Friday, December 31, 2010

iPhone alarms may fail to activate on New Year's Day

If you're using your iPhone or iPod touch as your primary alarm clock, it might be time to reconsider. In 2010, Apple had well-publicized difficulties with the switchover to Daylight Saving Time. Alarms failed to go off at their proper times, causing thousands of people in the Southern Hemisphere to wake up an hour early and many more thousands in the Northern Hemisphere to wake up an hour late. Now yet another bug has struck Apple's Clock app in iOS: single-use, non-repeating alarms fail to

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Discovering iPod nano recovery mode

Steven Troughton-Smith writes on his personal weblog that he may have discovered a way to put his iPod nano into some kind of DFU-like recovery mode. By holding down the restart buttons through two reboots, iTunes will see the device and alert the user. Entering DFU/Recovery mode allows hackers to submit customized software to iOS devices and doing so with the nano offers the promise of adding modified software.

Troughton-Smith tells TUAW that he can now "can push firmware files to the device

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Appstravaganza: Get creative

Designers, illustrators, and photographers who find themselves the proud new owners of any of Apples iOS devices don’t have to look too hard to find a source of inspiration. The App Store is teeming with mobile offerings designed to kick-start your creative muse. Where to start? Try a sample of the apps contained in these three collections if you want to turn your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch into a creative canvas.

Type geeks, unite
If you went to see the movie Helvetica multiple times and

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Video: Apple 2010 year in review

by Nick Barber, IDG News Service
2010 proved to be yet another successful year for Apple with its main attractions being the iPad and iPhone 4. Steve Jobs' criticism of Adobe's Flash technology was an ongoing story, and products such as the iPod nano and MacBook Air got smaller.







iPod and audio player reviews, including iPod touch, iPod nano, iPod shuffle, and iPod

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Daily Deals for December 31, 2010

What a year! To close out 2010, here are some nifty deals on a variety of goodies direct from our partners at dealnews.com. Hey, who couldn't use a fish-shaped USB heated mouse pad hand warmer?


iTunes Store: iPhone App Store Freebies: QuickSocial, Distant Assassin, TrucksRush, more
iTunes Store: RunKeeper Pro for iPhone or Android downloads for free
iTunes Store: iPad App Price Drops: GT Racing: Motor Academy, Real Soccer 2011, more
iTunes Store: Diner Dash for iPhone / iPod

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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Clear iSpot discontinued already

Well, that certainly didn't last very long, did it? Looks like Clear is already sending its unusual iSpot product to the great WiMAX network in the sky less than five months after its introduction. As a refresher, the iSpot's claim to fame is that it was designed to work only with iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads -- and in exchange for the crazy restriction, Clear would charge you less than $ 100 for the hotspot itself and just $ 25 a month for unlimited 4G access capped at 6Mbps down. Of

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Rumored iPad 2 case pictures leaking out of Asia

A steady stream of purported iPad 2 cases continues to flow out of Asia. Similar to earlier leaks, this latest case to hit the rumor mill suggests the iPad 2 will have a rear-facing camera and a slimmer, possibly more angular design than the first generation iPad. This aesthetic change may be akin to the overhaul made to the iPod touch. The latest generation iPod touch dropped the rounded feel of its predecessors and replaced it with a thinner, sharp-edged design.

Apple mobile products have

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iPhone 101: Where did I put that app?

Once you have a fair number of apps on your iOS device, you might find that you occasionally "lose" an app somewhere in the pages and/or folders of your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Handily, there's a trick for locating that app using iTunes. I consider myself a seasoned iTunes/iPhone user, and this simple little tip was a surprise to me. It might be to you, too!
Connect your device to your computer and let it show up under "Devices" in iTunes. Select the device and click on the "Apps" tab of

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Dear Manufacturers: You’ve Had A Rough Year, But Step It Up

It seems, at least at first blush, that we are out of the slimy gullet and into the potentially less dangerous teeth of this recession. Joblessness is still high but folks I know who are working in IT and CS are in high demand. People are hiring, but not out in the open, and shoppers, as evidenced by this year’s holiday season, have a little bit of cash. But CE manufacturers, back in 2008, pulled into their turtle shells and haven’t come out. The past few years have passed in a

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Appstravaganza: Apps for your new iOS device

All season long, you’ve been dreaming of an iOS Christmas, and now the big day has finally arrived. Someone—a friend, a loved one, maybe even that jolly old elf from up north—has deposited an iPad or iPhone or iPod touch underneath the tree. And now it’s time to find out for yourself what’s so great about Apple’s iOS devices.

But to really get the most out of Apple’s handheld devices, you’re going to want to load them up with apps. The iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch ship with a

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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Skype video calling for iPhone is official, available now (update: hands-on)

All signs have been pointing to this release for a few days now, but we'll admit: we expected Skype to wait until CES next week to pull the covers off what could become its crown jewel service over the coming months. Skype's official iOS client has finally sprouted the ability to make video calls, allowing iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and fourth-generation iPod touch users to share real-time video amongst each other and users of Skype's Windows, Mac, and Linux clients along with the ASUS Videophone

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Skype’s New App Brings Video Chat To The iPhone, iPad And iPod Touch

We’ve been hearing reports that Skype is debuting a mobile video chat service and D-Day has arrived. The company is launching a brand new version of its iPhone app that includes the ability to turn on video in any Skype chat.
The beauty of the app is that it brings free video calling to iPhone 3G devices, iPad and iPod Touch, all of which couldn’t run Apple’s video calling feature Facetime (the feature only works with iPhone 4 devices and Mac computers). Of course, iPad

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HEX ships iPod nano watch band, dares you to destroy it (video)

It's highly improbable that you actually need yet another option when looking for a watch band to house your iPod nano 6G, but if that first-run version you sprung for is already in tatters, HEX has a little something worth considering. The company has just started shipping its HEX Watch Band in the US of A, with $ 29.95 netting you a soft, flexible band that requires no complicated plug-and-play action whatsoever. Just pop your nano into the face, strap it on your arm, and roll. It's

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Tuesday, December 28, 2010

iPod nano hacked, may open door to future jailbreak

The latest generation iPod nano has been hacked, a preliminary step that may lead to an eventual jailbreak. The sixth generation iPod nano became available in September of this year and featured an operating system that superficially resembled iOS. Under the hood, the mini MP3 player runs an alternative operating system that has been poked and prodded by devs since its launch.

Developer James Wheaton is the first to crack open the nano and install a Springboard hack that let him remove an app

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App Store freeze has ended

Most of the country still has lots of winter to go through, but one thing has already thawed: the Apple App Store. Every year, Apple freezes changes on iOS apps during the holiday, in part to give the team that does updates a little break, and because sales tend to be quite volatile as people unwrap iPhones, iPod touches, and (this year for the first time) iPads on Christmas. But today marks the un-freezing of the store, so top paid and free charts will go back to changing at the whims of App

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Will 2011 See App Makers Thinking Android-First? One Developer Thinks It’s Possible

Over the weekend, there was a ton of talk about 2011 being the year in which Android “explodes” onto the market. You could argue that 2010 was already that year, but plenty of numbers indicate that 2011 will be much bigger for the platform. But despite Android as a whole already outselling the iPhone, there’s little debate that amongst developers, iOS is still the platform you develop for first. But this could change as well in 2011, at least according to one developer. And

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Daily Deals for December 28, 2010

Again from our partners at dealnews, some app deals, some Mac deals and a bunch of accessories and objects for your digital media hub strategy this season.


iTunes Store: iPhone App Store Freebies: Vectorama, iDestroy, Furoshiki Guide, more
iTunes Store: iPhone App Price Drops: Awareness!, Produce Tracker, ROCK BAND, more
MacPromo: MacPromo Mac Time-Saving Bundle: 10 utilities for $ 50
Western Digital Store: Refurb Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player for $ 40 + free

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2010 in review: The year in entertainment

by Jonathan Seff, Macworld.com
2010 brought us a totally revamped Apple TV, a new crop of iPods, iTunes 10, and much more. Here’s a quick wrap-up of some of the big events of the past 12 months in the world of Apple and entertainment.

