iPad By Davis: “Say the Same Thing for iPhone review: Try to guess the same word as your friends in this hilarious word game” plus 15 more |
- Say the Same Thing for iPhone review: Try to guess the same word as your friends in this hilarious word game
- KitCam for iPhone review: Control the camera's exposure, white balance, focus, and more
- Would you still buy a non-Retina MacBook? [Poll]
- Six awesome first person shooters for the Mac you should play right now
- Excellent Posts iPad Blogging App Now Free
- Amazon Cloud Drive Photos comes to iPhone and iPod Touch, 5GB free storage for new customers
- Netflix for iPad Updated: New Features to Help with ‘Binge Watching” TV Shows
- Price Drops: Screens VNC iPad/iOS App On Sale at 50% Off
- How to adjust reading settings in iBooks for iPhone and iPad
- Paragraphs for Mac review: Easy markdown and static website creation all in one
- Shocker: Falling iPad demand story turns out to be BS
- Apple's two-step verification now enabled in Canada, additional countries
- Deal of the Day: 51% off Incipio EDGE PRO Hard Shell Slider Case for iPhone 5
- Magnets are bad for some heart devices, and that includes those on the iPad
- Apple releases stability fix firmware update v1.2 for Thunderbolt
- Microsoft wants iTunes as a Windows 8 app, of course, but says Apple's not so keen
| Posted: 11 May 2013 12:27 AM PDT Say the Same Thing is a fun turn-by-turn word game by the band OK Go where you must try to guess the same word as your friend, a random stranger, or a member of the band. It's refreshingly fun and is sure to get those creative juices flowing. Here's how it works; you are not playing against your friend, but rather with your friend, or as I'll call him/her, your partner (since you can play with strangers). The game begins with you and your partner each saying a word. In round two, you both look at the words from round one, and say a word that is related to both those words. If you say the same word, you win! If you don't, you repeat using the words from round two. Look at the two most recent words and say another word that relates the two. The ultimate goal is to say the same word as your partner. If you and your partner say almost the same thing, you can tap the "This counts!" button to claim that the game should be over. If your partner also hits the button, then the game is over. For example, I played a game where I said "Secretary of State" and my partner said "Secretary of the State." You may also run into instances where one player spells the word differently. During the game, you can chat with your partner and put fun stamps and emoticons on words that have been played. Using a stamp costs a banana. Oh, yes -- bananas. There are three ways to spend bananas: use a stamp, say two words at once, and start a game. Yes, you read that right -- it costs two bananas to play a game. For more bananas, you must either buy them in increments of 20, 50, 100, or 10,000, ranging from $0.99 t0 $49.99, or watch a 30 second ad in exchange for one banana. I hate this. I am more than willing to pay for a great game, but having to pay to continue to play (without new content) is very annoying. It bothers me even more because the tutorial never mentions that each game will cost you 2 bananas. Instead, I burned through my bananas by using stamps with no idea that I was giving up games by doing so. Paying to remove ads ($2.99) doesn't change things either -- you still have to watch ads (or pay) to get more bananas. One 30-second ad only grants half a game, so this further adds to the frustration. To learn that a game cost 2 bananas, I had to go back to the tutorial, scroll through 13 pages, then tap "more tips." This is simply a bad user experience. However, despite this greedy business model, Say the Same Thing is an extremely fun game. The good
The bad
The bottom lineI've had a lot of fun and wasted too much time playing Say the Same Thing. It's a refreshing new word game that actually has the potential to be rather hilarious. I had one game with fellow iMore editor, Ally Kazmucha, that was 32 rounds long and ranged from Star Wars, to soda, to Lindsay Lohan, to ice cream, and to some topics that are too inappropriate to mention here -- now that's some good honest fun! Hopefully the folks behind Say the Same Thing re-think their business model and, at the very least, increase the number of bananas you earn for watching an ad.
