Tag: iOS

Apple updates iMovie, iWork and Garage Band on iOS with advanced editing and planning tools (PR)

Apple announced significant updates to iWork, iMovie and Garage Band. The new updates in iWork utilize the new iPad’s Retina display and offers 3D charts, and each of Keynote 1.6, Numbers 1.6 and Pages 1.6 all of which are available for US $ 9.99 a pop or a free upgrade to previous owners.

iMovie, available for $4.99, now offers the ability to turn your HD movies into trailers and adds a few more advanced editing tools. Garage Band introduces a new feature called Jam Session, which lets you and three of your friends connect iOS devices together wirelessly and play together in real-time. An interesting feature for music produces on a Jam.

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Apple Completes iLife for iOS With Introduction of iPhoto & Major
Updates to iMovie & GarageBand

SAN FRANCISCO-March 7, 2012-Apple today introduced iPhoto for iPad and
iPhone and major updates to iMovie and GarageBand, completing its
suite of iLife apps for iOS. iPhoto includes breakthrough Multi-Touch
features so you can use simple gestures to sort through hundreds of
photos and find your best shots, enhance and retouch your images using
fingertip brushes and share stunning photo journals with iCloud.
iMovie now gives you the ability to create amazing Hollywood-style
trailers as you record HD video on your iPad and iPhone. GarageBand
introduces Jam Session, an innovative and fun feature that allows a
group of friends to wirelessly connect their iOS devices to play
instruments and record live music together. Each app takes full
advantage of the stunning Retina display on the new iPad for
incredibly sharp and realistic images and video. The new iPad also
features a 5 megapixel iSight camera so you can record, edit and watch
1080p HD video all on the device.

“With the introduction of iPhoto, we’ve brought the entire suite of
iLife apps to iOS and users are going to love it,” said Philip
Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
“Whether brushing an effect onto a photo, shooting a movie trailer or
jamming with friends to record a song, iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand
let you make amazing creations on iPad and iPhone.”

iPhoto, Apple’s popular photography app, has been completely
reimagined for iOS to take full advantage of the Retina display and
intuitive Multi-Touch gestures on iPad and iPhone. Simple gestures can
be used to select and compare photos side by side and flag your best
shots. iPhoto gives you full control over colour, exposure and
contrast, and you simply touch the parts of the image you want to
change. You can enhance pictures by adding beautiful Apple-designed
effects with just a tap, or apply adjustments exactly where you want
them with fingertip brushes. In addition to posting photos to
Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, you can beam photos between your iPhone
and iPad; stream photos and slideshows to your Apple TV with AirPlay;
and use iCloud to publish photo journals to the web and share your
stories with friends and family in a whole new way.

iMovie now allows you to turn the HD video on your iPad and iPhone
into beautiful Hollywood-style trailers, even as you’re recording. The
new Theater view lets you preview and choose from nine templates in a
range of genres including Fairy Tale, Superhero and Romance. Trailers
feature gorgeous, customisable graphics with soundtracks written by
legendary composers such as Academy Award-winner Hans Zimmer and
performed by world class musicians like the London Symphony Orchestra.
You can also share your movie trailers to YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook,
and use AirPlay to stream them to Apple TV in high definition
resolutions up to 1080p.

With the new Jam Session feature in GarageBand, you can invite up to
three of your friends to get together and wirelessly connect your iOS
devices to play and record as a group. Jam Session automatically
synchronises the tempo, key and chords of your Touch Instruments so
everyone sounds great. After jamming, everyone’s tracks are
automatically collected on your iOS device for you to edit and mix.
GarageBand also introduces Smart Strings, a new Touch Instrument that
allows you to play an entire string orchestra with just one finger,
and the new Note Editor allows you to fine tune a Touch Instrument
recording instead of replaying it from scratch. Integration with
iCloud keeps your GarageBand songs up to date across your iOS devices,
and you can share your finished songs directly to Facebook, YouTube
and SoundCloud.

