viernes, 17 de agosto de 2012

iPad By Davis: “Does the "Sent from my iPad" email signature make you seem unprofessional?” plus 19 more

iPad By Davis: “Does the "Sent from my iPad" email signature make you seem unprofessional?” plus 19 more

Does the "Sent from my iPad" email signature make you seem unprofessional?

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 08:04 PM PDT

Does the

The often incendiary, but just as often sincere, Kevin Michaluk of CrackBerry.com followed up a recent, provocative Tweet with an editorial saying no one who uses an iPad should ever leave a "Sent from my iPad" signature -- or any tablet signature for that matter -- on their email. While it might be tempting to dismiss Kevin's advice, he argues his position on CrackBerry.com well:

In general, you're replying to emails from a mobile phone because you have to. You're away from your computer. As for tablets -- especially in the business use case I'm focusing on here -- if you're writing a long email on your tablet it's because you choose to, not because you have to.

Unlike the default signature on the phone, which subconciously tells the recipient you're responsive all the time and from everywhere (a good thing), the same isn't true of the tablet signature. To me, and the many others who have expressed agreement with my viewpoint, it gives off the appearance that you're a person who doesn't value your time. If you did, you'd head to a computer and pound out that email wayyyyy faster. Time is money. And if you're a person I'm paying to provide services, the last thing I want to see is time wasted.

Of course, there are exceptions. YES, some people are mad fast at typing on glass. YES, you can use bluetooth keyboards with your tablet and speed things up a lot. YES, you may have to use a tablet for work and do not have a computer alternative to go to. But these are exceptions, and your default tablet email signature does not reflect those exceptions.

Kevin also argues that having "Sent from my [anything]" is basically giving the company whose product you bought free advertising. Depending on who you are and who your contacts include, that kind of brand marketing can be incredibly valuable for them. And you paid for that privilege.

So I get it. Why broadcast what you're using to respond to an email when it doesn't add any value to you, and provides free advertising to a company you already paid $500 to almost $1000.

Like most things, however, it's more nuanced than that. Apple products have a certain cachet. Especially when a new product launches, it's not uncommon for people to want to show off that they have it -- including highly productive people like CEOs and high profile people like celebrities.

iPads are also popular in education and enterprise, including health care, insurance, and other verticals where the tablet form-factor is a huge advantage. If IT departments don't change the signature during provisioning, "Sent from my iPad" is what a lot of highly productive people's emails are going to say, and I'm not going to read anything into that other than that's what their email signature says.

Still, Kevin's point has merit. Information is power, and the less information you give out, even if it's just an email signature, the less power you give up, even if its just perception (or misperception).

Check out Kevin's entire rant on the subject via the link below and then come back and tell us what you think -- "Sent from my iPad" or no "Sent from my iPad", what do you prefer?

Source: CrackBerry.com

Apple set-top-box rumored to provide DVR-like TV on demand, iPad-like interface, social networking

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 07:13 PM PDT

Apple set-top-box rumored to provide DVR-like TV on demand, iPad-like interface, social networking

Yet more rumors are surfacing about Apple's plans for a set-top box that would provide access not only to traditional iTunes content, but traditional TV content as well. Interestingly, for the second day in a row, the report comes by way of the Wall Street Journal's Jessica E. Vascellaro and Sam Schechner:

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company proposes giving viewers the ability to start any show at any time through a digital-video recorder that would store TV shows on the Internet. Viewers even could start a show minutes after it has begun. Time Warner Cable Inc. TWC -0.25% offers a limited version of this feature called Start Over.

In addition to the cable operators the WSJ mentioned yesterday, they now say Apple is also approaching entertainment companies directly, with outlines of the rumored device's rumored capabilities. These are reportedly a simplified, iconic interface akin to that on the iPad (or, um, Apple TV?), the ability to engage in social networking on-screen, and, of course, support for existing Apple technologies like AirPlay.

Some of the features Apple has discussed are improvements, but not radical changes, to those already available. For instance, Apple wants viewers to be able to access all episodes of current seasons of TV shows, whereas existing video on demand services from cable operators generally often offer only a few episodes of a current season. Apple's proposed device would also provide access to older seasons of shows, which are already available through Apple's iTunes media store.

The WSJ points out, again, that this is a departure from Apple's previous strategy, which amounted to an end run around cable companies, similar to the end-run around record stores Apple pulled off with iTunes music. In both cases entrenched brokers controlled the supply of content, but while record stores were brick and mortar businesses, cable operators literally own the pipes that bring content to our doorsteps and into our living rooms. They also have agreements in place that aren't so easily worked around...

Again, however, two reports in the WSJ on two consecutive days is interesting. Or positioning. Why now, when there's already a plethora of Apple product rumors concerning the iPhone 5, iPad mini and the rest of the iOS device line up ahead of the rumored September 12? Why the repeated references to changed strategies and cable-engagement? Why....? /Plinkket

Given Apple keeps the, by their standards low-selling, Apple TV "hobby" on the market is evidence of how serious Apple is about the living room. These rumors are likely indicators of how serious they continue to be. We'll still have to wait and see what, if anything, actually emerged by way of an Apple DVR.

But as I've said numerous times, my cable company's terrible Scientific Atlanta box hasn't been updated in a decade. It's in desperate need of innovation -- of revolution -- and if Apple can do it, I'll throw money at them in a heartbeat.

How about you?

Instagram 3.0 introduces Photo Map and other improvements

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 07:07 PM PDT

Instagram has gone 3.0 and includes a lot of improvements including a new feature called Photo Map. Photo Map displays all your geotagged instagram photos on a map making it super easy to browse your photos by location. In addition to Photo Map, Instagram 3.0 also brings redesigned profile and upload screens, infinite scrolling on photo feeds, the ability to flag inappropriate comments, and more.

Keep in mind that when using Photo Map, it's important to consider privacy and security before adding photos. For example, it's probably a bad idea to add photos that will indicate where you live or work. Instagram did a great job of making sure they made this clear to their users with a huge message before allowing you to use Photo Map for the first time.

When you first use Instagram after installing the update, you will be prompted to add all your existing photos to your Photo Map. You will be able to select exactly which photos you want add and they will be organized by location making it easy to remember where you took the photos.

Viewing the photos on a map is actually a very fun experience. As you zoom around the map, you can watch the photo separate into more specific groups. If you tap on a group, the map will zoom into an area that includes all those photos and separate them into more specific locations. The animations are very smooth and fun. Great work by the Instagram team.

The profile screens have also been updated to include a tap for viewing the user's Photo Map. Additionally, you can browse though the user's photos as thumbnails or as a feed.

Personally, I'm loving this update. How about you?

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Twitter hands down new, strict rules for third-party developers

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 06:32 PM PDT

Twitter hands down new, strict rules for third-party developers Twitter on Thursday laid out new, significantly stricter rules for third-party developers who aim to leverage the microblogging service's API.

Twitter raises API walls, seems intent on starving out traditional apps

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 05:46 PM PDT

Twitter walls up API, seems intent on starving out traditional apps

Twitter has announced the upcoming version 1.1 of their API, and provided yet more "direction" to Twitter app developers. First, it's important to remember that the sky isn't falling. The Twitter apps you use today will still be usable tomorrow. The community you enjoy right now will still be with you for the foreseeable future. Yet reading the pronouncements, it's impossible not to realize that Twitter's plans for those apps and that community is changing.

Last time Twitter foreshadowed changes to their policy, I made the analogy that it was like someone who's lover worked to put them through college, getting dumped for someone hotter the day after graduation and a career called. With today's changes, Twitter seems to have gone from unappreciative to all out assault. To put it in medieval terms, they've surrounded the city, walled it up, and seem intent on starving traditional Twitter apps out.

That may sound hyperbolic, but it's the visceral feeling I get reading Twitter's new Changes coming in Version 1.1 of the Twitter API post on dev.twitter.com. Here's what will soon be required:

  • All API calls will have to be authenticated. That's not a bad thing; it would cut down scraping and other potentially onerous activity.
  • Rate limits on a per-endpoint basis. Right now Twitter limits API calls to 350 per hour, regardless of whether you're calling one API or all of them. Now each API will have its own rate-limit. If you call many, maybe it'll work out better for you. If you call only one, you'll be in trouble.

And here's the kicker:

  • Changes to developer rules of the road. This is where Twitter once again urges Twitter app developers to no longer develop Twitter apps by increasing control of how these apps need to display data, and increasing the cap on how much data they can show.

Hyperbolic, but the image of API calls standing in bread lines, desperate for their meager rations; the image of people swallowing their favorite Twitter apps in a vain attempt to sneak them across the wall, start swirling through my mind.

Hyperbolic, but as a longtime user of the service, it's how I feel when I read that they'd love to promote business tools like Dataminr and status markers like Klout, but want to marginalize Tweetbot and Twitterific. Or phrased the other way, they want to get rid of apps that are used by me, and facilitate apps that use me and my data. They want me mined and ranked, not empowered and engaged.

I understand that I, and many other early, geeky adopters, are no longer Twitter's user-base. They're mainstream now. They're filled with people who have almost no followers, follow hundreds of celebrities, and send almost not DMs. And I'm not Twitter's revenue stream. No user is. Like Google and Facebook, I'm the product they want to sell -- my metrics, my date, in aggregate -- as their revenue stream. I get that.

Yet it's still difficult to imagine that Twitter couldn't have gone about this in a different way. That they couldn't figure out a way to create and protect their own revenue streams and longterm plans without creating uncertainty for and the perception of hostility towards, the developers who were there with them from the beginning and helped them build the service they're now monetizing and positioning for the future.

Twitter uses these quadrants to say they want apps in the top and bottom left, and bottom right, but not the top right. By saying that, they're very literally saying they don't want anything that "engages consumers".

And it's difficult to imagine that a lot of people at Twitter, who love Twitter every bit as much as we geeks to, have ideas for doing just that. I hope the Powers that Be at Twitter pause, reflect, and reconsider, and then listen to those better ideas.

Hyperbolic, but there has to be something less hyperbolic than "thou shalt make no clients before Twitter."

Earlier today Apple apologized for, and reversed, a bone-headed, customer-hostile decision they'd made. Would that Twitter had their grace and insight.

I'd like to thank Craig Hockenberry and Gedeon Maheux and everyone at the Iconfactory for Twitterrific, and Loren Brichter of Atebits for Tweetie, and Paul Haddad and Mark Jardine of Tapbots for Tweetbot, and all the other developers who put time and money and blood into making better user experiences than Twitter themselves were capable of. It's appreciated, and I'm sure many will continue to use and enjoy your apps for absolutely as long as possible.

Apropos of nothing, you can find me on app.net @reneritchie and on Google+ +Rene Ritchie

Remains of the Day: Tabloid entertainment

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 04:30 PM PDT

Remains of the Day: Tabloid entertainment The (putatively) true Hollywood story behind Apple's acquisition of AuthenTec, a (possible) sneak preview of the new iPhone dock-connector port, and the judge in the Apple-Samsung case exposes a troubling drug habit (sort of).

Adonit Jot Touch pressure-sensitive, Bluetooth stylus review

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 01:45 PM PDT

The Adonit Jot Touch is one of the first of a new generation of stylus pens for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad that uses Bluetooth technology in addition to traditional capacitance to allow for pressure sensitivity and a wider artistic range.

So, while the Adonit Jot Touch looks like the Adonit Jot Pro, including the removable cap, the smooth, elgantly machined body, and the thin, hard writing tip capped by a plastic, capacitive disk, a lot has changed on the inside.

Firstly, it needs to be charged. Yes, the Adonit Jot Pro has a battery! It also comes with a USB charging dongle that's a lot more interesting than most -- it's magnetic. Just plug it into your MacBook or any other USB port, or into an AC adapter, and drop the base of the Jot Touch down no top of it, and the magnets will snap it into place, and it'll start charging.

There are two obvious buttons on the side of the Jot Touch, similar to the kind you'd find on a Wacom stylus. Between them is the stealthy power and pairing button. Hold down on it for a few seconds to turn the Jot Touch on or off, and hold down on it for a good long while to put the Jot Touch into pairing mode. (You can tell when you've succeeded because the LED indicator on the side will flash between green and red.)

On you iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, go to Settings > Bluetooth, tap on the Jot Touch, enter 0000 as you PIN, 90s-style, and you're good to go. (It would be even better and faster if the Jot Touch didn't require the PIN...)

I'm not going to review the actual capacitive quality of the Jot Touch here, because in my non-Bluetooth tests it was every bit as good as the Jot Pro, if not even smoother. So if you're interested in how it works as a regular old stylus, check out our Jot Pro review. Now on with the Bluetooth!

Since iOS doesn't official support pressure sensitive stylus pens, Adonit incorporated everything app makers need into their own SDK. That means that, while the Jot Touch will work just like any other stylus with the iOS interface and regular apps, if developers incorporate the SDK, it'll work with pressure sensitive magic. (Adonit assures us it's science, not magic, but it'll seem like magic the first time you use it.)

Over Bluetooth, the Jot Touch relays pressure information to the app, including apps like Procreate, Sketchbook, Clibe, PDF Pen, and more. They translate it into different sizes and opacities of "ink" or "paint" dispersal. So the harder you press, the more you get, from a thin, feint line to a thick, full brush stroke.

I tried it out for both drawing and calligraphy and it worked delightfully well, if not exactly. A light stroke produced a nice, small, light line. A hard stroke produced a big, bold blotch. Where I had some trouble was in between. I couldn't get a smooth, steady gradation from light to heavy. Instead, the Jot Touch seemed to start slow, then burst big. It might take more getting used to, but as someone who spent most of his life with pencils, pens, and paintbrushes in hand, I can't help but hope for finer grain pressure sensitivity in the future.

A future that, thanks to products like the Jot Touch, looks closer at hand than ever before.

The good

  • Excellent stylus in general
  • Provides pressure sensitivity to compatible apps

The bad

  • Pressure sensitivity isn't perfectly smooth yet

The bottom line

If you grew up with writing and drawing tools clutched in your hand like I did, and if you spent years working with a Wacom or similar pressure-sensitive stylus like I did, you've always wanted that type of functionality on your iPhone or iPad.

Now we have our first taste of it. It's bleeding edge, to be sure, and needs more apps to include support for it, but I'm buying one now because, dammit, because I want to be part of the future.

If you don't, hey, check out any of the other stylus pens we've reviewed

$99 - Buy now

Opinion: Apple's retail focus should be on customers, not cash

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 01:30 PM PDT

Opinion: Apple's retail focus should be on customers, not cash The credo for Apple employees says that people are the company's most important resource. From what one-time Apple Store employee Serenity Caldwell has been reading lately, it seems like someone heading up Apple's retail efforts has lost sight of that.

Square now offering flat monthly fee option instead of pay per swipe only

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:55 AM PDT

Square now offering flat monthly fee option for credit card processing

If you're a small business and you use Square to take payments on your iPhone or iPad, you now have a new option to pay a flat $275 a month as opposed to being charge 2.75% per swipe. Depending on how many credit card sales you process a month, it may be a better deal.

Square's new $275 per month flat fee is good for up to $250,000 in transactions a year and will work on any purchase under $400. If you typically run smaller transactions and do over $10,000 in credit card transactions a month, it's probably a better deal than the standard 2.75% fee per swipe they currently offer.

If you run a transaction that goes over the $400 maximum or you exceed the $250,000 a year limit you'll just be charged the 2.75% per transaction as you already pay now. For some small businesses this may be a good deal but if you process less than $10,000 in sales a month or right around there, you're probably better off being charged per swipe. If you run a card manually you'll still be charged the standard 3.5% fee plus 15 cents but it won't count towards your yearly limit of $250,000.

