival — Samsung.

ChatON is a Global Mobile Communication Service that enables you to have better relationships with your buddies or groups. ChatON brings together all of these methods of communication, expression, and sharing in one place.

• ChatON supports multi platforms and devices. Users can chat freely through ChatON.
• Currently, ChatON supports iOS, Android, Bada, Samsung Feature and will support Blackberry, Window mobile, web soon.
• ChatON provides multi ways to make your communication richer.
• 1:1 Chat, Group Chat, Broadcast, Drawing Message, Picture, Video, Voice, Location, Contact, Calendar.
• Using ChatON, create your own unique drawing message by hand drawing etc.
• ChatON provides group management feature for easy group chat
• ChatON provides Interaction rank which informs you how often you chat with your buddies.
• For every chat room, you can easily see all sent images and videos in a Trunk.
• Something to say for your buddies? Use ‘Buddies Say’!

• App Store link

ABI Research has a new study claiming the iPad App Store has hit three billion downloads since it debuted in 2010.

The iPhone took as long as two years before being able to achieve this level of downloads, while the iPad made it within nearly a year and a half.

This would represent roughly 19 percent of all iOS App Store downloads combined, a significant slice of the pie in terms of Apple’s mobile ecosystem.

In comparison, Android tablets only have around 440 million app downloads thus far, or just a little under one sixth of the amount from Apple’s fledgling — but wildly successful — tablet device.

Source: ABI Research

CloudOn, a free iPad app that offered Microsoft Office functionality with Dropbox support, appeared briefly in the App Store yesterday before going up in a puff of smoke a short time later.

CloudOn has responded saying their app has “sold out”, but we think this may have had something to do with server overload.

Thanks for your support of CloudOn! We’re currently sold out. We look forward to the feedback we will receive as we continue to support the many users that have registered in this first phase.

The fact that CloudOn came with full Dropbox support for storing and managing office files on-the-go was a great idea for power users, and the overall offering is unique in respect to beating Microsoft to the punch at their own game. This could be another reason the app is no longer available, as Microsoft could have called shenanigans if CloudOn didn’t go through the appropriate channels before release.

I gave it a quick whirl when it was actually up and running, and noticed the app was somewhat sluggish from the get-go (probably due to how much it relies on the cloud backend to get things done paired with the influx of users hammering their servers).

We’ll let you know as soon as CloudOn is back in the App Store. In the meantime, here’s its description:

• Use Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint on your iPad to create or edit documents.
• Rename, delete and manage documents with your Dropbox account
• Display, edit or create charts, change formatting, spell check, insert comments, into any Word, Excel or PowerPoint files
• Track changes while reviewing Word documents
• Use pivot tables and insert formulas in Excel workbooks
• Display and edit animation or transitions in PowerPoint presentations
• Present in full PowerPoint mode (not in PDF)
• Open files directly from your iPad email accounts or Dropbox account
• Automatically save documents to avoid losing changes

Source: CloudOn

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Kids have access to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and curious how to prevent them from deleting your App Store apps the moment you’re not looking? They’re fun and games can cause a lot of additional work for you if you’re not careful. Luckily, Apple lets you lock down app deletion.

1. Jump into the Settings app.
2. Tap General settings.
3. Next, tap Restrictions.
4. At this point, you’ll be prompted to enter your 4-digit passcode if you have one set, or create one if you don’t.
5. Scroll down and switch Deleting Apps to ‘OFF’.

That’s it! Now, if you ever hand over your iPhone to a friend or family member, they’ll have no ability to accidentally remove or delete your favorite apps from the iPhone Home screen.

**Bonus Tip: Using an older version of iOS that doesn’t provide for app deletion restriction? If you’re jailbroken check out No Uninstall in Cydia, which removes the ability to delete apps from the iPhone Home screen.

Daily Tips range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com.

Lock Screen Weather is a clever app that allows you to display local weather information and graphics on the iPhone Lock screen without requiring a jailbreak.

• Current weather conditions on your Lock Screen
• Optional five-day weather forecast displayed below current weather
• Tens of thousands of cities around the world supported
• Current weather and forecasts updated automatically and according to where you are (optional)
• Background sounds captured right in the nature (optional)
• Both Fahrenheit (℉) and Celsius (℃) scales supported
• Originally designed graphic assets reflecting every significant weather change

The way it works is by playing a silent track through the iPod app, then using the album art for the track to display the weather based on locations you set within the app settings. Because of the dynamic abilities of how album art is displayed in the iPod app, and subsequently shown whenever you lock your iPhone or iPod touch, this app essentially tricks the iPhone into displaying updated Lock screen weather without breaking any of Apple’s strict developer guidelines.

The only drawback is, whenever you have the app running to display weather on the Lock screen, you won’t be able to listen to any music from the iPod app (or any other App Store app that uses audio output or album art, such as Pandora). This is, however, a very adept workaround and gets the job done without the need to jailbreak and install apps like IntelliscreenX.

• $0.99 — App Store Link

Having trouble finding what you need in the app store? Send us an email to news@tipb.com and let us know what you’re looking for, and we’ll do our best to find you just the right App for That!

I tend to go through phases where I can continually change the apps I have on my home page, and the apps I use the most. There are however five apps that will never leave their prime positions. These are my most-used apps, the ones I can’t function without, the ones I use everyday, over and over again.

Tweetbot

I love Twitter, it has opened up a whole new world for me, I have friends on Twitter from all over the planet that share my interests. Tweetbot is in my opinion the most elegant and user friendly of all the Twitter apps available on the App Store. Every time I open it, it makes me smile, the subtle sound effects and smooth sliding animations are really well done. It may lack a few features compared with other apps but I would rather give them up just to use this app, it is that good!

$2.99 –  App Store link

HulloMail

One of the frustrations of moving your iPhone from the O2 network in the UK, is that it is currently the only network to support Visual Voicemail. Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange and 3 all skipped this really nice feature. So what are your options? Well HulloMail does a really good job of filling the gap. It is basically Visual Voicemail with loads more additional features.

The HulloMail iPhone app offers an easy way to manage your voicemails visually, send, receive and share voicemails, instant voice messaging to mobile and email, no matter which operator you use. There are two versions of HulloMail, a free version which is ad supported and a paid version which costs $8.99 a year via in-app subscription. The subscription version gives you some extra features like an ad-free service for a year, individual greetings, longer voicemails of up to 5 minutes and priority access to more features in the coming months.

If your network does not support visual voicemail, give HulloMail a try, it is an excellent voicemail management tool.

• Free –  App Store link

Reeder

Being a news editor for TiPb means I have to keep on top of the news at all times. I use Google Reader on my notebook but when I am mobile, I use Reeder. It is super clean, super fast and really easy to use. Of course it syncs with Google Reader too so I never have to read anything twice. I use it on my iPhone 4S as well as  Reeder for iPad on my iPad 2. Both work equally well with speed being the key ingredient.

• $4.99 – iPad App Store Link
• $2.99 – iPhone App Store Link

Air Video

Air Video is a fantastic app that can transcode and stream video content from your Windows PC or Mac straight to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. It now includes AirPlay support so you can beam all your content onto the big screen too.

Your Windows PC or Mac needs a small piece of software installed to communicate with your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad but once setup you can stream native iOS video content (MP4 and M4V) instantly to your device (rather than having to sync it over first via iTunes). Air Video will also convert non-supported video formats (AVI, MKV, etc) and either store them for later viewing or stream them on the fly so you can watch now rather than having to wait.

Air Video is an excellent app that gives me instant access to over 2TB of media on my networked drives. There are two versions, a free version which limits the number of displayed items in each folder and the paid version which removes those limits. Both versions are universal apps; so work great on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

• Free – App Store Link
• $2.99 – App Store Link

LiveScore

LiveScore is a fantastic free app that provides real time scores from many sporting events around the world; with a particular emphasis on soccer scores. Every match in the UK league is covered along with most other countries. With this app you will know about goals, yellow cards, red cards, substitutions, you name it, seconds after they happen.

The application comes directly from LiveScore Ltd., the inventors of real-time delivery of live sport data and owners of the no.1 ranked football / soccer web site globally. No country restrictions either,  fast access to scores and it is a universal binary too.

• Free –  App Store link

If you want to celebrate the beginning of the New Year, Times Square is an awesome place to do it. Unfortunately for most, it is not possible to be there but at least there is an app that will let you see what’s going on and even get you and your family’s picture on the huge Toshiba Vision screen.

Join millions of revelers around the world to celebrate New Year’s Eve LIVE. The Official Times Square Ball App is your exclusive access to be part of the activities in Times Square as you watch the LIVE co-hosted official show featuring opening ceremonies, musical performances, celebrity appearances, hourly countdowns and the midnight Ball Drop!

