lunes, 1 de julio de 2013

iPad By Davis: “Want a reduced price Google Music All Access subscription? Today's your final chance!” plus 6 more

iPad By Davis: “Want a reduced price Google Music All Access subscription? Today's your final chance!” plus 6 more

Want a reduced price Google Music All Access subscription? Today's your final chance!

Posted: 30 Jun 2013 03:40 PM PDT

I would have hoped that this day would come after the launch of the official iOS application, but anyway; if you're interested in Google Music All Access today is your last chance to get in at the reduced price. For anyone who signs up before the end of today, the monthly fee will be $7.99, $2 less than the regular price that will come into effect as of tomorrow. Signing up is real easy, and comes with a 30-day free trial so you can put it through its paces before Google takes your money.

It's important to remember that the service is only available in the US, and at the moment to use it on your iOS device you'll need a third-party client like gMusic. We do know for sure that Google is bringing it to iOS in an official capacity, so for the sake of saving $24 a year on the overall cost a minor inconvenience in the immediate future could be overlooked. If you've already joined up, be sure to jump into the comments below and let me know how you're finding it.

    

Fun Summer Learning for Kids: Featured iPad App Store Collection this Week

Posted: 30 Jun 2013 01:17 PM PDT

Fun Summer Learning for Kids App Store section

One of the featured app collections in the iPad App Store this week is titled 'Fun Summer Learning for Kids'. That may be a sight for sore eyes for many students and parents as the hot summer rolls on.

The collection highlights 30 apps that should prove engaging for kids of all age groups. Many are aimed at quite young ages, while others are more suitable for older elementary school students.

There's everything from fun little coloring and numbers games to the Hopscotch visual programming app. I'm happy to see that my family owns about 1/3 of these apps and several of them have already got a lot of good use by my 10 year old daughter.

It's great to see Apple featuring one sort of educational app collection or another so often in the App Store recently.

You'll find the Fun Summer Learning for Kids collection among the rotating featured sections in the Featured tab of the...

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iPad Art: Jean Valjean Portrait

Posted: 30 Jun 2013 10:49 AM PDT

Jean Valjean by Michael Acosta

I'm about as artistic as a lump of coal, but I've always appreciated great art and admired the heck out of those who create it. Given my huge interest in the iPad, I've been fascinated to watch as a growing number of both traditional and 'digital' artists have embraced the Apple tablet as not just one of their tools, but as their primary canvas in recent years.

I'll share some great iPad art here each weekend, and I hope some of you will become fans of it too, or better still be inspired to create your own art on the iPad.

Today's piece of iPad art is this stunning portrait of Jean Valjean from the movie and musical Les Misérables.

This one is the work of Michael Acosta, created on an iPad using the Paper by 53 app. Michael is a frequent contributor to our iPad Art community on Google+ and is doing incredible iPad paintings with the Paper by 53 app.

© patrickj...

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Best of the rest: Golden trails 2, Passwordbox, ProPhotos, and more!

Posted: 30 Jun 2013 08:46 AM PDT

iMore's best of the rest: Notable new and updated apps for the week

Every week we provide you guys with app reviews for iPhone, iPad, and Mac as well as give you the scoop on the hottest new and updated apps. No matter how much time we spend writing reviews or posting news on app updates, there's no denying that the App Store is a huge marketplace to dig through.

That's why we think these apps are worth mentioning even if we didn't have time to give them all full on reviews. This week we found a few weather apps, some children's apps for both parents and kids, some games for both Mac and iOS, and more.

Games

Must Keep Counting for iPhone and iPad

Must Keep Counting is a basic counting game where you'll need to tap on the tiles as fast as you can in order to count as high as you can. As you tap on a tile, it will be replaced by a different number. Count in order as high as you can while racing against the time. As you're tapping on tiles faster and faster, you'll gain more time but take too long and the timer starts counting down. When you get to zero, your game will end.

Must Keep Counting supports Game Center integration too so you can challenge and check out your friend's high scores.

Word Slide for iPhone

If you're a fan of word games, Word Slide is an interesting twist on classic word creation games. You'll have to work against the clock in order to form words as fast as you can but there's a little catch, the letters move in turn making it more challenging.

You can either play solo or match up against friends in turns of three round games.

Golden Trails 2 for Mac

In Golden Trails 2, you'll play as Henry whose grandfather was accused of being a pirate. In order to save him you'll need to defeat bandits, find hidden items, and solve lots of puzzles. The graphics are also beautifully designed.