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| KitCam for iPhone review: Control the camera's exposure, white balance, focus, and more Posted: 10 May 2013 08:11 PM PDT KitCam is a full-featured camera app for the iPhone that gives you full control over settings like exposure, focus, and white balance. It also comes equipped with many different lenses and filters and includes different shooting modes like multi-shot, time-lapse, multiple exposure, and more. I'm just going to come right out and say it -- KitCam is awesome and it would take me thousands of words to really dive into everything it can do. Instead, I'll just touch on the highlights. My absolute favorite feature of KitCam is that you can manually adjust the exposure and white balance before you even take the photo. These two sliders alone can drastically improve your photos, as is demonstrated in the screenshots above. KitCam also comes with a slew of lenses that apply various effects to your image and provides a live preview of the final results. These lenses include vignette, tilt shift, pinhole, olga, and more. You can also choose form different film types that act as filters. These are also shown in the live preview. KitCam comes loaded with quite a few lenses and film and also offers more as in-app purchases. In addition to normal, single-shot mode, KitCam offers many other shooting options. These include HD video recording, timer, stabilizer, night stamp, multi-exposure, multi-shot, and time-lapse. When taking a photo, you can separate focus from exposure by tapping the screen with two fingers. You'll get a circle for exposure and a square for focus and tapping them will lock them down. If after taking a photo you realize you would've preferred to use a different lens or roll of film, you can easily switch them out with the editor. The editor also allows you to adjust straightening, attachments, exposure, white balance, brightness, contrast, saturation, color mixer, levels, and sharpening. The good
The bad
The bottom lineEven with the availability of some great camera apps, I've always defaulted back to the built-in Camera app. Not any more! KitCam is just too good not to use. Having full control over exposure and white-balance is the must-have feature for me -- everything else is just bonus. KitCam is currently 50% off, so grab it now!
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| Would you still buy a non-Retina MacBook? [Poll] Posted: 10 May 2013 02:58 PM PDT The Retina MacBook Pro has been with us for almost a full year now. The 15-inch version came to us by way of WWDC 2012, and frankly was unlike any laptop computer ever seen. The incredible 2880x1800 resolution Retina Display had to be seen to be believed, and just like that Apple had the best laptop display ever produced. The Retina MacBook Pro now also comes in a 13-inch form factor too, and the display is equally stunning to look at. Combined with a slimmer profile compared to the non-Retina MacBook Pro's, it's a remarkable piece of hardware. But, the Retina MacBook's are quite expensive sat next to their non-Retina counterparts. Those displays don't come cheap, and the 13-inch versions are $300 apart for the base models while the lowest priced MacBook Air can be had for $999, a full $500 less than the cheapest Retina MacBook Pro. For me, the jump has been irreversible. From an 11-inch MacBook Air to a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, I just couldn't go back. The MacBook Pro is portable enough to haul around on the road, and the Retina Display is simply too good to turn my back on. And that's where you come in. We want to know what you, the iMore readers think. For your next MacBook purchase, would you still consider buying a non-Retina version? Is the form factor and highly portable nature of the MacBook Air more important? Or do you really need the Superdrive that, for now at least, comes on the regular MacBook Pro? Vote in the poll up top, and let us know why in the comments below! 