• Participate in the celebration by submitting your New Year’s photo for friends, family and other revelers to vote on their favorites and possibly be selected to be seen on the Toshiba Vision screen atop One Times Square directly beneath the Waterford Crystal New Year’s Eve Ball on December 31st! The selected photos will also be featured on the LIVE Show.
• Discover everything you need to know about the Times Square New Year’s Eve Celebration including the history, news, weather, photos, map and event schedule.
• Send New Year’s Eve ecards and share photos with friends and family.
• Watch live streaming of the events in Times Square leading up to New Year’s Eve throughout December as well as the highlight promo and other exclusive video content.
• Customize your Toshiba Countdown Clock with your personal photo and time zone.
• Check-in via Facebook, Four Square, and Twitter to find out how far away you are from Times Square and get directions to special places at the Crossroads of the World.
• Put your face on Toshiba Vision with 5 new ways to upload
• New always-on webcam + livestream of countdown event
• Updated cards to send to friends and family
• Updated design for 2012

• App Store link

The Mac Security Blog warns of a new phishing scam in circulation that tries to trick users into updating their Apple ID billing information, in hopes of stealing it for nefarious purposes.

A vast phishing attack has broken out, beginning on or around Christmas day, with e-mails being sent with the subject “Apple update your Billing Information.” These well-crafted e-mails could fool many new Apple users, especially those who may have found an iPhone, iPod or iMac under their Christmas tree, and set up accounts with the iTunes Store or the Mac App Store for the first time. The messages claim to come from “appleid@id.apple.com.”

The email looks pretty legitimate, but upon hovering over the link you’ll notice it points to an obviously fake Apple website asking you to enter your Apple ID credentials, and it’s all downhill from there.

As always, never click on links in an email — type them in yourself in a browser. When you get phishing emails, mark as spam and wash your hands of the worry. Done and done.

Source: The Mac Security Blog via CNET

9to5 Mac has word that Facebook for iPad will be getting the new Timeline feature in late January.

Timeline was supposed to come to the iPad in December, but the release has been pushed back due to last minute bugs found during advanced testing. Facebook is now planning to launch the update between mid-January and late January.

Facebook recently updated their iPhone app to include the new Timeline profile layout, but the iPad app was noticeably lacking in that respect.

The Timeline feature is said to work very well on the iPad’s larger, multi-touch screen, and will be a “fusion of the web and iPhone/iPod touch version”. I’m personally looking forward to this, and it couldn’t come any quicker.

Source: 9to5Mac

Apple’s iOS device activation numbers spiked 353% on Christmas Day. In addition, app sales jumped 252% after millions of people opened their new iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and iPod touch and headed straight for the App Store.

Estimates from Flurry Analytics peg iOS and Android device activations averaging around 1.5 million per day, but Christmas day saw around 6.8 million devices activated.

In terms of App Store and Android Market downloads, estimates suggest the number of apps purchased on Christmas day more than doubled from 108 million downloads per day in December, all the way up to roughly 242 million downloads across iOS and Android devices.

To make things interesting, Localytics also issued a report indicating a 15 fold increase in iOS device activations, with the iPod touch seeing as high as a 21 fold jump (most likely due to the low cost of entry into the iOS ecosystem). This contrasts the difference between how analysis of sales and App Store purchases are calculated, but the main point remains the same.

Apple had a huge Christmas day.

Source: Flurry, Localytics

If you want to become a master of Infinity Blade II, its developers have shared a number of great tips to get you on your way. Infinity Blade II is the sequel to the hugely successful original infinity Blade and it makes full use of the iPhone and iPad’s gaming capabilities to deliver stunning visuals and game play. There are a total of sixteen tips which we have listed below.

• Parry an enemy weapon by either swiping in the same direction as the enemy weapon strike or by swiping in the opposite direction.
• Pay attention to gem modifiers and equip them to get more gems or more gold.
• Save super moves and magic for the battles when you are really going to need them.
• Equip a Gold+ gem to earn more money quickly.
• Use a Health Regen potion before a difficult Titan to constantly heal throughout the battle.
• Keep an eye out for hidden keys. They are small and difficult to see, but they can open great treasures.
• When playing the Heavy class, doing a successful parry will also give you a block charge back.
• A successful parry will open up a Titan to more combo hits than a dodge or block.
• Perfect blocks prevent elemental damage from a Titan attack even if you don’t have the right elemental defense; it also reduces the block damage.
• Perfect parries increase the hit window on a Titan.
• To maximize damage with Heavy weapons make sure you plan to do the combo hit at the natural end of the hit window, as the slash attack always ends the hit window.
• To pull off an ultra combo with dual weapons you need to do left/right/up (or some rotated version) attacks when you are in the combo hit mode.
• Titans will tend to have the same elemental attack as each other during a Rebirth, equipping the right gems/equipment to defend against them is worth it.
• Titans are weak to the opposite elemental of their attack. If a Titan has a fire attack he will take double damage from ice elemental and ice magic.
• Using dual weapons allows you to do multiple combos, one after the other.
• Learn which moves cannot be blocked or parried, then dodge these moves.

• App Store – link

Source: Epic Games

Apple has launched its 12 Days of Christmas app for the third year running. The app offers free content from iTunes for twelve days between December 26^th and January 6^th. Today you can access three live audio tracks and three live videos from Coldplay’s recent appearance at the iTunes Festival in London earlier this year.

Each day between now and January 6^th, when you open the app, new content will be available for free. Last year this included music, movies, books and apps. It is offered by Apple as an introduction for new iOS users to get to know how iTunes works and also as a thank you for existing users too.

Apple’s 12 Days of Christmas is only available in Canada and most parts of Europe; strangely the United States is not part of the promotion. The app is compatible with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad.

• App Store – link

Action Movie FX is a new app that lets you add special effects to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch videos. When we say special effects, we don’t mean boring old effects, we mean Hollywood spectacular explosions, missile attacks and car smashes.

Action Movie FX lets you add Hollywood FX using your iPhone’s video camera! You direct the action! and free for a limited time – 2 Movie FX packs!! Select a Scene like “Missile Attack,” film a target and Action Movie FX adds an incoming missile and its explosion right into your movie!

• 2 FREE Big-Budget FX! MISSILE ATTACK & CAR SMASH!
• Sound Design By Skywalker Sound!
• Fast, Automated Video Tracking!
• Music, Sound FX and Lens Flares!
• Post to Facebook or Email to friends!

Action Movie FX is free in the App Store and comes with two special effects built in. There is also the option to add two more effects bundles which you can get via in-app purchase. The Chopper Down and Tornado Action bundle and an Airstrike and Fire Fights Attack bundle; each at a cost of $0.99.

Action Movie FX supports the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and iPod touch 4^th Generation only.

• Free – App Store link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

iMame has been taken out of the App Store by Apple as fast and stealthily as it originally appeared. The app first made its official appearance earlier this week and we thought then that it could be leading a bit of a charmed life.

Mame is a hugely popular app on other platforms as it is an emulator for retro arcade cabinet games from the early 1980’s. The App Store version was a more locked down app that came with a number of built in games but no official way to get more games into the app. This we assume is how the developer managed to gain Apple’s approval.

On other platforms, Mame is all about downloading ROM images of old arcade games of which the legality is highly questionable. The iOS version was not advertised as having this ability to accept ROMS from outside sources; but it didn’t take users long to discover how to do just that. We assume that this may well be the reason that Apple has decided to pull the app!

Source: iTunes

Capcom has released what I consider one of the best action games of all time, Mega Man X, in the App Store for iPhone and iPad.

• Beautiful Game Graphics Supporting Retina Display — The nostalgic graphics of “MEGA MAN X” are optimized for the iPhone’s Retina Display.

• Two Different Display Modes – In addition to a “Regular Mode,” a “Full Mode” is available to display the game in full screen.

• Multiple Difficulty Levels

• Ranking Mode with Game Center Support

• 80 Challenges with Game Center Support (The first 20 challenges are not supported by Game Center)

• Support Items Provide Advantages for Game play

One important thing to note is device compatibility. Mega Man X supports the following devices:

• iPhone 3G, 4 and 4S with iOS 4.3 and up
• 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch models, except for 8GB iPod touch units with Model No. A1288 (your iPod touch model number is located on the back of the device)

Mega Man X is available for $4.99

• App Store Link

Source: Capcom

iMame has just appeared in the App Store, it is a hugely popular app on other platforms as it is an emulator for retro arcade cabinet games from the early 1980’s. The official version comes with a set of seven games pre-installed with no official way to add any more games.

iMAME is an application designed to recreate the hardware of arcade game systems in software on modern personal computers and other platforms. The intention is to preserve gaming history by preventing vintage games from being lost or forgotten.

• Circus
• Crash
• Fire One
• Hard Hat
• Robot Bowl
• Side Track
• Spectar
• Star Fire
• Targ

If it is easy to add other game ROMS without the need to jailbreak, the app will probably have a short life in the App Store. We recommend you grab this one as soon as you can. iMame is a universal app and also includes support for the iCade.

