iPad By Davis: “Waka Waka Power solar charger seeks Kickstarter funding, charge your iPhone with just the power of the sun” plus 6 more

Waka Waka Power solar charger seeks Kickstarter funding, charge your iPhone with just the power of the sun
The Hobbit is in theaters, but you can get Lord of the Rings on your iPhone or iPad now
iMore Editors' Choice: Marvel Comics, Middle Manager of Justice, History Channel, and more
Best Free iPad App of the Week – The World in 2013 from The Economist: Editor’s Highlights
Simon’s gift picks: 2012 holiday guide
The Daily, First iPad-only Newspaper, Says Goodbye
Mobile Cloth

Waka Waka Power solar charger seeks Kickstarter funding, charge your iPhone with just the power of the sun

Posted: 16 Dec 2012 01:09 AM PST

Waka Waka Power solar charger seeks Kickstarter funding, charge your iPhone with just the power of the sun The Waka Waka personal solar power station is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter. The Waka Waka Power is a personal solar power station which can power your iPhone and iPad using just the power of the sun. The Waka Waka Power has been created on the back of a previously successful Kickstarter campaign for the original Waka Waka which was a solar powered LED light. This new product encompasses both an LED light and a charging station in one.

The WakaWaka Power is a pocket size mini power station with super-efficient solar cells and a power management system which ensures efficiencies which are up to 200% better than any other product in the market. Apart from charging your smart phone, WakaWaka Power is also a light source which can provide you with more than 40 hours of excellent reading light (on a single day solar charge!).

Place WakaWaka Power in direct sunlight for a whole day and you will notice that the battery will be completely full, even if you live in New York or Seattle (where the intensity of the sun is far less than in Texas). The capacity of the battery is large enough to fully power most mobile phone from completely depleted, to practically full. On top of this, you will have 10 or more hours of excellent reading light as well. If you don't charge your phone or tablet, as said before, you can have more than 40 hours of light.

If you like the look of the Waka Waka Power, you can grab a piece of the action with an early pledge. The early bird $49 offer has already sold out but you can still pick one up if it is successfully launched for a $59 pledge. The Kickstarter project has already smashed through its funding goal of $50k and currently sits at over $70K. It looks like the Waka Waka may have a very successful future. What do you think about the Waka Waka Power?

Source: Kickstarter

The Hobbit is in theaters, but you can get Lord of the Rings on your iPhone or iPad now

Posted: 15 Dec 2012 06:08 PM PST

The first of the three (!!) movies adapter J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit has just hit movie theaters, the book written before, and taking place before, The Lord of the Rings. I'm going to see An Unexpected Journey tomorrow night, but I've spent the last few nights re-watching The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and the Return of the King as prep work -- on my Apple TV.

Yes, the story has been rejiggered, the closeups are repetitive, some of the cuts are awkward, but I was surprised how much better Weta's more organic special effects have held up than some of the more plastic special effects of other companies, and how the moments that work, really, really work.

My guess is that the Hobbit will be more dramatically indulgent (3 movies!) and technically turbulent than LotR. I'm not a big fan of 3D, and I've never experienced 48fps, but I look forward to it and hope it's more Fellowship and less King Kong.

If you've seen The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, jump into our movie forum and share your review. If you want to check out, or just catch up, on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, you can do so right on your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Apple TV, or Mac.

Lord of the Rings Extended Edition (films) - Buy now
Lord of the Rings (book) - Buy now
The Hobbit (book) - Buy now

iMore Editors' Choice: Marvel Comics, Middle Manager of Justice, History Channel, and more

Posted: 15 Dec 2012 04:49 PM PST

iMore Editors' Choice: Marvel Comics, Middle Manager of Justice, History Channel, and more

Every week, the editors and writers at iMore carefully select some of our favorite, most useful, most extraordinary apps, accessories, gadgets, and websites. This week's selections include a few games, a classic notes apps, an app that lets you purchase vouchers for you and your friends, a popular comics apps, and a TV app.

Evernote - Chris Oldroyd

I have decided to take strides towards making our home as paperless as possible, so I have been on the lookout for an app to store and file my paperwork. Thankfully I discovered Evernote and it is one awesome app! Evernote is an app that helps you get organized and stay organized. Evernote lets you take notes, store important documents, photos, voice memos, the list is endless. Better still is the fact that these notes are fully searchable and they can all be tagged so you can get your hands on what you need fast.

I have started to scan in all of my important documents like payslips, car insurance, life insurance, car breakdown policies etc. and they are all now in my Evernote account. As part of signing up for Evernote, you get an email address that allows you to email documents directly to Evernote and you can even steer them into the right notebooks with some simple commands.

If you are looking to simply get organized or go all out to become paperless, I seriously recommend checking out Evernote. It is one really powerful organizer app. Special thanks to Clay Russell for not only recommending this amazing app but also spending some time with me, showing the best way to use it too!