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| Six awesome first person shooters for the Mac you should play right now Posted: 10 May 2013 02:05 PM PDT The weekend's here and if you're worried about being bored, here are some games you can play on your Mac. This time around I'm focusing on some of my favorite first person shooters (FPSs) that are currently available for the Mac platform, ranging in price from free to not free. Locked and loaded? Good. Here we go... Borderlands 2
Every once in a while a sequel comes along that completely eclipses the original game. Such is the case with Borderlands 2, which took everything that was good about the original Borderlands and made it better. For the uninitiated, Borderlands 2 drops you on the surface of a hostile alien world called Pandora. You're essentially a treasure hunter on a mission. You can choose from one of four different character classes, each with unique abilities, and in a nod to role playing games, you can develop special abilities by assigning skill points that you gain through experience. Borderlands 2 also features a weapons randomizing system that produces an almost unlimited number of variations on handguns, rifles, grenades and other weapons. A hilarious script and great voice acting provides you with constant laughs through the 30+ hours of single-player fun your first time through (and you will replay this game to get experience with each character class). Add to that fantastic cooperative multiplayer gameplay and downloadable content to extend the game, and you've got a potent mix that will keep you coming back again and again. Aspyr makes the game available through the Mac App Store and Steam (which we've linked above). Our recommendation is to go for the Steam version so you can get cross-platform multiplayer - Mac App Store downloaders are relegated to Mac-to-Mac play only through Game Center. BioShock 2
Few recent FPS's have had the impact of the BioShock series. The game struck gold for its detailed storyline involving Rapture, a Randian utopia far beneath the surface of the ocean, run amuck. A survival horror game, BioShock 2 puts you in the role of a Big Daddy - a genetically altered human encased in a heavily armored diving suit. Rapture is filled with psychotic and dangerous people who have been altered by a substance that can record their genes, granting them superhuman powers (and, unfortunately, driving them mad). The game sports multiplayer action too, but unlike Borderlands 2 isn't available from Steam, so the Mac App Store is a safe bet. BioShock 2 is the sequel to the first BioShock, and if you haven't picked that one up, it's definitely worth your time as well, especially at $19.99 price. Both should wet your whistle until BioShock Infinite shows up for the Mac this summer. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Short of having its superlative sequel on the Mac, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is the next best thing. Sure, it's been around for a while, but this game stands up to the test of time: it's a phenomenal FPS that puts you in the role of U.S. Marines and British SAS commandos as you travel to the U.K, the Middle East, Azerbaijan, Russia and Ukraine on the hunt for international terrorists who plan to detonate a nuclear warhead. COD4: MW takes a break from past COD games by bringing the action to the modern era, instead of focusing on World War II, which means you have plenty of modern weapons to choose from. It also sports great multiplayer capabilities with plenty of challenges, unlockable perks at matchmaking to make sure you're paired with players of similar abilities. Team Fortress 2
A team-based multiplayer first person shooter available through Steam, Team Fortress 2 is almost six years old and still going strong. The game pits two opposing teams against each other in a variety of different modes: Capture the Flag, Control Point, Territorial Control, King of the Hill and more. The play maps vary from the ridiculous to the sublime, and you can choose from nine different player classes, some with offensive capabilities (like the Scout), some better on defense (like the Heavy), and some best for support (such as the Medic). The game's fun to play not only for its varied gameplay modes and different character classes to master, but also for its cartoon-style art. And it used to be you had to pay for TF2, but Valve made it free to play in 2011. (The company makes money through in-app purchases players make to buy unique equipment and character outfits.) Counter Strike: Source
The original Counter Strike took the world by storm when it was introduced as a mod for Valve Software's legendary game Half-Life. Valve reworked CS as its own independent game using the Source engine (hence the name). It's a team-based first person shooter that emphasizes accomplishing objectives - kill your opponents, rescue hostages and so on. What makes it a bit different than the rest is that when you're shot, you stay dead until the end of the round - no instant respawning. Twelve years since its first release, Counter Strike still has a huge following and remains ridiculously popular. Last year Valve released Counter Strike: Global Offensive (seen above), so if you've gotten tired of the original, you can immerse yourself in a new game that features updated content from the original, along with new maps, characters and weapons. Special Mention: Pathways Into Darkness
Before Halo, before Myth, before Marathon, way back in 1993, Bungie Software made a name for itself with Mac gamers with one of the most innovative first person shooters we'd ever seen (and really, we hadn't seen a lot of them, but we knew this one was cool). That game was called Pathways Into Darkness. Man Up Time has resurrected this 20-year-old masterpiece for modern Mac and they've made it absolutely free. Not "freemium" - there are no in-app purchases you need to make to keep playing. Free. The game traps you in a mysterious pyramid in the Yucatan that threatens the very survival of the Earth. You must descend into its innermost recesses, battling fearsome monsters to save the world. PID is a game of its era. Its graphics are quaint and primitive, its interface is awkward by modern standards, but it stands out as a period piece worthy of remembering and enjoying. It's a bit of Mac legend. And it's free, so you have nothing to lose but some download bandwidth. Your go-to first-person shooters?Those are my favorite FPS games on the Mac right now, but if there are any other can't-miss shooters on your short list, let me know in the comments below. You can never have too much of an awesome thing! 
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| Excellent Posts iPad Blogging App Now Free Posted: 10 May 2013 12:28 PM PDT Posts, one of the best blogging apps for the iPad, is now a a free app. It has previously been priced at $9.99 and this appears to be a permanent move to free for the app.I say it appears to be a permanent move to free for the app because of the phrasing of the developers' answer in this Twitter exchange: I've tried out just about every iPad blogging app that has support for WordPress, and I've not seen any that are better than Posts – and certainly none that match its gorgeous UI. Posts supports the WordPress (wordpress.com and self-hosted) and Blogger platforms, and some of its key features include:
This app was worth every penny...         Related Stories
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| Amazon Cloud Drive Photos comes to iPhone and iPod Touch, 5GB free storage for new customers Posted: 10 May 2013 11:48 AM PDT Amazon just extended their Cloud Drive offering on iOS, with the launch of the all new Amazon Cloud Drive Photos app. Much like the Android equivalent that launched back in November 2012, you can view, download and upload photos to your Cloud Drive right from your iPhone and iPod Touch. New Cloud Drive customers will be given 5GB of free storage to get them started, with upgrades available for a yearly fee ranging from 20GB all the way up to a massive 1000GB. And, like competitor Dropbox, Cloud Drive Photos has the capability to auto-upload photos from your Camera Roll to your Cloud Drive, with a WiFi only option also included. It's also another alternative to Photostream, with the added bonus of being able to sync your photos to non iOS devices as with Dropbox. A personal favorite feature is the large upload mode. This disables the lockscreen in order to complete large uploads, and becomes active depending on the size of your upload queue. One disappointment is that sharing options from within the app are somewhat limited, with just options for Twitter and Mail on offer, along with an option to print. We're not short on choices for photo backup and sharing on iOS, but which is your preferred service, and why. Let us know in the comments!
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| Netflix for iPad Updated: New Features to Help with ‘Binge Watching” TV Shows Posted: 10 May 2013 10:54 AM PDT The Netflix iPad app was updated yesterday, adding new features that are said to help us enjoy 'binge watching' our favorite TV shows and get the best movie recommendations.I'm definitely on board with some binge watching when it comes to old and new TV favorites – so these new features sound good to me. Here's the change list for this Version 4.1 update:
That first feature – the auto cueing and starting of a TV show's next episode – is a very handy one. I'm also intrigued by the mention of enhanced second screen options. I'm looking forward...  Related Stories
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| Price Drops: Screens VNC iPad/iOS App On Sale at 50% Off Posted: 10 May 2013 09:57 AM PDT Screens VNC, the excellent VNC client app for the iPad and iOS, is currently on sale at 50% off for a limited time. It's available for $9.99, down from its standard $19.99.This app has a gorgeous and very user—friendly UI, which makes it a pleasure to use. These are some of its key features:
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| How to adjust reading settings in iBooks for iPhone and iPad Posted: 10 May 2013 09:49 AM PDT If you download books to read with iBooks for iPhone and iPad, you can easily adjust reading settings such as text size, screen brightness, and more right within the app to better suit your reading preferences. Follow along and we'll show you how.
These settings are specifically there in order to make reading more enjoyable and accessible to everyone. If you're reading at night, perhaps you prefer a darker theme instead of a bright white background. During the day, you can switch the theme back or increate brightness whenever you'd like. 
