iPad By Davis: “Twelve South now offering its BookBook case for the iPad mini” plus 15 more |
- Twelve South now offering its BookBook case for the iPad mini
- Forums: Put Google Maps to the test, Video transfers from iPad help
- Foldify lets you craft folded paper art... right from your iPad
- How to gift App Store apps straight from your iPhone and iPad
- Dropbox app gets new design, new photo tab
- The Weather Channel Max vs. AccuWeather vs. Weather Live: Hardcore weather apps for iPhone shootout!
- Dropbox for iPad Updated – New Design & More
- Get great deals on iPhones and iPads at Best Buy, RadioShack, and Walmart
- Google dropping ActiveSync support for Gmail, forcing new connection to go through their shoddy IMAP service
- iPhone and iPad gifts for students: 2012 holiday guide
- Google+ for iPad Gets a Great Update, Adds Support for Communities
- App Store Best of 2012 Features Paper, The Room & More
- Google+ for iOS updated with communities, profile editing, better event handling, and more
- The market, the madness, and the Apple television
- Battle of the Bulge iPad Game Is in the App Store Now!
- Apple rumored to be working on an iPad mini with a higher resolution display and a significantly lighter new iPad
| Twelve South now offering its BookBook case for the iPad mini Posted: 15 Dec 2012 12:15 AM PST
The BookBook Case for the iPad mini is available in three designs, Vintage Brown, Classic Black and Vibrant Red. It comes with all the features of other BookBook cases like easy access to all of the iPad mini's buttons as well as the ability to use the camera without the need to remove it from the case. The BookBook case for the iPad mini is available to order from Twelve South today and will cost $69.99 with free shipping in the US. Source: Twelve South 
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| Forums: Put Google Maps to the test, Video transfers from iPad help Posted: 14 Dec 2012 08:07 PM PST Found an interesting article you want to share with iMore? Have a burning question about that feature you just can't figure out? There is ALWAYS more happening just a click away in the forums. You can always head over and join in the conversation, search for answers, or lend your expertise to other members of our community. You check out some of the threads below: If you're not already a member of the iMore Forums, register now! 
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| Foldify lets you craft folded paper art... right from your iPad Posted: 14 Dec 2012 07:12 PM PST If you own a printer, Foldify will make it fun again. If you don't own a printer, Foldify will make you seriously consider rushing out to get one. The reason for that is Foldify's ability to project itself from the iPad, where the app runs, to the real world, where the app's results live. The idea is remarkable simply -- draw one pre-defined templates, then print them out, fold them up, and enjoy real, touchable, arrangeable models of what you made. The execution is even more remarkable, because the developers managed to keep the app as simple as the idea, and that's no easy feat. Launch Foldify and you'll see some examples of what can be done with it: Superfolderman, yellow car, tree, forlorn mushroom, bleeding box, house, red bus. Tap the + button and you get the blank versions of all those forms: box on a stand, cube, tall box, mailbox, pyramid, pyramid on a stand, car, D&D die, bus, and house. Tap the shape you want, and you're on your way to art. The work view is where Foldify is really clever. You see a spin-able 3D render of the model on the left, and the open paper form on the right. As you work on the paper form, the 3D model updates in real time. It takes a moment to figure out which plane on the paper form corresponds to which plane on the model, but once you do figure it out, it provides excellent spatial placement for what you're drawing. Tools are bread-and-butter. Thin pencil, thick paintbrush, stamps (eyes, noses, mouths, mustaches, hands, arms, eyeglasses, car parts, house parts, fruit, leaves, and patterns -- and more you can buy via in-app-purchase), eraser, color picker, under, redo, and restart (from blank). You apply the tools with one finger, move and rotate the canvas with two fingers. It's no more or less intuitive than any other, similar art app on iOS, though there are some collisions at times when the same two fingers are required to rotate stamps. Once you're happy with your creation, you can exit the work view, which saves it, you can print it and get to folding, or you can share it to the Camera Roll, Twitter, Facebook, over email, or with the Foldify universe. If you share it with the Foldify community, you'll be able to see it -- and like it -- in the online gallery, alongside everyone else's shared creations. As mentioned previously, you can get additional extras via in-app purchase. Currently there's a Christmas Time pack with 26 elements available for "free" (as in you get it if you share the app via Facebook or Twitter, a coupling of which I'm not overly fond). There's also accessories, clothes, horror, and stickers. Each pack is $0.99. I bought them all, and I hope -- and believe there will be -- more over time. (Not everyone is artistic, so letting people use the app, coloring-book and Mr. Potato Head style, regardless of artistic talent, is really smart and greatly increases accessibility.) Overall, Foldify is a brilliant idea turned into a brilliant app, and the developers seem intent on improving it at a rapid pace. Whether you simply want to make your own, hand-crafted set of Avengers, Justice Leaguers, Star Trek bridge crews, or Star Wars characters to set on a shelf, or you want to enjoy an incredibly fun activity with your children, Foldify is the way to do it. Grab it now on the App Store and save 50% during their launch-time sale.
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| How to gift App Store apps straight from your iPhone and iPad Posted: 14 Dec 2012 03:57 PM PST We've already taken a look at how to gift apps from iTunes but what about directly from your iPhone or iPad? It appears that Apple has returned the functionality that was previously missing in iOS 6. This once again makes it easy to send app gifts to your family and friends. If you're not sure how, follow along and we'll show you how.
        
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| Dropbox app gets new design, new photo tab Posted: 14 Dec 2012 03:13 PM PST Dropbox for iOS has been updated to version 2.0, and with it comes a slick new design and an all new photos tab with timeline. Dropbox says:
And as pointed out by our own Seth Clifford, Dropbox is yet another example of an app switching to a flatter, simpler, more digitally authentic interface design, similar to what's found on Windows Phone. Dropbox, talking about just that design, says:
If you're a Dropbox user and don't have the app installed on your iPhone or iPad, go get it now. Otherwise, hit the update button and enjoy.
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| The Weather Channel Max vs. AccuWeather vs. Weather Live: Hardcore weather apps for iPhone shootout! Posted: 14 Dec 2012 01:58 PM PST Whether you live in an area with frequent or volatile climate changes that you absolutely have to keep on top of, or you're just a geek for a good weather app, there are several great choices for the iPhone. The Weather Channel Max, AccuWeather, and Weather Live all go above and beyond to provide everything a hardcore weather app user needs. But which one is best for you? The Weather Channel Max vs. AccuWeather vs. Weather Live: User interface & designThe Weather Channel Max app utilizes a tabbed navigation along the bottom that lets you browse the different sections of the app. The main tab will be your weather tab which is located right in the middle of the navigation menu. The rest of the tabs support maps, videos, social, and in season. Each section of The Weather Channel app has a sub menu where necessary. If there are sub topics, you'll find them right above the main navigation. The main weather tab is where most people will spend their time and contains a sub-menu that lets you toggle between several time constraints such as now, hourly, 36 hour, and 10-day forecasts. You also have a drop down that allows you to view data such as wind, humidity, UV info, and more. Along the top you've got a search option to search for locations and an info button. The info button allows you to edit saved locations and change the background of the main screen. This is something relatively new to The Weather Channel iPhone app. You can choose any image you want as your background and weather will overlay on top of it. It's a neat feature that adds to the graphical appeal of the app. Info is where you will also find notification settings. AccuWeather for iPhone's main layout is somewhat similar to The Weather Channel but not quite as busy. Along the bottom you've got tabs for today's weather, forecasts, maps, video, and more. Under the today tab you'll see a brief overview of the current weather conditions. It is divided into two main sections. The top shows the current temperature and RealFeel. Swiping back and forth allows you to view hourly forecasts for today. On the bottom portion you've got information like humidity, visibility, UV indexes, and more. The forecast tab will give you a list view of the next 15 days. You can tap on any of them to view more detailed information on weather for that day. Maps will then show you a map of the location you have AccuWeather set to. You can click the play button at the top in order to view 20 minutes of radar. There is also an info button at the top that allows you to change some settings inside radar. Returning to the main page you'll notice ads along the top. AccuWeather has chosen to only offer a free version of their app that is ad-supported. You can, however, hop into settings under the more tab and remove ads for a one time in-app purchase fee. The ads are not quite as obtrusive as The Weather Channel's free version but they're still quite annoying. Weather Live approaches viewing weather data in a completely different way than both The Weather Channel and AccuWeather. The entire theme of Weather Live is based on widgets. This will be very appealing to some users and not to others who prefer a standard layout like AccuWeather and The Weather Channel both offer. The first noticeable difference is that you can set a badge for temperature. That means you'll never have to open Weather Live to view the current temperature. The main screen of Weather Live allows you to view basic statistics about the current weather conditions such as the temperature, what it feels like, expected minimum and maximums, humidity, precipitation, and more. It is mainly the same information that you'd get from AccuWeather and The Weather Channel. The widgets in Weather Live are user customizable and will present you with the information that's most important to you. You can tap on settings in the upper right hand corner to edit widgets and the general layout of Weather Live. Once inside settings you can change the metrics for temperature, windspeed, and more. Along the bottom you can toggle between display and layout. Tapping on layout will bring up widget options. Here you can choose between more robust widgets and more skimmed down ones. Weather Live takes it one step further and allows you to also customize what data is presented on those widgets. You can choose four details to show up on the main widget. Things such as sunrise, sunset, precipitation, wind pressure, and humidity are all options. While the layout is gorgeous, the down side is the amount of information that is presented. You'll have to make some choices, and for many users, that may not be something they want to compromise. Weather Live hands down has the best layout of all three apps but The Weather Channel and AccuWeather provide more information. Between the two, AccuWeather presents data in a much more accessible and user friendly way. It'll come down to weather graphical appeal or accessing information quickly is more important to you. Tie between AccuWeather and Weather Live. The Weather Channel Max vs. AccuWeather vs. Weather Live: Conditions, forecasts, and radar featuresThe Weather Channel presents current conditions via the weather tab as soon as you open the app. The main sub menu serves to show you the current temperature, what it feels like and what the highs and lows are for the day. Underneath this information you can toggle the drop down menu to see information such as wind conditions, humidity, UV index, dew points, visibility, sunrise & sunset, and pressure. If you want to see more detailed information as the day goes on you can choose between the hourly, 36 hour, and 10 day sub menu tabs. Hourly will show the temperature by hour as well as precipitation and wind speed. There is also a little drop down tab next to each hour that allows you to expand into 15 minute increments. The 36 hour forecast will give paragraph conditions about expected weather conditions divided into today, tonight, and tomorrow. This information includes temperatures, any expected precipitation, wind speeds, and the percentage of rain. The last section is the 10 day forecast. This section functions almost exactly the same as the hourly tab. Just like with hourly, you can expand each day to show a more descriptive summary including expected wind, humidity, sunrise, and sunset for that day. Returning back to the main tabs of The Weather Channel you can view the maps tab in order to see live radar maps. You'll see the addition of a few more buttons below the actual map. The one off to the far right serves as a toggle between fullscreen view. The next button over which appears to be a layers icon allows you to edit radar views. You can change to look at radar, clouds, a combination of both, temperature maps, and more. You can also choose to have points of interest labeled on radar maps such as cities, schools, airports, parks, lakes, and golf courses. There are also a couple more view options to play with such as opacity, GPS, and map types. AccuWeather gives you a lot of information on the main screen concerning current and forecasted conditions without overwhelming you. The top portion will show you the actual temperature and RealFeel as well as a description of current conditions. Swiping the top portion to the left will reveal hourly forecasts for today. Tapping on any hour will change the bottom information section to the corresponding time. The bottom portion of the today screen in AccuWeather shows you common stats such as humidity, visibility, sunrise and sunset, pressure, dew points, and UV indexes. The next section of AccuWeather focuses on long term forecasts. You can view up to 15 days of future forecasts. On the far right of each day you can toggle the moon and sun icons to see conditions for day or night on that particular day. Tapping on the main portion of the forecast for any given day will give you detailed information about expected weather conditions for that day. You'll be given information such as RealFeel, wind, rain, ice, and snow. If maps are important to you, AccuWeather also has a tab dedicated to only maps. You can see past weather conditions for about 25 minutes up to current for any area. There are also settings to change the radar type from US radar to US satellite to world satellite. You can also change some basic features such as radar opacity and map keys. If you'd like to add your contact's locations to the map, you can do that as well. Weather Live allows you to customize what data is shown on the widgets as well as what widgets are shown. You have several options to choose from such as humidity, precipitation, sunrise, sunset, visibility, pressure, dew points, wind chill, moonrise, and moonset. The catch here is that you can only choose four out of these options at any given time. That means that you'll have to pick the four that are most important to you. AccuWeather and The Weather Channel do not make you choose between them. The top widget of Weather Live does have some static information that can not be changed. You're given the time, current temperature, what it feels like outside, and minimum and maximum temperatures. You'll also see wind temperature by default. The bottom widget can be changed to show different information but by default you'll see forecasts. You can view up to 8 days of forecasted information at a time with Weather Live. They are pulling their data from AccuWeather by default but you can switch data to pull from world weather online as well. The current temperature can be displayed as a badge icon on the Weather Live app icon if you choose so. If that isn't something you care for, you can, of course, turn it off within settings. If you're looking for radar maps, you won't find them. This may be a deal breaker for some but if you're only looking for forecasts and current information, it'll always be within a few taps inside Weather Live. When it comes to viewing conditions and forecasts, I've always found AccuWeather to be the most accurate and the easiest to find my way around. The Weather Channel does a good job of laying out content but AccuWeather makes it easier to access. Weather Live's lack of radar and maps makes it less useable when it comes to informational purposes. The Weather Channel Max vs. AccuWeather vs. Weather Live: Additional featuresThe Weather Channel offers a social tab that allows you to view the Weather Channel's twitter feed from inside the app. You can also upload your own photos or tweet your current weather conditions. The iWitness button shows thumbnails of user photos. You can view categories inside of them to sort by types of images. The In Season feature of The Weather Channel app for iPhone allows you to view active storms and updates on them. You can also view pollen alerts and information for your area and in other areas of the country. The Weather Channel app supports information on the three main kinds of pollen: tree, weed, and grass. You'll see a small map showing problem areas and underneath that you'll see updates on pollen alerts for your selected area. Under the more tab in AccuWeather for iPhone you'll see a Lifestyle section. Here you can see risk factors for current types of weather in your area such as arthritis, asthma, common cold, flu, migraine, and more. Along the top you'll notice a few tabs for environment such as health, outdoor, and cold. The outdoor tab shows information based on activities that people typically perform such as going outside to the beach, barbecuing, and more. The last tab allows you to view sporting activities and guidance on whether the current conditions are conducive to each. Underneath the LifeStyle section you also have a news section. All of the news will obviously be weather related. Tapping into any article will open up an in-app browser with the article attached. Other than that, you've only got settings and location options to tweak and play with. When it comes to additional features, Weather Live doesn't have any aside from the ability to change around widgets. There are no reports for different activities or health risks. AccuWeather and The Weather Channel both provide additional information and news regarding the weather but AccuWeather has a lot more information to offer than what The Weather Channel does. The Weather Channel Max vs. AccuWeather vs. Weather Live: Alerts & notificationsThe Weather Channel app lets you configure push notification alerts for two kinds of events. You'll need to add locations to the settings menu before you have the ability to select alerts. Once you've done that you can set alerts for different locations for both pollen levels and severe weather. If you live in an area that is known for quick fluctuations in weather or tropical storms, severe weather alerts are a must. On the same token, if you live in a household with someone with allergies, pollen alerts are a great way to make sure allergies and other health issues are kept under control. AccuWeather offers the ability to receive local notifications for your area. They aren't too specific as to what those notifications really are. The app description states that push notifications will work for severe weather. I haven't received any updates as of late but we haven't had any severe weather since the middle of the summer. If any of you have experience with AccuWeather's push notification services, please let us know your thoughts in the comments. Weather Live allows you to set alerts for severe weather and when the temperature dips below zero. There isn't much to configure in the way of what kind of alerts you want. The only other feature is the badge option for current temperature. For alerts, all three offer notifications for severe weather but The Weather Channel is the only one offering pollen alert notifications. This may be important to people that have allergies themselves or a person living with them that does. The Weather Channel Max vs. AccuWeather vs. Weather Live: PricingThe Weather Channel, AccuWeather, and Weather Live all offer free versions of their apps but they'll all either be limited or come with advertisements. The Weather Channel's best offering is The Weather Channel Max which currently comes in at $3.99. This removes all advertisements and gives you a few additional features. AccuWeather only has one version of their app which is free but it is ad-supported. You can remove the ads for a one time in-app purchase fee of $1.99. Weather Live also offers a free version called Weather but it's skimmed down feature wise from the full version which will cost you $1.99. There is a $2 difference between The Weather Channel Max and both of the other options. For most, that won't be a deal breaker and price won't be an issue or a deciding factor. The Weather Channel Max vs. AccuWeather vs. Weather Live: The bottom lineWeather Live's lack of radar maps will rule it out for many users. The Weather Channel Max is best if you have allergy issues and need pollen alerts. AccuWeather, however, has a better lay out and is currently our favorite, full feature weather app for the iPhone.
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| Dropbox for iPad Updated – New Design & More Posted: 14 Dec 2012 01:59 PM PST  The Dropbox app for iPad and iOS has been updated today, to Version 2.0. Dropbox is the massively popular and brilliant cloud file sync service that has become an essential for many of us on the desktop and on our iOS devices. The most noticeable thing about the 2.0 update is that the app has a new design – including a new app icon: There's still not much to the Dropbox for iPad interface – it's simple and bare bones, but the new look is pleasant enough. There's also a new Photos tab that offers a timeline view of all your automatically uploaded photos and videos. That feature is not of interest for me, as I never do these sort of auto uploads with Dropbox or any of the social networks that offer it. Since installing the update it seems to me that files are loading much more quickly in the Dropbox viewer, especially photos. Just me, or are you all seeing this speed improvement with the update too? © patrickj for iPad Insight, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us         Related Stories
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| Get great deals on iPhones and iPads at Best Buy, RadioShack, and Walmart Posted: 14 Dec 2012 01:40 PM PST Several retailers are offering discounts on the newest Apple devices, including the iPhone 5 when purchased with a two-year contract, and the iPad. Best Buy is offering $50 off all iPhone 5 models, with the 16 GB model starting at $149. Members of Best Buy's Reward Zone that take advantage of this deal will receive 5,000 Reward Points, equivalent to a $100 Best Buy gift card. RadioShack is also discounting the iPhone 5, with all AT&T models being offered $20 cheaper than usual. Target Mobile, operated by RadioShack, is offering the same discount. Walmart is offering the starting iPhone 5 at $127, and the iPhone 4S starting at $47. Additionally, Walmart is also selling the new, 4th-generation iPad starting at $399. If you have been waiting to buy an iPhone 5, now might be a good time to do so. 
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| Posted: 14 Dec 2012 01:10 PM PST As part of their "Winter Cleanup", Google announced today that they'll be deprecating support for Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts over Exchange ActiveSync, or GoogleSync as they call it. According to Google:
Apple led the development of the open source CalDAV and CardDAV protocols, expressly to be alternatives to Microsoft's Exchange dominance. I don't sync Google Contacts, or use them at all because I've historically found them to be both overly promiscuous (they continually fill with junk I didn't explicitly add) and unreliable. I do sync Gmail and Google Calendar, however, and so I'm not looking forward to not being able to add them via ActiveSync on future devices. That's entirely because Google's IMAP service has always been shoddy. It throws up "exceeded bandwidth" and "too many simultaneous connection" errors that are downright embarrassing coming from the world's largest Internet company. I have both a Google Apps account for work, and a Gmail account for personal use, so it looks like I'll get to keep EAS support on one of them but not the other, which creates a very inconsistent user experience. I love the new Gmail app, but I prefer having all my email in one, unified app. I want to see everything in my inbox all at once. And as a user, I shouldn't have to care which pipe my communications are coming through, they should just show up in my interface. Having to go to separate app just for Gmail breaks that experience as well. Overall, this feels like Apple ditching Google data from iOS 6 Maps, but at an even more problematic level: Microsoft can't just release an app of their own to fix it. Source: Google 
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| iPhone and iPad gifts for students: 2012 holiday guide Posted: 14 Dec 2012 10:03 AM PST If you know or are the parent of an iPhone or iPad-loving student who's on your holiday gift list, the good news is that there are tons of great accessories and apps that will make excellent gifts for any student. iPad miniThe iPad mini is the dream device of just about every student. The portability and usefulness of it is just killer for the busy student who's always on the go. With the iPad mini, your student can take notes in class, write papers, store books, download study tools, and also enjoy some downtime when their schedule allows - all in a perfectly sized, light, portable package. The iPad mini is the first step to saving your student's back from lugging around a bunch of material in their backpack all day.
CaptureNotes 2 for iPadCaptureNotes 2 is the iPad note-taking app that is designed specifically for students. In addition to the ability to take handwritten notes (most likely with a stylus), CaptuerNotes 2 will also allow your student to record audio (to, say, record the lecture) and take photos that can be directly added to their notes. S/he can also import PDF's and annotate them with your own handwriting or highlights. There are a lot of different note-taking and PDF-annotating apps out there, but CaptureNotes 2 is a great one for students because it lets users organize their work into custom notebooks and binders.
Ten One Design Pogo Sketch Pro stylusSpeaking of taking notes, what good is a killer note-taking app without a just as killer stylus? The Pogo Sketch Pro is a fantastic app for taking notes on an iPad and the one I currently use regularly as an instructor for writing notes and quiz/exam solutions for my students. My students always look at my setup with envy, so I guarentee your student will love an Pogo Sketch Pro.
Incipio Feather Ultralight Hard Shell CaseThere's no denying that students have a burning desire to reflect their style by what they wear, what car they drive, and what case they have on their iPhones and iPads. That's why the Incipio Feather Ultralight Hard Shell Case is a great choice for the fashion-conscious student. It's thin, yet offers some protection, and comes in 8 different colors. The iPhone 5 and iPad mini versions are meant to be used on their own, but the iPad 2, iPad 3, and iPad 4 versions are designed to be used with an Apple Smart Cover.
Dropbox subscriptionDropbox is, without question, one of the most useful services available to students (and non-students) everywhere. Students these days have dozens of files that they have to save and reference throughout the semester, and Dropbox is the perfect app for keeping these files not only organized, but accessible from any device. A free Dropbox account offers 2 GB of storage which should be plenty for the average student's school related materials, but that won't be enough space to also store all those photos or other fun stuff they may want to save in the cloud. That's why a paid subscription to Dropbox would make a fantastic gift.
iWork for iPhone, iPad, and MacBeing a student means writing papers, creating spreadsheets, and designing presentations, and the good news is that they can do all of this directly on their iPhone and iPad with Apple's iWork collection: Pages, Numbers, and Keynote. And if your student has a Mac, s/he can use iCloud to seamlessly jump between Mac, iPhone, and iPad giving them no excuse not to get their work done (like "my roommate stole my Mac's charging cable!")
iStudiez Pro for iPhone and iPadiStudiez is an iPhone and iPad app that is perfect for students to keep track of their class schedule, due dates, homework assignments, and more. As an important date approaches, iStudiez will send them notifications to remind them about the project or assignment that is due or when a class is going to start soon. iStudiez Pro will help your student stay organized during the school year -- something that many students regularly struggle with.
Jawbone JAMBOXDid you know that students love music but have very little space for good speakers? Of course you do, which is why you understand why the Jawbone JAMBOX will be an amazing gift for your student. This tiny package delivers huge sound at up to 85 decibels. It's completely wireless, making it simple for your student to play music over Bluetooth and even bring along to the party study session at his/her friend's dorm or apartment. If your student would appreciate an even more powerful speaker, check out the Jawbone BIG JAMBOX. It's the same thing, just in a slightly bigger package with much more impressive insides. Starbucks Gift CardMany students practically live at Starbucks and will jump with joy with even a $5 gift card to the popular coffee chain. If you're an iPhone user, sending out Starbucks gift cards are easier than ever with the official Starbucks app for iPhone. Simply browse to the eGifts tab, select if you want to deliver via email or Facebook, select a contact, write a short message, and choose a value between $5 and $100 (in $5 increments). There are 10 different Holiday card styles to choose from as well.
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| Google+ for iPad Gets a Great Update, Adds Support for Communities Posted: 14 Dec 2012 10:01 AM PST  This has turned into one heck of a great week for new iPad apps and updates to some top iPad apps. The latest is a great new update for the Google+ iPad app, to Version 4.0. The app has had some UI tweaks and looks very good, and even easier to work with. The big new feature in this update is support for Communities. Communities are a fantastic new Google+ feature that just went live a week ago. They're a way to get engaged with specific topics of interest on Google+, along with or instead of keeping up with the main stream or even your circles. It's a feature that lots of us had been hoping to see for ages and it's already becoming a favorite part of Google+ for me, while Google+ itself is becoming my favorite social network to spend time on. Here's the full change list for the 4.0 update: - New feature: Google+ Communities
I've been thoroughly enjoying Communities since they launched last Friday night. I've joined some for dog lovers, bloggers, smartphone photographers, Mac fans and more. I've also created a few myself. If you're a Google+ user you may want to check these out: iPad Apps: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/109535057767699014065 iPad Accessories: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/113282961350308045894 iPad Tips & Tricks: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/104222764401182876031 iPad Art: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/115685703707279973907 I'm hoping these iPad focused communities will become a great place to share ideas and get some good discussions going. They're off to a good start so far. Here's an App Store link for Google+ for iPad; it's a free app and a universal app designed for both iPad and iPhone. © patrickj for iPad Insight, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  Related Stories
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| App Store Best of 2012 Features Paper, The Room & More Posted: 14 Dec 2012 09:34 AM PST  Apple has got a new featured section in the App Store this week, celebrating their selections for the best iPad and iOS apps and games of 2012. It's called App Store Best of 2012. Here are their choices for iPad App of the Year and iPad Game of the Year: Paper by 53 and The Room. The Room was reviewed by my colleague, Beth, a few months back and she sang its praises. There are a few other apps and games chosen by Apple that are favorites of mine – including iA Writer, and The Sonnets. One thing that stands out to me is how games-heavy the Apple selections are. I will be publishing my own list of the Best iPad Apps of 2012 soon. In the meantime, you may want to take at my Best iPad Apps of 2011 list. © patrickj for iPad Insight, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us 
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| Google+ for iOS updated with communities, profile editing, better event handling, and more Posted: 14 Dec 2012 09:12 AM PST Google has just updated their Google+ social networking app for iOS to version 4.0, and among the new and improved features is support for Google+ Communities, the ability to set timezones and indicate guest numbers in events, profile editing, a new compose interface, and a new design for visual stream. According to Google:
Google also, not surprisingly, rolled out a major Google+ update for Android at the same time. However, the quality and quantity of their recent iOS updates makes the iPhone one of the best Google phones on the market. That might seem counter-intuitive, but Google isn't in the hardware or even OS business. It's in the data aggregation and advertising business. They're skating to where the high-value eyeballs are. (More on that in a future post.) Google+ 4.0 is a free update, like the app itself, and you can grab it now from the App Store.
