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iBooks

| FREE | Apple Inc.

Hands-On Video With Apple's Digital Textbooks - MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Front Page

Engadget has posted a hands-on video of the iPad's interactive digital textbooks in the press demo section of Apple's education-focused media event today, and they were impressed: Interacting with the books is a generally intuitive combination of tapping, swiping and pinching. You can pinch from any page to get out to the heading of that chapter, then drag along a bar on the bottom to quickly go from one chapter to the next. When you're looking at any page, you can get a closer view of any of the media there by simply pinching it. Tiny picture of an ant? Give it a nudge and it's full-screen. You can then swipe through galleries, play movies and interact with various other widgets that authors can drop in place. As always with an Apple product announcement, the company has produced a promotional video complete with interviews of Apple executives and regular customers using their products. The video for the digital textbook includes teachers talking about how textbooks are out of date as soon as they are printed and how digital-savvy students expect more out of their learning materials. Apple has also posted a gallery of the various elements that can be built-into interactive iBooks with the iBooks Author app, including HTML Modules, Keynote Presentations, 3D Images, and more. Apple's initial focus for its textbook effort is on high school textbooks, with books priced at $14.99 or less. Authors can continually update their content, and the students get to keep their copies indefinitely. Books are available via the iBooks app, available as a free download from the App Store. [Direct Link] Read More

OnLive Desktop

| FREE | OnLive, Inc.

OnLive Desktop for iPad Now Available on App Store - MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Front Page

OnLive's virtual Windows 7 / Office app for the iPad has arrived on the App Store. As we reported earlier this week, OnLive Desktop offers iPad users access to full-featured versions of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The applications are running on OnLive's servers and streamed to your iPad. OnLive offers a number of plans for the service, including a Free service as server capacity is available. Paid accounts will take priority over free accounts. As with their gaming service, performance can be subject to a number of factors, including internet speed and proximity to servers. [App Store] Read More

GameStore

| $0.99 | Apple

Apple's Internal 'GameStore' Testing App Accidentally Appears in App Store - MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Front Page

As noted by German sites Flo's Weblog [Google translation] and iFun.de [Google translation], a curious new iOS application that seems to be from Apple has appeared in the App Store. The new app, known as GameStore [App Store], debuted on December 31st and seems to be a test app of some sort, offering several racing-themed in-app purchases but without any actual functionality. In-app purchases made through the app do go through and users' accounts are charged for them, but with no actual game supporting the content available, they have no functionality. When the app's listing is viewed in the App Store from an iOS device, the posting date is listed as June 9, 2009, which was during Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference just ahead of the public launch of iPhone OS 3.0 and the debut of in-app purchasing. Consequently, may simply be an internal testing app for the feature that was somehow accidentally published to the public App Store over the weekend. Read More

Camera+​

| $0.99 | tap tap tap

Christmas 2011 Showed Significant Sales Boost for iOS Developers - MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Front Page

Each year, iOS developers scramble to position themselves well ahead of the iTunes Connect shutdown/freeze in order to benefit from any boost in sales from the holidays. NYTimes wrote of the phenomenon this year, as explained by iOS developer Bryan Duke: “It’s typical to see a jump on any major holiday, but Christmas is the biggest one,” Mr. Duke said. “I’m certainly hoping for a nice big Christmas bump this year.” This boost is what drives many of the massive holiday sales as developers jockey for position before the iTunes Top 200 charts freeze for the holidays. Major companies such as Gameloft and EA get in on the action to flood the charts with their apps. Camera+ developers TapTapTap shared their iOS app sales numbers with us again this year which shows the effect in dramatic fashion: The increase in sales is reflective of more iOS device activations and the gifting of iTunes Gift cards for the holidays. As shown in the graph, this sales boost does sustain for some time after the holidays. Read More

Facebook

| FREE | Facebook

Facebook for iOS Update Adds Timeline, Other Improvements - MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Front Page

Facebook has updated their iOS app to version 4.1 today. The new version incorporates their new Timeline view which is "your collection of the photos, stories, and experiences that tell your story." - Access to Mobile Timeline on iPhone (if you already have a timeline). iPad support coming soon. - Access to friend lists, subscribers and subscriptions - Faster, better performance - Photos are easier to view, upload and comment on TechCrunch notes some other improvements, including improved notifications and other bug fixes. The new version is a free update on the App Store [iTunes]. Read More

Find My Car Smart

| $0.99 | FMC

'Find My Car Smart' is the First Low Energy Bluetooth App for iPhone 4S - MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Front Page

Earlier this year, Apple introduced a new version of Bluetooth in some of their products. This new version of Bluetooth is known as "Bluetooth Low Energy" or Bluetooth 4.0. The Mac mini and MacBook Air were the first to support the new standard with the iPhone 4S quickly following. The Bluetooth Low Energy specification promises a low-power and low-latency implementation that opens the door to a number of new kinds of Bluetooth-powered devices. The expectation is that low power Bluetooth transmitters/receivers will be able to send data to and from your iPhone without complicated setup. Possible examples included a special watch that could receive notifications, proximity detectors, health monitors and more. A company called FMC Smart has just launched a Kickstarter for the first Bluetooth Low Energy App and companion module for the iPhone 4S. 'Find My Car Smart' is a Bluetooth 4.0 take on tracking where you had parked your car. While a number of these applications already exist, those require the manual launching and marking of your car. Find My Car Smart works by pairing up against a Bluetooth 4.0 transmitter in your car and automatically tracks its last parked location. Right now, there are apps on the iPhone that will save the location of my car, but I have to manually launch the app to drop a pin each and every time I have parked my car. Stopping to launch an app when I'm running into work or trying to catch a plane is a complete waste of time and totally annoying. So I developed an app that allows the iPhone 4S to remember the last place I parked and the only time I have to launch the app is after I've lost my car, not before. You need to install a small USB-powered Bluetooth proximity adapter in Read More

Instagram

| FREE | Burbn, Inc.