Apple TV gets small
In September, Apple unveiled a new, smaller Apple TV model (). The second-generation Apple TV allowed Apple to finally shed the “hobby” label from its video playing device (well, depending on whom you ask), adding Netflix streaming,

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Monday, December 27, 2010

Apple bringing Cherokee language support to iPhone and iPad

Apple's iOS devices currently support just 50 languages, out of thousands that are in use globally. Soon, that figure will creep up to 51. A fresh AP report notes that Cherokee Chief Chad Smith actually visited Apple and used students currently being schooled in immersion programs to "pull at the heartstrings" of Apple's brass, and eventually, Cupertino caved. The tribe has been working with Apple to develop Cherokee language software for the iPhone, iPod and iPad, the latter of which will

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A look inside the Foxconn factory

French journalist and photographer Jordan Pouille revisited a Foxconn factory in Longhua, China and reported on factory conditions in the wake of a highly publicized pay raise for its Chinese workers. This pay raise came in response to criticism over a rash of suicides occurring at this Longhua factory which employs over 300,000 Chinese workers. Foxconn is the world's largest electronics manufacturer and has contracts with several major consumer electronics companies including Apple. The

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Kindle 3 Beats Harry Potter Book As Bestselling Product In Amazon’s History

This isn’t a big surprise. Amazon has just released a statement reporting that the new, third-generation Kindle has now surpassed ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ as the best-selling product in Amazon’s history. Of course, Amazon doesn’t reveal the total number of Kindles sold (Bloomberg recently reported that 8 million Kindles will be sold this year compared to 2.4 million units sold in 2009).
On Christmas Day, Amazon says that more people turned on new Kindles for

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On Cyber Monday, Amazon Sold 158 Items Per Second (13.7 Million In Total)

Amazon this morning announced that on its peak day for this year, November 29, customers ordered more than 13.7 million items worldwide across all product categories, which translates to a – self-proclaimed – record-breaking 158 items per second.
November 29 was, of course, Cyber Monday in the United States, the Monday immediately following Black Friday.
According to comScore, overall online spending in the United States surpassed $ 1 billion on Cyber Monday in 2010, up 16 percent

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All Household Appliances Should Be Made By Apple

Like many of you, I am visiting family this holiday season and nowhere does gadget snobbery become more apparent than during gatherings with loved ones. Aside from the ubiquitous “Whose phone is faster?” question, which in my case led to an email race at Christmas dinner, there is endless potential for the marginally tech savvy to show off during the holidays.
But all the superiority gleaned from being able to load non-iTunes purchases into your mom’s iPod is tossed out the

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Sunday, December 26, 2010

Tips for trouble-free tech product returns

by Yardena Arar, PC World
Tech products can make great holiday gifts, for others or for yourself. But if you (or the gift recipient) aren’t happy with the product, your options vary widely depending on the merchant’s return policy—fine print that bargain hunters often ignore at their peril.

With return policies, just as with the products they cover, a little advance research can make the difference between a good experience and a disaster. Here are our best tips for navigating the

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Saturday, December 25, 2010

Appstravaganza: Play time

No matter how you spend your off hours—watching movies, savoring a good book, or blasting video game baddies from here to kingdom come—Apple’s iOS devices have quickly become essential leisure time companions. Our editors have searched the App Store’s virtual aisles for mobile software that lets you do more with your down time. From streaming media to serving up a great meal, the following App Collections offer plenty of choices for filling up your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch with

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Appstravaganza: iOS marvels

Apple’s iOS is the engine that makes the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch go. Want to see what all the fuss over Apple’s mobile operating system is about? These three collections showcase apps that take advantage of location-awareness features, iOS 4’s multitasking powers, and the social networking capabilities available to your mobile device.

Location, location, location
In the social networking world, it’s not always just who you know—it’s where you are as well. These apps take

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Appstravaganza: Get your work done

All work and no play may make for a dull existence, but the work still has to get done. Fortunately, we’ve found some mobile apps that will help you focus on the task at hand and maybe even add a little flair to your daily to-dos.

Extend your desktop
I love my Mac, but ounce for ounce, I feel even more pure joy when using my iPad and iPhone. Thanks to a variety of clever iOS apps, however, I can now keep playing with my iPad and iPhone in tandem with my MacBookPro, when circumstances

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iPad 101: Downloading and installing iTunes on Windows

Did you find a shiny new iPod touch, iPhone or iPad under the tree this morning? Congratulations -- we're sure you're going to enjoy it. First things first, though: if you don't own a Mac, and you haven't been using Apple's tools to manage your music, you're going to have to download and install iTunes to sync and manage your new iDevice. Not to worry -- it's just a few quick steps, and we'll walk you through it. You'll be up and running in no time.
[Regular TUAW readers who are staring in

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Friday, December 24, 2010

Grimm's Rapunzel is an interactive pop-up book done right

Although a number of interactive children's books have billed themselves as being pop-up (or pop-out) books, like The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Night Before Christmas (both from Loudcrow), nothing really popped up and constructed the 3D scenes that I remember from my childhood. Grimm's Rapunzel - Interactive Pop-up Book from Ideal Binary (US$ 1.99 for now) does just that, and beautifully. It's a universal app that makes full use of the Retina Display of the iPhone and iPod touch, and it

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Daily Deals for December 24, 2010

The hour is getting late, grab these while you can! From our partners at dealnews.com. If you haven't played Plants vs. Zombies, now is your chance (on the Mac).


iTunes Store: iPhone App Store Freebies: Snowing Screensaver, Vocal Training, more
iTunes Store: SoundHound with unlimited song IDs for iPhone downloads for free
iTunes Store: iPad App Price Drops: Super Badminton 2010, Catan HD, Trainz, more
iTunes Store: iPhone App Price Drops: Inspector Gadget, iPNP, Ultimate MK3,

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Mighty Eagle soars in for the holidays as in-app Angry Birds purchase

The Mighty Eagle has finally landed for Angry Birds fans with an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. Available as a US$ 0.99 in-app purchase, the highly anticipated new bird character will let you skip a difficult level and unlock the next one, earning points and achievements along the way.
There is a catch to this great power now bestowed on you: use of this Mighty Eagle is limited to once per hour. The Mighty Eagle brings some good news for hard-core Angry Birds fans tired of repeating levels. Once

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Ford's AppLink to support iPhone voice control of apps

My, how far we have come since Ford offered a "standard" iPod jack in its 2008 Ford Escape. Starting this month (and next depending on the model), SYNC-equipped Ford Fiesta owners with iPhone, Android or BlackBerry smartphones will be able to use free software from Ford called AppLink, which gives SYNC users voice control over several apps on their phones. Available for download over at owner site www.syncmyride.com, the first apps compatible with AppLink are Pandora (internet radio), Stitcher

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Nanopore DNA sequencing technique promises entire genome in minutes or your money back

Those vaguely affordable DNA tests that promise to tell you just how likely you are to be stricken by some horrible and unavoidable genetic affliction in the future? They only look at a tiny fraction of the bits and bobs and bases that make up your genetic code. There's a race on to develop a quick and inexpensive way to sequence a human's entire genome, a process that costs about a million dollars now and takes ages but, via the technique under development at Imperial College London, could be

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Thursday, December 23, 2010

EOps Noisezero i+ Eco earbuds get cornstartch construction, finger-friendly design (video)

Hard to say when (or if) these beauts will ever hit the market, but we've all ideas they'd move quite briskly if positioned in a nondescript kind of store that tends to sell fruit, peripherals and things heavily prefixed with "i." Designed Michael Young has teamed up with EOps to create the Noisezero i+ Eco Edition earbuds, which are constructed with cornstarch (you know, in honor of Ma Earth), equipped with an iPod / iPhone-friendly inline remote and outfitted with a unique design that

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Daily Deals for December 23, 2010

OK, I'm not gonna lie. By this point you are pretty hosed if you haven't bought anything for the 25th (although if you move quickly, both Apple and Amazon will still do their darndest to get you your orders on Friday). Despite a sagging economy, shoppers are out there in droves. We wish you the best in your hunt for bargains, and so we bring you more deals courtesy of dealnews.

iTunes Store: iPhone App Store Freebies: Snowing Screensaver, Vocal Training, more
iTunes Store: Doodle Devil

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Santa plays Jingle Bells on a Christmas version of Accordéon

I just got a nice holiday email from Alex Komorov, the publisher of Accordéon, in which Santa plays Jingle Bells on the new Christmas version of the virtual accordion for the iPad. The holiday version costs US$ 3.99 and is decked out for the holidays. It includes a learning center where you can learn to play popular songs easily since the keys are lit up directing you what to push.

