iPad By Davis: “Facebook's not-a-phone gets not-a-commercial” plus 4 more |
- Facebook's not-a-phone gets not-a-commercial
- iMore Editors' Choice: Badland, Soundcloud, Veronica Mars, and more
- Best Free iPad App of the Week: History
- Price Drops: Robots for iPad Free this Week Only
- Security vs. convenience: How do you balance your passwords?
| Facebook's not-a-phone gets not-a-commercial Posted: 06 Apr 2013 04:43 PM PDT Facebook, like Microsoft before it, chose to pitch their new Home interface as people-centric rather than app-centric like Apple, has released a commercial of sorts in hopes of selling the idea to the masses. And... I'm not really sure what vibe they were going for, but I found it somewhere between the original Palm Pre lady and Google give-us-all-your-stuff early efforts on the creepy scale. If you like Facebook and aren't opposed to them getting all up in your information in exchange for socially sorted communications and connections, I don't know how this commercial helps make you feel better about giving them that level of trust. If you're scared of Facebook and don't want their tentacles anywhere near your life or loved ones, I don't know how this commercial helps move you from that opinion. In the demo, as in the ad, we see people swiping between between beautiful photographs of gorgeous moments. A quick look at my, admittedly neglected timeline shows a bunch of meme pics and drunken mobile shots I'd sooner never see again. I like a lot of the design work their team put in, and like I said before the event, I think the idea of Facebook face-hugging Android and injecting it with their xenomorph DNA is tactically smart, but even the best of experiences can suffer from the worst of intentions. Bottom line, the idea of all these social and search giants giving me the services equivalent a lobster dinner, and then expecting me to put out because of it, is still a deal breaker. I'm still happy to pay for my dinner at this point. Sadly, there's no unlike button. 
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| iMore Editors' Choice: Badland, Soundcloud, Veronica Mars, and more Posted: 06 Apr 2013 10:34 AM PDT
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 an app that lets you check the coverage of major US carriers, a refreshing runner game, a music app, a TV show, an app for a popular auctioning service, and an app that lets you bookmark your favorite locations. Coverage? - Joseph Keller
Whether I'm planning a road trip or writing an article about a carrier for iMore, Coverage tells me where the four major carriers have their various networks deployed, from 2G to LTE. Currently, Coverage provides data on a carrier's roaming areas and its 2G, 3G, "4G", and LTE networks. If you want to look at just one or two networks, you can turn their filters on and off in the top right-hand corner.Coverage uses the reports of each carrier, and it's proven reliable enough for me to count on its information. The only real downside of Coverage is its need for an app update to become current after a network turns on towers in more cities. It's a universal app that costs $2.99, so pick it up if you want this sort of information on hand wherever you go.
Badland - Simon Sage
Badland is a refreshing new runner game that does away with the idea that you have to be out of the game as soon as you hit anything. In Badland, you control this odd little creature trying to flap its way through a treacherous forest. Debris falls in your path, and odd machinery peaks through the brush and occasionally knocks you around, but the really interesting part are the power ups you pick up. Some types make you smaller, and able to fit through tiny crevices, while others make you larger and massive enough to push aside obstacles. You can play local multiplayer and try to nudge opponents off the edge of the screen, which moves gradually forward as you progress. What really got me about Badland is the altogether polished art style. It's certainly dark, but a little whimsical too. Definitely check this one out if you're looking for something visually refreshing.
Soundcloud - Chris Parsons
These days, I find myself listening to all sorts of different music. One reason for that is the fact I not too long ago signed up for a Soundcloud account. Rather then listening to the same music over and over, I now just let Soundcloud play on in the background let it pick some music for me. Then, we I hear some stuff I like, I favorite it. My use case is fairly slim in comparison to what Soundcloud is capable of as a whole, but if you're looking to check some new music or even podcasts then it's certainly worth a look. From indie bands to top acts, you'll find them all offering free content on Soundcloud and best of all, the app itself is free.