Free - Evernote

Vouchr - Simon

Vouchr is a neat new service that allows you to suggest cool stuff for your friends to buy by putting 5 bucks (or more) towards the purchase. This is done by mashing up PayPal, Facebook, and a bit of location awareness. Users attach a Vouchr to, say, an awesome sandwich at a restaurant. Everyone can see the Vouchr, but only that user's Facebook friends can claim it. To do so, they just have to be close to the Vouchr, and the PayPal moneys get beamed over to their account. It's a neat idea, and certainly not something we've seen much of before, but I think the real cool stuff will kick in if stores have their own rewards program for those vouching or tie-in on the transaction side to make sure people aren't just walking away with a free five bucks. I know that a personal recommendation from someone I know is a much more likely to result in me buying something rather than some location-based ad or Foursquare special, that's for sure.

Vouchr is still in a soft launch mode, so the roll-out is currently only in Canada, and the app is HTML5. A new update should be rolling out before the spring which brings the service to the U.S. and significantly upgrades the app's UI.

Free - Download now

Marvel Comics on Kindle - Rene Ritchie

While Amazon's Kindle service has had comics for a while, they've just added 150 Marvel trade paperbacks to the mix and since their prices are currently $5 or so less than iBooks, that makes it interesting for the budget-concious eComics buyer.

If you're looking for recommendations, get all the Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday (you're welcome), Runnaways by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona, Planet Hulk by Greg Pak, Carlo Pagulayan, Lopresti Lopresti and Juan Santacruz, Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert, Iron Man: Extremis by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov, Wolverine by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller, Old Man Logan by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven, New X-Men by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, et. al, all The Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch (it's what a lot of the Avengers movie was based on), Marvels by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross, and any of the Masterworks.

I wish they'd put the Omnibus or large collected editions on sale (I'd rather have Astonishing X-Men and Ultimates in one book than 4 books each) but hey, baby steps. Baby mutant super steps.

UPDATE: I knew some of these were U.S. only titles, but I just discovered some are also Android only titles. Amazon's only advantage over iTunes was cross-platform support. Absent that, it's an easy choice to go back t iBooks -- which has better international support, and iOS support. ('m not sure if Apple bought exclusivity on some of these titles or not, but a random sampling shows other Marvel books available in iBooks and Kindle with support for iOS, like Astonishing X-Men. Either way, the non-international, non-iOS titles should be more clearly marked as such. Get it together, Amazon. It's embarrassing.

Variable - Kindle - Buy now
Variable - iBooks - Buy now

Middle Manager of Justice - Joseph Keller

Middle Manager of Justice is the latest game from Double Fine. A management simulation game, you take the role of the manager of a branch of a superhero corporation. In the ongoing mission to make your branch profitable, you will hire superheroes, send them on missions, and help them develop their abilities. As you earn money from sending your heroes on successful missions, you can upgrade and expand your office, allowing your heroes to train, recover health, and restore morale. While you can choose to participate in combat, that participation is limited to choosing when a superhero uses their special ability. The game itself is free, though there are in-app purchases for resource packs, but it should be noted that these resources are found in the game itself, so these purchases are in no way necessary.

Free - Download Now

History Channel - Chris Parsons

If you're not really a TV watcher but would like to access some of the shows offered on the History channel, they've now gone ahead and released a new app. It's beautifully designed and offers plenty of access to full episodes, clips and even some unaired content only available through the app. Sadly, AirPlay hasn't been built into the app as of yet but it is on their list of things to add. Pawn Stars, American Pickers, Counting Cars -- all without the need for TV. Plus, if you're a Comcast you can get even more access.

Free Download Now

Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift - Ally Kazmucha

Cut the Rope is one of my favorite games for iOS. I've picked up all the versions they've released so far and have played through them several times. It's one of those games that you can always start over and try and complete it faster and better than last time. Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift is the holiday version and it's something I've played through every year around this time since it was released.

Best of all, it's free. So if you've never checked out any of the Cut the Rope games, this is a perfect one to give a trial run. If you don't like it, nothing lost. If you do, make sure you check out the other full versions for iPhone and iPad!

Free - Download Now

Your choice?

Now that we've chosen our favorites for the week, we want to hear yours! Did you pick up a killer app, accessory, or game this week? Let us know in the comments below!

Best Free iPad App of the Week – The World in 2013 from The Economist: Editor’s Highlights

Posted: 15 Dec 2012 09:11 AM PST

One of the best things about using an iPad is all the great apps that we can run on it. There are excellent apps for just about any purpose you can think of. Better still, there are lots of great free apps for the iPad. Our Best Free iPad App of the Week posts highlight these apps.

This week's pick is The World in 2013 from The Economist: Editor's Highlights – a selection of articles and forecasts from the print edition of The Economist's The World in 2013.

The World in 2013 is The Economist's latest annual collection of predictions, insight, and snapshots of some of the most notable people, events, and trends that are likely to shape the year ahead. Here's a little more info via the App Store page for the app:

With a mixture of analysis with wit, journalists from The Economist join luminaries from the worlds of politics, business and science in offering forecasts for 2013, a year that will be particularly important for America's fiscal future, for China's new leadership and for Europe's efforts to emerge from crisis. Triskaidekaphobiacs (those who fear the number 13) will have much to worry about, but everyone will smile on March 20th—the first official international happiness day.