The only holiday song at present is Jingle Bells, which you can see played after the break. There is

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Holiday party music strategies

by Christopher Breen, Macworld.com
For many, December marks the time of year when it’s appropriate to don red and green and attend or host holiday parties. And thanks to the portable music players we carry in our pockets (in the form of iPods and iPhones) it’s possible to let everyone join in the musical fun. Here are some suggesting for pumping up your party.

Give iTunes DJ a spin
We’ll start with the party’s host. Launch iTunes and look down its source list for the Playlists

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iPad 2 rumored to have flatter backside, smaller bezel, 'wide-range' speaker

According to Japanese Mac blog MacOtakara, the next-gen iPad will have a flatter backside and smaller bezel compared to the original iPad. The "iPad 2" will also have a larger "wide-ranged speaker" located behind a mesh speaker grille.
MacOtakara notes that their Chinese source has told them the next iPad will be three millimeters smaller than the original, but the display will stay the same size. That means the bezel surrounding the iPad's display should shrink substantially. The rear case

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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

AirMedia Player for Windows: Stream from iOS to your Windows PC

We've been chronicling the fast evolution of AirPlay media players that allow owners of iOS 4.2 devices to stream media to their Macs and Linux machines. Now, from developer Apostolos Georgiadis comes word of AirMedia Player for Windows.
The player requires Windows XP, Vista, or 7, the Microsoft .NET framework 3.5 SP1 (available here), Bonjour for Windows (included with iTunes or the Bonjour Services for Windows), and QuickTime (available here). Once installed, users can stream video or music

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Ambiscience creates Music for Users, an homage to Tron

The AmbiScience Music for Users app has been on the store long before the movie was released this month, but watching the movie over the weekend reminded me of it. Tesla Software, makers of the AmbiScience apps create several audio entrainment products for inducing sleep, giving you more energy, etc. They all work about the same and each features an interesting line up of electronic music to zone out on. But the Music for Users version is now my favorite, with songs such as Cycle Chase 010 and

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TUAW's Holiday Gift Guide: Great casual games for iOS

We're about to enter what has been, in the past, the busiest weekend for App Store purchases. After people everywhere unwrap new iPhones, iPod touches and iPads during this Christmas weekend, they'll run to their computers to set up iTunes, then go shopping out on the App Store for software for their new devices. But there are a lot of different games to choose from on the App Store, and especially for people who only use software casually, it may be tough to find a few solid titles beyond the

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Red Nova is fast and fun but needs a little work

In the game Red Nova (for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch) you play a lone ship against a bunch of flying enemies in a 3/4 angled, fast-paced arcade space shooter. Red Nova launched to some acclaim and I can see why. The sound is great, the graphics, while low-polygon, are good and the animation and feel is quite nice. You can tell a lot of time and attention went into the game. The story is pretty worn out (protect the mother ship) but the gameplay reminded me a bit of one of my favorite games

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Daily Deals for December 22, 2010

More deals than you can shake an Ultra-wide SCSI cable at! Robotically generated by our partners at dealnews.com. Tons of app price drops, of course.


iTunes Store: Navfree USA for iPhone / iPod touch for free
iTunes Store: Free Lonely Planet City Guides for iPhone / iPad / iPod touch
MacPromo: MacPromo Mac Time-Saving Bundle: 10 utilities for $ 50
iTunes Store: iPhone App Store Freebies: 0.03 Seconds Pro, SeaWars, AngerOfStick, more
iTunes Store: Spider-Man: Total Mayhem

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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

AirPlay, Apple TV authentication and protected iTunes content

Erica continues her hacking explorations into the Apple TV and AirPlay.
Here's the thing. As far as I can tell, you can play back any content that plays back in your iPhone's iPod and video applications on any Apple TV. That includes DRM content, all that encrypted stuff that normally requires you to register your computer with your iTunes account.

Somehow the AirPlay protocol sends over enough information to the Apple TV to allow that device to gain at least temporary authorization to play

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Will Anonymous attack Apple?

Could the Internet-driven Anonymous movement possibly bring its DDOS attacks to bear on our favorite Cupertino company? Apple did remove the WikiLeaks application, after all. Not that you can't still access WikiLeaks on the web, but Apple has got to be one juicy target for the Anonymous group. They've gone after not just companies like Visa and Mastercard, but have attacked Sarah Palin and the Swedish government as well. They have said (as much as the loosely-knit organization can speak as a

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Monday, December 20, 2010

Apple TV plays live-converted AVI files using Air Video Server, AirPlayer, and AirFlick

Although I knew that the AirFlick video tool I posted about earlier today could theoretically pass transcoded video streams to Apple TV for playback, my initial attempts with VideoLan Client transcoding more or less went nowhere. Then TUAW reader BC reposted a comment earlier this evening that he originally left on the MacRumors forums.

In that comment, he discussed how to add live conversion to my AirFlick app by using the server component of AirVideo, a video streaming solution that allows

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Tap Tap Revenge 4 Surges To #1 On The App Store With 25,000 Downloads Per Hour

Last night around 11PM, Tapulous released the latest version of what is one of the App Store’s most popular franchises of all time: Tap Tap Revenge 4. 18 hours later, it became the top application in the App Store, marking the sixth time Tapulous has held the #1 spot since the App Store launched in summer 2008 (TTR1, TTR2, TTR3 as a paid app, then again as a free app, TTR3 Boost , and TTR 4). Tapulous founder Bart Decrem says that this game launch has been “twice as fast, and

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Apple's iAd Producer released: In-app ad development kit

Apple has made another tool available for developers who are considering using iAd as a way of making revenue from their iOS apps. iAd Producer is a free ad creation toolkit that became available today on the Apple Developer website, and it is designed to streamline the creation of compelling animated interactive ads for iOS apps.
The Mac OS X-based tools, which are available to any members of the iOS Developer Program, include a visual designer, page templates, a library of pre-built

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After Nearly A Year Of Delays, WakeMate Is Finally Shipping

If ever there was a case of a startup demonstrating the kind of hurdles involved with producing hardware, it’s WakeMate. We first wrote about the Y Combinator-funded startup over a year ago, which promises to help you kiss your groggy mornings goodbye with the help of a special wristband device that beams data about your sleeping habits to your Bluetooth-enabled smartphone. The company initially planned for a shipdate of January 2010, but it’s since slipped multiple times after

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Daily Deals for December 20, 2010

Before you rip into that bottle of eggnog stashed under your desk, please check out the following deals from dealnews.com. Supplies are limited in many cases, offers expire soon, etc. In other words: the early click gets the deal. One note: Justin Bieber Revenge does not allow you to exact revenge on Justin Bieber. It's another game in the Tap Tap Revenge series. If you want some sort of "revenge" check out this clip from South Park.