• Free – App Store Link

Market research firm Distimo has issued a new report detailing the huge gains the App Store has made in China.

When comparing the two countries, the Chinese App Store for iPhone devices was just 18 percent of download volume vs the U.S. at the beginning of 2011. By November, that share had climbed to 30 percent, meaning China jumped from less than a quarter to nearly a third over a 10-month period. The numbers are even more interesting when examining the iPad: China’s take is just south of 50 percent of combined downloads between the two countries.

This doesn’t come as a huge surprise given the size of the Chinese market. More interesting, however, is that iPad app downloads have now jumped up to a staggering 50 percent of App Store sales for Apple, making it a straight split between the two markets.

China is now the second largest market for Apple next to the U.S. as of June, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be loosing momentum anytime soon.

Source: GigaOM

Kindle has updated their iPhone and iPad app to version 2.9, which now includes support for newspapers, magazines and textbooks. Here’s the full update log:

iPad:

• New Design for Magazines: Kindle for iPad customers now have access to the huge selection of over 400 magazines and newspapers that are available on Kindle Fire. Magazines such as Martha Stewart Living, Food Network Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, Popular Science and many more are displayed in rich full-color pages. Customers can buy a single issue or subscribe to popular magazines and leading newspapers and have them wirelessly delivered to the Kindle for iPad app.
• Read print replica textbooks including rich formatting and layout of the print editions and support for notes and highlights, zoom and pan, and linked table of contents.

iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch: – Email documents to your new Send-to-Kindle e-mail address and we deliver them to your device. The documents are automatically archived in the Amazon Cloud and available for re-download on your iOS or supported Kindle devices. – Open PDFs from Mail or Safari, by transferring them from iTunes, or by sending them to your Send-to-Kindle email address. The Kindle PDF reader supports PDF table of contents and thumbnail navigation for quickly jumping through the document. – New library organization allows you to view your Kindle Books, Newsstand, and Docs.

Kindle for iOS is one of the better eBook reading apps out there, which even rivals Apple’s own iBooks in a lot of respects. I, for one, personally prefer iBooks, but this update may give reason for those in similar opinion to make the jump into the Kindle eBook ecosystem.

• Free – App Store Link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Apple has issued a fix for iOS 3.1.3 App Store download bug. The bug in question removed the ‘Download’ button altogether when users running the older firmware attempted to acquire apps from the App Store.

Since the App Store is essentially a native wrapper around a web-based interface, Apple is able to update it without having to push out a full version of the whole OS. That can lead to things breaking out of nowhere, but also getting fixed.

It’s good to know that Apple still has the backs of those running on firmware that’s now going on two years old.

Source: Apple Support Communities via Engadget

The NFL has announced that this year will be the first year that the Super Bowl and the Pro Bowl will be streamed live across the internet. What’s more, iPhone and iPad users will be able to view the games on their devices too.

The NFL stream will be available to view on its own site and the NBC channel. If you want to view it on your iPhone or iPad or iPod touch, you will need to pick up the Verizon NFL Mobile app. The app is free in the App Store but unfortunately it will only work for Verizon Wireless customers.

The whole Super Bowl experience should be greatly enhanced next year with the promise of multiple camera angles, highlights and live stats, right in the palm of your hand.

Source: Electronista

Evernote, one of the most popular note-taking apps for the iPhone and iPad, has been updated to version 4.1.7 and now includes options to allow users to share notes with friends.

• Improved stability
• Addressed some sync errors
• Users can share notebooks and manage the sharing members of notebooks on both iPhone and iPad.
• Easier access to offline-notebooks (Premium only)

I use Evernote for pretty much everything, from simple note-taking to helping me remember wishful purchases and more.

• Free – iPhone App Store Link

• Free – iPad App Store Link

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Reports in Apple’s Support Community suggest some users running on older iOS 3.1.3 firmware are no longer able to download apps from the App Store after Apple pushed out an update on December 16th.

Specifically, when users jump into the App Store and try to download any app, the download button is completely missing altogether. Although fragmentation within Apple’s iOS ecosystem is extremely limited — at least compared to the closest competition with Google — some users are still running older iOS versions.

There’s currently no fix outside of upgrading to a newer version of iOS, but for some users with older devices that simply don’t support current iOS versions, this could become a serious problem. Hopefully Apple pushes out a fix soon.

Source: Apple Support Communities via Engadget

The New York Times has a great piece up on how app developers for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch are in a mad rush to get their apps submitted and approved into the App Store before it goes dark for Apple’s annual holiday break.

Each year around Christmas, Apple stops accepting app submissions and updating its store for a while. This year the shutdown starts on Thursday and runs for eight days. In the weeks leading up to the cutoff, developers often pull all-nighters so they can get their work to Apple in time. [...] “There’s a mad scramble for developers,” said Marc Edwards, lead designer at Bjango, an Australian app maker. “In terms of money, it can be a really big deal.”

Apple’s App Store approval process is mandatory — run more like a carefully curated department store than the almost-anything-goes open air bazaar that is Google’s Android Market — and most iOS developers are highly motivated to get approved before the shutdown because being there on Christmas day means big money.

When millions of people unwrap their shiny new iPhone 4S, iPod touch, or iPad 2, one of the first things they’ll do is jump into the App Store and start downloading apps to play around with. Flurry, a mobile analytics firm that specializes in tracking such app downloads, estimates that the period between December 23rd and December 26th are the biggest days for developers with around 240 million apps purchased in this small window of time.

Bryan Duke, a part-time app developer in Las Vegas, has seen firsthand how much of a difference one day can make. One of his apps is an air hockey game that costs 99 cents and usually averages about 300 downloads a day. But on Christmas Day last year there were 1,834.

Given the numbers involved, if App Store is a gold mine, Christmas day is an Eldorado bonanza… No wonder developers don’t want to take any chances.

Source: NYTimes

A new Kickstarter project from FMC Smart aims to make sure your iPhone never lets you forget where you’ve parked again!

After a long day at work or hanging out with my friends or even after going to the shopping mall, there’s always a time where I completely forget where I parked my car. Right now, there are apps on the iPhone that will save the location of my car, but I have to manually launch the app to drop a pin each and every time I have parked my car. Stopping to launch an app when I’m running into work or trying to catch a plane is a complete waste of time and totally annoying. So I developed an app that allows the iPhone 4S to remember the last place I parked and the only time I have to launch the app is after I’ve lost my car, not before.

The way it works is simple an straightforward, using the new Bluetooth Smart technology nestled inside the iPhone 4S it helps find where you’ve parked your car without having to first tell the app that you’ve parked in that location.

The receiver sits in your vehicle. All you have to do is launch the Find My Car Smart app and it will automagically locate your car by communicating with the receiver using the BT Smart technology. Unfortunately this only works with the iPhone 4S due to the Bluetooth Smart requirement, but it can be a total lifesaver in those panic moments where you’ve completely spaced out where you were parked.

The Kickstarter project has a goal of $10,000 in order to being mass production, but they’re already up to around $2,500 in funding with 28 days remaining. You can donate just $25 to receive the receiver and a free copy of the app from the App Store, and for an additional $30 you’ll get a car charger to ensure the Bluetooth Smart receiver never dies on you. The receiver should begin shipping at the end of January.

Source: Kickstarter

• App Store Link

Apple has announced they’re rolling out the iTunes Store to Brazilian and a number of Latin American countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Venezuela.

iTunes in the Cloud is available today for free in Brazil and Latin America and iTunes Match is available today for a $24.99 annual fee in Brazil.

The iTunes Store in Brazil offers over a thousand movies to rent or purchase, with many in stunning HD, from major studios including 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Universal Pictures, The Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures. The iTunes Store in Brazil now joins the revolutionary App Store™, which offers more than 500,000 apps to consumers in 123 countries, reaching hundreds of millions of iPad, iPhone and iPod touch® users around the world. Customers have downloaded more than 18 billion apps to date.

Brazil before Canada or the UK? Oh Apple, you tease. Hit the source for the full press release from Apple. Any Brazilian or Latin American readers excited to finally be included in the Apple ecosystem?

Source: Apple

To celebrate Angry Birds’ second birthday, Rovio has updated its ever popular game to version 2.0. Angry Birds was originally released back in December 2009 and has become a huge franchise.

Fans everywhere can enjoy a new “Happy Birdday” update for Angry Birds, which features 15 delectable new birthday cake levels, spiffy new menus and graphics, and special birthday achievements. As a birthday gift to our fans, all episodes are now unlocked!

• iPhone App Store link

• App Store – link iPad

Apple has once again released their annual iTunes Rewind listings, highlighting the best and top-selling iPhone and iPad apps and games of 2011.