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| The market, the madness, and the Apple television Posted: 14 Dec 2012 08:36 AM PST It seems you can't read about Apple these days without someone saying that they're about to make a big splash into the television market. Apple, of course, hasn't and won't pre-announced anything. But that hasn't stopped Wall Street analysts claiming that the company's TV strategy is flawed. That's right, Apple's unannounced, unreleased, entirely presumed by someone not-Apple, strategy is flawed. But I digress. What I don't quite understand is why so many industry pundits seem to think that Apple just has to make a TV set, or else they're screwed. Really people? Really? I can see why Apple would go ahead and make a large display for the living room. But I definitely don't see it as a requirement. The actual display has become a commodity. It's an HDMI endpoint. TV makers like Samsung are putting more computing power inside the displays to enable Netflix, Plex, or other media services. But they're largely just big screens and that's it. Apple's strength has been organizing content. They tackled the music industry with more success than any other company on the planet. They have essentially global distribution capabilities. Now they're starting to make progress with TV shows and movies by offering it up through the iTunes in the same a-la-carte manner. Their lead in these markets has to be mapped to be believed. The $99 Apple TV even has premium sports features like NLH and Major League Baseball. I think what Apple really needs to do is bring more content into its platform and then make it easy to display it anywhere - from the iPhone to the iPad to the Macbook or big screen. Apple already has AirPlay to bring any video from pretty much any other Apple device to a big screen. It seems to me the cheap and cheerful Apple TV doesn't need to turn into a huge display. It just needs to get even better. Guy English wrote a wonderful blog post discussing how he sees the ideal future Apple TV setup and I have to say I agree completely. For a while now I've been of the opinion that display technology is expensive and slow changing. But the intelligence inside the displays changes quickly. A few years ago TVs didn't come standard with Wi-Fi, nor did they have USB ports that would play DivX files, for example. Why should I need to buy a whole new TV when the part that needs updating could be in the form of a $99 box (like the current Apple TV)? Exactly. So Apple should beef up its current Apple TV set top box. But then if they want to go ahead and make the most beautiful, well designed 1080p or even 4K display in the universe -- a larger version of the ThunderBolt displays they already make for the Mac -- I will welcome it. And if they want to go one step better, I'd love to see an Apple living room display that can elegantly hold an upgradeable Apple TV module. No need for extra cables and boxes, right? But one thing is clear to me. Apple doesn't "need" to be in the living room display business. They won't be reinventing the display, they'd just be capitalizing on their design strengths and brand value. I'd be all for that as a shareholder. But don't try to tell me that Apple has no growth unless they explode onto the TV scene. That's just a bunch of nonsense. They real money is going to come from content, billing, the beauty of their ecosystem, and customer stickiness. Building a giant screen is a nice to have, and nothing more. 
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| Battle of the Bulge iPad Game Is in the App Store Now! Posted: 14 Dec 2012 08:34 AM PST  Battle of the Bulge, the superb historical wargame for iPad, is available in the iPad App Store now. If you follow this site at all you know I'm a huge fan of this game. I've been talking about it ever since I backed it as a Kickstarter project and was lucky enough to be included in the beta testing team for it. I've been playing it for weeks leading up to the release, so when I say it's a superb game that's based on experience. I've been a fan of strategic wargames since I was a kid playing them as board games, and this is exactly the sort of iPad game I've been wishing for. Here's a slice of its App Store intro:
It's great to see the game is racking up 5-star ratings in the App Store already – they're well deserved. I'll be doing a review of the game soon too. Here's an App Store link for Battle of the Bulge for iPad; it's priced at $9.99. Go Get It. © patrickj for iPad Insight, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  Related Stories
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| Posted: 14 Dec 2012 04:48 AM PST
The iPad mini is the only current-generation iOS device without a Retina display. The full-sized iPad is thicker and heavier precisely because it has a Retina display and the LED and battery that come with it. Making the iPad mini with Retina but without making it a monster, and making the full-sized iPad thinner and lighter so it's no longer such a monster are obvious, logical next steps. And Apple is always working on just that. The only real questions are: how do they get there and when. Reducing the amount of LED is part of the how. We're still waiting on the when. The iPad line used to be updated once a year in the spring. Both the iPad 4 and the new iPad mini, however, were released just last fall. It'll be interesting to see how quickly Apple can get these next-generation models ready, and whether they return to a yearly release schedule, or keep up a faster pace. It's a tough call. To fast and Apple will be accused of "obsoleting" and "screwing over" past generation customers. To slow and Apple will be accused of "falling behind" the competition and "no longer innovating". Which is worse? Source: Digitimes 
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Twelve South is now offering a version of its hugely popular 
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