Best Buy: Apple iTunes $ 50 Gift Card for $ 40 + free

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Sunday, December 19, 2010

Apple posts free developer documentation for iBooks users

If your resolutions for 2011 include teaching yourself to be a Mac or iOS developer, then Apple just gave you a very nice Christmas present.
According to a tip from our old friend Nik Fletcher at Realmac Software, Apple has recently put a number of Apple Developer Publications books into the iBookstore for free. This makes it simple to grab these books, which range from "The Objective-C Programming Language" to "iOS Application Programming Guide," for reading on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod

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PadDock 10 iPad speaker dock makes beautiful music

Here at TUAW, we get a chance to see a lot of iPad and iPhone docks. In fact, you may have seen our recent iPad dock holiday gift guide. One new iPad dock that we didn't know about at the time the gift guide was being published was the PadDock 10 speaker dock from SMKLink (US$ 99.99).
The PadDock is well-made of black plastic and brushed aluminum, and is quite solid and sturdy. The mechanism used to hold the iPad in place clicks when you push the iPad in, and you know that it's going to stay

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Daily Deals for December 19, 2010

Best Buy has a $ 50 iTunes gift card for $ 40 with free shipping... who doesn't like free money? Catch 'em while you can, these deals from dealnews.com are only available for a limited time.


iTunes Store: Star Wars games for iPhone / iPod touch for $ 1
Best Buy: Apple iTunes $ 50 Gift Card for $ 40 + free shipping
Staples: $ 30 off Acer LCD Displays at Staples: Deals from $ 70 + free shipping
TigerDirect: Netgear Entertainer Elite Network Media Player for $ 100 + $ 9

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Make your own iPhone/iPod dock from a tree branch

Anthropologie has developed a new way to destroy trees by offering a US$ 98 iPhone dock created from a round of hickory wood with branches attached ... and that's pretty much it. No speakers. No clock. It's enough to make you want to go out, scavenge a couple of dead tree limbs and make one for yourself.

That's exactly what Chris over at ManMade did. He turned a spare iPod/iPhone USB cable, a couple of sticks, a fallen tree limb and a branch into the exact same dock found at Anthropologie,

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Princeton and iOS DHCP still not getting along

It seems that every time Apple squashes one DHCP bug in iOS, another one pops up.
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a system of automatically assigning IP addresses on a network, which mostly happens behind the scenes and without users noticing anything about it. Without an IP address, a device such as an iPhone, iPad, or any sort of computer cannot access the network.
DHCP uses a "lease" system where a computer can use a specific IP address for a certain length of time. In contrast

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Saturday, December 18, 2010

Daily Deals for December 18, 2010

Again brought to you by dealnews.com. These won't last forever, but what does? Christmas is just seven days away, after all.


iTunes Store: iPhone App Price Drops: PolyTune, Crayon Physics Deluxe, Bruce Lee, more
iTunes Store: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for iPhone and iPod touch downloads for $ 1
Apple Store: Refurbished Apple iPads: Up to $ 100 off, from $ 429 + free shipping
Meritline: Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter and 6-Foot HDMI Cable for $ 7 + free shipping

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Screens: an easy and elegant VNC app for iOS

VNC (virtual network computing) has been around for a long time, but lately there seems to be more and more interest in it, perhaps because of all the iPad and iPhone owners who want to connect to their computers back home or at the office.
Screens, from Edovia, is a new entrant in the VNC app race. It is on sale at US $ 14.99 for a limited time, after which the price will go up to $ 24.99. The app is universal, so your purchase allows you to install it on both an iPad and iPhone, or an iPod

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Friday, December 17, 2010

iPod nano watch kits nab almost $1 million on Kickstarter

Does anyone out there want to go into business with me with a design for an iPod nano watch kit?
MINIMAL is a design house that decided to fund the development of a line of iPod nano 6G watch kits through Kickstarter. If you're not familiar with that site, it's where you can send your pet project up the proverbial flagpole and see if anyone salutes it with a pledge of funding.
Apparently MINIMAL founder and designer Scott Wilson has captured some attention with his TikTok and LunaTik iPod nano

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Word Lens augmented reality app instantly translates whatever you point it at

Augmented reality and optical character recognition have just come into their own, beautifully intertwined into an instant translation app for the iPhone. Download Word Lens, pay $ 4.99 for a language pack, then point it at a sign and watch as it replaces every word with one in your native tongue. It's a little bit like Pleco, but without the whole language learning stuff. We just gave it a spin, and while it's not quite as accurate as this video claims, it's still breathtaking to behold --

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Minimal Studios iPod nano watch kits raise a million dollars on Kickstarter, yes, a million dollars

Well that didn't take long. Less than a month after we reported on the TikTok and LunaTik concept iPod nano watches hitting Kickstarter the company behind them, Minimal Studios, has met its goal -- and then some. Way then some. The project has clocked in nearly $ 1,000,000 in funding, helped in large part by a $ 25 pledge getting you first in line for a $ 35 MSRP TikTok watch kit, while $ 50 scored you the metallic LunaTik, which will go for $ 70. If you missed your chance to pile on the

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Former Palm CEO John Rubinstein Joins Amazon’s Board

Former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein was elected to join Amazon’s board, the company announced today via an SEC filing. Rubisntein is currently a senior VP and general manager at Hewlett-Packard, following HP’s $ 1.2 billion acquisition of Palm earlier this year.
Before joining Palm, Rubinstein was in charge of Apple’s iPod division and was the company’s senior hardware executive. At Palm, he tried to take on his former employer by developing WebOS smartphones which

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Tango updated to support iPod touch

This is going to be a great holiday gift for many of our readers. Tango Video Calls, the app that lets you do free video chats with friends over 3G as well as Wi-Fi, has been updated to work on the 4th generation iPod touch. Rather than use the app for registration, you can register via email.
The update, which also applies to the iPhone 4, gives the contact list a new look and feel and also has improved resolution on the Retina Display.
Check our previous review for details on how Tango works,

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Word Lens: an augmented reality language translator for iPhone

Word Lens is one of those apps that grabs your attention the first time you see it in action. Created by Quest Visual, It is an iPhone-based optical character recognition (OCR) application used for language translation. In real-world usage, it will translate a foreign language sign in an instant using your camera. Word Lens uses OCR to single out the letters in an image captured by your camera. It identifies letters, builds the words and looks them up in its built-in dictionary. Once the

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Thursday, December 16, 2010

Patent battle continues between Nokia and Apple with 13 more disputed patents

The fun doesn't stop in the ongoing Nokia/Apple patent dispute; the Finnish cellphone manufacturer has now filed claims in three European countries alleging Apple infringement on 13 additional patents, beyond the 24 patents already covered in the existing US and International Trade Commission filings.
Nokia has chosen to file claims on four patents in the UK High Court, seven patents in district court in Dusseldorf, five in Mannheim and 2 in the Hague. I'm not a patent lawyer (to say nothing of

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Daily Deals for December 16, 2010

Board with your iPad? Try a game of Scrabble (we reviewed the iPhone version two years ago), now on sale for just a buck. Apparently Snood is addictive, and unless you've been on Mars the past twenty years there's always SimCity (our iPhone review here). If none of that floats your boat, try The Sims 3, it's never been $ .99 before but it is now. Ho ho ho! All deals courtesy dealnews.com.


iTunes Music Store: EA Games iPad App Downloads for $ 1: Scrabble, SimCity, Snood, more
iTunes

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The Macworld iPod buying guide

by Christopher Breen, Macworld.com
Signs of the holiday season: Shiny wrapping paper, trees propped in convenient corners, Muzak laden with sleigh bells, the nog of an egg, and, of course, recently released iPods on offer. In a tradition as predictable as the holiday season itself, we turn once again to the season’s most pressing question: Which iPod (or iPhone or iPad) is right for you or the object of your affection?

It depends a lot on the money you have to spend and what you’d

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Apple Mac App Store: open for business starting January 6th

Consider the rumors quelled. Despite whispers that Apple would be starting up the Mac App Store in the final year of this decade (or the first of the next, depending on perspective), the Cupertino giant has just affirmed that it'll be 2011 before the general populace gets to dig their hands into it. January 6th is the opening date for the Mac App Store, and unfortunately for those still humming along on OS X 10.5, it'll be a Snow Leopard-only affair. Smack dab in the middle of CES, Apple plans

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Mac App Store to open on January 6

We've been anticipating the Mac App Store's arrival and now there's an official date. Apple will open the Mac App Store on January 6, 2011. The store will be available in 90 countries and feature games, productivity apps and a whole lot more. Speaking through a press release, Steve Jobs said, "The App Store revolutionized mobile apps. We hope to do the same for PC apps with the Mac App Store by making finding and buying PC apps easy and fun. We can't wait to get started on January 6."

Mark

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Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Daily Deals for December 15, 2010

Are we there yet? No, still a few more weeks until the end of the year. Until then, there's plenty of time for shopping. Take your card to the max and check out these deals from our friends at dealnews.com.


iTunes Music Store: iPhone App Store Freebies: A Christmas Santa, Duke Nukem 3D, more
MacPromo: MacPromo Mac Time-Saving Bundle: 10 utilities for $ 50
iTunes Music Store: Revolt for iPhone / iPod touch for free
iTunes Music Store: iPhone App Price Drops: Awaken, 2012

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iBooks 1.2 now available from the App Store

Apple has released iBooks 1.2 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch with some swell new features. First, it offers support for full illustrations (you know, just like real books). It will also create collections of your books and PDFs, which is quite nice. To create a collection, simply tap the collections button and choose a name. To add a book, tap Edit and then Move. Move between collections by swiping left and right.

AirPrint is also supported (as long as you're one of The Chosen with a

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MobileMe will go down for maintenance tonight

Here's a quick heads-up. MobileMe will go down for maintenance tonight. Specifically, MobileMe account maintenance will take place on 12/14/2010 between 22:00 and 23:00 PT, while MobileMe sync maintenance will occur on 12/14/2010 between 22:00 PT and 12/15/2010 00:00 PT.

Apple notes, "Due to scheduled maintenance, some MobileMe members may be unable to sync between their computers, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch or view their contacts and calendars at me.com. Normal service is expected to be

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Google Voice app update supports iPad, iPod touch

The Google Voice app for iPhone was updated today with support for the iPad and iPod touch. According to the official Google Voice blog, the update will let your iPod touch or iPad send and receive messages and enjoy other features of the service, except making calls.

However, you can use your iPad or iPod touch running Google Voice to initiate a call on your iPhone with something called Click2Call. The way it works is simple. Just select the number you'd like to call and then tap the phone

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AirPlay video streaming from iOS devices hacked into Macs (video)

Hey Mac home theater users, listen up -- your AirPlay wishes have come true. TUAW's very own Erica Sadun has developed a free (ad supported) 0.01 alpha hack that lets your Mac play host to AirPlay video streamed off of iOS devices. Right, just like an Apple TV and without requiring a Jailbreak. But as long as you're skirting official support anyway, why not install the free AirVideoEnabler app onto your jailbroken iPod touch, iPad, or iPhone to stream video from even more applications than

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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Millenial Media: Apple still top manufacturer, devs heading to Android in 2011

Millenial Media has released its monthly report about mobile advertising, and while things haven't changed too much from the last time they released this kind of data, the usual trends are still in place. Apple is the biggest mobile device manufacturer around, representing 25% of mobile impressions across its iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad platforms. The iPod touch saw some growth in impressions, jumping up over the Motorola Droid and the Blackberry Curve to take the number two spot on

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Ridgid Jobsite iPod Radio takes a beating, survives long enough to go on sale (video)

So, you've celebrated the landing of yet another construction deal by giving the whole crew their own Motorola Defy (except for Derick, who's saddled with a lowly i365), but there's still one problem: on-the-job entertainment. Enter Ridgid's Jobsite Radio, hailed as the first iPod-toting boombox designed to withstand just about anything. As you can tell, the device itself is encased in a ShockMount layer of protective armor, and we have to stress the "armor" aspect. Users simply flip down the

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Jays flexes its design muscle with svelte a-JAYS Four earbuds

Tired of finding every set of decent 'buds only available in the stereotypical white? Hello, beautiful! Jays has just outed its latest set of earbuds, the a-JAYS Four, and it seems that simplicity is the theme here. These guys rely on flat, tangle-free cabling and include an inline three-button remote that's made for use with Apple's iPod, iPhone and iPad. You'll also get five different eartip selections, a handy L-shaped 3.5mm plug, MEMS microphone and a pair of 8.6mm speaker drivers that

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Millennial: Android And iOS In Deadlock Again For Monthly Smartphone Impression Share

Mobile ad network Millennial Media is releasing its monthly data on mobile devices and OS marketshare for November today. Millennial’s ads reach 63 million of a total of 77 million mobile web users in the U.S., or 81 percent of the U.S. mobile web.
Similar to last month’s report, Android tied with iOS as the largest Smartphone OS on the network for November, with both mobile operating systems sharing 38 percent of ad impressions on the network. Both Android and iOS’s share

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Slingplayer Mobile for iPhone updated to 2.0 with high quality video streaming and new guide

Say hello to the version 2.0 of SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone and iPod Touch devices, which improves over v1.2 and its 3G streaming by adding the high quality video and new program guide features seen in the iPad version. Fortunately, this time Sling hasn't made any of its older hardware obsolete, while taking advantage of the new HQ streams will require a SOLO or PRO-HD box (and minimum 800 kbps WiFi / 500 kbps 3G connection) older Slingboxes will still work, just with lower quality video.

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Monday, December 13, 2010

What would convince you to buy iPad 2?

It hardly seems like it, but it's been nearly a year since the announcement of the iPad. Soon, we'll no longer be able to call the device that's selling today by the simple name "iPad" -- instead, it will become "the original iPad," "iPad 1," "iPad 1G" or "first-generation iPad." If history (and leaks from Foxconn) are anything to go by, we may see an announcement of the iPad 2 in a little over a month, with devices hitting store shelves a couple months after that.
Undoubtedly we'll be hearing

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ColorSchemer Touch is out, and we have five copies to give away

The designers and color lovers among you may be familiar with ColorSchemer, or at least recall it from our coverage of the 2.0 release. Well, great news: ColorSchemer Touch is available on the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch! We have five copies to give away, so be sure to enter for your chance at the end of the post.
ColorSchemer Touch is designed to make color palette creation on your iPhone or iPod touch fast and simple. It offers four tools: a Color Wheel, LiveSchemes, PhotoSchemer and

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Daily Deals for December 13, 2010

The MacBook Air listed below sells for about $ 90 more from Apple. Thanks to our friends at dealnews.com for these!


iTunes Music Store: iPhone App Price Drops: Emoji+Unicode, Night Stand, more
Walmart: Sony BRAVIA 40" 1080p LED HDTV w/PS3 160GB for $ 798 + free shipping, more
HandHeldItems: HandHeldItems.com: Up to 70% off select iPad cases + 20% off coupon, $ 2 credit
BuyDig: Toshiba 500GB USB Portable Hard Drive for $ 49 + free shipping, 1TB $ 99
iMate: Keydex Stand

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Swap Rebel watch phone laughs at your wrist-mounted iPod nano

Apple's iPod nano and the Sony Ericsson LiveView may have disappointed as wrist computers, but our Dick Tracy dream soldiers on, to the point where we found ourselves taking another look at that most dubious of converged devices: the watch phone. There, we discovered the Rebel, the latest creation from UK manufacturer Swap, a quad-band GSM wrist unit with a 1.46-inch color touchscreen and a built-in camera for both video and stills. It may look like a sterile medical wristband, but that

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Sunday, December 12, 2010

Speakal's Cool iPig blasts iPod tunes with extra badassitude

You have to go to great lengths these days to distinguish your iPod dock from the teeming horde, but that's exactly what Speakal did here. To state the obvious, it's a pig, wearing sunglasses, and filled with stereo components. The beast has four-watt stereo drivers for eyes, a down-firing 15 watt subwoofer in the belly, controls in the snout, and ports in the tail region. There's also an internal lithium ion battery good for up to eight untethered hours on a charge. We're not sure what would

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Saturday, December 11, 2010

Phone-Controlled Robot Ball, Like Marble Madness in Meatspace

That plastic ball up there might look like a simple plastic ball, but it is in fact a simple plastic ball packed with tech. Inside the Orbotix, as it’s known, are robot guts that let you control the ø74mm (2.9-inch) sphere with an Android or iOS device.
It works via Bluetooth (along with some secret-sauce robotics and motors), and charges via induction, so you don’t need any plugs. We first saw the Sphero, then nameless, back in August when it was just a prototype. Now the cute

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Real Racing 2 coming to iOS December 16th

After a few weeks of teasing and hints, Firemint has finally revealed all about its upcoming Real Racing 2 game for iOS, and it looks extremely impressive. The first game in the series is still one of the most popular and well done racing games in the App Store, and Firemint is upping the ante high for the second go-round. Real Racing 2 will feature 30 licensed cars from brands like Ford, Jaguar, Volkswagen and McLaren, and will pit those vehicles against each other in a 16-car grid both

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Want the Radio Shack discount? You're probably out of luck

If you were waiting until today to take advantage of Radio Shack's deep, deep discount on an iPhone, you're most likely out of luck. The promotion caused a nationwide RS shortage of iPhone inventory, and AppleInsider contacted a number of the stores on Friday to find that all but one have run out of stock.