Apple today also updated its iWork for iOS apps to take advantage of
the stunning Retina display of iPad and to offer 3D charts so you can
create and view impressive 3D bar, line, area and pie charts. Pages
now includes support for landscape orientation on iPhone and iPod
touch, and Keynote gains new builds and transitions including Iris,
Shimmer, Wipe, Flame, Swing and Fade Through Color.

Pricing & Availability

iPhoto, iMovie 1.3 and GarageBand 1.2 are available today for $4.99 (US) each from the App Store (www.itunes.com/appstore). Keynote 1.6, Pages 1.6 and Numbers 1.6 are available today for $9.99 (US) each from the App Store. Updates are available for free to existing customers.

iPhoto is a universal app that runs on iPad 2 or later and iPhone 4 or later. iMovie is a universal app that runs on iPad 2 or later, iPhone 4 or later and iPod touch (4th generation). GarageBand, Pages®, Keynote and Numbers® are universal apps that run on iPad (all models), iPhone 3GS or later, and iPod touch (3rd generation) or later. Some features require an iCloud account. Some features may not be available on all products. For more information please visit www.apple.com/ipad/from-the-app-store/apps-by-apple.

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March 8, 2012
The iPad 2 now only 16GB, US $ 399, WiFi + 3G for US $ 529

The iPad 2 will now be available in a price dropped version of US $ 399 for WiFi only along with US $ 529 for WiFi + 3G. Bear in mind that now only the 16 GB version will be available and the rest of the sizes will be discontinued.

March 8, 2012
The new iPad overview, 5 mp camera, 4G, LTE, A5X Quad Core and Retina Display, US $ 499 with March 16th availability

Apple CEO Tim Cook, along with several executives including Phil Schiller, Today announced the next generation iPad, with a lot of advanced features including new processor, better cameras and resolution retina display.

A5x

Apple has updated the processor chipset in the new gen iPad to the A5X processor and quad-core graphics chip. Apple even claims its newest sliver of silicon can deliver four times the performance of a Tegra 3 chipset.

Retina Display

Apple has updated the iPad Display to a brand new Retina display, a 9.7-inch screen with 3.1 million pixels in a 2048 x 1536px setup delivering 264ppi.

LTE

The new iPad is has 21Mbps HSPA+ along with LTE radio capable of 73Mbps downrate.

Siri

Well not full Siri, but Siri Dictation comes to the new iPad.

Battery

Apple Claims a 10 hour battery with the new iPad aswell, 9 hours with LTE usage.

5 MP camera

The new iPad also has a 5 MP Camera at the back with backside-illuminated sensor, five-element autofocus lens with IR filter and captures video at 1080p with image stabilization. The ISP (Image Signal Processor) has been built right into the new A5X chip for better performance.

Price

The price remains same at $499 for the 16GB WiFi model and scaling up to $829 for the 64GB version with 4G. Expect a difference of atleast least 100$ when it finally comes to India.

Availability

The new iPad will go on sale March 16th 2012.

March 8, 2012
The next iPad also has 4G LTE networks, with Siri Voice Dictation and personal hotspot sharing.

The next iPad has faster network capabilities 21Mbps HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA at 42Mbps, with LTE at 73Mbps. Also in the mix is the voice dictation feature from the Siri we saw and love from iPhone 4s.

The iPad can now be a personal hotspot too dependent on the network service provider.

more developing….

March 8, 2012
The Next Gen iPad has an A5 X Quad Core Processor, 5 MP Rear illuminated sensor camera on the back, 5-element lens and a iSight HD Front Camera

Apple has added a ton of features to the iPad 3, a retina display and a A5x chipset which is a quad core chip. Comparing to a Tegra 3, Apple says the A5 is “twice as fast” and the A5X offers “four times the? performance.”

In the camera department Apple has added a 5-megapixel backside illuminated sensor on the back, 5-element lens, IR filter, and ISP built into ?the A5X chip along with a new iSight HD camera in the front. The cameras are now capable of Auto-exposure, auto-focus the rear camera has 1080p video recording and video stabilization.