'iTunes Rewind' Highlights the Best of 2011; Instagram, Tiny Tower Win Best of Year Awards - MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Front Page

Apple has released the 2011 edition of its annual iTunes Rewind feature in the iTunes Store. The piece offers a look at what the company has judged to be the best music, movies, TV shows, apps, books, and podcasts of 2011. Some of the notable winners: Apps: - iPhone App of the Year: Instagram - iPhone Game of the Year: Tiny Tower - iPad App of the Year: Snapseed - iPad Game of the Year: Dead Space for iPad Music: - Song of the Year: Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People - Artist of the Year: Adele - Album of the Year: Wasting Light by Foo Fighters Books: - Best Novel: The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obeht - Best Nonfiction: Boomerang by Michael Lewis It's important to note that these awards are all for the United States iTunes Store. In some cases, Apple gave awards to different items in different countries. For example, Djay was awarded iPad App of the Year honors in the UK, while Tiny Wings won iPhone Game of the Year in the UK and Australia. Instagram isn't the first photography app to win App of the Year award. In 2010, Hipstamatic took home App of the Year honors. Plants vs. Zombies won the Game of the Year award that year. covered iTunes Rewind in 2010 and 2009, as well. Read More

Cox TV Connect for iPad

| FREE | Cox Communications, Inc.

Cox TV Connect App for iPad Streams Live TV to Cox Customers - MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Front Page

Following in the footsteps of DirecTV, Cablevision, and Time Warner, Cox Communications is now offering a free iPad App called Cox TV Connect for iPad that live TV streaming for iPad customers at home. Cox TV Connect allows you to watch popular shows LIVE, right on your iPad: - Watch TV on your iPad from anywhere in your house. - Choose from more than 35 popular channels. - Yours to enjoy for free as a subscriber to Cox TV Essential and Cox Preferred, Premier or Ultimate Internet service. Users must be a customer of both Cox TV and Cox internet service in order to be eligible to stream TV to their iPads. [App Store] Read More

Apple Store

| FREE | Apple Inc.

'Apple Store' App for iOS Updated to Support New Self-Checkout System for Retail Stores - MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Front Page

In line with our report from the previous weekend, Apple has updated its Apple Store application for iOS [App Store] with new support for self-checkout at the company's retail stores. What’s New in Version 2.0 - Personal Pickup: Buy in the app and choose to pick up your order at any Apple Retail Store. Most in-stock orders are available for pickup within an hour. (U.S. only) - EasyPay: Purchase select accessories in store quickly by scanning the barcode and completing your transaction right in the app. (U.S. only, requires iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S) - Track your stuff: View the status of current and previous orders from the order status section in the More tab. - Additional international support (Canada, China). As detailed last week, the app now allows customers visiting any Apple retail store to use their iPhone's camera to scan the barcodes of shelf-stocked accessory items and purchase them using their Apple ID/iTunes Store accounts. The process bypasses the need to track down a member of the sales staff to process the transaction via their EasyPay mobile payment processing systems. As part of the retail store enhancements, Apple is also rolling out in-store pickup for online purchases in the United States, allowing users to have their online orders shipped directly to a retail store for pickup rather than having to arrange to receive delivery at their home or office. For items stocked in-store, users will be able to purchase items and have them available for pickup within minutes. For custom orders and other items not normally carried in-store, products will take several days to be shipped to the store, at which point the customer will be notified that their order is available for pickup. The in-store pickup program launched in late October at Apple's three San Francisco stores, and Read More

GarageBand

| $4.99 | Apple®

Apple Updates GarageBand for iOS with iPhone and iPod Touch Support - MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Front Page

Apple today announced the launch of for iPhone and iPod touch, making the previous iPad-only version a universal app. “GarageBand on iPad has been a big hit and we think customers will love using it on their iPhone or iPod touch,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The innovative Multi-Touch interface combined with Smart Instruments makes it easy to create great sounding music, even if you’ve never studied music or played an instrument before.” GarageBand [App Store] is available in the App Store for $4.99, with the new version 1.1 bringing iPhone and iPod touch support and several other enhancements. What's New in Version 1.1 - Universal app designed for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch - Create custom chords for Smart Instruments - Support for 3/4 and 6/8 time signatures - Reset song key without transposing original recordings - Transpose songs in semitones or full octaves - Additional quantization options for recordings including, straight, triplet and swing - New audio export quality settings for AAC and AIFF (Uncompressed) - Arpeggiator available in Smart Keyboard - Adjustable velocity settings for Touch Instruments - Numerous enhancements, including automatic fade out and improved audio import options The update is just going live now and should be rolling out to all markets at this time. Read More