If you like casual RPG's that contain more puzzles and mini-games than they do hand to hand combat, Golden Trails 2 may be what you're looking for.

Productivity apps

PasswordBox for iPhone and iPad

Password Box is a password manager that can store all your account information and login information in one place. With a built-in browser you'll be able to tap once and log in to all your accounts that you've got stored. The interface is surprisingly clean and well laid out. If you don't need or want to pay for a more extensive solution such as 1Password, PasswordBox may be a nice compromise.

PasswordBox is a universal download for both iPhone and iPad.

Actions for iPad

Actions allows you to create actions straight on your iPad in order to control and work more seamlessly with your computer. All your actions can wirelessly sync between the two for a much better workflow. If you like integrating your iPad and appreciate touch screen controls over basic computer controls, Actions is worth checking out. Actions works with both Mac and PC.

Stocks for iPhone

There's no shortage of stock apps in the App Store but the quality of each one varies. Stocks for iPhone caught our attention because not only does it give you pretty detailed information, it's one of the best put together stock apps we've seen paired with a gorgeous interface. If you don't need a hardcore stock app that ties directly into your stock portfolios, Stocks makes a perfect app for just checking on things at a quick glance.

Task Player for iPhone

Task management apps run rampant in the App Store and choosing one can be a hard decision. I personally use a couple different ones for different reasons. Task Player aims to make task management less work and more fun. With custom alerts and a great interface, Task Player allows you to think of tasks like an album. Choose tracks to go with certain tasks and go.

The creators of Task Player think it's an ideal app for activities such as circuit training, Yoga, and timing dishes in the kitchen.

Photography apps

Modern Photo Editor for iPhone and iPad

If you can't get enough photo editing apps stock piled on your iPhone, Modern Photo Editor is another great one that's got a clean layout and lots of filter, edit, and sharing options. With lots of filters, adjustments, textures, and spot-editing options you'll be able to fully edit your photos and then share them to the social network of your choice including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, email, and text message.

ProPhotos for iPhone and iPad

ProPhotos takes a new approach on how you view your photos. Instead of viewing them in a boring list, why not check out your best photos in different 3D shapes and slideshows? With six different views to choose from, you can view 3D models of your photos and expand on them as you'd like. ProPhotos also supports animations for transitions between photos.

Social apps

Socialblend for iPhone

Socialblend combines all your social networks together in one feed including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. The feed view is visually attractive and even lets you play YouTube videos native within the app. If you want to simply switching between apps in order to catch up on what your friends are posting, Socialblend is one of the best options we've found to be available.

Moment for Mac

Moment for Mac is a new way to share to Facebook directly from your Mac. Not only can you post status updates, you can also videos and photo galleries without ever having to log in to Facebook via a web browser. One of the coolest features is the ability to drag videos directly from Vimeo and YouTube right to Moment's status icon in order to upload them.

If anything, Moment is a super convenient way to share directly to Facebook without disrupting your workflow.

Kids and Education

iMore's best of the rest: Notable new and updated apps for the week

First Years for iPhone

First Years is one of the most gorgeous ways we've ever seen to document and chronicle your child's life. Not only are the different ways beautiful, tilting your iPhone into landscape mode will bring up a calendar you can tab through in order to easily access moments on certain dates.

If you're looking for a way to organize and store photos of your kids, First Years is a great option. The built-in camera also makes it an all-in-one app for the times you want to snap photos and instantly add them.

LittleLearner for iPhone and iPad

LittleLearner is a basic learning app for young children with an easy to use and navigate interface. It includes the ability to pull up letters and allow a child to trace over them with different colored crayons in order to learn the alphabet. There are several categories to choose from including numbers, letters, shapes, fruits, and music.

If you're looking for a discovery app to help your child discover the basics, LittleLearner is a great option.

Weather and Travel apps

Weathertron for iPhone and iPad

Instead of providing a detailed advanced forecast, Weathertron aims to make it easier to plan what you're doing right now by focusing on what today's weather will bring. With information such as whether it'll rain to cloud cover and more, Weathertron is not only beautiful, it can help you better plan your day around the weather that's currently happening and how it will develop over the course of the entire day.

SimplyWeather for iPhone

There are lots of gorgeous weather apps available in the App Store and SimplyWeather has just made that decision even harder. WIth beautiful forecast and current condition screens to a well laid out list of information, SimplyWeather shows what you need to see beautifully.