The World in 2013 is a guide for what we can expect to dominate the news and impact our lives next year and this app is a great little primer on it, featuring some of the highlights in an easy to browse interface.

Some of the notable sections in the app include:

Month by Month 2013: A quick month by month rundown of major events coming up next year.

In Person 2013: Brief overviews of some of the important figures who are likely to have great impact next year.

In Video 2013 – These are all about the outlook for 2013 and what's on the horizon for countries and regions around the world. There are videos from the economics editor at The Economist; their Beijing and South Asia bureau chiefs, their Berlin correspondent, and even one from Kevin Kallaugher, a cartoonist for The Economist.

In Brief 2013: Little bite-sized facts and milestones for next year.

2013 in Figures: Some interesting numbers and statistics for 2013 – including an item on the rise of mobile vs. desktop.

Barometer 2013: These are brief summaries on global outlook, outlook by region, outlook by industry, Euro-zone issues, business concerns, and more.

There are also pages on Britain in 2013, United States in 2013, and International in 2013.

Here's an App Store link for The World in 2013 from The Economist: Editor's Highlights; it's a universal app too, so it will run on iPad and iPhone.

If you're after more great free iPad apps, be sure to check out our previous choices for Best Free iPad of the Week. We've also recently put together a best of the best of our selections from the last year in a Top 25 Best Free iPad Apps list.

© patrickj for iPad Insight, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: best free iPad app of the week, best free iPad apps

Nest Thermostat

Nest Thermostat has been around for awhile, but the second-generation model just came out in October, and it's more awesome than ever. The Wi-Fi-connected device replaces your home's usual thermostat, and lets you remotely control it from your iOS device. Though you can manually set timers, the real magic is in how Nest naturally learns your habits based on when you make adjustments, and when you leave the house. Although that sounds like it's mostly just for convenience, the system also helps you save power by showing a little leaf when you're being green.

$249.99 - Buy now

Dropcam

Dropcam is a quick and easy home security system that lets you see what's going on at home through an iOS app. The Dropcam units themselves plug into the home's Wi-Fi, and have speakers built into them so they can be used as webcams in a pinch. There's a cloud service available for the system that, with a subscription, enables owners to quickly look through event and activity history and quickly see stored video from those periods.

$149.99 - Buy now

WeMo

WeMo is a great general home automation system. You plug these little thing into power sockets around your house, then plug your lights (or other electronics) into those units. You can then turn those appliances on and off from your phone, or, if you pick up the WeMo motion sensor, you can have them automatically turn on with certain triggers. As a bonus, WeMo has hooks for IFTTT, which means you can have a text message sent to your phone when that motion sensor goes off, for example.

$49.99 - WeMo Switch - Buy now
$99.99 - WeMo Switch and Motion Sensor- Buy now

Sonos

Sonos remains the de facto standard in connected home audio. They have a wide range of Wi-Fi enabled speakers with companion iOS app that not only provide quick access to your iTunes library, but also a bunch of popular streaming services. With the Sonos app, you can quickly shift music from one room to the next, control playback, and change the volume from your device.

$299 - Play 3 - Buy now
$399 - Play 5 - Buy now
$699 - Sub - Buy now

Honorable mentions go out to a few projects that aren't available yet, like Lockitron, Lifx, Kick, and Stick N Find.

The Daily, First iPad-only Newspaper, Says Goodbye

Posted: 15 Dec 2012 07:35 AM PST

The Daily, the first iPad-only newspaper, published its final issue yesterday – a few months shy of two years after launching. The final issue is good read and a good look back on the short history of The Daily.

The final Letter from the Editor offers thanks and a shout out to The Daily's readers. There's a timeline of notable exclusives and coverage of big stories by The Daily, a grid of thumbnails of all the front cover pages, and a listing of notable milestones for the title. Some of these are quite impressive:

95% subscription renewal rate
#3 on the list of Top Grossing Apps for 2011 – trailing only Angry Birds and Smurfs' Village
30 minutes spent with The Daily on average

Ironically, even in this final issue it's easy to see some of the reasons why The Daily failed. One of them is that the title never got some of the most basic things right. This last issue was still slow to load and there are places in it where it's hard to even swipe back or forward successfully. In the 360 degree panorama image at the top of this post you get a feel for how many staff worked on The Daily. The staff also posted a fun farewell video on YouTube.

The video highlights the biggest issue that lead to the title's downfall – the sheer scale of it. You get a view of their enormous looking offices – complete with conference rooms and looking like the headquarters of a huge organization. They had over 100 staff and Newscorp spent so many millions on The Daily that it really never had a chance to generate enough revenue to survive.

I still hope someone will come along and do an iPad-only, or iPad first, newspaper right.

Here's The Daily's staff farewell video: