iPad By Davis: “Apple adds ‘Offers In-App Purchases’ warning to the iTunes App Store” plus 16 more |
- Apple adds ‘Offers In-App Purchases’ warning to the iTunes App Store
- Little Things Forever for iPhone and iPad review
- Apple rolls out fix for password reset security hole, iForgot site back up
- Speedtest.net app gets a new look, iPhone 5 support, and more
- Pinterest for iPhone and iPad updated, see what else pinners have pinned
- Rush Limbaugh loves iMore!
- Today’s Best iPad App Ever: Petting Zoo
- Newly discovered security hole lets attacker reset your Apple ID with only your birthday and email address
- Write for Dropbox lets you create notes on your iPhone quickly and beautifully
- Notable New iPad Apps: EverClip for iPad
- How to remove a friend from Game Center on iPhone and iPad
- Google also now rumored to be working on an Android smart watch
- Apple’s Podcasts App Updated: Custom Stations & More
- Deal of the Day: 33% off Incipio Feather Hard Case for iPad mini
- iMore show. Today. 9am PT. 12pm ET. Be here!
- Twitter's evolution from a tech network to a mainstream mashup
- An inside look at Apple Anonymous and retail employee attempts to be both secret and social
| Apple adds ‘Offers In-App Purchases’ warning to the iTunes App Store Posted: 23 Mar 2013 12:57 AM PDT
The new "Offers In-App Purchases" warning is currently only visible within the desktop version of the iTunes App Store; but we would expect that to be rolled out across the iPhone and iPad versions of the store very soon. The new warning coincides with Apple settling a US lawsuit over in-app purchases and numerous other stories around the world of children running up huge bills on their parents credit cards. The new warning will still not prevent careless parents from allowing their children access to their passwords and running up huge bills but it will give Apple a better legal argument. Also it may be a sign that Apple could offer the ability to filter apps from the App Store that contain in-app purchases; this could be a good option for parents that give their children access to their iTunes password to download free apps. One thing is for certain, the "Freemium" model where apps are offered for free and then offer upgrades via in-app purchases looks here to stay. Some of the most high profile apps like Real Racing 3 are adopting this model. Rather than selling an app for an upfront cost, a developer can give it away free and then earn much more through paid power ups and features. I personally really dislike the "Freemium" model and would rather pay upfront for the whole game. I avoid any game that offers in-app purchases but that is my choice. What do you think of the "Freemum" model with in-app purchases? 
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| Little Things Forever for iPhone and iPad review Posted: 22 Mar 2013 08:46 PM PDT Little Things Forever is an iPhone and iPad game where you must seek and find little items that are part of an artistic patchwork. As you find items, you collect puzzles pieces to solve the 9 different included puzzles. Little Things Forever features thousands of little things that make up larger pieces of artwork. The biggest art piece is a star on the menu screen. When you start a game, you zoom into one of the items that makes up the star, which is also made up of hundreds of things. The first thing you zoom into is a triceratops dinosaur and you are given a list of items you must find. You can zoom in and scroll if you wish and when you find an item, simply tap on it. It will start to sparkle to indicate that you found the right thing. If you're wrong, an X will flash on it. Once you find all the things on the list, you will earn a puzzle piece then be given another list. Once you've earned all the puzzle pieces for the first puzzle, you get to solve it. You can move both the location and rotation of the pieces. And what are the puzzle pieces made of? You guessed it -- little things! This makes the puzzles a bit of a challenge to solve. When you solve a puzzle, you unlock one of the things in the star and repeat the process. One of the great features of Little Things Forever is multiple user support. This is rare to find in iOS games, so it's great to see the ability to have 4 different games saved at once. The good
The bad
The bottom lineLittle Things Forever is a great little game. If you love puzzles and are good at finding things, then you'll love this one.
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| Apple rolls out fix for password reset security hole, iForgot site back up Posted: 22 Mar 2013 07:05 PM PDT Apple's iForgot password reset page is now back online, and iMore has verified that the security hole, discovered earlier today in Apple's password reset page, has been closed. Previously, after providing a victim's Apple ID and date of birth, an attacker could send a URL to Apple that would change the password for that account, without needing to answer any security questions. In response, Apple blocked access to the password reset page, and a short while later took the entire site down in light of another loophole that still allowed the attack to be performed. This vulnerability came at an interesting time, just a day after Apple began to roll out its two-step verification system. Users who had already enrolled in the new system seem to have been immune from the password reset vulnerability. Unfortunately some users were held in a three-day waiting period for enabling two-step verification, while others live in countries where two-step verification is not currently available. Today's events serve as an important example of why two-step verification is a good idea. People interested in getting two-step verification set up can find out how with iMore's tutorial. 
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| Speedtest.net app gets a new look, iPhone 5 support, and more Posted: 22 Mar 2013 03:23 PM PDT Speedtest.net Mobile Speed Test has been updated to version 3.0. The update brings a new look, iPhone 5 support, and some new features. The interface is now less cluttered than before, sporting a more modern, clean design. Additionally, Speedtest.net is now compatible with the 4-inch screen of the iPhone 5. Other improvements include easier results sharing, improved server selection, sortable results, and a $0.99 in-app purchase to remove advertising. So now that you have a proper Speedtest.app, download it, and head on over to the iPhone 5 speed test forum thread and post a screenshot of your results!
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| Pinterest for iPhone and iPad updated, see what else pinners have pinned Posted: 22 Mar 2013 03:18 PM PDT Pinterest for iPhone and iPad has been updated with few new convenient features. There is now a "people who pinned this also pinned" feature that makes it easy to discover new pins that you may like since they were pinned by people who share your tastes. It is now also possible to edit your Pinterest profile with the app and the iPad version has a new look that lets you get a close up of your pins. Unfortunately, the frequent crashing of Pinterest doesn't seem to have changed. At least not for me. Pinterest users, what do you think of the update? Do you experience frequent crashes? What other features would you like to see?
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| Posted: 22 Mar 2013 03:05 PM PDT Today on his talk show Rush Limbaugh was asked to name some of his favorite tech sites, and guess which site he named first? You're absolutely right, our very own iMore! Here's the excerpt from Limbaugh's blog:
Thank you! For the complete transcript, check out the link below. Source: Rush Limbaugh 
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| Today’s Best iPad App Ever: Petting Zoo Posted: 22 Mar 2013 01:24 PM PDT Petting Zoo is a fantastic storybook app for the iPad and iPhone. It features beautiful, fun, interactive animations of over 20 animals, and it's bound to be a big favorite for kids and animal lovers of all ages. Here's a slice of its App Store intro:
I saw the app mentioned at Daring Fireball recently...         Related Stories
 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||||
| Posted: 22 Mar 2013 01:13 PM PDT Arriving right on the coat tails of Apple's two-step verification implementation, a new security flaw has been found in Apple's password reset process for Apple IDs. The vulnerability allows an attacker to reset your Apple ID's password with only the knowledge of your Apple ID and date of birth, completely bypassing the need to answer your security questions. The Verge first reported the vulnerability after being tipped off to the hack. iMore was independently able to reproduce the hack and confirm its validity. It is accomplished by using a specially crafted URL that is able to reset your password once you have validated your date of birth, but before the security questions have actually been answered. The good news is that users who have enabled two-step verification with Apple are not vulnerable. The bad news is some users have been getting a three-day waiting period to enable two-step verification, in order to minimize the risk of a malicious party enabling two-factor verification on a compromised account. The worse news is that two-step verification is not yet available in many countries. According to the Apple FAQ:
If you are unable to enable two-step verification at this time, your next best bet is to change your date of birth on record with Apple in order thwart any attempts on your account by somebody who knows your email and birthdate. Since this is a server-side vulnerability, Apple will hopefully be able to deploy a fix shortly, before information of how to exploit the flaw spreads. Update: It looks like Apple has taken the iForgot page down.
Update 2: After Apple updated the password reset page to say it was down for maintenance, presumably to prevent any further attempts to use this exploit, it was discovered by iMore that the password reset hack could still be performed by providing a specific URL to bypass the maintenance page. Apple was notified and has since made the entire site completely inaccessible. 