(More Developing)

March 8, 2012
Tim Cook : 76 percent of Apple Revenue comes from iPhone, iPod and iPad

Al the launch event of the next generation iPad, Apple CEO Tim Cook has just declared that about 76% of Apple 2011 revenues came from the “three post PC products”. The iPhone, the iPod and the iPad made up for most of their income streams. Lets see what the iPad 3 does for the company.

“iPhone, iPad, iPod touch are all based on iOS and we have now sold an astonishing 315 million ?devices through last year, 62 million in Q4 2011.”- Tim Cook

March 7, 2012
The next iPad is coming what features do you want?
With just hours from the launch of Apple’s next-gen iPad, what features do you want Apple to include?

We for one would like the following
- Higher Resolution Screen
- Higher Resolution Cameras
- More gestures in iOS
Whats on your list of features you would like to see on the iPad 3, and what do you think the name will be : Apple iPad HD, Apple iPad 3 or Simply iPad 2S

drop in a comment!
March 7, 2012
Apple wins Injunction against Motorola in Germany

The Munich I Regional Court handed down a decision awarding Apple an injunction against all Motorola devices for Apple’s patent on “portable electronic device[s] for photo management.” According to FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller, there is a chance that Apple could choose to enforce the ban, which could require Motorola to destroy all existing products that violate the claim.

“Today’s ruling in Munich, Germany on the patent litigation brought by Apple concerns a software feature associated with performing certain functions when viewing photos in a ‘zoomed in’ mode on mobile devices. We note that the Court ruled that performing the functions in a ‘zoomed out’ mode does not infringe on this patent. We expect no impact to supply or future sales as we have already implemented a new way to view photos on our products that does not interfere with the user experience.”

-Motorola

[FOSS Patents]

March 2, 2012
Apple Invitations start rolling out – iPad 3 confirmed for March 7th

Apple has issued invitations for the the release of their next tablet supposedly called the iPad 3 ( or iPad 2s, knowing Apple) . This also confirms earlier rumors that the Apple iPad 3 will launch on the 7th of March. Looking at the invitation it is easy to make out that it is an invite for the iPad 3 as well as the fact that the resolution of the icon in the image is much better than the resolution of icons on the current iPad, which could possibly mean that the rumors of the new high res display may also be true.

It will take place on Wednesday, March 7th at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco. And Apple says on the invite : “We have something you really have to see. And touch”.

Expect updates as the event unfolds.

February 29, 2012
EDIT : 2012 Another Year of the iPad

Its been 2 years since Steve Jobs got up on stage with a device that would change the way we look at portable computing forever. Since it launch, the iPad has held the crown as the most loved Tablet, with multimillion units sold each quarter. Now with the iPad 3, around the corner one can only wonder if Apple will continue to hold the lead over the competition. A kind of competition that never hindered them, there has been no real problem for Apple except the launch of the Amazon Kindle, but thats a story for another day.

Lets look at why we feel the iPad 3, if keeps up with claims, will be another tablet of the year.

Build and Form Factor

Since the beginning the iPad has been the only tablet in a unibody aluminum shell, the sheer feel of the tablet exudes to the effect of a premium device. Slim and well weighted the tablet is robust in construction and not easily destroyed, especially if you take care of the 9.7 inch display in front which can be extremely fragile.

The iPad was a wonderful device to hold in the hand, typing was easy – better in portrait and possible in landscape, it was not the most comfortable device to hold single handedly. The iPad 2 changed that completely, with a newer design that fit better, was lighter and had improvements to software which also made single hand operation easy ( gestures).

The iPad 3 is supposedly going to be built on the same platform as the iPad 2 with a small thickness increase, something that will not bother the buyer.