Here’s the list:

iPhone Apps and Games

• Instagram [Free - App Store Link] iPhone App of the Year
• Angry Birds [$.99 - App Store Link] top-selling iPhone App of the Year
• Tiny Tower [Free - App Store Link] iPhone Game of the Year
• VidRythm [$1.99 - App Store Link] runner-up for App of the Year
• Tiny Wings [$.99 - App Store Link] runner-up for Game of the Year

iPad Apps and Games

• Snapseed [$4.99 - App Store Link] iPad App of the Year
• Angry Birds HD [$4.99 - App Store Link] top-selling iPad App of the Year
• Dead Space [$4.99 - App Store Link] iPad Game of the Year
• djay [$9.99 - App Store Link] runner-up for iPad App of the Year
• Contre Jour HD [$2.99 - App Store Link] runner-up for iPad Game of the Year

Hit the source for the full breakdown of the best and top-selling iPhone and iPad apps and games for 2011. Notice any of your favorite apps or games that you think Apple left out this year? Let us know in the comments!

Source: iTunes Rewind

Apple has released their 12 Days of Christmas app a little early this year. The promotion will run between December 26 and January 6 but Apple hasn’t put any content in there just yet.

You and your friends can download a fantastic selection of songs, music videos, apps and books for free. Each download will only be available for 24 hours. Get our special 12 Days of Christmas app to make it even easier to access your gifts while you’re on the go.

Don’t have an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch? Don’t worry. Come back 26 December to download gifts from your computer.

Falling in line with their 12 Days of Christmas promotion last year, Apple will promote special daily deals on music, apps, books and more for the holidays. You can download the app now from the Portugal and UK App Store, but content won’t start showing up until the promotion begins. If you’re outside of Portugal or the UK and see the app available in the App Store, let us know in the comments!

• Free – App Store Link

Alec Baldwin was removed from an American Airlines flight after refusing to turn off his iPad because of a particular intense game of Words with Friends. The flight which was bound for New York from LAX was idling at the gate when Baldwin apparently ignored request by cabin crew to turn his device off.

The “30 Rock” actor was playing a game called “Words with Friends” while the plane idled at a gate Tuesday, said Baldwin’s spokesman, Matthew Hiltzik. ”He loves `Words with Friends’ so much that he was willing to leave a plane for it,” said Hiltzik, who added that Baldwin boarded another American Airlines flight to New York.

Source: Associated Press

According to iPhoneiTalia, Facebook is working on an update to its Messenger app that will deliver Facebook video calls across multiple platforms. Facebook currently offers a video calling service between users on desktop web browsers using its agreement with Skype. According to sources, the update to the Facebook messenger app is already being tested in the wild and should be revealed in the not too distant future.

This update appears to be a natural progression for the Facebook Messenger app. The idea of being able to video chat with another Facebook user on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch would be extremely appealing to many. The app should be compatible with any iOS device with a front facing camera. We will let you know as soon as we hear any more information!

Source: iPhoneItalia via Cult of Mac

Infinity Blade II has received an update that looks to address the issues that a lot of users have been experiencing. The details are a little scarce on what exactly the update address specifically. We can only assume it will fix the start up crashes that a lot of disappointed gamers have been experiencing.

What’s New in Version 1.0.1, Balance tweaks, optimizations, and bug fixes.

[App Store - link]

An Australian indie-pop band has created a music video for their latest track and the theme of the video is iPhone gaming. In the video the band created real-life versions of hugely successful iPhone games like Angry Birds, Flight Control, Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope and Plants vs. Zombies.

The band is called Hey Geronimo and after watching the video, it is obvious that they not only have a passion for music but iOS gaming too. The amount of work that appears to have gone into recreating these games into a real-life environment is very impressive.

Spotify is working on an iPad app and it should be available very soon. Spotify, for those that don’t know is a music streaming service that offers a subscription service for mobile devices with features like playlist sync for offline listening.  Spotify Managing Director Chris Maples told Pocket-Lint that it is making an iPad app a priority and it is absolutely in the pipeline.

“We launched recently on Virgin Media’s TiVo platform and our fundamental philosophy is anytime, anywhere,” he said. “Consumers make no differentiation between devices and we want our service to be available on any device that people want it on.”

Source: Pocket-lint

The BBC has now made its global BBC iPlayer app available in Canada following successful launches in eleven other countries earlier in the year. There is still no sign of the app hitting the U.S. App Store but it can’t be too far away now.

Watch a selection of the best classic and contemporary British shows on demand, including Doctor Who, Top Gear and Gavin & Stacey. Download the app and explore plus enjoy free clips and taster episodes. Subscribe today for unlimited access – even when you’re offline.

• Comedy – laugh out loud with comedy from The Office, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, Little Britain, Gavin and Stacey and The Mighty Boosh and explore classic British humour with Fawlty Towers, Absolutely Fabulous and Only Fools and Horses.

• Drama – be transported out of this world with Doctor Who, immerse yourself in the period drama of Cranford and Pride and Prejudice, be gripped by the fast-paced contemporary action of Spooks(MI-5) and stirred by powerful drama Occupation.

• Science & Nature – immerse yourself in inspiring series like David Attenborough’s The Life of Birds and Walking with Dinosaurs and get up close and personal with Chimpanzee Diary and James May at the Edge of Space.

• Family & Kids – keep the kids entertained for hours with our wide range of fun and educational shows, from Junior Masterchef to Balamory, MI High and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

• News Specials & Documentary – get the latest current affairs and analysis with Panorama and Newsnight and be stimulated by thought-provoking documentaries like Obama’s America and This World: Madoff Hustle.

• Music & Culture – be inspired by exquisite works of art and fantastic music. Journey Around the World in 80 Treasures, get the best seat in the house with performances from Robbie Williams, Blur and Jamie Cullum and discover John Lennon’s transition from Beatle to solo artist in biographical drama Lennon Naked.

• Collections – a compelling mix of programmes and clips that take you on a journey into the BBC’s rich archive as far back as the very first Doctor Who, William Hartnell, in 1963.

The app is free to download but you will need to subscribe to the service which costs $8.99 a month or $84.99 a year.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Infinity Blade II, the follow up to the Epic Unreal 3-powered original, has just become available in the Australian and New Zealand App Stores and should be hitting the U.S. around midnight, ET.

Infinity Blade II continues to raise the bar for triple-A mobile gaming. Journey into the world of the Deathless tyrants and their legion of Titans. Build skills and upgrade characters… all while delving deeper into this mysterious, timeless adventure.

The game, a universal app, will be compatible with the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad, iPad 2 and iPod touch 4th and 3rd generation.

US$6.99 – App Store link

Update: Live in the U.S. App Store now!

Source: Epic Games

iTether is currently showing up as unavailable in the iTunes App Store. iTether, which was approved and released yesterday, let users tether their laptops to their iPhones without having to pay any additional fees to carriers. Another tethering app, Netshare, was approved and then later removed in 2008.

Whether iTether has actually been removed by Apple or the developer, temporarily or permanently, remains to be seen but the developer has claimed they were in communication with Apple throughout the app approval process. If Apple couldn’t have, or simply didn’t want iTether in the App Store, it’s strange they’d approve it at all.

UPDATE: Tether just let us know they’ve released a statement, and confirmed Apple pulled the iTether app from the App Store. Their site is currently getting hammered so we’re reproducing it here. Please do click through and give them a comment with your thoughts. Tether.com:

Around 12PM EST, Apple called our head office to let us know they were going to go ahead and pull our app iTether from the App Store. They stated it was because the app itself burdens the carrier network, however they offered us no way to remedy the solution… We were very clear when listing the app what the primary function was and they even followed up with several questions and requested a video demo then they approved the application.

We strongly disagree that it burdens a carrier’s network, as from our own data history on more than 500,000 users we know the average user consumes less than 200 MBs of data per month on Tether. In comparison, one TV show streamed from Netflix, an approved Apple App, could easily be in the 300-400 MBs range. Sure, there are some users that will consume way more than the average however that’s the case with any of these types of products.

Our team is very disappointed in Apple’s decision; as we strongly believe we help carriers better monetize their data stream by pushing customers into new data tiers further increasing their bottom-line. It is very anti-competitive to not allow any Tethering application to enter into this space to innovate. Our team has created a lot of innovative solutions for the BlackBerry product, which we were hoping to port over to the iPhone like end-to-end encryption, compression, website filtering and port filtering.

According to Apple, users who purchase iTether before it was pulled will continue to be able to use the product.

Our team is evaluating all of our options… Stay tuned.

The iTether app has arrived in the app store and it enables a user to tether their iPhone to a Mac or PC and use its data connection. The app does not appear to require a tethering data plan with your carrier so it is really a surprise that this app has been approved by Apple; it may be that its life is short lived. If you have been waiting for a way to tether your iPhone without the need to jailbreak or pay extra for the privilege, don’t hang about with this one.