This isn't the first time "The Shack's" promos caused a run on the iPhone. The company offered a similar kickback program when the iPhone 4 was first launched. But so many took advantage of

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Japan’s Social Gaming Giant DeNA Under Suspicion Of Breaking Antitrust Law

Bad news from Japan’s multi-billion dollar social gaming industry earlier this week: Tokyo-based mobile gaming heavyweight DeNA (current market cap: US$ 4.5 billion) was investigated on Wednesday by the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) over antitrust issues.
The allegation: DeNA, which recently paid US$ 400 million to acquire American smartphone game maker ngmoco, pressured Japanese mobile game developers to release titles exclusively on Mobage-town (its mobile social gaming

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Incipio NGP Matte Case for iPad – accessory review

The Incipio NGP Matte Case is made from semi-rigid next generation polymer (NGP) that is tear and elongation resistant. Even though the case is rather thin, there’s no denying its durability. It also provides necessary friction to keep the iPad from sliding from your lap while still feeling soft to the touch. Although the Incipio NGP Matte Case is tear resistant, it is not scratch resistant. I have only used this case while at home, yet the back has obtained some prominent scratch

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Friday, December 10, 2010

World Map Of Social Networks Shows Facebook’s Ever-Increasing Dominance

Just in case you had any doubts about the fact we live in the age of Facebook, just check out Vincenzo Cosenza’s latest edition of the World Map Of Social Networks.
Based on this month’s Alexa & Google Trends for Websites traffic data, Cosenza posits that Facebook has managed to overtake some local incumbent social networks in the past few months, particularly in Europe.
According to his analysis, the site is now market leader in 115 out of 132 countries.
Other social networks

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Kobo Update Adds Social Features, Nerd-Friendly Stats

If you ever used a service like Good Reads or Shelfari, you’ll be happy to hear that similar social features have come to the Kobo book reader. Kobo is a platform and ebook store that works on pretty much every computer, phone and tablet, as well as the dedicated Kobo reader. Think Amazon’s Kindle model, only better designed all round.
Kobo’s new Reading Life allows you to share what you’re reading without having to go to a separate site like Good Reads. Right now it’s limited

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Analytix brings ClickyTouch UI to Google Analytics for iPhone, iPad

If you liked the ClickyTouch UI but were already invested in the Google Analytics ecosystem then good news, the two have come together in Analytix for iPhone and the soon-to-be-released Analytix for iPad.
If you’re a hardcore iOS user, Google Analytic’s website can frustrate with its Flash-rendered graphs. Not so with Analytix. The data is beautifully presented and the charts gorgeously rendered, and it’s all run through the secure API so there’s no 3rd party getting between you and

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Dungeon Hunter 2 now available for iPhone!

by Farbod, Thursday, Dec 9, 2010,



Dungeon Hunter 2, the heavily anticipated sequel to to Gameloft’s popular Dungeon Hunter, has now been released on the App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch. While this release can be played on the iPad, it does not have native iPad support and an iPad version has yet to hit the App Store.
Dungeon Hunter 2 has an all new Co-op multiplayer mode that lets up to 4 players play through local Wifi or bluetooth. This game is also game center compatible!
25

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US Military Bans Physical Media To Curb Leaks

In the wake of recent high-profile leaks, some branches of the US military have taken a step that may be end up being as controversial as its cause. Ironically, the news comes via a leaked memo obtained by Wired’s Danger Room that insists that everyone from grunts to techs “immediately cease use of removable media on all systems, servers, and stand alone machines residing on SIPRNET,” under pain of court-martial.
SIPRNet would be the military’s internal network

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Thursday, December 9, 2010

Infinity Blade for iPhone and iPad starts hitting App Store

Infinity Blade, powered by Epic’s Unreal 3 engine, has started hitting the iTunes App Store… in New Zealand. Hey, they said December 9 and that’s where the sun starts coming up (and where Lord of the Rings lives, who can blame them?). As the day continues to break around the world, Infinity Blade should hit your local App Store as well.
Let us know when you see it go live, and when you grab it and get your game on, let us know how you like it!
Official App Store description and screen

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Mac App Store will be live in January '11, says The Loop

One of the good things about our friend Jim Dalrymple at The Loop (to be clear, he has many positive qualities) is that when he says "my sources tell me" you know he's been talking to people in a position to have the real scoop. In this case, he's laying it on the line and saying the Mac App Store will positively, certainly not launch next week.
We noted reports on Tuesday that had rumored an early launch for the Mac App Store, with an anticipated date of 12/13 -- now Dalrymple says that

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What You Need to Know About Google Chrome OS

Google is aiming to put the “net” in netbook with Chrome OS, a lightweight operating system that focuses on web apps and online storage.
Due for release in mid-2011, the first batch of Chrome OS netbooks will come with Intel processors and Verizon data plans. They’ll download apps through a Google app store hosted on the web. Google detailed plans of Chrome OS in a press event Tuesday.
“We finally have a viable third choice for an operating system on the desktop,” said Eric Schmidt,

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Live From Le Web 2010, Day Two [Video]

Day two of Europe’s largest tech conference, Loic Le Meur’s Le Web 10 kicks off today in a couple minutes. Le Web brings in over 3,000 attendees from 26 countries worldwide and today’s talks include such notables as Zynga’s David Ko, Automattic’s Matt Mullenweg and Toni Schneider and 500 Startup’s Dave McClure. The event will be live streamed in its entirety courtesy of Ustream and you can watch the video above and here.
DAY 2 – DEC 9, 2010 – Pullman

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90 second song previews hit iTunes

December 8, 2010 at 9:21 pm



We recently reported that Apple would be bringing 90 second song previews to iTunes and tonight the mission has begun. A number of songs with 90 second (1:30) previews have just hit Apple’s iTunes Music Store. Enjoy. (Thanks, Matthew)
Oh, didya want the Beatles?






9 to 5

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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Carcassone app going universal, gets higher price to match

Carcassone, the iOS version of the European board game, has quickly become an App Store favorite after its release, and now iPad owners can get in on the fun. The app is going universal, so it will not only run on both devices natively, but have a completely enhanced UI for the bigger machine, letting you explore all of the colorful roads and meeples in full scale.

Because the app will now work on both devices, the price is being raised, from $ 4.99 to $ 9.99. But as I understand it, if

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Giveo Raises $1.5 Million For Cause Marketing Campaign Platform

Giveo, which aims to enable organizations worldwide to set up, promote and measure online cause marketing campaigns, has raised $ 1.5 million in Series A financing. The round was led by Access Venture Partners, with participation from Grotech Partners, Sentinel Trust and multiple unnamed private investors.
Giveo’s SaaS-based software platform lets organizations create targeted cause-related marketing campaigns, helps promote them online and also measures their effectiveness, to ensure the

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Twitter VP Of Product Jason Goldman Steps Down (At Le Web)

Our very own MG Siegler interviewed Jason Goldman, VP of Product at Twitter, at Le Web 10.
Our notes:
Siegler started off by asking about the new integrations Twitter launched yesterday. Goldman went over the enhancements, which include integrations in the details plane of #newtwitter with Instagram, YouTube,
Is the right pane the new Twitter platform?
It’s not wide open, we take a measured approach. In the future, it will be a new place for innovations to happen, though.
There’s

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AT&T's Richard Lindner: "Exclusive arrangements end."