OS and Apps

When the original iPad was launched people called it an oversized iPod touch, possibly because the iOS was the same iOS as on an iPhone or iPod touch. Things have changed since then and Apple has added a bucket load of goodies to make the OS more a powerhouse for the best selling tablet. The OS is streamlined to make the iPad a pseudo-personal computer, with iCloud – data handling and synchronization has never been easier.

iOS for iPad also has better custom apps including professional creative apps from companies like Adobe, including Photoshop, Office apps from Apple themselves: iWork with pages, keynote and numbers for easy as pie office documentation.

Customizations to the OS, like a split keyboard and gesture navigation, make it really easy to use the tablet and no other company has been able to replicate the process in an easy streamlined manner.

The iOS platform also has the largest number of Apps on a mobile OS platform, with mostly all apps compatible with the iPad the entertainment and quality of games on the iPad still remains unmatched.

The iPad 3 is said to feature a major OS upgrades for the tablet including a main feature that is Siri on the iPad, which is already possible if you own a jailbroken iPad, but an official version will be well accepted and appreciated.

Hardware

The new iPad 3 is supposedly coming with a bumped up processor(A6 or the rumored A5X), which is supposedly carrying a new quad core processor with an advanced GPU, which will -or should improve performance by atleast 10 times. The new display will be a retina display (246 ppi : not true retina) with a double resolution ( 2048 x 1536 px) compared to the existing iPad /iPad 2, which will not only improve the media quality on the iPad, but also make it an excellent Book Reader, especially considering the new iBooks upgrade.

There are also claims of a network capability boost in the iPad 3, where some rumors point to a 4G/ LTE equipped iPad chipset, others claim that it will be a unified global device capable of CDMA/GSM network capabilities in the same device.

Apart from the above obvious upgrades, speculations of more ram and upgraded camera optics along with better speakers are also in the mix. So expect HD FaceTime and better speakers for your iPad 3s.

Games and Apps will perform better and open faster, seamless integration with iCloud will sync all your devices and keep them up to date. Apple may also bump to storage capacities to a possible 128 GB iPad.

Availability

The industry is buzzing with news of the iPad 3s release date, almost everyone claims that its going to be announced on the 7th of March 2012 with availability within 2 weeks.

Conclusion

Arguably, the iPad is not the best tablet in the market, but truly its the only one that has sold units in numbers close to PC sales. The Apple ecosystem developed by iOS – iCloud and Mac OS make it an Apple owners delight, somethings are just better on the iPad. Agreed Android offers more flexibility but the platform is still very fragmented. Even with ICS, android is laggy and the overall interface is not nearly as smooth as iOS.

If Amazon does come out with a 10 inch tablet, you can expect it to eat heavily into Apple’s share of the profit pie, only because Amazon will price it aggressively. Windows 8 / Windows Phone Apollo Tabs could also be another factor ( if ever released) .

Unless something truly unique is outed by manufacturers ( possibly a 10 inch Galaxy Note) no one will be able to bother Apple iPad sales, and the new iPad 3 will continue to lead the way through 2012.

What do you think?

[polldaddy poll=5963093]

February 21, 2012
Apple developers get Mac OS X Mountain Lion downloads

If you continue to stay on the Apple Developer program then you can have yourself a developer preview download of the new exciting Mac OS X Lion. The new versions of Reminders , messages , gatekeeper, Notification center and iCloud and sharing capabilities can be experienced in this preview. Hit the link below to sign into your member area and begin the download.

[Apple]

February 17, 2012
Apple shows off OS X Mountain Lion

Apple has already begun the next update cycle of the OS X platform with just over a year ago Apple unleashed OS X Lion on Mac owners. This time around the number is bumped to 10.8 and the name to Mountain Lion. The overall outlook of the OS remains the same with more integrations and basic app changes in tow.

The biggest add-on for the OS has to be the Notification centre that has been inspired from the iOS notification centre.

Notification Centre.

The spotlight icon on the far top right of the screen is replaced with a circle with a dot in the centre, which lights up when you receive a message or a notification even a calendar reminder.