Tether is an application that allows your Mac and PC to take advantage of your smartphone’s data plan, providing you access to the Internet on your laptop anywhere there is cellular coverage from your smartphone. Tether is easy to install, easy to use, works practically anywhere, and is very cost-effective.

iTether is available in the App Store for a price of $14.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Siri can now control third party apps and even open cars thanks to clever developers and the SiriProxy. In case you missed it earlier in the week, a developer created a SiriProxy to control a thermostat and then made the code available for others to use. The SiriProxy stands in between your iPhone 4S and Apple’s servers. It then intercepts Siri voice commands. This proxy enables additional commands to be added to Siri’s repitoire.

Other developers have now started using the SiriProxy to do other weird and wonderful things and we now have example videos of two. The first video below shows a developer using the SiriProxy to work alongside his car Viper system.

The “Siri Proxy” plugin I wrote handles interaction with a php script that runs on my web server. The php script, which I developed months ago for personal use, allows me to send commands to my car which has a Viper SmartStart module installed. Current commands accepted are: “Vehicle Arm”, “Vehicle Disarm”, “Vehicle Start”, “Vehicle Stop”, “Vehicle Pop Trunk”, and “Vehicle Panic”.

FastPdfKit Reader is manipulated by various commands with SiriProxy acting in the middle. A plugin is used to add new commands to the ones recognized by Siri, and finally, the proxy then sends the final commands to the app

Source: Mobfam via Engadget, 9to5Mac

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade app is now available in the App Store. If you are planning on heading out to watch it, this could be invaluable. This year is the 85^th Annual Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade so if you want to ensure you do not miss a thing or just need a guide to New York, this could be a great app.

Macy’s and MyCityWay have teamed up to bring spectators of the 85th Annual Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade an Official Mobile App as magical as the Parade itself! This App will give spectators important Parade information plus a comprehensive guide to New York City all at their fingertips for free.

• Parade Participants
• The Line of March (on Parade Day Only)
• Parade Route
• Inflation Event Locations
• Blue Sky Gallery
• Parade History
• Balloons Over Broadway
• Parade Shop
• Tourism Guides and Information
• Dining Locations and Reviews
• Popular and Nearby Coffee Shops
• Nearby and Parade Route Wifi Spots
• Regional Transportation Guides
• Thanksgiving Day Transit Information
• Full Subway Map
• Nearby Restrooms
• Weather Forecasts and Updates
• From MyCityWay:
• Tourism Guides and Information
• Dining Locations and Reviews
• Popular and Nearby Coffee Shops
• Nearby and Parade Route Wifi Spots
• Regional Transportation Guides
• Thanksgiving Day Transit Information
• Full Subway Map
• Nearby Restrooms
• Weather Forecasts and Updates

Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade app is available free in the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Apple has removed Big Fish Games subscription based iPad gaming app from the App Store without any explanation. We reported yesterday that the app was the first to allow in-app subscriptions where for a monthly fee users could play a range of Big Fish games. The games were stored and streamed from a data center belonging to Big Fish.

“We were notified that the app was removed,” said Paul Thelen, founder of Big Fish, a game publisher in Seattle. The app had been available since Nov. 18, he said. “We’re trying to follow up with Apple to try to figure out what happened.” Thelen said he was surprised by the move because Big Fish had worked with Apple for several weeks to ensure that it met the requirements for recurring monthly charges made through the App Store.

Source: Bloomberg

The iPhone, iPad and  iPod touch are pretty much the perfect mobile gaming platform and chances are you might be shopping for someone who just loves their iOS gaming. So what to get them? Luckily, there are lots and lots of gifts for gamers to choose from! Here are a few of my favorites, both for the hottest hardware and greatest games!

Don’t need anything for a gamer? Check out the recommendations anyway, something great might still catch your eye. If not, no worries, check out one of our other 2011 holiday gift guides!

iOS device gifts

Does you gamer in your life not have an iPhone, Pod touch or iPad yet? Not sure which one you should get? Not a problem! Start here:

• iOS device gift guide

Accessory gifts

If your gamer already has their device, there are some great accessories out there to help them take their gaming to another level.

iCade

The iCade is a magical gift for the retro gamer. The iCade arcade cabinet is an accessory for your iPad which turns it into a retro arcade machine complete with joystick, six buttons and a glowing coin slot.

More and more games are being released that work with the iCade; including the Atari’s Greatest Hits app. The iCade is designed to work with the iPad and iPad 2.

The iPad slots into the arcade cabinet and the controls are done over Bluetooth. Buying a gamer one of these should keep them happy not just over the holiday period but for the rest of their life too!

• Get iCade at ThinkGeek.com

Fling and Fling Mini

What if you are watching your favorite gamer and they are constantly struggling with their game and can’t achieve even the simplest tasks due to their finger and thumb fumblings on the shiny iPhone or iPad touchscreen? Fear not, there is a solution for that too, Ten One Design have come up with a well designed joystick for the iPad and a mini version for the iPhone and iPod touch too. Called the “Fling”, it sticks to your screen with some small suction cups and claims to offer a console type gaming experience.

As you control a game with Fling, it pushes gently back towards the center position.  This haptic feedback guides and stabilizes your gameplay, making every action more accurate. Any gamer would love to get their hands on one of these, me included!

• Get Fling and Fling mini at Amazon.com

mophie juice pack plus

It is pointless having the latest games and accessories for your iPhone if the battery on your device is not up to the task. Thankfully we have just the thing to buy for the gamer to keep their iPhone fully charged and ready to play.

The mophie juice pack is a hard shell case which fits the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Built into the case is a 2000 mAh capacity battery. mophie claims that the juice pack plus will double your iPhone’s battery life which gives you double the time to play your favorite games.

The mophie juice pack is the ideal gift for the iPhone gamer, it not only protects your iPhone but also doubles its battery life, a perfect gaming combination!

• Get mophie juice pack plus on store.tipb.com

Motorola MOTOROKR S10HD Bluetooth Stereo Headphones

It’s a classic story, they love to game, you’d dearly love some peace and quiet. Luckily, there’s a gift that can keep on giving to the both of you — stereo headphones! They get deep base and immersive sound, and the freedom of a cable-free experience, and you get blissful, well deserved silence.

While there are a ton of headphones to choose from, wire and unwired alike, the MOTOROKR looks and sounds great, and has just a touch of that futuristic feel to it.

• Get the Motorola MOTOROKR S10HD Bluetooth Stereo Headphones on store.tipb.com

App gifts

What better gift for a gamer than more great games to play? The App Store is chock full of them, and iTunes allows you to gift them straight to your special gamer. (If you’re not sure how, here’s quick guide to gifting apps)

First person shooter (FPS) games: Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation

Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation is the ultimate First Person Shooter for the iOS platform. If you want to treat the gamer in your life with a great game then this may be the one to go for. You can play a solo mission with over 13 different levels each with fantastic graphics and enemy AI.

Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation also offers a highly polished online multiplayer game experience. You can battle up to twelve players in six maps with seven different modes of play. A word of warning, you can accelerate your gaming abilities in this game via in app purchase of weapons and health kits; some find this an unfair advantage!

It is also a universal binary so this particular game will look stunning on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

• $6.99 – App Store link

Also check out:

• Dead Space is a gorgeous, terrifying shooter set in the depth of space. $6.99 – App Store link
• N.O.V.A. 2 is the closest thing to HALO on the iPhone. $6.99 – App Store link
• RAGE HD comes from John Carmack and while it’s on rails, it’s also off the hook. $1.99 – App Store link
• Call of Duty: Zombies is all the undead you can empty a clip at. $4.99 App Store link

Arcade games: Real Racing 2

If the gamer on your gift hit list is into driving games then they don’t get any better than Firemint’s Real Racing 2. Real Racing 2 lets you take the wheel of 30 officially licensed cars and each has its own characteristics too. You can race against 16 other cars all at the same time.

Real Racing 2 also offers 15 locations to race in with over 40 miles of highly detailed race tracks, speedways and city center circuits. You can also choose to race in the daytime, twilight hours or evening.

If you are lucky enough to own an iPhone 4S or iPad 2 and an Apple TV (Black) you can even play wirelessly on your HDTV. Friends can join in too with split screen multiplayer and Party Play.

• $9.99 – App Store link

Also check out:

• Infinity Blade brings the Epic Unreal 3 engine to iOS. ‘Nuff said. $2.99 – App Store link]
• Street Fighter IV Volt puts the classic fighter in the palm of your hands. $0.99 – App Store link
• Extraction: Project Outbreak is a fresh take on the top-down 3D shooter. $0.99 – App Store Link
• Atari’s Greatest Hits brings the oldest of old school to your brand new advice. Free – App Store link

Casual Games: Amazing Breaker

Amazing Breaker is a game for the more casual gamer. It involves ice sculptures; you remember them, popular at high class parties but nowhere else. Anyway, the aim of the game is to destroy the ice sculptures with bombs, and try not to leave any shards of ice behind.

