iPad By Davis: “Apps of the Week: Sky Gamblers, Ticket to Ride, Tweetbot, and more” plus 5 more

Apps of the Week: Sky Gamblers, Ticket to Ride, Tweetbot, and more
Apple's WWDC honey-do list, as dictated by the internet
Best Free iPad App of the Week: Google+
Notable New iPad Apps: MLB.com Home Run Derby
How to view content from your Mac on your Apple TV with AirPlay Mirroring
Apple vs the U.S. Congress: Can Apple convince Congress to fix cash repatriation tax laws?

Apps of the Week: Sky Gamblers, Ticket to Ride, Tweetbot, and more

Posted: 18 May 2013 04:53 PM PDT

Every week, the editors and writers at iMore carefully select some of our favorite, most useful, most extraordinary apps. This week's selections include a war game, a videography app, a classic board game, and a popular twitter client for Mac.

Sky Gamblers - Storm Raiders - Peter Cohen

World War II air combat on the Mac - dogfighting in the skies above Pearl Harbor, Midway, France and more. Fly historic planes with cross-platform multiplayer, Game Center and iCloud support. If you've played the game on your iOS device, you know what to expect. But Atypical Games has reworked Sky Gamblers - Storm Raiders to work on the Mac, which makes it an even more fun game on a bigger screen.

The game costs a paltry 99 cents to download, but content like new planes and weapons come at a price - in-app purchases for a couple of bucks here and there. Still, lots of fun to play and not a lot of coin to make it happen.

$0.99 - Download now

Luma Camera - Rene Ritchie

While I was at BlackBerry Live -- or was it iMore live? -- one of the developers in attendance came over and showed me Luma Camera for iPhone. It's a video shooting app that offers filters both real-time and for post-processing, as well as optional HD video storage space via their website. The most interesting feature, however, is the image stabilization. Real optical image stabilization requires hardware, but Luma does a respectable job using the iPhones built in sensors and it's powerful graphics processing capabilities.

I haven't had much of a chance to play around with it yet, but it looks like fun. If you try it, let me know what you think!

Free - Download now

Ticket to Ride Online - Richard Devine

I must confess to being an avid fan of the Geek and Sundry YouTube Show, TableTop starring Wil Wheaton. It's via that show I first became aware of the board game Ticket to Ride, and now I've found and begun playing the Mac version -- Ticket to Ride Online

I've never played the board game, but the Mac version is a beautifully colourful recreation of the original, and follows the rules to the letter. You choose a series of routes, and the objective is to lay trains on as many of those routes as possible before the game is up. The longest routes get an extra reward at the end, and incomplete routes loses points. It's really simple to pick up and play, and there's a comprehensive tutorial game to help you get to grips with the gameplay.

In-App purchases are available to extend the game boards, with new ones available for Europe, another USA board and for Switzerland. And, the online play supports competing against other Mac, PC, and iPad players. I've not tried out the iPad version just yet, but you'll find a link for that too below.

$9.99 (Mac Version) - Download Now
$6.99 (iPad Version) - Download Now

Tweetbot for Mac - Ally Kazmucha

There are a wealth of amazing Twitter clients for iOS but when it comes to Mac, there are less to choose from. While I tend to use Twitterrific on my iPhone and iPad, I've never really liked the feel of it on Mac. Tweetbot is my second favorite for iOS and when they released a Mac client a while back, it definitely didn't disappoint.

The price point is quite a bit higher than other Twitter offerings in the Mac App Store but honestly, it's the best available, hands down. If you want the iOS Tweetbot experience on your Mac, there really is no other option.

$19.99 - 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's WWDC honey-do list, as dictated by the internet

Posted: 18 May 2013 11:20 AM PDT

Apple's WWDC checklist, as dictated by the internet

According to the internet, Apple has to everything everyone else has ever done, plus make real everything science fiction has ever imagined, or WWDC 2013 will be a disappointment, and Apple will again and forever be doomed. No pressure there. But what exactly is this unattainable goal being set for Apple? Justin Willaims of Carpeaqua has placed tongue firmly in cheek and laid it plain.

