In the run up to Christmas, we reported quite regularly on Apple deals to be found. In the quiet months it can be a rare find. Staples – which has only just started selling Apple goods – is offering 20% off its iTunes gift cards. Each customer can only buy 4 of them, but you’ll pay $40 instead of the full $50 retail price.
Hit this Staples web page to get access to the offer
Source: TodaysiPhone.
Freemium is the new way to sell apps on the App Store it seems. Following the insane success of Temple Run in 2012, more developers are jumping on the Freemium bandwagon, EA included. The latest in its series of Real Racing titles has just been launched on the App Store and it costs nothing to download. What’s more, unlike the first and second versions, it’s a universal download, meaning it’s optimized for every iDevice. Obviously, your experience is enhanced using in-app purchasing. But, considering this is likely to be the best racing game of the year, you’re not going to lose anything by downloading it. The graphics and gameplay teasers we’ve been seeing for the past few months are nothing short of spectacular.
App Store Description:
Hyper-realistic. Pure fun. And FREE. Real Racing 3 sets a new standard for mobile racing games – it really must be experienced to be believed.
Trailblazing new features include officially licensed tracks, an expanded 22-car grid, and over 45 meticulously detailed cars from makers like Porsche, Lamborghini, Dodge, Bugatti, and Audi. Plus, racing with friends gets kicked into another dimension with the reality-bending Time Shifted Multiplayer™ (TSM) technology.
**This is a highly detailed game of superior quality. Please make sure you have at least 2GB of free space on your device.**
REAL CARS
Featuring Real Racing’s largest roster of cars yet, don’t miss our new manufacturers like Porsche, Lamborghini, Dodge, Bugatti, and Audi. Take the wheels of over 45 intensely detailed racers and test your skills on an authentic 22-car race grid – for the first time on mobile.
REAL TRACKS
In another first for the Real Racing series, burn rubber on a full lineup of real tracks in multiple configurations from top locations around the world, including Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Silverstone, Hockenheimring, and many more.
REAL PEOPLE
Like nothing you’ve seen before, our innovative new Time Shifted Multiplayer™ lets you race anyone, anytime – even if they’re offline! Every career event is filled with fully interactive, AI-controlled time-shifted versions of your Game Center or Facebook friends, as well as other players from around the world.
MORE CHOICES THAN EVER
Compete in over 900 events like cup races, eliminations, endurance challenges, and drag races. Upgrade your car parts to maximize performance. See the action through a variety of camera angles and fine-tune the controls to your personal preference.
THE PREMIER RACING EXPERIENCE
Powered by the remarkable new Mint™ 3 Engine, Real Racing 3 features persistent car damage, fully functioning rear view mirrors, and dynamic reflections for a super-enhanced racing reality. Enjoy a rich, next-gen game with the most advanced cross-platform social and competitive racing community ever. Real Racing 3 delivers it all.
Source:TodaysiPhone.
The iCade was made for this.
Back in 2011, an app called iMAME surfaced in the App Store that allowed you to run thousands of classic arcade titles by sideloading the games onto an iOS device. Apple has never really allowed emulators in the App Store, and iMAME was swiftly pulled.
Now another app has crept into the App Store that allows you to emulate old games. It likely won’t be in the App Store long, so get it while you can!
The app in question is a free game called Gridlee that was released in the App Store yesterday. On the surface, it allows you to play the unreleased Gridlee 80s arcade game, but if you dig down deep, you’ll find a hidden feature: the ability to emulate all kinds of classics using the MAME4iOS platform.
Some TouchArcade forum members looked through the iOS app’s directory and discovered a ROM folder. And sure enough, you’re able to sideload old ROMs and play other games within the Gridlee app. The MAME platform the app is using is actually more advanced than what was in iMAME. There’s iCade integration to let you play the games with physical arcade controls on your iOS device.
We went a little nuts and installed dozens of games, including Aliens, Contra, Donkey Kong Jr., Galaga, PAC Man Jr., Phoenix, Pitfall II, and a whole lot more. To install your own, you’ll need to hook your iOS device into your Mac, open up iExplorer, navigate to the Gridlee app’s ROM folder, and drag the individual games in. A good collection of MAME ROMs to try out is available here. Not every game is guaranteed to work.