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| Write for Dropbox lets you create notes on your iPhone quickly and beautifully Posted: 22 Mar 2013 10:28 AM PDT Write for Dropbox is a brand new text editor for iPhone that lets you create notes on the fly quicker than ever. With extensive gestures, markdown support, lots of sharing options, and a beautiful interface, Write for Dropbox may just be the best text editor for iPhone we've ever seen. When first launching Write for Dropbox, you'll be taken through a short tutorial of how to use gestures and the editor bar. All of which are straight forward and easy to remember. Now you're ready to start writing. The first thing you'll notice is the editor bar that appears above the keyboard. You'll find commonly used symbols as well as a handy cursor tool that allows you to move the cursor around the screen without having to actually move your entire hand off the actual keyboard. Sliding the editor bar to the left reveals markdown options such as bold, italics, headers, links, and more. You can also insert images and preview markdown with the two icons to the far right in the markdown editor bar. Write for Dropbox makes simple tasks just as they should be, simple. Expanding to full screen can be done by simply pulling the screen outwards with two fingers. You can access the top menu again by pushing inwards with two fingers. Deleting notes and saving them are also extremely quick and use pull to refresh actions. Naming a note is as easy as tapping in the title bar. It's little things like these that you really learn to appreciate as they can be huge time savers. As far as sharing goes, Write for Dropbox supports tons of options including Evernote, Google Drive, CloudApp, and more. You can copy links to your clipboard as well for easy sharing on social networks such as Twitter. Write for Dropbox creates a default folder called Write in your Dropbox account. You can add folders inside this one natively inside the app as well as create notes inside of it. They'll then sync and organize as you left them in your Dropbox account. You can also favorite notes for quick access later. One of the biggest things when it comes to saving notes and using them across platforms is the ability to pick up where you left off on another device. For this, Write for Dropbox offers a free Mac plugin that allows you to quickly take notes on your Mac and they'll sync down to your iPhone. It isn't a great solution and not as powerful as a fully functionally Mac editor but it gets the job done for short notes and lists. The good
The bad
The bottom lineWrite for Dropbox is not only the most beautiful text editor I've ever seen for iPhone, it's the best. Everything from the menus to the gestures to the text editor bar are easy to use and the care and thought that went into creating them is obvious. The only down side is that there is no iPad or Mac version at this time which will keep me with Byword on those platforms for the time being. If Write for Dropbox can deliver the same on iPad and Mac, there's no doubt that it'd be the best editing suite available. $1.99 - Download Now 
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| Notable New iPad Apps: EverClip for iPad Posted: 22 Mar 2013 09:58 AM PDT EverClip for iPad is an excellent utility app for anyone who uses Evernote. I did a quick look post on EverClip a couple months ago, when it was released as an iPhone app and I ran it on my iPad mini. I was impressed with it then and I'm happy to see a full iPad version is now available. Here's a little background on the app via its App Store page:
And a few of its key features: + Save texts and images from any apps by simply copying them  Related Stories
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| How to remove a friend from Game Center on iPhone and iPad Posted: 22 Mar 2013 08:46 AM PDT If you use Game Center to play a lot of multiplayer games, you may start accumulating a lot of friends. If you start getting too many requests or just want to clean up your Game Center friends list a little, it's actually a pretty easy task. Here's how:
That's all there is to it. That person will no longer appear in your Game Center friends list and won't be able to send you game requests any longer. 
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| Google also now rumored to be working on an Android smart watch Posted: 22 Mar 2013 08:15 AM PDT In the wake of speculation surrounding the rumored Apple iWatch, not only is Samsung reportedly racing to get a competitor to market, but Google may be as well. According to Financial Times, their sources say it would be different than Google's officially announced Glass project:
Android Central's Andrew Martonik adds:
People might be hesitant to attach a device right to their face, but a lot of people already wear watches, which might make potential users more comfortable with the idea of wearing a device in the first place. Also, Google now owns Motorola, who previously launched the last-generation iPod nano-like MOTOACTV smart watch (see image, above), so there's some in-hourse experience to draw from. One thing's for certain, like with tablet news before the iPad launched, even the rumor of Apple's interest in a new market is enough to stir up excitement and get competitors moving. And why not, Apple's been hugely successful at identifying music players, phones, and tablets as opportunities in the past. Who'd want to get caught flat footed for a second, third, or fourth time? Anyone here think, come 2014, we'll be seeing a smart watch battle between Apple, Samsung, and Google to match the smartphone battle today -- iWatch vs. Galaxy Watch vs. Nexus Watch? And how long before Microsoft, Nokia, HTC, and BlackBerry get in on the as yet non-existant fun? Source: Financial Times 
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| Apple’s Podcasts App Updated: Custom Stations & More Posted: 22 Mar 2013 07:43 AM PDT Apple's Podcasts app for iPad and iPhone was updated yesterday, to Version 1.2. This is a fairly substantial update – with several nice new features and also a new look for the Now Playing screen. Or,as John Gruber puts it …
Here's the full list of changes in the update: • Create custom stations of your favourite podcasts that update automatically with new episodes  Related Stories
 This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||||
| Deal of the Day: 33% off Incipio Feather Hard Case for iPad mini Posted: 22 Mar 2013 07:23 AM PDT | ||||||
Apple has added a new warning label to apps in the iTunes App Store that contain in-app purchase options. You can now see at a glance if a particular app you are considering buying has in-app purchases. This new feature will hopefully help you make good decisions when buying apps that appear to be free but then later encourage you to upgrade them within the app; sometimes at really high costs.
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iMore show. Today. 9am PT. 12pm ET. Be here!
Posted: 22 Mar 2013 06:21 AM PDT
Come our usual time slot on Sunday, I'll be on a plane to San Francisco and the Game Developers Conference (GDC) so we're doing the iMore show early this week. And our very special guest will be Dieter Bohn of The Verge! We'll be talking about Apple's new hire, Kevin Lynch, the current competitive landscape, the idea of Google Now on iOS, and trying to read the Jony Ive tea leaves.
9am PT. 12pm ET. Be here!
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Twitter's evolution from a tech network to a mainstream mashup
Posted: 22 Mar 2013 06:05 AM PDT
When Twitter started out it was used almost exclusively by geeky tech types, first as a way to stay connected at conferences, and later as a general water cooler to keep in touch, network and exchange ideas, and blow off some steam. Today, Twitter is a massive mainstream mashup where many if not most users #hashtag every second word, follow hundreds of real-world celebrities, almost never use direct messages, but actually, really, truly do use the Discover tab. Matthew Panzarino from The Next Web, an early-days user, decided to start a new account some seven years later and see what the modern, far more populous Twitter felt like for first time users.
Right now, Twitter is a product in transition. Onboarding new users is still a work in progress, retaining those users is a moving target, and making sure that the experience is as friendly as possible to media content is an unfinished job. But there are glimmers of brilliance here, and signs that the transition to a strong second act might actually work.
Panzarino gives a thorough breakdown of the sign-up process, Twitter's attempt to help create connections, and the general usability of the product. Sadly, he in no way uses #WhyISmile #wordstoliveby or #americanidol enough, and could probably stand to follow 10x more Biebers and SHAQs just to get the full and proper new Twitter feel.
There are many, even new users, who still use Twitter as a tech network, as much as is possible, even as others have moved over to app.net (ADN) for that instead. Like any big network, smaller subsets form and eddy about, sometimes growing, sometimes shrinking, sometimes merging, and sometimes breaking away. Whether you love Twitter now more or less than in its early days, it's amazing to see the changes that have taken place over the years, and even more amazing to think of where the next 5 or 10 could take it.
The web is littered with the bodies of dead social networks, killed by poor direction from the top, and user migration from the bottom. Twitter's trying not to become one of them. Check out Panazarino's piece via the link below and let me know -- how well do you think they're succeeding?
Source: The Next Web
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An inside look at Apple Anonymous and retail employee attempts to be both secret and social
Posted: 22 Mar 2013 05:38 AM PDT
Even outside Cupertino, in the massive retail division of Apple, secrecy is a deeply held value. Yet people are, by nature, social animals, and platforms like Twitter and even Google+, filled with friends and family, are in many cases just too big to ignore. Some simply draw up a firewall, never mentioning anything not already public knowledge about their employer or their employment, and focusing on the non-Apple aspects of their lives. Others, however, want to use places like Twitter as a way to blow off company steam -- as a place to bitch about their jobs. Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac has taken a look at that side of the Apple/Twitter equation:
Even with strict, Apple Corporate-implemented policies on social media usage of its employees, a portion of Apple retail employees have formed an under-the-radar, "Apple Anonymous" community over social media sites like Twitter and Google+. The majority of these employees work on these social media networks under "anonymous" personalities.
Gurman focuses on the @GeniusBarTales account in particular, on the Fearless Feedback concept at Apple Retail, Net Promoter for our People (NPP) surveys, and what, if any, role "Apple Anonymous" played in getting the word out about unpopular changes made by then Apple Retail head John Browett, since fired.
It's a long piece, but for anyone interested in Apple Retail, a fascinating one.
Source: 9to5Mac
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