Veronica Mars Rene Ritchie
Veronica Mars was a post-Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series that used a similar formula -- small, young, precocious, blond, snarky, lady hero raised in a single family home positively cleaning the clocks of big bad forces all around her. The setting wasn't super natural, but the stories smart, the characters well rendered, and the mix of humor, hope, pain, rage, suspense, and triumph remarkably well balanced and well executed. Series creator Rob Thomas is currently using Kick Starter to fund a movie spin off. I backed it within moments of it going live and it's now at somewhere around $4.5 million. More money will mean a better movie, however, so if you haven't backed it yet, check it out. The original three seasons are available on iTunes. They're all good, the first is spectacular.
eBay - Ally Kazmucha
We did some spring cleaning around The Pod Drop office and found lots of old iPhones, iPads, damaged logic boards, and pretty much everything you could imagine. To get rid of all this stuff, we frequently use eBay. I'd never really managed eBay auctions from the native iPhone and iPad app but decided to give it a try. I have to say I'm actually pretty impressed. If you're selling items or bidding on other items, you'll get notifications pushed directly to your iPhone or iPad if you're outbid or when someone places another bid on one of your items. You can literally do almost everything you can on the web based version of eBay through the mobile apps. It's a huge time saver for answering buyer questions on the go. If you use eBay quite often and own an iPhone or iPad, it's hugely convenient.
Rego - Leanna Lofte
Rego is an iPhone app that lets you bookmark your favorite locations. For each locations you can attached photos and notes to remember why it is that you like that location. As a photographer, I'm using Rego as a way to save great photo shoot locations and make notes about lighting, specific areas of the locations, and other helpful details. Rego lets you save up to 10 locations for free and an unlimited amount for $0.99.
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! 
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| Best Free iPad App of the Week: History Posted: 06 Apr 2013 09:20 AM PDT
Who doesn't like free? And who doesn't like great iPad apps? When the two come together it's great stuff. With that in mind, we offer up a quick review of an excellent free iPad app here every Saturday. This week's pick is History, the official app for the History Channel. It brings all the most popular History shows to the iPad.
Here are some of its key features: The HISTORY app enables you to:         Related Stories
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| Price Drops: Robots for iPad Free this Week Only Posted: 06 Apr 2013 07:53 AM PDT
The superb Robots for iPad app is available for free from today through next weekend. Here's why:
This is an outstanding iPad app. I did a review of Robots for iPad last year and this was a part of my sum-up on it:
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| Security vs. convenience: How do you balance your passwords? Posted: 06 Apr 2013 08:10 AM PDT
Security is at constant war with convenience. The stronger the passwords we use to keep our data safe, the more steps we take to lock down what we own, the less accessible our data and our devices become -- even to us. Balancing it all can be tough, and a lot depends on what the platforms and services we use do to help us. And nowhere is this more evident than mobile. Multitouch keyboards, in large part, rely on things like like character pair prediction and auto-correct to make entry acceptable. Neither of those things are possible with passwords, and strong passwords require far higher than normal frequencies of shifting between upper and lower case, and between letters and numbers and symbols. It's the worst possible experience. A 4-digit passcode lock, or weak password, gets around that by reducing the complexity at the expense of security. Intervals can also be set, so that your passcode is only required minutes after you last used your device instead of seconds. A short interval offers better protection should you lose your device or should a friend try to prank you during an unguarded moment, but it can be maddening if you need to complete a long series of intermittent tasks. On iOS, ironically, Apple's security policies prevent password managers from working through Safari browser extensions the way they do on OS X, thus requiring more cumbersome copy-paste procedures, or the use of an in-app browser instead of Safari. Some websites, flabbergastingly, use JavaScript to block copy-paste, increasing the difficulty of using strong passwords. 2-step verification requires the use of an authenticator app, or the transmission of a token. Sometimes tokens don't work for no apparent reason, or network connectivity is spotty, complicating transmission. Sometimes it ends up being so secure, even you can't get in. It's not an iOS-only problem either by any means. BlackBerry Z10 passcode entry is such that Adam Zeis of CrackBerry has stopped using a password to secure his phone. It's possible future technologies like biometrics might make security more convenient, for example letting a thumbprint automagically allow access to a device. But what happens if your thumbprint is hacked or phished or otherwise compromised? You can't change your body as easily as you can a password. Where do you stand between convenience and security? Do you use a passcode? A strong one? A password manager? 2-step verification? And what could be done to make being secure even more convenient for you? 
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