iPad By Davis: “UK Satellite broadcaster Sky set to roll out local downloads on its Sky Go mobile apps” plus 5 more

UK Satellite broadcaster Sky set to roll out local downloads on its Sky Go mobile apps
Why Apple had to close at $500 on January 19
Best Free iPad App of the Week: WWF Together, by World Wildlife Fund
Notable New iPad Apps – Tank Battle: North Africa
iMore Editors' Choice: Tokens, Riven, Ruzzle, and more
Apple is losing its hip...!

UK Satellite broadcaster Sky set to roll out local downloads on its Sky Go mobile apps

Posted: 20 Jan 2013 01:14 AM PST

UK Satellite broadcaster Sky set to roll out local downloads on its Sky Go mobile apps UK satellite television broadcaster Sky will launch updates to its hugely popular Sky Go apps next week that will enable users to download content and not just stream it. According to UK newspaper The Telegraph, the service will see Sky launch a subscription based service that will not only allow users to stream content that matches their actual home Sky subscription but be expanded to include movies and TV series too.

The subscription will cost £5 a month and will allow you to register up to four devices to download on-demand TV shows and movies from Sky's huge catalogue. The content will stay on your device for 30 days after you have downloaded it then it will not be available. You will be able to download as much content as you like with the only restrictions being the available storage on your device.

The move by Sky will certainly bring some competition to Lovefilm and Netflix which both offer movie and TV show streaming services in the UK. Sky however is such a well-known brand that it is sure to take a big chunk of that market when it launches next week. Currently Netflix offers its streaming service for £5.99 a month and Lovefilm is offering a special price of £4.99 a month; it's no surprise then that Sky chose the £5 a month figure for its service.

Sky claims that more than a quarter of its 11 million subscribers already actively use its Sky Go service. The Sky Go Extra service will be the first mobile TV subscription service in the UK and Ireland that offers Hollywood movies to download and watch offline.

If you are currently a Sky subscriber, would you be happy to pay an additional £5 a month to get access to this service?

Source: The Telegraph

Why Apple had to close at $500 on January 19

Posted: 19 Jan 2013 12:49 PM PST

Why Apple had to close at $500 on January 19

Joe Springer on Seeking Alpha proposed the following theory on why institutional money had a lot to gain by pushing Apple's stock price down to $500 by January 19, and a lot to lose if it had remained substantially higher.

So here is our logic to being patient. It is threefold:

Apple had an enormous amount of call options speculation related to its Summer surge

A huge share of this was calls with a strike of around the current price of $550 and higher that expire January 19 2013

The institutional money managers that wrote those call options and bought common stock to cover will make a lot of money if a) those options expire worthless, and then b) Apple runs after that expiration date

It's an interesting theory that I don't know enough about, one way or another, to provide any commentary on. (We'll ask Chris Umiastowsky to weigh in when he can). Maybe Apple just sucks now and everyone who likes Apple products is panicking and ass covering, or maybe there's a concerted effort to make money at Apple's expense. Often the truth lies in between the extreme.

Any smart investor types out there have any light they can shine on this?

Source: Seeking Alpha via Daring Fireball, Loren Brichter

Best Free iPad App of the Week: WWF Together, by World Wildlife Fund

Posted: 19 Jan 2013 10:36 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 [...]

Comments

Disappointed, I thought f this was going to be a wrestling app. by Sean

Lightning to 30-pin Adapter - Chris Oldroyd

This week I have chosen an accessory for my car that has made me really happy. I have an aux in 3.5mm connection in my car and I previously had a Kensington Liquid Aux system that plugged into the bottom of my iPhone 4S via a 30 pin connector and then split the audio out into a 3.5mm connection that plugged into my car's aux in. It was a very neat solution and only needed one connection to be made on the bottom of my iPhone 4S.

When I upgraded to the iPhone 5 I lost that ability due to the Lightning connector so I bought a Tunecast Bluetooth system that connected into my 3.5mm car aux in and then connected to my iPhone 5 via Bluetooth. This worked great for a while but jwhen it is connected alongside a Bluetooth car phone kit it became unreliable and severely degraded the quality of voice calls on phone calls.