Square may have been one of the first mobile card payment services to really cater to small businesses but other services such as Intuit GoPayment have quickly caught up and offer rates that are just as competitive. If you already use QuickBooks you can take mobile payments on a pay per swipe rate of 2.7% which is a little less than Square's current single swipe rate. You can also choose to pay $12.95 per month with Intuit and only be charged a 1.7% fee instead. For businesses that run quite a bit less than $10,000 a month in credit card transactions it becomes harder to choose a payment option.

Given Square's recent deal with Starbucks you have to wonder if Square's new flat fee offering is aimed at catering to medium to larger sized businesses. Either way it's nice to see that Square doesn't seem to have any plans to force smaller businesses on pay per month plans.

Instagram updates iOS app with Photo Maps, more

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:25 AM PDT

Instagram updates iOS app with Photo Maps, more Instagram on Thursday unveiled an overhauled version of its popular iOS app, one that lets users see their photographs arrayed on a map of where they were taken.

Apple apologizes for retail store staffing screw-ups

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 11:24 AM PDT

Apple has apologized for recent Apple Store staffing screw-ups that saw one of the most laudable retail operations in the world cut and confuse staff and threaten a reputation that, until now, has been second-to-none. Stories about the cuts and confusion in Apple Retail began to spread last week, and while Apple is denying reports about layoffs, they are admitting to the incredibly poor judgement when it comes to Apple Retail staffing general:

In a communication with store leadership teams, senior vice president of retail, John Browett, who took the reins of Apple's retail stores in April, said that the company had been trying a new staffing formula for its retail stores, leading some employees to see their hourly shifts cut and retail locations to be understaffed. This happened for a few weeks before the company decided to revert to its older system, hoping to rectify the problem.

He instructed leadership teams to tell employees, "We messed up," according to two people who were aware of the communication, which also stressed that while shift schedules were affected, no one was laid off. He also wanted employees to know that it was hiring new staff, these people said.

Apple acknowledged the retail staffing changes. "Making these changes was a mistake and the changes are being reversed," said Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman. "Our employees are our most important asset and the ones who provide the world-class service our customers deserve."

Browett replaced longtime Apple Store mastermind, former SVP Ron Johnson who left to run JC Penny. At the time, Browett's hiring raised eyebrows. If he did engineer this tragically misguided direction for Apple retail, he deserves the blame he's getting. But so do those at Apple who hired and empowered him. Change for change's sake is not good business, and change for any reason other than to make better things has seldom if ever been Apple's business.

Rather than get into a rant of my own, however, I'll give the floor to Jim Dalrymple of The Loop:

With $100 billion or so in the bank, the last thing Browett needs to worry about is cost cutting measures to save a few pennies here and there. Instead he should be focused on how to best server the surge of consumers that will take to the stores in the coming months to buy new Apple products.

Go read the rest of Jim's post, and Info Apple Store's report on the entire cluster that led to it. Especially if you're on Apple's executive team.

You're at the top of your game right now, this type of stuff becomes no one.

Review: HP Photosmart 6520 e-All-in-One printer

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 10:30 AM PDT

Review: HP Photosmart 6520 e-All-in-One printer For a light-volume home or student user, this multifunction printer offers decent speed and features, and average-priced inks.

GetGlue for iPad now lays out your TV schedule

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 09:37 AM PDT

 

GetGlue's entertainment check-in app for iPad has been dramatically revamped with a particular emphasis on scheduling. Now you can see when your favorite TV shows are on and when your sports team is playing in a simple calendar layout. As a second screen during your viewing, GetGlue for ipad is offering a bunch of contextual information from around the web, including trailers and links to Netflix, iTunes, and Amazon as appropriate. GetGlue is also trying harder than ever to be your guide in discovering new shows you might be interested in based on what you've been watching and what you like. Here's the full changelog for GetGlue 3.0 on iPad.

  • A personalized guide for TV, movies, and sports based on what you like.
  • Get recommendations for shows you'll want to start watching.
  • Check-in and chat with friends and fans while you watch.
  • Enjoy the best clips, photos, and articles for your favorite shows and movies.
  • Never miss a key premiere, finale, or major event that's important to you.
  • Unlock stickers and other rewards from your favorite shows.