If you agree with Consumer Reports' take on AT&T's terrible wireless service, the good news is that you might not have that much longer to wait. "Exclusive arrangements end," AT&T's CFO Richard Lindner told the UBS Media and Communications Conference earlier this week.
If you think that sounds like he was trying to pad the landing on an upcoming split between AT&T and Apple, then we agree. As Electronista reports, Lindner also made the point that AT&T has plenty of phones to

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Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver is still fiction -- but not forever

Kudos to Bristol University for catching our attention, and doing so in the name of promoting education. Professor of Ultrasonics Bruce Drinkwater is evoking a rather iconic name to better explain how cool science / engineering can be. Though already used in the manufacturing and medical fields -- don't yawn and look away just yet -- Drinkwater expresses some confidence that the future of this technology could very well usher in a pocketable device similar to the sonic screwdriver fancied by a

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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Paper.li Adds Public Facebook Updates To Its Curated Newspaper Armoury

Paper.li, the startup out of Switzerland which has gotten potential investors hot under the collar after garnering a lot of traction for a Twitter app in a short amount of time, has gone and added Facebook status updates to its armoury. Currently it’s best known for auto-magically curating a daily newspaper from the links shared by the people you follow on Twitter. This time it’s public Facebook status updates.



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What You Need to Know About Android 2.3 Gingerbread

Google on Monday announced its new Nexus S phone, which runs an upgraded version of the Android operating system dubbed Gingerbread.
Gingerbread (Android 2.3) mostly adds refinements to older features, such as faster text input and an improved copy-and-paste tool. However, there are also some brand-new additions to the OS, such as internet telephony and near-field communications.
Here’s a quick rundown of what’s new in the OS, courtesy of Google’s Android developer

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What Hell Sounds Like: All of Billy Joel's Hits Played at the Same Time [Video]

These are our sites, and we reserve the right to moderate the discussion. The basic rules are standard: An attack on authors or other commenters is unlikely to make you popular. Think before you disparage social or ethnic groups. Don't spam. Don't post pornography or copyrighted imagery. Stay on topic.
That said, the community policy of Gawker Media is forgiving. If your criticism is articulate, it will likely get through. We dole it out; we can take it. What do we mean by articulate? Support

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International Herald Tribune releases iOS apps

December 6, 2010 at 11:36 am

I am a long time reader of the IHT which is one of the best sources out there for international news. Today they’ve released the IHT app for iPhone and more importantly, iPad. The application is currently free and so is the content with registration. At some point early next year, they will start charging a fee.

More screenies and description below:
From Paris, Hong Kong and New York, the International Herald Tribune app for iPad provides a fresh and

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iMovie works fullscreen on iPad via jailbreak

December 6, 2010 at 11:37 am


Jailbroken iPad users running iOS 4.2 are now able to run Apple’s iMovie iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4 application via a few SSH tricks. The problem is that iMovie runs like an iPhone app on an iPad- letterboxed. That’s where the jailbreak app FullForce comes in. The jailbreak-only app (available on Cydia) makes iMovie run fullscreen like a native iPad app. Check out more screenshots and instructions after the break (Thanks, SilverTH):
MacStories has a good

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Monday, December 6, 2010

Man Behind [Video]

These are our sites, and we reserve the right to moderate the discussion. The basic rules are standard: An attack on authors or other commenters is unlikely to make you popular. Think before you disparage social or ethnic groups. Don't spam. Don't post pornography or copyrighted imagery. Stay on topic.
That said, the community policy of Gawker Media is forgiving. If your criticism is articulate, it will likely get through. We dole it out; we can take it. What do we mean by articulate? Support

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Google helps scholars mine 1.7 million Victorian era book titles for clues to our historical attitudes

Whether we like, loathe, or never even considered the idea of it, quantitative literary analysis seems ready for its moment in the spotlight. Dan Cohen and Fred Gibbs, a pair of historians of science over at George Mason University, have been playing around with the titles of some nearly 1.7 million books -- accounting for all the known volumes published in Britain during the 19th century -- in a search for enlightenment about the Victorian era's cultural trends and developments. By looking at

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Best of Smartphone Experts, 5 Dec 2010

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Facebook's Profile Redesign is Coming Later Today, But Here's How to Get it Now [Facebook]

You can quit creating those "I hate Facebook's redesign" groups, because their latest code-tinkering...isn't that bad? You can see what I mean by following these easy steps, to push the redesign through to your profile early:
It's really very easy. Just go to this page: http://www.facebook.com/about/profile/, then click on the green button up the top there.
Suddenly, all the latest photos you've been tagged in appear up the top, along with key information such as employers, hometowns, and

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Hertz To Offer Electric Vehicles By The Hour

Hertz Rent A Car is set to offer electric vehicles at an hourly rate starting December 15th in New York City, with expansion of the service to San Francisco, Washington D.C., London, up to 50 college campuses in North America, and markets in Texas and China by the end of 2011.
For what it calls the ConnectByHertz “car sharing” service in Manhattan, the company aims to make 20 electric vehicles (EVs) available by the second quarter of 2011. In total throughout the U.S. next year,

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Sunday, December 5, 2010

Thrustmaster teases T500RS steering wheel, the new official peripheral for Gran Turismo

GT5 is finally, finally out, but amazingly it seems to have beaten its official steering wheel to market. For a long time Logitech has maintained the honor of building the wheel that carried Gran Turismo branding, and indeed its Driving Force GT is still the first wheel in the GT5 options. But, Thrustmaster seems to have secured the license for the franchise now and is building a wheel called the T500RS which, if you go Thrustmaster.com, you can get a quick peek of -- or you can just look at

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In The Future All Music Videos Will Be About Facebook

If you haven’t already picked up on it here, here and here, Facebook has replaced the nightclub as the de riguer setting for foreign music videos. Much like Gergana’s opus “Facebook,” Swiss DJ David May revolves the entire narrative of his “Facebook Love” video around meeting and courting a girl on, what else, Facebook.
Actually the increased prevalence of the social network in cultural artifacts comes as no surprise, as people now spend more time on

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Why Is The WikiLeaks Twitter Account Only Following TweetBackup?

Even though Amazon and Paypal have severed their relationships with the controversial to say the least WikiLeaks, the @WikiLeaks Twitter account is still holding strong. Some are wondering why Twitter has as of yet to cut ties with the service after this week’s leak of 251,287 diplomatic cables, which pissed some high powered people off to put it lightly.
Perhaps WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is wondering the same thing. Which would explain why only account @WikiLeaks is following

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TDK debuts $499 'Three-Speaker Boombox'

Some recent attempts at a modern boombox may have been less than faithful to the original incarnation, but TDK looks to at least have its heart in the right place with its simply-named "Three-Speaker Boombox." Set for an official debut at CES in January, the $ 499 device boasts a streamlined design compared to the 1980s-era originals, but it's still unmistakably a boombox and, according to Crave's early hands-on, it pumps out a surprising amount of sound from its 35 watt RMS speakers. You'll

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More Details On Skype’s Big Move To The Web

Earlier today we broke the news that Skype was ramping up in preparation for new web-based products — a big shift for the company, which has historically offered its extremely popular service via native desktop clients.
Now we’ve heard more details from one source about what this new service may entail. We’re still working to firm up the specifics, but here’s what we’ve gathered so far:
According to our source, Skype is hoping to launch its web-based service in the

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Saturday, December 4, 2010

SNES controller and N64 console turned into iPad docks

Etsy user Geekunique sent along some links to these great pictures of old school Nintendo gaming units turned into iPad and iPhone docks. Above, you can see a Super Nintendo controller fashioned into a working iPhone 4 dock, and he's also got a Nintendo 64 console (though unfortunately it's the green translucent one, not the best looking, if you ask me) turned into an iPad dock. Pretty funny -- not only does the build look pretty good from the pictures, but of course Nintendo is probably the

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UK telecoms Three, Orange and T-Mobile launch subsidized iPad plans

Following up on the announcement made a few weeks ago, UK telecom providers Three, Orange and T-Mobile formally launched their iPad subsidies today. Those of us in the United States are used to having our cellphone prices subsidized by signing contracts, but so far we don't have anyone subsidizing our iPad purchases as well. The discount plan offers shoppers who enter a two-year service contract money off the price of a new iPad, bringing the price of the 16GB with Wi-Fi + 3G unit down to

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Golden Axe gets Bluetooth multiplayer, EA titles on sale

Sega sent us a note that Golden Axe for the iPhone has been updated -- the game now offers co-op over Bluetooth, so you and a friend can grab a weapon and get to killing goblins and ogres. And I think the game has finally gotten down to a US 99 cent usual price rather than a special sale, but a buck (or two bucks as the case may be, for two players) is cheap for a few good co-op games of Golden Axe.