SimplyWeather supports weather information for local weather, weekly forecasts, wind speed, humidity, visibility, and more. If you're looking for a replacement weather app, give SimplyWeather a look.

Travel Budget App for iPhone

If you're thinking about traveling, you'll probably want a good amount of travel apps on your iPhone before departure. If one of your goals is to budget yourself and be mindful of how much you're spending while you're done, Travel Budget App can do just that.

For business users, Travel Budget App makes a great way to track expenses since you can easily export them at the end of your trip to be sent or uploaded wherever you need them.

Your picks?

These are the apps we found to be notable throughout this past week but that doesn't mean we covered them all. If you found a new or updated app this past week that you think is worth mentioning, make sure you drop it in the comments below!

    

Games of the week: Layton Brothers, Iron Sky Invasion, Random Heroes 2 and more!

Posted: 30 Jun 2013 07:57 AM PDT

It's Sunday, and that can only mean that it's time once again for a roundup of the iMore teams most played games of the last seven days. We've got a real variety this week, with a healthy dose of iOS games accompanied by a couple for those Mac gamers out there. Let's take a look.

Random Heroes 2 - Joseph Keller

I have fond memories of my Nintend Entertainment System. It was the first video game console I ever had, and I had a lot of fun with it. Mario, Zelda, and Mega Man were my first, and to this day some of my favorite, gaming experiences. So when I pick up a game like Random Heroes 2, a side-scrolling action-platforming game, it sort of feels like returning to my gaming roots. Random Heroes 2 features an eclectic group of heroes, each with unique abilities, battling aliens across several stages. Use the touch controls to navigate around levels, using the A and B buttons to fire and jump, respectively. You can even aim your weapon using the A button. You can buy different heroes and weapons with the coins and items that you either earn by playing the game or buy from the in-game store. With engaging action and at times challenging platforming, Random Heroes 2 is a great time if you want a fun challenge that gives you a dose of good, old-fashioned 2-D action.

Dumb Ways to Die - Simon Sage

One of the great free games climbing the charts lately is Dumb Ways to Die. Players have to successfully get through a gauntlet of simple minigames for as long as possible, though they become progressively more difficult. These can range from shooing away piranhas from your crotch, swatting bugs, and holding onto balloons so you don't dive onto the tracks. The art style fantastically morbid - cute little characters are constantly getting maimed in new and exciting ways. As you play, you unlock more of them as your life counters. The best part about this game is that it's actually a kind of public service warning by the Melbourne transit association to make sure people don't do stupid things near the tracks. There's [even a cute music video](Dumb Ways to Die). Well-played, Australia. Well-played.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing - Chris Parsons

I love racing games but I'm more a fan of silly racing games rather than serious ones so when I came across Sonic & Sega All-Stars racing I had to give it a go. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised with this one. It's a pretty sweet kart racing and doesn't really involve much effort to play, plus the included AirPlay support is awesome. It's free to download and while the nags to upgrade are there, they're not really bothersome. If you Mario Kart was your game back in the day, you'll feel right at home here.

Iron Sky Invasion - Peter Cohen

The movie "Iron Sky" is one of my guilty pleasures - it's pure B-movie sci-fi cheese, but that's rather the point: space Nazis living on the Moon attempt an invasion of Earth. TopWare Interactive responded last year with a video game for PC and consoles based on the movie. Now they've adapted it for iOS. This isn't the deepest game I've ever played on my iPad, and it's not the most challenging, but it's a good bit of fun: You defend Earth from the invading Moon Nazis as you fly seven different experimental space spacecraft ranging from nimble fighters to heavy bombers. You can collect salvage to recharge your shields and use different weapons like rockets, laser cannons and plasma launchers as you go up against wave after wave of invading Moon Nazis in 18 missions - you'll even have to blow up gargantuan Space Zeppelins. Iron Sky was firmly tongue-in-cheek and so is this game, which is more than a nod to classic space dogfighting games of yore like Wing Commander.

Layton Brothers Mystery Room - Ally Kazmucha

Layton Brothers Mystery Room is a detective game in which you'll work as Lucy Baker to solve cases with the unstable Professor Layton. You'll comb over case files and use scene reconstructions in order to figure out who committed each crime.

As you work your way through the game, the crime scenes will become more intricate and you'll have more evidence to comb through and suspects to comb through. If you're a fan of crime scene games, this one will be a great addition to your file. It isn't terribly difficult but some of the case files will keep you thinking.