 I'm a huge fan of GetGlue, and this new direction is really great. It's easy to imagine the scheduling thing expanding into movie premieres, video game launches, and all of the other areas of content they cover. What do you guys usually use your iPad for while watching a TV show? What's your favorite couch companion app?

Free - Download Now

Source: GetGlue

iPad Mini May Be Called iPad Air, but It Looks More and More Like a Sure Thing

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 09:27 AM PDT

iPad Air

After a brief lull on the iPad Mini rumors front, things have kicked back in to a very high gear this week. In the last few days several of the leading 'in the know' sort of writers and sites have weighed in with new thoughts on and even lovely mockups of the much-anticipated new smaller iPad.

Here are a handful of things that have excited me the most on this front:

– John Gruber at Daring Fireball offered a fascinating post titled 'Thinking This iPad Mini Thing Even Througher' – where he offers his latest thoughts, analysis, and some slick math relating to the iPad Mini. One of the key points if that the device's most notable feature may well be its lightness – with it weighing in somewhere around 250-300 grams. This would be a major selling point for the new smaller iPad:

Weight is a huge factor, maybe the factor, in one-handed use, and its too-heavy-to-hold-in-one-hand weight has always been one of the biggest knocks against the iPad-as-we-know-it. I'm thinking the iPad Mini will be not just thinner and lighter than the iPad-as-we-know-it, but remarkably thinner and lighter than its competitors in the small tablet market.3 Yet it will have a bigger display.

(...)
Read the rest of iPad Mini May Be Called iPad Air, but It Looks More and More Like a Sure Thing (347 words)

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TechHive: Who's got more digital content, iTunes or Amazon?

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 09:05 AM PDT

TechHive: Who's got more digital content, iTunes or Amazon? How are Amazon and Apple shaping up when it comes to the amount of digital content available? TechHive breaks down the numbers for music, ebooks, movies, and more.

Horn brings fantasy action to iPhone and iPad

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 08:53 AM PDT

Zynga launched Horn today, a new action game for iPad and iPhone. Sure, the gameplay looks an awful lot like Infinity Blade, but that's hardly a bad thing. The story goes that Horn, a blacksmith's son, is the only one with the power to lift a curse placed on local creatures by malevolent forces. 

Here's a quick run-down of the features. 

  • Accessible controls that anyone can use- walking, jumping, crawling, even grapple hook, are all performed with intuitive gestures

  • Freely navigable console-quality detailed world- go wherever you want; not confined to limited path or rail

  • A rich and unique fantasy world 

  • Touch-friendly melee combat and crossbow style weapons

  • 3 unique and beautiful lands to discover

  • Endlessly escalating challenge modes

  • Hidden side content to discover

  • Score written by award winning Austin Wintory and performed with full live orchestral 

The graphics look absolutely stunning, and I'm really hankering to try it out. What about you? 

$6.99 - Download now

iMore show 306: iPad mini mockups and meltdowns

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 08:35 AM PDT

Georgia, Rene, and Seth talk yet more Apple television rumors, go deep on the iPad mini mockups, argue about Siri and the iPod touch, and pre-order their iPhone pre-order thoughts. Oh, and the air conditioning, live stream, and screen sharing all trifectafail! This is the iMore show!

iPad mini

iPhone 5

iOS 6

Community

Hosts

Credits

You can reach all of us on Twitter @iMore, or you can email us at podcast@imore.com

For all our podcasts -- audio and video -- including the iMore show, ZEN and TECH, Iterate, and more, see MobileNations.com/shows




This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Dunkin' Donuts takes on Starbucks with new mobile payment and gifting app for iPhone

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 08:33 AM PDT

Dunkin' Donuts

Mornings -- and long days -- are rough on people. To help get through them, some of us turn to glorious coffee. For many, that has, is, and will forever be Dunkin' Donuts.  Looking to offer customers more choice and presumably keep up with those hipster kids at Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts has now released their mobile payment and gifting app, and packed it with helpful if familiar features.