Amazing Breaker is a highly addictive puzzle game with over 80 levels to keep you busy. Designed for the Retina display, it offers high resolution graphics, easy to learn game play and Game Center achievements. The bombs you use to destroy the ice sculptures come in many different flavors too with Spike Bombs, Ghost Bombs, Helicopter Bombs and even Split Bombs. The game is a lot of fun and once you start it, you will struggle to put it down. A great gift for the gamer in your life!

• $0.99 – App Store link]

Also check out:

• Catan is a great version of a great strategy game. $4.99 – App Store link
• Words with Friends isn’t Scrabble but it is an all out, all online spelling war. $0.99 – App Store link
• Carcassone is a beautiful rendition of the medieval strategy game. $9.99 – App Store link
• Poker by Zynga let’s you get your Texus Hold’em on your iPhone. Free – App Store link

More great games for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

Every day, TiPb covers the best new games and best new game updates, so if you’re looking for more great game gift ideas, check out our gaming section! Likewise, the iTunes App Store has a games section with lots of great choices.

• TiPb Games
• iTunes App Store games

And if you’re still not sure what to get, consider an iTunes Gift Card, that way the special gamer in your life can pick their very own gift!

• Get iTunes Gift Cards

Your picks?

Remember, you’re part of Team TiPb too, so if you’ve already picked the perfect gift for your iPhone or iPad gamer, or have the perfect idea for one, let us know in comments!

Vemedio has released Instacast HD which is an iPad version of the hugely popular Instacast iPhone app for managing your podcasts. If you are a user of the iPhone version and want the same experience on your iPad, now you can. Even better, Instacast uses iCloud to enable your podcasts to be in-sync across devices too.

This is the high definition version of the famous podcast client, Instacast. More screen, more video, more show notes, better browsing, push notifications and iCloud syncing. It has everything you want from a native podcast client and it’s so much better on the big iPad screen.

• Show notes are the heart of the app. Surf links along playing the show and read in-depth information about the things the hosts are talking about. Save articles for reading later using your favorite Read-Later service such as Instapaper or Readability. Show notes also include chapter lists when available and let you jump directly to a certain point in the show. Surf through the show archive by swiping and flicking with your fingers.
• Instacast HD has an enhanced video player, that lets you control the video with minimal interaction. Change the screen brightness in low light situations or stream the video to your Apple TV via AirPlay. Playback controls are positioned in a way that you don’t have to touch the middle area where the video is playing, keeping the important parts of your screen fingerprint-free. Hide the player and continue playing only the audio portion of the video while surfing the show notes or browsing the web.
• Instacast automatically downloads the most recent episodes and caches it on the device for later offline consumption. With the integrated Download Manager you can pause downloading, resume later and re-prioritize downloads. If the connection drops, Instacast will resume downloading later as soon as the internet connection is available again.
• Exclusively on the iPad, Instacast HD can notify you automatically as soon as a new episode gets published by the author. Get the notification, tap it and Instacast will refresh and automatically download the episode and boom, you’re ready to play.
• Introduced first on the iPhone, Instacast HD can sync your podcasts subscriptions wirelessly via iCloud. Have your subscriptions in sync all the time both on your iPhone and on your iPad. There is no setup, just enable it and you’re done. No headache anymore.

Instacast HD  costs $4.99 and is only available for the iPad.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Apple has approved a subscription based iPad gaming service for the first time. Big Fish Games has gained Apple’s approval for its collection of games to be made available to iPad users at a cost of $6.99 a month. Apple introduced its subscription features earlier this year however no other game developer has taken advantage of this business model until now.

When Apple introduced its subscription feature earlier this year, Paul Thelen, the founder of Big Fish, saw it as an opportunity to offer an “all-you-can-eat” service. That lets players jump in and out of different games without having to make a bunch of downloads. While game-subscription services have a mixed record of success, the popularity of the iPad, along with the easy payment method provided by Apple’s App Store, will make the offering attractive, Thelen said.

Initially the service will launch at an introductory price of $4.99 a month. This will increase to $6.99 a month when more game titles are added. Big Fish also plans to offer a free version of its app. This will allow a user to play for a maximum of 30 minutes a day and it will include advertisements too.

Would you use a game subscription model like this?

Source: Bloomberg

eBay has updated its iPad app and it now includes a new feature for its U.S. users called “Watch with eBay”. Watch with eBay lets you easily find items related to what you are currently watching on television.

Watch With eBay is a new and fun way to discover items from the wonderful to the unexpected, all based on what you’re watching on your television. After a few quick setup steps, you can browse and view eBay search results based on any television program currently playing in the United States*. You may find DVD sets, signed photographs from your favorite actor or athlete, movie scripts, coffee mugs, jerseys, collectible pieces, and more!

The update also includes one or two bug fixes as well as the Watch with eBay feature. eBay says that the Watch with eBay feature is U.S. only due to current program data constraints. It does say it may bring the feature to more countries later on.

[App Store link]

A Charlie Brown Christmas is now available in the App Store and it looks like another excellent app by Loud Crow Interactive Inc. The Charlie Brown Christmas app is an interactive book based on the 1965 Charlie Brown Christmas TV special.

“Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?!” Help Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the entire Peanuts gang as they struggle to find the true meaning of Christmas. Peter Robbins, the original voice of Charlie Brown, narrates the rebirth of the 1965 animated classic as an interactive storybook complete with original dialogue and digitally remastered illustrations, animation, and music optimized for your Apple device. Play Schroeder’s piano, finger paint with the gang, go carolling with the Peanuts choir, and participate in the Spectacular Super-Colossal Neighborhood Christmas Lights and Display Contest to unlock decorations for your very own Charlie Brown Christmas Tree! With something to discover on every page, this is one interactive Peanuts adventure you won’t want to miss this holiday season!!

• Original dialogue from the 1965 animated classic
• Captivating narration by Peter Robbins, the original voice of Charlie Brown
• Charming soundtrack featuring music and sound effects from the original show
• Decorate your own Charlie Brown Christmas Tree
• Participate in the Lights and Display Contest to unlock rewards
• Educational features such as word and note highlighting to help improve reading and musical skills
• Hear individual words spoken with the tap of a finger
• Touch and drag objects to make them “spring” to life or tilt to watch them slide and move
• Objects that literally pop out of the page to delight you and your family!

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

The mighty Man of Steel, the Last Son of Krypton, the Tomorrow Man himself has finally landed in the App Store with the official release of Superman for iPhone and iPod touch by Chillingo Ltd. This isn’t a movie tie-in or flashy 3D flyer/fighter, this is a fun, casual, decidedly 2D adventure with an almost old school, retro platform feel to it. Check out the video above and the details below.

$0.99 – App Store link

UPDATE: Superman HD for iPad is now available as well! $2.99 – App Store link

Become Superman to save the city of Metropolis in an all-new adventure for iPhone and iPad! As the Man of Steel, only you can protect humanity with your incredible powers. Saving the Earth is just another day for Superman, but this is most certainly not just another iOS game.

• Soar across the Metropolis skyline and use all of Superman’s most iconic powers, including heat vision, super-breath, super-strength, and super-speed. When the threat is a little further from home, fly into outer space to stop meteors and falling satellites in their path.
• The 18 levels of superpowered action offer a perfect playground for putting Superman’s abilities to the test. Save Metropolis from the villainous mastermind Lex Luthor and his army of thugs, mechs, choppers and even more menacing enemies.
• Beat score challenges on each level to earn bronze, silver and gold achievements. Bronze is a piece of cake, but do you have the power to claim gold?
• Original story and comic book panels give you the authentic Superman experience.

Note: Chillingo states that the game works on the iPad too. This is true however it is not a universal binary so you will have to run it in 2X mode which is never a great experience. Let’s hope they get an HD version into the App Store soon.

Belkin has announced its LiveAction Camera Grip and Camera Remote accessories for the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPod touch. We already knew that the Camera Remote was in the pipeline however the Camera Grip is something new and quite unique. Both accessories can only be used with Belkin’s LiveAction app which is available in the App Store.

The Camera Grip is designed to make your device feel more like a traditional camera. It features a grip that attaches to the dock connector and even fits over the top of most cases. This offers an easier way to hold your iPhone as well as offering dedicated buttons to shoot photographs and capture video. The grip also has a built in tripod mount that works with any standard tripod.

The Camera Remote is a Bluetooth enabled remote camera shutter. It has the ability to remotely initiate the iPhone or iPod touch camera shutter from up to 30 feet away. Again it has two buttons, one to control the camera and the other for video capture. The Camera Remote also comes with a stand to prop up your device to obtain the best angle for your shots.

Each of the new accessories will cost $49.99.

• Order the Belkin LiveAction Camera Grip from Amazon now

Netflix is currently revamping its Netflix iPad app to bring it into line with its just updated apps on other platforms. The new update will include a complete redesign of the user interface.

The new design is much more immersive and provides greater focus on the growing number of titles in the Netflix catalog. In fact, the new interface displays twice as many movies and TV shows as before, enabling you to discover even more titles you’ll love. Also, we’ve taken greater advantage of the tablet’s unique features, inviting you to swipe through rows of titles featuring larger artwork.