Make sure to download the Gridlee app before it’s gone if you want to play around with the hidden emulator. Apple is sure to catch on to this one soon.
Source: Cult of Mac.
Rolling Stone magazine finally makes its debut in Newsstand on the iPad today, two years after the publication’s founder criticized rivals’ premature rush to Apple’s tablet. The digital version of the magazine comes filled with iTunes links that will allow readers to quickly purchase content from featured artists.Back in May 2011, Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner told AdAge that magazine publishers’ rush to embrace the iPad was “premature,” and encouraged by “sheer insanity and insecurity and fear.” Clearly Wenner has changed his mind, because from today, you can now purchase Rolling Stone magazine from Newsstand on your iPad.
Despite Wenner’s previous comments, Wenner Media describes today’s Newsstand launch as a “planned progression,” which follows the launch of other iPad apps from Wenner Media, including Rolling Stone’s Beatles guide and Us Weekly.
This isn’t the first time Rolling Stone magazine has gone digital, either; the publication was already available through Zinio. But as you might expect, the iPad version has been optimized for Apple’s tablet. The biggest difference is that “all of the album and song reviews and music-related articles will include a link to listen to music samples and purchase tracks from iTunes.”
Rolling Stone for iPad doesn’t come bundled with the print edition, unfortunately, so if you already subscribe to that, you’ll have to pay again to go digital. Individual issues are priced at $4.99, while monthly subscriptions cost $1.99, and yearly subscriptions cost $19.99.
Source: Cult of Mac.
If you use Facebook’s dedicated Messenger application on your iOS device, you should know that the social networking giant has released an update with a few very interesting new features. Version 2.1 now lets users record and send voice memos in any conversation. The only restriction is that the memos have to be less than a minute but, honestly, who’s going to listen to a voice memo for more than a minute anyway? All you have to do is click the red record button in the application, press send, and your voice memo will appear as a playable file in the thread!
The other big new feature in the app is free VoIP calls. Currently it looks like this capability is limited to Canadian users, but if you happen to reside in Canada, you can now make free voice calls to your friends via the Facebook Messenger application. Interestingly, as Engadget points out, although Facebook and Skype are official partners, this latest VoIP venture is based off open source tech, not Skype. It is kind of a bummer that it’s Canada-only as of now, but I’m sure that won’t last for long.
If this sounds intriguing, you can head over to the App Store now to download the official Facebook Messenger application for free or update your current version. Once you’ve done so, come back here and let us know what you think of the new features!
Source: TodaysiPhone.
2012 ended with quite a bang, and while the world didn’t end as we expected, we got to see so many awesome iOS apps come to fruition this year. It was a big year for Google, and a lot of independent developers stepped up to make not only good apps, but great apps. We decided to gather up all of the iOS apps that released throughout the past 12 months and provide you with 10 of our favorites. It wasn’t an easy task to narrow it down to just 10, though — there were a lot of amazing apps that just barely missed the cut, but we think we have a solid list here. So, without further adieu, here are our choices for the best iOS apps of 2012.
Google Docs, the company’s own cloud-based office suite, was pretty rad, but they completely overhauled the service by renaming it Google Drive and turning it into a full-fledged cloud storage solution. They made it even better by introducing an iOS app that now features full editing capabilities, as well as the ability to make changes offline. It makes the service not only a top-notch cloud-based office suite, but also an awesome cloud storage service that’s capable of taking on Dropbox, SugarSync, and the rest of the cloud-storage gang.
Chrome is an awesome browser for the desktop, but the company replicated the app and brought it to iOS over the summer. It includes most of the same great features as the desktop version, including the omnibar that allows for instant searches, pre-fetched pages, and swipe gestures to manage and close tabs. You can also sync bookmarks, history, open tabs, and even saved passwords for web pages across devices that also have Chrome running. Essentially, it’s a feature-packed app, and it’s even better when you already use Chrome on your desktop.