With WWDC just a few weeks away, I thought it'd be beneficial to the Internet at large to compile a working list of everything that is expected of Apple during their Keynote and subsequent "State of the Union" addresses in order to appease the Internet. Failure to introduce each and every one of these features and updates will result in another stock price plummet, calls for Tim Cook's ouster and an infinite amount of comments on tech blogs decrying that Android is superior to Apple's iOS.

I have several favorites. Give the whole things a read, then tell me yours.

Source: Carpeaqua

Best Free iPad App of the Week: Google+

Posted: 18 May 2013 10:18 AM PDT

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 Google+, the iPad app for Google's social network. It took Google a long time to bring out an iPad version of Google+ but it turned out to be worth the wait – and I've ben meaning to feature it as a Best iPad App of the Week here for a long while now.

I was fortunate enough to get an early Google+ invite right around its initial beta launch. I liked it right from the off and it has become my favorite social network. I find myself spending more and more time on Google+, as I enjoy the lively discussions on a wide range of topics that interest me. And the excellent Google+ iPad app...

Read the whole entry... »

Turn on your TV and your Apple TV.
Make sure your Apple TV and your Mac are both connected to the same wifi network.
In the task tray in the upper right corner of your Mac, look for the AirPlay icon.
Click on the AirPlay icon and you should see your Apple TV available for mirroring. Simply click on it.

The content on your Mac screen will now automatically be shown on your TV screen.

Apple vs the U.S. Congress: Can Apple convince Congress to fix cash repatriation tax laws?

Posted: 18 May 2013 08:36 AM PDT

Apple vs the U.S. Congress: Can Apple convince Congress to fix cash repatriation tax laws?

Apple has $102 billion in cash overseas. It wants to bring that money back to the U.S. but it doesn't want to pay the 35% in taxes the U.S. government is demanding. Apple calls it smart business, Congress might end up calling it tax evasion. Who's right?

It's quite popular for people reporting on Apple's financial position to quote the absurdly high level of cash the company holds on its balance sheet. At the end of last quarter the $145 billion is more than a rainy day fund, which is why the board of directors approved a massive stock buyback and dividend hike. Of course Apple won't be using much of its cash to do this. Instead, it raised debt. Why? Because so much of the cash -- about $102 billion -- is not on US soil. Instead this money is held in other countries.

Apple is playing a waiting game with Congress, and I'm betting they will win it. Apple doesn't need the money onshore nearly as much as Congress would like them to bring it on shore and encourage more US investment.

Tim Cook is scheduled to testify in Washington next week. According to all the headlines on this subject, the government wants to know if Apple is evading taxes. I'm certainly no tax expert but I've seen smartly organized tax systems work for a variety of companies in my time following stocks. There are a number of perfectly legal ways to generate profits outside of your home country, avoiding domestic taxes on that profit. Companies can be quite aggressive by establishing high internal costs in another country, therefore siphoning more profit away from the USA, and into the country where they establish internal high costs. Or they can be less aggressive, as Apple claims is their case. Either way it's legal.

Would Apple like to bring home the bacon? Yeah, of course they would. It would simplify things and make it easier for them to invest locally. But with a 35% tax rate applied to this repatriated cash, according to Tim Cook as quoted by this excellent Politico article, there is no way in hell they're going to do it. They'll wait. And I hope US Congress can get their thumbs out of their asses long enough figure out that they can't win against companies as big as Apple with as many other global opportunities available to them for investing this cash. And of course with Apple's stellar balance sheet they can avoid repatriating cash forever if they want. They can continue to rely on local debt markets if they need more cash than they have.

If you want Apple to invest more in the USA, make it more attractive for shareholders

To me this seems like a no brainer -- If you want Apple to invest more in the USA, make it more attractive for shareholders. After all, shareholders run the company and shareholders don't care to pay 35% repatriation tax. For Apple to do anything less than fight this battle would be irresponsible.

People can scream all they want about tax avoidance and "dodging" tax responsibilities. Bottom line: The US government created their laws, and Apple is playing within the rules. So are many other companies.

If you don't want people dodging taxes, stop throwing dodge balls at the places that hurt them most.

iPad by Davis

domingo, 19 de mayo de 2013