Source: The Netflix Blog

UK satellite TV provider Sky has just released its latest app “Sky Movies” for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The new app offers subscribers to its subscription movie channels a new way to view trailers, short list movies to watch and lots more.

Delve deeper into movies that are on at the cinema, keep a record of movies you want to watch with your own personal shortlist and remote record those that are on the Sky Movies channels. You can even watch all available movies directly on your iOS device if you have Sky Go.

Categories include –

• Daily Picks
• On Sky Movies
• On Sky Movies Box Office
• Coming Soon
• At the Cinema
• My Movies Shortlist

Movie information includes –

• Synopsis
• Airing times
• Trailer
• Cast
• Director
• Reviews

The Sky Movies app is available as a universal binary and is free. It does however require a movie subscription with UK satellite broadcaster Sky to be of any great use.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Infinity Blade 2 is not set to hit our iOS devices until the beginning of December. The lucky guys over at IGN managed to get their hands on a preview of the game and it looks like it is going to be a really top sequel. According to IGN, Infinity Blade 2 offers far more than just a refresh, it picks up where the first game ended but goes on much further. Infinity Blade 2 is far more story lead and includes more than 40 different combat locations.

Although I liked the original Infinity Blade, I largely agreed with the cadre of critics that cut down the game as being “the same thing” over and over. My time with Infinity Blade 2 has already made me a believer, however. Multiple weapon classes and greater enemy variety keep the combat fresh. A non-linear environment supported by a proper storyline provides the perfect motivation to keep looping through sections of the game multiple times.

Source: IGN

As rumored, Apple has updated its Apple Store app to include Personal Pickup, EasyPay in store payment facilities and the ability to track your orders right from the app.

• Personal Pickup: Buy in the app and choose to pick up your order at any Apple Retail Store. Most in-stock orders are available for pickup within an hour. (U.S. only)
• EasyPay: Purchase select accessories in store quickly by scanning the barcode and completing your transaction right in the app. (U.S. only, requires iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S)
• Track your stuff: View the status of current and previous orders from the order status section in the More tab.

There is also added support for Canada and China, although Personal Pickup and EasyPay are U.S. only features. The app is available for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It is not a universal binary either so you will need to hit the 2x button on the iPad; a very strange decision!

[App Store link]

An iOS security exploit, unveiled by security researcher Charlie Miller, allows an app to download and execute unsigned code from a remote unknown server. What’s even more astonishing, to prove the exact details of this hack, Charlie Miller developed and submitted an app containing the exploit to Apple. The app was approved and available in the App Store. (It has since been removed, and Charlie Miller has also now been removed from the iOS developer program.)

Miller became suspicious of a possible flaw in the code signing of Apple’s mobile devices with the release of iOS 4.3 early last year. To increase the speed of the phone’s browser, Miller noticed, Apple allowed javascript code from the Web to run on a much deeper level in the device’s memory than it had in previous versions of the operating system. In fact, he realized, the browser’s speed increase had forced Apple to create an exception for the browser to run unapproved code in a region of the device’s memory, which until then had been impossible. (Apple uses other security restrictions to prevent untrusted websites from using that exception to take control of the phone.) The researcher soon dug up a bug that allowed him to expand that code-running exception to any application he’d like. “Apple runs all these checks to make sure only the browser can use the exception,” he says. “But in this one weird little corner case, it’s possible. And then you don’t have to worry about code-signing any more at all.”

Miller plans on demonstrating the exploit at the SysCan conference in Taiwan next week. In the mean time, take a look at the video below which shows the exploit in action. Using the app he can take a copy of a users address book, direct them to a YouTube video or steal photos from the device running the app.

We are sure Apple will be releasing a fix very soon to plug this exploit, now that it is out in the open!

Source: Forbes via Daring Fireball

Belkin is set to release a remote camera shutter controller for the iPhone according to information found in an FCC filing. The small accessory will work over a Bluetooth connection to your iPhone and it can activate the camera shutter or trigger video recording remotely.

The camera remote is set to work exclusively with Belkin’s LiveAction app which is already available in the App Store. The camera remote will also come with a detachable iPhone stand to enable you to prop up your iPhone at various angles to capture the best shot. It could come in very handy if you like to take group photographs that you also wish to be included in. This would be a much better option than rushing around after setting the camera’s self timer.

There is no information as to when this may be released or any pricing information at this stage. We will let you know as soon as we hear anything more.

Source: FCC via Engadget

Gameloft has released a new trailer for its upcoming Gangstar Rio: City of Saints game. The trailer offers slightly more than the usual run of the mill marketing promo. This one offers full in game footage and it looks really nice. Well nice in the graphics department anyway, beyond that, it’s all fast cars, guns, helicopters, tanks, rocket propelled grenades and explosions.

Gameloft hasn’t announced when this one will be available; except that it will be “Very Soon”. Hopefully it will be released as part of its holiday line up. It will be available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.  A word of warning, the trailer contains a bit of strong language!

Source: touchArcade

Today was my last day at Twitter. Taking some time to figure out what’s next. Really proud of the way the team has grown.

Source: electronista

Oink, a new app from Kevin Rose’s app development lab Milk, is now available for download in the App Store. Oink is a social recommendation and ranking app that takes a Foursquare-like check-in approach, letting users rate and rank the different items — instead of places — that they like.

The main idea is for users to recommend and rate products from different businesses so they can share with friends and spread the word about the things they enjoy. It seems like a really great idea, as long as enough of your friends are using the service, and gives a fresh approach to finding and enjoying items with like-minded people.

Oink is an easy way to rate and rank the things around you. Instead of just rating places, you rate the items inside. You could easily find the most popular items on a menu and see if a friend has tried anything there. Then if there’s something you like, it’s just a single press to rate it and share it with friends.

What you can do with Oink:

• Rate items around you and share with your followers
• See all the cool stuff your friends and other users are Oinking
• Find the best things in town (e.g. Best “Pizza” in Denver)
• Find the items at a place (e.g., Best roller coasters at Six Flags)
• Build “cred” in your areas of interest
• Share your Oink activity on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare

Oink is available on the iPhone and iPod touch for free.

App Store Link

Chris Stevens at Fast Company has written about the harrowing ordeal of being a small time developer in the big time App Store. It’s nothing new, but it’s something that hasn’t been in the headlines for a while.

It’s this label “gold rush” that has been most often applied to the App Store. The potential for success, and risk of failure, is so great that in many ways the App Store has provoked a gold rush among developers. Although the successes are spectacular, the failures are apocalyptic. The mainstream press focuses on the glorious few and gives very little attention to the money being lost on the App Store–a problem compounded by the embarrassed silence of those struggling to turn a profit on their work. In a climate where approximately 540 apps are submitted for review every day, it’s easy to see why the Appillionaires are an exclusive and rare breed.

Knowing to get in on the ground floor was probably the first big gamble. Now it’s trying to get noticed among hundreds of thousands of other apps and dozens of existing, entrenched competitors. Can you just make a better looking Twitter client, a more adorable and addictive casual game, or an easier way to share photos with filters and bank on success, or will there always be the element of a crap shoot?

Years ago we talked about the idea of a premium App Store to encourage big companies and game houses to invest in iOS and get higher prices in return, but what about the small, indie developers, the next great innovators in the making? Could Apple revamp the App Store format to give them a better chance as well?

Source: Fast Company

Scooby-Doo has eventually infiltrated the iPad and what better timing than just before Halloween. The new app titled “The Haunted Halloween: A Scooby-Doo You Play Too Book is a mixture of interactive book and puzzle games all based around this spooky time of the year.

It’s Halloween in Coolsville and Scooby and the gang are invited to a Halloween party! Only Scooby and Shaggy find themselves in a real haunted house! They need your help to find all the hidden Zoinks Points and solve the Haunted Halloween Party puzzles!

• Word highlighting for younger readers.
• Read along with professional narration.
• Record your voice reading the story, or have your child record theirs.
• Customize your experience: Text display, audio, and autoplay mode can be turned on and off.
• Easily jump to your favorite page or activity with the visual index.

• Personalize Your App! iPad 2 users can use the camera to take a photo with Scooby-Doo. iPad 1 users can import a picture from Photos.
• Collect Zoinks Points! Throughout the story, look for opportunities to earn Zoinks Points. Write down your code and enter it on zoinkspoints.com to get free exclusive Scooby games, videos, downloads and more!
• Interactive Animations: Tap mysterious hot spots for spooky surprises.
• Sticker Fun: Choose a background and use digital Scooby-Doo stickers to create your own Scooby-Doo scene. Use multitouch to spin, shrink, and grow the characters! Save to Photos to share with friends.
• Puzzles: Tap the puzzle icons and turn pages into jigsaws to solve.
• Coloring: Choose from multiple pages and get creative with the Scooby-Doo palette. Save to Photos to share with friends.