Messages

The other major release in OS X mountain lain will be the replacement of iChat with messages, which will allow you to message all iOS devices on iMessage and other macs on Messages. Using the service, you can send messages, documents, HD videos and photos (up to 100MB apiece) to one person or several, using phone numbers or email addresses as points of contact. Messages on Mac still incorporates chat services like AIM and GChat. Messages sent through the service are encrypted, and the app also uses a notification to let you know when messages have been delivered / read.

Reminders

The next cool thing of our liking that has been ported from iOS to Mac is Reminders. For those who don’t know , this is more of a glorified to-do list. It will sync with iOS reminders keeping the seamless architecture intact.

Notes

Another addition to the Mac OS X Mountain Lion is the Notes app, which not only completely resembles the on on iOS but also syncs up with all your devices and email addresses via iCloud.

Apple has added deeper integration of iCloud on Mountain Lion, allowing users to sync up and back up more data, also allowing seamless interconnectivity with all other Apple devices owned by a user. The other additions to Lion include Airplay mirroring, integrated Game center and included sharing – allowing you to instantly share content from your desktop via email, message, AirDrop and third-party services like Twitter, Flickr and Vimeo.

February 17, 2012
Gartner: Apple leads, Android level dips

According to a recent report by Gartner Apple leads as the world’s top smartphone vendor by market share (19 percent), majorly thanks to the holiday quarter. During the season Apple sold some 35.5 million handsets to end users, a 121.4 percent increase from Q4 2010.

Apple now also overtook LG as the Third largest seller of mobile handsets with 7.4 percent market share in the past holiday quarter right behind Nokia (23.4 percent) and Samsung (19.4 percent).

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Gartner Says Worldwide Smartphone Sales Soared in Fourth Quarter of 2011

Apple Became Top Smartphone Vendor in Fourth Quarter of 2011 and in 2011 as a Whole

Egham, UK, February 15, 2012-

Worldwide smartphone sales to end users soared to 149 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 47.3 per cent increase from the fourth quarter of 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. Total smartphone sales in 2011 reached 472 million units and accounted for 31 percent of all mobile devices sales, up 58 percent from 2010.

Smartphone volumes during the quarter rose due to record sales of Apple iPhones. As a result, Apple became the third-largest mobile phone vendor in the world, overtaking LG. Apple also became the world’s top smartphone vendor, with a market share of 23.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, and the top smartphone vendor for 2011 as a whole, with a 19 percent market share. “Western Europe and North America led most of the smartphone growth for Apple during the fourth quarter of 2011,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner. “In Western Europe the spike in iPhone sales in the fourth quarter saved the overall smartphone market after two consecutive quarters of slow sales.”

The quarter saw Samsung and Apple cement their positions further at the top of the market as their brands and new products clearly stood out. LG, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Research In Motion (RIM) again recorded disappointing results as they struggled to improve volumes and profits significantly. These vendors were also exposed to a much stronger threat from the midrange and low end of the smartphone market as ZTE and Huawei continued to gain share during the quarter.

Worldwide mobile device sales to end users totaled 476.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 5.4 percent increase from the same period in 2010 (see Table 1). In 2011 as a whole, end users bought 1.8 billion units, an 11.1 percent increase from 2010 (see Table 2). “Expectations for 2012 are for the overall market to grow by about 7 percent, while smartphone growth is expected to slow to around 39 percent,” said Annette Zimmermann, principal research analyst at Gartner.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, Nokia’s mobile phone sales numbered 111.7 million units, an 8.7 percent decrease from last year. “Samsung closed the gap with Nokia in overall market share,” said Ms. Cozza. “Samsung profited from strong smartphone sales of 34 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011. The troubled economic environment in Europe and Nokia’s weakened brand status posed challenges that were hard to overcome in just one quarter. However, Nokia proved its ability to execute and deliver on time with its new Lumia 710 and 800 handsets. Nokia will have to continue to offer aggressive prices to encourage communications service providers (CSPs) to add its products to portfolios currently dominated by Android-based devices.”