Dirt 2 - Richard Devine

I've played rally games on consoles since the very first Colin McRae title all those years ago, and while Dirt 2 isn't the very latest in the series which was born from that, it's an impressive game nonetheless. I actually picked this up as part of the Feral bundle, but it's well worth the asking price in the Mac App Store. Dirt 2 has a whole host of different rally style races to take on, and a bunch of different vehicles in which to do it. It looks fantastic, and if you hook up something like an Xbox controller it becomes an identical experience to that on the console.

I'm not traditionally a big Mac gamer, but Dirt 2 has been my go-to fix ever since I acquired it. And there's a lot of life to be had from it.

Lego Batman - Rene Ritchie

Lego Star Wars was good. Lego Indiana Jones was okay. But Lego Batman… It was the Dark Knight truly triumphant. I bought it for the PS3 when it first came out and spent many hours playing it with my little brother and my god children. When it became available for the Mac App Store I bought it again, just for the convenience. There's a sequel now, with Superman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the Lego Justice League along for the ride, any why it's technically great, it doesn't have the awesome, word-less feel of the original.

If you've never played Lego Batman, or any of the Lego games before, you're in for a treat. It's everything you love about the classic pop heroes mixed with great, family friendly game play that varies from adventure to racing, and a mind-bogglingly large cast of characters. (From Nightwing to Harley Quinn, Batgirl to Clayface.)

I'm not a big video game player, but Lego Batman was and is some of the most fun I've ever had playing video games. The Tim Burton score doesn't hurt either.

    

Ad hoc 5: Man of Steel

Posted: 30 Jun 2013 03:34 AM PDT

Ad hoc 5: Man of Steel

Ad hoc is our media and miscellaneous podcast where we get a bunch of tech geeks together, put them in front of mics, hit record, and then chat with them about movies, TV shows, video games, comics and books, and other popular, nerdy things. In this episode, Guy English, Georgia, Dave Wiskus, and Rene Ritchie pretty much do to Man of Steel what the Man of Steel did to Metropolis in Chris Nolan, David Goyer, and Zack Snyder's reboot of the Superman franchise.

Panel

Feedback

Yell at us via the Twitter accounts above. Loudly.

    


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Designed by Apple in California: Published in newspapers everywhere

Posted: 30 Jun 2013 03:07 AM PDT

Designed by Apple is California: Published in newspapers everywhere

Apple's going decidedly old world for their newest ad campaign, pushing their "Designed by Apple in California" series onto 2-page spreads in major North American newspapers, including Saturday's Montreal Gazette, pictured above. Nostalgia has been something Apple's appealed to in the past - that sense of better, simpler, more personal times and places, where friends and family, important moments and memorable music, craftsmanship and quality were the things that inspired and empowered us, and were among the values that mattered most.

I've already written about what I think it means in terms of regionalism and responsibility. Some have theorized they're targeted internally at Apple's own, and others have said they're not as effective at reaching mainstream consumers. Allusions have even been made to Apple's classic "Think Different" campaign, claiming "Designed by Apple in California" is to Tim Cook's first act what that was to Steve Jobs' second.

Regardless, they seem to me to be more brand ads than product ads, statements of identity and purpose than sales pitches. Their job doesn't seem to be to sell more iPhone or iPads, iPods or Macs, at least not overtly or directly, but to sell more Apple subtly and pervasively.

"Designed by Apple in California" doesn't seem to have clicked everywhere or for everyone yet, and may not even over time. But it gets "design", "Apple", and "California" linked in people's thoughts, and in their commentary, and that's a change from what the discussions and word associations might have been previously.

You can check out some other variants over at 9to5Mac. If Apple's running an ad in your local paper, throw a link below and let me know what you think about the campaign.

This is it. This is what matters. The experience of a product. How it makes someone feel. When you start by imagining what it might be like, you step back. You think.

Who will this help? Will it make life better? Does this deserve to exist? If you are busy making everything, how can you perfect anything?

We don't believe in coincidence or dumb luck. There are a thousand "no's" for every "yes". We spend a lot of time on a few great things. Until every idea we touch, enhances each life it touches.

We're engineers and artists. Craftsmen and inventors. We sign our work. You may rarely look at it, but you'll always feel it. This is our signature, and it means everything.

Designed by Apple in California

    
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