Thankfully I found that Apple does a Lightning to 30-pin Adapter, I am sure I read that it didn't support audio out but I gave it a try anyway. I plugged it in and my iPhone 5 and the Kensington system and it charges and plays music just like it used to do, the adapter works perfectly. If you have a system that used uses the 30 pin connector, give this a try, hopefully it will work as well for you too; although it is rather expensive!

$39 - Buy now

Spaced - Joseph Keller

Spaced is all about, as you would guess, space. The UI is simple and straight-forward, letting you easily navigate within and between sections. Gathering news from NASA and Universe Today, Spaced keeps you up to date on all the latest in astronomy and space exploration. The app also has sections for images from NASA, as well as videos, upcoming missions, and live video feeds from NASA. Finally, you can peruse the news archive and save articles for later reading. If you're interested in the latest news, photos, and even weather from space, this is an essential app for your collection. Spaced is a universal app available for $1.99.

$1.99 - Download Now

Ruzzle - Ally Kazmucha

There are a plethora of word games for iPhone available in the App Store. While Letterpress remains my favorite, Ruzzle comes in a close second since it's quick and easy to play.

Game play is easy and you can either challenge friends or play against a random opponent. You will be shown a 4 by 4 grid containing letters. You'll have two minutes to make as many words as you can with those letters. The only catch is that they have to be connected. Simply dragging your finger across them will connect them to form words. If it's valid, it'll add it to your word count.

Ruzzle is available for free but it ad supported. If you'd like to remove ads, you can do so as an additional $2.99 in-app purchase.

Free - Download Now

Aviary Photo Editor - Chris Parsons

If you're digging through the app store looking for a good photo editor, it can become quite confusing as there is plenty to choose from. A little known secret about them all though is that a lot of the available ones are actually powered by Aviary, which offers up their photo editing services to developers. With that in mind, rather than digging through multiple apps and testing which ones work the best, I find it better to go right to the source. Aviary Photo Editor is a stand alone app that offers all the photo editing options an average user may need, plus some extras that might suit power users just fine. The basic app is free but there is multiple add-ons available for purchase as well should you find you need more. Personally, for my use the basic app itself is more than enough, give it a go and see how you like it.

Free - Download Now

Riven - Simon Sage

Fire up the nostalgia engine. The sequel to PC puzzle classic, Myst, is now available on the iPad. Riven whisks players to a strange, beautiful, and rapidly-deteriorating world to rescue someone that had been wrongfully trapped there. Players tap their way through a series of gorgeously-rendered scenes and chew through some wickedly difficult challenges. I never finished the game when I first got it back in '97, but now may be my chance to finally get through the whole thing. Grab it now while the introductory price lasts!

$5.99 - Download now

Tokens - Rene Ritchie

Tokens for Mac, by Oisin Prendiville and Padraig Kennedy, takes a complicated, fairly onerous task and makes it almost enjoyable. I'm talking about generating and distributing App Store promo codes. Sure, iTunes Connect can spit them out, but after that, Apple considers them your problem.

With Tokens, you log straight into your Apple developer account (authentication is handled via Keychain on your Mac, so no one gets your credentials who shouldn't have them) and then helps you generate just the promo codes you need, when you need them. What's more, you can identify where they're going, neatly package them up in an automagic URL so they're a breeze to redeem, and then keep track of which ones have been used and which are still pending.

Tokens is free to use for one app, and a mere $29 for multiple apps. Pay for it either way, it's well worth the money, and encouraging great developer tools is good for everyone's collective karma.

$29 - 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!

Apple is losing its hip...!

Posted: 19 Jan 2013 06:11 AM PST

Apple is losing its hip...!

A very nice reality check from John Moltz's Very Nice Web Site:

Victor Keegan, writing for the Guardian, thinks all the cool has gone out of the iPhone and that smartphones from other vendors have already overtaken it:

The punchline is sublime. Go read it.

Source: Very Nice Web Site

iPad by Davis

domingo, 20 de enero de 2013