  • Purchase, manage, and reload a Dunkin' Donuts Card: Guests can purchase a new mobile Dunkin' Donuts Card (selecting from multiple designs for many occasions), add money to an existing card, and view all previous card transactions. The Dunkin' Mobile App supports American Express, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and PayPal.
  • Pay right from the app using a virtual Dunkin' Donuts Card: Guests can purchase Dunkin' Donuts products with the Dunkin' App by simply tapping the mobile Dunkin' Donuts Card and presenting the screen to the crew member to be scanned. Balances are updated immediately after purchase.
  • Send an mGift: Dunkin' Donuts Cards can be sent to friends, family, or colleagues via email, text, or Facebook. Dunkin' Donuts is now the only national coffee retailer to offer people all of these options for sending an mGift. Dunkin' Donuts Cards can be sent in denominations between $2 and $100.
  • Locate the nearest Dunkin' Donuts: A detailed restaurant locator makes it easy to find directions to and information about local Dunkin' Donuts restaurants, including store hours, in-store Wi-Fi, drive-thru availability, and more.
  • Find nutritional information: The Dunkin' App makes nutritional facts available for guests' favorite Dunkin' Donuts menu items.
  • Link to Dunkin' Donuts' social media communities: Dunkin' Donuts is actively engaged within leading social media channels, with more than 6.8 million Facebook fans and 160,000 Twitter followers. Easy links to "Like" Dunkin' Donuts on Facebook or follow @DunkinDonuts on Twitter can be found in the "Social" section of the Dunkin' App.

Sure, Dunkin' Donuts doesn't have a massive deal with Square but they still sell a ton of coffee and having an app that can potentially speed up the process of obtaining it is a good thing for everyone.

What's not good however is the fact the app is available only in the U.S. and some Dunkin' Donuts shops don't have the scanners needed to make it useful.

Free - Download now

Source: Dunkin' Donuts; via CIO

Offline maps and voice commands come to Scout by Telenav

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 08:15 AM PDT

Scout by Telenav updates with offline maps and voice commands

Scout by Telenav, one of our favorite turn-by-turn navigation apps for iPhone, has just been updated to support downloadable maps for offline use, and voice commands that allow you to control Scout with words so your hands stay free for driving.

Scout by Telenav adds offline maps

Access to offline maps will require a subscription but it'll only run you $9.99 a year which is a steal compared to other voice navigation apps. It makes it the cheapest option currently available when it comes to GPS apps as long as you only need maps in the United States. Scout does not currently support Canada and other countries.

voice commands added to scout by telenav

The other large feature that has been added is voice commands which allow you to speak to Scout without ever having to take your hands off the wheel. There's now a dedicated button in the bottom navigation for voice commands. Just tap it to activate voice commands and then you can say things like Find a gas station or Find a nearby hotel and Scout will take care of the rest. A list of places that match your criteria will appear. Tapping on one will start voice navigation from your current location.

If you reside in the United States and don't have a need for maps anywhere else, we highly suggest you check out Scout.

Scout is a free download in the App Store and you can purchase the premium subscription as an in-app purchase for $9.99 in order to access offline maps.

Free - Download Now

Google+ iPad App Updated – Adds Ability to Open Links in Chrome Browser

Posted: 16 Aug 2012 08:32 AM PDT

GooglePlus iPad app

The Google+ app for iPad (and iPhone) was updated yesterday – and has added one very notable new feature. It now lets you open links in the Chrome web browser if you have the Chrome app installed on your iPad.

Given that Apple does not allow users to choose their preferred browser on the iPad, it's a bit surprising to see that this update was approved. If it just slipped through, then maybe we'll see Google forced to issue another update that removes this functionality. If that doesn't happen, then that would be a good omen towards one day seeing Apple let us choose our preferred browser in iOS. And wouldn't that be great to see.

One other notable thing about this update: Google decided to stop using goofy version numbers (an April update was Version 1.0.15.5173) – this one is a simple 3.1. Here's the change list for it:

✓ Web links in posts now open in Chrome (if installed)
✓ Teens can now join and create Hangouts
✓ Instant Upload bug fixes to improve performance

Here's an App Store link for Google+ for iPad; it's a free app.

What do you all think of this update? Have you got Google+ and Chrome installed on your iPads?

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