Apple had an exceptional fourth quarter, selling 35.5 million smartphones to end users, a 121.4 percent increase year on year. Apple’s continued attention to channel management helped it take full advantage of the strong quarter to further close the gap with Samsung, which saw some inventory build up for its smartphone range. Apple’s strong performance will continue into the first quarter of 2012 as availability of the iPhone 4S widens. However, since Apple will not benefit from delayed purchases as it did in the fourth quarter of 2011, Gartner analysts expect its sales to decline quarter-on-quarter.

After Apple, ZTE and Huawei were the fastest-growing vendors in the fourth quarter of 2011. “These vendors expanded their market reach and kept on improving the user experience of their Android devices,” said Ms. Cozza.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, ZTE moved into fourth place in the global handset market. ZTE posted a strong smartphone sales increase of 71 percent sequentially. The company was able to extend its portfolio to three CSPs in its home market and benefited from consumers’ interest in low-cost smartphones. Huawei moved ahead of LG in the Android marketplace to become a top-four Android manufacturer, thanks to strong smartphone growth in the quarter. Huawei has made significant progress in moving to its own-branded devices, and it has continued to expand its portfolio into higher tiers as its tries to build more iconic products.

RIM dropped to the No. 7 spot in the fourth quarter of 2011, with a 10.7 percent decline. RIM’s delay with its BlackBerry 10 platform will further impair its ability to retain users. However, RIM’s biggest challenge is still to expand the developer base around its ecosystem and convince developers to work and innovate with BlackBerry 10.

In the smartphone OS market (see Table 3), competition between Google and Apple intensified. Android’s share declined slightly sequentially. This was due to strong iPhone sales, driven in particular by the iPhone 4S in mature markets and the weakness of key Android vendors as they struggled to create unique and differentiated devices. Samsung remained the main contributor to Android share gains in the second half of 2011. iOS’s market share grew 8 percentage points year-on-year, but Gartner analysts expect Apple’s share to drop in the next couple of quarters as the upgrade cycle to the iPhone 4S slows. Nokia’s first Windows Phone smartphones, the Lumia 710 and 800, made their debut, but, as expected, sales were not enough to prevent a fall in Microsoft’s smartphone market share.[/box]

February 16, 2012
Apple Releases iBooks 2, now with Textbooks (PR)

Apple has released a new version of the iBooks publishing platform yesterday at the Guggenheim museum in New York City. The new iBooks 2 app is available today as a free download from the App Store. It features a lot of new improvements including the ability to share textbooks. The reason for giving iPad’s to students in universities becomes even more useful starting today.

The App allows fullscreen books, interactive 3D objects, diagrams, videos and photos, the iBooks 2 app will let students learn with just a tap or swipe of the finger.

Education is deep in Apple’s DNA and iPad may be our most exciting education product yet. With 1.5 million iPads already in use in education institutions, including over 1,000 one-to-one deployments, iPad is rapidly being adopted by schools across the US and around the world, Now with iBooks 2 for iPad, students have a more dynamic, engaging and truly interactive way to read and learn, using the device they already love.”

-said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

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Apple Reinvents Textbooks with iBooks 2 for iPad
New iBooks Author Lets Anyone Create Stunning iBooks Textbooks

NEW YORK-January 19, 2012-Apple® today announced iBooks® 2 for iPad®, featuring iBooks textbooks, an entirely new kind of textbook that’s dynamic, engaging and truly interactive. iBooks textbooks offer iPad users gorgeous, fullscreen textbooks with interactive animations, diagrams, photos, videos, unrivaled navigation and much more. iBooks textbooks can be kept up to date, don’t weigh down a backpack and never have to be returned. Leading education services companies including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson will deliver educational titles on the iBookstore? with most priced at $14.99 or less, and with the new iBooks Author, a free authoring tool available today, anyone with a Mac® can create stunning iBooks textbooks.

“Education is deep in Apple’s DNA and iPad may be our most exciting education product yet. With 1.5 million iPads already in use in education institutions, including over 1,000 one-to-one deployments, iPad is rapidly being adopted by schools across the US and around the world,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Now with iBooks 2 for iPad, students have a more dynamic, engaging and truly interactive way to read and learn, using the device they already love.”