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| Paragraphs for Mac review: Easy markdown and static website creation all in one Posted: 10 May 2013 08:54 AM PDT Paragraphs for Mac is a new markdown editor available in the Mac App Store that allows you to write your posts in markdown, including embedding images, and easily export them for publishing on your own via FTP. Not only does Paragraphs export your posts, it creates an entire site for upload. First things first, if you're looking for a markdown editor that simply creates posts for you to upload to Wordpress, Tumblr, or Drupal, Paragraphs isn't it. You'd probably be better suited with a markdown editor such as Byword or iA Writer]. The premise of Paragraphs is that you don't already have a site readily set up or want a simpler solution for creating blog posts with one click publish options and obviously, markdown support. After you first launch Paragraphs, you'll be asked to enter some basic info including the name of your site and the URL. You can also jump into preferences in order to choose a theme. There are 3 themes to choose from but you are welcome to create and edit these themes if you have a working knowledge of HTML and CSS. After you've got a few posts written and your site preferences worked out, just click on the file menu and choose the Publish option in order to create an export file of your site. From here you'll need to use an FTP client to upload it to your web server. For those not familiar with FTP and have no idea how it works, Paragraphs may not be the best option for you. For those who have an intermediate knowledge of publishing websites and want an easier way to publish changes and updates to their site, Paragraphs may be a perfect solution. The good
The bad
The bottom lineParagraphs does what it says it does, creates an easy solution for publishing to a static website without a cookie cutter content management system like Wordpress. When it comes to professional bloggers who write frequently, you'll most likely be better served with a service like BBEdit or MarsEdit that ties into your chosen platform or CMS. If you prefer a simpler editor, like I do, where you can simply preview and copy/paste markdown into your blogging platform of choice, both Byword and iA Writer offer this plus iPhone and iPad counterparts with iCloud sync. That may leave you wondering who Paragraphs is suited for. My answer would be for people somewhere in the middle that have some kind of working knowledge of FTP and prefer a more personal solution instead of a template blog on Wordpress or Tumblr. If you want a static website that you can edit and control locally and update with a simple FTP client, Paragraphs is for you.
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| Shocker: Falling iPad demand story turns out to be BS Posted: 10 May 2013 08:40 AM PDT Once again an Apple-is-doomed story turns out to be more media malpractice than factual account. This time the non-story in question supposedly concerned shrinking demand for the iPad mini. At least that's how Bloomberg made it look:
This seemed to indicate that Pegatron, one of the manufacturers of the iPad mini, would experience lower revenues, due to lower demand for the iPad mini. Well, not so fast. If you look at the placement of those quotation marks, you'll notice that the iPad mini appears nowhere inside of them. This made Philip Elmer-Dewitt of Fortune suspicious, and after sending an email to Pegatron CEO Jason Cheng, he found that no comments were made on a specific product from any company.
So, demand for the iPad mini could have decreased -- the holiday quarter is always far bigger, and experiences far greater demand than the quarters that follow it. However, because Pegatron didn't talk specifics, Bloomberg ended up creating a story rather than reporting one, and that's bad for everybody. If you want a better idea about recent iPad mini demand, look at Apple's Q2 2013 and wait for Apple to announce its Q3 2013 results in a few months. They may not break down specifics between the different iPad models, but the trend will be far clearer than a dodgy quote in an Apple-is-doomed headline grab. Is it just me, or is mainstream media in general rushing to report anything they can that puts Apple in a bad light, even if it's smoke and mirrors? And where are the stories focusing on the good news, and correcting the false reports? Is Apple bites man really all we have to look forward to this year? 