The Haunted Halloween: A Scooby-Doo You Play Too Book is iPad only and costs $0.99 for a limited time only. If you want to pick this up, don’t leave it too late or it may go up in price!

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

DIRECTV has updated its iPad app and it now offers the ability to use your iPad as a portable TV. Before you get too excited, it can only work within the walls of your own home and does not offer any form of remote viewing access to your content. Of course it does a lot more than just in home streaming to the iPad. It also lets you search, record and control all your DIRECTV content from home or when you are away.

The latest update also adds a few other new features:-

• Turn your iPad into a portable TV and watch your favorite shows in any room of your home. Quickly scroll through a list of channels available to watch on your iPad with a dedicated “Live TV Streaming” Module.
• Get tips in the help section to guide you through features in the app.
• Set parental controls to block live TV channels viewed on the iPad.
• Change start and end times to add padding to a program when setting a recording.

[App Store Link]

Garmin has announced an iPhone fitness app called Garmin Fit and also an accessory called the ANT+. The fitness app will allow users to track their workouts including pace, distance, time and calories burnt. It can also map your runs and automatically uploads your data to Garmin Connect which is a web community for Garmin Fit users.

The ANT+ adapor clips into the 30 pin dock connector on your iPhone and it can then connect wirelessly with various Garmin accessories such as a heart rate monitor and even a foot pod senor. The foot pod sensor allows users who are using a treadmill or similar to track speed, distance and even run cadence.

“Garmin Fit is the ideal solution for users who are new to the fitness tracking landscape and for those looking to stay totally connected,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales. “To be able to utilize Garmin’s powerful fitness accessories with the same device that plays music, makes calls and uploads workouts automatically to share and analyze, makes Garmin Fit a must have app.”

The Garmin Fit app is available in the App Store for and is compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The ANT+ adaptor is available directly from Garmin at a price of $49.

[App Store link]

Point, press the fire button and targets within 2 meters will be hit! Besides being a rocket launching sharpshooter the Cobra iHelicopter is very detailed and looks exactly like real Cobra Helicopters.

Source: iHelicopters – Buy now on Amazon

TomTom, the GPS enabled navigation app has just been updated and it now includes an optimized version for the iPad. The app is now a universal binary so there will be no need to pay for an additional navigation app for your iPad if you already have it on your iPhone.

The TomTom App. World-class TomTom navigation, on your iPhone or iPad New to v1.9: Now iPad-optimized for a sharper, full screen view.

• Make the most of your iPad, with a full-screen display that shows you driving view and Advanced Lane Guidance images at the same time. Purchase connected services in-App or easily transfer your existing subscriptions (cellular connection required). When you want to go bigger, move your TomTom App to iPad.

• Because roads are constantly changing, on average 15% of roads change every year, your TomTom App update comes with the latest and most up-to-date map.

• Your TomTom App is quicker and easier to use than ever. See driving view with one touch from anywhere, access guidance options in a tap, and switch between different route types more easily. It’s a simpler way to enjoy TomTom navigation on your iPhone or iPad.

TomTom is available for the iPhone and iPad for $49.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

When a woman suspected that someone was entering her condo and stealing her prescription medicine, she went and bought an iZON, set it all up using her iPhone and then let it do its magic. Sure enough it captured her neighbor entering her condo and taking her drugs. She called the police and the iZON video was used to arrest the perpetrator.

We told you a few months back about the iZON wireless connected, app controlled video camera accessory. What was special about this particular video camera was its ability to be setup with an iOS device, activated via sound or movement and it could record directly to YouTube.

Take a look at the CBS 12 news report video below. It is a great story and just proves that you do not need to be a geek to setup and use technology when Apple is involved!

Source: TUAW

A portable and easy-to-use device, EyeTV Mobile connects directly to the iPad and does not require an Internet connection. The EyeTV Mobile app, available for free at the App Store, offers a full range of TV viewing features including pause, rewind and record. The integrated EPG lets users view up to 7 days of detailed programme guide information and send recommendations to friends by email. EyeTV Mobile is available immediately at a price of 99.95 Euro.

Source: Elgato

Brian Waring, vice president of marketing and category for Starbucks UK and Ireland, said: “Digital offers are very important to us and making WiFi freely available across our stores is the foundation for many other plans we have moving forward…Content partnerships are key and we also have an extremely exciting digital programme ahead for 2012.”

Source: The Telegraph

Google has voluntarily pulled its Google Voice application from the App Store due to an incompatibility with the just released iOS 5 software.  If you search for Google Voice it can no longer be found in the App Store.

Vincent Paquet, Senior Product Manager for Google Voice confirmed that the app had been pulled, explaining “our last update of this week had a bug that caused the app to crash at sign in. We removed it so it did not affect additional users until the fix gets published.”

Source: Engadget

Rockstar Games has announced that it is bringing the hugely popular console game Grand Theft Auto III to the iPhone 4S and iPad 2. The game which is celebrating its 10^th anniversary this month will be demoed for the first time at New York Comic Con which runs from 13-16 October.

10 years ago, this month, the revolutionary open-world epic Grand Theft Auto III was released to the world – a game that set players loose as a small-time criminal at the bottom of the food chain in Liberty City, a sprawling metropolis where anything can happen – and probably will.

Source: Rockstar Games

Apple has released AirPort Utility which is an app designed to let you manage your WiFi network and Airport base stations from your iOS device.

Use AirPort Utility to manage your Wi-Fi network and AirPort base stations, including AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule – right from your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. See a graphical overview of your Wi-Fi network and devices. Change base station and network settings, or manage advanced features such as security modes , wireless channels and more. AirPort Utility works with all Apple 802.11n Wi-Fi base stations.

• See a graphical overview of your Wi-Fi network
• Get information about your connected Wi-Fi devices
• View and change network and Wi-Fi settings
• Restart or restore a base station or update the firmware on a base station when available
• View or update passwords for your network, base stations or disks
• Easily access network information such as IP address, DNS servers and router addresses
• Manage DHCP reservations and port mappings
• View status or error messages for your base stations

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.



Find My Friends allows you to easily locate your friends and family from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Install this free app on your iOS 5 device and sign in with your Apple ID you use with iCloud. Adding a friend is easy – just send a request to see their location. Once your friend accepts using the Find My Friends app, you will then be able to see that friend’s location on a list or on a map.

• Easily locate friends and family
• Temporary sharing option
• Simple privacy controls
• Parental restrictions
• Free for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Due, the simple but really powerful reminder app has just received a major update. It now includes new features like integration with Agenda Calendar, send reminders to friends and family via email or SMS and also the ability to receive reminders from other Due users. The full list of updates are below.

• Add reminders to Due based on your calendar events from Agenda and have Due send you right back to where you left off in Agenda.
• Send reminders to family, friends and colleagues via email or SMS. Swipe across a reminder to access the new action and sharing menu.
• Your friends using Due can also send you reminders via email and SMS. One tap on the included link, and the reminder is on its way to be saved to your copy of Due.
• Now detects links, email addresses and phone numbers in reminder titles, offering options to act on them when marked done, or via the new action menu when swiping across a reminder
• Redo support
• Keyboard now automatically shows first on the iPhone when creating a new reminder
• Removed ‘Show keyboard first’ option from Settings

Due is a universal binary so is available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch for $4.99

[App Store link]

GoodReader for iPad has just received a significant update and now includes support for iOS 5 as well as iCloud. In case you don’t know, GoodReader is a fantastic application that can open and view many different file types such as PDF, TXT files, MS Office doc, ppt, xls, iWork ’08/’09, HTML and Safari webarchives. It even handles audio and video files too, and can un-Zip files. The latest update also include a few other improvements.

• iOS 5 compatibility fix
• iCloud support (iOS 5 or later)
• Data Protection can now be enabled for all files, even if there is no app or file password being used (this option needs to be explicitly enabled in settings)
• AirPlay is also enabled for audio files now (iOS 4.3 or later)
• Side Menu for PDF annotations can now be disabled in settings
• PDF Annotations deletion confirmation dialog can now be disabled in settings
• Web browser password now also locks the “Enter URL” feature

[App Store link]

If you are a fan of the original Fruit Ninja game then you are in for a bit of a treat with the newly announced Fruit Ninja Puss in Boots. Fruit Ninja Puss in Boots is a game with a tie in to a movie, this time it is DreamWorks Puss in Boots movie.

Before you go off and assume that this will be the same game with a few cat references, it looks to be much more than that. It is actually a good upgrade to the original game, with more blades and backgrounds, new magic bean powered Desperado Mode and much more.

Even better is the price, it will only be $0.99 for the iPhone and iPod touch version but you will still need to pay extra for the iPad version; which comes in at $1.99. Fruit Ninja Puss in Boots should arrive in the App Store on October 20^th. Take a look at the trailer below!

Source: touchArcade