The new iBooks 2 app is available today as a free download from the App Store™. With support for great new features including gorgeous, fullscreen books, interactive 3D objects, diagrams, videos and photos, the iBooks 2 app will let students learn about the solar system or the physics of a skyscraper with amazing new interactive textbooks that come to life with just a tap or swipe of the finger. With its fast, fluid navigation, easy highlighting and note-taking, searching and definitions, plus lesson reviews and study cards, the new iBooks 2 app lets students study and learn in more efficient and effective ways than ever before.

iBooks Author is also available today as a free download from the Mac App Store and lets anyone with a Mac create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books and more, and publish them to Apple’s iBookstore. Authors and publishers of any size can start creating with Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. iBooks Author lets you add your own text and images by simply dragging and dropping, and with the Multi-Touch™ widgets you can easily add interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote® presentations and 3D objects.

Apple today also announced an all-new iTunes® U app giving educators and students everything they need on their iPad, iPhone® and iPod touch® to teach and take entire courses. With the new iTunes U app, students using iPads have access to the world’s largest catalog of free educational content, along with over 20,000 education apps at their fingertips and hundreds of thousands of books in the iBookstore that can be used in their school curriculum, such as novels for English or Social Studies.* The iTunes U app is available today as a free download from the App Store.

*Some content is available only for iPad.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

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January 20, 2012
App A Day: MetalStorm Wingman

Do you love airplanes? Are you an air fanatic? Do you want to shoot down enemy fighters while you’re partnered up with your best friend? If you answered yes to those questions, then you HAVE to try this game.

Metalstorm: Wingman is the successor to the highly successful game Metalstorm: Online. It is a highly addictive flight combat simulator which offers a wide range of gamers the ability to pilot their very own fighter jet. The game is fairly simple to play. At the very basic level, you have to shoot down enemy planes with missles and cannons. You control your aircraft by tilting your iDevice in the desired direction of flight. The on screen controls allow you to fire your weapons, control the speed of your jet, change the camera view and pause the game. You can also swipe the screen in any direction and have your plane perform an advanced evasive maneuver in that direction.

The game offers players a variety of aircraft to purchase, as well as a detailed tech tree for each. Players also have the option of equipping their aircraft from a wide arsenal of missles and cannons.

While these features alone would have made the game quite nice, what makes it truly amazing are its multiple game modes. You have the standard campaign and single player modes but there is also a multiplayer ‘verses ‘ mode as well as a ‘Co-Op survival mode’. What this means is that you can play a game verses your friend and blow his plane to bits, or you could team up with them and see how many waves you can survive as wingmen together. Did we happen to mention that there’s a little icon that pops up in the corner of your screen in multiplayer games? It lets you talk to your wingman/opponent while you’re in-game. Multiplayer in Metalstorm is achieved through the Game Center. It works flawlessly (during numerous tests) over both WiFi and 3G, with players in the same room or across the world.

But wait! There’s More! Do you have a nice, big, shiny and sleek TV in your room? Yes! Ever wanted to play a game from your phone on that big TV? Yes! Do you happen to also have an Apple TV? Yes! All you have to do is connect the Apple TV and your iPad 2/iPhone 4s/iPod Touch and start AirPlay Mirroring. Congratulations. You’re now ready to play Metalstorm: Wingman in 720p on your TV. While the screen is being mirrored, the game shows the inside of a cockpit on your device’s screen, which adds to the coolness of the entire experience.

The only feature of this game that we did not like was the fact that you have to be online to play it, either over WiFi or 3G. You cannot play this game without a connection. Not even single player mode. We can hope that they will disable this feature in a future update.

So how much does this game cost? Nothing. Its free to download and free to play. There are various in-app purchases available for various coin packages to easily help you to upgrade your plane, restock your weapons and even buy an all new plane.

Here’s hoping to see you in the skies someday. God speed. And Good Luck.

January 19, 2012