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| Apple's two-step verification now enabled in Canada, additional countries Posted: 10 May 2013 07:40 AM PDT Apple's two-step verification service first rolled out in March, though only to a limited number of countries. Anyone outside the U.S, UK, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand was out of luck, but as 9to5Mac reports, the service has just been switched on in a host of new locations. We've verified that two-step is now enabled in Canada, but reports are emerging from users in Argentina, Russia, The Netherlands, Pakistan and Austria already that they too can now enable Apple's two-step verification service. Two-step verification works by requiring a 4-digit code whenever you login to your Apple ID on a new device. If you use an iPhone or iPad, the code can be sent to a trusted device by way of the Find my iPhone app. If you don't have an iOS device, you can still set it up to receive the codes via SMS. You also set up a recovery key that you will be able to use to access your account should you ever lose your trusted device. The picture is still emerging as to how far this latest rollout has spread, so if you can now activate it let us know where abouts in the world you are. If you're already using two-step verification, let us know how it's been working for you. If you haven't tried it out yet, heres your complete guide to getting it set up: How to enable two-step verification for your Apple ID Source: 9to5Mac 
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| Deal of the Day: 51% off Incipio EDGE PRO Hard Shell Slider Case for iPhone 5 Posted: 10 May 2013 07:08 AM PDT | ||||||
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Magnets are bad for some heart devices, and that includes those on the iPad
Posted: 10 May 2013 05:01 AM PDT
Magnets are bad for implanted defibrillators, this isn't a new discovery. The iPad 2 onwards contains magnets, those little ones around the edges to hold down the Smart Cover and the top of the Smart Case. Combining these two pieces of information, a science project by 14-year-old Gianna Chien has determined that the iPad might not be the best thing to hold close to your chest if you have one of these devices implanted. Bloomberg reports:
If a person falls asleep with the iPad2 on the chest, the magnets in the cover can "accidentally turn off" the heart device, said Chien, a high school freshman in Stockton, California, whose father is a doctor. "I definitely think people should be aware. That's why I'm presenting the study."
Implanted defibrillators are designed to turn off in the presence of magnets as a safety precaution, with most turning back on once the magnets have been removed. The ones in the iPad aren't strong enough to cause any issues during regular use, but during the study 30% of participants showed effects when the iPad was held close to their chest.
Initially a project for a county Science Fair, Chien's findings are now being presented to 8,000 doctors at the Heart Rhythm Society in Denver. We're not sure it poses huge cause for widespread medical concerns, as most patients will be aware of the risks surrounding magnets and their implant. If you fall into this category though, maybe don't fall asleep with your iPad on your chest.
Of course, we're not doctors, so if anyone who reads this knows more about it, do please share with us.
Source: Bloomberg
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Apple releases stability fix firmware update v1.2 for Thunderbolt
Posted: 10 May 2013 04:13 AM PDT
Users of a Thunderbolt equipped Mac will want to head on over to the Apple Support pages and grab the latest firmware update. It's not a huge update, in fact the download is just 1.22MB in size, but does promise stability fixes for Thunderbolt and for Target Disk Mode. And we'll always welcome stability fixes.
A restart of your Mac will be required following install, and to grab the new firmware hit the source link below.
Source: Apple Support
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Microsoft wants iTunes as a Windows 8 app, of course, but says Apple's not so keen
Posted: 10 May 2013 03:26 AM PDT
Not surprisingly, Microsoft wants Apple to create a Windows 8 version of iTunes. Apple already makes a version of iTunes that runs just fine on Windows 8, but it's an old-style "desktop app" not a new-style "Windows 8 app". Not that that seems to be bothering Apple in the slightest. According to CNN Money:
"You shouldn't expect an iTunes app on Windows 8 any time soon," said Tami Reller, chief financial officer of Microsoft's Windows division. "ITunes is in high demand. The welcome mat has been laid out. It's not for lack of trying."
Tom Warren at The Verge adds that sources at Microsoft have indicated to them that iTunes is one of the most searched for applications in the Windows 8 store, and that Microsoft has actively been trying to secure a Windows 8 app version.
A Windows 8 app -- formerly and far less confusingly known as a Metro app -- can be purchased through Microsoft's version of the app store, and is optimized for the new generation of touch screen tablets, hybrids, laptops, and displays. That's where the market is shifting, and that's what's got Microsoft so keen on it.
Apple, for their part, probably isn't in any hurry to get ahead of the curve on Windows 8 app development, and it should be pointed out Microsoft's own Office was an is caught in a painful transition from desktop app to Windows 8 app. Large, legacy code bases are like that, and ports are typically even more complicated.
Still, Windows 8 users, are you crying out for a proper Windows 8 app version of iTunes , or are you okay making do with the current desktop app? We want to hear from you!
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