To-do list apps are a dime a dozen nowadays, with a only few that really stand out. Clear is just one of them. It has an insanely minimalist interface, and while there’s not much to look at (other than a to-do list), swipe, pull and pinch gestures are what make the app really shine. Tasks are arranged on top of one another and the more important task are toward the top in red, while low-priority tasks are given a cooler color the further down they are. There’s no buttons whatsoever — everything is done through gestures, and tasks are limited to 30 characters, forcing you to make your lists straightforward and to the point.
If you use OS X, you most likely take advantage of iPhoto to organize and manage your photo collection. For iOS, though, there was really no good app that had the capabilities of iPhoto on the Mac — the built-in Photos app was the next best thing. However, Apple finally released iPhoto for iOS earlier in the year, and it allows you to browse, edit, and share photos on your mobile device, all from a good-looking and intuitive interface. There’s also a lot of quality effects and features that you can take advantage of right in the app, including adding captions for photo journals, adding vignettes, and use a variety of “brushes” to repair or adjust photos.
If there was one app that felt like it was saving us from a sinking ship, it was Google Maps for iPhone. Many iOS 6 users who loathed Apple’s own maps offering looked to Google for a ring buoy to grab onto. Luckily the company delivered in only a few short months after the release of iOS 6, and while we didn’t have anything to complain about with either apps in our comparison, you can’t go wrong with Google’s extensive database and super-detailed maps.
Fantastical is probably one of the best calendar apps you can get for your Mac, and it just recently released on the iPhone. The mobile version is just as solid as the OS X version, and it features an intuitive interface, as well as incredibly fast natural language input. The app’s interface relies mostly on swipes. It starts off by giving you the day’s events, and swiping to the right will advance the calendar one day, while swiping down will give you a quick glance at the full month. Swiping down again will result in going back to the day view. And of course, it integrates with all sorts of different calendar services, like Google Calendar, iCal, and even Facebook.
Just like with Google Maps, Apple ousted its built-in YouTube app in iOS 6. However, that didn’t stop Google from releasing a native YouTube app that turned out to be even better than Apple’s previous built-in offering. This time around, the app comes with voice search and a redesigned user interface that makes navigation way easier, as well as a slide-out sidebar that provides quick access to settings and playlists. Avid viral-video viewers can finally watch Gangnam Style just one more time while on the go.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with iOS’s default Reminders app, but why settle when you can get so much more? Checkmark offers location-based reminders that are far more easier to set up than Apple’s offering. In just three taps, you can create reminders that notify you when you get home, arrive at work, or pass by the grocery store. And just for good measure, Checkmark also includes normal reminders that will alert you of important tasks at a specified time.
One of the best music-streaming services arrived on the iPad earlier this year, and it came with an interface that we fell in love with immediately. Spotify for iPad is only available to Premium subscribers, but users will certainly get their money’s worth. The app sports a “Now Playing” screen with huge cover art, and also features gapless playback and crossfading abilities. It also allows you to search for songs and playlists right from the main screen without having to tab around or even stop a song that’s currently playing.
As with iOS 6’s Reminders app, the official Twitter app isn’t horrible, but Tweetbot offers a few more features and greatly takes advantage of swipe gestures. Essentially, Tweetbot does what any other Twitter client can do, but it does it extremely well. The apps includes quick access to all of your essential feeds, like replies, mentions, and favorites, and it offers quick customization options. However, one of the most-used features that users will enjoy is the ability to tap on a tweet and instantly have a selection of actions to choose from.
Source: SlashGear.
If you know someone who just got a new iPhone or iPad, or might be getting one for Christmas, you can help them stock up on apps, music, and movies for cheap with an iTunes gift card. Walmart is selling $50 iTunes gift cards for only 40 bucks. That’s 20% off and the biggest discount we’ve seen.
You can only get this deal online from Walmart.com. Once you purchase the gift card you’ll receive an email with a code that you can redeem via iTunes that will give you a $50 credit in your account. It’s free money. Hurry and get the deal while it’s still available.
Source: Cult of Mac.