Additionally, EA has dropped prices on a few of its App Store titles, including Reckless

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UPDATE: Hoax! Howard Stern leaving Sirius for $600 million iTunes deal?

There’s a crazy rumor floating around the web that Howard Stern, a popular radio personality who’s been in the business for 35 years, will be leaving Sirius Satellite Radio after his contract ends in January to pursue a possible deal with Apple. The rumored deal calls for a $ 600 million 3-year contract for an internet broadcast show distributed through iTunes, and could be made available to Apple TV owners as well.
We’d take this with a king of all media sized grain of salt,

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PlayStation Phone… is an Android app?!

Engadget continues to rake in scoop after scoop on the “PlayStation Phone”, which I deliberately place in quotes because it looks like what should be the PSPhone, the next technological marvel from the company that once brought us Walkman, is actually… an Android app.
No, that’s not a joke. The PSPhone or PlayStation Phone or Zeus or whatever Sony ends up calling what should be their premiere mobile device runs on top of Google’s Android platform. Android 3.0 Gingerbread to be

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Friday, December 3, 2010

How Many People Use Quora?

Q&A site Quora is officially reticent about sharing usage metrics which leads Quora fans to make some interesting calculations and guestimations. In fact there’s a fascinating topic section on Quora called “Quora usage and statistics” that attempts to parse all Quora related minutae from “Who has the most edits? to “How much time does it take for a question to come in” to “What’s the longest Quora answer?”
The quest for some definite

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iPhone Live podcast 128 – Boing! (Another re-spring)

Did Apple sneak network and battery fixes into iOS 4.2, does Verizon LTE mean an iPhone 4G, buy apps now or wait for sales, BBM to iPhone, and the week in apps with Rene and Georgia. Listen in!

Credits
Thanks to the TiPb iPhone accessory store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!
Our music comes from the following sources:


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Apple compact wired keyboard gets discontinued

AppleInsider notes that Apple has quietly discontinued its compact wired keyboard. The keyboard, which has the part number MB869LL/A, has been removed from Apple's online store, yet is still available (presumably, while supplies last) on Amazon for US$ 46.99.

Apple originally introduced the compact wired keyboard in early 2009 alongside iMac revisions. The wired keyboard was identical to the Apple wireless keyboard with the addition of two USB ports on either side.

For now, it appears that

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TUAW's Holiday Gift Guide: Interactive books for children

Welcome to the TUAW Holiday Gift Guide! We've sorted the treasure from the junk and are serving up suggestions to make your holiday gift-giving a little easier.

Looking for an inexpensive gift for that special child in a home with an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch? You really can't do better than an interactive children's book or two (or three or four -- maybe a series of them!). Over the past year or so, the market for these new and exciting books has blown wide open. A quick check of the iTunes

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iPad, schmipad, give me a MacBook Air on the road

This morning Erica asked me to take a look at a post she had written about how well the iPad works as a laptop replacement. Although I agree with many of the points she makes in the post, I have to vehemently disagree with the entire idea that an iPad can be a true laptop replacement in times of need.
On another vacation last week (yeah, I know it seems like I'm always on vacation), I found myself really wishing for a MacBook Air or even my old white plastic MacBook so I could get some real

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Thursday, December 2, 2010

SproutCore dev makes Web apps everywhere promise

December 2, 2010 at 2:58 am


SproutCore is something else, a technology which drives the superior Web experience that MobileMe is rapodly becoming. Now SproutCore creaor, Charles Jolley, has quit Apple to launch a startup called Strobe, tasked to deliver Apple-like JavaScript and HTML5 technologies to create apps which run smoothly on any device.
He’s got some backing and has some interesting insights on Apple, speaking to TechCrunch he said,

Apple supports two modes of distributing

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iPad production capacity continues to expand

December 2, 2010 at 2:38 am


Apple’s iPad is driving success for touchscreen makers, with a wave of new fab plants coming into effect across China as multiple vendors make their play for the booming touchscreen market. Meanwhile, Apple supplier Wintek is building up capacity to meet demand for 10-inch screens.
Wintek last night reported consolidated November revenues of NT$ 8.85 billion (US$ 289.92 million), up 7.36% year on year, with December revebue forecast to be headed to NT$

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Bessemer Backs Better-Savings Startup Betterment With $3 Million

Betterment, a financial savings startup which launched last May at TechCrunch Disrupt, raised $ 3 million in a series A financing led by Bessemer Venture Partners. The Anthemis Group, Thomas Lehrman, and other angel investors also participated.
Betterment aims to disrupt the financial savings industry by letting customers invest their savings in a carefully-selected blend of stock and bond portfolios which are rebalanced regularly and automatically. The New York City startup is a

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BBC iPlayer to start international rollout with subscription service on iPad

BBC.com managing director Luke Bradley-Jones has dropped some knowledge on the TV-loving world by revealing that the iPlayer's global launch will be on a "pure paid subscription model," to be followed thereafter by partnerships with advertisers on "free" areas of the British TV catchup service. The US is specifically named as one of the first new markets for the venture, which is expected to go live in the middle of next year. In addition to knowing you'll have to shell out to get your fix of

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The Total Number of Stars In the Universe Just Multiplied By Three [Video]

The total number of stars in the Universe "is likely three times bigger than realized." Yale University astronomer Pieter van Dokkum says there are "possibly trillions of Earths orbiting these stars," dramatically increasing the possibility of finding alien civilizations.
According to the new study just published in Nature, new observations on the red end of the optical spectrum at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii show an overwhelming population of red dwarfs in eight massive nearby

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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Black Friday sees lots of new devices, record app downloads this year

Flurry's analytics blog has a new post up about the bump that the App Store got last weekend. As I said in last week's talkcast, app developers have noticed that the holiday shopping season not only brings a slew of new iPod touches and iPhones into the mix (and this year, the iPad as well), but a resultant flood of customers seeking to buy and try out new apps. According to Flurry, new devices jumped on Black Friday by 57%, and total growth over the entire weekend was 31%. App downloads were

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Game Center Terms of Service updated

Apple has recently changed the terms of service for their Game Center application and the main difference is that Game Center will now use your Apple ID instead of your gamer tag when making a friend request.
You will still be able to use a handle/username for Game Center, it just appears as if Apple wants us all to be more personable and authentic with each-other when becoming friends. What are your thoughts about users seeing your full name when requesting friends on Game Center? Does it

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ASUS announces ultraportable U36 laptop

ASUS is still holding back some of the details on this one, but what it has revealed about its new U36 ultraportable is certainly enough to get us interested. Weighing in at just over three pounds, the laptop is said to pack your choice of a Core i3 or i5 processors, along with NVIDIA Optimus graphics, and a four-cell battery that promises ten hours of battery life -- all of which comes wrapped in a 0.75-inch magnesium shell that's apparently available in your choice of black or silver.

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Google Editions launching in US before the end of the year, going international in Q1 2011

Admit it, Google Editions wasn't exactly your highest priority item among the things promised for a 2010 launch, but, according to Mountain View's Scott Dougall, the e-bookstore from the world's favorite search company will indeed make its debut before December's through. It's premised as a web-centric, buy-anywhere, read-anywhere platform, one that eschews the proprietary hardware and software model currently championed by the likes of Amazon for a more ubiquitous and accessible one (a humble

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Mercedes-Benz Thinks Cars Like This Could Be Grown In Labs [Concept]

The Los Angeles Design Challenge always brings some crazy idea, but this year one in particular caught our attention: The Mercedes-Benz BIOME concept car. It's an eco-friendly, biodegradable, ultra-light hybrid vehicle—which would be custom grown in a lab.
The folks behind the concept explain that the various parts of the vehicle would be grown separately:

The interior of the BIOME grows from the DNA in the Mercedes star on the front of the vehicle, while the exterior grows from the star

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